Getting Back in After Market Collapse?
By Barry Ritholtz - March 20th, 2009, 4:28PM
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Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
March 20th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Too early for tulips, Barry. Crocuses, maybe.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Charles Biderman of TrimTabs today sneeringly referred to the “Obama coronation.”
Wonder why guys like him think insults are the most effective way to influence policy? It happens all day on CNBC and unsurprisingly there’s no reaction from the hosts (in this case Maria).
The moneyed elite see the wheels coming off their wagon. Each day they get more desperate. The abject fear is in their eyes.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
As a registered Republican, I very cynically do share the idea that insults are the most effective way to influence policy.
Voodoo Art Laffer fisted America.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
DC,
Which moneyed elite are afraid? I think not. It was the middle class that were just robbed blind. You think Bill Gates is in a corner his house afraid right now? No.
Buffett said it best, it’s class warfare, and his class is winning. Nothing changed this in the last 18 months, in fact, it got worse.
Not saying I don’t wish you were right, just that I think you are wrong.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
It’s Friday afternoon in Amsterdam. I’ll bet those two are headed to the cannabis bar for a little happy hour.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I think it was the black ones…
March 20th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
It’s past midnight there, Marcus. Those guys are partying with hot, thin Eurochicks.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Is that some sort of Georgia O’Keefe Euphemism?
March 20th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
This is OT for this thread but a question for BR:
I know you are busy with the book man but a lot of us here are having the debate on a regular basis and I’m wondering what you think:
Do we deflate or is inflation on the way?
What camp are you in, or if you haven’t taken a side yet, what are you looking for that would lead you to a conclusion?
March 20th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Give the gift of mustard seeds:
http://www.mustardseedgifts.com/catalog.html
March 20th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Funny thing is, the Dutch never capitulated. They still grow and export a LOT of tulips.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Ben22 @ 5:28
“Do we deflate or is inflation on the way?”
Both. Deflate first.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
seems some how appropriate. since it looks a lot like that panic back then. in a lot of ways.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
DL, agree. However, it might take much longer than people think to reflate. For example, real estate remained depressed until the war was over after the Depression. But OTOH, cheaper real estate will allow many people to actually buy a house in the future. We just refinanced our mortgage to 4.5% (five year jumbo adjustable) which substantially added $$$ to our pockets.
The unknown is the time that it will take to work through the cycles.
March 20th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
@tranchefoot
true enough but prices have never returned to their highs of 1637…
March 20th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
hahahahaha- that’s funny- especially after reading the Botany of Desire by Pollan who goes into great detail about the rise and fall of tulips in Amsterdam
Marcus Aurelius Says:
“I’ll bet those two are headed to the cannabis bar for a little happy hour.”
technically- I believe they are called coffee bars- can’t advertise cannibas or marijauna- big wink and a nod thing over there. I had my 16 year old son with me at the time so wasn’t able to partake as one should.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
ben22 –
Gates and Buffett are never in question, and besides both of them are outliers among the wealthy in their relative liberalism. The rich whom I contend are concerned are exemplified by the traders and those whose lives and wealth depend upon them.
The idea that every market drop is the result of some move or non-move by Obama is absurd, yet it’s the incessant talking point from Steve Grasso, the Fast Money guys, etc.
As nutty and pandering as the AIG bonus furor is — and it is nutty and pandering, which is what happens when the House and Senate phones ring off the hook — it’s immaterial to the global economy. Does anyone actually think that pay packages won’t be structured around any law that passes?
And if firms don’t take government money, then isn’t that what the free market crowd wants anyway — a market solution? The reality is the traders don’t have the first clue what they really want. Thinking back over the last six months, virtually every demand from the Street has been met. Their preferred solutions have not worked, yet they blame “the government.”
My view is that the moneyed crowd is worried sick because they feel guilty for effing things up, giving horrendous advice to clients, trusting the ratings agencies, etc.
They really want a quick fix that lets them get their money back. They conveniently ignored all the bullshit they ate during the Bush-Clinton-Bush years and prefer not to admit they were eating pure fecal matter.
