ngwun's Comments

Jim Rogers: Lessons from a Legend

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:16:19 -0500

" A Gift to My Children".
Morsels for the chosen, dogfood for the dogs.
The real targetted Gift would be the royalties?

The Next Phase of the Crisis Is Beginning with an Eye on China

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:08:57 -0500

On Nov 29 11:37 AM TonyP4 wrote:

> * Extremes of Two Nations * [each nation is 2 extremes to itself]
>
> US and China are two countries of extremes to each other. It could
> be the difference in their cultures, their wealth, and/or changing
> of wealth. It would be best for both countries to move at least 10%
> away from their extremes.
>
> Spending.
> US. Like no tomorrow. [2 extremes. a lot has changed for some]
> China. Saving for fear of begging in the street. [again, for SOME]
>
> Health Care.
> US. Encourages folks to be lazy, so they get free health care.
China.
> If you do not pay in yuan, you die.
>
> Foreign countries.
> US. Either my puppet or my enemy.
> China. Non interference. [HAHAHAHAHAHAHA !]
>
> Environment.
> US. Our pollution is not too high (translation: pollution per capita
> is).
> China. My pollution per capita is not high (translation: total pollution
> is).
>
> Human rights.
> US. Killing for the name of liberty! or keeping our weapon suppliers
> rich.
> China. Lifted 300 millions from poverty. Is this basic human right? [China=no weapons sales? & i guess you are too young to remeber the purges?]
>
>
> Military might.
> US. New carrier with two nuclear generators.
> China. 0 carrier. [so?]
>
> Justice system.
> US. Spent millions and let the guilty free.
> China. One bullet for 99.99% guilty and warn millions.
>
> Sports.
> US. #1 in all sports. Get them at all costs.
> China. Let's get 100 Walmart shoppers and have a race to see which
> nation is fitter. [Great idea. Our vicarious fitness, & many other virtueless virtuals.]
>
> Natural resources/farm land.
> US. Can support double the current population.
> China. Can support half the current population.
>
> Politics.
> US. Do everything for votes.
> Capitalists act like communists by providing generous welfare.
China.
> If you do not listen, you disappear.
> Communists act like capitalists by giving prime priority to business. BOTH & each = vampirism of the middle classes to satiate the elite.]
>
>
> Education.
> US. We've most Nobel's prize winners. [including the Peace Postulation Prize.]
> China. Our 6th graders can beat your college graduates in science
> and maths.
>
> Model for youths.
> US. If you give me one good model, I give you 10 bad models (like
> married politicians with outside affairs).
> China. If you give me one bad model, I give you 10 good models.

>
> Gun control.
> US. Need guns for the wild, wild cities.
> China. Thanks NRA for allowing us to sell them to your citizens.
>
>
> View each other.
> US. Job snatcher, banker.
> China. Job provider, loaner.
>
> My ridicule.
> US. Nothing.
> China. Me and my ridicule 'evaporate' from earth.

Overall, thanks for the perspective.

The Big Picture: On Recession and Recovery

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:15:28 -0500

Your logic sems good to me.
play games, but keep insurance.

The Intrinsic Value of Nothing, Part 1

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:22:33 -0400

sumwun gets payed by the word? but don't worry, i did get the point.

You are Austrian, but pissed off about having the wrong accent?

Why Economists Messed Up

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:11:23 -0400

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"
Doesn't matter how good the mathematics, how researched the hypothesis, nor what "laws" are enacted. Those who are @ Uni. studying to develope society, & allow the species to progress, are sharing facilities with those who are to take their system apart: not only to rape & pillage it, but to do so to the approbation of the masses. So many who accuse would be in the game if dealt a hand.

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay.... The Shadow knows.
So the deed must be redefined as eccentric rather than egregious.

Letter to Her Majesty: Suggestion for Low-Tech Apparatus for Economic Horizon-Scanning

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:36:35 -0400

"They" knew it was coming, but in anticipation of orgasm, could not get their hand off it.

