| MARKET ROUNDUP | |
| Dow | -19.71 to 17,049 |
| S&P 500 | +1.76 to 1,997.45 |
| Nasdaq | +5.29 to 4,591.81 |
| 10-YR Yield | -.003 to 2.531% |
| Gold | -$3 to $1,242.30 |
| Crude Oil | +$1.51 to $93.18 |
Waking up this morning, I had many thoughts. But one stood out among them: It’s hard to believe 13 years have passed since the 9/11 attacks.
So much has changed in my life since then. Just a few days after the attacks, I joined the Weiss Research family. Exactly 364 days later, the first of my beautiful daughters was born. Another followed in 2005.
I moved a handful of times. I traveled around Europe. I celebrated countless birthdays and anniversaries … added a stepson and amazing wife to my family when I remarried in 2012 … and more.
And yet, so much has NOT changed in the world. Just a few hours before this morning’s solemn commemoration ceremonies, President Obama stepped in front of White House microphones to announce an open-ended military plan to destroy ISIS. The brutal terrorist group is fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria, beheading captured Americans, and threatening attacks at home and abroad.
In other words, it’s doing many of the same things that al-Qaeda did up to — and after — the 9/11 attacks. So while we finally delivered the justice that Osama bin Laden deserved almost a decade after 9/11, new terrorist leaders have taken up the terrorism cause.
| “The ongoing, post-9/11 cycle of war has ebbed and flowed in the last 13 years. But it has never fully receded.” |
As for our military response, sure, we aren’t committing tens of thousands of ground troops like we did in Afghanistan and Iraq. But we are flying drones, dropping bombs, launching airstrikes, and conducting surveillance and support operations in Yemen, in Somalia, in Pakistan, in Libya, and in Western Africa. We’re doing similar things, albeit to a lesser extent, in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now, Syria has just been added to the mix.
One lesson from all of this?
The world remains a dangerous place. The ongoing, post-9/11 cycle of war has ebbed and flowed in the last 13 years. But it has never fully receded. Martin has explored many of the investment implications for you here.
On a personal level, there are some lessons to consider as well. Kim and I brought Gunnar to the newly opened National September 11 Memorial Museum when we traveled to New York this August. Considering he was only two years old at the time of the attacks, he doesn’t have the first-hand memories that we do of that day. But he was absolutely transfixed by the well-done exhibits, memorabilia, and visual and audio remembrances of the victims in New York and Washington.
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| The World Trade Center complex consisted of seven buildings, spanning 16 acres. |
I hope and believe that it helped him understand both the tragedy of the event, and the courage and resilience our country, our police officers, our firefighters, our EMT personnel, and our soldiers demonstrated in its wake. I’m encouraged that my daughters have learned the basics at school as well, and I look forward to having the chance to bring them to New York some day, too.
Finally, today above all other days, we owe it to ourselves as Americans (or citizens of other countries around the world) to remember and reflect. And we owe it to the victims to live life to its fullest … to be better people to our friends, neighbors, and families … and to remain vigilant to ensure something like 9/11 never happens again.
If you would like to share your remembrances of 9/11, or any other thoughts you might have on this solemn day, please feel free to do so in the comment section below.
| Our Readers Speak |
Meanwhile, in the wake of Apple’s big presentation earlier this week, many of you weighed in on the latest generation of iPhones. You also discussed the company’s spirit of innovation — or lack thereof!
Reader Allan said: “Underwhelmed by Apple presentation. I have a 5S; no reason to change. No important innovations. And that watch looks like a toy. I’ll stick with my 1957 Gruen watch.”
Reader Charley added: “I have the iPhone 5 using Verizon and it has worked well, probably better than my old HTC. I have a Mac, but for my really powerful stuff I had to buy a PC, so I use both.
“I’m not excited about new phones and features. My equipment does what I need to do today. Changing is always a MAJOR ordeal. It will do more than I need. It is like buying a vacuum cleaner with all the attachments and finding out you never use but two.”
