The Madoff Halloween Mask
By Barry Ritholtz - October 31st, 2009, 4:30PM
In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone. —John Kenneth Galbraith
Macro Notes
US$ rally continuesPeter Boockvar
Asian currencies continue to sell off vs the $ on the heels of the news yesterday that South Korea said they will look into hot money inflows stemming from the $ carry trade and the Bank of Indonesia said they are looking into the foreign buying of bills. This follows the news a few weeks ago that Taiwan was limiting foreign deposit holdings and Brazil was taxing foreign inflow transactions. As I mentioned yesterday, we may have reached a short term pain threshold in terms of $ weakness and foreign countries are fighting back as they certainly won't wait for...
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October 31st, 2009 at 4:56 pm
now THAT is creepy
October 31st, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Ford UAW deal doomed
With just a few UAW locals left to vote, UAW officials have concluded that there is no way that a proposal to modify its labor contract with Ford Motor Co. can pass.
On Friday, two of the UAW’s largest units that represent three of assembly plants resounding defeated a proposal that Ford said it needed to be competitive with its domestic rivals.
“It looks like the numbers are heavily against it,” said Rocky Comito, president of UAW Local 862 in Louisville. “I see no way of overcoming it.”
-Will these guys ever get it??
October 31st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
The best costumes are the ones that you don’t have to explain (ie, “What are you supposed to be?”), so I suspect this will only work in certain circles!
October 31st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Sent a chill up my spine.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Lloyd Blandfein’s Mask…is a better one…and link here even though it doesn’t come up. HAPPY HALLOWEEN, LLOYD! RECI…(Rest in Criminal Institution)…or better yet..the GEITHNER MASK FROM HELL!
http://www.welt.de/multimedia/archive/1236439349000/00768/blankfein_DW_Wirtsc_768218g.jpg
Exclusive Interview – Lloyd Blankfein
Goldman Sachs CEO warns against nationalization
(0)
By Jörg Eigendorf and Sebastian Jost March 7, 2009, 16:49
Lloyd Blankfein has managed to avoid mayor disasters while leading Goldman Sachs through the crisis. The most influential banker on Wall Street is now hoping for the markets to recover. He thinks that Senior executives should be required to retain most of the equity they receive at least until they retire. Blankfein even has a piece of advice for the EU.
Meeting the CEO of Goldman Sachs during his visit to Europe is not easy. In Brussels, Lloyd Blankfein, finally found a gap in his schedule for a one-hour-interview. Exactly one hour and not a moment longer – he still has to meet with senior European politicians. Since the financial crisis began there is not much time to talk to journalists – it is Blankfeins first interview since September 2007. Two days later we met him again, together with a small group of high-ranking business and political leaders, for breakfast in Berlin’s Axel Springer publishing company. Blankfein does not have airs and graces. That might have something to do with his background – the Bronx….
October 31st, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Sheesh…another spelling error with that guy’s name… This time a TYPO…Blankfein………sorry about that twice! :eyes:
October 31st, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Not to mention “mayor disasters”. I’ve known a few.
October 31st, 2009 at 8:43 pm
eh, it’s alright
jp morgan’s face might have been a scary mask.
http://www.jenbekman.com/blog/2007/06/15/old-favourites/
or
October 31st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
HarryWanger:
Given what we see with the banksters, why would you ever trust corporate America? And besides that, have you heard/seen terms of the contract Ford wants to impose? It’s draconian.
October 31st, 2009 at 9:16 pm
By any chance, is anybody annoyed by Barack Obama tonight?
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/friday-reading-3/comment-page-2/#comment-231136
Is there any chance I’m bugging you?
October 31st, 2009 at 9:42 pm
This is pretty scary to those who think the economy has recovered.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/3hXuqsvXe2Y/desperate-sears-started-black-friday-today-2009-10
October 31st, 2009 at 9:47 pm
CNBC Sucks:
Unfortunately I get anti-obama emails every day from friends and acquantances so I don’t have to relish those posts here. But, I suppose you need friends and acquantances before you get emails
October 31st, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Funny, but how about more outings of the “geniuses” formerly employed at the SEC whose inredible incompetence allowed this Ponzi sceme to continue. Would you do business with a law firm that hired these morons?
