North Korea, China, and Tidbits

Fingers are pointing at North Korea for the recent cyber attack on South Korea and several different U.S. agencies; National Security, Homeland Security, the State Department, Pentagon, White House, and New York Stock Exchange. The news is that the software attack was successful with the Treasury Department and the Federal Trade Commission. I don't think we will be told the depth of the other successful penetrations because of national security. I am surprised that North Korea has this kind of enterprising ingenuity. The picture by the mainstream is that it is an impoverished nation and using the threat of nuclear missiles to get attention. Perhaps this country is doing a lot more behind the scenes while it keeps our attention with the surface threats.

China's behavior with its citizens is consistent with their communist system. It's a good reminder for those who only focus on the economic interdependent relationship we have. China has been around for thousands of years and our country only 233 years. We need to learn to look far ahead, economically, like they do and act accordingly. This is the biggest benefit that I see they can teach us.

51% of all foreclosed homes have had prime loans, not subprime. Yet all the news for the last couples years have blamed this on subprime and the associated actions from banks, mortgage brokers and so on. This statistic shows that as home prices continue to fall, more people who are underwater are going to walk again from their mortgage.

The market is getting close to testing the 8000 mark again. Watch the patterns that show us repeated cycles and invest accordingly.