"Apple Inc. delivered a rare earnings disappointment Tuesday with lower-than-expected sales of its iPhone, sending its stock down 5% in after-hours trading."
The worry in the markets is that the worldwide slowdown is the beginning of another slide into recession at the start of 2013, and that a repeat of the stimulus programs of 2008-2009 will not stop the decline. Spoke Larry Kudlow, Ari Fleischer, Steve Moore, re the concerns of the Treasury, the tax code, even the Obama administration's ill-thought changes in the welfare requirements. The fiscal cliff of January is paramount, and am told that the Senate votes within these hours not to extend the Bush tax cuts past January. The end is nigh. The major warnings of the day were the missed earnings by UPS and AAPL. What is holding the markets up right now is the promise of QE3 by September. The other warning is the 1.4% paid for the Ten-Year Treasury, an indicator that many expect a rapid decline in Europe and Asia: and so the US Treasury is the place to hide cash. More of the vault of cash held at the Fed by private enterprises to gain .25. Alarm bells ringing globally.
PORTLAND, OREGON - June 24, 2012 - President Barack Obama visited Portland Tuesday greeting diners Mark Peterson, center, and Thomas Foeller, right, at the Gateway Breakfast House in an unschedueled stop on the way to fundraisers at the Oregon Convention Center. Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian.
Whine.
Is Candidate Obama whining? An odd remark at a fundraiser: Obama: "The one thing I do have no patience for is this argument that somehow what I’m criticizing is success." The "You didn't build that!" trope is making him itchy, and he can't scratch hard enough. In Portland Oregon, Candidate Obama veered into incoherence: "We did not build this country on our own," Obama said. "We built it together, and if Mr. Romney doesn't understand that, then he doesn't understand what it takes to grow this economy in the 21st Century." Say what? There will be more such mistakes. Puzzling. He said it. It is his remark that is making him uncomfortable. Accusing Mitt Romney of "twisting" Candidate Obama's words only makes the scenario more dangerous. Is Axelrod advising? The economy is sliding into recession, and the President is obsessed with his own tortured rhetoric. The DNC is bragging that it will launch a major offensive on Romney in reaction to the "You didn't build that!" problem, and you can hear the Democratic boilerplate in the first draft of the denunciation: "We know the Romney-Ryan budget would slash funding for education, training, research and development, scientific research, investments in clean energy, higher ed, student loans. He'd forgo new investments in high speed rail, broadband, road and bridge construction and repair. And of course - he would have let Detroit go Bankrupt." Can you hear panic?