But Reader Tom took the opposite side, saying: “I am an iPhone, MAC, and iPad user and intend to stay there. Samsung has nice products but I’m looking for more than nice products. I want electronics that are the best possible, that work with everything else I have, that are quality in their construction and durable. Apple does all that quite nicely.”
I guess we won’t really know whether Apple has once again captured the imagination of American consumers until later this month when the iPhone 6 hits the market. As for the Apple Watch, that’ll be an early-2015 story. But if you have any further thoughts about Apple’s products or Apple’s shares, please do hop on over to the comment section and share them!
| Other Developments of the Day |
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Jobless claims rose by 11,000 to 315,000 in the most recent week. That was the highest in two months, but may have been distorted by the Labor Day holiday. Claims also remain in the range of roughly 290,000 to 330,000 that we’ve seen for some time, indicating the labor market is in better shape than it has been in several years.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to look like it’s not sleeping on the job, going after corporate executives for not properly disclosing trades of their own companies’ shares. Several individuals and companies will have to cough up fines totaling $2.6 million.
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Speaking of wireless phones, as we did this week, here’s a great photo essay from the Washington Post on the history of them. Amazing to see how far the technology has come over the past few decades!
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Remember JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU, Weiss Ratings: D+)? One of the poster children of the dot-bomb bubble? It’s still around and its shares jumped today after the firm said it would split into two publicly traded units. Of course, at $13-and-change, the stock is a long way from its split-adjusted price of … get this … $1,226 in early 2000!
Reminder: You can let me know what you think by putting your comments here.
Until next time,
Mike Larson
P.S. Have you had a chance to view Martin’s new Q&A video series? Click here to view now! You will also be able to catch up on the urgent video briefings that he posted last week.
Mike Larson graduated from Boston University with a B.S. degree in Journalism and a B.A. degree in English in 1998, and went to work for Bankrate.com. There, he learned the mortgage and interest rates markets inside and out. Mike then joined Weiss Research in 2001. He is the editor of Safe Money Report. He is often quoted by the Washington Post, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel, and he has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg Television and CNBC.
{ 19 comments }
No, the world is not a dangerous place. The US has a dangerous government. You know I have never commented on Weiss articles until you started making these wildly uninformed statements. You really ,REALLY need to get a clue about what is going on in this country.
the will of the American people will never ever be broken all though congress is trying real hard to break are spirit. we will defeat isis ,the idots are messing with the 800lb gorilla
in the room , but sadly when they are gone someone else will spring up to take there place
we are spending vast amounts of capitol that we don’t have. I wish I had an answer.
I AM WORRIED.
Linda, with your head in the sand, it is you who does not have a clue, no shake the sand from your ears cause it’s blocking your hearing. With war everywhere, with our government spending money we don’t have, losing many lives for other countries that hate our guts. Weather causing damage in the billions and you think you have all the answers? Sorry but I can not agree with you!!!
Mike, I have great respect for all your team and all you do. However, you and your colleiges
probably know the real truth about 9/11 but are afraid to comment on that because of the repercussions. As we know, anyone who disputes the official lie suffers some retrebution.
Only a total fool would believe the gov lie. We know it was an inside job.
Jack Lovett
The US like to go around to boom other countries. That is the problem. The Iraq & nearby countries are fighting among themselves, what have that to do with the US. Let them solve their problems and if they love to kill each other, just let them do it. US got rid of one Sadam, another more powerful Sadam is born. The US has made our world more problems.
Would you please stop parroting the nationalistic propaganda about how bad the “terrorists” are. The fact is that ISIS was created and funded by the USA to try and overthrow Syria. They were doing the USA’s illegal bidding to dispose a duly elected government and leader and they were “our” allies and friends as long as they were doing that. They were just as “dangerous” then but we didn’t seem to have a problem. But now they have become enemies. The USA continually creates these gangs of thugs which then run rampant. The USA is the world’s largest terrorist nation nowadays. And to believe otherwise is delusional at best and insane at worst. Wall Street and Washington are continually at war with the world to make more and more profits. It is called war profiteering and it is the most repugnant and immoral act there is. And when Weiss advises folks to invest in companies that contribute to war making, you are just as immoral. The only thing that 911 reminds me of is just how insane and evil the USA is.
