Mike's Blog Round Up
Mike Finnegan is touring in Europe this summer. Lambert Strether from CorrenteWire is filling in this week.
Greed and fear? I don't do the greed part; if I were any good at making money, I would already have made some. Fear, I can do; but in common with most of the blogosphere, I do political fear of the criminal Bush regime, not economic fear. Of course, in the future, these two fears may merge, perhaps even quicker than we expect.
But even I noticed that the Dow dropped some large number of points yesterday. Mostly, though, the blogosphere didn't (and the wankosphere was too busy ferreting out lefties who drop the F-bomb instead of killing people, lke the Godly do).
So, when the Dow drops three million points and nobody blogs about it -- well, almost nobody (click on the man; he needs the hits!) -- did it really drop? Herewith the results of my random walk through the blogosphere.
Actually, I had a few false starts: My best hits on Technorati came from "Stocks AND Plunge," and they weren't very good. Sneaky Business at least rated the headlines. Then I checked out Brad DeLong. He's an economist! And for some strange reason, he's writing about Grover Cleveland:
The agitation seemed to [Cleveland]... a threat to law and order.... Coxey's Army was met with a barrage of injunctions and... the Capitol police.... The Pullman strike was smashed by federal troops who kept the mails moving, the union leaders imprisoned, and the union crushed. And the financial panic was dealt with through the highly orthodox and [highly] compensated assistance of Mr. Morgan.
The underlying causes... were neither understood nor dealt with... an opportunity was missed.... If, to take one of them, the problems arising out of the concentration of industrial ownership had been tackled when they were still malleable and subject to effective treatment, we might have been spared some aches and pains that are still with us.
Yes, well. But then Holden asks: Have you seen my Bush boom? Good question, and I have the answer:
Yes! It went thataway!
It went thataway into the pockets of scamming executives (sorry for the redundancy). It went thataway into the pockets of the hopelessly corrupt Beltway elite (sorry for the redundancy). It went thataway into suburban MacMansions that were designed to be foreclosed on. Jim Freeman gives the step-by-step for that, all the way to who'll be left holding the bag (guess), but since I don't understand money, I'll just cut to where we all saw the scam start:
You invent a new investment "vehicle" and call it a sub-prime mortgage. The reason it's called a vehicle is because it's designed to drive off with your money.
Of course, there's always hope, and a financial advisor over at Hecate's Place offers some, in comments:
I asked a financial advisor once ... what people already in trouble could do before things got worse.
His response, not the least bit tongue in cheek, was quite surprising. I thought he'd run down a list of ways to negotiate with crditors, tricks to find affordable healthcare and ways to protect what little you might have. His advice....teach them how to plant a garden in a very small space and give them some goats.
It went thataway!
But enough about stocks. How about bonds?
Guest Bloggerativity: Over at The Mighty Corrente Building we write about gardening all the time. Now I know why.
Classic blogging: Unsung hero Paul Lukasiak on aWol's TANG records. Unsung hero Daily Howler on the war on Gore.
D'oh!
Gardening has become one of my favorite topics, as my discretionary spending funds have declined during the Bush boom.
Learning that plastics and antifreeze are used bulk up commercial food products has further encouraged me.
As to the market, I used to do software work in trading software protocols. After seeing the sausages being made, I'm not so impressed anymore. As far as I can tell, its mostly a put up and a game that the big banks play. Its a rigged game designed in the long run to soak our pensions and 401ks.
Okay, I'll be nice, but I was "blogging" about this WAY before Atrios. Albeit, it wasn't on my *own* blog, it was on this one. But, that's just semantics.
Forget Stewart, O'Reilly, Colbert & KeithO and keep concentrating on the economy. After all, that's what it's about, stupid. (That's merely a Slick Willie Clinton reference, so don't take it personally.)
The Dow dropped over 400 points at the end of February, then climbed over 1,500 points over the next three months. Yesterday it only dropped 300 points. People seem to forget that a few hundred points in the Dow is nothing but a correction when the index is over 12,000.
Lambert who? Sorry if I never heard of you.
Big bankers, indeed, run the show. From behind the scenes, of course.
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws."
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce." - President James A. Garfield (1831-1881)
"Whosoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce... And when you realise that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." - James Garfield (assasinated within weeks of release of this statement during first year of his Presidency in 1881)
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated Governments in the world - no longer a
Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and
vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of
small groups of dominant men". Woodrow Wilson (Just before he died, Wilson is reported to have stated to friends that he had been "deceived" and that "I have betrayed my Country". He
referred to the Federal Reserve Act passed during his Presidency.)