October 31st, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Madoff doesn’t scare me. Most scary people for me.
1. Bernanke
2. Obama
3. Democratic Congress
Don’t mean to be political. Just basing it on who’s the most power to fuck my life.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:52 am
To madman:
Those are my top 3 also.
Alas though one more needs to added:
Soros the Pig Man.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:58 am
@CNBCS
When I learned to never worry about what I couldn’t control was a great day in my life. Since I can’t ‘make’ the BOs and GSs of the world conform to my will then why even get annoyed about it? They will do what they do and they will gloat about it. For many, the little guy’s annoyance and frustration is the only reason they exist or at least do things the way they do. Especially those in the MSM. CNBC is a great example.
Once you learn to no longer worry about what others are doing with their power and their lives you can find peace of mind much easier. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to go on a rant every so often or tear into a rabid pack of liberals every once in a while in order to ‘educate’ them. It just means that you don’t wake up every day and live every waking moment, as you say, annoyed.
It makes for a much higher quality of life. So don’t think that, as you toss your hand grenades over the fence snickering, you are actually hitting your targets. You may be getting to some people but for the most part you are probably just wasting your time
November 1st, 2009 at 7:20 am
Common man:
Well put. I’m grappling with creating the balance you extol. I practice this in my personal life.
The thing is these crooks have reached in my wallet and bank account AND everyone elses and stole from us.
The real blame lies in the American people having it real good in this wonderful republic we live in. We toss the wand of responsibility to 545 people and watch American idol (not me , of course).
Thr republic is so fragile right now, we must rise up and live ,eat and breathe it’s sanctity.
Ben Franklin story:
As Mr. Franklin is walking outside after designing the constitution, a woman walks up to him and says,
“Sir what have you given us?”
“A Republic if you can keep it.”
All “us cnbcs are trying to “keep it” now.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:09 am
Unfortunately the “Republic” was lost after the Eisenhower administration (chipped away at it up to Kennedy, and we see where trying to get it back went). The final nails in the coffin of America as we thought it was supposed to be were from Reagan, Clinton and of course the fascist Bush, Jr. & Co.
Enjoy our bankrupt, banana republic police state now, while you still can.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:36 am
mathman:
With that attitude , we are sure to fail.
do not underestimate the wrath of a mother for one thing.
nor the power of informed Americans,
nor the patriotism of the armed forces, veterans
November 1st, 2009 at 8:48 am
@Pithy
The thing is these crooks have reached in my wallet and bank account AND everyone elses and stole from us.
Yet what exactly can you do about it? Vote once every two years and hope everyone else in your district agrees with it? You can change your corner of the world but won’t have such good luck changing everybody else’s. You can change yours by getting really angry and getting yourself shot, jailed or beat up or you can channel that anger into something productive.
Once I learned to turn off the news feed when I found myself getting angry and focusing on something else, it definitely changed me as a person. Now, I don’t need to turn off the feed because I realize that you can’t worry about what you can’t control. I find myself now getting sad for those in the news as opposed to angry. They usually do face some sort of justice and people do get pain from it. Innocent and guilty alike.
I guess the anger was from the desire for justice but when justice goes unsatisfied it just ends up burning a hole inside your own person. Instead, I don’t worry about it and look on with sadness at the consequences knowing they could have been avoided. Then you just pray that people learn from it
November 1st, 2009 at 10:54 am
HTCMSI,
even this: “…and look on with sadness..” needs to be checked. a rueful acknowledgement, which, it well may be, is one thing, but, letting it grow to ’sadness’, still, consumes one.
this: “When I learned to never worry about what I couldn’t control was a great day in my life.” is a great insight, though, the idea that we have little influence should, to me anyways, be questioned.
don’t you ever wonder why ‘Trends’ change? how ‘new’ ones, start?
maybe this note http://www.worldtrans.org/pos/monkey.html from the Zoological-sphere provides some insight..
or, possibly, this http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/oversoul.html from our wonderings in the Philosophy-sphere will show us that We are not as isolated as we may Imagine.
and, differently, maybe we should learn something from the Tortoise –”He only makes Progress when he sticks his neck out..”
