MARKET RESEARCH A CRIME?

the FBI and the SEC is fanning out delivering supoenas to hedge funds and market research firms in search of criminality. no one knows the facts yet. there are bad guys and there are aggressive guys who go over the line, BUT, professional investors have paid for better information for thousands of years. the first marathon was created by a guy running to report the outcome of a famous battle; back in the day of whaling and clipper ships there used to be runner at the dock, running news of how the trip went giving an information advantage to the recipients. there are some crazy high frequency traders building a new fiber optic telecom line that saves 75 miles and nanoseconds on the transmission of information. casion analyst count cars in the parking lot of casinos to guage traffic. the bottom line is information and points of view have value and investors have striven for such information forever.

so what is this new chapter all about? conceptually you have almost all hedge funds and large private equity funds paying for infomation; the question is any of this illegal? clearly if a current corporate officer gives non public information to a trader that is illegal; among other reasons because the officer has a duty to the corportation and its shareholders. however if an ex-corporate officer who clearly does not have a duty to the corporation and does not violate an nda he may be a party to expresses his opinion to a hedge fund, has a crime be committed?

i think not.

this will get down to facts; who disclosed what and what duties did they have?

TSA IS A TALIBAN AND DEMOCRATIC UNION PLOT

so some young man from san diego is getting his 15minutes of fame for not being x-rayed or groped by the tsa the other day. maybe it will be the event that causes americans to rebel against an idiotic system that while it provides some security; is so inefficient and fallible as to be an incredible burden on the american economy and therefore a victory for terrorism.

i travel alot. the process is maddening. you are confronted with a see of people in blue uniforms processing people so slowly and ineptly.... and they are incompetant. janet napolitano in defending genital massage said that we need to make sure that gels and liquids are not getting thru. well the other day, i sent my hand luggage thru and it contained an 8 oz. tube of hair gel, yes i know, hair gel, the secret is out, and it went thru without a hiccup. i was not trying to beat the system; i forgot. so it is all bull shit.

so what should we do. we need security. here are a few ideas.

we are looking for needles in haystacks; it is asymetrical; lets get rid of some of the hay thru trusted traveler programs. have travelers, if they want, volunteer to give the govt. alot of info plus fingerprints and retina scans and have an enhanced passporst and lets process these people fast.

lets use some of the israeli methods of profiling, verbal and facial and body language assessment.

we need better high tech scanner and sniffers in our ports and commercial package shipping infrastructure.

lets not allow the tsa to unionize.

more ideas solicited from you all, but this system is stupid.

RUN TURKEY, RUN

Investment Outlook

November 2010

Run Turkey, Run

• The Fed’s announcement of a renewed commitment to Quantitative Easing has been well telegraphed and the market’s reaction is likely to be subdued.
• We are in a “liquidity trap,” where interest rates or trillions in asset purchases may not stimulate borrowing or lending because consumer demand is just not there.
• The Fed’s announcement will likely signify the end of a great 30-year bull market in bonds and the necessity for bond managers and, yes, equity managers to adjust to a new environment.

They say a country gets the politicians it deserves or perhaps it deserves the politicians it gets. Whatever the order, America is next in line, and as we go to the polls in a few short days it’s incumbent upon a sleepy and befuddled electorate to at least ask ourselves, “What’s going on here?” Democrat or Republican, Elephant or Donkey, nothing much ever seems to change. Each party has shown it can add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt with little to show for it or move our military from one country to the next chasing phantoms instead of focusing on more serious problems back home. This isn’t a choice between chocolate and vanilla folks, it’s all rocky road: a few marshmallows to get you excited before the election, but with a lot of nuts to ruin the aftermath.

Each party’s campaign tactics remind me of airport terminals pre-9/11 when solicitors only yards apart would compete for the attention and dollars of travelers. “Save the Whales,” one would demand, while the other would pose as its evil twin – “Eat Whale Blubber,” the makeshift sign would read. It didn’t matter which slogan grabbed you, the end of the day’s results always produced a pot of money for them and the whales were neither saved nor eaten. American politics resemble an airline terminal with a huckster’s bowl waiting to be filled every two years.

And the paramount problem is not that we contribute so willingly or even so cluelessly, but that there are only two bowls to choose from. Thomas Friedman, the respected author of The World Is Flat, and a weekly New York Times Op-Ed author, recently suggested “ripping open this two-party duopoly and having it challenged by a serious third party” unencumbered by special interest megabucks. “We basically have two bankrupt parties, bankrupting the country,” was the explicit sentiment of his article, and I couldn’t agree more – whales or no whales. Was it relevant in 2004 that John Kerry was or was not an admirable “swift boat” commander? Will the absence of a mosque within several hundred yards of Ground Zero solve our deficit crisis? Is Christine O’Donnell really a witch? Did Meg Whitman employ an illegal maid? Who cares! We are being conned, folks; Democrats and Republicans alike. What have you really heard from either party that addresses America’s future instead of its prurient overnight fascination with scandal? Shame on them and of course, shame on us. We’re getting what we deserve. Vote NO in November – no to both parties. Vote NO to a two-party system that trades promises for dollars and hope for power, and leaves the American people high and dry.

