As disappointed global stock markets plummet in response to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest stimulus initiative, few investors are paying attention to what may be the Fed’s real intention behind this new plan—mortgage refinancing.

“U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday as the Federal Reserve and four of the world’s other major central banks agreed to make U.S. dollars more readily available in Europe’s struggling financial system.” “… Early Thursday, investors welcomed the news that the Fed — along with the central banks of England, Switzerland, Japan and the euro zone [...]

Picture an entire fleet of brand new Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, chock full of the latest stealth aircraft that money can buy, then double it. That’s about the size of the dollar and cents differences one finds in trying to estimate the costs of 9/11. Just how large is the range?

Investors are selling first and waiting for the facts later. Few can blame them given their experience in 2008-2009. Investors in the stock market sustained huge losses by naively believing that the financial sector and the government were in control of that crisis. This time around, no one believes anything they say.

 All week the markets have hung on every word coming out of Washington. Nothing else has mattered: not earnings, not Europe’s problems, not even the second coming of Christ could have distracted investors. Now that both political parties have achieved what they wanted, let’s please stop the monkey business before it’s too late.

Full Monty — “everything which is necessary, appropriate, or possible; ‘the works’”, Oxford English Dictionary A new rescue plan for Greece is being hammered out in Brussels today. Although the details are yet to be released, it appears that the European Community is finally going for an overall plan that will do more than just [...]

By now we have reached our debt limit of $14.294 trillion here in the United States. As you read this, the U.S. Treasury is already shuffling bits of electronic paper around to stay current on our nation’s debt payments. By August 2 even this desperate farce will have come to an end.

“Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don’t forget to breathe, very important” Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid Miles of newsprint and thousands of terabytes of internet space has been devoted to what happens tomorrow, the day after the [...]

On Thursday, for only the third time in its history, the International Energy Agency decided to release 60 million barrels of oil from global strategic petroleum reserves. They did so in order to “ensure a soft landing for the world economy.”

Last week’s uninspiring gain in employment disappointed Wall Street and sent the markets into the doldrums. As July approaches and the start of most state and local government’s new fiscal year begins, expect a lot of pink slips in the mail.