Long-suffering readers will be aware of our low opinion here at Notes of government economic statistics. The truth of the matter is that many of them are fudged. Don’t just take our word for it. According to Kevin Philips, former Republican Party strategist and author of Bad Money, “Ever since the 1960s, Washington has gulled its citizens and creditors by debasing official statistics, the vital instruments with which the muscle and vitality of the American economy are measured.”

”Despite the bad news the market is confused,” says Crisis Strategy Alert senior analyst Charles Delvalle.
On Monday the futures were down over 80 points. Yet somehow, the market ended the day in the green.

The Dow can drop for a ton of reasons – from business conditions deteriorating to the VIX rallying higher – both of which I’ve discussed before.