There’s another important day next week and it rather coincidentally occurs on Wednesday – the day after Election Day – when either the Donkeys or the Elephants will be celebrating a return to power and the continuation of partisan bickering no matter who is in charge. Wednesday is the day when the Fed will announce a renewed commitment to Quantitative Easing – a polite form disguise for “writing checks.” The market will be interested in the amount (perhaps as much as an initial $500 billion) as well as the targeted objective (perhaps a muddied version of “2% inflation or bust!”). The announcement, however, has been well telegraphed and the market’s reaction is likely to be subdued. More important will be the answer to the long-term question of “will it work?” and perhaps its associated twin “will it create a bond market bubble?”

Whatever the conclusion, not only investors, but the American people should recognize that Wednesday, even more than Tuesday, represents a critical inflection point in determining our future prosperity. Of course we’ve tried it before, most recently in the aftermath of the Lehman crisis, during which the Fed wrote $1.5 trillion or so in “checks” to purchase Agency mortgages and a smattering of Treasuries. It might seem a tad dramatic then, to label QEII as “critical,” sort of like those airport hucksters, I suppose, that sold whale blubber for a living. But two years ago, there was the implicit assumption that the U.S. and its associated G-7 economies needed just an espresso or perhaps an Adderall or two to get back to normal. Normal just hasn’t happened yet, and economic historians such as Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart have since alerted us that countries in the throes of delevering can take many, not several, years to return to a steady state.

The Fed’s second round of QE, therefore, more closely resembles an attempted hypodermic straight to the economy’s heart than its mood elevator counterpart of 2009. If QEII cannot reflate capital markets, if it can’t produce 2% inflation and an assumed reduction of unemployment rates back towards historical levels, then it will be a long, painful slog back to prosperity. Perhaps, as a vocal contingent suggests, our paper-based foundation of wealth deserves to be buried, making a fresh start from admittedly lower levels. The Fed, on Wednesday, however, will decide that it is better to keep the patient on life support with an adrenaline injection and a following morphine drip than to risk its demise and ultimate rebirth in another form.

We at PIMCO join with Ben Bernanke in this diagnosis, but we will tell you, as perhaps he cannot, that the outcome is by no means certain. We are, as even some Fed Governors now publically admit, in a “liquidity trap,” where interest rates or trillions in QEII asset purchases may not stimulate borrowing or lending because consumer demand is just not there. Escaping from a liquidity trap may be impossible, much like light trapped in a black hole. Just ask Japan. Ben Bernanke, however, will try – it is, to be honest, all he can do. He can’t raise or lower taxes, he can’t direct a fiscal thrust of infrastructure spending, he can’t change our educational system, he can’t force the Chinese to revalue their currency – it is all he can do, and as he proceeds, the dual questions of “will it work” and “will it create a bond market bubble” will be answered. We at PIMCO are not sure.

Still, while next Wednesday’s announcement will carry our qualified endorsement, I must admit it may be similar to a Turkey looking forward to a Thanksgiving Day celebration. Bondholders, while immediate beneficiaries, will likely eventually be delivered on a platter to more fortunate celebrants, be they financial asset classes more adaptable to inflation such as stocks or commodities, or perhaps the average American on Main Street who might benefit from a hoped-for rise in job growth or simply a boost in nominal wages, however deceptive the illusion. Check writing in the trillions is not a bondholder’s friend; it is in fact inflationary, and, if truth be told, somewhat of a Ponzi scheme. Public debt, actually, has always had a Ponzi-like characteristic. Granted, the U.S. has, at times, paid down its national debt, but there was always the assumption that as long as creditors could be found to roll over existing loans – and buy new ones – the game could keep going forever. Sovereign countries have always implicitly acknowledged that the existing debt would never be paid off because they would “grow” their way out of the apparent predicament, allowing future’s prosperity to continually pay for today’s finance.

Now, however, with growth in doubt, it seems that the Fed has taken Charles Ponzi one step further. Instead of simply paying for maturing debt with receipts from financial sector creditors – banks, insurance companies, surplus reserve nations and investment managers, to name the most significant – the Fed has joined the party itself. Rather than orchestrating the game from on high, it has jumped into the pond with the other swimmers. One and one-half trillion in checks were written in 2009, and trillions more lie ahead. The Fed, in effect, is telling the markets not to worry about our fiscal deficits, it will be the buyer of first and perhaps last resort. There is no need – as with Charles Ponzi – to find an increasing amount of future gullibles, they will just write the check themselves. I ask you: Has there ever been a Ponzi scheme so brazen? There has not. This one is so unique that it requires a new name. I call it a Sammy scheme, in honor of Uncle Sam and the politicians (as well as its citizens) who have brought us to this critical moment in time. It is not a Bernanke scheme, because this is his only alternative and he shares no responsibility for its origin. It is a Sammy scheme – you and I, and the politicians that we elect every two years – deserve all the blame.

