Retest And Re-Fail

Keep an eye on the markets today. The magic numbers for the Dow are 8,000 and 820 for the S&P 500. If the markets close under those numbers this week, we're in a lot of trouble. Last Thursday the markets hit those numbers during the day and then made a major rally up off of them. Over the last two days however that rally has evaporated.

We'll see what happens over the next day or two. Futures are at "meh" right now. Could be another bear market rally day, could be a cliff, could be just a day.

The Game Is Rigged

The Village is doing everything it can to limit the power of Obama, and they are doing it by forcing his hand on decisions in the Court of Public Opinion.

Both Joe Lieberman's expected survival as Senate Homeland Security chairman and Hillary Clinton's appointment to SecState are done deals now according to the Village, and it's as if they are daring Obama to do something about it.

With the auto industry bailout all but dead at this point, Obama's not looking like he's in charge of much of anything right now.

Then again...Bush is president right now, not Obama. And Obama doesn't seem to have any inclination to assert himself as the top dog in Washington.

The more things change...

StupidiNews!

• A new study shows half of primary care physicians want out of the business due to red tape.
• The biggest obstacle to Hillary Clinton's Secretary of State appointment? Bill Clinton.
• Sales of holiday gift cards are down sharply as consumers wonder if the companies will honor them should they go bankrupt.
• The Big 3 carmaker bailout seems to be out of gas.
• Movie pirates in China have cracked Blu-Ray disc's "unbreakable" copy protection.