Call This a Great Day on Wall Street … or Call It Market Madness!

General Motors holds 20% marketshare in both North & South America, and 12% in China and Europe. And will likely take back some of the marketshare lost to Japan and other far east manufacturers, lost over the past 40 years. But 2010 sales are at least unremarkable compared to the results of 2009’s "Cash for Clunkers" incentive.

What about the new ’GM Financial’ that’s now replaced GMAC? Six weeks ago GM completed the purchase of AmeriCredit for $3.5 billion. Who is (was) AmeriCredit? One of many sub-prime lenders for the auto industry, of course! While GM plans to use its new lending arm to write auto leases and provide a "modest" boost in subprime loans, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley - nearly 6 months ago - asked the watchdog of the government’s bank-rescue program to investigate the purchase. A member of this respected think tank questioned the wisdom of a company that is majority-owned by the government lending money to people with poor credit after a financial crisis that was sparked by risky loans. How soon we (conveniently) forget! Read more here. Who knows how many GM cars are (were/will be) purchased with money that would have otherwise been used to make mortgage payments? How, you ask? When it comes to buying things on credit, Americans (with the help of those employed by our lending institutions) can be very creative. So too are American entrepreneurs. All things considered, You Walk Away.com must be doing very well these days.

Since the GM IPO is paying back US Taxpayers by (eventually) buying back our government's equity position, it would make sense to portray a rosy picture. After all, Washington really needs to ’cash out’ its shares, but that will take a year or so. Will GM shares climb higher from today’s IPO … or eventually wither? Who knows? China’s total annual car sales just surpassed America’s. Is that good news?

The Automobile is America’s #2 Industry. Housing is #1.

Over 1 million homeowners will suffer foreclosure in 2010. The tally for 2009 totaled more than 900,000, and 850,000 in 2008. Learn more about foreclosures here. Meanwhile, America’s biggest banks are on Capitol Hill this week - defending themselves - having come under scrutiny regarding the handling of a zillion foreclosures. With so many homes in default, the banks resorted to ’robo-signing’ in an effort to process the paperwork. A congressional watchdog said in a report issued on Nov. 16th that the foreclosure document debacle could threaten major banks with billions of dollars in losses, further prolong the housing depression and damage the government’s effort to keep people in their homes.

The class actions, enacted by all 50 states, seek damages for homeowners whose properties were illegally foreclosed upon by banks using fraudulent documents. (Meanwhile, these homeowners are further emboldened to just stop paying and living for free – many longer than a year!). Bank of America, Wells Fargo, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase are at the top of the list. In Florida and Maine, Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC Mortgage, is also being targeted.

Bank of America (includes Merrill-Lynch, remember?) shares are down over 20% this year. BAC says its latest survey of big fund managers, conducted just last week, found "market sentiment at its most bullish since April 2010." Yes, and 60 days later the Dow had lost nearly 15%.

According to BAC, these same money managers have just dramatically raised their forecasts of economic growth. And they have thrown as much (of your) money into stocks as they possibly could. Average cash holdings are down to just 3.5%, –one of the lowest readings on record. Seems just a little odd, don’t you think?

In June/July 2007 the same BAC survey showed the same money managers were bullish regarding European equities. Merrill Lynch actually coined the term "EU-phoria." July 2007 was the best possible moment to SELL European equities, just before the entire market began a 20 month free fall to the lows of March 2009.

Here’s the really big news… Less than three weeks after the election, a majority of Americans (who apparently voted in spending cuts) are not in favor of the most of the proposed reductions in benefits (such as raising social security retirement to Age 70).

So, what’s the really big news? In August, Greenland shed its largest chunk of ice in nearly half a century. Greenland is now less than 10 years away from its "tipping point", leading to an irreversible 23 ft. rise in worldwide sea levels. Learn more here. Here’s an opinion from today’s Yahoo! Finance regarding market optimism .