As is human nature, they’re looking for someone to blame and Obama is convenient (the flip side of the constituent-driven pitchfork rage on the Hill).
Obama is new, he’s black and he’s a Democrat. A Wall Street blamestorm trifecta.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Most Foreign National Students bailing on USA from Fast Company by Alissa Walker
In the study named Losing the World’s Best and Brightest more foreign students are planning to head back to their native countries after graduation.
The study surveyed 1,224 foreign national students and recent grads of U.S. institutions of higher learning. Very few foreign students said they’d like to stay in the United States permanently: Only 6% of Indian, 10% of Chinese and 15% of Europeans. The impact will be felt most in technology and entrepreneurial fields where immigrants have historically had a disproportionately greater impact, such as the founders of firms like Google, Intel, eBay and Yahoo.
Perhaps even more disheartening is that fact that only 7% of Chinese students, 9% of European students and 25% of Indian students stated they believe the best days of the U.S. economy lie ahead; 74% of Chinese students and 86% of Indian students feel their home countries hold better economic futures than the U.S.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Ha ha. Says it all. See you at SPX 150.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
we are not deflating we are in defaltion and there is no way out. inflationists are delusional.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
The tulip deflation is going to be heavily mitigated by a wonderful spring drop in the US dollar and shock wave of exports of all sorts of US created organic and industrial items from the New World shores.
By summer a bevy of beautiful variegated tulip imports will be arriving at New York harbour, of course just a tad more expensive, resulting in a nice bounce in summer inflation.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
km4, the Chinese foreign students are called “sea turtles”. The sea turtle phenomenon has been around for a few years. Right now, China and India venture capital are still in the emerging stages, but when they combine human capital with globally free-flowing investment capital as well as local financial centers and growing home markets…
Don’t worry, Larry Kudlow will tell you that “free market capitalism” featuring huge US government subsidies for oil, nuclear, defense, and Wall Street is still the best path to prosperity.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
harold hecuba Says:
March 20th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
“we are not deflating we are in defaltion and there is no way out. inflationists are delusional.”
I am starting to come around that conclusion myself. The latest actions by the Fed look like desperation to me- they are hoping and praying that they can get people to get back to credit induced purchases- people are rightly hunkering down so they can survive what is probably going to be a long hard road ahead.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
No one really knows, do they, but I’ve been telling you all along.
Did anyone catch Stupid Ben’s comment about not wanting the economy to fluctuate so much; that having a smooth, non-fluctuating economy is the “goal.” What’s going to clean the system out, if not the unsuspecting winds on the sail? No one becomes a great boatsmen, while enjoying the spinnerker continuously. Crazy crap going on in Washington these days!
March 20th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
JTS,
to your point:
this whole programme is “Realpolitik” for Finance..
Bernanke: Regulatory Overhaul Needed to Prevent Future Global Financial Shocks
http://www.cfr.org/publication/18734/avoiding_future_meltdowns.html?breadcrumb=%2Fabout%2Fcareer_opportunities%2F
March 20th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
MEH, Has he not read Friedrich Von Hayek? What mechnism pray tell does a Command Economy have to do “the job of the people?” What government needs to put in place is a system to catch the less fortunate; keep them from commiting helter skelter long enough until they can all have jobs again. But please, let the greatest distribution of the common good have another day. Don’t drown it!
March 20th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
What sector represents the “tulips”? Is it the market in general? Is it a particular sector? Don’t lose out by becoming a victim of “terminal paralysis”.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
JTS,
these ‘people’ believe that Economists like Von Hayek, and Mises are, mere, crackpots to be scorned and ridiculed.
for, certainly, their Reason gets in the way of the Poli-Sci-Fi fantasies of their Pied Piper, JM Keynes, and their, closet, guiding lights (i.e. K Marx).
The idea that BenBer is any type of Thinker that is diligently ‘trying to repair past mistakes’ is an affront to the Conscious among us..