Still, as I’ve indicated, a Sammy scheme is temporarily, but not ultimately, a bondholder’s friend. It raises bond prices to create the illusion of high annual returns, but ultimately it reaches a dead-end where those prices can no longer go up. Having arrived at its destination, the market then offers near 0% returns and a picking of the creditor’s pocket via inflation and negative real interest rates. A similar fate, by the way, awaits stockholders, although their ability to adjust somewhat to rising inflation prevents such a startling conclusion. Last month I outlined the case for low asset returns in almost all categories, in part due to the end of the 30-year bull market in interest rates, a trend accentuated by QEII in which 2- and 3-year Treasury yields approach the 0% bound. Anyone for 1.10% 5-year Treasuries? Well, the Fed will buy them, but then what, and how will PIMCO tell the 500 billion investor dollars in the Total Return strategy and our equally valued 750 billion dollars of other assets that the Thanksgiving Day axe has finally arrived?

We will tell them this. Certain Turkeys receive a Thanksgiving pardon or they just run faster than others! We intend PIMCO to be one of the chosen gobblers. We haven’t been around for 35+ years and not figured out a way to avoid the November axe. We are a survivor and our clients are not going to be Turkeys on a platter. You may not be strutting around the barnyard as briskly as you used to – those near 10% annualized yields in stocks and bonds are a thing of the past – but you’re gonna be around next year, and then the next, and the next. Interest rates may be rock bottom, but there are other ways – what we call “safe spread” ways –to beat the axe without taking a lot of risk: developing/emerging market debt with higher yields and non-dollar denominations is one way; high quality global corporate bonds are another. Even U.S. Agency mortgages yielding 200 basis points more than those 1% Treasuries, qualify as “safe spreads.” While our “safe spread” terminology offers no guarantees, it is designed to let you sleep at night with less interest rate volatility. The Fed wants to buy, so come on, Ben Bernanke, show us your best and perhaps last moves on Wednesday next. You are doing what you have to do, and it may or may not work. But either way it will likely signify the end of a great 30-year bull market in bonds and the necessity for bond managers and, yes, equity managers to adjust to a new environment.

If a country gets the politicians it deserves, then the same can be said of an investor – you’re gonna get what you deserve. Vote No to Republican and Democratic turkeys on Tuesday and Yes to PIMCO on Wednesday. We hope to be your global investment authority for a new era of “SAFE spread” with lower interest rate duration and price risk, and still reasonably high potential returns. For us, and hopefully you, Turkey Day may have to be postponed indefinitely.

William H. Gross
Managing Director

THE BLUHDORN EFFECT LIVES!

when charlie bludhorn died under suspicious circumstances in the dominican republic in 1983; suspicious in that he may have died in the dr or on the plane home to the US, the stock of Gulf&Western went up dramatically upon the announcement. the market thought the company was more valuable with him dead. similarly when nestor kirchner died, the argentinian stock, bond and currency markets rallied. the market thought argentina was more valuable without the prospect of him coming back as president.

today the stock market is up 2.4%, market still open. so is the market saying america is more valuable without democratic control of all three branches?

seems so

142 MILLION DOLLARS; ALTERNATIVE USES?

meg whitman spent $142 million dollars on her losing campaign. now there are always winners and losers and one can call the losing budget a waste but that is not intellectually fair.

however, $142 million is a lot of money for a governors race. what would you have done with this amount of money?

my thought this morning is to create a fund; invest it in technology and innovation and give the returns to charities and ngo's

what would you do?

MANDATE? FOR WHAT?

election day is tommorow. what will happen and what will it mean.

well it looks like the republicans will take the House, bye nancy; and the dems will hold the senate but only like 52-48 and reid may lose, bye harry.

prop 19 probably fails but smoking grass will become like a traffic ticket.

anyhow, the republicans will be talking about their mandate and as usual, when people think they have mandates, they will get it wrong and overreach.

some wise politician once said its about the economy stupid and that is alot of what is going on here. while it is true that the economy blew up under bush, obama has had 2 years to be effective and hasnt been. the stimulus didnt stimulate, and the war on business and capital combined with the incredible diversion of time and political capital to achieve a pyrrhic victory on healthcare leave us with high unemployement, low growth, and the banks and big business on the sidelines and voters pissed off

so this is very off with their heads, throw the bums out; as opposed to boy i have faith in the republican party or the tea party.

now there was a golden age for a short time when clinton was in the white house and newt controlled congress but i dont think thats what will happen here. not clear what can be accomplished with a republican congress with a pseudo mandate and clueless democrats and a class warfare president; but if something isnt, then the anger being directed at democrats will be shared with the republicans

wish em luck

Why Easier Money Won't Work:

The Fed risks fueling a destructive bond market bubble, while any gains from a weaker dollar will come at the expense of those to whom we hope to export.

By JOSEPH STIGLITZ

The Federal Reserve, having done so much to create the problems in which the economy is now mired, having mistakenly thought that even after the housing bubble burst the problems were contained, and having underestimated the severity of the problem, now wants to make a contribution to preventing the economy from sinking into a Japanese-style malaise. How? As Chairman Ben Bernanke announced last week, through large-scale purchases of U.S. Treasurys—called quantitative easing, or QE.

