Skjellifetti

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    • Thu Jun 19th 14:51 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Election 2008: Obamanomics and Its Achilles' Heel
      jswede - It wasn't my article. I'm just providing some easily observable counterexamples to show how badly argued this article is. And since we cannot rerun the Reagan experiment exactly with only a change to the defense spending (the "change one thing while keeping all else constant" that is the basis of scientific experimentation), we will never know if your statement that defense hindered the full effects of the Reagan tax cuts is true or not.
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    • Thu Jun 19th 12:15 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Election 2008: Obamanomics and Its Achilles' Heel
      "Or maybe it’s just simply reactionary - a position to be expected from a Reaganite mossback who fails to recognize that the world has changed."

      Considering that Reagan and Bush I and now Bush II were responsible for the largest budget deficits in U.S. history, it is ridiculous for a "Reaganite mossback" to be lecturing Obama about budget deficits.

      "Public spending, on the other hand, cannot be economically optimal except by accident, because it represents bureaucrats, however well meaning, making choices on behalf of others, which are unlikely to coincide with the preferences of the beneficiaries."

      This is mostly superficial nonsense. Public spending ultimately reflects the social choices made by a democratic process and is the amalgamation of each and every voter's preferences and not some faceless bureaucratic process.

      "But a look at global history shows his belief that public spending in and of itself would boost the economy is contrary to reality."

      Are you suggesting that the growth experienced during Reagan was illusory? Seems to me that you are carefully cherry picking your history.
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    • Tue Jun 17th 14:37 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Ben Bernanke: What Kind of Bird Is This?
      What is the MZW in your graph?
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    • Tue Jun 17th 13:49 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      "Rubinomics" Is Back, Part Two
      "If the value of the U. S. dollar has been falling for seven years or so, maybe the market is trying to tell it something."

      The market is telling us only that our Import:Xport ratio is greater than 1, nothing more, nothing less. While gov't fiscal imprudence is a contributor to this situation, it is not the only or even the most important factor. It also appears that the problem is self-correcting, or at least would be if we did not import so much oil. If I:X is too high, the dollar drops and I:X falls. So why is there so much hand wringing over the drop in the dollar relative to other currencies? Presitige? Bah! Who cares! Seems like the fall could have many useful side effects such as reversing or slowing the decline of American manufacturing.
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    • Mon Jun 16th 12:36 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Passive Investing Wisdom from Taylor Larimore
      Neither George Soros nor Julian Robertson have been able to time the markets both successfully and consistently. They have done better than most, but they have also had blowups that cost their funds billions.
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    • Mon Jun 16th 12:11 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Two Book Reviews on Derivatives: George Soros and Satyajit Das
      "Any system that responds not only to outward stimulus, but to its own perception of that stimulus and guesses in the future is inherently non-falsifiable as the presumption of "knowledge" precludes hypothesis."

      Explain why this statement does not apply to quantum mechanics where the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal shows that the very act of measuring something changes what is being measured. Your sentence sounds like Philosophy of Science buzzword BS to me. Have you been reading Nassim Taleb? If so, please stop. The man has only a superficial understanding of Popper and his rants become quickly annoying given that his own theories are inherently non-falsifiable.
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    • Fri Jun 13th 13:47 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Portfolio Planning and the Lost Decade
      Your articles are consistently interesting. I'd love to try QPP, but you are going to have to port it to OpenOffice for us Linux users.
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    • Fri Jun 13th 13:32 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      "Rubinomics" Is Back
      "If things are always so great under the Dems - then why the hell do the Reps regain power?"

      Because they are better liars than the Dems.

