Don’t forget this week’s Live Q&A Chat at 2pm EST today.

I spent the last week in Washington DC, tourist-ing, taking meetings, and talking to everybody rich or poor, powerful or powerless that I met. I discussed geopolitics, bailouts and economics with immigrants from Ethiopia and Sierra Leone and Mexico and Italy.

I ran into former head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, whom I’ve interviewed on TV several times, and chatted about those very same topics.

I even crashed a Federal Reserve self-congratulatory meeting at the Willard Hotel (no relation) and told former Fed Chairman, Paul Volker, to his face that we need to end the Fed. He asked me if I am an honest person. I said yes. He said everybody says that. I told him that he says it too. He laughed, but I felt the chill in the room after I spoke freely about my opposition to the Regime to someone that powerful inside the Regime. I left and when I saw him later in the bathroom, he had two security dude tailing him and their body language made it clear that I should leave Paul alone. So be it.

I’m back on my ranch now in beautiful (but dry) Ruidoso, NM, and the news flow has been hot and heavy, as has the market volatility out there, so let’s run through some headlines with some Revolution Investing commentary and trading ideas.

Tesla Repays Its Government Loan 9 Years Early – Are the people who publish propaganda like this unable to do a little research first? I mean, you do realize that a full $50 million of earnings in Tesla’s most recent quarter came from trading carbon credits. That is an artificial market that is fully funded by taxpayer money. Not only that, but Tesla’s millionaire customers get $8,000 welfare checks for being rich enough to buy a $200,000 car. That means Tesla’s business is still being heavily subsidized by taxpayers, which means they just robbed Peter to pay Paul and everybody says that’s cool. If Tesla had a sustainable business model, it wouldn’t need all those subsidies. I bet you and I could start a company and make it look really profitable with a half billion taxpayer loan and billions in other subsidies. Tesla will crash some day. I plan on shorting it before that happens.

Japanese Investors Hit The Panic Button – The Japanese stock market took off just before our own latest huge multi-month stock market rally. Is this a precursor of the next move for the US markets?

Big Hedge Funds Suddenly Bullish – Contrarian indicator? You betcha. See last December’s Hedge funds say shorting Japan will work, published right before the Japanese market exploded higher. Or say, you could read 2011’s Hedge Funds Most Bearish Since 2009. Using hard work, discipline and good analysis, the average Joe can far outperform the average Hedge Fund. Most money managers are leading lives of quiet desperation, to paraphrase Thoreau.

The Entire Music Publishing Industry Is Peeved At Sony – Is there any value in Sony, or is this whole huge move higher its having simply a function of that aforementioned Japanese stock market spiking higher this year?

And finally, a couple feel-good stories before I move on.

3 women stood up to London fiends to comfort terror attack victim in final moments – God bless everyday heroes.

He’s a freed thinker, too – So many wrongly convicted out there. You gotta love it when they get out and have a life. Congrats to this fine young man.