U.S. Congress: Focus on Economy NOT Political Obstruction

Economic data released today on the Chicago PMI (Purchasing Manager's Index) shows how much the U.S. economy is urgently in need of fiscal stimulation.

With barely a whimper above the 50 expansion level, the health of its economy is set to drop into contraction territory soon (as it did in 2009 following the depressed signals forecast by similar low numbers produced in 2007/08), unless Congress begins to cooperate and focus on real issues that support its claims of being number one in the world arena when it comes to economic (and military) might, instead of playing economically dangerous political games in unnecessarily obstructing the advancement of the new Trump administration, cabinet confirmations, and economic and security agendas.

In other words, Congress is attempting to discredit their own claims of world importance by playing silly games -- at the expense of its citizens who elected them to serve them and their interests and safety (what would you do if someone you hired to work for you refused to show up for work?) -- and end up looking transparently foolish, lazy, self-serving, and lacking creative win-win conflict resolution abilities in the process.

Source: Forex Factory

Source: Forex Factory

As a reminder (and as an adjunct to what I've mentioned above regarding Congressional shenanigans), the United States has yet to regain its Standard & Poor's AAA credit rating, which was downgraded to AA+ on August 5, 2011, in spite of gains made in the stock market since then. That was the first time ever that the government was downgraded below AAA.

We'll see if that's ever upgraded in the future and how hard Congress would work toward that end.

* UPDATE Feb. 7th: However, from the look of today's tweet and re-tweet below, it appears that, right from the outset of this new administration's four-year cycle, Democrats aren't interested in such a cooperative effort. It doesn't take a genius to conclude that the economy and security of the U.S. (and its citizens) will suffer, as a result.

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia

The Double-Whammy Downgrade

So, there we have it...the Fed's downgraded economic outlook for the U.S. today confirmed Standard & Poor's recent credit rating downgrade. Apart from holding rates low for the next two years for the benefit of the banks with the likely net result of higher inflation to be brought about by a rise again in equity, oil and commodity prices, I don't see any net benefit for the average American...economic growth has slowed, consumer spending has slowed, the housing market remains depressed, unemployment has grown, and the national debt continues to accelerate at enormous rates. As I mentioned in yesterday's post below, fixing these problems lies with America's politicians. So far, I haven't seen any evidence that they've done the job that they were elected to do...and, so far, I don't have any confidence that they'll actually solve anything that produces quantifiable results before the next federal election. Why do I say that? Because they have not been able to work together to produce something meaningful for the average American since the last election...in fact, things have gotten worse. That's how I see the truth of the matter.

How do I translate today's actions by the Fed and the markets' reactions into how I continue to daytrade the TF? Also, how will I know if the plunge in price on the YM, ES, NQ & TF from July to yesterdays lows was simply the "C" of an ABC correction on the overall uptrend since the March 2009 lows, or if it is the first leg down and the beginning of a new downtrend on the Daily charts?