      As I have gotten older, I start to understand why Mark Twain's writing became so dark and pessimistic in his later years.
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    • Fri Jun 13th 11:03 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      "Rubinomics" Is Back
      Excellent article. I especially liked this paragraph:

      "But, there is a wider issue that must be discussed within the context of the debate between “Rubinomics” and the position taken by the union leaders. Both sides of the discussion need to be listened to. An Obama Administration cannot just rush off with a program of new “critical public investment” without considering the implications such a policy would have on international financial markets. And, those in favor of “Rubinomics” cannot enforce fiscal discipline without policy goals and objectives related to the social issues that need to be dealt with. The Democratic Party is a community and needs to hear from its different constituencies and sub groups, their positions and arguments. The diversity of the party is one of its strengths. This diversity allows for many, many voices to be heard and incorporated into the change that needs to take place."

      It succinctly describes how adults govern. We must have an open discussion of goals coupled with an honest discussion of constraints. Those who would whine that the "socialism of the democrats can only lead to weakness of the state" would do well to remember that it was a Republican President coupled with a Republican Congress that got us into the fine mess we are in today precisely because they refused to honestly discuss their goals and would not acknowledge any legal or financial constraints on their behavior.
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    • Thu Jun 12th 14:13 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Red Hat Settles Patent Lawsuit
      Hmmm. Filed in the Eastern District of Texas? The Capital of Patent Trolls? Now look at the patent itself. As a Sr Software Geek, this patent looks to me like it belongs in the "every developer has written code to do exactly this at one point or another." I hope Red Hat smacked them down hard.
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    • Thu Jun 12th 13:42 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      NYT Smears David Einhorn, Again
      "The Times are just a bunch of liberal democrats. Why does anyone even bother to read it?"

      Because really smart successful people are not afraid to have their biases exposed and their opinions challenged. Smart people know that they might actually learn something profitable by keeping an open mind.

      Dick Cheney, who allegedly watches only Fox news and reads only the WSJ, is the classic poster child for why you should not be afraid of news and opinion that is different from your own.
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    • Mon Jun 9th 14:03 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Second Wave of Bank Troubles
      NCC purchased two FL thrifts in 2006 in an attempt to enter the FL market. They overpaid and are (at least partially) in trouble due to subprime lending in FL.

      Huntington Bank is down due to a purchase of Sky Bank which has cost it the usual merger/acquisition/int... stuff plus Sky had a link to Franklin Credit Management Corp. (NASDAQ:FCMC) which has forced Huntington to take a $500 million loan loss set aside on subprime mortgages related to the Sky acquisition.
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    • Thu Jun 5th 15:23 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Financial Power and Leverage
      I've just finished reading James Grant's "Money of the Mind" and I'm a bit jaded.

      Sermons won't work. Grant demonstrates that throughout our history, it has been the titans of finance who have delivered the sermons on day one, only to get caught up in the finance fad of the moment on day two. On day 3 they are wondering what hit them while they struggle to rescue their failing institution. On day 4 they are fired. Repeat cycle with a new CEO.

      We don't need sermons. We DO need to come up with new institutional arrangements that provide clearly understood incentives and/or penalties that can break the cycle. One simple example might be to give both the stockholders and the bondholders exactly $0.00 for any institution has to be rescued by either the Fed or the FDIC.
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    • Tue Jun 3rd 12:23 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Time Warner Cable Chokes Its Customers
      I do not want a "platform" from TW. I want one thing: bandwidth. I have several choices for ISP (TW, WOW, Verizon, ATT, and several DSL resellers). I buy based on some combo of fastest and least clogged pipe (er, I mean tubes), fewest rules (I run my own web and email servers in my basement), reliability, and lowest cost.
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    • Mon Jun 2nd 16:34 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Finance, Credit Cards, and the Fed
      Yawn. Since when has finance NOT been in hot water? Over the past 100 years we have seen banks collapse from exuberant, imprudent, and often downright fraudulent lending to farmers for expanding fields, commercial real estate developers for speculative construction, developing nations, housing mortgages, junk bonds, CDOs, etc., etc., etc. The actual instrument in the center of the mania is always different, but the result is always the same.

      And at the bottom of the cycle we have always had hand-wringing about the need for the judgment and leadership on the part of the CEOs of the financial industry from one group and the need for more regulation from another.

      Tell us something new.
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