The perfect storm

The perfect storm is brewing and it appears October is the month to watch.

What gives? Many factors are about to converge all at once in that month. Where to begin? First up is the budget debate that must be addressed. We've seen the can kicked so many times there it's surprising that it looks like a can anymore. Tied to it is the debt ceiling. The minions in congress will huff and puff about shutting things down but we know they won't for to do so would be political suicide. Any wagers as to who's buying hedges against a large dip in the stock market?

Then of course there's Syria. And even if there's no air strike authorized there's still the drain on neighboring countries who are hosting 2 million refugees and climbing. With the economic strains on countries like Greece (which is selling off its' national assets), Spain, Italy, Ireland, Portugal all of which is now spilling into countries as far away as South America is it any wonder for such thinking? Then there's Japan with it's leaking nuclear plant quietly buried in the news. When they down play the extent and try to tell you that everything will be all right it's time to worry. Hanford and Chernobyl will look like child's play compared to this disaster. Hanford by the way has spent the last 25 years and tens of billions of dollars just trying to find a solution to the problem and they aren't there yet. So when Japan tells you it has the solution don't believe them.

There's a tipping point at which people will say enough is enough and I think we're getting close. Never before have fast food workers walked out on strike that I can recall. In other countries it's farmers in South America and miners in Africa on strike. But we've seen all this once before during the great depression when pickers weren't paid enough to even feed themselves.

And I forgot the 800 lb. gorilla in the room that nobody's talking about - from the G20 summit: An initiative will be presented to leaders on refining regulation of the $630-trillion global market for financial derivatives to prevent a possible markets blow-up. ("Refining regulations"! It's an unregulated market who are they kidding? )

So enjoy the rest of your day while we still have it. The sun will come out tomorrow and if it doesn't then it'll be just more rain and when it rains it pours. Who will stop the rain?