pacificapatriot

Financial Times Debunks Citi's Memo

"Now to see them (Citibank) at 1 is quite remarkable, are those assets that bad?"
Trouble is, no one knows, possibly including the regulators.

The Bear Market Takes a Breather

"And We are nowhere near 25% unemployed."

Think again: If the unemployed were counted as they were before the 1980's, we'd be at 18% unemployment.
John Williams at shadowstats counts in the old-fashioned, i.e., the honest way.
Why do you think Europe has had higher unemployment figures than the US for years? Because they don't use the bullsh@t US method.

Friday's Relief Rally

"Obama is no friend of the markets. He is a socialist idealogue with an agenda."
The markets are no friend of the people, they've stolen everything.

Time to Bury the Markets?

You forgot about the other sector that's doing well: Alcohol!

Was the Global Equities Crash Related to Obama's Election?

Hilarious article. Wonder how your trading advice is working out?

Market Death Spiral Continues

"The tax hikes will generate lower growth and fewer revenues."
How do you arrive at that conclusion? The fact that the Bush tax cuts are going to be reversed is the first hopeful sign I've seen that we will start working towards future economic growth.
And the real costs of the wars and now going to be on the books, instead of hidden away as if they didn't exist. Of course we will have a tremendous deficit, the Bush Crime Family ran it up enriching themselves and their class.

Worst First Month for a President Since Ford

I appreciate Mr. Obama's willingness to tell it like it is, i.e., how dire the situation is. Mr. Clinton should keep his trap shut and hope for the best.
That's the only good thing about Bush 2: We haven't heard a word since Jan.20!

Strong Indication for an Almost Immediate Bounce in S&P 500

I wonder how much the author is putting up to test this theory?

A Nation of Mortgage Slaves

Bankruptcy courts need to be given power to alter (read: reduce) these home values that never were.
A lot of people can be kept in their houses this way and some neighborhoods may not empty out and become ghost towns.
Since the banking/mortgage industry was largely responsible for this mess, they can take the hit, and when THEY fail, we can nationalize them.
You'll never see that in the WSJ's pages.

First Call of a Double-Dip Recession: Setting Up a Market Bottom?

"Fitz919, as another poster has indicated, I believe you're referring to the Credit Suisse ARM reset chart, circa early 2007. A tidal wave of toxic "pick-a-payment&q.... option-ARMs and "liar's loan" Alt-A loans are due to reset in 2009 and 2010. That housing bubble is a gift that just keeps on giving.

That said, the chart was prepared almost 2 years ago. We don't know how many of those mortgages have been refied or have already defaulted."

I hope no one forgets that unemployment is cited as the newest driver to increasing defaults and foreclosures. The Credit Suisse chart didn't address that. These are anecdotal examples, but I've seen my business fall off by more than half and I'm hearing about layoffs in local companies.

Great comment thread on this post, very educational.

Own Gold? Time to Fold

"The cost ultimately will be higher taxes at a minimum. This could lead to lower economic growth and also potentially higher interest rates."


Higher taxes do not lead to "lower economic growth." That bit of conventional wisdom was put to rest by Larry Beinhart in two articles reviewing history on alternet.org.

Lower taxes lead to boom-bubble-busts, such as we see right now.