Tuesday, June 23, 2009

SAR #9174

Remember, the folks fixing the economy are the same ones
who solved the terrorist problem via the Patriot Act.

Takes One to Know One: Corporate insiders are selling their stock in their own companies at the fastest rate since the lat time the bottom fell out of the market two years ago. it's not a lagging indicator of anything. The World Bank agrees with them, time to run and hide.

Text: "If modern industrial civilization perishes, it will be because the steps necessary for its survival weren’t cost-effective enough." There, a do-it-yourself sermon.

Another Silly Love Song: "Inflation: Too Early to Worry?" Take a break. Most money is created by banks writing loans. Banks are not writing loans. Loans are being paid off and written off. The money that drove the boom is simply evaporating. That is a contraction - there is less money around. It leads to deflation. Quit running on and on about inflation.

Zebra, Stripes: The folks at Goldman Sachs may be pretty bright at finance; they suck at public relations.

Tell Me About the Rabbits: Over half of US companies expect to have fewer employees in 3 to 5 years than they did before the recession and plan on maintaining pay and benefit cuts. If companies are not going employ people nor pay them well, who the hell is going to buy the stuff they make?

Asked and Answered: "Is the housing bust killing consumption?" Yes, and with it the US economy.

Silly Headline: "Still Plenty of Cash on Sidelines". There is no such thing as money on the sidelines. When you pay me for stock, I give you stock and you give me money. Doesn't matter whether the market is going up or down or sideways. It's an even exchange. Think on it.

Interesting, Very Interesting: At least 4 million more Americans would be officially poor if their interest payments were deducted from their incomes. But wait, they are.

Not the QE2 or London Bridge: The toxic crap GE dumped into the Hudson River for generations is being dug up and shipped to West Texas. May improve both places.

Long Pig: At least some Neanderthals disappeared into Homo sapiens cookpots. The sturdy Neanderthals survived several ice ages in Europe before modern humans arrived from Goldman Sachs about 30,000 years ago.

Told You So: "Raising cap on social security tax best way to fix shortfall."

Madness of Crowds: Nissan is joining the rush to make money making electric cars to sell to Americans who don't understand that 80% of electricity is fossil fuel - coal, gas and fuel oil.

Sure Things: (1) The sun will rise tomorrow. (2) The race to exploit resources in the Arctic will result in clashes between global powers.

Daniel Steel 101: For $6,000 you can have a course at San Francisco City College named for you or for your dog or for your favorite author.

Practice Runs: Homeland Security hopes to try out its plans to round up and imprison large numbers of Americans under the guise of public health quarantines related to the swine flu outbreak.

Porn O'Graph: In debt they trust.

5 comments:

tulsatime said...

i finally figured out what the greenshoots are, little nitrogen fixing nodules setting up for the next blast, S&P 250 anyone?????

Unknown said...

Re: "Madness of Crowds - Nissan is making electric cars"

True, electric vehicles will first be powered by burning carbon upstream, but this is a necessary step, in that it separates the burning of the carbon from the vehicle. The next steps are to replace the upstream electric sources, but that is then an independent problem from 'vehicle'. Split the problem, solve each one.

I'd say the same type of thing should go on with health care - separate health coverage from an individual's employment situation, and once that's done, then go about changing the now-standalone health insurance system without employer/payroll concerns.

You can't change huge things all at once. Incremental steps and constant forward progress...

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Steve - I agree on the divide and conquer approach to some problems - healthcare for one. But I storngly suspect that the problem is not so much with "electric" part of the solution, but with continuing to believe that the solution can possibly incorporate "car".

Achieving single payer universal health insurance coverage will be a 25 year process of small steps.

Personal transportation requires a real rethinking and a new paradigm.
ckm

fajensen said...

Personal transportation requires a real rethinking and a new paradigm.

But what we will actually Get will be a return to the old ways of the world where the peasants were bound to the lands of their Lord & Master needing his lordships permission to travel.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

fajensen - I agree with the trend of your comment, and I suspect that one of the roads that leads there is going to be lined with electric cars.

See the 'feudalism' citation in the June 24th SAR.
ckm