The Fed is right to be worried.

If high unemployment continues, America faces the risk of losing human capital as the skills of the unemployed erode. It will then become increasingly difficult to bring the unemployment rate down to anywhere near the levels that prevailed in the mid- and late 1990s, and the higher unemployment rate and lower output will make the current pessimistic budget projections of the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget look rosy.

The problem is that, with interest rates already near zero, there is little the Fed can do to restart the economy—and doing the wrong thing can do considerable damage. In 2001, (then) record-low interest rates didn't reignite investment in plant and equipment. They did, however, replace the tech bubble with an even more dangerous housing bubble. We are now dealing with the legacy of that bubble, with excess capacity in real estate and excess leverage in households.

View Full Image

Reuters

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

Today, the Fed is paying too little attention to the transmission between the interest rates paid by government and the terms and availability of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Large businesses are flush with cash, and small changes in interest rates—short-term or long—will affect them little. A banker rightly asks if such a business comes asking for money, "What's wrong with it?"

But it is SMEs that are the source of job creation in most economies, including the U.S. Many of these enterprises are starved for cash. They can't borrow money at the interest rate that big banks, big firms or government can. They borrow from banks, and many of the smaller local and community banks on which they depend are in dire straits—more than 800 are on the FDIC's watch list.

Yet even if the banks were willing and able to lend, lending to SMEs is typically collateral-based, and the value of the most common form of collateral, real estate, has fallen 30% to 40%. No wonder then that credit availability is so constrained. But QE in the form of buying U.S. Treasurys is not likely to affect this much. It will have some effect in lowering mortgage rates, and lower mortgage rates will put a little more money into people's pockets. Higher real-estate prices may also allow some SMEs to borrow more. But these effects, though positive, are likely to be small—so small as to make a barely perceptible difference in America's persistent unemployment.

There is another channel through which easing will have some positive effects: Equity prices are likely to rise. But for all the reasons just given, this is unlikely to have much effect on investment. Nor will most Americans, burdened with debt and diminished retirement accounts, likely embark on much of a spending spree. Nor should they. Doing so would only delay the deleveraging that is necessary if we are to have sustainable growth going forward.

There is another downside risk: QE may not even succeed in lowering interest rates, or lowering them very much. Given the magnitude of excess capacity, there is little risk of inflation today. But if the inflation hawks come to believe that the risk of future inflation is real, then they'll believe that short-term interest rates will rise. This will mean that long-term interest rates, even now, may actually rise, in spite of the massive Fed intervention, because long-term interest rates are based on expectations of future short-term interest rates.

QE poses a third risk: The bursting of the bond market bubble that the Fed is seeking to develop—the sequel to the tech and housing bubbles—will clearly have adverse effects on the economy, as we should have learned by now.

The advocates of QE point to another channel through which it will strengthen the economy: Lower interest rates may also lead to a weaker dollar, and the weaker dollar to more exports. Competitive devaluation engineered through low interest rates has become the preferred form of beggar-thy-neighbor policies in the 21st century. But this policy only works if other countries don't respond. They will and have, through every instrument at their disposal. They too can lower interest rates. They can impose capital controls, taxes and bank regulations, and they can intervene directly in their exchange rate.

Under the gold standard, there was supposed to be an automatic adjustment mechanism, as a country with a trade surplus would see an inflow of gold and an increase in prices, leading to an automatic real appreciation of its currency. It never worked as smoothly as it was supposed to, but in the modern economy with fiat money, the adjustment processes can be short-circuited even more easily. China, for instance, has sufficient control of its banking system and economy that it can simultaneously maintain a stable exchange rate that generates a surplus and prevents inflation.

Such policies may come with a price, but the price may be less than the alternative: the bankruptcies and unemployment that would follow from disruptive currency appreciation as the U.S. lets forth a flood of liquidity. That money is supposed to reignite the American economy but instead goes around the world looking for economies that actually seem to be functioning well and wreaking havoc there.

The upside of QE is limited. The money simply won't go to where it's needed, and the wealth effects are too small. The downside is a risk of global volatility, a currency war, and a global financial market that is increasingly fragmented and distorted. If the U.S. wins the battle of competitive devaluation, it may prove to be a pyrrhic victory, as our gains come at the expense of others—including those to whom we hope to export.

Mr. Stiglitz, a Columbia professor, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics. The paperback version of his book "Freefall" is just out by W.W. Norton.

