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"Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids!"

Remember those terrible 1980s cereal commercials? They were almost as bad as the cereal itself.

Trix, Captain Crunch, Cookie Crisp, Frankenberry... they might as well have called the stuff "chemical-coated sugar puffs." It makes you wonder whether General Mills had a secret deal with the American Dental Association to prop up the cavity-filling business.

Anyhow, those Saturday morning breakfast cereals remind your humble editor of government stimulus: Lots of sugar... lots of hype... 98% artificial coloring and flavoring... and pretty much zero nutritional value.

In keeping with the analogy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is like the white rabbit from the Trix commercials. You know, the one who always got foiled with the tagline: "Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids!"

Except in Bernanke's case it would be: "Silly Chairman, Stimulus is for Gold Stocks!"

If Henry David Thoreau was right when he wrote, “That government is best which governs least,” then Australia got itself the best government in the world on Saturday.

Of course technically speaking, Australia didn’t elect a government. And that government which is not a government cannot govern at all. Thus, “not at all” being less than “least”, the unelected government not elected on Saturday is best!

Okay. Enough of the japery. Let us put our dour and serious face on and see what Saturday’s election means for markets...

On second thought, let’s not be serious. After all, this is a great result, is it not? That would be the unconventional take on things. The conventional take is that markets hate uncertainty. What they got on Saturday was an extra portion of uncertainty with a dollop of extra time. But to paraphrase Gordon Gecko, “Gridlock is good.”

Think back for a moment to 2005, at the height of the U.S. real estate bubble.

When the house down the street was snatched under contract within hours of being on the market, for five times what the owner paid just a few years before. When the banks were handing out mortgages like they were free toasters. When Ma and Pa turned into house- flipping overnight millionaires. When everyone was living high on the proverbial hog.

If I had told you then that in just a few short years - on Sept. 16, to be precise - the big banking giants like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG and Merrill Lynch would come crashing down all at once... would you have believed me? If I had insisted that in one fell swoop, a banking-induced global economic crisis would reach pandemic proportions and would prompt the IMF to warn the world hindered on "brink of systemic meltdown"?

How about if I had told you in 2007 that next year Treasury rates would actually turn negative... that the U.S. automarket would siphon billions in bailouts from the government... or that we'd see triple-digit oil prices?

More recently, what if I'd said to you on May 5, 2010, that the next day the market would take a devastating 1,000-point dive for seemingly no reason?

It has been 65 years since Europe's last major war. Still, when Germany gets up off its knees, the continent trembles.

Last week, the Berlin government announced the best results since the wall fell in '89. From the first quarter to the second one the republic's GDP rose 2.2%. At that rate - about 9% a year if it continues - Germany is running neck and neck with China. Compared to France and the US, Germany is flying nearly 4 times as fast. Greece meanwhile is backing up. Its economy shrank 1.5% last quarter.

The Teuton tribes are an aggressive lot. The Usipetes, Tenchteri, Batavi, Cherusci, Chatti, Vandals, Goths, Franks, Alans, Suebians - all jostled each other for centuries. They must have gotten a taste for competition. And when Rome wheezed her last gasps they fell on her like French tax collectors on a widow's estate. The Vandals pushed all the way across Gaul and Iberia, crossed to North Africa, and from their new base in Carthage, continued to tickle the old Empire until it rolled over on them. Everybody has his elbows out. But competition takes many forms. Better to build Audis and Mercedes than Tigers and Messerschmitts. Better to race for market share than for the Champs Élysée. Whatever form it takes, competition isn't likely to stop. Happily, most of the time, it is a boon to everyone - even to the losers. That's why Germany's current success is only a threat to the economists and commentarists who've been giving her advice. The rest of us hold our breath and hope for more.

What's the score from yesterday? Dow down 144. Gold plus 4.

The stock market looks like it wants to roll over. Whether it will or not, we don't know. We'll just have to wait to find out.

In the meantime...

"Dad... I guess I should be back in LA working..." said Maria, after we reviewed her finances.

She earns her living as a model and actress. But it is not a great living. Her chosen career is like that of a professional athlete. A few of them make big money. Most struggle to make ends meet.