There’s another 9/11, one we’re not supposed to think about, but very similar to the one we are: over 3,000 people killed; a country locked down and its system of government chaged. And what arose from that isn’t so different from the Islamic State: dissidents punished; prisoners killed, many of them during or after torture — including two American journalists.
So what was this atrocity, and who were the savages who perpetrated it? I refer to 9/11/1973, the military coup that overthrew the elected government of Chile. Bought and paid for by ITT Corporation, organized by CIA. The Chilean government recently handed down indictments in the murders of journalists Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi (the attempts by Horman’s father and wife to locate their missing loved one in the immediate aftermath of the coup, and the lies and obstructions put forth by US Government officials, were dramatized in Costa-Gavras’ brilliant film, “Missing”). 40 years of US Government obstructionism allowed the US Navy Intelligence officer indicted to escape justice by dying of old age.
And no, I have no sympathy for the Marxist dork Allende, but he was the Chileans problem not ours. The US Government’s complaint about the current Chilean government is that they “too” free market oriented, i.e., won’t subjugate their country and economy to American corporatist interests.
Lest we forget–I know we’re supposed to–this year marked the 50th anniversary of LBJ’s Gulf of Tonkin lies, that launched a war that killed 58,000 Americans (full disclosure: one was my uncle) and several million Asians, and continues killing and maiming with cancers and birth defects caused by Agent Orange, and by unexploded ordnance.
Brutal? Terroristic? Making the world a more dangerous place? Yep! Er, ISIS, I mean…
We owe a continuing debt of gratitude to the NYPD and New York Fire Dept. for the sacrifices of brave men and women in the line if duty. When it really counts, the men in blue are the ones who respond and rescue.
Not a happy chappy this morning , well it had to happen , of course it was the 11th September all these events happen on special days. I have come to dred the 11th September , what next are they going to come up with to stay in power in a crumbling , corrupt system. Here in Australia , looking at the world stage we have coem to believe thatAmercia is the biggest terrorist in the world at present and it’s all about they arebroke and need tostay in power at any cost , wars generate money for a few at he top , I am totally digusted at this new way of fighting wars against the weakest people on the planet and jsut what would you do if you can’t feed yourself and children, if the money spent on killing was spent building people up there would no wars only peace and cooperation .
The ‘elite’ don’t want “peace and cooperation”. They want to control us, keep us weak and take our money, power and rights from us so that they can have unfettered world domination.
I was watching TV news and drinking my morning coffee. They broke in to announce that a tower had been (accidently) hit by a plane.
Immediately I knew it was on purpose. (DAY, good weather, aim for tower) I was totally unimpressed with all news coverage. Not wanting to say anything bad about those attacking you just encourages such acts.
NOTE: Mike, hopefully you take your children to visit Pearl Harbor and teach them that history.
Mike and associates:
Of course Mr. Jack Lovett is completely correct, and I congratulate him for having the courage to speak the truth and state the obvious. I too have great respect for your organization, but I also understand your position on this subject. To contradict the official 9/11 story lines wouldn’t be good for business, as it wouldn’t be for any media organization, and any outfit taking the contradictory route would risk receiving the ‘flaming-tire-around-the-neck’ treatment and be tagged as unpatriotic. These are the reasons why it has been so hard to get the truth of this enormous crime exposed. This crime was not committed by Osama and his Merry Men!
The three of the World Trade Center buildings (Buildings One, Two and Seven) were constructed to withstand category 5 hurricanes and even a large aircraft crashing into them, yet millions of tons of the concrete in the buildings’ structures was pulverized and the buildings collapsed into their own footprint, all in less than 10 seconds. Science tells us that jet-fuel fires burn at temperatures in the order of 1,000 to 12-1300 degrees C max: also that steel does not begin to soften and melt until it reaches about 2700 degrees C. All three demolished buildings were constructed with dozens of massive steel columns that even had fire proofing treatment. There is no doubt that these buildings were demolished by CONTROLLED DEMOLITIONS using very sophisticated steel-cutting and explosives technology.
