Thanks for article on SS privatization. I'd been thinking lately along the same lines, but would characterize it perhaps a little more cynically. As an MBA I've studied the market [primarily in the early 90s]: Technical analysis was rapidly replacing fundamental analysis. The market had become psychological. Now with the DOW at 10,000--the fundamentals of the US economy doubtful--the huge impact of the so-called Plunge Team [officially goes by another name] and with the many mysterious accounting reforms--the market is adrift in artificiality. It is a pyramid waiting to fall. There is only one thing to keep it afloat [as all of the excess funds available to prop it up have been "invested"] and we're talking about the need for a whole lot of money. And so we have privatization of SS. I don't think it's as much about another bull market as it is about another round of large-scale Ponzi capitalism. It's SS injection or people start to poke around, determine that there is really nothing fundamental supporting the PE ratios and the whole thing takes a nosedive. It's find a new source of funds or go home. It's about pushing the US community further out into deeper water.

Best regards,
Gary Schofield