Even with the bailout of Citi on the books now, it doesn’t appear that the auto-makers are any closer to getting their due share, which seems odd to me.  I hope this proves to simply be posturing by the government as this to me still seems bigger and more important than the likes of AIG.  The only difference, of course, being that most politicians don’t care who is in Detroit, but their buddies on Wall Street are a whole different story.

In other good news, President Elect Barack Obama appointed New York Fed President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers, who has previously held the Treasury post, as director of the National Economic Council.  The reason that I personally consider this good news is that it represents an early decision which gives the markets time to accept and adapt to these decisions.  Thus, everyone knows what to expect.

At the same time, leaving mixed feelings, Obama has promised to jolt the faltering economy with a new stimulus package.  Another purchase, spending today for our children to repay in the future and ultimately creating new opportunities for India and China to increase their global financial strength relative to the United States.  If it doesn’t work, the additional millions of people that will be out of work may turn this recession into one of the longest yet, although at this time I think that another depression is nearly impossible.

So there are my market thoughts for today – more in a bit as I try to make sense of so much muck in the media today.

Ranter