John Galt

A Rough Day at the Office for Tim Geithner

I just posted on my instablog as well his old buddies at the NY Fed paying AIG's creditors in full for securities that were worth much less to the tune of 60 billion dollars.

But that's an addendum to old news, forget about THAT 60 billion dollars. Those guys at the NY Fed want jobs at Goldman one day anyway to get their payday. The sick thing is that Goldman was refusing to be paid anything less than 100% and the NY Fed caved in.

A Rough Day at the Office for Tim Geithner

I agree doubleguns.

Even if you look at the froze youtube video, you see Geithner pointing his finger. It's always finger waving, you were wrong, I was right, scape goat you, you caused the mess, "I'll fix it", give me power, take away your power, It's the Republicans fault, it's the Democrats fault..

Look at these rats fight over crumbs. They are ALL part of the problem.

Ivy Zelman: Home Prices Going Back Down

The thing is everything is connected.

People are connected to jobs
People are connected to housing
Housing is connected to banks
Banks are connected to people
people are connected to businesses

and of course, we have Government connected to everything

Comparing Debt-to-GDP Ratios with Presidential Terms

How do Congress, the Business cycle, and War factor into this Mr. Delong? I think looking at just 1 piece of the puzzle and comparing it is incomplete work.

Gross Not Buying Corporates, High Yield or Equities

Company with a long history (18th oldest company in America)
High dividend (5.10%)
Increasing dividend
Low debt
Lots of Cash on the balance sheet
Earnings that grow over time
Decent PE ratio
Sell a brand name product
Sell a product that people are physically adicted to

Author is long LO, do your own DD

Bubble Risk Rises with Low Rates

<It's amazing how much trust and power we thrust upon one man, that this one man will ultimately determine the fates of over 300 million.>

It doesn't matter how smart Ben Bernake is. It doesn't matter how many books he's read on the Great Depression, how many books he's wrote, students he's taught, statistics he follows...

Ben Bernake can NOT, I repeat can NOT, allocate resources better than 300 million Americans. He does not know how much YOU value things. He doesn't know how much you want to BUY or SAVE, or SPEND...

He was wayyyyyy behind the curve on spotting this mess in the first place! The market can allocate resources better than HE can. Socialism doesn't work. Having a KING regulator is not a good idea. Give the power to the people.

Abolish the fricken Fed.

A Rough Day at the Office for Tim Geithner

I hate Geithner and the financial cronies as much as anybody. We are past the part of words and tea parties, we need pitch forks and torches.

Don't feel sorry or almost sorry for him. Your grandkids and the people suffering for years while Geithner's friends in NY make out.

However with all that said, I HATE these congressmen standing there waving their finger at everyone and anyone. You always see some guy from some company there, and then you see some congressman/woman trying to blast them to score political points. It's the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Detroit's Loser Status Isn't New

1. Just because somebody is rich, doesn't mean they are capitalist. Nancy Pelosi is one of the richest people on the hill but she is about as anti-capitalist as possible.

2. The US Health Care system is NOT capitalist. The pricing system is out of wack. You don't have health consumers mixing and matching costs with service. The government forcing hospitals to accept less for medicare/medicade is NOT capitalist. The excessive regulations and threat of lawsuits driving up costs price people out of insurance.

3. Politians in the Ivory towers of Washington allocating goods & services rather than market participants using prices to determine scarcity is socialism. Taking money by gun point from free men and women to handout to others is a socialistic policy.

Running and economy based on "who you know" rather than "what you know" is socialism. Forcing equal results rather than equal opportunity is socialism.

If you think the "average citizen" of Germany, France, Japan, Holland, or Sweeden is better off than the average American then you are sadly mistaken. However, in 10 years you might not be able to tell the difference if you keep hoping for the change you deserve.

Which Sector Will Be the Next Decade's Home Run?

< I also believe the Fed sees inflation as its worst enemy and will fight it tooth and nail for the long-term, damping widespread desire for gold.>

I don't share your belief. The dollar has lost 97% of it's value since 1913. If they really wanted no inflation, they could have kept the printing presses turned off and let the markets dictate interest rates.

You better be careful if you go green in your portfolio. Some stocks will work out, but a lot will dissapear.

70's = Carter economic mess, world ending, fear
80's = Japan bubble
90's = Internet/Tech, productivity shock... bubble speculation
00' = money printing/easy lending, leverage led RE higher

So what's next? High unemployment? Inflation? Easy borrowing for the masses? Foreign speculation bubble in China ? A great productivity shock?

If you are going to swing for the fences, make sure you don't invest more than you are willing to lose because you just might strike out.

U.S. Housing: More Homes in Delinquency than for Sale

It's not a recession, we are in a depression.

Earlier in the depression, we had people angry at banks & loan officers that pushed people into loans they couldn't afford, that would eventually go bust. These banks & loan officers were greedy bad guys.

Now we have the FHA & government doing the exact same thing. Rather than being greedy they are "helping" people who can't afford homes afford homes.

Forget the idea that we didn't learn lessons from our grandfathers in the depression, or history, or any of that... We didn't learn the lesson from 2 friggin years ago.

A Fiscal Expansion that Is Deficit Neutral in the Long Run

The first stimulus was too small?

You mean the one where Bush mailed out 600 dollar checks, 1200 checks for couples, and 300 dollar tax credits for kids?

Or do you mean that 787 trillion dollar state budget boondagle that has failed?

We've wasted over a trillion dollars in stimulus, not counting all the ABC soup letter, Tarp, Talif, CRAP programs they've thrown at us and things have gotten worse and all we have to show for it is more debt.

Initial Job Claims Pretty Flat

Before we had job loss falling at a slower rate. Things were getting bad at a slower pace so we deemed that less bad = good. Green shoot.

Now things are staying just as bad, so that's less good right? Is the current term Brown shoot?

Middle Class Bankruptcies on the Rise

Trickle UP Poverty

Detroit: Home of the Worst Unemployment Per Posting Rate in the U.S.

The people who see green shoots are in Washington & NY which are two of the least effected areas.

How's the gap between the rich and poor doing in those liberal cities? At least we won't have to hear THAT argument when everybody is equally poor. Detroit is easily in a depression.

Detroit's Loser Status Isn't New

Hot Richard,

Barry Sanders is more like John Galt than people would like to realize eh? He was greatness surrounded by incompetance and internal bickering. Football fans were at a loss when he decided it just wasn't worth his service. Sort of a problem when some of the best and most productive workers decide that working just isn't worth it.