Exodus of brokers still a threat for wirehouses

Exodus of brokers still a threat for wirehouses: Report - Investment News

Sell Everything, You Won't Recognize America By The End Of The Year

Dow Theorist Richard Russell says the end is near.

---
THE DOW JONES AVERAGES WITH AN EXPLANATION OF THE DOW THEORY (THE BARRON'S AVERAGES)

Senate Passes Financial Reform Bill

The Senate passed its version of a financial regulatory bill Thursday evening. Now the process of reconciling the House version with the Senate version begins, but it looks like we will soon see the most sweeping overhaul of our nation's financial regulatory systems since the 1930s.

Score Another For Obama as Senate Passes Wall Street Reform (At Forbes)
Senate Passes Broader Rules for Overseeing Wall Street (At The New York Times)
Senate Passes Finance Bill (At the Wall Street Journal)

FINRA Proposes Expanding Arbitrator Lists

FINRA announced today that it will increase the number of arbitrators on each of the selection lists by 2 - bringing each list to 10 potential arbitrators. While the change will increase the number of selections for the parties, the number of strikes for each list will remain at 4, increasing the chances that the parties will have an arbitrator that they do not want.

While expanding the lists is undoubtedly good for everyone, this has the potential to be a significant problem. Far too often there are 5 arbitrators in a list that we need to strike, for whatever reason. Now there might be 7, with very little recourse if one of the three that we could not strike are appointed.

More>>>

Who You Calling a Tea Bagger?

Apparently President Obama is quoted in a book referring to the supporters of the Tea Party Movement as "tea baggers" and the right is having an absolute fit, claiming the term is disgusting and inappropriate. The feigned outrage is simply amazing.

Please. Let's be honest here. The reason the term has become so popular is that it is demonstrative of the complete lack of understanding. The joke has always been on Fox News - where anchor after anchor used the term "tea bagger" in supportive pieces, and never had a clue what the term meant. The mocking was directed at Fox News, and reporters and anchors who were so eager to support anything that was anti-Obama and so out of touch, that they had no idea that the term referred to a sexual act.

It wasn't only Fox News who used the term, the tea baggers themselves used it to identify themselves well before any "liberal" used the term. If you doubt this, search the news archives at Google for the term "tea bagger" and just scan the headlines. The term has been used by the movement itself, and by the "right" wing news media. Witness the "Proud to Be a Tea Bagger pins."

That is what made the term so appropriate. Clueless news anchors using the term to report about clueless protesters sitting in worn out lawn chairs waiving little American flags proudly referring to themselves as tea baggers, without a clue what they were protesting about, or that they were saying. Check out Teabaggers, You Named Yourselves,  Rise of an Epithet at the National Review, The Slur That Must Not Be Named, for more,

Sort of like the protests over the Czars that the President was appointing, and the woman who wanted to know who they were going to rule over, and how much land the government was giving them.

But the real issue here is the feigned uproar. The press needs some honesty, politicians on both sides need to stop the feigned outrage, and the Tea Party Movement needs to focus on its core mission and getting the nut jobs off the stage.

A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes

More>>>