Another Sun-Will-Come-Out-Tomorrow Moron

Here's Wells Fargo CEO waxing bullish on house prices:

"We're not at the end," Stumpf said. "My suspicion is there is some more to go. But we're starting to see some early signs that maybe we've reached the bottom in housing or close to it."

This reminds me of Ken Lewis, who in June of this year (sneakily through his spokesman) said:

...the most likely scenario is one in which the economy does not deteriorate significantly...

He couldn't have been more wrong!

For that, see my old post Ken Lewis, Still Not Fired?

Getting back to WFC.

I am not shorting Wells Fargo directly these days. Instead, I am opting for the whole basket of Moronic banks via SKF. This way I get short exposure to Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan AND Wells Fargo in one fell swoop.

The idea that we are at or near a bottom in housing is delusion of the highest order.

They are not foreclosing on deadbeats; the homes that do go to auction aren't selling; the few that sell are fetching 45 cents on the *note*; homebuilders continue to add supply to the market; Northeastern cities still haven't been seriously hit; and layoffs are just starting.

All of these banks are facing mounting losses IN EVERY LINE OF BUSINESS. Sure, Wells Fargo is wresting tax credits from the government....but don't they need *income* to offset in the first place?

All of these banks face further dividend cuts. They're all going to have to raise equity, again.

McMorons

No, that's not a house on the Left Coast....that's Bay Ridge, Brooklyn - home of Tony Manero, aka John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever. Some guy on Flickr is calling it a "McMansion"; I would choose this as a better example.

Mr. Mortgage has an alarming post up today on jumbo prime mortgages.

Well, I guess it's only alarming to those who've been *obtuse* or asleep.

This story was originally released a couple of weeks ago but somehow did not make it to the blog. It goes hand in hand with the Moody’s downgrade of many Bank of America Jumbo Prime deals citing a 13% delinquency rate. This represents a total meltdown in the sector happening right now that nobody is reporting.

13% already? The layoffs are just starting!

I've mentioned the imminent jumbo meltdown a few times.

In August I wrote Even Rich People Were "Victimized"!

And in Beyond Subprime which I posted 13 months ago.



Get your SKF while it's cheap.

Fair Weather

It's always humorous to go to the Caribbean and see the weather forecast.

85-93 degrees. Sunny with a chance of a fleeting shower.

EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yawn.

So there's no reason whatsoever for meteorologists south of Florida. Or is there?

'Old Bag' Levity

A Bad Time For Poor Feedback

Yeah tax receipts are evaporating, but don't tell that to investors all over the globe piling into US assets.

Back in the heyday of the real estate bubble - 2002-2006 - everyone who bought a house was thinking, since they made $$$$ before the ink dried, that they should have bought MORE house or MORE houses.

In fact, that's what a lot of people did. They bought a condo in Florida or Las Vegas, watched its value skyrocket, and then they anteed up for another piece of property. When the gig was up, they were, of course, stuck with a whole bunch of property in a declining market. [Like my landlord with his four underwater homes!]

These people, call them greedy if you like, were essentially hoodwinked by short-term price action. Their *instant success* faked them out and impelled them to press their luck.

The same drama is playing out for the US Treasury and Federal Reserve. In an ideal world, or in a ceteris paribus model, when our government increases its liabilities, its currency would take a hit; as would its bonds.

BUT, in the last few innings of this *bailout*, as the government nationalized trillions of dollars of liabilities in the banking system, T- Bills, T-Bonds and the US Dollar, have done nothing but ascend in price - quite dramatically I might add. Today the closing yield on the 30 year bond was 3.09%.

I submit that this most untimely of price swings has made Congress, Wall Street, and investors all over the globe deaf, dumb, and blind to the impending reality of full scale financial collapse.

Everyone is piling into our debt and our currency at the precise moment they should be bailing.

I hypothesize that if T-bonds got whacked every time Big Government nationalized a company (BSC, AIG, FNM, FRE, C, GM,...) then Congress might very well have let the free market function, and let these dogs die quickly.



So, IMNSHO, this upward price action in Treasuries couldn't have come at a worse time as it's emboldened the clowns to elevate their meddling.

And, at this point, I think we've sunk well past the point of no return. Prayers are our only hope.