November 1st, 2009 at 11:21 am
MEH,
I have lived long enough to learn that one person can’t be Atlas and do all the heavy lifting. When I was younger I had that type of mentality and I see that a lot in the frustrated ranting of many on the net today.
Unless the crowd wants to change things, it probably won’t happen.
Yes, we can be ‘weak catalysts’ for change (which I consider myself to be) but to stand in front of the crowd or to try to get them moving is near impossible unless you are in a position of power. We can only help with crowd inertia. We can’t create it (unless we become a star on you tube or something
)
Understand that I am coming from Christian roots since I was a teenager a couple decades ago. I have made the effort to stand against a culture that has slowly turned away from what I believe in and until I adopted my current ‘attitude’ I found it quite frustrating and heartbreaking.
Now I have found contentment but it still breaks my heart to see people blowing each others brains out (literally) in the name of cultural ‘freedom’
November 1st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
HTCMSI,
no doubt that one’s attempt to be Atlas will turn him into Sisyphus..
this: “We can only help with crowd inertia. We can’t create it..”, though, I wonder about.
We choose to support, or not, those activities, around us, that fuel, said, inertia, no?
Sometimes, being Contra is Positive, yes?
And, simply, those that are following this: “people blowing each others brains out (literally) in the name of cultural ‘freedom’”-path, would do well to ask ‘which Man plotted this course?’..being co-opted is not a pre-requisite for, and has nothing to do with, cooperation.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:28 pm
We choose to support, or not, those activities, around us, that fuel, said, inertia, no?
That is true. Though there is more talking than doing these days. I must admit, I believe in eternity so hope does spring eternal….and I am also a romantic fool
….on Quixote! (I think I’ll name my mythical horse Quixote)
I must admit, we have almost slain the Fed (or at least opened up a serious flesh wound). That took a LOT of heavy lifting though. I’ve been pounding at that door personally for close to 15 years on and off the ‘net. The victory seems Pyrrhic to me though.
Of course, that is a 100 year old dragon so it should be larger and more ingrained in the heart of the people than normal. I guess we shouldn’t expect the battle to be easy
Sometimes, being Contra is Positive, yes?
Sometimes positive always expensive. It doesn’t win you a lot of friends and often you are alone in the room to be ridiculed. It builds some tremendous callouses. I’m still trying to figure out if it is worth the cost. Maybe at the end of my journey it will be.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
HTCMSI,
w/this: “It doesn’t win you a lot of friends and often you are alone in the room to be ridiculed.”
see: “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
The first half of this quotation is a misquotation from Thoreau’s Walden:
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”
Second half of this quotation is misattributed to Thoreau and may be a misquotation or misremembering of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ (1809-1894) “The Voiceless”:
Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them.
http://walden.org/Institute/thoreau/writings/Misquotations/MostMen.htm
LSS: most of those peep, that you describe, would never be ‘your friends’, and, usually, try to attack you to quell their own, self-obvious, deficiencies..
~~
re: The FedRes..that Cock croweth still, make with an update when the Soup’s on..
though, with this: “The victory seems Pyrrhic to me though.”, We, each, tally our own Accounts, though, to me, if we could accomplish that which Jefferson, and Jackson, managed, I’d think it valuable, at least, for the Future that would be, more, our own..
November 1st, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Thanks Gentlemen for the valuable insights.
Here’s what I know:
I have more than 40 yrs. left on the planet. I cannot think of anything more important than saving liberty.
“Live Free or die”
are literal words.
.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:18 pm
The thing is these crooks have reached in my wallet and bank account AND everyone elses and stole from us.
With Omaba’s change all I got left is an empty wallet and few change in my pocket.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Or better yet,
Obama promised a change and that’s what I got, a few change in my pocket.
November 1st, 2009 at 7:20 pm
madman
“CHAANGE, CHANNGE! Can you spare some change, please?”
)
-South Park homeless/obama parody.
(intentional sm. o)
November 1st, 2009 at 7:29 pm
btw
-real episode in case you think I made it up