A LITTLE HISTORY AND STUFF

In the '60's and '70's, 1,200 on the Dow was it. The wall we couldn't get beyond. The politics were Cold War, Cuban missile crisis, THE assassination (and Kruschev deposed), Vietnam, Great Society, space race, race riots, more assassinations, revolution in the streets, drugs, women's rights, "Law and Order", Israeli-Arab War, Watergate/impeachment, OPEC - oil embargo and price quadruplings, inflation, stagflation, Communist gains, China's awakening, "malaise", Iran's revolution and American hostages. It's a wonder we made it through it.

The Reagan '80's did turn things around - after a gut-wrenching recession with 20%+ interest rates. It was supply-side economics with tax cuts and rebuild the military to stop the Communists. We watched Iraq and Iran duke it out and quietly helped the Muslims kick Soviet arse in Afghanistan. Reagan's plan to get Sauds to buy in to low cost oil to seriously cut the Soviet's oil income worked. Of course, there were a few more proxy wars - Central America and Africa - to further prick the Communists. And Walesa and the Pope in Poland started the Soviet downfall from inside, besides the arrival of Gorby. Don't forget Grenada, Lebanon, terrorist attacks and our bombings in return. We got the Gip through Iran-Contra and the savings and loan debacle. But the Dow broke that 1k barrier for good and reached over 2k.

We rocketed to 10k in the '90's after the Soviet dissolution and end of the Cold War. We pushed Iraq out of Kuwait and had another mild recession. We stopped the genocide and war against Muslims in the former Yugoslavia and tried to bring peace and stability to Somalia. Oil stayed around $25 and the internet was born. Incredible. One heck of a lot of fortunes were made. There was that impeachment thing and the Asian financial crisis. But by '00 US debt was $5T and we were paying it down.

Of course we know what happened next. Yet still the Dow pushed to 14k after the internet bubble burst and 9/11. Tax cuts, again, and borrowing. It even hit almost 13k after the real estate debacle, $150 oil and the financial crisis. Of course, that looks ominously now like the double top of the market for who knows how long.

So. Here we are. Maintaining the 10X growth in Dow valuations - and all the rest - in 20, now 30 years. I think we've done relatively well considering the headwinds of terrorism gone wild and the bubbles on steroids. Let alone the "hate you and won't say yes to nuthin you say" politics we now are dealing with. But what's next?

We do know that people work for less money  - a LOT less in a lot of places around the world - than we're accustomed to here. But. I think we have to lower corporate tax rates for manufacturing, especially, and lower all corporate tax rates to match what countries all around the world are doing. Otherwise, our corporations will continue to take business where it's cheaper. And we will lose even more jobs. I think we must get that done. Now. And I would bet with the return of manufacturing - and constructing the plants and infrastructure - that permanent jobs return and economy grows and the loss of corporate tax comes back in increased revenues from the growth. THAT's the old Reagan philosophy. It's time for corporate tax cuts. The higher wages here may still be a block to work through. Maybe with substantially lower corporate tax rates here than abroad. And then maybe with cutting the "red tape" of uber regulation. It can be done. Again, I believe we HAVE to do it. And I'm an old democrat turned independent.


Well, on to stuff. Thanks for bearing with me.

EPA to enforce '08 smog rules. Asked to wait until '13 on the stricter standards Obama recently cancelled.

Investigations into DOE loan guarantees may evolve into nuke guarantees. Fine. Bring it on. Cut cut cut. Go tea party. Actually, really, nukes are clean energy too. But we can do much better.

Proposed Portland, Oregon LNG import terminal now seeking to export instead. Hay, that's good.

NY residents looking for way out of NG drilling leases. Oops. Maybe that cancels out exporting NG from at least East coast.

Auto, engine groups challenging EPA's E15 biofuel.

KY regulators proposed record fine for coal comps' water pollution.

Ukraine, Russia gearing up for another NG brawl. And India and China are sparring over exploration in S. China Sea. Um, India doesn't have S. China Sea off their coast.

Former AMSC employee (Serb engineer) convicted by Austrian court for selling commercial secrets to Sinovel for $20T and job promise. AMSC put the estimated damage @ 7.5M Euros. (Their stock went down one heck of a lot more than that). Court awarded 200k Euros. After leaving ASMC, the employee kept his computer account which gave him access to blueprints and software codes. Huh. AMSC says Sinovel owes them $250M. (Their stock went down a heck of a lot more than that). Motorola and Ford allegedly also recently on the raw end of intellectual property theft in China.

BP plans full return to Gulf drilling this year.

China will use 80% as much paper made in world today in '35. Buy forests? 70% of grain. Buy farms? They'll have 1.1B cars by then - world total now. Buy energy or gasmasks. US now uses 19mb/d of oil, Europe 14m, Japan 4.5, India and Russia 3 each. By '35, India will have more folks than China. And next month our world will welcome our 7 billionth citizen.

Happy trails, pards.