Pray that the Treasury market never gaps down 20% as it very well could.

All Things Jim Rogers

Can be found on this blog.

Usually, I simply google "jim rogers" on Google News to see he's said anything lately.

It looks like that site keeps track of everything he utters so now my workload is a bit easier.

I spent 30 minutes last night reading up on Jim's thoughts and investments. If you have the time yourself it will be well spent.

Boston Globe Luddites

So, the other day, Barry Ritholz was self-stroking over the fact that the Boston Globe mentioned his site as an *influential finance/economics blog*.

And I Captiously offered up this comment:


Click to enlarge if necessary.

Well some potty-mouthed broad, who apparently lives in Texas, took offense to that factual statement of mine. See this comment thread.

Why would someone in Texas be defending the Boston Globe? Heck, why would anyone feel compelled to defend a newspaper or its readership?

Moving on.

Yesterday I got this email from my Luddite cousin:

C-Nut, I'm a little too analog here.
1. what is the address for the family blog
2. how do i get this pic [URL given] as a jpeg so i can upload it to shutterfly

Thanks
[XXXX]

Now mind you, this has to be at least the fifth time he's asked me for our family blog's URL. Note that he also didn't know how to right click on an image, *save it to disk*, and then upload it to a website.

AND, mind y'all, this cousin of mine is not only a practicing doctor, he's also only 36 years old!

With such premature techno-illiteracy, he's what I refer to as a *young old guy*.

Anyone under the age of 40 (in 2008) should at least be able to handle the fundamentals of computing. You know, bookmarking links, knowing how to google for forgotten sites, etc. At the young age of 36, his incompetency borders on the mindboggling. I wouldn't be shocked if he still paid extra to keep his AOL email address like all the other 'old coots' and 'old bags'!

By the way, my cousin, is an avid Boston Globe reader.

Do I even have to describe the *much older* generation of Massholes and the extent of their techno-illiteracy? They can't even get the cable box and television in simultaneous "on" and "off" positions.

So when I allege that Boston Globe readers can't open a browser....I ain't talking out of my bum.

Everyone Knows But Ken Lewis

"There are some hand grenades on the balance sheet that are going to blow up on Bank of America," said James Ellman, a former Merrill Lynch money manger who is now president of San Francisco-based SeaCliff Capital LLC. "The cost savings are going to be nowhere near what they’ve already promised."

Read the entire scathing article here.

Executives including Rick Wagoner of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally have agreed to work for $1 a year. Asked by a shareholder whether he would agree to work for $1 a year for the next three years, Lewis replied, "No." He noted that Bank of America earned $5.8 billion during the first nine months of 2008.

Earned $5.8 billion?

Yeah, Ken, only if you throw all - including the heretofore FLIMSIEST - accounting standards out the window.

By the way, I didn't need to be a former *money manager* at Merrill to discern that Ken Lewis bought a ticking bomb.

I just used my Captious intuition!

The Assault On Free Markets And Private Contracts

So-called 'loan work-outs' and mortgage modifications are NOT WORKING.

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Most U.S. mortgages modified in a voluntary effort to keep struggling borrowers in their homes and stem foreclosures fell back into delinquency within six months, the chief regulator of national banks said.

Almost 53 percent of borrowers whose loans were modified in the first quarter were more than 30 days overdue by the third quarter, John Dugan, head of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said today at a housing conference in Washington.

But that's not going to stop politicians from calling more halts to *foreclosure*.

Today, New Jersey governor Jon Corzine called for a foreclosure moratorium.

A snarky commenter (link above) asked:

Does the governor also propose a 3-6 month moratorium on delinquent property tax seizures?

Did you get that? If one doesn't pay their property taxes, the government will take their home. But the state apparently doesn't think banks (rightful owners) should be permitted to boot out delinquent squatters.

Note that Jon Corzine is a former Goldman Sachs CEO. He surely understands the hypocrisy, un-Constitutionality, and the negative economic ramifications (higher mortgage rates) of this proposed foreclosure moratorium.

He just doesn't care. He's an unmitigated socialist thug posturing for *little guy* votes.

Many other states have enacted similar foreclosure *timeouts* - and they simply aren't working in any manner whatsoever.