The market "plunged" just over 2%, after the economy grew 3.4% for the last quarter. Not exactly time to jump out the window. The economy is lackluster, and the money is all being pushed to the top, but this "plunge" was more of a blip. Probably no one blogged about it because it isn't much of a story.
Ah very slick.
Lewis Lambert Strether is the protagonist of Henry James's 1903 novel The Ambassadors.
Weaseldog @ 2:
Exactly. With index futures, put options, short selling, ETFs, and a gazillion other derivatives, the big guys will still make a killing if the market dropped down to zero by Monday. The only people that will get the shaft are those who "buy and hold"... and these tend to be hard working people with pensions and 401ks.
Have you seen my Bush boom?
I have, last time he tried to light his fart.
Blue Buddha @ 9:
I guess I'm not seeing the problem. If things continue this way, won't I be able to buy a house real cheap?
CafeenMan @ 12:
Sure, then you'll need to get a gun so when you go to collect your rents you can can shake down the drug addicts inhabiting your place.
Watching Wall Street hop around on a pogo stick every day is pretty much business as usual.
pissed off patricia @ 14:
The average persons chances of making money in Wall Street are better if they just go to Vegas and play the quarter slots and a few hands of poker here and there.
One of the advantages of passing the half-century mark in age is being able to look back and reflect on how things have changed. I was raised by a single mother and her parents had who had lived through the Great Depression and was taught some interesting lessons.
The current American values are definitely not what I was raised to value and appreciate. Credit was something one avoided like the plague, used only for major purchases when cash was short, and paid back as rapidly as possible to keep the interest costs low... and banks actually encouraged this process. You bought houses to live in them, not primarily as long term investment, unless your strategy was using them as rental properties.
Nowadays we have kids just out of high school with $300 car payments, massive student loans (if they can get them), and worrying about the 'magic credit rating score'. Scratch beneath the surface and open your eyes, the scam is soooo obvious. The whole economy is an Enron scheme, based not on current money in circulation, but on overly optimistic projections of future earnings (which most people have signed away to creditors already).
I'd just like to see the Bush Cabal pay a price for all the misery they've inflicted on this world the past 6 and a half years before I leave this Earth.
Rather then just merrily ride off into the sunset with their ill gotten gains to plan the next rip off down the line.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
What if I and my family want to inhabit the place?
And yes, I do have a gun to protect my family. Military veteran, capable and willing to use it.
I. Conoplastic @ 18:
More power to you then.
Wraith D'Ethereal @ 16:
The mass media explosion of the 90's hasn't helped.
With all the "Instant" 16 year old tech millionaires constantly dominating the front pages on a daily basis.
Or now days it's "hey you'll become famous on the internet if you have a blog!"
Or "I'll just put up a web site and my business will magically make me successful."
The only growing part of our economy the police keep raiding.
Even as we speak, I have a growing part.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
What are you talking about? It was a serious question.
I. Conoplastic @ 18:
When a male Swiss citizen reaches a certain age, he is trained as a militia and issued an assault rifle by the government, yet there is hardly a shooting death in Switzerland... proper weapon training is the big difference.
Remember, guns don't kill people... paranoid dumbfucks wielding guns kill people.
L.A. Confidential @ 20:
The Culture of Instant Gratification, even in accumulating wealth. It's all about the quick buck now, not long term investment and future security. It's a house of cards waiting for the next gust of wind.
CafeenMan @ 22:
Try this: A rising tide lifts all boats. The reverse goes for an ebb tide. How much do you want to bet that you'll be one of the lucky ones still afloat when the economy goes bust?
That aside, your smug self-interest in the face of general hardship is a little disgusting.l
Wraith D'Ethereal @ 24:
The Roaring 00's. Not a pretty picture.
anonymous @ 25:
Excuse me, but my "smug self-interest" entails currently living in a shit-hole duplex barely able to make ends meet and working my ass off to do it. I'd like to own my own home and if the economy is going to tank but there's a silver lining why shouldn't I use it to become a little better off? I can't stop the economy from tanking and I didn't support the current administration that caused it. In the future I'll try to ask questions that you find more appropriate.
The Bush stopped blooming and it resulted in a Turd to bloom!
At last look, the Dow is down another 134 points. Whether or not it rebounds, the U.S. economy is in free fall. If you peg the Euro to the Dow you will see that they've been going up in tandem for the entire Baby Caligula administration. When the Euro was $.88, the Dow was 8800. A few days ago, the Dow was 13,800, the Euro $1.38. Today the Euro remains at $1.38 and the Dow is hovering around 13,350. In other words, everybody in the market has just been breaking even for the last few years. Today they're not. If the market goes into further decline and the Euro remains stable or rises, you're going to see the sort of sell-off not seen since 1929. All thanks to the piece of human filth in the White House.
