Dow 8000 & ????

Today was a historic day.

For one, Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States, the first Arab-American president in history. He truly symbolizes the change Americans can achieve at the current juncture. But is it for the better?

Wall Street welcomed the new President with a 'Black Tuesday' of sorts.

The DJIA fell 332 points closing below the psychologically important 8000 mark:



Financial stocks were decimated with the key financial sector composite breaking below its November lows:



The primary 'historical shock' developing in the wake of a reversal from Dow 9000 and a break below Dow 8000 is a new, far graver chapter in the ongoing collapse of the global financial system. Specifically the solvency of the United Kingdom has come into doubt (MORE) due to the massive bank bailout costs being incurred by the British government. Credit default swaps are indicating a one-in-ten chance the UK will default on its debt. A same fate likely awaits America as indicated today by economist Noriel Roubini's warning that U.S. bank losses are likely to top more than $2.5 trillion.

Fortunately, there was no Israeli strike on Iran before Bush left office. However, the possibility of war in the next phase of the Grand Supercycle collapse is significant. With the regime change in Washington, the U.S. is now more vulnerable than usual as the new leadership seeks to gain its bearings.

Both former Secretary of State Colin Powell and now Vice President Joe Biden had warned before Barack Obama was elected that there would be some sort of international crisis to 'test the mettle' of the new President once he took office:



Some think this is because a crisis is going to be generated by TPTB, but more likely some sort of intelligence was telegraphed to the U.S. that indicated what was coming down the pike. The question is why?

While the Middle East always remains a potential flashpoint that could cause an international crisis, one might also pay close attention to North Korea where there are signs of a power struggle and increasingly hostile war rhetoric towards the South from the world's last hardline Communist state.