From that first link, here's our pal Barney Frank:

Dugan’s figures reflect a failed focus on interest rates in loan modifications, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. If companies were to cut the amount owed on mortgages, borrowers would be less likely to default again, Frank said.

"The people who made the bad loans or bought the bad loans from others need to realize" that they would be better off with principal reductions than with foreclosure, the Massachusetts Democrat said.

Barney is right. If they simple cancel all debts, there'll be no more foreclosures.

The resultant INSOLVENT banks won't be too interested in taking back their homes.

This *bailout* has been and will continue to be a complete disaster.

AND, so far Congress has succeeded in blaming their own incompetence on bogeymen: greed, Wall Street, hedgefunds, and banks.

See also The Forgiveness Of Debts - It's Nothing New.

Morons Worrying About Solvency

So Bank of America turned off credit to a deadbeat, bankrupt borrower and the socialists are pissed. (link)

And now here is our *messiah*, Barack Hussein Obama weighing in on the matter:

President-elect Barack Obama also expressed support for the workers occupying the plant and agreed that the money given to banks needs to benefit the rest of the economy.

"It's also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren't just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they're designed also to get money out the door and to help people on Main Street," Mr Obama said.

Can you imagine, banks worrying about that insignificant detail - *solvency*?

What a blithering idiot!

You watch, Ken Lewis will probably give in to the public extortion.

Of course, he'll have to *cut other people's pay* to do so, in one fashion or another.

What's absolutely astounding is the impunity Big Media has granted Obama to espouse pure idiocy.

Convalescing...

I can't sit at my computer tonight on account of my aching back (the cold) and aching bum (the market).

Yeah, my short positions did not fare well on this 300 point (Dow) *up* day.

I did see two worthwhile stories today.

One, the *bankrupt* New York Times is, like all your Moronic friends over the past few years, taking out a HELOC to *get by*.

And the other was an interesting story in Forbes - How Zell Killed Tribune.

Got Squeezed

Since last Tuesday morning all I have been doing is losing money.

Got crushed with my short Treasury position - long TBT:



Got crushed with my long oil position - long DXO:



And got crushed buying my Ultrashorts in Real Estate and Financials - SRS and SKF:





Click any of those 5-day charts to enlarge.

Fortunately, as I mentioned in my last trading post, I nimbly got out of SKF at 162.90.

The only problem was I bought it back as it came in. At 151.07, 142.24, 132.68, and then a chunk more near the close on Friday at 118.72.

I reloaded on SRS as it fell also. After buying at 128.00 on Monday, I bit again at 123.00, 117.04, 112.10, and I grabbed a chunk more near the Friday close as well, at 98.40.

I also bought more TBT at 44.63 and 42.57.

And more DXO at 2.68.

Wells Fargo didn't help much either - rallying 6.5 points on the week. I bought a handful of December 25 puts at 1.25 on Friday - to add to my portfolio of April 30s and January 30s, puts.

One last buy was a small one, of EEV at 71.74. That's the Ultrashort Emerging Markets ETF.

I expect the market to rally on Monday on the BS Big Auto *bailout*. We'll see if it holds.

There's definitely a short squeeze going on. I just pray it's nothing like the last one in September.

All of my positions are getting to be of *good size*. And I am comfortable holding all of them over the next few months - if I can.

Trash - The Worst Chore

Even as a young child, I remember *taking out the trash* having stigmatic overtones.

But it's not until recently, as an ostensible adult, that I realized how terrible a chore it was.

Trash pours into my house like an endless stream. It seems like mail, toy boxes, and foodstuffs are the main culprits but I've yet to do a thorough analysis.

Furthermore, it seems as my family has gotten bigger and older, the volume of garbage has risen exponentially.

Plastics are a nuisance. I remember my father decapitating the empty gallon container of milk, EVERY SINGLE DAY, for years upon years. He did this so he could jam small bits of trash into the vacuum and stuff the garbage bags to the max.

When I did get saddled with *trash* as an adolescent, my parents made me open, pour ammonia into, and re-tie each bag. This was supposedly so animals (dogs) didn't rip open the bags. That was the 1980s, back when the leash law was just a suggestion.

Now, I have to sort my trash into about 10 categories and haul it to the dump (aka transfer station).

