The Economy Guy

All markets (stocks, bonds, Dollar, oil, gasoline) went sideways today.

Gold was the star by gaining $10 today.  Technical analysis of the charts shows that gold is close to breaking out of its current price range.  The near future will determine if this technical indicator is correct or not.

In the news today…..

Median Home Price – fell 13.8% from last year to $169,900 in the US.  There were declines in 134 out of 152 metropolitan areas.  Sales volume declined except for the hot states of CA, NV, AZ, etc. as people snapped up cheap foreclosures.  For humor, the biggest drop was 50% in Ft Myers, FL.  But, everywhere else was around 40% down.

Jobs Available – this is an interesting statistic to consider.  There were about 2.7 million jobs available in March, 3.0 million in February and 4.0 million a year ago.  Conclusion – while the number of people being let go from jobs seems to be slowing, the number of jobs available is still declining, and this results in a higher unemployment rate in the end.

Fannie and Freddie – have received $78.2B so far.  The Office of Management and Budget predicts they will need an additional $92.2B in the 2010 fiscal year.  Say goodbye to your tax dollars.  Remember that it was your elected officials in Congress who created, protected, and coerced these entities to provide such poor mortgages.  The time to remember this is when you vote next time.

Taxes – not everything is terrible in Congress.  Here are two things that I think have some merit.  The Senate is considering a tax on soda to pay for the new health care system.  This isn’t bad because soda is probably a major cause of the obesity problem facing Americans – so McDonald’s should worry about taxes next.  Second, Congress and the President is saying that the next health care system (nationalized health care) will have a focus on preventative medicine.  The title sounds good to me, and the devil is in the details.

Tonight’s Dinner Conversation….

What if an obscure committee in Congress was “looking after your interests” in the area of IRAs and 401k’s because “you aren’t able to take care of yourself.”  And, what if they were considering confiscating all your IRAs and 401k’s and placing the money in an account run by the Social Security Administration so the government could give you a retirement check when you retire that included your IRA and 401k money???

Would this make you happy???  Would you like the government to make all your investment decisions for retirement, and you just sit back on your couch and watch TV.

Well, it’s true – so start thinking about this possibility.

In my opinion, this is a slim possibility because so much money is made by Wall St from 401k’s and IRAs and they would lose their commissions.  Also, there should be an uprising from the people who own these accounts.  If this doesn’t scare you, you should take your pulse because you might be dead and not realize it.
 

Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8469 (up 50 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.18% (down 0.01%)
Euro – $1.3642
Gold – $924 (up $10)
Oil – $59.09 (up $0.35)
Gasoline $1.67 (down  $0.01)