Baltimore — (TFN): If politicians would get their heads out of their re-election campaigns, they would not have to make hasty, thoughtless decisions that cost you and I money.

In the days following Obama’s inauguration, Washington quickly passed a wide set of tax reforms. Part of the legislation included a $400 tax break for the country’s working class and increased healthcare funding for the country’s poor, unhealthy children thanks to increased taxes on the tobacco industry.

It is no surprise neither measure has worked out as planned.

According to reports today, more than 15 million of us will have to pay back the $400 we saved in taxes over the last few months due to an error on Washington’s end.

I hope Uncle Sam doesn’t expect interest on his loan come April.

The news out of the tobacco industry helps us continue our discussion on regulations. The good and the bad.

Winston Churchill once

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Ireland is nearly broke. Its debt was downgraded a couple weeks ago. Unemployment is near 14%. Deflation is at 5.4% — the highest since the Great Depression of the ‘30s.

And it’s not over. It’s “too early” to talk about recovery, says Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

It’s too early in England too. Financial Advisor Peter Hargreaves says that talk of ‘green shoots’ gives rise to illusions. People think they see the light of dawn when the sun is still going down. And forget about a V–shaped recovery. There won’t be any simple bounce-back. Nor even a W-shaped double decline. “There could be a quadruple dip in my opinion,” he said.

And what about California? This week’s Economist magazine gives us a new measure for California’ budget deficit — $26 billion, up from the $24 billion last reported in this space. A widely published photo shows Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar…apparently confident that the

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By Martin Hutchinson
Contributing EditorMoney Morning

[Editor's Note: When Slate magazine recently set out to identify the stock-market guru who most correctly predicted the stock-market decline that accompanied the current financial crisis, the respected online publication concluded it was Martin Hutchinson, a veteran international investment banker who is one of Money Morning's top forecasters. It was no surprise to our readers: After all, Hutchinson warned investors about the evils of credit default swaps six months before the complex derivatives did in insurer American International Group Inc. Then, last fall, Hutchinson "called" the market bottom.

Now Hutchinson has developed a strategy for investors to invest their way to "Permanent Wealth" using high-yielding dividend stocks. This strategy is tailor-made for an unpredictable stock market that's backdropped by an uncertain economy. Just click here to find out about this strategy- or Hutchinson's new service, The Permanent Wealth Investor.]

India remains a …

A piece from Yevgeny Bazhanov in the Moscow Times takes a look at what we can expect from the U.S.-Russia relationship this summer.Amid the economic crisis and after the unsuccessful, misdirected policies of former President George W. Bush, it is likely that U.S. President Barack Obama will no longer pursue a hegemonic foreign policy. But this certainly does not mean that Obama will give up U.S. ambition to be the prominent global leader in international affairs. The problem with this is that other players --namely, Russia, China and the European Union -- share similar leadership ambitions. And with these competing and conflicting ambitions, the potential for tension and confrontation remains. What's more, world leaders, with the strong backing of their respective military-industrial complexes, never tire of exploiting -- or inventing -- external threats to strengthen the state and their personal authority. (...) ...

As the markets would tell it, the swine flu epidemic is little more than a tempest in a teacup. But, sad to say, the danger here remains far greater than it seems…

Before we begin, a word in honor of Monday’s stage-five rocket launch of a rally. Or should I say, rally on top of rally.

As a caveat, these words are being written some two hours and change before market close. Regardless of where that close may be, however, it simply must be said – watching what seemed to be nearly every risk-related asset in the world catch a gigantic bid simultaneously was, in a word, awesome.

(Your humble editor was so transfixed by the sight, he felt verbally transported back to his seventh-grade skateboarding days.)

The world, it seems, is pounding the table for a V-shaped recovery. Maybe even a slightly leftward-tilting V, to

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“We contend a nation who taxes itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself by the handles.”  - Winston Churchill

Although lacking strong leadership the market has been able to push higher, albeit on lower volume.  Nevertheless, there are groups of stocks that appear to be making some headway in this market.  Security software appears to be emerging to be a leadership group, but I quickly get humbled by the fact that every emerging leadership group has been hammered.  I point to the dismal showing of the educational stocks as the last “leadership” group to take a tumble.  The other leadership will be coming from the commodities arena.  Crude oil, Grains, and Agriculture commodities are building to make a run for higher ground.  Gold and Silver continue to consolidate nicely and will benefit from the coming move in commodities.

Market Speculator

With the New York gold market closed on Monday…trading added up to a big zero. Don’t forget that well over 90% of all trading volume in both gold and silver occurs out of New York. So when the boyz have a long weekend, there isn’t much activity.

However, starting at 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong on Tuesday morning, gold tacked on around $20 from there…right until the London open…which is a big move for that time of day, as the Far East markets are pretty thinly traded. Nothing much happened in early European trading, but once floor trading started on the Comex in New York yesterday morning, gold added another $13 dollars or so. That ended about 12:20 p.m. when it appeared that someone tapped on the brakes and gold went sideways from there. The usual N.Y. commentator offered this assessment…”Estimated volume was 146,365 lots with a switch effect of 12,978.

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Clarient, Inc. is focused on providing the services, resources and critical information necessary to improve the quality and reduce the cost of patient care as well as accelerating the drug development process. Today, the company released the following corporate update to shareholders:

Dear Clarient Shareholders:

After a crucial Allied victory early in World War II, Winston Churchill observed, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

January marked Clarient’s four year anniversary. During that time, we have made tremendous strides in transforming our business from an instrument systems company with one application to a molecular pathology services company with a large menu of Cancer Diagnostic applications. Today, we are merely at the end of the beginning of our work to help defeat cancer. Today, we are at the end of the beginning of our transition to being

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Currencies rally then fall back…  Rate slashers!  Following Japan? Let’s hope not!  Canada’s woes mount… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… And a Happy Friday to one and all! A Fantastico Friday! A Jobs Jamboree Friday! Anything else, Chuck? No, I don’t think so, I’ll stop there… It’s all about the Jobs Jamboree today. It’s all about finding out just how badly the rot on the labor vine has gotten… The Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, yesterday, remained above 500K per week, which doesn’t bode well for next month’s data… But first… November’s Jobs Jamboree on the docket!

The “experts” have forecast a -335K drop in jobs for November… But, your old Pfennig writer believes that this forecast is low. I think it will be closer to -375K… The reason I say that is the employment piece of the ISM report that printed the other day… The employment index of that report

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Source: James West, Midas Letter  10/07/2008
During the most recent turn in the financial debacle, and in a masterful display of “perception management”, the bill to inject a further $700 Billion dollar remedy into the $500 TRILLION dollar (derivatives-driven) problem was amped up to $812 Billion and passed during a late Friday vote. Raising the maximum insurable amount for bank deposits to $250,000 from $100,000 during the process is actually a sneaky and effective way to add untold trillions more ostensibly to the total bailout number if banks continue to fail in quanitity.

Any semblance of a democratic or capitalistic appearance to addressing this problem has now been thoroughly abandoned, even as market observers suggested the first bill was voted down because it was perceived as “exceedingly socialist”.

Since it would appear that “democracy” has been redefined to embody government of the masses by the select few richest groups that wield absolute …