16 DEC 2009. Wednesday

1. I like it..."The man who saved the world!"  If this isn't a contrarian signal...I'll be dumbfounded.  Prediction...Ben Bernanke will go down in history as one of the worst Fed Chief's in history due to his experimenting with theory vice dealing with facts.  Time will tell.
2. But for examples:  Appearing on the cover of Time as person of the year is like a bell ringing. It almost always is akin to a figurative death sentence for the person involved, and sometimes even a literal one.
   
   
   
   Jeff Bezos made the cover in 1999 - the year the internet portion of the tech stock bubble topped out.
   
   GW Bush made the cover as his popularity rating had just begun to slide, ending at the worst such rating since Nixon, concurrent with a stock market crash.
   
   Hitler made the cover in 1938.
   
   General Chiang Kai Chek in 1937. It turned out to be an ill omen, career-wise.
   
   Stalin made the cover in 1939 and again in 1942.
   
   Kennedy made the cover the year before he was assassinated, as did Martin Luther King - a literal death sentence in both cases.
   
   Lyndon B. Johnson made the cover in 1964 - he was about to lead the country into the Vietnam catastrophe.
   
   Nixon and Kissinger made it in 1972.
   
   It was Yury Andropov's turn in 1983 - he died shortly thereafter.
   
   Gorbachov became 'man of the decade' half a year before being forced to step down.
   
   Obama's turn was last year.
   
   
   
   
3. Below...still not much to say.  December, with lightened participation and money managers just trying to make it to the end of the year, may make this a slog of an affair.
   
4. What's really changed below?  And the following picture reminds me of what it feels like.