AT LEAST WE ARE NOT FRANCE

as i constantly despair about the state and prospects for america, i am at least grateful that at least we are not france

sarkozy is trying to implement a small, totally correct thing, moving the retirement age for pensions from 60 to 62. the "workers" are on strike. they can strike there way to poverty. all these welfare states, including america, have unsustainable structures given the benefits committed to versus ever longer life expectancies taking account birth rates and the ratio and workers to retirees.

it just doesnt work. what needs to happen in france is for the average french person to support the government and say we need to do this

vive la difference

SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS

THE SUBLIME. recently there have been stories that remind me how amazing people are capable of being. like the chilean miner resecue. here we have a wonderful country, shaken by a terrible earthquake with tremendous loss of life and property; digging out largely on its own; without the help of sean penn; confronted with a potential tragedy with 33 miners trapped deep below the surface. the country rallied, the world rallied and unlike most of these occurrences they were saved. NASA helped. a small drill bit company in berlin, pennsylvania dropped everything and made special drill bits that ultimately led the successful of 3 different drill attempts. the owner of the business said it was the most important thing he had done in his life.

then there is the story of the unemployed construction worker who jumped into his car and chased the bad guy who abducted and attacked a young girl. he chased him down at obvious risk and rescued the girl.

these are the things we are capable of as individuals and as a species.

and then you read the rest of the news. a few items that caught my attention; not all that important maybe but of interest to me

THE RIDICULOUS

joy behar and whoppie goldberg walked off the set of the View during an interview with bill o'reilly, see it on youtube, where he calmly said 3 things; that obama refused to express his opinion on the ground zero mosque after saying the constitution allows for it; bill said the same but that it was inappropriate, wow, what a fiery word; and then he said why, because Muslims killed americans on 9/11 at that location.

joy and whoppie got up and left. outraged by the truth. now upon reflection bill said he should have said muslim extremists, not just muslims; you watch it and tell me. if joy and whoppie are america, i want out

lastly, bernanke said more or less today that the fed should ease more because of high unemployment. well that sounds good at 30k feet but what on earth can they do? rates arent low enough? 3 years treasury bonds at 35 basis points or so! its not the cost of money, its the availability of money. printing dollars and spewing them into the economy? how is that going to create jobs? the fed cant create jobs! if anything it should raise rates so savers can get some return and let the market function on its own. if the government wants to create jobs it needs to create an environment where business can create jobs. that would involve creating an environment where companies know what the rules are and can count on some stability of rules, taxes etc. perhaps investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation to encourage capital investment? perhaps less class warfare on businesses?

how can we be capable of such courage and sacrifice on the one hand and such stupidity and venality on the other?

SPECIAL INTERESTS, GLASS HOUSES

president obama has been making speeches attacking the "special interests" funding this election. this is code for the us chamber of commerce and others funding political advertising and the Citizens United supreme court decision opening up corporate spending. the nastier version implies that "foreign" money is being spent. the chamber says it segregates domestic vs. foreign money. does the SEIU? a union where the I stands for international.

now i realize nerve or chutzpah is not in short supply in the democratic party, but its rather amazing for a party totally in the economic thrall of union and trial lawyer money to decry the us chamber of commerce for weighing in also

its ugly and expensive out there. the vicious ads of jerry brown vs meg whitman; carly vs barbara. the only winners are the media companies but what the hell, their stocks will go up

ps, read michael milkings wsj op ed for some clear thinking on how to get this country back to what it could and should be

HEALTHCARE AND ENERGY SOLVED

taking a cue from jonathan swift, i have come up with a solution to both our energy and healthcare problems.

my eureka moment came during a recent visit to Memphis Tennessee. i was staying at the weston and when i check in i was in line behind 2 couples who were so large that they blocked all view of the front desk.

i then went into the elevator and it had a sign on maximum number of people and maximum weight. if you divided the two, it called for an average weight of about 167 lbs. however looking around, the average looked around 250.

i then went to the gym and was the only person there, two days in a row.

so it re-emphasized that we are one fat assed nation!

so here is my idea

we will have mandatory liposuction for all overweight people
the fat will be rendered and distilled into a fuel

this will result in a healthier population and a new fuel source. more people will fit in elevators, plane fares will come down as weight will be lower and fuel costs per flight lower; plastic surgeons will make enormous money and spend it on fancy cars and restaurants and clothes.

a virtuous circle.

NET NEUTRALITY AINT SO NEUTRAL

as frank lund says, words make a difference. junk bonds bad; high yield bonds good. have you noticed that almost all legislation passed by congress has the word reform in it. financial reform, health reform, campaign finance reform. we are just a country of reformers, making things better all the time.

which brings me to net neutrality. now net neutrality sounds like it must be a good thing. the net is important and neutrality is a good thing so net neutrality must be a really good thing. Switzerland is neutral and they are good right? aside from taking deposits from despots, drug and arms dealers.

anyway down to cases. there was an excellent article in the nytimes of all places but sourced by reuters that framed it as a battle between the pipes and the swipes. the pipes are the people who build the physical infrastructure to deliver bandwidth, verizon, att, direct tv, etc. the swipes are the people that use this bandwidth to deliver digital content like apple, google, microsoft etc.

now the pipes have spent and continue to spend year in and year out tens of billions on capital expenditures. and they want a return on this capital. the swipes and all the app and content providers want to ride on all this capital investment with a somewhat parasitic business model where the costs are born by the pipes and when they either raise prices to support their investment or offer premium service for a premium price; people howl at the evil pipes.

now where else is it ok to have unlimited consumption of a scarce resource for a flat, capped fixed amount? if you use more water, you pay for it. if you use more electricity, heating oil, gasoline, etc you pay for it. so why is it a crime to charge for more bandwidth? it aint free.

this has very little to do with neutrality. it is merely a commercial fight that should get sorted out in the market place. we should aspire to something akin to universal internet connectivity at some reasonable level of bandwidth but if i want more and faster i should be able to get it and have to pay for it.

your thoughts?