Now you know why Bush is building that complex in Latin America.
There's no way he can stay in the U.S. after this debacle ends.
I hope that the Dow drops to 9,000, gas goes to $6 a gallon, and milk costs $8 a quart.
They'll burn that traitorous sonofabitch at the stake.
When the Pretzelnit comes on TV and announces..."The economy is essentially sound".
You'll know that the doo doo is about to hit the oscillating device.
nirak @ 28:
Turd blossom?
McBain @ 30:
Boy, that'd be just great if that happened, wouldn't it? Small price to pay to see a lame duck president forced out of office a few months early. But hey, liberals get their revenge.
we will see the bush boom when he leaves office finally and the real financial health of the nation is made available and not hidden in cheney's mansized safe in his office. we have not had a real reporting of the fiscal liablilties the bush/cheney bastards have hidden from us. bush/cheney never include these with the state of the nation speeches given by shit-for-brains each year. we are in for an unholy awakening when the cost of bush/cheney's illegal war is finally revealed. all their buddies are reaping a winfall of profits and the American people are facing financial burden for decades.
fuck these bastards for their lies and deceptions. we deserve better.
Exactly. In fact for the few days running before that the net drop in the DJIA was larger than the one day drop. It's just the MSM trying to make a story (e.g., killer storm coming?---film at 11). This is not to say that there aren't significant risks out there, but this is just a blip.
Unfortunately, the Republicans have cooked the books and/or destroyed information gathering systems wherever they do.
So it's really not possible to find out "what's really going on" unless you have the money to buy decent numbers -- or unless you're an insider.
CafeenMan @ 27:
I think you just struck a chord with your comment, through no fault of your own. I know where you're coming from, being in the same situation myself. Even when I started getting some financial traction, I found that the crazy building/lending practices the last few decades have priced me out of the market. Given that I don't own jack squat, I can't help but feel a bit vindicated. I've dutifully avoided almost all credit, which leaves me with zero debt, but... strangly enough... an extremely low credit rating. This, of course, is no problem, according to everyone around me. It's far better, financially, to own a house. Sure, it's twice the monthly payment. Sure, none of that is actually making a dent in the loan. Sure, there's also all the added costs of homeownership (repairs, commute, lawncare, heating/cooling, and so on...). Sure, given the fact that moving forward in a career these days means generally means moving to a new city, you'll need to move out in a year or two. BUT, it's an INVESTMENT! This was, of course, based on the assumption that any property is obviously going to double in value before you try to sell it. An assumption that, despite all the stupid, shortsighted, self-serving predictions of industry analysts (whose data I happen to pour over daily as part of my job) is quite obviously retarded to anyone who takes the time to actually question it.
So, yeah, I feel a little vindication.
BUT, the same wisdom that makes me feel vindicated also scares the crap out of me. Schaedenfreud is fun and all, but the truth is we are all (no cliche') in the same boat. Sure, property prices fall, but that's not gonna crush the big builders/lenders, it crushes joe homeowner. To staunch the losses, interest rates skyrocket and nobody can get a reasonable loan. Everyone starts renting again, and my rent goes through the roof.
Individual responsibility, ingenuity, and thought are the great admirable traits that are supposed to define this country. Unfortunately, individualism has become synonymous with isolationism in this country. We all need to be masters of our own destiny, but we need to realize that our destinies are intertwined, we don't live in freakin' bubbles. If your neighbor's house is burning down, you don't just sit in living room watching T.V. You call the fire dept. and stand out on your front lawn, hoping that it doesn't spread. His problem, left unchecked, will become your problem eventually.
So, like, yeah. Let's hope we can get off our asses and put out this fire before the whole country burns down.
The problem comes when your neighbor set your house on fire because he gets a commission on the water, the hoses, the truck, and the charred shell of the house when it comes time to sell. An ethic of neighborliness is great but only gets you so far.
I can't help but repeat Freeman's excellent one-liner above (though a real financial expert, assuming there to be any, will no doubt set me straight):
#37
Very well said, Son of Liberty, and said much more politely than I managed.
Agree with what I'm skimming that the correction was a non-story.
But you know what _is_ interesting? Some foreign video news on stream routinely do currency reports. The steady downhill march of the dollar -- now that's interesting.
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