AlexS

Total Rating:
+7 / 0

173 Comments

    • Sun Oct 12th 10:03 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      We're in an Opacity Crisis
      I think a lot of this problem was that whatever regulations were in force were overshadowed by the political goal to allow many more lower income people to own their own homes, which here meant lowering standards for lending. Standards are standards for a reason but in this case there was a paradigm shift to say that such standards were obsolete. A large membership of Congress backed that shift. Regulators are very sensitive to this - they don't want to be hauled in front of some Congressional committee and asked why they are standing in the way of more housing for the poor. So they went along, as they usually will.
      View article »
    • Sat Oct 11th 17:26 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Decades of Negative Returns: A Long-Term Look at the Dow
      Well if we discount the FDR years (with a Democratic Congress) and we discount the Jimmy Carter years (with a Democratic Congress) and we see coming up the Barack Obama years (with a Democratic Congress) then the market has been a pretty good place for investments. Oh. Obama and a Democratic Congress. Excuse me, I have to go sell some stocks.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 9th 19:17 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Seeking the Fix That Will Finally Work
      Banks aren't going to use new money for lending. If you're in a cash crisis now, the last thing you want to think about is how you're going to loan out cash and get it back over a 30 year house period, or a 5 year car period. If you give a troubled bank cash they'll keep it, and then they'll try to figure out some creative way for it to register to their capital base. Gresham's Law. Cash is the good money. Derivatives are the bad money.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 9th 18:45 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Seeking the Fix That Will Finally Work
      If they give me a tax cut I promise I'll buy stocks. Just give me my share of the 700 billion.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 9th 16:47 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Republicans Running Out of Arguments
      It wasn't just the capital gains tax, it was the income tax as well as the Social Security tax. Perhaps we could discuss how in the face of what appears to be a major recession, why raising taxes on people who provide jobs for others makes sense. As for trade, your graph shows quite a bit of fluctuation. It's clear that if clamping down on trade were policy, trade patterns would be something other than fluctuation - they wouldn't be there. Has it occurred to you that maybe the market is reacting the way it is because it's forseeing the election of a Democratic House and Senate and Obama, too? They say the market reflects what's about 9 months out. It doesn't look promising.
      View article »
    • Thu Oct 9th 16:22 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Will the Fed's Rate Cut Prove Too Late?
      If this is what it's like to avoid the recession perhaps we'd be better off trying to make sure it comes quickly.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 8th 16:33 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Beginning of the Endgame for Monetary Policy, Redux
      We could get Michael Milken back and ask him to sell off some of those junk bonds.

      Or we could get the Treasuries from the Social Security Trust Fund (or is it a Lock Box?). Fourth floor of the Treasury Building, in a safe behind the picture of FDR with the crown on his head. The Supreme Court has already ruled that no citizens have a right to those funds anyway so I don't expect anybody to complain.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 8th 16:25 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Beginning of the Endgame for Monetary Policy, Redux
      No problem. We'll just ask the Chinese if we could have our Treasury Bills back. In return we could give them Washington D.C. and all its workforce, as long as they promise to take them out of the country. We could even throw in a couple million lawyers. We'd hardly notice, although they would.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 8th 15:47 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      It's Not You, It's the Market - Now Officially the Worst S&P Decline in History
      The economy is fundamentally strong. The only problem is the bankers, the speculators, and the lawyers. Unfortunately I've just described Congress.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 8th 15:27 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      It Is Darkest Before Dawn
      Or the new rule: governments will step in to take over the situation just when the crisis was coming to an end anyway.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 8th 15:18 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      It's Not You, It's the Market - Now Officially the Worst S&P Decline in History
      Well I feel better. Maybe.
      View article »
    • Wed Oct 8th 14:56 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Caught in a Liquidity Trap
      They're lending down the street. Not a big bank though. They're only lending one mortgage, one car loan, at a time.
      View article »
    • Mon Oct 6th 18:07 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Fannie and Freddie Did Not Cause This Crisis
      My understanding is that Freddie and Fannie were 100% government agencies until Lyndon Johnson sold them off in order to help pay for the Great Society/Vietnam War.
      View article »
    • Mon Oct 6th 17:40 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Monetary Madness: Global Margin Call Underway
      How will this play out? The way I answer it is that the U.S. currently has the dominant currency. With the U.S. owing trillions of dollars to other countries, would the U.S. prefer inflation or deflation? There's your answer.
      View article »
    • Mon Oct 6th 16:41 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Today Was a Buyer's Strike
      Why do people always blame free markets for crashes? How about, thank you Jimmy Carter for making a rule that banks have to give mortgage money to people who can't afford it? Thank you Bill Clinton for clamping down on banks attempting to get around such a stupid rule. Thank you Fannie Mae executives for taking in all those junk mortgages and reselling them so you could get your volumes and your bonuses up. Thank you Chris Dodd and Barney Frank for keeping Congress from reforming Fannie Mae. Keep on blaming those free markets. Congratulations on your assured re-election.
      View article »
Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:
Quick Links:
Contribute an Article Become a Seeking Alpha Contributor

Transcripts

More Transcripts»