THE CONCERT. A MOVIE THAT SHOULD BRING YOU TO TEARS

enough about finance, econ and political malaise. how about some culture

went to see the movie, The Concert. it should make you cry, laugh, and cry again but with tears of joy. a really remarkable film

please see it

RAISE RATES TO GROW THE ECONOMY

thats right, we should raise interest rates to grow the economy. while europe has been trying to balance budgets and i think raise rates a bit, their thinking, i think, is budgets should be balanced so why not start now and tighten monetary policy to prevent inflation from the easy money policies implemented world wide during the crisis

in the US, we have a totally manipulated yield curve. whenever there is a banking crisis, the feds supply liquidity and often manipulate the yield curve such that short term rates are very low. this initially helps with the crisis but also creates a risk free arbitrage for the banks to repair their balance sheets. they borrow from the feds at near zero and can invest in medium term government securities and make a 300bp spread with no risk and little interest rate risk due to maturity mismatch.

this is all fine for awhile. but no longer. when you can make 300bps risk free why lend to somebody who has some risk? the answer is you dont and that is one of our problems today; lack of extension of credit to small to medium size businesses, sme's and even larger companies that are still too small to access the high yield bond market.

we don't need zero per cent short term rates. if the feds let rates go up to say1.5 per cent, still very low, this ought to force the banks to lend money to people and companies, not this incestuous arbitrage with the feds. for most businesses its not about the cost of money its about the availability of money. they would happily pay 7% for short term debt to fund working capital because their gross margin can justify it.

you want banks to lend, take them off the feds teat.

now long term rates are lower than they should be also, due to among other things the government buying its own bonds and manipulating the mortgage market; but that is a whole other story

MANNING AND ASSANGE SHOULD BE HANGED!

the classified information that bradley manning and julian assange leaked will cause people to be tortured and killed. manning as a US citizen and a member of the armed services should be tried and convicted for treason and hung. julian assange, who is not a US citizen, will be responsible for the damage and should be liquidated.

A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN

illegal Hispanics are fleeing arizona ahead of the new law being implemented. they are selling their things on the cheap and leaving. businesses that cater to them will be closing; real estate they are renting will go vacant. where will the people of arizona get their maids, their gardeners, etc.

there is a great movie available on dvd call A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN; about how all the mexicans in california mysteriously disappear. it is only an ok movie but the premise is brilliant

watch it and then think about a proper immigration policy should look like

ABC; ANYBODY BUT CONTADOR

well lance blew up. bad luck? too old? who knows. still the best but out of contention. so here is the plan. lance makes a secret pact with andy schleck and helps schleck and lances team mate levi leipheimer onto the podium and next year andy and frank schleck join radio shack

its a thought

WE WAS ROBBED!

these were the words from my friend larry klatzkin when i asked him why to US goal vs slovenia was disallowed. now there is much to criticize about the US soccer teams performance at the world cup. you cant keep giving up the first goal and come back. you need to score the first goal; the 2 goals they gave up to slovenia were defensive breakdowns.

however

the go ahead goal was a goal, if anything, Slovenia fouled on the play

the referee should be shot and there should be video playback protests

go world cup!

CATASTROPHES ARE A BITCH

it should be clear to most of us that catastrophes are hard to respond to. 9/11 we were unprepared and i think NYC responded pretty damn well. bush didnt look very sharp caught reading stories to children at first but govt. response wasnt bad. should have stayed just in afghanistan and done it right.

Katrina, we were not prepared and didnt respond very well

BP oil spill, we were not prepared and have not responded well.

catastrophes dont happen every day but they are hard to respond to well. the bush administration did not respond well to katrina and the democrats have pilloried him for years. but obama has done no better. the fact of the matter is the govt. isnt very talented and capable. this is an issue for us as citizens.

when you have a castrophe, you need to assess the damage and come up with a plan to respond. assessing blame should be secondary. it seems that we have spend more time trying to destroy bp, which may happen than fix the problem; which is not easy to fix and may have to wait till the relief well are completed.

putting a moratorium on drilling is not the answer if you care about the economy. immediate safety inspections are the answer.

bp probably is guilty of cutting too many corners and the joint probability blew up in all our faces. we do need better safety requirements and it is now obvious that it isnt easy to do things 5000 feet below the surface.

a thought however, why are we drilling so deep in the gulf? a bunch of reasons but they include and insatiable demand for oil and hostility to on shore drilling combined with there being alot of oil in the deep gulf.

leveraging off of this to promote cap and trade is just another example of not letting a good crises go to waste.

