266. When is it Our Turn?

An article articulating desperate actions by Spain to cut deficits: Cutting civil servant hiring by 90% compared to last year. When will we follow suit? Or haven't blown up the balloon enough and, thus, continue to do the complete opposite? When do we put the fire out instead of fueling it? Similarly, this article re the Eurozone inflation increase is handwriting on the wall for America. How bad have grocery price increases gotten in your area? Usually food prices and energy prices aren't included in the most common measure of inflation. But, when Walmart raises a box of cereal, my staple, by 30% since last week -- total of 37.6% in last 12 months -- and MOST its food even more in last year, you know life is going to get worse. Here's a company that has made discount pricing a household reality. It's becoming uncertain how much of a bargain even Walmart is lately. With more and more of a family's budget going towards staples and oil prices again rising are we again beginning a cycle downturn? Will jobless rates again increase as reported in the Eurozone? Will America continue to print money to hide the real bad economic news? I wouldn't be expecting great company earnings next quarter. Hence, summer doldrums as I previously predicted. Yes, we just heard a report of increased Consumer spending. But, was this just a splurge to cure the long-time blues? A chocolate eating binge to temporarily fix extended depression? Well, I'm going to remain positive -- just ate pounds of chocolate chip cookies last night -- and will believe the rest of America's investors will also remain in a blinded stupor of euphoria as the newspaper rags turn their tales to positive worldwide news -- they report in "attitude" cycles too. Surely the good news like Obama visiting Afghanistan military and Karzai, plus holding Sarkozy's hand in "promising" Iran sanctions in just a few WEEKS (heard that a year ago), and promising the reduction of nuclear arms along with Russia are the special icing flowers on the chocolate cake. However, the real news is the hard efforts the Eurozone is doing to keep its countries from doing a belly-up. Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland have been in the news lately with REAL painful, but necessary actions to REALLY try to fix the problems on their side of the ocean. China is starting to crank up their engines again to ensure solid growth despite the protectionist debate by the West. So, in my opinion, while the rest of the world is actually addressing their issues, we continue to use rhetoric promising actions. This always leads to 3-4 weeks of waiting-to-see some results before the s**t hits the fan again. Darn. Just when I was feeling positive again, reality struck! Hang in there -- at least for a few weeks.