Winston Smith of Oceania

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

"Any review of the government's actions 'must be considered in light of the unprecedented circumstances in which they were made.'"...and any unruly mobs toting guns marching toward Washington must be considered an adequate response in light of the government pillaging the people.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The IRS had sued UBS to disclose 52,000 US clients suspected of tax evasion. They got 8.5% of what they asked for. How is that the raging victory as the IRS claims? Who paid who to keep the other 91% secret?

10 Highest Paid CEOs for 2008: Unbelievable

So you have Andrew Hall, a trader, in a battle to once again make $100 million a year, Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone making $702,440,573, Lloyd Blankfein making $72 million, and Steven Schonfeld, owner of a trading firm collecting $200 million. And what did they produce? Wealth for the shareholder? Not likely, most profits (or lack thereof) paid the company executives. What good did they bestow to humanity? Nothing! If anything, their net effect was negative. Whether it was creating financial instruments that contributed to this liquidity mess or trading oil contracts that they never had any interest in taking delivery for. Meanwhile, the average human saw their fuel consumption cost double. Why? Just so someone could play a high-stakes game and make more than a lottery winner in a single year. At what cost has this excess damaged humanity? What if all this effort and brain power actually went toward a noble cause? Would we as humans be better off today? Will the person that finds a cure for cancer or figures out how to land a human on Mars be paid quite as handsomely over their lifetime what these guys made in one year? Doubtful. What has humanity come to that the highest paid are those that shuffle paper?

Playing for a Bounce?

Some times the rubber band breaks. Government is trying desperately to tie it back together but it will break again soon. Buying GS and MS at this is a little premature.