How to Plug the Oil Leak

BUMPER STICKERS

driving into work today i was behind a red pickup truck at a red light and i spied the following bumper stickers

i would still rather go hunting with dick cheney than driving with ted kennedy

married men dont live longer. it just feels longer

driver carries no cash. he is married

seems right to me

have a good memorial day weekend. do any of you know why its a holiday? it used to be called decoration day; a day to honor men and women who died in milatary service beginning with union soldiers after the civil war.

ps

a corollary to above; driver carries no cash. he was married!

FIRST THAILAND, NOW JAMAICA. WHERE TO GO ON VACATION?

its getting harder and harder to find a place to go on vacation. thailand is having a thai version of a civil war; jamaica has a death toll over 40 from the search for a drug lord who has enjoyed govt protection but know fleeing extradition, mexico doesnt seem too safe either. the lib-dems are boycotting arizona. wait. arent the lib-dems a UK political party?

dont these people know this is bad for tourism?

maybe we will see a rise in Staycations?

WHY CITIES AND STATES SHOULD NOT HAVE FOREIGN POLICIES

it is bad enough that countries have foreign policies; its absurd for states and cities to have such.

recently Arizona passed an immigration bill out of desparate reaction to facts on the ground and from what i can tell is a highly flawed bill that is practically non-enforceable. maybe it will stimulate the federal government to improve the situation.

in the mean time, the state of california, which is broke, has said they want to boycott arizona. arizona responded quite rationally; that they are thinking of cutting of power sales to california which represents something like 40% of our needs. you cant build power generation in california because we are Green, forcing us to buy from out of state. talk about the emperors newe clothes.

then we have san diego. they also want to boycott arizona. well it turns out that something like 2 million people from arizona come to san diego on vacation in the summer when it is really hot in arizona. well guess what? this number will decline and room rates in san diego have declined going into the crucial summer months.

a sharp new york friend of mine was taking his kids and grandkids on vacation in san diego and is still planning to do so but is saving on his hotel bill due to the lower rates. he could give a shit about arizonas law he just wants to go on vacation

its amazing we have survived as a species

Plugging Africa's Leak By: Karly Curcio

Plugging Africa's Leak

By Karly Curcio, May 20, 2010

Foreign aid programs continue to pour funds into what seems like Africa’s bottomless bucket. Illicit financial flows out of Africa are twice the amount of foreign aid into the region. Between 1970 and 2008, according to a study by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), illicit flows from Africa totaled at least $854 billion, and could reach as high as $1.8 trillion when taking into account missing data from certain countries and other conduits of illicit flows not captured in the study.

Although $1.8 trillion is already an incredible volume of illicit outflows, the actual figure could be higher still. This figure grows if we account for untraceable money generated by smuggling, violations of intellectual property rights, trade in narcotics and other contraband goods, human trafficking, sex trade, and other illegal activities.

Illicit flows have been a consistent and crippling problem in African countries. The GFI study found that illicit funds from the continent continued to ratchet upwards every decade since the 1970s, at an average rate of 12 percent per year. In fact, Africa is a net creditor to the world — it “gives” back to the world through illicit capital flight at least twice, and in some regions thrice, the amount of capital it receives in external assistance. No wonder, then, that this staggering loss of capital seriously hampers Africa’s efforts at poverty alleviation and economic development, decade after decade.

Complicity of Banks

Traditional policy interpretations of “capital flight” do appropriately account for the debilitating effects of the money leaving these countries — money that these countries desperately need to build economic and political foundations. But this antiquated approach does not recognize that banking institutions in the developed world facilitate the absorption of illicit funds.

Illicit flows must be curtailed through a two-pronged approach, which recognizes that both developing and developed countries must do their part in addressing the problem. While developing countries, like those in Africa, currently lack the governance and transparency to effectively regulate and control these outflows, equally at fault are the jurisdictions — mostly developed countries and their Western banking institutions — that not only absorb these illicit funds without hindrance, but actually solicit them through “private investment” banking services. Emerging markets need to implement sound economic policies and improve governance. But developed countries also need to ensure that the financial institutions that absorb these flows are subject to stricter oversight and operate in a more transparent manner.

The drivers of illicit financial flows vary from country to country, but overall transparency in the global financial system would significantly curtail all forms of outflows, by making it harder for tax cheats and other corrupt individuals to siphon off funds from the country. If retained by the region, the astonishing $854 billion estimated to have flown out of Africa would be enough to not only wipe out Africa’s total outstanding external debt of around $250 billion (as of December 2008), but it would also provide around $600 billion for poverty alleviation and economic growth.

