CBO forecasts $1.2 Trillion Budget deficit!  And we can expect more!  ADP shows job losses mounting big time!  Brazil’s real reverses course… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Well… There are two major things on the docket for the front and center piece today, both tell us a lot, but I think I’m going to go with the announcement of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) yesterday afternoon as the lead story, and the ADP jobs report as the second story… So, let’s go to the tape!

The CBO announced yesterday that they are forecasting a $1.2 Trillion Budget Deficit for 2009! Uh-oh! This is scary folks, and there’s plenty more where that came from! This “forecast” doesn’t even

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We are in the early stages of a long and deep recession, says Adam Lass. But that doesn’t mean savvy investors can’t make a profit. Rising unemployment and underfunded local governments is a recipe for crime in urban areas. And that means big business for companies in the self-protection industry. Adam says TASER International (Nasdaq:TASR) stock could triple in the next 18-24 months.

This from Taipan Daily:

It’s certainly no challenge finding stocks under $10 these days. Unfortunately, many of them used to trade for at least twice that much. To make matters worse, in most circumstances, these sad sacks deserve this ignominious fate.

Take your pick: Homebuilders who put up pasteboard shacks alongside highway interchanges and called them “mini-mansions”… banks that sold mortgages to undocumented workers… brokerage houses that bought and sold worthless bonds… retailers who based their

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Earlier this year, HST Global announced that it contracted EBITDA Capital LLC of Newport Beach California and its group of associates to join HST-Global’s efforts in working toward an overall corporate strategy. The company also announced Former United States Congressman Bill Sarpalius, the President and CEO of Advantage Associates International, has been given the role of interfacing with the political community in Washington DC.

Mr. Sarpalius said, “We are excited to be in a position to raise the awareness of both the public and members of the government about HST’s treatment solution. The opportunity of bringing a treatment for late stage cancer is something which we all want to see expanded and made use of in the treatment community.”

Mr. Ron Howell, CEO and President of HST Global commented, “Through the use of the EBITDA Capital resources we at HST Global can focus on the issue of bringing awareness of our treatment

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(Washington DC, 12/17/08) Remember, you heard it here first. Effective January 1, 2009, stock brokerage firms which are Depository Trust Company participants (most of them are) will no longer allow the issuance of stock certificates for over 7,000 companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission made this decision on December 1 of this year. There are a small number of stocks which are not DTC registered, and those companies can have certificates issued until July 1, 2009.br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Disclosure: Author buys and sells antique stock certificates/spanbr /br /By a href="http://Stockerblog.com"Stockerblog.com/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"div class='adsense' style='text-align:center; padding: 0px 3px 0.5em 3px;' script type="text/javascript"!-- google_ad_client="ca-pub-2427831169011625"; google_ad_width=300; google_ad_height=250; google_ad_format="300x250_as"; google_ad_type="text"; google_ad_channel ="8681602088"; google_color_border="FFF3DB"; google_color_bg="FFF3DB"; google_color_link="1B0431"; google_color_url="1B0431"; google_color_text="29303B"; //--/script script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" /script /div

As any new business owner has likely found, there are several basic hurdles that need to be crossed as a business gets itself moving. In a general sense, a fledgling company needs to reach a certain critical mass to get past the first year and avoid failure. Once that first year hurdle is crossed, a company’s management can begin to concentrate a bit more on growth and full execution of its business plan.

From an investor’s point of view, this is when becoming involved begins to appear a bit more interesting, as opposed to becoming involved when the company was working to simply survive. Given current economic conditions, finding companies that fit this mold is a bit more difficult, but if they can be found, a solid investment is likely to be available for profit.

Organic To Go Food Corp., a USDA organically certified “grab and go” food retailer/wholesaler, provides organic food

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The U.S. “Big Three” of General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler Corp. submitted their turnaround plans to Congress yesterday (Tuesday), hoping for approval of a massive loan package they say is central to their survival.

And while the plans include such politically palatable moves as salary cuts for top-tier executives, the sale of cushy corporate jets and the elimination of moribund brands, the three embattled U.S. automakers are also now seeking government aid of as much as $34 billion – which is as much as $9 billion more than the $25 billion figure that’s been on the table from the very beginning of the industry’s bid for bailout money.

Here’s the breakdown:

General Motors, the largest domestic automaker, said late yesterday that it is seeking as much as $18 billion to survive into 2010 – and that it needs $4 billion of that ...

Two days before the chief executives of Detroit’s Big Three – General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler Corp. – march back to Capitol Hill to again petition Congress for a $25 billion bailout, details about each company’s plan to scale back operations are emerging.

Each CEO – GM’s Richard Wagoner, Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Chrysler’s Robert “Bob” Nardelli – left Washington D.C. two weeks ago scolded, and with a clear understanding that the government is expecting each company to shed costs and present forward-looking plans that prove taxpayer money will not be wasted.

Wagoner has been fuzzy on the company’s goal to cut at least $15 billion in costs, but few options have been ruled out.

GM could further reduce its North American workforce. It could eliminate and/or sell one or more of its brands. The primary name on the table is

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Paulson throws the markets a curve…  Goldman says to buy the yen…  RBA intervenes to protect the AUD$… China provides support to commodities… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… Chuck is out today, so I get the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the markets. As many of you know, I spent most of last week in Washington DC giving presentations at the Money Show. On the way to the hotel, the cab driver who had noticed my EverBank luggage tag asked if I was a banker. He said he had seen a lot of us lately. I guess I was one of the few bankers flying into Washington DC who wasn’t heading over to the Treasury Dept.

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I spent the weekend at the Washington D.C., Money show. The show has shrunk from last year, and the opinions ranged from "this is an incredible time to buy" to "Aaaaaaiiiiiii!!!!!" I'll have more about that in Wednesday's Money and Markets column.This morning, the market is rising on news of a $586 stimulus plan in China and a new A.I.G. bailout in Washington. I'm not sure why the market thinks this is good news. Last time I looked, the Federal Debt had soared to such levels that each American now owes over $32,000. I think that's unsustainable, as long as the US dollar holds its present value.In other words, it would be a lot easier to bear if that debt was only (in relative terms) $3,200. That's not so scary, is it? I wonder if Uncle Sam is thinking the same thing. The Russians

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Progressive critiques of India’s recent development prospects are often marked by schizophrenic worldviews – between what is and what ought to be.

Mira Kamdar’s recent piece in the World Policy Journal illustrates this well. By Ms. Kamdar’s account Indians are heading down an inevitable path to doomsday. Malthusian population pressures, resource scarcity, global warming, environmental degradation, industrial capitalism, and political corruption have combined with an inherently fractured society that is likely to erupt in caste, religious, and class warfare, terrorism, and self-destruction. Mix in the recent US-India civilian-Nuclear deal and the presence of unstable neighbors – Pakistan, Bangladesh – along with an aggressive China, and Ms. Kamdar offers up all the ingredients for a nuclear holocaust. The only uncertainty we are left with is: which doomsday will India break into first — internal implosion or external explosion?

And if this is not enough,

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