Admittedly, I just jam most recyclables into trash bags and lump them in with *household garbage*. But can y'all believe that I can't just throw the glass in a bin? I have to sort it into green, brown, and clear varieties!

This crap is out of control. I can't wait to dump this responsibility on Litte C-Nut.

[Yeah, that's Jessica Biel pictured above....saving the environment.}

Attention Perverts

Young...



...and old.

Don't be surfing the web on your work PCs.

My wife had to fire an employee of hers not long ago for looking at p0rn on his laptop. He was doing this on his own time, through his own ISP.

When he logged back onto the corporate network, *security* could see from the cookies his entire *perverted* browsing history.

So when I see more than a few corporate ISPs hitting my blog late on a Saturday night (like yesterday) I get worried - and feel this WARNING is necessary.

I will turn you in!

Greg Mankiw - Invertebrate Moron

Click here for video.

Larry Kudlow - Which would give a bigger jolt to the economy: lower taxes or bigger government spending?

Greg Mankiw - Well the standard textbook Keynesian theory suggests that if you're interested in increasing aggregate demand, a dollar of government spending is going to generate more demand than a dollar of tax cuts but there's actually some evidence that suggests that's not exactly true....that tax cuts may do more in terms of stimulating private investment than will government spending. And so I think the really[sic] question is what's the government spending the money on and is it things we really need. If it's things we need and are useful that's fine. But if there not things we need it's probably better to use the money for tax cuts.



I think it's important to once in a while post Mankiw's fence-sitting, wack-ademic cant.

Greg, Big Government gimp that he is, thinks we need only deal with *how the government* spends our money. He won't dare call the public treasury what it is - ill-gotten, un-Constitutional confiscation.

You see, Congress shouldn't have the money in the first place. The question of what they do with it post-theft is at once a deflection and a submission.

Larry Kudlow's tack is transparent. To further his *advocacy journalism*, he hauls up willing stooges like Greg Mankiw (and buffoon Jerry Bowyer), flatters them ("number 1 economics blogger in America"), and tries to get them to agree with his tireless perma-bull agenda.

Yeah, I'm for *tax cuts* Larry. But I don't need to propagandize and adorn my arguments with unctuous pseudo-intellectuals from Harvard.

Larry, Mankiw didn't give you one straight answer. And why would he? You didn't (couldn't?) challenge him in the slightest.

Larry Kudlow - Isn't it better to have a broad-based permanent tax cut?

Greg Mankiw - I think there are different points of view on that....If you had a bunch of economists in a room you're going to get seven opinions from six economists. So there's no real consensus on that.

Thanks, Greg. Your value-added is off the charts!

When Did We Cross That Line?

My recently-divorced BIL (brother-in-law) told me that one nice thing about dating (again) is that there are boundaries.

His new girlfriend has yet to fart on him. And she's yet to institute an open-door bathroom policy.

This was in contradistinction to his (and everyone else's) marriage where the *line was crossed* who knows when.

He said that the first time she *lets one out* on him, SBD or not, he's out of this relationship in a heartbeat. I am sure that the first one his ex-wife (and everyone else's) hit him with was *cute*. He ain't making that mistake again.

We ought to have them over for dinner, serve 'em chile or my potent sausage and lentil soup, and put that promise to the test!

[Check out the young lass above. Someone branded her hiney like she was livestock!]

About ten years ago, a good friend of mine in Philly started his first serious relationship. He complained that his *stomach hurt* because he had to hold in so much methane in the presence of his newfound sweetheart. He'd been letting loose for a couple of decades and this new prohibition was taxing the equilibria of his bodily systems.

I myself remember a going through a similar transition back in the day. Now I'm very much at ease, thank you.

Cloud Fetishists

Who knew there was a Cloud Appreciation Society?

There's a pretty cool slideshow of "lenticular clouds" here - if this type of thing floats your boat?

Unity, A Ruse

Few take seriously the notion that there is a conspiracy of global elites attempting to concentrate power and subjugate all humanity.

It's laughable, right?

I recently broached the subject with On The Elite.

Read this:

UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.

In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.

"...And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society."

"My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society."

Unity sounds great, does it not?

The reality is, unity sucks. We don't need *one world order*, we need several competing orders.