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conscious
yes, def. 1.a. will suffice..
March 20th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Count me in the deflationist camp also…wages…wages…wages…
The question I see seldom asked is in a jobs/wages crisis as we have now…how long do most economists think before there are wage pressures again?
My tiny little monkey brain says years…..
March 20th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
“I had my 16 year old son with me at the time so wasn’t able to partake as one should.”
Are you kidding me? Wonder where he went when you went for a beer?!!
March 20th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/business/21age.html?_r=2&ref=business
Young and Old Are Facing Off for Jobs
This isn’t new…but you will have to show me how people out of work and fighting for jobs creates sustainable inflation…ain’t going to happen….
count me a Mishy….
March 20th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I’m in the minority here in the inflation camp. Fiat currency can always be debauched. The answer is too simple, inflation is a stealth tax on wealth that increases government revenue; inflation props up asset values reducing the defaults plaguing the financial system. I think it may be a year or two before the inflation kicks in but when it does it will mark a decrease in American living standards as wages will struggle to keep up in many fields.
For inflation plays there is the obvious TIPS, or I also like big utilities that have lots of debt and steady cash flows D, XEL, ED. Also even telecoms like VZ may do well as their debt is inflated away.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Mark, you mean Hayek and von Mises, not von Hayek and Mises. I think Justin may have thrown you off.
I have no problem with Austrian theory if we all agree to trim down our defense spending by 3/4.
I have always touted Schumpeter, so slightly guilty of mild Marxist sympathy…but not Keynes.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Nice snippet from the rolling stone article mentioned by Mannwich in another thread here:
As complex as all the finances are, the politics aren’t hard to follow. By creating an urgent crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand, the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future. There is a reason it used to be a crime in the Confederate states to teach a slave to read: Literacy is power. In the age of the CDS and CDO, most of us are financial illiterates. By making an already too-complex economy even more complex, Wall Street has used the crisis to effect a historic, revolutionary change in our political system — transforming a democracy into a two-tiered state, one with plugged-in financial bureaucrats above and clueless customers below.
The most galling thing about this financial crisis is that so many Wall Street types think they actually deserve not only their huge bonuses and lavish lifestyles but the awesome political power their own mistakes have left them in possession of. When challenged, they talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40.
“But wait a minute,” you say to them. “No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what’s left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?”
But before you even finish saying that, they’re rolling their eyes, because You Don’t Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money; valueswise they’re on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Since we’re reviewing cartoons here, I’m reminded of the one you showed a couple of days ago, imagining Bernie Madoff in prison.
I thought of that when I read this story: http://www.sacbee.com/1089/story/1717199.html
(sorry I don’t know how to do links.)
March 21st, 2009 at 12:26 am
AGG @ 11:35
Your analysis is sad, but largely true.
It is worth noting, however, that of the politicians in Congress who voted for the $850B TARP fiasco, most won re-election last November.
So until people start voting for politicians who oppose bailouts, more bailouts is what we’re likely to get.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:21 am
Long term deflation won’t end until the wage arbitrage issue is addressed and solved. Inflation will carry little water as long as it is cheaper to employ outside of the US and yes that includes WHITE COLLAR JOBS! The internet is amazing in its ability to provide cheaper labor for a whole slew of jobs that were once thought protected. If your job can be done in India over the internet, it is vulnerable to wage arbitrage, that includes previously thought protected jobs in the financial and legal industries.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:23 am
No joke there for me Bar. The guys that picked up the Tulips at fire-sale prices after the crash and grew for export probably cleaned up.
Not sure where you are sterring your clients these days (do you have clients?), but some of the dividend yields on less popular domestic gas and oil plays are 30% and higher. This crash is just an amazing boon IMO. I picked up PCX and LMC a couple of weeks ago for firesale prices and they’re up 30% already.
Now I may be crying in my beer in 6 months, which wouldn’t surprise me much, but I doubt I’ll be crying in 6 years.
