Thursday
Jul022009
Jul 2, 2009 at 4:12 PMThursday
Jul022009
Bill Gross Finally Tells The Truth: The Economy Will Remain Weak For A Generation (CNBC Clip & July PIMCO Investment Letter)
Say hello to the new normal: 1-2% growth for the next 2 decades, and that's once we finally hit bottom. Gross' July PIMCO Investment Letter comes with my highest recommendation, unless of course you prefer to bury your head in the sand and listen to Christina Romer.
Thursday
Jul022009
CEA Chair Christina Romer: We'll Do Whatever It Takes To Help The Economy (Anti-Keynesian Stimulus Rant Included)
In the wake of this morning's disappointing June numbers on job losses and unemployment, the White House sent out CEA Chairwoman Dr. Christina Romer to face the media. In the clip below, Romer is her usual self--an overly-optimistic Pollyanna as she attempts to make the case that the economy will rebound soon, blah, blah, blah.
CNBC's Mark Haines sees through her bullshit and asks about a second stimulus to which Romer replies: "we are committed to doing whatever it takes to help the economy, including a second stimulus..."
Has anyone else had enough of this clueless, Keynesian claptrap. Wake up Washington. Belief in Keynes is belief in utter self-delusion. Keynes to economics is a witch doctor to medicine. It's bogus, P.T. Barnum, boonschwaggle.
Bush tried a stimulus of $150 billion--fail. Obama is trying a stimulus of $800 billion--and it will fail. Small tax cuts and inefficient spending programs (where 10% is lost through corruption, graft and waste) will not help an economy hell-bent on debt de-leveraging after a 2-decade sloth through easy money and credit.
The party is over. Turn in your hats. And stop destroying our children's futures with wasteful giveaways that serve no useful economic purpose. Keynes is and was a failure. We are broke and indebted to the tune of $12 trillion. We are in a deserved period of contraction. Allow the deleveraging to take place, encourage massive cuts by bloated states and municipalities. Adopt the New Zealand mindset (make sure to read this one) that we should use the global downturn to restructure our governments and spending so that we are ready to compete strongly again when the dark days are done. For heaven's sake stop trying to keep the party going with cheap booze and even cheaper hookers.
The economic cycle has an innate beauty--growth and recess...allow it to flourish. Recessions are necessary and unavoidable. Look at nature. When Fall comes, we shed our old leaves, prune back, and prepare for Winter and eventually a new Spring where growth flourishes again. The Bush-Obama administration seems hell-bent on making sure our tree stays (soylent) green through an ice age. It won't work and it's not smart.
Please Help by emailing our stories to a few friends. No less than your children's future is at stake. Oh and the fate of the greatest Democracy in the history of the world also hangs in the balance as we teeter toward bankruptcy. But honestly, don't worry about it. Go about your day. And don't forget to DVR American Idol. You really don't want to miss that.
Wednesday
Jul012009
Wednesday
Jul012009
Peter Schiff to Dennis Kneale: "The Good News Is That Your Record Of Inaccurate Forecasting Looks To Be Safe" (Clip)
Click Photo to See Video
Wednesday
Jul012009
The WSJ Adds It All Up: Bailout Tracker For TIP, TALF, PPIP & TARP
I've been meaning to get this posted. The WSJ has created a highly detailed interactive table that tracks the bailouts and totals of TARP, TIP, PPIP and TALF, sortable by several criteria. It is an impressive accomplishment and should be considered along with bailout totals and tables supplied recently by the FDIC and CNN.
Please Help by emailing our stories to a few friends. No less than your children's future is at stake. Oh and the fate of the greatest Republic in the history of the world also hangs in the balance. But really, it's not a big deal. Go about your day.
Wednesday
Jul012009
Dennis Kneale Takes On Zero Hedge...And Fails (Clip)
Watch the clip and then read this from Durden.
Zero Hedge vs. Dennis Kneale (you decide who is the Lone Ranger and who is P.T. Barnum):
- Tyler Durden and pals have chosen the completely insane profession of blogging
- He cares more about telling the truth than his own well-being (blogging eventually kills)
- He eviscerates Paulson, Blankfein and Goldman every chance he gets
- He understands that the real issue is the trillions in debt we are leaving our kids
- He is not a fan of generational rape
- He tells the truth about what he sees
Now Dennis Kneale's turn
- When his mouth is open Kneale is spouting useless nonsense
- Kneale cares more about his ratings and stature at CNBC than anything else in life
- He is an apologist for Wall Street and sucks up to Paulson, Blankfein and Goldman
- He believes Bailouts of Failure are a good idea
- He doesn't care about your kids, the debt or the deficits
- He is visually annoying and his voice wrenches my soul
Now to satisfy Dennis who asked in the clip for an argument against his incessantly annoying green shoot mantra, I offer the following:
Housing pain is just getting started; foreclosures will get much worse: ALT-A, Option ARMs, Jumbo Prime; credit card delinquencies on the rise; the tsunami of CMBS debt that will NOT be re-serviced; unemployment has yet to peak; imploding states; imploding municipalities; the soon-to-be-out-of-control federal debt; leveraged loan defaults; deteriorating health of regional banks; inept political leadership; much higher taxes on the horizon; consumer retrenchment; the continued debt de-leveraging; and zombie banks.
