[Posted 7:00 AM ET]
Iraq
The interim Iraqi government took shape this week and the
selection of the top two slots was mildly disappointing to the
U.N. and United States. Iyad Alawi, a Shia closely tied to the
CIA, is the prime minister and Sheikh Gazi al-Yawar, a Sunni, is
the president. Under the constitution the presidency is largely
ceremonial, meaning he does the ribbon-cutting and will
probably be assassinated shortly, anyway. Al-Yawar’s two
deputies are a Kurd and Shia and with that the mandate for a
representative government has thus far been fulfilled.
Importantly, major domo Ayatollah al-Sistani gave his blessing,
while calling for true sovereignty as quickly as possible…as in
“Hey U.S., don’t let the door hit you in the back on your way
out.”
President Bush took pride in the formation of the government, as
well he should have, but boy it’s far, far too early to start
booking your reservations for the 2006 presidential inaugural
ball in Baghdad. The next step for the White House is to win
approval for a new U.N. resolution spelling out the rights of the
interim government and the international community’s
obligations, though the proposal floating around this week speaks
to a possible withdrawal of U.S. and U.K. forces by early 2006,
if not sooner, depending on the whims of the new Iraqi authority.
This last bit would be a monumental mistake. I thought the
whole point of this mission, aside from removing Saddam and
instituting an elective government, was to establish a base for
keeping the heat on the likes of Iran and Syria, let alone having
the ability to move into the Saudi oil fields at a moment’s notice
if conditions warrant. This didn’t mean U.S. troops were to be
patrolling the streets of Baghdad indefinitely, knowing the
people wouldn’t want this, but I wrote over a year ago we have
our pick of air bases, far removed from population centers and
out of sight. The new government should have wanted such an
arrangement, knowing it will be years before they have an army
capable of beating back Iran, for example. Of course when I first
contemplated this I thought we’d otherwise win over the hearts
and minds. Alas, that wasn’t to be.
No national elections of any kind are going to be held without
security and to hear administration officials talk of an Iraqi
security force of 200,000 is laughable. When it comes to the
police element, we are being told 70,000 are now in place. As
the Washington Post reports, try 3,000…as in 3,000 that have
completed a whopping two-month training program.
And when it comes to winning the hearts and minds, the U.S.
can’t continue to make mistakes like a recent one involving a
large university. One student pasted a poster of Moqtada al-Sadr
on the clock tower so U.S. soldiers kicked in 400 doors. Now all
the students there are ticked off. As military strategist Richard
Hart Sinnreich commented in the Post, it is moves like this that
“snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
As for Ahmad Chalabi, who knows where the truth really lies? I
tend to believe King Abdullah of Jordan who long warned the
U.S. about this creep, while the relationship Chalabi had with
Vice President Cheney was always unsettling.
Finally, this week President Bush compared the current war on
terror to World War II and D-Day. Paraphrasing General Dwight
D. Eisenhower’s Order of the Day for June 6, 1944, Bush said
“We will accept nothing less than victory over the enemy.” Bush
also said “The best way to protect America is to stay on the
offensive.” National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice then
compared the president to FDR and Churchill.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I thought President Bush said
and did the right things, all the way to the fall of Baghdad. Since
then I have documented the many costly mistakes.
There is still hope, though, and maybe Ms. Rice is right, but as
opposed to FDR and Churchill, President Bush hasn’t asked the
American people to do squat. The families of those serving have
borne it all. Additionally, our military is in no shape to fight a
second war, as in Iran, North Korea or the Taiwan Straits, for
example, and Bush bears direct responsibility for this. So we
need to keep reminding ourselves this is a decades long conflict
that we’re in. What looks good one day can go up in flames the
next.
Wall Street
Last weekend we had another chilling example of just how shaky
the House of Saud is as 22 were killed by al Qaeda at a base
housing workers for Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. One British
executive was dragged through the streets, 9 had their throats slit
and three of the terrorists escaped.
What was so disconcerting was the fact the killers dressed in
Saudi military garb, police didn’t respond quickly, and a deal
may have been cut to let the killers escape in exchange for
releasing the hostages. I wrote a while back of how al Qaeda has
infiltrated all levels of government in the kingdom, as well as the
military, and here was a clear example of this fact.
Which is also why it’s a Wall Street story because for all the talk
that the Saudi oil fields are secure, I was amazed at how no one
seemed to be stating the obvious. You could have 100 heavily-
armed guards at each refinery entrance, but if one or two
terrorists are already operating inside, it’s too late.