The dream is not the real: it is far more potent.

Geithner's China Strategy: A Viewer's Guide

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:20:47 -0400

"Oh I am SO glad that China is not an EVIL EMPIRE like the US imperialist running dog lackeys."
They have a unified society with no internal ethnic friction, & no government corruption, & will soon regain their Empire (oops) & the whole world will be governed by a proletariat freed of dominating monarchs. Like in North Korea.

A gorilla wearing a mask is still a gorilla.

Why China's New Colonialism Should Precipitate a Crisis

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:42:35 -0400

I apologise for the (lack of) end to my comment. I don't recall how the sentence was meant to finish, but it was not meant to be so rude.

Why China's New Colonialism Should Precipitate a Crisis

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:45:40 -0400

" "a poor country" ... with "over $2 Trillion in reserves." If only the US were that "poor." "
Take your hand out of your pants, grab a calculator, & divide it by the real population. [Chairman Mao said in the Little Red Book that it was hard to govern 600M people... a few more now] Yes, a poor country, with all the hobbles of "multiculturalism" as well. Lucky they are nazis.

"Well guess what? China has burgeoning economic muscle and it's flexing its power more and more now."
Well, someone bigger than me is knocking on my door. I guess i had better move out the back door & let them have the house, & maybe the family. And the history.

You Yanks seem to have taken such a guilt trip from your hegemonic excesses that you now want to sell your collective ass to whomever wants a piece of you. It was not all bad, & most of the people who hate you want to become you.

I reckon the article is well written & relevent, according to my ignorant bias, but we don't need the U.S. to cringe & decay any more than we need you

New Securitization Schemes: Just When You Thought It Was Safe

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:13:09 -0400

Relax, everyone! They are gonna run them past the Ratings Agencies! These guys DEFINE risk. They CREATE indices.
Trust the godz, when have they let you down before? (& stop whinging about the last year or so; that was just a little sacrifice to test your faith!)

The Cap and Trade Delusion

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:18:24 -0400

The problem is bigger than warming, which is in turn more than about CO2.

The two greatest factors are the increase in population, & the determination for each humanoid to "consume" vast amounts of products which are either not necessary or positively injurious.

"Oh but my existence is predicated on fashion clothing, fashion drinks, makeup, cars, x-box-playstations & a neverending continuum of mental masturbation."
So what IS real? he shouted into the wind whistling between city skyscrapers, where people scuttled to jobs they hated so they could support governments who bled them, and buy products which were so cheap they were not fit for purpose despite using resources at the same rate as real useful tools, then go home & pay to be titillated & mesmerised by the obsene leaches who pose as media providers, whose only purposes are to fill the voids in lives lest people think, and to suck the assets of the viewers to enable themselves to wallow in the very lifestyle they advertise to their victims, while relieving the victim of what would need to participate..

What world survives by rewarding societal destruction? What world recompenses the reinactor of an event more than the participator?
In a world where fuel consumption can be legislated but those who hurtle @ high speed are heroes, hypocrisy is ever present.
Old bike advice; focus on where you want to go, not where you want to avoid.

" ... the length of life of the biosphere as an inhabitable region for organisms is to be measured in decades... "
[ The Biosphere, A Scientific American book pub. 1970
Chapter 1 page 11, contributor G. Evelyn Hutchinson]

Don’t Worry About The Debt Tsunami (Part II)

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:30:08 -0400

"Tax revenues will plummet as the economy slows and rates go higher."

Read somewhere that accumulated corporate losses will wipe out a large % of tax revenue for the next couple of decades?

howard ino.

General Motors and CDS Leeches

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:30:02 -0400

Mr Lounsbury: another disturbing read, thankyou.

Mad Hedge Fund Trader: Careful of what you wish for. The leach you know may be better than the leach you don't.

