YOU THINK IT'S EASY?

Writing this thing, I mean. Did someone call off the G8 meeting? One would think that when this bunch of clowns gets together the field would be fertile for wags such as yours truly. No such luck. Not a word has come out of Italia much less a thought. Under the best of circumstances that might be too much to hope for. Therefore, I suppose we must turn to today's Treasury auction of the 10 year which despite some misgivings late last week and into Monday went gangbusters with demand at about 3x which had the effect of driving down the yield to 3.31% at the close. By any stretch, a stellar performance fueled in my mind at least by a continued "flight to quality" mind-set rather than a real love for the stuff. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know. More and more people are beginning to have the belief that all of those "green shoots" the tv talking heads were touting might just be the first crab grass of the summer...or for those of you in warmer climes, Bermuda. But S & P futures were up in the late afternoon on the news that ALCOA just lost half a gazillion not the full gazillion that people were expecting. I think I'm missing something, please tell me what it is.

Anyway, the talk of the regulatory world is the statement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTM") , the main futures market regulator is now considering "tough" regulation of the oil futures market to drive the speculators out of the temple where they reside amid hedge funds, investment banks and guys pardoned by Bill Clinton. No lesser lights than Gordon Brown leader of the Walking Dead and Nicholas Sarkozy, husband to the hottest first lady since Dolly Madison weighed in suggesting concerted government action to solve the problem. The Washington mob loves it of course. Now again I'm going to need some help: a speculator to me is the guy who was short when you were long and wrong but I suppose that there is someone out there who has a better handle on this breed. The logic is of course unimpeachable. Recognizing that volatility in price may discourage investment in new exploration, and citing the decline in production from the North Sea and Slope, Les deux Condunteurs Europenne seem to miss or overlook the small matter of some politicians being adamantly opposed to new exploration at all, having killed such efforts whenever possible. Perhaps they were just too polite to mention who.

Not so of course with Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the CRTC who was appointed by those very sam pols. He also knows just how difficult if not impossible it would be to enforce any dreamed-up regulation when a goodly number of the major players are outside of the reach of the long arm of the regulators or who could make themselves such at the drop of a hat. Gensler, I am told, is a VERY smart guy. If that is true then I guess he realizes that some of the very same pols who are wetting themselves over the thought of additional regulation, have just passed, in the form of the Cap & Trade Bill, what could become the biggest transfer of unregulated wealth to the trading community FOR FREE in the history of the world. Well, not for free: the taxpayers are going to pay for it if it gets through the Senate and if The Leader signs it. Hypocritical, lying bastards doesn't begin to describe them. Think about it.

Unless something interesting happens, I'm back next week. Off to see the grandkids again and celebrate birthdays. It's a home-and-home series. Keep the faith.