Make no mistake, one *order*, one set of *laws*, one *international court*,....these are all ruses to enthrone One World Government.

Here's collectivist Barney Frank from an old post:

Financial regulators on both sides of the Atlantic may not be able to resolve policy disputes through co-operation and the creation of a global regulator should be considered, according to Barney Frank, the senior Democratic congressman.

Asked if a supra-national regulator would be needed, he told the Financial Times: "I don’t know. At this point that’s something to look into."

The same goes for *financial* and *accounting* standards. Optimally, the world will have many different exchanges and sets of standards vying for capital and human energy. Barney Frank's call for a *supra-national regulator* ought to be reckoned an act of treason!

Again, you can ignore the rhetoric if you like, if it settles your stomach and sedates your brain, but it all points to One World Government - one way to live.

Unity ain't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, post-Civil War, that shibboleth was used to create (among other things) the mandate for hideous, compulsory, state-run schooling.



What's deeply ironic is the fact that the global elite, the dissembling Communists, have co-opted the term *diversity* for themselves.

So what would a small group need to *co-opt* the literal meaning of a well-defined word in the dictionary?

That's right. They'd need to possess considerable power in the first place.

C-Nut Wannabes

If I was going to write a book on Morons I DEFINITELY wouldn't give it a nonsensical title.

What the heck is an *Intellectual Moron*?

Is it to be contrasted with a *Physical Moron*? Or an *Emotional Moron*?

I've got news for Daniel Flynn - If one falls for *stupid ideas*, they definitely isn't very smart!

There's only one CaptiousNut - the rest are pitiable pretenders.

Hard To Warn Morons

One of my wife's friends was over yesterday. She said this to me:

FlippantFriend - I know somebody who works at Putnam....the other day they laid off 300 people, WITH NO WARNING whatsoever.

[Putnam Investments is a Boston-based family of mutual funds.]

CaptiousNut - Well, there was, [pause], SOME WARNING....given what the markets are doing.

FlippantFriend - No, there wasn't. There was NO WARNING. It caught them completely by surprise.



How could anyone work in asset management and not think a 40+% year-to-date drop in the markets wouldn't have *layoff* repercussions?

I wouldn't even give a secretary a pass on this.

Furthermore, the FlippantFriend's husband also works for a large Boston asset manager. Apparently she has no idea that her husband's job and/or bonus is in palpable jeopardy - that is, until they get a WARNING.

Boston's going to get hit particularly hard if the stock market doesn't bounce or if the lumpen masses start to turn their collective nose at equity investments. Outside of the oxymoronical Government Economy - hospitals, colleges, biotech, and municipalities - all that Boston really has is a large money management industry - Fidelity, Putnam, State Street, Columbia, AMG,...

Boston has no hedge funds. It has no manufacturing base. In fact my buddy who's in the shipping biz tells me that it's very expensive to get trucks to deliver up here on account that they never can get a return load bound for elsewhere.

Read also The Skim Biz Takes A Hit and Skim Biz Update - Fidelity Investments.

A Long Way From...

He's come a long way from pink lemonade and *man-watching*!!!

My last single friend just got hitched - to a female.

Now the race is on between Taylor and West Coast Tom....to see which can finds a lid first.

Otherwise I am going to sit back and enjoy the next several years with no more weddings to attend.

Homeschooling Book

Boy, that pic stinks!

Author Milton Gaither recently wrote a book titled Homeschool: An American History. You can read the introduction on the web. Here's an excerpt:

While sweeping generalizations are difficult to make for such a broad time span, I will hazard a few here. First, education in the home has indeed been a constant throughout the period, but its social meaning has changed dramatically. We will see, for example a gradual shift from the colonial period when civil government aggressively enforced a certain sort of home education to the slow and voluntary eclipse of home instruction by other institutions, to the antagonism between home and school that has been a hallmark of the homeschooling movement, and finally to an increasing hybridization of home and school today. In my view something truly revolutionary is happening with the homeschooling movement that can only be understood if we take the long view. Historian John Demos once wrote that the history of the family in America “has been a history of contraction and withdrawal; its central theme is the gradual surrender to other institutions of functions that once lay very much within the realm of family responsibility.” But in our own time we are seeing a reversal of this longstanding pattern. Homeschooling is only the most obvious example here. Others include the rise in popularity of house churches among some conservative Protestants, the preference for live-in nannies and “au pairs” over day care among those who can afford it, the fashion of home-births by midwives among many “crunchy” Americans, home-based hospice care, telecommuting, and the like. Some of the fuss over homeschooling may be due to the fact that it has been on the cutting edge of a larger renegotiation of the accepted boundaries between public and private, personal and institutional.



