Monday, March 2, 2009

SAR #9061

With this as the starting point, where can we possibly go?


Inquiring Mind: AIG is up to $200 billion or so. Citi is well over that. Bof A has gotten funds under so many different guises we can't keep count. Half a trillion, at least, and not one vote by one congressman. Strange, huh?

Put it on the Tab: Bankrupt Delphi Corp, GM's disowned offspring, points the way to the future; a bankruptcy court absolved it from paying contractually obligated health care benefits for 15,000 current and former employees - because this was demanded by its lenders. To hell with the retirees. To hell with contracts. Let the taxpayer bleed.

Coals to Newcastle: Kuwait has sold about 500,000 barrels of gas-oil to Saudi Arabia.

Oh, That sort of True: Gov. Jindal has acknowledge that he wasn't actually present and had no part whatsoever in The Great Defiance when the sheriff stood up to the federales, as he claimed on national TV as the GOP's spokesman. Turns out he didn't really mean it "in the sense of its actually being true. He meant it more in the sense that it was made up.

Crime Soppers : The median price of a single family home in Detroit in 2008 dropped to $7,500. The murder rate dropped 14%, mostly because "...there isn't anyone left to kill."

Cropping Crops: Crops in southeastern Australia could be cut by half this year due to continuing drought and escalating costs. In Texas 64% of the winter wheat crop is rated poor to very poor. In Oklahoma 36% of the crop is rated poor or very poor. China's wheat belt is suffering its worst drought in 50 years.

Either /Or: Two headlines: "Basra oil exports down due to depleted stocks," and "Iraq plans to boost output to 300,000 bpd."

Rip Tide: Moody’s expects nearly all 2005 to 2007 vintage subprime mortgage-backed securities (42% of $680 billion worth) that are currently delinquent will default. S&P announced it expects 40% of 2006 and 2007 vintage mortgages to default.

Green, The Color Of Money: Virginia Natural Gas will charging an extra $7 a month for customers underusing natural gas. A new law lets the company add fees to make up for lost income when customers use less of their product.

The Great Santini Santelli: ChicagoTeaParty.com, which hosted "The Tea Party Rant" a few hours after it spilled forth on CNBC, obtained the domain name in August 2008. Planning ahead?

Qui Bono: As you've figured out, Obama's plan to subsidize mortgages is designed to prop up house prices which will benefit the banks and holders of mortgage backed derivatives.

Self Help: Bill Gross, CEO of PIMPCO PIMCO, who "helped" the Treasury Department by advising it to wipe out shareholders value in Fannie and Freddie while pumping up the flagging value of his bonds, advises more of the same for Citi and AIG. PIPMCO PIMCO is one of the world's most powerful bond investors.

Comming Detraction: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D, RI) wants a 'torture commission' to investigate events during the Bush years. As a member of the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, maybe he's speaking with some insider knowledge when he says there is lots the public does not know about these issues. "This is going to be big."

Look Closely: The headline screamed "Major oil field found in north China." Seems a field with about 100 million tonnes was found, 35% of which may be recoverable. Wowser. But 35 million tonnes works out to 280 million barrels, which will supply the world for less than 4 days.

Porn O'Graph: Housing prices always usually sometimes hardly ever go up.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's always the same graph on housing. The sooner that the Government and the public realize that we have another 30-40% left to go down the better off we will be.

RBM

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

RBM - It's not just housing; all these damned graphs are identical. To save time I may just use the same chart and change the titles - housing, employment, GDP, and on and on and down and down. At first they were informative, then strangely amusing. Now they are just depressing.
But that's another chart.
ckm

Keith Hazelton Anecdotal Economist said...

Re: Charts

http://www.breitservices.com/Gibraltor.jpg

Take a look at this image and tell me you don't see our recent charts of commerce and economics imitating nature.

Yes, all our charts now are looking like the dreaded "Rock of Gibraltor" pattern.

I think there's a reference to this pattern in some obscure book on technical analysis written, say, in the early 1930s.

Anonymous said...

Last year I read Some Assembly, Calc Risk, and a couple other financial blogs religiously. Now only every couple of days. Today on the way to work I decided I'd rather listen to hard rock (and I'm a classical fan) on the radio than NPR business news. Then the rock DJ mentioned the Dow... It isn't even possible to buy your head in the sand, no matter how much you may want to.
Given that most of us can't do much besides look in dismay at the tsunami rushing toward our straw homes, how do ya keep from crying?

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

How do I keep from crying? None of this is a surprise. I've had a lot of luck along the way. I prepared a long time ago, emotionally and financially for this crisis. When we worked, I insisted we save and invest 25% of our income. I invested conservatively and retired as early as I could (at 54). When stock prices got silly, I ran to shelter - and missed the top. Also missed the bottom. My wife and I have spent the last 15 years enjoying each other, our family and the world about us. The family, near and extended (especially my stockbroker mother-in-law) thought I was crazy and ruining our lives when I withdrew from the daily race. Now I don't get criticized quite so much.
If it all falls to pieces tomorrow, I will not complain, for I have ridden the accident of my birth just before the crest of the energy boom about as well as I could have hoped. So it is mostly a spectator sport to me these days & I try to keep the 'told you so' out of my voice.
ckm