Monday, January 26, 2009

SAR #9026

We need to stop confusing asset bubbles with economic growth.

Jesse


Stimulation: Now that they've suddenly discovered that giving over a trillion in gifts and guarantees to Wall Street hasn't done any good, the GOP is now explaining that "At the end of the day, government can't solve this problem." Well, at least not a GOP-led government.

Alice in the Trading Pit: Oil Traders searched for logic in a market that seemed to defy it, soaring 6% on a government report that inventories had grown and demand weakened, and by Friday had largely given up. Maybe Simmons is right that plummeting prices were not driven by a significant decline in global demand.

If Only : On the heels of the Satyam fraud, the Price Waterhouse Auditors who could see no evil can now see the inside of a jail cell.

Great Unwashed: Hansen and the rest of the science fiction peddling 'researchers' can keep whistling in the wind. No one's listening. 44% of US voters do not buy it. Of 20 things to worry about, Global Warming comes in last. Of course this is the same bunch that believe in angels, UFOs, the free market system and Iraq's part in 9/11, while rejecting evolution, the Big Bang or the idea that the Earth goes around the Sun. Republicans all.

Hit Me Again: Pelosi claims the TARP bailout is working so well we'll have to give them another helping beyond the $700 billion. Especially those that contribute to her PAC.

Multiple Choice: In December Merrill Lynch managed to lose $15 billion. Maybe it was all in the wrist, as they marked bad loans to market values. Maybe a lot of it was CDS losses. Maybe, just maybe, they were simply god-awful at playing the stock market game.

Simple Statistics: If unemployment was figured today as it was in 1929, the rate would be 17.5%. Aren't you glad they changed the way they count?

Bleeding Heart Liberal: The incoming US intelligence chief says that "Torture is not moral, is not legal, is not effective." He also is going to stop the unlawful surveillance of Americans. The US is becoming a nation of weak-kneed constitution readers.

Headlines: Obama, please stop appeasing the Republicans to pass your stimulus package! McCain says 'No.'

At the Track: Mish keeps proclaiming that those who fear great big helpings of inflation one day soon aren't smart enough to come in out of the rain. I hope he's right about that. I also hope he's wrong about deflation. A curse on both their houses.

Political Energy: Even though they grow a lot of corn in Illinois, if biofuels are the answer, someone's asking the wrong question. Or fibbing about the answers..

Tweed Ring: Someone's guilty. Gotta be. Someone else. First it was the trailer trash sub-primers. Then it was the over-extended middle class. Or the unions. Or the oil producers. Or speculators and short-sellers. Someone, anyone! Thank goodness we've found the Chinese to blame or else Wall Street might have had to look in the mirror.

Faking It: Substitution and adulteration in foodstuffs is more common than you think, but scallops really are scallops.

Denial: It's a good thing we're not running out of oil and there is no global warming, because alternative energy solutions are "deader than hell". Or so Pickens said when his mamoth 2,700-turbine wind farm lost its financing.

Shadowland: There seems to be even more excess housing inventory gumming up the market than current statistics indicate, thanks to a wave of foreclosures that has yet to hit the market. I'd wondered; in my own neighborhood we have 5 'unlisted' foreclosures, three of them over 8 months empty with no For Sale sign yet.

Elah: Quite a few blogsters hope that Obama's regulatory efforts are code-named David, because on first glance they don't seem big enough for the job.

Evidence: The death rate in older, undisturbed, stable stands of coniferous trees has doubled. In the Pacific Northwest it took only 17 years for the death rate to double. In California the doubling took 25 years. The data applies to all kinds, sizes, ages and locations of trees. The increase in tree mortality has risen in parallel with a rise in average temperature of about 1ºC in the last 30 years. The culprits are thought to be longer summer droughts and an increase in beetles that thrive in the warmer climate.

Porn O'Graph: We've only not just begun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Great unwashed"

Stop. Arrogance like that is unbecoming.

lisa winter said...

i think this is interesting. i like the list form that you present your information in. Especially like the comment in faking it. i found this because someone twittered it. i'm glad they did. am now following you. am looking forward to more interesting articles.

Anonymous said...

"At the end of the day, government can't solve this problem." Well, at least not a GOP-led government

ANY Government!

Assuming that government actually was capable of solving mans problems then the size of government as part of GDP should shrink over time as more and more problems are solved and disappear.

The opposite is in fact happening: The size of government grows exponentially and the amount of problems relating to government grows at a similar rate.

Although the majority of the problems apparently needing government attention become more and more trivial as they multiply; The core problems, those related to standards-of-living, personal security, personal freedom, health-care, e.t.c. persists.

This is of course deliberate!

Those problems are the cash-cows; used always to expand government power and extract more money from fewer tax payers. No serious government will give up that leverage until it collapses under it's own weight!