Al Qaeda has been successful in driving out Westerners vital to
Saudi energy production and partly for this reason the price of
crude rose $2.50 on Tuesday, the first day it could be widely
traded following the attack.
But then oil collapsed from the $42.50 level to below $39 by
Friday on word OPEC was raising its quota to, first, 25.5 million
barrels per day from 23.5 million, then to 26 million in August.
This didn’t really mean anything, though, since OPEC is already
producing 25.8 million by most estimates and there is little spare
capacity as everyone has discussed ad nauseum. Nonetheless,
there is also little doubt that the inventory picture has improved
some and tankers are streaming across the oceans loaded with
further supply.
Longer-term, however, the supply / demand picture obviously
still looks bleak as long as the U.S. and China, in particular, are
growing at a decent clip. The big integrated oil companies are
not increasing their exploration and production budgets by any
sizable amount and it takes years and years, anyway, to go from
the planning stage to actual production, which is why some of us
are incredibly frustrated by lack of movement on drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to cite but one obvious
example.
Meanwhile, regarding the rest of the economy, President Bush is
giddy as a schoolboy and with good reason. With the release of
Friday’s employment report for May, the U.S. economy has now
produced about 950,000 jobs in just the past three months. [The
fact the numbers are cooked is beside the point.] It’s hard for
John Kerry to rail against these figures and with the large
retailers reporting sizable gains last month as well, it would
appear the American consumer is happily flashing their plastic
again after a bit of a pause earlier in the spring.
And you had good news such as on worldwide semiconductor
sales, up 37% in April year-over-year, along with a key index on
manufacturing that showed a solid gain amidst increasing
optimism among CEOs that they will be hiring.
But where does that leave Alan Greenspan and the Federal
Reserve, with the former continuing to maintain the Fed will take
a “measured” approach in raising interest rates? The consumer
and producer price data coming out in the next 10 days will go a
long ways towards answering that question.
In the meantime, despite all the happy talk I see absolutely no
reason to change my own tune. We will see a significant
slowdown in activity in the second half of the year, particularly
on the earnings front, and stocks will struggle. That’s my story
and I’m sticking to it.
Street Bytes
–Stocks finished mixed with the Dow Jones tacking on 54
points, 0.5%, to 10242, while Nasdaq fell 0.4% to 1978. Volume
has been pitiful and you should know that what little there is is
about 54% program-trading related, according to the latest data.
Actually that’s close to a normal winning percentage for a
regular casino.
–U.S. Treasury Yields
6-mo. 1.49% 2-yr. 2.69% 10-yr. 4.78% 30-yr. 5.46%
The bond market is expecting an increase of 25 basis points
(1/4%) in the federal funds rate at the Fed’s June 29-30 meeting.
I’ll stick with 50.
–Dick Grasso, Part XLIX: I’m continually amazed at what I
hear from the apologists for Grasso, while for his part New York
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer made it pretty clear he was in no
mood to settle at this point. As Terry Keenan wrote in the New
York Post, Grasso ran the New York Stock Exchange “like a
personal playground” and Spitzer reiterated this week that
Grasso “did absolutely nothing” on the research scandal. Zippo.
Nada. Amazing how this seems to be quickly fading from our
memory banks.
Meanwhile, Justin Lahart of the Journal had a great piece
comparing Grasso’s compensation to that of his fellow chieftains
and board members. Grasso likes to say he was only paid what
other Street executives were but as Lahart points out, if you look
at the three years, 2000-2002, you see that Grasso received total
compensation of about $130 million (including the deferred
portion he later pulled out), while the CEOs of Goldman Sachs
and Merrill Lynch (Paulson and Komansky) earned $40-$50
million each over the same period. But there’s another huge
difference. From 2000-2002, the NYSE reported cumulative net
income of $132 million, while Goldman and Merrill each earned
about $7.5 billion. In other words, Grasso earned 98% of net
income while Paulson and Komansky took home less than 1%.
Sure, it’s not exactly apples to apples but it is more fodder for
your summer cocktail parties.
–You’ll recall that a few years ago the Argentine government
defaulted on its debt and since then it has been working on a
proposal for the creditors to swap the old bonds for new paper,
the latest offer being for just 25 cents on the dollar. [An
improvement from 10 cents, if you can imagine that insulting
offer.] The creditors are saying “Up yours” to the 25 cents
because Argentina’s economy is recovering rapidly and revenues
are flowing into the government’s coffers. Unless it steps up in a
much bigger way, if you’re a foreign investor why would you
possibly consider this country when you have far more stable
options to choose from? That’s why this whole deal is important
for the people here.