(All characters in this fiction are of course ficticious, like so many other threads in the fabric of machineworld.)

Are We Headed for Hyperinflation?

Thu, 28 May 2009 20:09:27 -0400

So much heavy breathing.
You guys in the U.S. ask youselves, nomatter how much you despise your govmint, opposition, or fellow citizens; how much like Zimbabwe is the U.S.?

Calm down a bit. Do what you can, don't bother too much about who dunnit unless you can vote them out. Talk quietly to your friends about what's right & wrong, & live your lives.

The U.S. is a great place, & a light to the world, whether you or the world likes it. Apart from hollywood & TV.

On the Burden of Home Ownership

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:01:28 -0400

A thing can be "good" & while abuse of that thing may be "bad", the thing may remain bad.

'The Age of the Unthinkable' - Why Life May Not Return to Normal

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:10:05 -0400

"There’s a gap between rich and poor that we’ve never seen in human history."

if you have a brief history.

The G20 Party in London Can Do Nothing Productive

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:33:15 -0400

MDK? Not a Trace of peace, there, but it's all some1 else's fault.

Revolution... the masses are revolting.

"Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss, won't get fooled again"?

The Physics of the Dead Cat Bounce

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:21:15 -0400

"Dead cat bounce"?

Looking @ all the quoterisers, & not referring to this microcosm, i see few who have :
a) killed a cat
b) seen a dead cat
c) dropped a dead cat onto a variety of surfaces & MEASURED the rebound.

Economic trampolines?

Good marks for the article, thank you Mr Butler.

Preview from Europe: The Horror Show's Alive and Well

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:29:37 -0400

"The key will be how the big three rating agencies (Moody’s, S&P and Fitch) react and whether they maintain Ireland’s current AAA rating."

They still have street-cred? Guess the world still likes horror movies, as long as they are voyeurs & not participants.

World War III: U.S. vs. China?

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:14:48 -0400

"Your enemy cannot defeat you unless you become like them", but also one can not fight a war with so many traitors in the media. Look @ Iraq, where "torture" includes mutilation & beheading, or "pointing @ people's privates" (M Python, & the western press)
The time to argue is before the conflict. During it, the end is hastened by success.
So many theories, but life's not like that.

On Mar 12 01:27 PM Buckoux wrote:

> Then you were not the commander of a US naval combat vessel when you checked.
> What's the matter with you non-military types, Do you really believe the Hollywood stereotype about the military. I can speak for most military personal, enlisted and commissioned, and testify that we prefer peace much more than combat. The only caveat to that is that once a fight has started, it is our duty to go to the fight and win.
> Even if politicians, New York Media and Hollywood tie one hand behind our backs. Our burden is not only the battle, but the notion that we must win, "fair and square" in a "democratic way" in a short period of time, against an enemy that cheats, is totalitarian and has lots of time because it controls its own media.

Market Outlook: What Will the Fog of March Bring?

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:52:15 -0500

"Forget about stocks, they are doomed." Guess the troggies will win?

Usually there are survivors. Things can be tough, especially when some overpaid advisor has lost half wun's assets, & billed them for it, but some companies survive, or we would not eat, dress, or drive; except in ways to which most are unaccustomed.

Like the cliff-cloud, or the weather, it IS. You are probably not going back up that cliff [arrow of time constraint], so look around & wait it out.

Why Doesn't the Market Listen?

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:06:48 -0500

Why not? Just a matter of price.

On Feb 03 10:06 AM Roland Cycan wrote:

> Gold standard. Good God. There's not enough gold in the world for
> it to be a reasonable basis for major currencies.

3 Reasons I Think a Bull Market Rally Is Imminent

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:08:58 -0500

...no crap?

Thank Goodness the Banks Aren't Lending!

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:33:46 -0500

"We won't let people starve, so why not fund a basic income, however miserly, rather than relying on an inefficient social services bureaucracy or taxing the virtuous by relying on charity?"

