Fari Hamzei
This morning emails are continuing to pour in and I feel it is better I write to all of you all at once, clear some air and get every body focused back on the markets and the week ahead. My only request is that, after reading my explanations, whether you agree with it or not, let's just move on by NOT replying to this email and spare me of your response. We all have a lot to prepare for this coming week. Thanks for your understanding in advance.
First and foremost, I am not a political observer. And my market comment last Friday for Timer Digest was not supposed to be interpreted as a political statement. At Timer Digest, the Top Ten market timers (out of approximately 150 timers) are encouraged, twice a week, to email in and highlight what each of us observe as key issues facing/impacting the markets in the short term. Our comments are posted on Timer Digest's hotline on Wednesday late afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Second, I am a die-hard Reagan Republican. As the part of my preparation for the markets, I read a lot of market-related reports, on a daily basis, from highly regarded authors and I was simply highlighting what issues this fragile market might be reacting to, including, but not limited to, the general elections, the bond and commodity markets, hurricanes, and the Russian behavior in the Caucasus.
If you carefully review the minute by minute trading data on Friday (after a series of better-than-expected economic sentiment data during the first 30 min of regular trading), market began selling [hard] exactly when McCain Campaign confirmed the rumors that Gov Palin was indeed Senator McCain's choice for his VP. Markets, in aggregate, are smarter than any one of us and we should heed their hidden message. (sometimes we do not get it right, including yours truly, back in May 19th --oh, well !!).
IMHO, what Senator McCain did is most unnerving -- he gave away a very tight election at the time us Republicans must endure the many failures of Bush-Cheney era. If you look at this morning's highly rated CBS "Face the Nation" or NBC "Meet the Press", both anchors, Bob Schieffer and Tom Brokaw, opened with or brought up same concerns I wrote to you and Timer Digest on Friday.
I think I will sit this election out. My Republican vote won't make a difference in IL where I reside now or back in CA where I lived most of my adult life. And by doing so, I think it may help me be more objective, and less emotional, than the previous five presidential elections I eagerly participated in.
About the Top of the Republican Ticket:
I've been privileged to work with the best and the brightest this great country has to offer and in the process it has raised my standards very high. I just can't vote for a guy who came in 5th from the BOTTOM at Annapolis (for your info, I got into Princeton Engineering School at the age of 16, having been admitted to Annapolis, MIT & Cornell but finally opting for Princeton). For admission to Annapolis, as an allied officer, I received an appointment from President Richard Nixon. At Northrop Grumman, I was honored to work on US Navy F-18A Hornets and in my last two years there I reported to the Father of the Stealth Bomber (USAF B-2 Spirit), which some geopolitical analysts believe, its mere existence, crumbled the Soviet control over Eastern Europe.
And the Veep:
State of Alaska is less populated than the City of Chicago with a windfall budget
surplus that you and I pay for at the gas pump. Per capita, that is an outlier fiscal condition. Lower 48 Governors are vastly better experienced as they operate in a more "normal" fiscal conditions. And before that, Gov. Palin was a mayor of a town with 9,000 people. These short and very limited experiences do not train her to be one heart beat away from becoming the Commander-in-Chief of the sole superpower the Free World has. This I know. I grew up and worked in the Military Industrial Complex in my backyards (in Washington & Los Angeles).
Read this
http://www.ktva.com/ci_10339580?source=most_emailedand this
http://thebruceblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/interesting-mccain-chose-palin-when-she-is-under-scrutiny-and-investigation/These are issues that Dems will bring up in the Presidential Debates.
About the Democratic Ticket:
oh, BTW, Senator Obama, although I understand he is very smart, IMHO, is not qualified either and does have a number of unsavory associates. Senator Biden is a wild card and gaffe central.
If these two tickets are the best this Great Land can come up with, then, it is indeed a very sad commentary on the State of Our Union.