–8 former executives of Symbol Technologies, including the
CEO, were indicted for their roles in the company’s massive
1999-2002 accounting fraud scheme, one that inflated revenues
by more than $200 million (influencing earnings, the share price,
etc.). A prosecutor said “This was a veritable playbook of
corporate fraud. They worked the books every which way they
could.”
–Symbol Tech is a Long Island-based company, this area also
being home to Computer Associates, another den of deceit and
corruption. Former CEO Sanjay Kumar left his reduced position
at CA on Friday, undoubtedly to better prepare for his own
coming court appearances…or to pack his bags for a Robert
Vesco-like getaway, as my friend Jimbo observed.
–Bank of Ireland’s CEO quit after having to admit he was using
his PC to view pornography, an act prohibited by company
policy. In other words, this lad is an idiot.
–Unfortunately, I have to note that my former employer, the
distribution arm of PIMCO, had to pony up $18 million to settle
fraud charges with the state of New Jersey over market timing in
various equity funds. [I left in 1999, in case you’re new to the
site.] However, it’s important for all of you to understand that
Bill Gross’s bond operation is innocent of any wrongdoing.
–The trial of four former Merrill Lynch and two Enron
executives has begun, one in which former Enron CFO Andrew
Fastow is contributing through his cooperation as part of his
earlier plea arrangement. Separately, CBS News obtained
damning audiotapes of Enron officials on the West Coast trading
desk speaking of manipulating electricity prices.
–Both the Wall Street Journal and a French publication reported
on a possible link between a Nigerian oil project and $5 million
that was deposited into a Swiss bank account controlled by the
retired chairman of Halliburton’s KBR unit, part of a much wider
bribery probe. Other stories are emerging on Halliburton /
KBR’s inside track in procuring Iraqi reconstruction contracts.
In other words, this isn’t going away as a campaign issue.
–Shares in Mitsubishi reached the lowest level since going
public in 1988 as the automaker confessed it had covered up
prior vehicle recalls. It’s been one huge mess after another here.
–And will it ever end at Canadian telecom equipment giant
Nortel? This week it announced it still wasn’t finished with the
latest internal investigation into the company’s faulty books and
Nortel may yet restate earnings again for the 2nd half of 2003.
–SUV sales in America rebounded in May but it took an average
rebate of $3,500 to get people to bite. That’s about 700 six-
packs of Coors Light for those of you keeping score at home.
–Eliot Spitzer has been a busy beaver. Add GlaxoSmithKline to
his pelts as he accused the pharmaceutical company of
concealing potential problems with children using the
antidepressant Paxil. Keep the kids off the Internet and they
wouldn’t need Paxil in the first place.
–A Moscow court formally invalidated Yukos’ merger with
Sibneft, another step towards Yukos’ eventual demise as all
company assets remain frozen while the Kremlin seeks $3.4
billion it claims Yukos owes in back taxes.
–Viacom’s Mel Karmazin stepped down, leaving 80-year-old
Sumner Redstone in complete control (despite the latter’s
attempts to say otherwise). But this kind of story bores the heck
out of me.
–Data show the Australian economy is beginning to slow down a
little faster than expected, but my Aussie friends have something
big to cheer about this week…the new Miss Universe! I loved
her too.
[It was also outrageous Miss China, Singapore, and Vietnam
didn’t make the cut for the final 15. I’m obviously not making a
statement on political freedom in these three instances, but for
crying out loud the women were gorgeous. Thus ends the
‘shallow’ portion of our commentary.]
–Uh oh…Ferrari has opened its first Chinese showroom in
Shanghai. Bubble bubble…gurgle gurgle.
–My portfolio: No moves…still 80% cash, though I must say
that when I reduced my energy exposure from about 35 to 6
percent I stated that the big gains had been made in the sector.
Thus far, this was bang on.
International Affairs
Israel: On Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s cabinet votes
to sign off on his new withdrawal plan from Gaza, approval
having been guaranteed after Sharon fired ministers opposed to
it. For its part Hamas appears ready to fill the resultant power
vacuum in the territory. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported
that Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is pressuring
Yassir Arafat to exit the stage, telling the terrorist that Egypt and
the U.S. will no longer protect him if he fails to do so.