I have seen situations where support money is fed straight into the pokies, with a beer on the side, or where the kids beg for scraps while "adult", um, buys feed for the greyhound.

Food for thought though, thanks.

Italy's Suggested 'Global Legal Standard': A Viable Financial Measuring Stick?

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:19:42 -0500

I identify with the sarcastic view. The roosters (of both sexes) strutt their own chookyards, crowing about how well it would be in one big chookyard.
What use is 15 kiloyears of history (OK, not all written, but all woven in the fabric), compared to blind ambition disguised as optimism.

A Deflationary Spiral? Not Likely in the U.S.

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:46:06 -0500

Well i suppose if a reward is given to those who had no thrift, and nothing to those who had, next time EVERYONE can play the game. After al, why bother? Almost like what has been done already?

On Jan 13 03:29 PM J. Isaac Barthelow wrote:

> I know that I am way out of my league here - but what would happen
> if we suddenly declared all debt forgiven?

It Really Is Better to Give Than to Get (for Governments Too)

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:31:39 -0500

"Tell me why I am wrong."

We live in a "real" world. It ain't gonna happen. (Real is debateable.)

Being right does not get you to the next town when some clown owns the railway.

Keynes vs. Von Mises

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:21:38 -0500

Had not heard of Katy Delay. Now on watchlist, thanks. :)

"...understanding is not moralistic; it is simply realistic. And no amount of hysterical government grandstanding will change reality--although it can change people's perception of it, which is what the politicians want."

Seeming is not being. We get confused, often by choice.

Smarty_Pants - "The question is who gets the benefit and who pays the tab?" Spot on. Read Marcus Aurelius. Analysis of who gets & who pays clears the view of many situations, but government, almost by definition, is about getting one or several societal subsets to transfer assets, in the broadest sense including wealth, labour, sex, focus, etc., to another, preferably smaller subset. Sometimes an election or revolution changes the direction of transfer, but more often just shuffles the individuals within a subset.

When Will Criminal Conflicts of Interest Stop?

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:41:46 -0500

"and you're right, this has been a very long-term problem, starting in the Reagan admin."

That would not be very long term. However i agree with your direction, & on an exponential, 1970 could approximate zero.
This behaviour has been occuring for thousands of years, even to the caves. Mutual predation may qualify the gene pool, but the great problem is the hypocracy of saying we believe one thing while being motivated by another, even to rewarding most, as a society, those who dissemble the best.
"Society's to blame, & we'll be charging them too!" (Python), but there is a problem for the group when one born with great riches; physical, mental, or financial, deems that this gives the right to vampirism of the group.
The actors are paid more than the engineers, whether they be on screen, or in the boardroom.

On Jan 06 08:57 AM copperbaron wrote:

> Great commentary. The public is learning more every day about how
> thoroughly corrupt Wall Street is - and you're right, this has been
> a very long-term problem, starting in the Reagan admin.
>
> That's when standards for ethics were allowed to slide badly, the
> major accounting firms began to sell a clean audit (regardless of
> how rotten and fraudulent the company may have been) for "consulting
> fees" that were ten times the 'audit fee' and when Wall Street became
> a promotion machine for many dicey ventures, mostly in the tech space.
> We also made the mistake of putting a former CEO of Merrill Lynch
> (Diamond Don) in as the T-Sec.
>
> Then stock options and crony-packed Boards came into fashion, and
> it has been a mega-theft party ever since. The mass of public equity
> shareholders has had trillions looted from their accounts - yet the
> SEC has reached an all-time low under the laughable Bush admin.

>
> It's pretty nauseating, I agree.

Anyone Know How We Got to 2009?

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:33:00 -0500

I would have written that, if i could have expressed it as well, or gotten around to getting my act together...

Was discussing 1984 in 1981. Bloke i knew confided that it had happened in 1979, but people hadn't yet noticed. Conveyor belts can be like that. Welcome to the machine.