Regarding only taxing the top earners, doesn’t that also cover the smallest of small businesses?

Anyways, great to have you back.

*the dollar is in a seamingly endless downward spiral?

Well, I think we could all sit and figure out its end, it will stop around its true valuation. A drop like this is just a reset.

*commodity prices rising because of weak dollar?

If commodities are rising a weak dollar is not the main reason. Ethanol, oil costs, horrible federal agriculture policy, and increased world demand are just a few of the larger explanations.

*decreasing wages for factory workers?

While on a micro scale this might be talking point, I don’t understand its relevance in a macro evaluation. Factory wages have been over inflated for years (that is why foreign companies have become more competitive), and in an evolving economy isn’t this necessary?

*Last question: Still operating in trade deficit?

Yes. But that doesn’t add to your point. It actually points opposite of your facts regarding the weak dollar.

All of this to say, great letter. I know I question some points, but if everybody thought as much about the economy as this…….I might feel less uncertain.

This is what I will base my forthcoming conculsions on. The
uncertainty surrounding Congressional action in lieu of the subprime
fallout; uncertainty in terms of the institutions being able to
withstand margin calls left and right and no doubt the wave of work
the plaintiffs bar will be egaging in, and already is as suits against
almost every major financial institution have been initiated;
uncertainty in the Fed’s action, which will presumably be more
dramatic given the crap numbers that have recently come out
(recession); uncertainty in the markets given that what was an 80%
chance of having a Dem in the whitehouse in 2009 is now 60%, still more
than likely; the almost certainty that the taxcuts will expire as they
are set to in the new term because no matter what there will be a MORE
democratic Congress in place, and the taxes may actually increase
after the cuts expire…really smart Hil-Bama to raise taxes in a
slowed economy.

Yes, go ahead Hil-Bama, screw with the taxes and watch more corporations
and jobs go overseas, screw with NAFTA, which took 9 years to negotiate,
and you can really kiss all those OHIO manufacturing jobs goodbye,
mandate social security and screw the young people who don’t need to
pay high insurance bills right now because they are healthy, but will
if theres a mandate (that’s us), and take corporate profits, they
don’t need them, especially the pharmaceutical industry because its
actually cheap to research and develop new life saving drugs (I think
we know how much it costs these companies to get one working drug
through the FDA.)

So, in conclusion, for now, suffice it to say that the word of the day is uncertainty. Everything is being priced in for the future,
as per Larry Kudlow’s comment, 9 months out, when the election is
over, when the recession fallout is taking place and litigation
expenses are throught the roof, when the Fed figures out what the hell
they’re doing (notice the pop in the market this morning despite the
crap jobs number because the realization that the Fed will go more
than 50 points in the near term), and when Americans wake up the day
after the election in November and (most likely) say to themselves, “What just happened?”