>>snip
>>
>>>>>>>>I don't really need to defend myself on respecting anyone's right to express their opinion. Have said as much here over a number of years. Voltaire -- "I do not agree with what you say but will defend with my life your right to say it." My only point here was that the anti-reform town hall protests seem less than spontaneous. There is a mob atmosphere and I believe that is intended.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It is very ingenious way "respecting anyone's right to express their opinion" by calling it "a mob atmosphere".
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Mob atmosphere as in shouting, drowning out speakers, poking people in the chest.
>>>>>
>>>>>You forget to mention very important ingredient: they say things that your party doesn't like.
>>>>
>>>>You continue to miss my point. It isn't their opinion that bothers me. It's the rudeness and the attempt to intimidate. Left wingers acting the same way would be just as objectionable.
>>>
>>>I didn't miss your point. I just see you a bit deeper, though not much really. "Healthcare reform is a centerpiece of the economic recovery." Messiah, Ch.27.
>>
>>You have probably noted that a growing number of economists are saying the recovery is already underway. Not so bad for a guy who was going to destroy the economy according to the Chicken Littles.
>
>Careful Mike. You're jumping the gun here. There's a lot of mixed data out there and no one is certain what it means yet. There are a lot of opinions but no conclusions. For every economist that's claiming a recovery there is one who talks of stabilization and another who speaks of false recovery. No one is certain where we're headed yet.
>
>Prediction : I think we will see some positive growth in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year, but by no means do I think we're out of the woods. Oil is positioned above $70/barrel again and high gas prices will stall or reverse any recovery, let alone a jobless one. I think this Christmas season is going to be worse than last year which will further erode commercial real estate values which have not yet stabilized. That translates to more small business closings and more unemployment. Then there's still that matter of the second housing bubble which is poised to burst next year. The banks still have billions of dollars of known bad assets on their balance sheets. If the commercial real estate market erodes further and the option-arm and Alt-A loans collapse as I expect, we are headed for a double-dip, and the second leg down will be as bad if not worse than the first as we've already thrown trillions at the first leg and pushed the interest on our debt sky high. The good news is that it appears that both economy killing proposals from the administration, cap-and-tax and socialized medicine, are going to be at best defeated and at worst de-fanged in September. I believe that the increasing likelihood of these defeats, combined with incredibly lowered expectations regarding earnings has directly contributed to the current run in the stock market and as such this rally is shaky.

I would say this stock rally is boring: 5 months in the same direction, trading opportunities are drying up completely. Hopefully, we will get some turbulence soon.