Just seems like the buy-and-hold opportunities are getting palpably tasty. Buy them Tulips boys, they’s cheap!
March 21st, 2009 at 4:55 am
>> I think it may be a year or two before the inflation kicks in but when it does it will mark a decrease in American living standards as wages will struggle to keep up in many fields.
There will be more of that in the future. But, it’s already happened and it’s already happening. Our living standards have been going down the past few years. And, now that all the home equity (savings) are tapped out, our impoverishment is accelerating with deflation.
Inflation will hurt us badly if deflation, 25% U-6 joblessness, starvation, or no health care don’t kill us first.
March 21st, 2009 at 5:16 am
And now the CEO’s of the 3 Sisters are complaining that taxing bonuses is unfair. Agg’s RS extract was right on the money, they just don’t get it, even now. It was presumably fair to almost cause the collapse of the global financial system and in the process shatter the retirement plans of millions. But to deprive bankrupt banks of the bonuses for the same bankers that caused them to need Government bailouts, that’s just not fair!
What annoys me is that they are all talking about “Retention” of talent as the latest mantra. Frankly this “Talent” should have been kicked out on the street on its as* already not retained. And in case they hadn’t noticed nobody is recruiting right now so where would they go? I suspect that in particular nobody is interested in recruiting these very same people who need to be “Retained”. This is just more new BS after old, but the bottom line is they are living in the past. What does it take to make these guys wake up to a new reality?
March 21st, 2009 at 7:09 am
Sham time -The NYT says US will kick in 97% of funding for toxic assets purchase for a “share” of the profits – on a non-recourse basis. Fewer details on the pricing. Why all the bother to get 3% private participation? Something tells me the private investors weren’t very enthusiastic about this. I thought the idea was to leverage dwindling Treasury funds with private funds, all this for 3% “new” money jeezusmaryandjoseph! Once the Treasury creates at least a semi active market for these assets the banks won’t be able to argue MTM isn’t fair and they need a mark to model or MTM lite.
I suspect these private investors will become ultra wealthy stripping out the valuable assets and dumping the rest on Uncle Sap. I’m sure Congress will get into the details of the agreement after the fact.
I guess it really doesn’t matter, eventually the US will either formally default on their debt or hyperinflate the dollar into a complete junk currency – at that point without foreign creditors we’ll be forced to live within our means, no more wars of convenience or global empire, it was bound to happen – it’s just the speed thats surprising.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/business/21bank.html?th&emc=th
March 21st, 2009 at 7:50 am
rktbrkr,
it’s the old “Super-SIV” idea that was hooted-down during 43..
http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=%22Super+SIV%22
(name-)change we can believe in..
March 21st, 2009 at 8:00 am
Tiny Tim’s Toxic Plan. So we have at least a half trillion of toxic guarantees outstanding ($300B for CITI, $100B for BAC and $100B for AIG) and we will pick up about 90% of CITI’s losses (not counting our equity portion of CITI). So the US could be picking up over 90% of CITI’s losses for these auction sales and a portion of any gains on sales to these toxic vultures who are 97% funded by us on a non-recourse basis?
The US is either going to default on it’s national debt or embark on a drastic devaluation of the dollar by hyperinflation.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:08 am
The toughest nut still isn’t cracked, the pricing of these sales. The banks don’t want to sell for less than their optimistic marks and it’s tough to justify prices above auction prices without a direct US subsidy, meanwhile the prices of homes and mortgages underlying these toxic assets in the bubble states keep plummeting – these toxic vultures and the terminal banks will both be lobbying furiously for better deals and bigger subsidies while the underlying values tank.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:21 am
I’m with R. Timm. The govt. will get money in circulation if they have to literally drop it out of helicopters. Yes, there is deflation in real estate and commodities. But where do you see it in everyday commerce?
