7 US States That Are Sicker Than Europe's PIIGS

The unflattering acronym PIGS, or PIIGS, is starting to take hold as we enter a new sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Now,

PIGS = Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain;

PIIGS = Portugal, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Spain (Iceland is not a member of the EU but is likely to join by 2012);

we could even end up with PIIIGS, which would include Italy.

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Investors Crawl Back Into The Market - Don't Do It!

"U.S. stock investors, reeling from four straight weekly losses, are entering the coming week's market torn between confidence in the global economic recovery and fear that foreign governments' actions will bring the rebound to a sudden halt." [MarketWatch]

As is often the case, the best part about MW is the comments section. This is a highly manipulated market and investors are best to ignore much of the news and concentrate on the numbers. Friday's pump in the last hour of the US markets was a return to one of the features of last year's market slump. Just look at this 6-month graph of the SP 500. The market has fallen through its 50-day moving average (now at 1,110) and we are likely to see a testing of the 200-day moving average (at 1,020) sometime this month as options expire. The above article seems another bit of pump-and-dump inspired propaganda. To blame other governments for getting sucked into a 'Made in the USA' monetary collapse seems churlish at best.

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