China: Friday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen
Square massacre and China commemorated the event by
rounding up dissidents before they could cause any trouble. I am
struck by some of the commentary this week, touting progress in
the nation since this tragedy. Economically? Yes. Politically?
Are you kidding me?
[I have a detailed look back at Tiananmen on my “Hott Spotts”
link.]
Meanwhile, there are increasing reports that former president
Jiang Zemin, still chief of the military, is wielding the real power
when it comes to Beijing’s tough line on both Hong Kong and
Taiwan.
Japan: What a horrible situation here this week as an 11-year-old
girl stabbed to death, execution style, her 12-year-old classmate.
The suspect told police she was mad at the other girl for making
fun of her in an Internet chat room. As alluded to earlier, these
things are poison.
North Korea: The withdrawal of 3,500+ U.S. troops from South
Korea to Iraq is sending a terrible signal at this critical juncture
in discussions on the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang observes this and concludes the U.S. is losing its
spine, meaning Kim Jong il has zero incentive to back down.
Russia: Georgia remains a possible flashpoint and Moscow is
warning Tbilisi to butt out of hot spots in the Caucusus, in this
case Ossetia where Georgia sent some forces in the past week.
Turkey: Those whistling a happy tune over the new government
in Iraq need to make note that Turkish and Kurdish forces
clashed for the first time in years, a very bad sign. And aside
from this issue, the military is once again in conflict with the
Islamist leadership over university admission for Muslim
students that attend Islamic high schools. The military wants to
ban them outright or at least severely limit what they can study
and the debate threatens Turkey’s candidacy for the European
Union, to be decided in December. The E.U. is none too pleased
that Turkey’s military remains heavily involved in politics.
Venezuela: According to a court’s ruling on a recall petition,
proponents garnered barely enough valid signatures for a
referendum and as of today President Hugo Chavez has resigned
himself to a vote on his rule, August 8. But there are a ton of
questions yet to be answered, such as, if Chavez (whose term
isn’t set to expire until 2006), is recalled and early elections are
held, can he run as a candidate? Also there are issues as to just
how many votes will be needed to recall him in the first place. In
light of the fact Venezuela is a critical supplier of oil to the U.S.,
any unrest here over the coming two months and beyond
obviously hurts American consumers.
Brazil: This nation is now leading the U.N. peacekeeping
mission in Haiti, along with significant contributions from
Argentina and Chile. President Luiz da Silva hopes that a
successful mission (a first for a Latin American country) will
buttress the case for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security
Council.
Random Musings
–In light of the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet, I feel
compelled to repeat something I wrote in this space one year ago,
5/31/03.
“In doing a piece on Bob Hope for another link on this site, I
researched Hope’s 1944 USO show to the Pacific base of
Pavuvu. There he entertained a group of Marines shortly before
many of them, over 1,500, were killed on the tiny island of
Peleliu. What struck me is that Peleliu was a colossal
intelligence failure for the U.S. Not only did the battle prove to
be totally unnecessary, America’s military leadership was told
the fight would be a 2 to 3 day affair when it proved to be 4
months. You read something like this and you can’t help but
think about other intelligence failures over the years, including
overestimating the Soviet economy during the Cold War.
“There’s also a parallel to today, as Republicans are loath to
admit that the moral justification for the war on Iraq, Saddam’s
weapons of mass destruction, may have been another in a series
of critical misjudgments….
“(And) to those who think President Bush is a shoo-in for 2004,
an opinion I shared until just a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t be so
sure. While no Democrat in the field today seems capable of
challenging a still popular president, we have a long ways to go.
What was once thought to be a strength, the administration’s
determination on the war on terror, could turn out to be an
Achilles heel during the campaign….
“U.S. credibility is at stake, and where it’s going to hurt our
beloved country is when action is required against the likes of
Iran. I have a pit in my stomach on this one. I mean for crying
out loud, we didn’t even hit a bunker with the opening salvo
against Saddam, according to a general now on the scene. It was
never there!
“Let’s pray we eventually find a true smoking gun, or at least the
documentation that proves the Bush / Blair case. In the
meantime, the president must fire CIA Director George Tenet to
begin to control the damage.”
Not a bad analysis, if I may say so myself. Bush didn’t fire
Tenet then, but today there are two ways of looking at Tenet’s
departure. The timing was either good or bad.
If you believe it was good you’re saying that with the various
commission reports set to unload on both Tenet and the CIA over
the coming months, it helps President Bush’s reelection bid by
keeping the spotlight away from a sitting CIA Director and thus
the president by inference.