There is much more to our thesis but we don't wish to overwhelm Mr. Kneale.
Please Help by emailing our stories to a few friends. Thank you.
Wednesday
Jul012009
Wednesday
Jul012009
The Great Market Manipulation: The PPT Did A Job On Me (Clip)
CNBC: Santelli and Liesman June 29, 2009.
The PPT is the Plunge Protection Team for newcomers to stock market manipulation.
Tuesday
Jun302009
Righteous Ratigan Attack On Leverage And Regulation Leaves CEA Chair Dr. Christina Romer Mumbling Nonsense (Clip Of The Week)
Please Help the Cause by emailing our stories to a few friends. Thank you.
This is outstanding stuff from D. Rat. It's from last week, before he debuted his own show, Morning Meeting on MSNBC yesterday. He was brought in to assist talking head Mika Brezinski in her interview with Dr. Romer (another clueless Keynesian academic who advocates stealing from your children to theoretically jumpstart our rightfully moribund and de-leveraging economy), who chairs Obama's White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA).
Ratigan put on the gloves and knocked her senseless. She thought she could float through with soft platitudes and financial phrasing that would leave Brezinski begging for the next hard break. Not today, Dr. Romer, not today.
Yes. I live for these small, seemingly 'nothing' moments. It's my only nourishment as a bailout impaler, and when it comes, I freaking celebrate. Pardon me while I strut around the desk.
Damn, I'm glad Ratigan is back on the air.
Tuesday
Jun302009
Tuesday
Jun302009
Dylan Ratigan Goes From Fast Money To Morning Meeting But The Song Remains The Same (Excellent Clip)
Please Help Us Spread the Word by emailing our stories to a few friends. Thank you.
Ratigan goes from Fast Money to Morning Meeting, but his blistering attacks and blustery style have not changed. And I for one am thankful.
Guests were Daphne Aviatar, William D. Cohan and Eliot Spitzer.
Yesterday Ratigan began new his MSNBC show with the same issues he flailed back at CNBC. Any of these sound familiar: bank bailouts, financial de-regulation, rearranging the deck chairs, compromised regulators and politicians, oversight, leverage, Hank Paulson, the guilty staying in control, the Banking Oligarchy, too big to fail, Wall Street bonus and compensation structures, the revolving door, the SEC, Goldman Sachs, Larry Summers, derivatives regulation, Tim Geithner, and probably a few that I missed.
By far the funniest moment begins at the 4:25 mark, where Cohan says "There is a reason Spitzer was Governor..." Make sure to see that part.
And the best bit for taxpayers occurs in the last 15 seconds when Spitzer, railing on the AIG bailout, demands to know why we didn't receive additional warrants and shares in Goldman and the other banks in exchange for payments they received through AIG. He asks specifically why we didn't get $12.9 billion more of shares in Goldman since AIG was simply a conduit to Goldman:
"We took stock in AIG that is worthless. We gave a 12.9 billion dollar check to Goldman Sachs. Why didn't we take stock in Goldman Sachs? Why didn't, if they knew these were conduit payments, we should have taken stock in the institutions that had value, not wasted it on AIG. Why didn't that happen?"
Bravo. I wrote back in April that Eliot Spitzer deserves a 2nd chance. Familial peccadilloes aside, the guy is a prosecutorial beast and US taxpayers desperately need him back in Albany as Attorney General for the Sate of New York.
My face mimics a smile as I imagine his hit list: Paulson, Rubin, Cassano, Athan, Mozilo, Dodd, Cox, Cramer (yes Jim Cramer, just for general douchebaggery), Blankfein, Lewis, Thain, Pandit, Fuld, Schwarz, Cayne. Do not deny this writer his dreams.
Tuesday
Jun302009
No Bailout For Bernie: Madoff Gets 150 Years
This gesture crystallizes our thoughts rather succinctly, but there's much more inside.