In a Pinch

America is in quite an interesting quagmire these days. This soft ground has two sides. One that is purely political, and one that is economical. Unfortunately, and sometimes (albeit rarely) even fortunately. My good friend Craig in St. Louis and I see the world through the same shades. He sent me an excerpt from an interview yesterday that raised my eyebrows that have been usually furled these days from hearing so much about Bushy, Hitlery, and Obama. This guy looks promising:

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/7027/

http://www.rootforamerica.com/

The first face of the quagmire is actually a lack of identity. Neither the Republican or Democratic party have any sort of identity anymore. Both are continually in a swirl of ideas, exchanging beliefs and stances on whatever it seems the latest poll indicates is popular with the people. I don't get it. Political views should be solid. People don't stand behind anything anymore and this is disconcerting to say the least. Take a stand, people. Educate yourselves and stand for something, even if it's way off balance on the left.

The other part of the quagmire is the economic situation we're in. The Fed stepped up this morning and released an announcement that they would be lending securities dealers up to 200 Billion dollars for up to 2 weeks (it's normally only overnight). This sparked a huge rally this morning that doesn't seem to be hanging on. Time will tell, but it doesn't look nearly as good as it did this morning before the opening bell.

The fact the the central bank is pulling tricks out of a hat like Merlin is good but it also has a devilish side since it appears they're just trying new things to see how the market reacts. This latest idea seems to be a good one, but the rallies following these antics aren't holding water and equities soon drop back to normal within a day or two. I'm at even money right now and am sitting on the fence. I've got Puts with Amazon (would like for it to drop), Calls with Cisco (would love for it to get up to 30), and if both of these things happen, I would be on cloud nine. Unfortunately, they aren't likely to happen together. This market is a sideways market with crazy volatility. I guess I have to just bide my time until it looks like a good time to buy into Citigroup. When it gets cheap enough, I'll be on it like white on rice and you should too. That one will go straight through the roof when the country finally emerges from the recession we're in. Good luck to you all in crazy 08.

CZ