It’s one of the first rules in the book of mainstream economic wisdom: a country’s economy is the thermometer which “reads” its stock market’s temperature. If financial conditions are heating up, stocks rise; if they are cooling down, stocks fall. Were it so simple — millionaires wouldn’t make up a measly .15% of the global population.

Obviously, there’s a major flaw with this logic; namely, it isn’t true. Time and again, stock prices smolder to near boiling even as economic growth chills to the bone. (The opposite also holds: Stock prices cool down even as the economy is on fire.)

Take, for instance, Germany’s main stock index, the DAX 30. On August 13, Europe’s number one economy reported a .3% rise in gross domestic product (GDP) — Germany’s first quarter of growth since January 2008. Soon after, the …

IC Places, Inc. (ICPA.OB), the owner and operator of 350 U.S. city websites at www.icPlaces.com which offer a virtual keyhole view of life in each community, recently announced that the company has partnered with CinemaSource to offer show time information and movie tickets on its websites. In 2008, movie ticket sales climbed to $9.6 billion in the U.S. and Canada and to $26.7 billion globally, both generating 5 percent increases, according to a recent LA Times article.

Under the terms of the agreement, CinemaSource will provide IC Places with theater and show time information for 39,000 U.S. theaters, and will also supply statistics for the highest weekly grossing films and other box office features, including an in-depth movie guide featuring past, current and future releases, plot synopses, trailers, photos, release dates and cast lists. IC Places’ site visitors will be able to purchase movie tickets quickly and seamlessly online and

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Gold slid about four dollars between the Globex open on Thursday night and around 10:00 a.m. in London on Friday morning. From there, gold quietly rallied about $11…with the peak coming shortly after 9:00 a.m. on the Comex in New York…and that was it for the day.

Silver was a different animal altogether. After sliding about a dime in Far East trading, silver also began its climb starting around the same time as gold in early London trading…and by the 8:30 a.m. on the Comex…it had tacked on 40 cents. That was obviously too much strength for somebody in New York, as the rally got squashed, and half that gain disappeared.

The HUI peaked about the same time as the gold price in New York and closed quietly positive in pre-long weekend trading. But having said that, please don’t think that yesterday was a quiet trading day. Far from it. Here is

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The toxic tentacles of recession seem to extend into every imaginable - and unimaginable - pocket of the economy. As these tentacles release their toxins, the resulting distress affects both individuals and industries alike, often in ways we might not have imagined in advance. But so too do recessions impart the occasional surprising benefit. Our advice: Enjoy the benefits when and where you can because this recession is likely to get much worse before it gets better.

“Call it an unexpected consequence of the bad economy,” the LA Times remarks. “A recent round of staff reductions at Disneyland could result in the return of embarrassing episodes of public nudity at the Happiest Place on Earth.

“Back in 1997, a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times chronicled a scintillating Internet phenomenon involving the Anaheim theme park’s Splash Mountain log ride: Photos of women flashing their breasts at an automatic camera that

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U.S. President Barack Obama has opened the door to a broader relationship with Cuba by loosening travel and communication restrictions. But will pressure from numerous Latin American states and a promise to usher in a new era of cooperation and dialogue in the Western Hemisphere ultimately result in the revocation of the 47 year-old trade embargo? And what would it mean if the Cuban trade embargo were actually abolished? President Obama has already loosened several restrictions enacted by his predecessor George W. Bush. Prior to his arrival at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago last weekend, Obama relaxed restrictions on travel to Cuba, making it easier for Cuban Americans to visit and transfer money to relatives on the island. “There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans,” Obama said in a campaign speech last year. “It’s time to ...

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (hat tip: LA Times) asserted that on Friday insurance company AIG, recipient so far of perhaps $170 billion in bailout assistance, distributed over $160 million in "retention payments to members of its Financial Products Subsidiary." These payments apparently included "retention" payments of over $1 million each to eleven individuals who are no longer working at AIG.

One of the reasons this is so outrageous is that the promise of such bonuses was in fact one of the very factors that caused our current problems, creating incentives for managers of AIG to get out of solid insurance underwriting and into hedge fund gambling. If anyone had supposed that AIG had "learned its lesson", this report seemed to dash that hope against the wall like a plate of china.

Some may argue that AIG's hands were tied by

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div style="text-align: justify;"Oppenheimer is out with an upgrade onspan style="font-weight: bold;" Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) /spanto Outperform ($135 tgt) from Sector Perform following yesterday's disclosures about Jobs' health. While the letters from Jobs and Apple's board raise more questions than they answer, they allay the central concern they raised two weeks ago: the risk of a hasty, unplanned leadership change.br /br /Firm notes they don't know what ails Apple's CEO, and they're not ready to assume that a problem with a "relatively simple and straightforward" remedy is a problem that is itself "simple and straightforward." Still, it seems unlikely that Jobs, the board, and its counsel would disclose the prognosis of a six-month recovery if it were at odds with doctors' expectations. While that is no guarantee, they are satisfied that a sudden change of leadership is not imminent.br /br /In short, while the leadership risk is not eliminated, it has become ...

Apple Inc. (nasd:AAPL)- Slowing iPod sales growth has been one of the chief concerns among AAPL investors because the iPod has historically been a major contributor to Apple’s overall revenue growth. The concern stems from the belief that the PMP market is becoming saturated. With 175 million iPod units sold, finding new customers is becoming more difficult. However, the iPod is becoming less of a revenue contributor, hence Apple is dependent on the iPod for its sales growth. Andy Zaky, a highly accurate AAPL analyst addressed the iPod’s shrinking importance with regards to Apple’s corporate revenues. In addition, If Apple reported iPhone sales as part of the iPod segment, this wouldn’t be much of a concern, because the iPhone would have reaccelerated sales growth in the iPod segment. I recently discussed that scenario. Yet, Apple reports the iPhone separately. Therefore, this analysis ...

Bill Bonner says the Fed will make this slump longer and harder than it should be. Bernanke & Co are using every weapon in their arsenal to prevent deflation. But they tried this during the Great Depression. And Japan tried it in the 90s. And both times they only managed to deepen the pain.

This from the Daily Reckoning:

You’ll recall that the credit crisis began in the summer of ’07. Before that the ‘war’ between inflation and deflation had been an even match. But then, sub-prime debt came upon the battlefield like a new tank. In a matter of days, deflation seized the high ground and has been winning ever since.

Of course, you have to give the feds credit. They’ve fought a good fight. First, in England, they bailed out Northern Rock and later nationalized the whole banking system, guaranteeing practically all deposits. In the US, they

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The state of California has joined the bailout cue. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday warned Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson the state may need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.