Over at the US Treasury, they've been crowing about how much profit they've made. They rushed to save AIG and Citi by buying their toxic bonds. Then, they flew to the side of Fannie and Freddie when they were in trouble.

The housing market is in a double dip, and a report in today's news tells us that Fannie and Freddie may be hiding $100 billion in losses.

It was widely reported last week that the unemployment rate was down to its lowest level in almost two years.

After Japan's earthquake, the whole world is wasting its time looking for more black swans.  They would do better to examine the feathers of those snow-white birds in front of us.

None of the key components of US GDP have recovered.  Housing starts, for example, are running at a million less than they were before the crisis began.  Employment is back to the levels it was at 10 years ago -- with 7 million fewer jobs than in 2007.

The market gapped up today, but the bulls look to be facing trouble.

The Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL) is bumping up against its key near-term resistance line.

What happens when the Fed is finished with QE2? Correlation is not causation, but all we can do is look back at what happened last time and speculate about the future.

The market wants change. The feds fight to protect the status quo.

Lawrence G. McMillan reviews the options market in his weekly column for March 18.