Glen L.

Cramer's Mad Money - When the Facts Change...(10/23/09)

Cramer? You mean that guy who lives across the hall from Jerry Seinfeld? His market sense is spot on! Love that coffee table book that converts into a mini coffee table.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Have you ever noticed that the economists with their "heads in the clouds" (or is it the sand?) are never named? I want to know which economists are actually predicting the recession will be over by August. Since most economists in the US work for the government, or for companies contracted to the government, or as tenured professors in left-wing Academia, it's unlikely many will lose their jobs for gross incompetence, but I sure would like it if their names started getting in the financial press.

A Summary of Q1 Bank Earnings: World, You Just Got Hustled

"Also, a straight on headshot would be an improvement over you wearing a goofy Nationals cap, laying on a woman's lap. Just saying. "

I couldn't disagree more. Great photo, Naufal. And I will add my praise to others' for a great article.

Also, in regard to productivity gains from the computer industry, it should be noted that the berserk "intellectual property rights" patent regime has progressively tamped down, and threatens to halt altogether, progress and productivity in this area. This on top of all our other problems. Being bearish and pessimistic is the only sane way to look at our situation. I will change my outlook when the country throws out the socialistic parasites and once again embraces free markets.

Plunge Protection Team Attacks BofA: This Ends Now

In the previous comment I meant to say that Zimbabwe poor are paying just about the same for a loaf of bread as we do in America. Gold has universal value.

Further comment on Mr. Goodman's article, which has mostly been ignored in the gold bug vs. fiat bug debate:

I broadly concur with his historical and macro economic analysis. However, I don't think it's correct to say that the people losing faith with the institutions was or is the exact cause of the Depression or any other severe economic downturn you care to mention. The cause of each and every expansionary phase of the business cycle was government intervention in the marketplace (this is even true of the tulip mania in Holland almost 400 years ago), and the collapse of the expansionary bubble is just the natural, inevitable market reaction. Therefore, it matters not whether the people have or haven't faith in the governments or banks or tulipmongers, what goes up must come down, i.e. back to equilibrium. The crucial point for everyone to understand now is that worldwide catastrophes like the Depression and the current fiasco happen when government (and its central bank cohort) try to intercede to mitigate the effects, i.e. prevent the deflation of the bubble or attempt to reflate it.

The Great Depression would have been an ordinary depression (the old word for recession, which replaced the older term "panic") without the massive interventions of both Hoover and Roosevelt, and would likely have ended within a year or two, like all preceding downturns in American history. (Those who bring up American history prior to 1929 to claim that the business cycle is a fault of capitalism always fail to mention the fact that previous downturns were always brief). But the nanny-state politicians tried one bogus market intervention after another, and the US suffered its worst economy ever, lasting until 1946. Now we see Obama and the Congress repeating the mistakes of Bush, as FDR repeated Hoover's mistakes, compounding them by another order of magnitude, and gambling America's future away with my money and yours.

Americans' loss of faith in their government was caused by the Depression, rather than the other way around.

Plunge Protection Team Attacks BofA: This Ends Now

Gold standard... golden opportunity... good as gold... golden anniversary... golden parachute... black gold.

The last one tells you something. People don't refer to gold as "yellow oil". Nor do they say "oily anniversary", "wheat standard", or "mahogany parachute". Gold is the near-perfect money because of its beauty, durability, maleability, purity, portability, yes... but first and foremost because people LOVE it as MONEY. Likewise, to a somewhat lesser extent, the other precious metals, which also can be used to make coins that make that pleasant jingle in your pocket, or toss them in your hand. Something extra satisying about that heft, too.

Oh, here's one other expression: paper anniversary. The first anniversary, the least of them all. Paper money printed with the phrase "full faith and credit of the [insert name of lying government here]" is worth the LEAST of all forms of money, as proven over and over throughout history.

In Zimbabwe, thanks to the rich gold streams in that country, poor people are able to buy bread by panning for tiny grains of gold. And what is a loaf bread selling for? About a gram of gold -- and 1/28 of the spot price is somewhere between $2.50 and $3.50 these days, precisely what it's worth to us.

Gold is money. All of you doubters need to accept that fact and get over it. Or see how many of your paper dollars I'll charge you to buy a gram of my gold when Zimbabwe comes to America.

Secretary Geithner's Moment in History

I can't help but be reminded of the smiling, confident, even jaunty demeanor of FDR as he and "the brain trust" made things up as they went along, trying and then abandoning various programs in the New Deal. Nothing they did got us out of the Depression, and now Geithner and Bernanke and the rest of the Obama team are implementing the strategy that the really hardcore Keynesians say FDR should have tried, i.e. maximum stimulus, bank bailouts, etc. They're actually in panic mode, and they have no clue whether the new tricks will work any better than the old. And they're risking America's future in the process. Hubris? I'll say!