But I go with the crowd that feels the departure is bad at this
point for the simple reason that there is way too much going on
between now and the election and while Tenet was largely a
failure, I’d feel better that he remain in place until the end of the
year. And now the other issue is will he talk? He’s a registered
Democrat, after all.
–John Kerry had a lot to say this week on national security and
just looking at it objectively, and ignoring his past voting record
for the moment, he hit on all the right notes.
It’s true that the Bush administration’s focus on Iraq is hurting
our efforts to slow North Korea’s and Iran’s rush to develop
nukes themselves. That’s a fact. But if Iraq stabilizes over the
next year, that should only have a favorable impact on efforts to
crack down on Iran. North Korea, on the other hand, is an
increasingly desperate cause.
Kerry points out that the Bush administration hasn’t done nearly
enough to secure the loose nuclear material from the former
Soviet Union. I’ve been saying the same thing for years. The
provisions under Nunn-Lugar must be speeded up; though I feel
in this regard it’s too late…some bad stuff is already floating
around out there.
Kerry would expand the active-duty military by 40,000 and
redefine the role of the National Guard for homeland security. I
agree with both of these steps.
Now, whether or not the senator has any credibility is a different
matter.
–I noted it years ago, but it’s increasingly obvious that a world
war will erupt in Asia over oil, perhaps in just the next 5-7 years.
–Five aid workers affiliated with Doctors Without Borders were
killed in an ambush in Afghanistan, in case you were hearing the
propaganda that the Taliban had been defeated there.
–General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, in an op-ed for the
Washington Post, on today’s Muslim world.
“We have been left far behind in social, moral and economic
development. We have remained in our own shell and refused to
learn or acquire from others. We have reached the depths of
despair and despondency. We need to face stark reality. Is the
way ahead one of confrontation and militancy? Could this path
really lead us back to our past glory while also showing the light
of progress and development to the world?
“I say to my brother Muslims: The time for renaissance has
come. The way forward is through enlightenment. We must
concentrate on human resource development through the
alleviation of poverty and through education, health care and
social justice. If this is our direction, it cannot be achieved
through confrontation. We must adopt a path of moderation and
a conciliatory approach to fight the common belief that Islam is a
religion of militancy in conflict with modernization, democracy
and secularism. All this must be done with a realization that, in
the world we live in, fairness does not always rule…
“The world at large and the powers that be must realize that
confrontation and force will never bring peace. Justice must be
done and be seen to be done. Let it not be said by future
generations that we, the leaders of today, took humanity toward
the apocalypse.”
–An internal U.S. Army report from last September, recently
uncovered, concluded that 80% of those then in Iraq’s prisons
were innocent. [Wall Street Journal.] Senator John McCain
wrote this week in a Journal op-ed that amidst the discussion
over Abu Ghraib, we can not lose sight of the fact the Geneva
conventions are designed to protect Americans and this nation
must not lose its moral standing.
I realize many of you have been turned off by some of what I’ve
written the past few weeks. So be it. But I’m indebted to Billy
F. for passing along a letter to the editor in the Financial Times
dated May 28.
From Professor John Stuart Blackton, US Foreign Service
Officer (retired) and former U.S. Army (Vietnam and Laos).
“Sir, Unlike the forces in Iraq, American soldiers who served in
Vietnam were left in no doubt about our responsibility to comply
with the Geneva conventions when we handled prisoners of war.
Immediately upon arrival at the military airport in Saigon each
soldier was given a laminated card marked ‘The enemy in your
hand’ signed by our commander in chief, Lyndon Baines
Johnson.
“Item number three, headed ‘Mistreatment of any captive is a
criminal offense: every soldier is personally responsible for the
enemy in his hands,’ was followed by the unambiguous guidance
that ‘it is both dishonorable and foolish to mistreat a captive. It
is also a punishable offense. Not even a beaten enemy will
surrender if he knows his captors will torture or kill him. He will
resist and make his capture more costly. Fair treatment of
captives encourages the enemy to surrender.’
“In the event that any of us might have been instructed to do
otherwise, we were in a position to recognize and refuse an
unlawful order that contravened a signed direct order from the
president of the United States. President George W. Bush might
do well to consider this example of clarity in the chain of
command.”
No doubt, however, there is a difference between a prisoner of
war and a terrorist, and this needs to be debated witness this
week’s action on Jose Padilla. So note to Congress and the
executive branch; get off your freakin’ duffs and fulfill your
duty.
