Jim,

It makes more sense to curtail spending, but public policy, like electricity, always finds the path of least resistance.

CIGA Eric

Pelosi says new tax is ‘on the table’
By Michael O’Brien – 10/06/09 10:59 AM ET

A new value-added tax (VAT) is "on the table" to help the U.S. address its fiscal liabilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night.

Pelosi, appearing on PBS’s "The Charlie Rose Show" asserted that "it’s fair to look at" the VAT as part of an overhaul of the nation’s tax code.

"I would say, Put everything on the table and subject it to the scrutiny that it deserves," Pelosi told Rose when asked if the VAT has any appeal to her.

The VAT is a tax on manufacturers at each stage of production on the amount of value an additional producer adds to a product.

Pelosi argued that the VAT would level the playing field between U.S. and foreign manufacturers, the latter of which do not have pension and healthcare costs included in the price of their goods because their governments provide those services, financed by similar taxes.

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Jim,

Another sign the recession is ending, no doubt. "NO"

CIGA Bernie

Bernie,

It is another sign that we are going to get Stimulus Package #2, but not named Stimulus Package #2.

Regards,
Jim

U.S. Office Vacancies Reach Five-Year High of 16.5%, Reis Says

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) — U.S. office vacancies rose to a five- year high in the third quarter, as job losses deepened and employers abandoned space in the recession, property research firm Reis Inc. said.

Vacancies climbed to 16.5 percent from 13.7 percent in the year since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, New York-based Reis said in a report. Effective rents, the amount actually paid by tenants, fell 8.5 percent, the biggest year-over-year drop since 1995.

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Gold: Evolution of the Trend
By Eric 10/07

• -GLD (ETF) jumped the creek on resistance with the large consolidation pattern on strong volume on 09/02.
• -Three taps and out on 09/03
• -Swing high exceed on increasing volume on 10/06.  In fact, the volume has increased beyond the level at which price jumped the creek.  This is extremely bullish as it suggests that the force behind the uptrend is increasing.

Click chart to enlarge

Jim,

Leak the information, then unilaterally deny it. The trail balloon is a common transitional tactic intended to prevent panic.

It’s coming…

CIGA Eric

Dear Eric,

It is also quite Asian.

What we do know is that there is a universal demand, not desire, for a Super Sovereign Currency as an alternative to the US dollar.

Regards,
Jim

Saudi Central Bank Chief Backs Dollar, Cites Its ‘Convenience’
By Camilla Hall

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s central bank chief denied holding talks on dropping the dollar as the currency for pricing oil, and said his country’s foreign-exchange peg to the dollar is a matter of national economic interest.

“We don’t have any emotional or political attachment to the dollar, we have self-interest and it still serves our self- interests,” Saudi Arabian central bank Governor Muhammad al- Jasser said in an interview yesterday in Istanbul, where he’s attending annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings.

Speaking to reporters earlier, he said the U.K.’s Independent newspaper was “absolutely incorrect” in reporting that Gulf oil producers and nations including China, Japan, Russia and Brazil had held secret talks on a nine-year plan to phase out the dollar in oil trade. There has been “absolutely nothing” of that nature discussed between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and other countries, he said.

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Jim,

Check out the following inflation adjusted gold chart.

CIGA Christopher

Gold (Inflation Adjusted)
By Barry Ritholtz – October 7th, 2009, 11:30AM

While everyone seems to be all abuzz over Gold’s new highs, you should be aware that these are nominal, not real highs.

Adjusted for Inflation, Gold is nowhere near its all time peak — in real terms, its only about half its prior highs:

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