The SIPA

Happy New Year from all of us at the SIPA.   Before we start pondering the future for the Securities Industry we thought we would take a look back on 2011 and review the lessons we learned in the past year. Lesson #1:  The more things change the more they stay the same. Whether it was […]

I’ve had it with Washington! Enough already with your games, policies, deals, budgets, summits, partisan plans, jobs bills, debt deals, ENOUGH! You are all morons who have absolutely no idea how to create a job or wipe your ass without appropriating a sub committee to review the environmental effects of the toilet paper while appropriating funds for after wiping counseling for those who get diaper rash or a hemorrhoid.

just in case things couldn’t get any worse, our President made sure to come out and sooth markets by telling them that “ It doesn’t mater what our credit rating is by some institution, we are the United States of America and will always be Triple A rated”. Oy Vey. This is real life Mr. President, not a Hollywood West Wing version in which they create some false moment

The real worry is if oil is no longer priced in U.S. dollars and instead switches to the Euro or Yen or Cheech and Chong. Quite frankly, once oil is no longer priced in U.S. dollars our prices will double overnight from their current levels. Washington doesn’t want to address this however and instead is focusing on Oil companies and price gouging.

President Obama's strange way of calculating everything from unemployment rates to budget cuts could be the key to showing economic growth in other areas. Unemployed people are being dropped off the unemployed list so why can't unsold homes be dropped from the unsold inventory list? read the full story for our ideas.

Am I the only one noticing that almost all economic data coming out of our Government is not only false and misleading but is often times wrong? More importantly , most of the Financial press out there seems to roll over and not even question numbers that are either flat out wrong or are more propaganda then reality. Take today’s jobless claims for instance. The Associate Press reported: “New unemployment claims fall to lowest in 2 months

I’m a clueless small business owner who can only judge things from my eyes and ears on the street. Instead of quoting Greenspan and Bernanke , I’d rather quote Bluto from Animal House after they accidentally killed the horse in the Dean’s Office…I believe the words of shock Bluto uttered over an over again were: “ H-O-L-Y S-H-I-#!..H-O-L-Y S-H-I-#"!!

Has there ever been and administration as crossed and confused as this one? The Bush administration was consistently Pro business and in many respects Consistently poor!. However, the Bush administration made clear its intent to allow free markets to prevail no matter what and even if Oil hit $500 per barrel, a free market system was better then Government intervention. The Obama administration however is trying to be all things to all people.

The new Obama administration promised change and change was delivered all right. Trillions of dollars were borrowed from China in an effort to get the economy and more important the jobs created. One year later and the administration is learning the hard way what all of us in the Brokerage world already know: The Government does not create lasting jobs, the private sector does.

With each passing day we read and hear about the vital signs of the economy like it was a patient at a hospital on life support. Every little sign of improvement seems to be accompanied by pundit’s proclamations that the worst is behind us. Even bearish commentators like me have admitted to seeing signs of life that the economy is improving and that capital formation appears to be gaining some legs. Are we to believe that this 2000 point rally in the market as well as surging oil prices is a sign the recession is over? Well, take a deep breath and brace yourself for what I’m about to say: