A Good Christian Raisin’ and a Eighth Grade Education
I just realized last night why the ol’ gov’ment is so concerned about the stock market’s behavior over the last couple of weeks–they are afraid of competition. Â I’m not talking about competition among business operating in an free market. Â I’m talking about the free market’s competition with the gov’ment.
Up until now, the only way to achieve the negative returns people have seen in their 401ks was Social Security.Â
I’m not one to take a one day sampling of the stock market and make a “see-I-told-you-so” snap reaction. Â It’s pretty unreasonable to think what happened in Congress on Friday would have much of an impact today–the assumption of the passage of the bailout was already priced into the market. Â But the reaction to today’s drop is fast and furious, so I thought I’d join in with some snark.
Dow dips below 10,000—Maybe the market realized over the weekend that its new business partner is the US Federal Government?
Should the Fed cut interest rates?–That sounds like a good idea…let’s rig the system so that we can borrow our way out of this.  Why didn’t someone think of that before?
Global markets affected by the credit crisis–Duh. Â Easy fix–just set up some sort of central banking system. Â Better yet, let’s set up several.
The biggest irony of all–we continue to look to the people who cause problems to solve them and wonder why things don’t get better. Â My favorite phrase is being thrown around by fear mongers is “uncertain economic times”. Â When have we ever lived in certain economic times?
For the free market.
Or a Senator. Â Or an investment banker. Â Some levity is needed. Â I took the liberty of posting the censored version so you can be liberal with the volume at work.
All I gotta say to you wanna-be, gonna-be, bailout-backin’, pork-packin’ prankstas–when the Ѕңїτ jumps off what the ╒ủČК you gonna do?
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.
How about if I smear it all over something you do want?
Blue Collar Muse has the details on how the Senate is making an attempt to cram the bailout rescue down our throats (again) by attaching the bill to one that everyone is bound to vote for.
So they are trying another well known and highly effective tactic from the Congressional medical bag to revive the patient, attach the dead bill to a live bill that everyone likes and use the life force from the popular bill to revive the chances of the dead one.
I am a little amused that it seems like the most liberal and most conservative are coming down on the same side on this issue. Â They may have different reasons, but the end result is the same.
Before we start writing checks, can we give this a chance to work?
The SEC is not telling holders of hard-hit mortgage-backed securities that they can willy-nilly slap any value on them they want.
What the SEC is saying is: You can take other factors into account when valuing them.
Balance sheets should be changing. Â Lots of smoke and mirrors, but no tax dollars. Â I think that’s worth a shot.
Because www.house.gov is slammed. Â Here’s what I got when I tried to use their site to send my Congressman a thank you for voting against the bailout rescue savior of the economy.
Messaging Service Unavailable
The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittantly available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.
I’m sure it’s just a few computer savvy Ron Paul supporters who are causing all the problems.
Mark Cuban was talking about the need for transparency. Â He also mentioned that one of the problems that allowed such a large drop today is that the short selling rules are keeping people from hedging their bets and keeping the markets honest. Â A couple of nice soundbites too…
“Policians don’t want transparency because then they’re held accountable.”
“90% of Congress has no idea what they were asking questions about.”
Heh.
Some of us don’t want this bailout to pass because we don’t want a socialized financial system and hate corporate welfare. Â Other people don’t want it to pass because, honestly, they don’t understand what’s going on. Â Both are valid reasons in my book. Â It’s crazy to ask people to foot a $700B bill when they don’t really understand exactly what the money is going for.
And if I hear one more person freaking out about their 401k…
Relax. Â You aren’t retiring tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Â If you are, chances are you’re in a heavy cash position anyway. Â The rest of us are buyers, not a sellers. Â Let’s be happy everything is on deep discount.
The rest of us should be more angry about the 10% penalty we have to pay to the gov’ment if we choose to withdraw our own money early. Â The fact that the balance dropped 7% on one of the 11,000 days I’ll have the account as a buyer/holder and not a seller is nothing compared to that.
From Fast Company:
“The idea that the market is always right is a crazy idea. Laissez-faire is over.”
Well, until the shit hits the fan, maybe. But it can’t be stopped forever.
Here are a few observations I’ve made in my few years…
1) Unregulated markets are illogical, emotional, impulsive, abusive, and reactionary…in the short term. But in the long term they are rational and efficient.
2) Government is smart, able, and well-meaning…in the short term. But in the long term it is idiotic, inefficient, and oppressive.
3) People who act based on fear, emotion, and good intentions and only think in the short-term tend to pay for it heavily in the long term. Almost always.
Short term thinking got Barry Bonds the home run record. It probably shriveled up his nuts and took a few years off his life in the long term.
Short term thinking got people to buy houses they could afford to pay for while their adjustable rate was low. It caused them to get foreclosed on in the long term.
Short term thinking will give institutions that made bad loans investments the ability to make more loans investments. In the long term, well, I guess we’ll see, won’t we?
“That’s why so many people in this country have come to the conclusion that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties.”
Remember back in the debates when Ron Paul was harping on monetary policy any time he was given a chance to speak?
