Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad
Finance
(1)

Boxed Merlot

Boxed Merlot
Send Message
View as an RSS Feed
View Boxed Merlot's Comments BY TICKER:
Latest  |  Highest rated
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    It is sad to see some Americans insisting that the U.S. is a Republic and not a Democracy ( when it is both) and harboring desires, and finding means to limit suffrage...

    I agree that the US has elements of both and attempts to limit suffrage are typically implemented by the political party that controls certain apparatuses. In California for instance, our gerrymandered voting districts have been the bane of cancerous inbreeding that have worked to prevent the will of the majority for decades. A “means to limit suffrage” indeed.
    Mar 19 05:26 AM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    For the President, there was an Electoral College, for Senators, until the 20th century, there was state legislatures, and for Supreme Court justices, there was the President and the Senate...

    You list these items as though they are a liability or indictment against the rule of law. I submit they are the result of an arduous, adamant and determined will of conviction to hold each branch responsible to one another and to not allow any fallible individual to run amuck. They may not have gotten it correct or perfect, but it sure beats any other alternative available on the horizon.

    imo.
    Mar 18 04:13 PM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Democrats in Washington will be meeting today to figure out how to implement this great policy...

    They've already been schooled. The good Mr. Biden has already confided to the US populace that the administration is deeply indebted to the Honorable J. Corzine for his invaluable assistance in designing our past several years worth of recovery.

    And the Honorable Jon himself has shown how to do it firsthand.

    Hold on to your knickers folks.
    Mar 18 12:29 PM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    using Cyprus as your "off-shore" account...

    Evidently Russian oligarchs have considerable wealth tied up in this tiny state and the decision was made without Russian input. It may not be coincidental Russia will now be stationing a permanent fleet of 5-6 warships in the Med. As was mentioned elsewhere, “How soon until we read that Russia is willing to invest even more unguaranteed loans into the Cypriot financial system.... in exchange for one little tiny naval and/or military base?”
    Mar 18 10:55 AM | 4 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    when I got out of school 1999...I don't know why people don't have the same philosophy...

    My understanding of philosophies are they are the result of and spring out of a person's theology. Most schools promote post modernism which advocates a dual or multiplicity of definitions of the idea of "truth". The reason for this is to promote "harmony" and to avoid conviction and a possiblilty of adverse feelings by someone who may hold a different "opinion".

    In other words, how often have you heard "that may be true for you, but not for me?"

    In actuality, there is only one truth. If you and I disagree, there are 3 alternatives. I'm right, you're right, or we're both wrong.

    The definition of truth is there can only be one.

    The next step is right and wrong. Because if you can believe in more than one truth, then all bets are off and J Dimon and J Corzine are where they belong.

    imo.
    Mar 15 04:27 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Horse thieves were hung in the 19th century. House thieves in the 21st century should suffer the same fate...JC


    "Very few looked at area income surveys and so many other aspects of home pricing"
    Isn't this called red lining and illegal?
    If a bank did this Barney and friends would have been all over them"...


    Did you just name a name?
    Mar 15 04:11 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    what is behind the dropping labor participation rate...?

    It's all the quality television shows being produced, With a basic 168 hour recording device conveniently attached to the screen, it's getting more and more difficult to get up. Cable providers could do us all a favor and start providing colostomy bags and IVs with their monthly bills.
    Mar 8 01:03 PM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Sen. Paul won and got a letter from AG Holder...

    Actual text below:

    Dear Senator Paul:

    It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: "Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?" The answer to that question is no.

    Sincerely,

    Eric Holder


    This simple letter is far from a statement saying the president will not hesitate to kill a citizen of the US on US soil. Who defines what constitutes "combat"? Executives in every walk of life constantly engage in "unauthorized" activity as they are only limited by their accountability to the forces that would relieve them of their positions of authority. "Unauthorized" only means there are no guidelines for the chosen conduct at the time it's performed.

    Even then, it may still be exercised due to the weakness of the opposing forces. I'm reminded of Stonewall's response to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall's opinion regarding the now infamous trail of tears. "...the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born,..."

    Mar 8 12:06 PM | Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "BofA says that the Chinese wall between different parts of the bank was maintained."...

