Happy Thanksgiving Day to the readership in the States and anyone that celebrates this holiday. It is a great day, unless, of course, if you are a turkey. The markets certainly have a lot of six-foot tall turkey's walking around each day. U.S. markets are closed today and the stock market will close early tomorrow at 1 PM EST. A strong analogy exists when comparing Thanksgiving Day to the global economy and markets. For those of you unfamiliar with the Thanksgiving Day holiday, back in the early days of the U.S., nearly 300 years ago, the Pilgrims, settlers arriving from Europe, were struggling. Food was scarce and the dream of a better life in the new America was turning into a nightmare. The native Indians, the American Indian, stepped in to help the settlers, not to provide them a fish dinner, but rather to teach them how to catch fish, and provide for themselves. Growing corn was key and soon the settlers were well versed with farming and hunting as well. The settlements thrived due to the help from the Indians. The settlers gave thanks to the Indians and everyone joined in a harvest celebration which takes on the custom of Thanksgiving Day each November.What does this have to do with the global economy? Note that the Indians provided knowledge and guidance to help the settlers learn how to grow food, not simply providing them food to eat each day. The can-do American spirit was born with this attitude of jumping in and making any situation better through hard work and determination rather than sitting back and wating for the next meal. The world has changed. Perhaps the main reason the markets got it wrong with the presidential election (the markets were trading higher into the election on an anticipated Romney-Ryan victory), was that the majority of traders simply figured the American spirit would take hold and people would vote for a pro-job and pro-business ticket so the economy, and people's lives, could recover. It did not happen. Instead, folks came out in droves, voting for more government programs, more benefits, more food stamps, free contraception, the promise of lower-cost healthcare and even students were promised better loan provisions. A chicken in every pot. There is no blame to place on anyone. People are simply voting for the path to best survive on moving forward and are now trained that the government needs to play a bigger and bigger role in their lives. The markets were likely shocked that America has now forever changed moving forward, transitioning from a hard-working can-do attitude to a laissez-faire muddle-along things-are-good-enough attitude.On a global scale the unrest across Europe provides insight into the future for the U.S. The obscene debt that governments all around the world has taken on is un-Holy. The Greatest Generation, a phrase coined by Tom Brokaw to describe the 60 to 90 year olds, may be described in future years as the Greediest Generation. Their contribution to saving the Free World during the big Wars is so great that these folks could never be paid back properly, however, the damage they performed with profligate spending and debt cannot be forgiven. In essence, they have forced a harder life on their grand children who are now stuck with paying the check for the lavish dinner feast over the last couple decades. The taking on of debt enabled all the lavish living thru the 1980's, 1900's, 2000's into the Housing Bubble when everyone had a brand new house and two brand new vehicles; the wine was flowing like water. The standard of living in the U.S. peaked early this century. Your children will not have a better life than you did. The debt has to be repaid at the same time the demographics of the population are aging placing an increasing burden on entitlement programs.The protests in Greece, Spain and all over Europe are a result of the need for austerity to handle the massive debt burden. The memories of easy-living over the last couple decades is long forgotten. The unemployment is very high in these nations, although the numbers are somewhat misleading. The unemployment rate is likely one-half of the large numbers listed (unlike the U.S. where the unemployment rate reported is lower than the true rate of unemployment). The reason is that Greece, for example, is an underground economy, a cash society. Many young people are working but they simply work for cash and are not counted by government statistics. Un-Godly government spending and liberal entitlement programs create the need to raise taxes to cover the ever-increasing debt burden. But a funny thing happens when you raise taxes, and the leaders in the U.S. do not understand this either, is that raising taxes will result in less money coming into the government not more.Higher taxes encourages the move to untraceable cash transactions. Folks begin to pay the house painter, car mechanic and cleaning lady in cash instead of dealing with nasty receipts. Once the general population feels they are being excessively gouged, they fight back by cutting the government out of the pie all together. This has already happened in Greece and will occur in the U.S. as the months tick by if taxes are raised. About 30% of the transactions in Greece are cash. In the States currently, about 5 to 8% are cash. If taxes are raised, more and more folks will start conducting business in cash to avoid Uncle Sam. Less State sales and local tax will further cripple the States and local municipalities. To verify this concept, look no further than Spain last week enacting regulations to prevent cash transactions from occurring. As Keystone's friends in Brooklyn say, "Good luck wit dat." Spain fully understands that an underground economy and cash society, forced on to the people thru higher taxes, is fully in place and crippling any hope of a recovery for their troubled nation. To bring it full circle, the government largess and expanding entitlement programs trains all citizens to expect more subsidies and aid as time moves along; the opposite of what the American Indians taught the Pilgrims. The Indians did not hand them a fish dinner, they taught them how to fish. Greece displays the ugly outcome of what happens when all the government promises can no longer be fulfilled. The result is rioting, civil unrest, violence and perhaps worse. The correct path is self-motivation and self-reliance, the can-do American attitude. There is still time to right the ship, but it is taking on water profusely. If taxes go up, ask yourself, do you think you will start paying for services in cash (in concert with sympathetic business owners), to avoid Uncle Sam in the future?For the house painting example, say it costs $1500, the legit, legal way, to perform the painting and sales and other taxes are charged in addition to the $1500. The government is happy with the $100, $200 or perhaps $300 or more cut they receive. However, in the future cash society, the home owner pays the painter, say, 1K in cash. Everybody's happy, the owner receives his new paint job for a discounted $1000 while the painter is happy since he does not have to pay sales or other taxes to the government and could simply slip the dough into his pocket and not record it in the books at all. The government receives zilch, their greed has cut them out of the equation. The law makers need to understand that people do not mind paying taxes, everyone understands that taxes provide vital needs such as roads, bridges, infrastructure, helping the needy and disabled, and many other noble causes, but people do not want to be gouged and taken advantage of, especially with political leaders spending money like drunken sailors, without accountability. Apologies to any drunken sailors, no one wants to place these noble naval men in the same category as politicians. 30% of something is something, 50% of nothing is zero. There in lies the problem for Greece and Spain. Good luck reversing the underground cash society mentality once it takes hold. Spain and Greece understand and are living this nightmare.Now it is time to put the turkey feed bag on today while loosening the belt several notches. Of course pumpkin pie will be enjoyed as well. Keystone is thankful to all the loyal readers from around the world including our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, as well as the traders in the U.K., Australia, Singapore, Russia, Malaysia, Switzerland, Romania and many more. Continued success to all.