And this is before the stimulus kicks in. We are going to have inflation,probably very bad inflation. At the end of the day, it’s the only trick govt. knows.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:42 am
…..Meanwhile back at pessimism central….Sure they’re flooding the economy with liquidity at the moment and have been for months….the big fear at the moment is deflation not inflation……sure there’s a possibility inflation could take off in 12-18 months but the fed can destroy money as well as create it and will if required….the same folks forecasting the end of the world six months ago are now forecasting defaults on sovereign debt or hyperinflation….take a pill….it’s nice outside…..enjoy the weekend
March 21st, 2009 at 8:51 am
MEH-
I assert that there is a difference between 43 and 44. That differences can be found in the distinct levels of coherence each achieves.
“I’m going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there’s an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,” – George W. Bush on his plans for his memoir.
While I am distressed by news stories such as this one: http://coloradoindependent.com/24667/oil-giants-have-cornered-the-market-on-western-slope-water-rights-study-says
I understood what the game was when they trotted out Salazar in his widdle cowboy hat. But I feel confident that at least 44 knows the definition of the word ‘authoritarian’ and when to bury it as he pauses…Don’t know whether the Teleprompter gives him the ole (…) or an ‘uuuhh’ or a pause here. At least he can read. Do you recall the famous reading contest between 43 and his own brain? Dubya boasted of his recent disgestion of The Stranger- I think he may have confused it with The Arab Mind.
Speaking of that book, do you think that 44 will pursue a policy of enacting sexual humilliation on the Arab subject to achieve foreign policy goals for one of the Hunt brothers?
See, Jagger must have picked up something at the LSE- sometimes you get what you need.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:57 am
Philipat says:
“Are you kidding me? Wonder where he went when you went for a beer?!!”
He was with me when I went for a beer- you need to be 18 to get into the “coffee bars” but the bigger problem I had was reliving my stoner 1970 years with my 16 year old in tow.
@trainwreck says-
“Long term deflation won’t end until the wage arbitrage issue is addressed and solved.”
I agree. As far as QE and inflation expectations- what will be the trigger to start demand. You can have all the money in the world laying around but if there is no demand for the products and services that money will buy- than who cares?
March 21st, 2009 at 9:50 am
MR,
is your point, really, that 44 can read a Teleprompter better than 43 could read “My Pet Goat”, thereby, Vive la difference~ ?
And, speaking of the Hunt brothers, I wouldn’t know, I’d be more concerned about AIPAC, as Mearsheimer and Walt, well, delineated in their book: http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=The+Israel+Lobby
Foreign entanglements, no matter the stripe, as we were well warned, are bad news..
Past that, are BHO & GWB two different people? of course. Will they enact the exact same policies, and execute them the same way? No.
here’s a change:
“Senator Obama was nearly 17 minutes into his July 2 speech (yet another one where naming Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was required) in Colorado Springs, Colorado when he deviated from his pre-released script and performed without the teleprompter net saying,
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” (emphasis added)
The immediate context for that amazing statement was a preview of parts of his plan to vastly expand community service opportunities for Americans of nearly all ages. He said,
“People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve.”
The range of his community service initiatives was outlined in an earlier American Thinker article. In his campaign document entitled “The Blueprint for Change: Barack Obama’s Plan For America,” Obama’s “Service” section runs a close second to “Education” in complexity. But, with his Colorado Springs’ statement, it grabbed first place in its projected costs to taxpayers. Obama did the cost projection himself.
He plans to double the Peace Corps’ budget by 2011, and expand AmeriCorps, USA Freedom Corps, VISTA, YouthBuild Program, and the Senior Corps. Plus, he proposes to form a Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, Homeland Security Corps, Global Energy Corps, and a Green Jobs Corps. Here a corps – there a corps – everywhere a corps corps.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obamas_civilian_national_secur.html
March 21st, 2009 at 9:58 am
here’s a similiarity, among too, too many:
“White House bars press – from press awards ceremony
Well, who can blame them after the unmitigated disaster of a week Obama has had?
Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent presidential administration in American history.
This achievement and the overall promise of his historic administration caused the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. to name him “Newsmaker of the Year.”
The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon.
The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.
