Nomen Nescio wrote:

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't see "speculation" accounting for more
than a 10 - 20% swing. Certainly not insignificant, but certainly not the
REAL problem.
Here's some evidence that speculation isn't the problem.........................
Congress says it IS the problem,


So do a lot of hard-working Americans.


When was the last time those clowns were right about anything?


Well, that reminds me of high school. "Well, if the teacher says it's
so it must not be, 'cause, like, teachers are, like, stupid and
stuff...huhhuh. They suck. School sucks. This,like, sucks."


But while we may disagree as to the source of the problem, I think
we will agree that energy is a BIG problem.
This Country was built on fairly inexpensive energy.
When manufacturing falls, America falls.

100% agreement! But, I don't think it's the line workers, the welders,
electricians, circuit board builders, etc that decided to send
manufacturing overseas. It was the business types.

Well, Junior
I'm a little old to be a Gen X crackpot (Think long hair,tie-dye, and Hendrix)..............
But I "wasted" my vote on Perot.

Hey, man, I know my way around Little Wing and wasted my vote on Perot too.

Should I be shorting telecom stocks now?

Telecom stocks are the absolute last thing I'll ever invest in again.
I'm under NDE about my present soon-to-be-former employer, but, the
general idea of telecom management is "we're profitable so let's buy the
competition." When the engineers say "Okay, look, you can buy the
competition but you have to be able to support their network and their
customer base," they're basically persona non grata. One month, your
$1000/month business T-1 service is working perfectly or if it goes
down, somebody can fix it for you immediately and the next, there's a
45-minute hold time for support and nobody's sure which part of the
network you're on. Customers go to elsewhere, the executives collect
huge-ass severances and move on and the company reputation is basically
ruined.

And I gotta say, I'm rather surprised that "pedophelia, identity theft and
jihadist websites" are that big a market.

They're not, but, "free webhosting" sites are popular and you absolutely
would not believe how successful those spam-driven dubious online
pharmaceutical operations are because hiring somebody to keep them off
your network is not a staffing priority.

No, I think the American people ought to do something.

Well, the VOTE sure isn't working! What's your suggestion?

Stop electing people who take money from special interests. I hate to
sound like Lou Dobbs here, but it's time to flush the toilet.

[stuff read, noted and snipped for brevity]

If the market is that unstable and the speculators that capable of
manipulating a GIANT worldwide economy, it's time for Uncle Sam to
declare war on speculators, not insurgents in Baghdad.


The key word is "worldwide". How much of an effect do you really think a few US traders can
possibly have?


That's like saying the oil industry or airline industry is just "a few
companies," isn't it?

-c