Who Will Stay Long Above 1287 Over the Weekend

The stock markets are pushing higher this morning as optimism creeps back into the picture.  As the market moves into the top half of it big trading range, 1251 to 1298 on the S&P it will be telling in terms of who will stay long over the weekend.  And the biggest full moon of the year is Saturday. 

Since QE2 was announced in September I have been doing a lot of reading to see how my thoughts fit with the research that some economic writers have put together.  Prior to this reading assignment the desperation of Ben Bernanke is my primary understanding.

The first book of the four book series that I read and mentioned back in October, was Barbarians of Wealthby Sandy Franks and Sara Nunnally.  It was a good look at the prominence of greed in the economic picture since 449 AD and continuing to today. 

 The second book was Supercapitalism by Robert Reich written in 2007.  This book has been in my bookcase for at least 3 years and looking back it, it was probably good that I waited to read it.  While it goes a long way towards explaining the factors that led up to the 2007 – 2009 crash, reading it earlier may have mellowed my already bearish take on things at that time.   It is a great primer to what needs to be looked at now in Washington.

The third book is Robert Reich’s latest book Aftershock.  (This is not the lame Aftershockwritten by Wiedemer and Spitzer and publicized by politician Dick Morris).  It is a must read as it covers where things are now and the decisions which loom for all of us.

The last of the four book series is John Mauldin’s Endgame which was just released and which I just received.  I plan to read it over the next week.  Maybe then I will be in a position to bring a lot of material together and provide a review of the options available and the probable results based on these books.

Also, I almost forgot to mention that the dollar needs to be watched closely here if you like picking bottoms.  Earlier this year in the annual foreast we were looking at a price of 71.50 as the forecast low before the rally starts.  At the moment we are going to be watching 75.14 as an alternative higher value where the turn may occur.