Hello everyone,

The month is almost over, and I am ITCHING to write another missive. Many of the trends I saw developing have indeed been confirmed and some seem certain to fall in place. This week is pivotal because it is the most news-laden one we have had in a LONG time (I think the last biggie like this was election week 2000?) combined with a nervous questioning of the soundness of the American economy: we had Iraq on Monday, we will have Bushie reassuring the nation Tuesday, Greenie reassuring global financial markets Wednesday, a final week of earnings where companies continue to chasten the optimists with reports of sobering slow to no growth, and a whole raft of economic reports - one of which being a GDP report that could spook investors with its message of economic weakness.

I am still going to wait one more week to pull all these pieces together. I am still pouncing upon interesting and insightful articles that are hitting home with me. Needless to say, if you take ANY action financially this week in the markets be extremely careful and wary. We can get whips in either direction at a moment's notice. But none of it will change the overall picture of weakness I see for the rest of the year.

As a prelude, I will tell you that my next missive will argue that Americans are going to continue to get poorer in aggregate, and it will be a condition that will linger much longer than most of us, especially the optimists, could have ever expected. Yikes - how is that for promoting readership!? (I will *try* to ponder positive outcomes as well, but it won't be easy!).

Be careful out there!