Over the past few months, I have commented about how large corporations are using their company pension funds to bolster their corporate earnings. Under accounting rules, if a pension fund has "excess" funding, the excess can go to the bottom line of the corporation. Nothing particularly wrong with that, except the meaning of the word "excess" is as loose as Bill Clinton's definition of "is." Today we will visit an amazing statistic that clearly shows just how deceitful, large and widespread this practice is.

Last week we looked at the continuing evidence of deflation, which is my primary concern when I analyze the future direction of the markets.

First off, I want to stop the rumors that I had anything to do with the wording in this week's release of the Beige Book from the Fed. They used words like: "slow growth", "sluggish", "below expectations", "weak demand", "loosening labor markets" and "pronounced reductions in consumer borrowing". The fact that I have been writing the above for months is mere coincidence. Or it may be due to the fact that even the Fed has to recognize the problems.