In February, I wrote that the decline in stocks was just about over. Why?

In February, I wrote that the decline in stocks was just about over. Why? There was more money available to buy shares than at any time in almost two decades. The $8.85 trillion held in cash, bank deposits and money market funds was equal to 74% of the market value of U.S. companies, the highest ratio since 1990, according to the Federal Reserve.

OPEC nations, reports the Financial Times, earned as much in the first half of this year as they did in the whole of 2007.

According to the report, member nations pocketed a staggering $645 billion in the first six months of 2008, just under the record $671 billion they earned last year. This puts OPEC nations on track to earn a record $1,245 billion this year, despite the recent 20 percent drop in oil prices, as any price drop will be offset by an increase in demand.

Profit Hunter’s Manraaj Singh calls it the “biggest transfer in history.”

We all know the U.S. government is in debt up to its eyeballs. Moody’s is already threatening to downgrade the country’s debt rating due to unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security.