The designated 9/11 storytellers claimed that the Pentagon was hit by a Boeing 757 at 500 to 600 mph. That 757 was reportedly piloted by a guy whose piloting skills were so poor that he had earlier been refused a Cessna172 rental. Give me a break! The supposed impact of the crash created a single large hole in the Pentagon wall where the nose of the aircraft (a relatively soft part of the aircraft structure) was to have struck the building, while, miraculously, there were no marks on the wall whatsoever where the much stronger 150′ span wings and the very high mass-per-volume engines that are 50′ to 60′ apart would have impacted at over 500 mph. What was this, a quite remarkable exemption from scientific fact? OR, a cover-up story issued by the technically challenged??
There are many, many more gaping holes in the official 9/11 story(s). It seems almost that the perpetrators didn’t give a damn how plausible or unscientific the explanations were for their various criminal acts; they would sell the game by intimidation. They were going to have their second ‘Pearl Harbor’, regardless! These criminals even engineered fraudulent official investigations and reports by a government organization firmly under their direction and control. Who was fooled?
Someday the truth will be out. I hope that it happens before the chief criminals escape exposure by dying of old age or sickness.
Wayne is correct
The official conspiracy story is an evil lie
The “elite” intentionally manufacture terrorism as a never-ending war that gives them an ongoing excuse to keep the masses fearful, and demanding that their ‘leaders’ create new laws to control us, tax us and ‘protect’ us. What an evil scam that most people fall for.
The real lesson of 13 years of attack on muslim terrorists is that bombs and death squads cannot solve the problem. The only thing that will stop terrorism is the removal of the root cause which is the appalling living conditions in many muslim countries. While they have nothing to lose and much to be angry about the organisations will continue to be a Hydra. Every bomb dropped and every civilian killed creates a new terrorist
I cannot agree with you that poor living conditions cause terrorism. In the Great Depression, many, many Americans experienced terrible living conditions and poverty. My father’s dad died when he was 6 and my dad almost starved until he was old enough to join the Navy in 1937. And his neighbors were very poor too. But they did not turn to terrorism or destruction. Why? Because America had great leaders and more importantly, great beliefs. We were a country with ideals and faith and dreams. Americans knew that with perseverance, a brighter day would come. Our Judeo-Christian values taught us that…and also that God is a loving Father that cares for us. The Muslim Religion teaches a slave-master relationship……and that is a relationship under which it is very difficult to have hope and dream. And that, my friend…..is your root cause.
Dear Mr. Larson,
I am 70 years old and a Vietnam Vet. I’ve pretty much seen it all, both from a military and a political perspective. I congratulate you on your 9-11 piece – being open and honest like you were is, unfortunately, becoming rare thing. I encourage you to continue with the personal (at least a little!) and open commentaries. I’m think there are many of us out here who feel a connection to you.
Keep up the good work! And don’t let the adverse political hacks get you down! God Bless!
Spence
Satisfecho encuentra la pagina Money and Markets
Oh!Thats nice,dropping bombs by air,drone hits,missiles,thats all great,but these terrorist will still survive,regroup and if eliminated have close family to follow up on their Holy Jihad.No!Washington and the world organization just does’nt get it;Nothing will do but total elimination and termination of these radicals and those who support them.Add the ground troops AGAIN!!! and get in there and complete the damn job,no rules anymore,throw out that damn book of Rules of Engagement,if theres collataral damage then”So Be IT”Quit pussy footing around w/this trash,the means to clean the chart are there and avaiable…………………..USE IT!! If you don’t,it will go on year after year and get worse,am I w/the novice education the only one that sees this?.All these supposedly educated person can’t reason this thinking out?I want peace,to get along w/whomever,but somewhere along the way the line has to be drawn and for God’ Sake not Obamas Red Line.It’s to bad that there won’t be a large following by the international community,who would trust an undepenadable,drop the dime on you country like the US.It never used to be like that,started w/Viet Nam……………….So sad!Get in there and finish this job once and for all.
Vote NO: Let the economy & market run themselves w/out government & the private “federal” bank interferences. Whatever they do, give money to tax payers, reduce taxes, etc. will only cause unintended consequences.