Griller

Is Ben Bernanke Ruining Indian Weddings?

He likely also did not intend to make last year's brides happy, mitigating many cases of buyer's remorse.

The Renminbi as a Reserve Currency (Part 1)

"Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore."
Good riddance: The first 5 were all hardworking underpaid employees of the 10th, who owned the beer manufacturing plant, which was a monopoly, so all the money minus the barman's 2% take went back to him. Since the first five were marginally employed or unemployed, and suffered a low quality of life, they are the ones who made the latter five enjoy capital surpluses. #6 was a full time working part-time college student with loans outstanding, #7 was a teacher, number 8 was a manager at the factory which was about to close in a takeover, and #9 was the beer distributor. The tenth was so upset he left to stay on his yacht in Cannes to sulk over the others' ingratitude....See, there is no free lunch!

Recession Is Easing - Check Your Underwear

"When the multi-pair packs are moving, you know better times are ahead" But how far ahead? And are these sales perhaps merely the result of "mishaps" of the nervous bowels of the upper classes?

Report from Europe: Does September Mean Sell?

Was that a yes or a no. The Mole must be an academic.

Markets Saturated with Good News

So predictable: the current big fib being worked up in the media, judging by the pundits on Fox News today, is that there is going to be an inventory buildup, and because there will be an inventory buildup, this will create more confidence among investors, therefore equities will rise.
Well, as long as there is Christmas and as long as there are retail stores in business we can rest assured there will be seasonal inventory buildup, as there always is, so this "big lie" is being promoted that the stock market will react positively to inventory buildup, to make the possiblity an inevitability. All we need now is the jawboning newsheads saying inventories are up and voila, volatility! These guys are hoseheads for the bubble machine.

Unemployment Claims: No News Is No News

Full employment would come with nobody applying for unemployment anymore; therefore, if the entire nation is unemployed, the entire nation is fully employed.

David Kotok on Clunker-nomics

Like a lot of bubble reflation measures, the clunkers program is wrong because it is a hidden tax on the responsible, and a shift away to government interference. Clunkers taxes non-drivers and the poor the same way mortgage relief (either to banks or homeowners) is a hidden tax on renters and savers. It:

1) rewards those wealthy enough to buy new cars
2) rewards auto manufacturers for decades of failure
3) sets the precedent for more taxpayer bailouts of other subsidized corporations
4) is an automatic penalty for incipient small businesses which would devise, promote and distribute new transport means/methods
5) disincentivizes innovation
6) rewards petroleum fuel burning technology producers
7) rewards oil industry producers/distributors
8) punishes public transportation

Unemployment Rising: Public Policy Makes a Bad Situation Worse

The fact is, living standards are not sufficiently enhanced by paid employment. We want to work; being unemployed is more difficult and much less satisfying, but the fact is, the nature of work itself has been degraded. Besides, college degrees have become worthless, and for all the abuse we service workers get, we are torn, because we actually want our employers' destruction: we want the greedy abusers, subsidized by our tax dollars, patronized by the politicians they have bought, to fail. We have been sold out by the entire system, and we are holding on to the hope of honest employment which is not somehow involved in a massively corrupt Ponzi scheme the US economy has become.

CIT Group on the Radar

For the first time in 20 years campaign contributions from the finance industry to Dems outstripped contributions to the Repubs (see opensecret.org).

Looks like CIT forgot to contribute, because there seems to be no record of any campaign contributions by CIT Group.

So, yeah, punish these guys with a vengeance to send a message to other finance companies that don't buy political influence by donating to Democratic presidential campaigns.

Asians Going East

It does not take "sixth sense when it comes to searching out opportunity" at a time when there are simply very few alternatives but to move if you want a life.

The Banking Sector Isn't Out of the Woods

Well now, the author does not cite FAZ in the subheader list of potentiall affected stocks, but at $4-5 FAZ is looking like a cheap hedge, even a good mid-term hedge (weeks/months not overnight or days). Even a small purchase of 50-100 shares could provide cheap insurance against a major drop--a good hedge even for the average American's 10k portfolio. After all, the spring pop in housing numbers was a hollow dud when you look beneath the headlines, which will erode banks' balance sheets. Employment? fuggedaboutit. Obama has blown pick and shovel reconstructive measures and now it is too late. Remember this crisis begins and ends with real estate. Could very leave the inverse-ETF bashers like Cramer with egg on their faces, especially now with political oppposition to bank bailouts and the Fed running out of ammo. Biggest risk? Fed intervention intended to limit returns to shorters.

Torturing Statistics on the Housing Bubble

>(HUD tried to do this with poor people twenty years earlier, and, >hilariously, the poor people simply mortgaged off their equity and, on >average, wound up even poorer than before.)

Smugly said. Do you have any evidence to back this?

Seeds of Growth for Monsanto

Who says "buyers aren't allowed to harvest those seeds and reuse them."
Did Bill Gates win when he tried to enforce his ownership? Has any Hollywood studio/actor/musician? DVDs are a buck in Shenzhen. I think the Chinese won and will continue to.

Seeds of Growth for Monsanto

Who says "buyers aren't allowed to harvest those seeds and reuse them."

Who wins? Did Bill Gates? Has any major Hollywood studio, or musician? Will the US ever again be able to dictate terms to China, or try to, as Bill did?

Seeds of Growth for Monsanto

There is indeed a great future for genetically engineered products, but Monsanto will be at the forefront for another three to five years at most, because others will be able to engineer the same products and sell them much cheaper. I predict that a Chinese firm with lower costs and government protection will run Monsanto right out of business. Who says "buyers aren't allowed to harvest those seeds and reuse them."