I have been wondering -- what role will the Olympics play in the world scene?

Will the Olympics distract from some economic sleight-of-hand? Or will they distract people from the US naval blockade about to provoke Iran into war? Who knows.

They obviously serve as a great distraction for a large number of people. Whenever something can help, you make use of it. The only question is, how MUCH use?

ON A RELATED NOTE: We have some VERY, VERY bizarre things going on in the markets. The US Dollar is rallying as if the US National Debt was just paid off, and 1,000 new U.S. factories were just built. On the contrary, there has been plenty of bad news -- the serious kind -- but for some reason the "powers that be" are pumping up the US Dollar. Don't ask me how!

There is one thing I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN of. Nothing has changed in the world economic situation. People are losing jobs at a record rate, foreclosures will only increase, people are more and more squeezed by food/gas/energy costs, and the housing market is getting worse by the day. NOTHING HAPPENED A WEEK AGO to change all that. So whatever is causing the dollar to rise "so far, so fast" is irrational and without good cause.

Because of that, Gold is dropping like a rock. Very strange. It's as if they want to build up a cushion so that when war breaks out in Iran (and oil from there is cut off -- causing a catastrophe in the world economy) the US Dollar will have some room to fall.

When you take the three things together (bizarre movement in the dollar/armada sailing to Iran/major world event "Olympics 2008") it's quite ominous.

Matthew