So my son just got this talking globe for his birthday. Yesterday, we were doing "continents". It asked us to find "Oceania". I was stumped.

I had no idea that it was another name for the continent/region of Australia.

Wasn't it a Oceanic Airlines plane that crashed on Lost?

Continued personal learning is just one of the many thrilling wonders of homeschooling.

I also recently learned about Ceres from my 4 year old son.

Wimping Out

West Coast Tom *dared* me to put this pic on my blog.

Now, if he had *double dog dared* me I might have been compelled to put the image directly on this blog. Alas, I have to be sensitive to my humor-less corporate sponsors.

But, boy do I hope my know-it-all MIL clicks on that link.

She might very well cough up her subprime rib roast!!!

UPDATE - My MIL corrected me again. She sent me an email reminding me that I was the *know-it-all* and she was *never wrong*. So I will think about apologizing for that mis-modification. Judging by the tone of her email, I think it's fair to say that she clicked on the link and suffered gastrointestinal disenchantment!

Why Passive Investment Is Doomed

So today both Merrill Lynch shareholders and Bank of America shareholders voted on the proposed combination.

There was never a doubt that this deal would be approved. From Merrill's standpoint, shareholders realize they are bankrupt without a lifeline.

And from Bank of America's standpoint, all dissenters have long since sold their stock.

According to Bloomberg, all the directors skipped the votes. What a cravenly display by these Morons!

Every Merrill Lynch & Co. board member except Chairman John Thain skipped the final act in the 94-year-old firm’s history, failing to appear for a shareholder vote on its sale to Bank of America Corp.

The board has presided over an 88 percent plunge in Merrill’s stock price from its high in January 2007. Writedowns on subprime mortgage-related bonds stuck the firm with five straight quarterly losses totaling $24 billion.

In Bank of America’s hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, board member Meredith Spangler was the only director apart from CEO Kenneth Lewis to attend a separate meeting today where the bank’s shareholders approved the purchase. Bank of America has completed more than $100 billion in takeovers during the past seven years.





Note that Meredith Spangler is some 70 year old *old bag* on BoA's incompetent Board of Directors. Why don't investors sue her and the rest of them for gross fiduciary negligence? Did she really make $942,774 for sitting on the Board last year?

Okay. Moving on.

The apathy and infamy of absented directors at these shareholder meetings demonstrates far more than the fact that such positions are merely *politically correct* sinecures.

This sorry spectacle proves that public companies - as they are structured today - fail to protect the *passive investor*. The whiny masses and the socialists from Big Media often inveigh against corporate *management* - how it's a bastion of cronyism; how executives are only out to enrich themselves in the short run.

While I'm AGAINST class warfare and those who traffic in envy, I have to agree in part with that sentiment.

BUT, corporate malfeasance is only half of the equation.

No one can rob you if you don't tote a wallet in their presence.

The fact remains, Morons blindly dump money into index funds and mutual funds every month, and every year. They just want to sit back and trust the fund manager or the government to do what rightfully should be their own due diligence.



Click to enlarge the chart.

Bank of America traded down to 10.01 two weeks ago - a near 17 year low. Ken Lewis still has his job. If that doesn't tell you the system stinks I well don't know what would.

The analogy that comes to mind is Massachusetts and its elected-for-life politicians like Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy. The socialists up here drove away all free enterprise and in doing so, they effectively solidified their control.

Say you're a large institutional shareholder of Bank of America. You think a proposed takeover is stupid (e.g. Countrywide, Merrill, MBNA, Lasalle Bank, US Trust,...). Sure you could raise hell at a shareholder meeting or drum up some negative publicity but what exactly would that accomplish? A profoundly stupid deal implies profoundly stupid management. You may well succeed at blocking the dumb business decision du jour but what kind of long term plan is that? Once someone (Ken Lewis) has revealed himself as a complete Moron, it's only a matter of time before another disastrous business decision. One must read the writing on the wall and sell the stock.