    And we all know how effective that great wall is when one has control of legions of drones.
    Mar 7 10:41 AM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    And from ZH, with over 127K hits, the obligatory cut and paste:

    The Last Time The Dow Was Here...
    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/05/2013 - 09:36
    "Mission Accomplished" - With CNBC now lost for countdown-able targets (though 20,000 is so close), we leave it to none other than Jim Cramer, quoting Stanley Druckenmiller, to sum up where we stand (oh and the following list of remarkable then-and-now macro, micro, and market variables), namely that "we all know it's going to end badly, but in the meantime we can make some money" - ZH translation: "just make sure to sell ahead of everyone else", just like everyone sold ahead of everyone else on October 11th 2007, the last time stocks were here...

    •Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
    •Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
    •GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
    •Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
    •Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
    •Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
    •US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
    •US Deficit (http://bit.ly/13H9yDD): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
    •Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
    •US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
    •Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%•Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6
    •S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+
    •VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
    •10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
    •USDJPY: Then 117; Now 93•EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
    •Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
    •NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares


    This "rally" is nothing more than a fast heartbeat on a bedridden and hospitalized patient, imho. The meager volume in comparison is most telling.

    Also the "insider trading" feature on finviz has only 2 purchases of company stocks by "insiders" on the current screen of hundreds of transactions, the vast majority of which are stock option exercises with immediate sales by the officers of the companies shown, including CBS and McGraw-Hill.
    Mar 6 02:04 PM | 3 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    I'm all for consolidation when it's an improvement. These consolidations are the result of 40B frn in assets beining drained from their coffers and into Ben's manifold to be distrubuted to the same individuals that destroyed the faith and credit of the US middle class in the first place.

    The more disheartening thing is the backroom dealings allowing this travesty to occur will never be allowed to see the light of day in a court of law, further exasperating the systems ability to assign punishment to the individuals responsible for our lapse into lawlessness.

    Interesting comment below about working ones way back into economic health and those that aren't doing so would rather complain than exert the effort. It's not the lack of desire to exert the effort, but the realization that it could all be taken away so easily again as the underlying structure has never been restored and the courts are mostly to blame. imho.

    End the fed, restore a constitutional republic.
    Mar 5 10:41 AM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    That 45B is newly created (monthly) fed products, it doesn't account tfor the previously sent nor churning excess being used to prop the eu membership.

    One could also argue that the massive depreciation in middle class wealth via deteriorating house values has artificially kept inflation off the charts by being exceptionally deflationary on the grandest of scales.

    Now, should we dare to consider that it may actually have been planned by the smartest ones in the room?

    It is also serving the purpose for ransacking the US' own petroleum reserves.

    The fed is no friend of the US. imo.
    Feb 19 11:58 AM | 1 Like Like |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    At 40B per month in bifurcated fny/frdy assets, why shouldn't the NYFed tell AIG to leave his little brothers lunch money alone.

    As for the 13.5T in recovered assets since the fall of the US middle class, WS illusionary wealth at the expense of unmercifully high US tbill printing is not necessarily the stuff dreams are built on.

    With the US now being a net exporter of refined oil products, much of the other 45B monthly fed products sent off shore being used to buy this stuff from us will have an accelerating impact on possible inflation imo. Especially now that the deflationary impact of the reduction of housing costs figured into the reporting matrix is "stabilizing".


    End the fed. Restore full faith.
    Feb 19 08:14 AM | 6 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • Bernanke's Kryptonite [View article]
    On January 1, 2013 Walmart raised the price of a 6.8 oz. Hershey bar from $1.67 to $1.97. This is not inflation?...

    Absolutely not. If you can eat it or put it in the tank of your car it doesn't count. And because the purchase price of US housing stock has fallen so much, we will continue to fight the deflationary pressures by printing ever more interest bearing tbills in exchange for ether backed fed notes and cyphrage.

    Tough to put upc codes on oil and Au though. Actually I'm surprised frns are still sporting serial numbers, if they had the ubiquitous upcs and list of ingredients perhaps people would finally get the idea they're getting smaller too.
    Feb 18 06:09 PM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
  • How Congress Could Fix Its Budget Woes, Permanently [View article]
    The federal government will fix its woes by cutting itself in half...


    No, the government could fix our woes by only accepting it's script as payment for the taxes it charges rather than the blood the fed produces in exchange for further debt.

    You do realize a living body with a bloodstream has 2 separate and distinct circulatory systems, don't you? Our problem is the blue blood has found it's way into the normally oxygen rich side of the heart of the system and is killing the US from within.

    The blood circulating in the US economy is deprived of oxygen and there's no way for it to regain and cleanse itself until the hole in the heart is closed.

    jmo.
    Feb 14 11:36 AM | 2 Likes Like |Link to Comment
COMMENTS STATS
1,528 Comments
3,183 Likes