Well, that was yet another nonsensical week then! It's pretty hard to take on board the sheer ignorance being shown by politicians when "pronouncing" about the current recession/soon to be depression. Where to start? The Berlusconi one in Italy has been "begging" his citizens to "spend, spend, spend" in the runup to the festives. They'll be begging soon enough - begging the IMF to throw them a crust. Spending your way out of debt, eh? Great idea! A bit like bleeding profusely and cutting another artery to see if that slows down the flow from the other one....Wee Allie (Ah wiz only followin' oarders, honest") has thrown a VAT decrease to the UK public - causing mayhem for retailers. Mayhem caused by millions of customers rushing to buy things? Hmm, maybe not. But Allie will balance the books when all these new "45% taxpayers" he has identified, start having to cough up. Or maybe not. Even the kindest assessment is suggesting that particular measure will raise a mere £2bn at the very most. How much is it that you plan to borrow in total, Mr D? Possibly the merest smidgen more than £2bn? And Mr D is still claiming all the problems "originated overseas". You learn something new every day - I hadn't realised Kirkcaldy wasn't part of the UK. Oh yes, and the recession is only going to last 12 months, then the UK economy is going to be "growing" again. That's actually true, Allie. The recession will last no more than a further 12 months before it's recognised as a depression, and the UK economy will be "growing" even smaller. The Osborne shadow chancellor person wasn't wrong when he suggested wee Allie's "budget" wasn't anything to do with the "economic cycle" but everything to do with the "political cycle". How true - but you won't do anything any better, George, when your turn comes along - because you too are a political cyclist - as are all such creatures. Certainly this weekend, Allie won't be entirely popular with the Broon Boss because he's already admitting that "more help will be needed" - possibly as early as next Spring. You can bet on it!
Anyway, onward - and we see that common sense (as well as nae money of course) has broken off the engagement between Rio Tinto and Billiton - no bad thing for either party methinks. And it seems the UK public wasn't mad keen on buying more shares in RBS - but ended up with them anyway via the caring, sharing government. Talking of "caring" - the FSA is requesting that lenders treat customers who are in arrears, "more fairly" - so they won't be sending the boys round to break your legs until you're at least three months behind then. And seemingly the energy companies have been hiking direct debits whether your consumption has been rising or not - what a nice wee (big!) scam that is!

On the UK High Street, Selfridges seemingly is not having a "sale" - such things are for the hoi polloi - like Tescos (who are now in deep, deep trouble........ ) No, your upmarket store is having a "promotion". Ho Ho. And still in the realms of the really silly, what about the "Bank of the Year" bash at the Dorchester? The main course seemingly was a cut of sub prime steak, and the pudding was frozen assets in a Bailout (sorry - Baileys') sauce. I guess if I had the time and inclination, I could make more of a meal of this - certainly the meat would have been "well done" to match how bankers have treated the public......what a sorry bunch these bankers are. The IW spy at the bash suggested that arrogance and imperious behaviour were everywhere to be heard and seen. "Regret" didn't seem to feature at all. Maybe Sweaty Betty's corner chipshop would have been a more appropriate choice of venue but probably she doesn't stock Chateau Lafite, even though it has dropped back a bit in price - down from about £20000 the dozen apparently, to a mere £15000 - that's better than a VAT reduction. And speaking of this famous VAT reduction thingie - just be very aware that it won't be too many years before the UK consumer pays the same 21% as in the Republic of Ireland. That's something else you can bet on!

Back to menus, and it appears that an accident on the M42 caused the blending of rather a lot of beer and marshmallows, with just a hint of tarmacadam and diesel to add an elusive back taste. Heston Blumenthal will be trying it out soon, at a Little Chef near you.

And still on the really silly - although this one is truly a doozie - the Mandelson Lord of Darkness person seemingly has compiled some kind of "list of companies that will be saved if things get terribly bad" - a bit like the Cold War bunkers that were built for "really, really important people" back in the days of truly scary stuff eh? Only certain hugely important companies will receive government help of course - like Indian steel makers, luxury yacht manufacturers, and anything owned by rich Russians, etc etc. You know the kind of thing - all the everyday necessities. Words seldom fail IW but......oh yes - and the Mandelson creature is suggesting the Broon one is "like Moses, leading people away from the economic mess". Oh dear, Peter - for sure, you never really had that many marbles but you have certainly lost 'em all now. Admittedly, IW knows exactly zilch about anything "biblical" but wasn't it allegedly the case that Moses did NOT in fact lead people INTO the mess in the first place? And the other stunningly sychophantic statement from the Prince of Darkness re the Broon one was "He knows about international economics". Hmm, another thing I have learned this weekend then - the Dandy and the Beano have economics sections. That's new since my day - must renew the subscription. And some Oxford Uni historian has come up with details on the first credit crunch - ancient Rome, 88 BC. It's very interesting stuff in fact - worth a quick Google search. Try "88 BC credit crunch".

Oh, by the way, who owns Obama? No prizes for guessing that it just might be Citigroup. "Welcome to the team that's going to lead you to the promised land, all those who caused the problem in the first place."..........what a total con. How long will Joe Sixpack take to wake up? Ah, that would probably be "never" then.

OK - that's all for this weekend - it's time for IW to shut up shop till Thursday 4th December, so please hold any emails till then. Madame W feels a pressing need to assist the struggling UK High Street cope with the downturn, so a wee bit of travelling is about to happen....aaghh. The moths in the wallet are about to see daylight again - but not for too long, it is to be hoped.

On to tonight's charts then - and first we'll look again at Wolseley, last featured here on 9th November this year. It bounced off the trendline and now it's racking along in a nice wee (quite big!) triangle with pretty good horizontal support to boot. Then we'll see if the current AMEC (down) trend might be about to change direction - then finally we'll revisit the Russian Index which we looked at on November 16th, just to see how "support" can develop as a triangle also forms.

PS - just been having an interesting chat with a local hotelier, who depends (far too much!) on UK ski holiday companies - such as Thomsons, Crystal etc etc to fill his rooms each winter. It seems he's more or less fully booked till the end of Easter, pretty much as usual, and he's obviously fine with that. But on quizzing him about when the bulk of the bookings had been received, the response was that almost all had come by the end of August, with more than half by the end of June. What does that suggest? Given that travel companies tend to mail their current clients with "a big discount if you book NOW for next season", it could well suggest that an awful lot of people will be coming to ski only because they have already bought and paid for the trip. Take a hypothetical case - the manager of Woolworths in Anytown, Somewhereshire. He and the whole family love skiing and they had a great time in Lebrilliantskiresort last February mid term. In May they got a letter from Crystal, offering "15% off" for the 2008/09 season if booked by May 31st. Was Mr Manager even slightly worried about his job last May? How about next May? Methinks the ski resorts in general, will see 2008/09 as the last time they were reasonably well booked, for several years to come - worries about "nae snow" will be only a memory. "Nae visitors" will be the real problem. And what does that all bode for the tour operators? No reply needed! Empty slopes in a year's time - great news for IW? Not at all - nothing is fun if everybody is feeling bad. A decent "buzz" in a ski resort is great for everyone, even if it does mean needing to swear at snowboarders who can't even spell "queue" - ie most of them.

Anyway, on that note, all the best until next weekend.

Ian.

'IMPORTANT NOTICE: These WICS charts are for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. They represent only MY understanding of what is happening in the market for any particular share, stock, commodity or index. In NO circumstances should they be construed as recommendations to trade. If I choose to trade what I see, that is MY decision. YOU must, in turn, come to YOUR OWN conclusions about what action, if any, YOU might choose to take'.