From the president’s official schedule:
“Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will attend a reception with the National Newspaper Publisher Association in the State Dining Room, where they will be presented the Newsmaker of the Year award. This event is closed press.”
Maybe they’ll let the newspaper people pass the award through the fence.
I predict in another couple of months, Obama will be hunkered down in the White House with his only press contacts coming with “friendlies” and known sycophants…”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/03/white_house_bars_press_from_pr.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/obama-newspaper.html
March 21st, 2009 at 10:14 am
@ Call me ahab: He was with me when I went for a beer- you need to be 18 to get into the “coffee bars” but the bigger problem I had was reliving my stoner 1970 years with my 16 year old in tow
I was teasing of course, but it didn’t do the both of us too much harm. I’m a Brit now retired and living in Bali who spent the Summer of 69 in California. Fortunately, perhaps remarkably, my brain continued to work thereafter. I’m sure your Son is a great joy for you, as mine is for me. They’re fairly flexible in AMS especially with a Father, so maybe you’re having second thoughts about the courage of convictions?
It’s part of these pivotal times perhaps?
No offense meant, enjoy your posts.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:22 am
With you on AIPAC, recall for you the Purloined Letter from Feith’s office under 43. Regarding closing events off, not good. Not in favor of it. The Colorado Springs statement- did not hear about, the locale tells me something- that placed is blessed w/ a surfeit of nuts and maroons. As to corps, I will read the AT article. I am reluctant to be swayed by these warnings as their implementation requires a level of coercion that I don’t think executable. Who is going to do?
Hunt brother was negotiating with the Kurds with tacit approval of the WH under 43.
THank you for your response, some more info to consider. I am still chewing on the Armstrong thing and decide how mad I am at you.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:37 am
MR,
what would I have to do w/ the Armstrong thing?
~~
CNBCS,
I responded to your post, twice. Both were ‘disappeared’ into WP’s ‘filter’..
btw, you like WP, IIRC, right? )
March 21st, 2009 at 10:39 am
http://www.slate.com/id/2213942/
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/9454
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover
Good morning folks.
Beautiful day in East Texas.
The above is some material I ran across yesterday, most may have already digested this, but just damn.
Moneychangers we can believe in.
Hey, i’ve got this dead horse in my pasture,
I got a long stick and tied a carrot to it, but he just lays there.
I tied more carrots to the stick, same result.
Any suggestions?
March 21st, 2009 at 11:00 am
Hi Mark – yes, I use WP because it is free and there is a host-yourself version that Ritholtz uses. I have no idea where comments disappear in Ritholtz’s servers. I have had several of my own better rants disappear.
Although I am a diehard Obama supporter, at least due to the lack of a suitable alternative (RP will never get nominated, Mark), I empathize with your Obama sentiments, especially in light of the stoopid Geithner plan. On that basis, it does seem as if Larry Kudlow and Voodoo Art Laffer were still in charge, un-Constitutionally bloating up taxpayer burden for the sake of the megacorporation banking class. It is nothing less than evil to me, but Schumpeter predicted that American capitalism would not last anyway for the exact reasons we are presently witnessing. It has gotten to the point where I actually try to watch and read less general and business news.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:19 pm
philipat-
absolutely no offense taken- my son looks pretty old for his age so he was able to have a beer or two while in Amsterdam. Bali? Wow- never been but certainly sounds like the life. Not a bad day here in DC though, 52 degrees and sunny, nary a cloud in sight. Don’t know if you’ve been to the US capital, spring time is pretty good- but feel sorry for the tourists when they arrive in July- I don’t think they know what they’re in for- but it’s one hot “mofo”. I met a Brit in Beijing a couple years ago and he was talking about how hot it was and I was thinking the weather was rather nice- mid 70′s with maybe a bit of humidity. He was from London and called himself a Londoner and did not like being thought of as a Brit. Nor sure why. He had taken a series of trains from London to get to China. I hooked up with him, a Canadian and a dude from Cameroon (Cameroonian?) and we went and visited the Summer Palace.