Positive Signs Get Buried in the Media

The most positive thing one can say about this market is that oil is down and we are up. In Ron's piece this morning, he talked about the debilitating linkage between higher oil prices and lower markets now ending. As it is obvious to people that $2.30 gasoline -- or lower -- could be in the offing now that the oil manipulation is over (why can't the defenders of these markets ever admit to that manipulation?), you could see a resurgence of the employed consumer. Looks like Ron's going to be right, and his piece this morning is spot-on, even as oil has been attempting to rally all day.

Think about the employed consumer. And never forget that when unemployment goes to 11%, that means 89% are unemployed. The consumer is benefiting from the end of the gas tax -- again, rates to 5% -- affordability of housing getting better, and stimulus, which is coming, even if it is pathetic.

Against that, card-check and cap-and-trade and about 40 other things that the administration is doing will make the employment number go higher, not lower.

Why bother to be positive at all about the consumer, who is so written off by the media as to be considered a shut-in? Because it worked last time in the winter when these circumstances came about. Therefore it could work again.

Once again, I want to remind people that despite the rally, I have yet to hear anything positive from the media about anything except something that must also please Ron and dazzles me: the upgrade by Meredith Whitney of Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Trade Now) and her confession that she's bullish! (Props to Ron again on this great bank call that I hope you acted upon on Friday after his missive...)

Why is this Whitney call so important? Not because it is anything new. She's about the only analyst who isn't positive about Goldman Sachs, and if you listened to her before today, you are probably short this and a host of other banks because, despite protestations, she's been a bear through and through, except a momentary call to cover. No, the call is important because the media has relied on her nonsense for so long. Because the media has been at the forefront of writing that we should expect the vast majority of homes to be defaulted upon and everyone who has a mortgage to walk away from it. Because the media have insisted that you are going to lose your house -- yeah, you.

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