Trent Tucker

Now Is the Right Time for a DRIP

Gents, There is a great release in liquor and poetic levity.

You rogues, you rascals, you Wall Street Dancers

2005 was alive with jive
and 2006 was all high kicks
2007 was feeling just great
turned out it was bait
for what came in 08
So we voted for the line
that leads to 09
So what say in 010
don’t refinance again
Because in 2011
It has to be heaven
As much as I’ve delved
Nothing else rhymes with 2012

To sum up 2008, let a banker write a bad poem and no one cares. Let a poet write a bad check, big difference. Or maybe Richard Armour described it better, “That money talks I’ll not deny. I heard it once it said goodbye.” Eighteen months at most, probably less, and gents, Wall Street will be financing the purchase of what they just bankrupted and the Dow will be climbing to 14,000. The free market relies on victors not victims. Government relies on victims and distorted policies create opportunities for speculation. Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae were distortions which melted down because it attracted speculators who did a 1035 rather than pay capital gains tax till there was no 1035 escape left. Meltdown, fiscal fission. Eliminate capital gains tax and profit would have been taken ages ago rather than a 1035 escape to nowhere. Wall Street got involved for the reasons I cover in Wall Street Dancers. The free market works when it is fairly regulated, not rigged as it just was. Ever heard of Glass Steagall? It was Repealed 1999 and written in 1933. It was a firewall that worked for 70 years in preventing what just happened. Wonder why it was repealed? And no one knows the difference between capitalism and a centrally controlled and distorted economy better than the Poles. Abandoned to Stalin at the beginning of the cold war they cynically summed it up the best, “Under capitalism man exploits man. Under Socialism the reverse is true.”-author unknown. The Poles got Stalin, we picked a new president. We got the lesser of the two distortions.
I’ll take it. For the time being, rebalance your portfolio (or what is left of it if you didn’t get out of the way of this meltdown) to reflect the present and please, try to find something that rhymes with 2012.
Trent Tucker
author Wall Street Dancers
www.strategicbookpubli....

Fear and Loathing in 2009

We may be in a recession but we are still in possession of our faculties. So why so many sane people in a recession? We know that while a rising tide floats all boats a tsunami is a different story. The tsunami formed when Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac altered real estate and mortgage structure to allow 100% financing with no down payment, basically the same structure Wall Street uses when it speculates with other peoples money. So housing was turned into real estate gambling for anyone with a credit score above 700 and what is a true gamblers only discipline? No more money, a recession. The intent of Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac was to allow access to housing for people who previously could not qualify and really they didn’t cause this. The speculators who figured out quickly how to gin the mortgage apps. and gambled on rising housing prices with multiple acquisitions caused this and Wall Street joined the fray because they were searching for a new investment frontier. You see, since the cold call cowboys fell off their horses they have been steadily losing their client base. The larger firms have been losing 15% of their client base annually for years. Previously marketing was able to replace them. The internet changed all that. Enter collateralized mortgages(The Glass Steagall Act had to be repealed to allow Wall Street access to mortgages. That happened in 1999). Surfs up, it is a tsunami mommy. A meltdown, fiscal fission, but where did it begin? It began when the rules were changed. (Actually it began when the brokerage firms began exploiting their clients to such extent they could no longer replace their dwindling client base and they had to search for happier hunting grounds) Now who really makes the rules? Our elected representative do. I have never been able to locate a recession or depression that was not caused by government intervention of some kind, or in the failure of governmental judgment. But was it a failure of judgment or bias? Of course bias is… monetary influence, lobbyist, powerbrokers, whatever you care to call them, I prefer money laundering. Tsunami’s occur because of an earthquake far away and this is no different. Change the rules, the earth shakes, the wave forms and the law of unintended consequences comes into play. So, again, where did it begin? Basically in in the backrooms of your, excuse me our, congressman’s office as the paid lobbyist of the largest financial firms exerted their influence over our elected representatives. It never changes, . when the eastern block was abandoned to Stalin the Polish summed up the situation the best, “Under capitalism man exploits man. Under socialism the reverse is true.”-Polish proverb author unknown. Of course in America many years later it depends on what your definition of is, is. This meltdown resulted because the brokerage firms were exploiting their clients to such an extent their client base began to diminish and marketing was bested by the internet and on line brokers. What to do? Finance a Senator and repeal Glass Steagall so Wall Street could collateralize with Main Street, and we have just recreated the same circumstances of 1929, which Glass Steagall was written to prevent. It took a few years but the tsunami has hit and the giants of finance in 2008 are being consumed by the wave they set in motion in 1999. It is the definition of unintended consequences and really, it is what the definition of is, is.
Trent Tucker Author Wall Street Dancers
www.strategicbookpubli....