Gift Idea - Mangroomer

Where did I see an ad for this? Bed, Bath, and Beyond?

Part of the *Beyond*, I guess.

This why these stores are bankrupt. Who the heck would ever buy this product?

If you had a hairy back, wouldn't you just have your lady friend shave it for you?



And, if she won't....it shouldn't be that hard to replace her, right?

A classic:

What Is The Cost Of Living?

Have you ever done the math?

My bills are between $3,000 and $4,000 each month. Add to that $2,500 in monthly rent.

$3,500 x 12 months = $42,000

$2,500 x 12 months = $30,000

Total Annual Expenses = $72,000

At a 50% tax bracket, that would imply we need $144,000 of gross income JUST TO BREAK EVEN on the year.

Round down to say $130,000 - which I submit is what it costs in gross income to raise a family of four in 2008 Boston, Massachusetts.

Look at this chart below that I found. It pretty much corroborates my contention:



Now, mind you, we don't have any student loans, no car payments, no childcare expenses. I mow my own lawn, shovel my own driveway, and clean my own house. And what clothes I do own come from the sale racks at Old Navy.

I just don't know how EVERYONE can spend the money they spend.

There'll be no pensions when we retire. Social Security will be bankrupt - as will Medicare.

Y'all need to stop wasting money and start thinking long term.

Make poverty history?

Hah! We really ought to take a bite out of *luxury* as well.

Trade Down To A Clunker

Have y'all seen the drop-off in North American auto sales?

From Barry Ritholtz's blog:

U.S. auto sales plunged 37 percent in November to the lowest annual rate in 26 years as the recession and Detroit automakers’ aid pleas kept buyers away from showrooms.

Ford’s November sales down 30.6%.

Toyota sales down 33.9%.

Honda sales down 31.6%.

Volvo sales tumbled 46.5%.

Chrysler U.S. sales fell 47%.

GM falls 41%.

Nobody NEEDS a 20, 30, or 40 thousand dollar vehicle. The purchase of such is pure self-indulgence. A car gets one from Point A to Point B; anything else is ego waxing.

Car sales are down so much because Morons, all at once, realized what I just wrote - that a snazzy new car is a discretionary purchase....one that can be drastically cut if need be.

If the lumpen, over-leveraged masses go from buying a new car every 3 years to trading in every 5 years....what's that? Something like a 67% drop in unit demand?

Furthermore, consider that the sheeple will be buying lower-end (Read: lower margin) vehicles going forward as well. Salt in the wound!

In summation, the entire auto industry, both in size and price point, is revealing itself as a purveyor of *luxury goods*.

And *luxury goods* dealers who peddle to the masses.....well, they don't exactly have the most optimal of business plans.

Our Speculator Takes His Loss

It looks like the flipper is done bleeding cash.

Remember, I had 800k as his approximate breakeven - not counting carrying costs and sleepless nights. It looks like the final sale price was $720,000.

Background:

Marginalizing A Speculator,

Another Week, Another Hopeless Price Drop

Now In The Red.

The Shield - Series Finale

My second favorite show ended last Tuesday. I just got around to watching the series finale last night.

Was it a *good ending*?

No. Because it *ended*.

Sure it was deeply philosophical and artfully culminated - nevertheless, I lost another show.

I haven't been this depressed since Party of Five went off the air.

[Though, Third Watch ending was also tough. I loved that show but never met anyone else on planet Earth who ever saw it. It was on borrowed time for a while.]

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the LORD. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to, feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

--Abraham Lincoln - October 3, 1863

My MIL, yeah the one and only who argues with Moses, told me that if Abe Lincoln were Catholic, he'd be canonized as a saint.

Lincoln is one of these towering figures that I've never really read. One day soon, hopefully.

Note how many times this *bastard*, *right-wing wacko*, *evangelical nutjob* invokes the Almighty.

Such profanity wouldn't fly today with Big Media and the other high priests of statism.

Heck, if Abe Lincoln were to use such diction as a present-day government school teacher....they'd fire his butt.