FXP (Ultra-short China ETF)

Bottom Line: I like the Risk/Reward Ratio (Risk $1 to Make $11).
Note: FXP sold for $200 back in October 2008. I am not suggesting that this price level will be seen anytime soon, but I do like its potential to trade at $15 from the current $9.

2011 Federal Budget: Office of Management and Budget

Note: To enlarge the charts, double-click inside of it.

Items of Interest:
1. The projected deficit for 2011 (October 2010 to September 2011) is projected to be $1,200,000,000,000. That is $1.2 trillion of the red stuff! How many years can this nation run "DEFICITS" in the trillions? See the "Debt Clock."
2.Medicare/Medicaid and Security payments to Total Federal Receipts is 84%. What does that mean? For every dollar that the federal government takes in, 84 cents goes to pay medicare/medicaid and social security recipients. Wow! That leaves 16 cents to pay for everything else, such as defense, non-defense, interest, etc.

S&P 500 Weekly Update for February 5, 2010

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Secret Summit of Top Bankers

Did you know about this secret meeting that is taking place in Australia? I have not read about it in the "Wall Street Journal," which is usually on top things. The meeting is on, and no one is reporting on it.

Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities including the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location. Why the secret meeting and secret location? This is a little resemblance of 2007-08, which does not make me feel too comfortable.

Are You Rich?

McHugh's Market Update states it this way: "We learned yesterday that the government has proposed a $3.8 trillion budget for 2011, with $2.0 trillion of tax increases, $1.0 trillion coming by increasing income taxes on families who earn more than $250,000. (Yet, with those tax increases, the federal deficit is projected at $1.3 trillion, which maybe on the low side.) For those of you earning $250,000 in your families, which would equate approximately to an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $125,000, I ask you the question, are you rich? You are paying $1,200 a month in health insurance, paying $40,000 a year in college tuition with no scholarship help because you make too much money, and had 40 percent of your stock investments and 20 percent of your real estate investments wiped out the past three years. You pay three times as much in real estate taxes on the same home you lived in ten years ago. Are you rich? You work for a firm that could downsize or go bankrupt at any moment. Are you rich?"

By the way, those with AGI of at least $125,000 already pay close to 75% of all Federal personal income taxes. Talking about killing the "Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs." Good job government, you have finally done it.

What is our lesson learned? Well, if you make less than $250,000, do not aspire to make more money, because you too will be targeted as rich. You too will get taxed back to a take-home level where the government believes you should be. So be satisfied with less, or else!

We as a nation have forgotten that a market economy works best when households are the engine of economic growth, not large money center banks or government. Taxes need to be reduced and rebated in a big way across the board to all households and small businesses. That (IMHO) is the correct policy that will return prosperity to America, will create real jobs in the private sector, not the government sector (By the way, the government reported that this year we will have the largest federal work force in modern history at 2.15 million!), high paying jobs, real economic growth, stability to financial markets. Kennedy did it. Reagan did it. Come on Obama, you can do it!