Blaming Bankers When Government Is Really at Fault

We are seeing what happens when government and its banking cartel (The FED) is allowed to macromanage monetary policy: sooner or later the policy fails, the way all socialistic policies fail (the macro economy being much too large and complex to manage at all), and private companies help ensure the failure by refusing to follow the script. Inevitably, rather than give up and let the free market repair the damage, they resort to micromanaging the affairs of private companies; threats, veiled or otherwise, are the usual steps when the unraveling process begins. Once the private sector is sufficiently cowed and obedient, the next steps are much easier.

Having seen that the ultimate socialist model (communism, which can only exist at all under totalitarianism) has utterly failed, our masters have settled on the compromise (fascism) that affords them maximum power, and have attempted to perpetuate their hold on power through the political device of democracy, which gives the taxpaying serfs the illusion that they can throw the bastards out if they get out of line. Of course, history shows us that never happens, and recent history should be driving that point home to the serfs who call themselves Democrats.

Of course, at some point the whole house of cards must collapse, as Hitler found out when his Thousand-Year Reich died after a mere decade. The US is fortunate that it enjoys military superiority that Hitler could only dream of, so it will not be destroyed by force of arms, plus an economy so vast that it will take much longer to collapse. Nevertheless, the fascist model is a proven loser, and fail it will. The only question worth considering now is what will rise from the ashes.

Government's Handling of Economic Crisis - Einstein Would Call It Insane

Excellent piece, Mr. Shaefer!

To VennData and the statist shill Cetin: consumers and businesses are supposed to BE the government in this country, not an unelected and unaccountable elite of cartel bankers and their evil twins in Leviathan's bureaucracy. When the average taxpaying citizen realizes it's time to cease and desist with profligate spending and irresponsible borrowing, that cue should be taken by a "wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." (Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugual Address, 1801).

Last Week the Markets Partied, This Week Sobriety

Gotta agree with Teresa. It's the government, stupid.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

axelrod608: "Our founding fathers thought enough of bankruptcy to write it into the Constitution as the ONLY remedy for incompetent businesses. I think they were a whole lot brighter than the current crop of bailouters and stimulators and financial cretins."

I think integrity and honesty of the founders was the key, not necessarily superior intelligence alone. In fact, Alexander Hamilton was the evil genius that brought mercantilism and crony capitalism to America, and Bernanke, Geithner, and all the rest are his intellectual heirs.

The slow-motion demolition of the Constitution and the American Dream continues apace. Bankruptcy law and the sanctity of contracts are the latest casualties.

Turning Toxic Assets into Gold

The rosy scenario is ridiculous. After Mike finally takes a job as a field hand he'll be making a third of what he did as a bank teller. And his condo will only be worth $75,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars, and never was worth more than that in the first place. Mike is a sucker, and so are all the people who voted for the crooks and madmen who put us in this hole in the first place, and are digging a hole of unfathomable depth for the succeeding generations.

The Three Kings of Wall Street: Gifts of the Magi Lifted Last Week's Market

"Oh yes, to Mr. Wen and the Central Committee of China, welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism and free market societies."

China is more capitalistic and has a freer market than we do. The Chinese know full well that their trillion or so dollars could be a worthless asset soon, thanks to the anti-free market and fascistic actions of our government and central bank. The sad day has arrived when we are the socialists, and they are the rising capitalists leaving us in the dust. They can do without us much easier than the other way around. The tail will soon be the dog, and vice versa.

Bank of America: A Risky Bet That May Be Worth It - Barron's

" the value of my mortgages is now being driven down when it is worth every penny of it's original value"

Nonsense. It is worth what a willing buyer will pay for it, no more, no less.

Mr. Market Has Spoken

I was cheering the author on for most of the article, until I came to the strange stuff about offshore tax havens. I gather that he's against them, but how does that square with the righteous indignation about the taxpayer getting screwed by the big banks? Is taxpayer compliance in service of the government/bank Leviathan that drove them offshore in the first place going to help or hurt the market? Since all taxation is capital-destructive (and please don't give me the bull about infrastructure "investments"), how will the police state's arms getting longer help the desperately needed formation of new, REAL capital, rather than the kind that comes off a digital "printing press"?

To the commenter who said "It is as inevitable as tomorrow's sunrise.....failure is a critical component of capitalism." - well, yeah, to the extent that failure is part of life. But capitalism itself is the perfect economic system, even if many of its practitioners are flawed.

You can take that one to the bank.