–Biographer William Manchester died this week. His memoir of
his own experiences in the Pacific during World War II,
“Goodbye Darkness,” is one of the two best of this genre I’ve
ever read, alongside “We Were Soldiers…And Young.”
–The Washington Post had a piece on some of the costs
associated with last September’s Hurricane Isabel, a storm that I
was caught up in myself on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The
American taxpayer should be furious to learn that the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is shelling out
substantial funds to replenish resort beaches; about $15 million
worth in the impacted areas as a result of Isabel. I love this place,
but federal taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for those who take
risks in the face of Mother Nature. It’s a state and municipal
issue.
–The Republican Party is going to use boxing promoter and ex-
con Don King to court the black vote in what is truly one of the
stupidest ideas of the past 100 years.
–With Brazil now #6 on my site traffic list, I make note of the
fact that it defeated Argentina 3-1 in a huge football contest on
Wednesday.
–Finally, this past week or so has been a special one not just for
the veterans of World War II, but all freedom loving people as
we are reminded of the sacrifices paid. If in viewing the
dedication of the World War II Memorial, the scene from
Normandy this weekend, or the steady stream of sad tales from
Iraq you still don’t get it, well, you never will.
I listened to a lot of music from the 40s over the Memorial Day
weekend, tunes like Vera Lynn’s “We’ll meet again, don’t know
where, don’t know when…” If you’re younger, place yourself
back in that era, a soldier going off to fight in that horrific war,
the wife, the girlfriend.
And then I watched Andy Rooney’s powerful piece on “60
Minutes” last week where he showed the pictures of all the
Americans who have died in Iraq. Undoubtedly, some viewed
this as nothing more than anti-war propaganda. I just saw it as
an incredibly moving tribute.
The sad music that accompanied Rooney’s piece also reminded
me of a time in my life, back in 1973, when I visited the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising Museum with my parents as part of a tour of
Eastern Europe. I knew very little of this dark period in world
history, being just 15 years of age at the time, and the film shown
there had an indelible impact on me. I’ll also always remember
the music in the background, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6…
“Pathetique.”
Anne Applebaum wrote a piece on World War II and Poland for
the Washington Post this week and she addressed a different
angle; not just the Holocaust, but the fact that for millions of
others “World War II had no happy ending.”
“It had no ending at all,” Applebaum wrote. “The liberation of
one half of the European continent coincided with a new
occupation for the other half. The camps of Stalin, our ally,
expanded just as the camps of Hitler, our enemy, were destroyed.
Not that you would know it, listening to Americans reminisce
about D-Day, or the children welcoming GIs in the streets, or the
joyous return home….”
I doubt you’ll hear much of the above expressed this weekend in
Normandy, but being of Eastern European descent myself, and
having seen my struggling relatives behind the Iron Curtain in
both Czechoslovakia and Hungary that same trip in 1973, I have
a special appreciation for the simple fact that history can be
complicated and most of the time there is no single answer.
I took my own pilgrimage to Normandy in the fall of 1995, a
year after the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and found myself
walking the grounds of the American cemetery there all alone on
a spectacular day. Earlier I had walked Omaha and Utah beach,
collecting sand from each that to this day is among my most
cherished possessions.
But it was during my walk amongst the crosses that it struck me,
I wasn’t feeling any real emotion; that is until I reached one of
the chapels surrounding the graves. Inside was an inscription I
have often used in these pages.
“Think not only of their passing…remember the glory of their
spirit.”
That’s when it overwhelmed me.
God bless the veterans who during World War II helped save the
world. Never let us forget, as well, the many lessons of that
time. And God, grant those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan the
strength to defeat evil. Comfort their families and give our
leaders the courage to carry through with the mission.
God bless America…land that we love.
—
Gold closed at $391
Oil, $38.49
Returns for the week 5/31-6/4
Dow Jones +0.5% [10242]
S&P 500 +0.2% [1122]
S&P MidCap -0.4%
Russell 2000 -0.1%
Nasdaq -0.4% [1978]
Returns for the period 1/1/04-6/4/04
Dow Jones -2.0%
S&P 500 +1.0%
S&P MidCap +2.8%
Russell 2000 +2.0%
Nasdaq -1.2%
Bulls 45.1
Bears 24.5 [Source: Chartcraft / Investors Intelligence]
Have a great week. I appreciate your support.
Brian Trumbore
