tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post6653032551710785748..comments2023-10-30T09:23:42.803-05:00Comments on Some Assembly Required: SAR #9041Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-59295539783056101952009-02-10T18:42:00.000-06:002009-02-10T18:42:00.000-06:00anony - I'm a believer in the $550B story &...anony - I'm a believer in the $550B story & would like to know who or what the responsible party or parties was/were.<BR/>Taxes - I'm so damned old I actually think we have to pay our debts; if not today, someday. I know that's not a fashionable idea & that spending is needed right now - okay, too. But let us have spending that builds something for the future, not Dem pork nor GOP pork, but actual infrastructure and energy improvements & not more roads, more cars and more more.<BR/>I certainly do not think we should borrow and lend our way to another bubble and pretend we are cured. The system is broken. It does not need repair, it needs replacement.<BR/>ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-32899732117346330312009-02-10T16:32:00.000-06:002009-02-10T16:32:00.000-06:00ck- much enjoy your blog. couple of comments.#1, ...ck- <BR/><BR/>much enjoy your blog. couple of comments.<BR/><BR/>#1, re $550B withdrawal from money markets. This IS the right order of magnitude. There are (or at least were, at that time) trillions in money market funds of all stripes held by individuals, corporations, pensions, governments, you name it. As to the severity of the withdrawal, it's eminently plausible. Recall that, last September, the markets for all of SIV paper, commercial paper, auction rate securities, short term municipal paper (TANs, RANs, BANs, VRDNs) and bank CDs were all broken. These are the securities held by money market funds. The light bulb went on in peoples' heads that these investments were worth less than face value, hence the rush to the exits.<BR/><BR/>#2, taxes: funny how spending never, ever, goes down whether revenues do or not. i'm not wild about tax cuts now...as our deficit grows like a mutant fungus... but neither do i see how we dig ourselves out of a rathole caused by too much spending and borrowing by more spending and borrowing.<BR/><BR/>cheers and thanks for the thought provoking entertainment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-35955470651740266432009-02-10T12:36:00.000-06:002009-02-10T12:36:00.000-06:00Gannet - I'm not in charge, I'm just point...Gannet - I'm not in charge, I'm just pointing out the sights along the way. If we can't find amusement in the current sideshow we're in for a long solemnity followed by disappointment. I think it a great joke we've played on ourselves; 'it' being "free markets", globalization, economics, bipartisanship, McEverything, the cheap energy economy, unlimited expansion on a limited planet &tc.<BR/>Gotta go work on my terrarium now. <BR/>ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-53170223795292587352009-02-10T11:53:00.000-06:002009-02-10T11:53:00.000-06:00Uh, uh, I get it. We are all doomed. Armageddon ...Uh, uh, I get it. We are all doomed. Armageddon Online says we have only got five years before we freeze, astronomers have flagged an asteroid due in 2171, but worse, the 2012 London Olympics occur at the same time as a planetary lineup. Now you cheer us all up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-77132383886590823512009-02-10T11:23:00.000-06:002009-02-10T11:23:00.000-06:00Gannet - I believe the second answer is the same a...Gannet - I believe the second answer is the same as the first: Debt slavery, except the repayment will be in terms of higher taxes, fewer services and higher inflation. It's the company store, either way.<BR/>ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-20544885922722178072009-02-10T10:50:00.000-06:002009-02-10T10:50:00.000-06:00Porn O'Graph, if the debts can never be repaid the...Porn O'Graph, if the debts can never be repaid then either you are bankrupt or you are in a position of debt slavery. If the debts are your own, then you can file for bankruptcy. If the debts are the governments for which you, as a taxpayer will be ultimately liable, then what?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-87870698825513426642009-02-10T10:27:00.000-06:002009-02-10T10:27:00.000-06:00eyedunno - There's a lot of discussion on the net ...eyedunno - There's a lot of discussion on the net about this (Motley Fool, TPM, Seeking Alpha, Financial Armageddon and others). Some have good commentary explaining the actual mechanics (it was a flight to safety) and nature of the funds involved (corporate etc. not money market funds like I usual think of them). It apparently did happen - at least to some scale - but it was not a flight from the dollar but to the dollar and then Certain Parties used the occasion to advance their own ends... Imagine that.<BR/>ckmCharles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-11819762770231582812009-02-10T09:51:00.000-06:002009-02-10T09:51:00.000-06:00Hi - generally I love your stuff! But today you po...Hi - generally I love your stuff! But today you posted one that is downright fishy. The bit about the congressman claiming $550bn pulled in an hour.<BR/><BR/>This makes no sense whatsoever. It must be a case of someone mixing up "millions" and "billions," being totally clueless and confused, or being senile. <BR/><BR/>Look at it: who or what could possibly have $550 billion parked in US money market accounts in the first place?<BR/><BR/>Microsoft's notoriously-gargantuan cash hoard is only $44 billion. That's 8% of the number allegedly pulled. Microsoft has the largest cash pile of any company in the world, so it couldn't have been a corporation (not even those evil oil companies...)<BR/><BR/>Saudi Arabia's total GDP is only $391 billion - - 40% short of the alleged withdraw. SA is rich, but they ain't $550-billion-gathering-dust-in-a-checking-account rich. <BR/><BR/>So who does that leave? Nobody, that's who. <BR/><BR/>This sounds like yet another case of a under-informed, over-exhausted legislator improvising a bunch of b^ll sh!t in front of the cameras.<BR/><BR/>People: retain your critical thinking skills! Validate basic data against known reality! Don't fall for garbage, 'k? :)eyedunnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17868319301883475700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-75455889962923832522009-02-10T09:06:00.000-06:002009-02-10T09:06:00.000-06:00"Repeat After Me: "It's not cutting taxes that's b..."Repeat After Me: "<BR/><BR/>It's not cutting taxes that's bad. It's the NOT CUTTING SPENDING, EVER, EVER ,EVER!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com