Baltimore-(TFN):Time to panic? If you are part of the Obama administration the answer is yes. If you are an American investor, hold off on the freaking out for at least another month or so.

With the nation’s unemployment rate officially in double-digit territory and the under-employed rate ready to the 20% mark, the politicians that promised bliss in the days ahead are eating their words today.

And that means Wall Street is eating its recent gains.

For nearly a month, the Dow has hovered around the 10,000 mark. After hundreds of billions of dollars were withdrawn earlier this year, it was relatively easy to put that money back to work and send the equities market higher.

But now that the economic data is showing facts of slower-than-expected expansion rather than “ideas” of growth, investors are forced to explain their logic. The Dow doesn’t want to budge from 10k.

So far, I’ve heard very

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The commodities markets have been kicked into high gear. As America’s lenders change their mind, the world’s mining companies are on a surefire path to riches.

If you can’t farm it, you have to mine it. It is a great message, no matter if you are an investor or an out-of-work cowboy.

Riding through the streets of Alaska’s ever-wet capital, you see all sorts of bumper stickers. There are three main categories – fishing, mining and Sarah Palin.

It is the miners getting all of the attention this week.

There are several reasons the world’s mining industry is opening a big ‘ole bottle of bubbly, but none more poignant than the fact that America is shelling out debt faster than a hot-rod blackjack dealer unloading his deck.

As Uncle Sam goes “all in,” the folks paying for Washington’s lavish lifestyle are getting nervous. For proof, I need just one set of numbers.

In July, foreign

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“Is Sarah Palin secretly a beat poet? Do her words make little to no sense because she is so immersed in language and lyrics that she operates on a plane we cannot grasp? We sincerely doubt it, but that was the implication last night as William Shatner appeared on the ‘Tonight Show’ and read Sarah’s resignation speech in his typical Shatner way, with all the lilting and soft drum beats we’ve come to expect. It was quite magical,” reported The Huffington Post.

Source: The Huffington Post and YouTube, July 28, 2009.

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Stanislav Belkovsky is often quite a clown, but usually not a boring one.  After all, how many pundits out there like to open an article by quoting themselves?  That's exactly how he begins his latest piece of analysis posted to Yezhednevny Zhurnal, the translation of which came over on today's JRL, which argues that President Dmitry Medvedev has taken up a new idol to imitate - not his mentor and superior, Vladimir Putin, but rather the new visiting U.S. President, Barack Obama.  Who says Obamamania never caught on in Russia!

Belkovsky's main evidence is based on fashion tastes and similar photographs (though I am sure I could find photos of Sarah Palin wearing the same colored suits as Obama). 

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Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently stated, “Alaska remains the most prospective oil and gas area in North America. Thanks to our attractive geology, our stable business climate and our reasonable government environment, Alaska continues to attract healthy interest from the global energy industry.”

When petroleum production from the 48 states began to decline in the early 1970s, massive discoveries of Alaska’s North Slope region offered hope of a new source of domestic oil. In fact, the Prudhoe Bay Field discovery in this region became the largest oil field in North America at 15 billion barrels of oil and 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Since the discovery, over 10 billion barrels of oil has been produced and even today Prudhoe is recognized as America’s highest yielding oil field with production averaging about 400,000 barrels a day.

While the global average size for technical

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Rosneft, LUKoil, TNK-BP, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz are all under pressure from the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service to reduce domestic prices. TNK-BP is being hung out to dry by Gazprom, which has reneged on its agreement to buy 63% of the Kovykta gas field, which is a reflection of the enormous financial pressure on the company as they shift focus to short-term projects. Russia's Central Bank has decided to place a long-term $500m deposit in Gazenergoprombank, a bank affiliated with Gazprom. The company's surprise decision to send a high-ranking 12 person delegation to Alaska to discuss projects with ConocoPhillips is seen as an embarrassment for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

TODAY: EU decides to delay talks with Russia; Gorbachev supports Yukos prisoner; More military spending; UK continues fight for extradition. With strenuous resistance from Poland, Sweden, and the Baltic States, the European Union leaders have delayed a decision on whether to restart talks over establishing a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Russia. "The PCA will resume once the analysis, the evaluation that is being done by the Council (of EU ministers) and commission is finished," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Amid funeral proceedings for Alexei Cherepanov, the New York Rangers first-round pick who died during a game outside of Moscow Monday, the Duma called for a probe of why medical officials weren't present at the game. Responding to outlandish claims of Russia expertise by Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, her Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, recently quipped, ...

The press and blogosphere are of course having a field day with the news that executives from Gazprom are enjoying a road show in Alaska this week to woo local representatives and meet with ConocoPhillips, possibly discussing participation in natural gas pipeline down to the lower 48 states. Given that Gov. Sarah Palin, the eminent "Kremlinologist," has placed so much emphasis on her foreign policy expertise with Russia, the Gazprom invasion is embarrassing to say the least. Some think that the timing of the Alaska visit carries a message: "The timing is as interesting as the visit itself," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial in Moscow. "Gazprom's entire senior management goes into Sarah Palin's backyard during a contentious election. There's a message there." However let's not lose the plot completely. Gazprom has had a business ...

The most-watched vice-presidential debate in history recently took place between candidates Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, and Joe Biden, the senior Senator for Delaware, at Washington University in St. Louis. There were reportedly 70 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. Stockerblog.com has put together a comparison of the Joe Biden Stock Index, which is made up of the companies that are connected to the billionaire contributors to the Joe Biden campaign, and the Sarah Palin Stock Portfolio, which is made up of the stocks in the Alaska State disclosure filing for her and her husband. The Palin Portfolio was down 22% outperforming the Biden Index which was down 27%, which doesn't mean much since it a comparison of a contributor index to a stock portfolio, or in other words, apples to oranges. However, both grossly underperformed the Dow ...

When US stocks dived following the passing of the bailout bill, President Bush sought to calm investors. He said it would "take a while" for the bill to take effect. Problem is George W doesn't have much of time.

In less than one month, Americans will vote into office either Barack Obama or John McCain. Each has very different ideas about how to tackle the financial crisis.

Martin Hutchinson says Obama is most likely to win on a populist anti-Wall Street platform. But if he follows up this rhetoric with more regulation and protectionism, this could hurt US investors even more in the long run.