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Here is how I anticipate the big trials out of the AHA panning out and how you can trade based on these projected results

We may have more vcrs, tvs, ipods, and computers but our standard of living is in the toilet. A look at some common stats will make that clear. The first step to fixing the problem is recognizing that we have one.

The market plunge today resulted from trader panic over more bad news about credit (surprise!), the Fed’s reservations about further cuts (surprise!), and Exxon’s missed numbers (surprise!). Surging oil prices and profit declines by the big Oils would have been enough on their own to cause panic among market movers. It is hard to understand why the obvious always catches the markets by surprise, but it sure does. Trader concern is largely knee jerk, and worry about Exxon is hardly rational; the company’s dip in profits will shake out in a relatively short time as the “crack� or spread between producing and selling widens. This is an opportunity for the investor, not a time to short or run for cover.

I am not sure that Garmin is headed in the right direction.

Google's stock is moving dramatically higher - today, doing it on a weak day. Can it continue?

The Fed has cut the Fed funds rate again.

In one corner you have the fact that more adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset, the economy is slowing, and home prices continue to decline. In the other corner you have banks who say that the worst for them is over and next quarter should see a rebound. What do you think? Who do you believe? Have the banks fully marked down their assets to reflect reality or are there more skeletons in the closet - excuse the Halloween pun?

Meredith Whitney of CIBC world markets wrote yesterday that Citicorp may be forced to cut its dividend or sell assets to prevent a liquidity crisis. But Citibank sure isn't acting like it's having problems. Today it announced the acquisition of hedge fund Carlton Hill.

Debate over the rapid rise in oil prices ranges from blaming geopolitical events, Arab producing nations, big oil companies, hedge funds and the like. All have something to do with the rise, but hedge funds are surely pulling more of the strings than the others. Nothing else explains the extraordinary jump in prices in the last days. In fact, hedge funds are far and away the principal actors behind the oil bubble we have seen of late -- and they are about to profit even more handsomely when the Fed drops the interest rates tomorrow.

The New York Times stock has gotten pummeled over the last three years as heavy competition from online has eaten into profits. But the company has bottomed-out. It is a web-savvy company that will profit as more revenue moves online. It will survive and thrive.

Oil has reached a new record - $93 per barrel - despite plenty of supply. The news will tell you that it's because of geopolitical tension between the Kurds and Turkey but neither of these areas supply much oil. Traders are using that as an excuse to drive up the price of oil and make a killing.

It is odd that Apple, RIMM, Nokia, Microsoft etc. are all performing so well this earnings season while the chip-makers that drive these stocks perform so poorly.

A big headline in the Wall Street Journal today declares "Slower China Growth Suggests Peak is Past." That is as silly a headline as The World is Coming to an End. I don't know what the journalist (Andrew Batson) was drinking, but China's growth in the second quarter was 11.9% and 11.1% in the first quarter. We should all be so lucky as to have quarters like that -- including this last one. Give us a break, Andrew Batson, and start reporting responsibly.