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Should Wall Street Have Saved Itself?

“...some of the people who struggle the most are high-IQ sorts, with a tendency to over-think trading decisions.”

- Paul Kedrosky

Paul currently comments on Wall Street,

“...blaming the banks for doing what they had to do....”

Typical of a PhD type to over-think mocking parody. Your sarcasm is sorely appreciated by this PhD type, also out of the University of California, but not the sun tanned surfer, party hard campus down south, your San Diego campus. No, I am up here at our traditional straight laced conservative right-wing farmer agricultural campus, Riverside.

As you know, PhD types typically have not a cow lick of common sense. You have some common sense. I have my share of common sense. Your common sense is displayed through your frequent sarcastic articles aimed at mockery of the powers that be; sometime during the course of your life you learned to question societal dogma.

My common sense originates from being born penniless, ignorant and bare foot on a rural Oklahoma farm, literally on our farm. We were richly poor. Life on our farm could not be better although we had no car, although electricity, telephone and television did not come to our farm until the late Sixties. We never went hungry, well, almost never. All of our needs were provided through farming. A good life, there were even years our family was able to save up a few hundred bucks over the course of a year.

Personally, I would rather still be a farmer than a PhD type over-thinking my stock trading.

My Choctaw elders taught me about life, pride and integrity. Grandpa, an Anglo, taught me about being fiercely honest, usually by taking a switch to my bare butt.

We bartered a lot corn for socks, boots, coveralls along with pots and pans. Sometimes we sold corn to our local community. Grandpa taught us, after leveling off a bushel of corn, to add two quart Mason jars of corn to maintain our family reputation for fierce honesty. When we sold a gallon of raw milk, we always tossed in a pint of fresh cream. A dozen eggs from our farm counted fourteen. Behind Grandpa’s back, we always gave a couple of free quart Mason jars of white lightning to our local sheriff in exchange for his overlooking our still which we operated far off in a pine forest on our farm land. We played the survival game fair and square although Grandpa never knew we were bootlegging. Grandma knew, though.

Wall Street has no common sense. Wall Street is engaged in a business of selling empty bushel baskets with a promise of filling those baskets with corn, sometime in the future. Surprises me how many people will buy empty bushel baskets based only on a promise of future rich rewards.

This is what Wall Street leveraging is all about; selling empty bushel baskets of promises. Maybe this is just we Okie farmers have a bit more common sense than to buy empty bushel baskets, even if we do drink white lightning.

I do not know. Reckon I figure the old fashion way of doing business is the right way. Folks around our farming community always came to our farm to buy crops, milk, cream and salted pork knowing they would enjoy a really good bargain, along with enjoyment of swapping lies and swapping tall tales, along with swapping a blackberry pie for a gallon of our raw milk.

Wall Street has no common sense, has not enough sense to toss a few handfuls of corn into their empty bushel baskets so naive and gullible traders will think they are receiving something in exchange for their easily and soon parted money.

Yes, Wall Street should save itself and Wall Street is to blame for these financial crises which plague us like blood sucking ticks and chiggers back on our Oklahoma farm. Wall Street should grow some corn to show off, to sell, to take to the general store to barter. Wall Street simply has not a cow lick of common sense; their heads are empty bushel baskets.

What do I know? Heck, I am just an ornery Okie farm girl who likes to sip white lightning while telling really tall tales about my wild Choctaw lifestyle. Well, I have sense enough to keep my doctorate degree buried under reams of paper in a bedroom closet so none will think me to be a PhD type who has not a cow lick of common sense.

I also have sense enough to fill up a bushel basket with corn until overflowing. I am honest.


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

In the Wake of Bear: I-Bank Regulation Now in Fed's Hands

You are the Prince of Wall Street. I am the Witch of Wall Street.

Prince writes, in part,

"Leveraging through derivatives will probably end with an order from the regulators against such actions."

I would not hedge a bet on this, certainly not under Bush's administration. Regulatory enforcement and regulatory actions, both are down significantly since Bush fired aggressive SEC chair Bill Donaldson then replaced him with a known crook, Chris Cox.

Some quick SEC numbers generated by the White House:

Cases Successfully Resolved:

Donaldson - 98%
Cox - 92%

Cases Filed After Complaint Initiation:

Donaldson - 69%
Cox - 54%

Monetary Disgorgements / Penalties Ordered

Donaldson - 86%
Cox - 55%


There is no doubt new regulations are needed to strap a leash on this new class of Wall Street criminals. However, a leash serves no purpose when our government actively discourages enforcement of securities regulations and discourages enforcement of our laws; Wall Street criminals are allowed to run wild upon our streets while their leashes hang on a wall in the SEC chairman's office.

Is not this the true crisis we Americans face today?


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

The Fed: On the Cusp of Moral Hazard

Roger Ehrenberg comments,

"But my analysis was predicated upon one key assumption: that the Fed is not populated by a bunch of morons."


There is your fatal erroneous assumption for your analysis.

The feds are blithering idiots, capital hill is populated by clowns and the Oval Office is a romper room for an illiterate chimpanzee.

Our American public is not of much higher caliber; almost all of our citizens are fat, lazy, hamburger eating, beer drinking, television remote control button pushers.

Wall Street, however, is overburdened with savvy financial criminals.


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

It Wasn't a 'Bailout'

James Hamilton writes, in part,

"Bear Stearns...The first big casualty of the credit crisis, yes. Bailout, no."

This historical action by the feds was not a bailout of Bear Stearns rather was a bailout of Wall Street, at large. There is really no difference with the feds simply using Bear Stearns as a vehicle to bailout almost all other Wall Street financial institutions.

Bear Sterns is not a "casualty" of this credit crunch. No, Bear Stearns did not shoot itself in the foot, Bear Stearns shot itself in both feet through deceptive business practices. This deception is the clear omission of truth about this company's fundamental strength, or lack of fundamental strength.

While statistical analysis of our economy, of our world economy, serves an important and good service for all, this learning afforded through analysis is of lesser quality when presented data is fabricated. Clearly Bear Sterns engaged in fabrication for quite a period of time before this company could no longer cover up truth.

Certainly controversial, my personal opinion is a good eighty percent of corporate executives, especially those directly involved with Wall Street, are financial criminals yet to be caught and prosecuted. Readers can fairly debate what percentage of Wall Street executives are criminals, but cannot debate this level of securities fraud inflicted upon American families is significantly higher than is expected; financial crime is pervasive across Wall Street, both subtle and overt.

Part of my personal trading strategy is considering all companies to be operated by financial criminals. I presume all company executives to be liars and thieves. Then I proceed to work at proving those executives to be truthful and honest. Quite rare am I able to prove those of Wall Street to not be criminals.

I am not so sure this fed action was a bailout. I do entertain a suspicion this fed action was, in part, an effort to delay revealing truth, while working at correcting problems created by deceptive corporate practices.

Fortunately, truth has a habit of becoming self-evident, in time.


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation