Tuesday, September 30, 2008

weekly quote...

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it. - Margaret Thatcher

Monday, September 29, 2008

Greenspan isn't God.

I find it a little bit ironic that after Greenspan retired as the fed chairman that the markets, the regulations, and the economy have gone into a tizzy. Bernanke had no idea the shoes he was about to fill. The juggling Greenspan did to keep the economy up, the regs that weren't enforced, the jurisdiction and the overview the fed didn't care about. Greenspan lowered rates to ridiculously low levels to pump the economy up after the tech bubble burst, and that immediately created mass consumerism in the real estate market. Bad loans are made in good times, no if, way, and, or how should ARMS have been issued to the average home owner, the "screw you" loans are for investors and investors only. No documentation needed for a mortgage, you have to be kidding me. Repackage that as CMO's and CDO's, make it a three tier investment platform, insure the highest, when all were going to fail anyway, the fed had the only real power to oversee all this, to put the regs in place, and to make sure the system would work. No one else had the jurisdiction. Now the "financial god" Greenspan has stepped down and we are all in a world of pain. I don't know who is more corrupt Greenspan or the Bush administration. Don't get me wrong I'm Republican at heart. Small government, less taxes, more capitalistic society. That all works when markets are efficient, not when the regs aren't put in place, not when you can backdate stock options, not when you can repackage shit as perfume, not when one side has the knowledge and the other simply doesn't. Asymmetric information, this is the reason there are lemon laws in the used car industry. No such laws are in place in the market. Another Monday of absolute ridiculousness.

Bush's cabinet losing clout

I think this is the first time in Bush's administration that they didn't get what they want. Proof he is unpopular as ever and losing power by the buckets...
http://news.aol.com/article/house-fails-to-pass-huge-bailout-deal/188230?icid=100214839x1210206365x1200634092

Monday, September 22, 2008

some good ideas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21friedman.html?em

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Monday, September 8, 2008