Development aid to Africa won’t be effective as long as these illicit outflows continue to grow. Sub-Saharan African countries experienced the bulk of illicit capital leaving the continent, with the West and Central African region registering the largest outflows. The top five countries with the highest outflows were: Nigeria ($240.7 billion), Egypt ($131.3 billion), South Africa ($76.4 billion), Morocco ($41.0 billion), and Algeria ($35.1 billion). Estimates indicate that Africa lost around $29 billion per year from 1970-2008, of which the sub-Saharan region accounted for $22 billion. On average, countries like Nigeria that export oil lost capital at nearly $10 billion per year, far outstripping the $2.5 billion per year lost by the group of countries exporting non-fuel primary commodities. Indeed, these numbers indicate that much of the wealth generated by oil-exporting African countries does not trickle down sufficiently to benefit the nation’s population.

In developing countries that do not or are unable to implement genuine economic reform and better governance, economic growth brings more opportunities for individuals to accumulate illegal wealth and transfer that wealth abroad. In periods where illicit outflows accelerated, oil prices increased, and so did opportunities to mis-invoice trade. In fact, two methods often used to siphon money away from legal and traceable markets involve the under-invoicing and over-invoicing of exports and imports, respectively.

Fixing a Broken Model

The current development paradigm isn’t working. Poverty rates continue to stagnate and even rise, and countries such as Somalia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe continue to struggle as failed states. In fact, the political and economic foundations that typically underlie stable and prosperous countries are absent in most African countries. According to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), $348 billion is needed to meet the goals by 2010 and $529 billion by 2015. If illicit financial flows are not curtailed, Africa and its donors won't be able to meet these goals.

Policy measures must be taken to address the factors underlying illicit outflows and also to impress upon the G-20 the need for better transparency and tighter oversight of the international banks and offshore financial centers that absorb these funds. Global Financial Integrity recently launched the G20 Transparency Campaign to enable people around the world to take action on the problem of illicit financial flows. When the G20 meets in Canada this June, this problem must be at the top of the agenda.

Reform of this shadow financial system through greater transparency is in the best interest of not only African countries seeking economic growth, but also the interests of developed countries. Curtailing illicit flows would improve the effectiveness of aid and help graduate African countries from aid dependence to a path of sustained economic development.

DONT TRUST IRAN

when was the last time turkey and brazil were responsible for a groundbreaking diplomatic breakthrough? do you really think that solving the risk of a nuclear iran is going to be the first time?

the iranian government is smart, clever, and evil.

dont buy this as a solution

16 BILLION OR MILLION? E-MINIS?

Wall street must have a death wish. apparently there is an index option called an e-mini that some yutz at maybe citibank put in an order to sell $16 billion instead of $16 million and then the black box trading robots kicked in and the market went down 900 points with stocks like P&G going from $60 to 40; before recovering to only down 500 points.

main street would like to fry all theie ass's before something like this happened.

come on guys, get your shit together!

GOOD AND BAD ASSASSINATIONS?

the world has been lambasting Israel for assassinating a known bomb making bad guy. it was a clean hit with no collateral damage. the US, Britain, dubai etc are wringing their hands and getting their knickers in a twitter.

at the same time, the US, using drones, is bombing the shit out of taliban, al quaeda operatives in afganistan and pakistan with lots of collateral damage; like women and children.

now i have nothing against killing bad guys. i just think it is outrageous but typical hypocrisy to lambaste israel when we are doing the same thing in spades. somehow killing someone face to face is worse than pushing a button in nevada and blowing up people in waziristan

The Reason Why

The reason why: By John Cooper-Mullin

You may think that the current McCarthy Hearings into Goldman Sach's mis, mal, and non- feasance have some purpose, beyond letting the most ignorant of yahoos vent their lungs. If so, you are right!

Its purpose is to misdirect attention from the most astonishing expansion of federal power ever. 'Ever?' you say? Yes, ever. To save myself reciting obvious points, I enclose the following article, which trust me, is optimistic:

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/04/28/the-presidents-permanent-tarp

As I hope has been obvious previous to this event, I do not much care for what has become of the securities industry over the past fifteen years, and I have no sympathy whatsoever for many of my 'peers.' But this bill will guarantee that new capital flies as far away from US jurisdiction as it can get. To be blunt, there will be nothing at all left to regulate, excepting a few pawn shops. The economic harm wrought by this senseless and stupid act exceeds even that offered by the recent healthcare confiscation. The threat of outright nationalization will hang heavy over e-v-e-r-y entity with even a remote relationship to banking, securities, lending, venture capital, private equity - you name it. And with that threat ever-present, de facto nationalization can proceed apace. It surprises me not in the least that major financial institutions have already knuckled under and announced their 'support' for this measure. What choice do they have? Who can dare to object, when the operation of this act will be essentially as lawless and arbitrary as a Star Chamber? Rather than oppose, all of them are rushing to pack the bill with as many permanent impediments to future competition that they can. Heck, even GOLDMAN supports it!

Lest I seem to be exaggerating the extent of the arbitrary and capricious nature of this bill, recognize that certain insurance carriers in Connecticut will be exempt from many of its provisions. Now why would that be, Senator Dodd?

It is tempting to look on this folly as just another reversible error, akin to the rest of the mess so many expect to be cleaned up come November. Think again. jc-m

THE MAN WITHOUT A PLAN ON IRAN!

robert gates, a rare holdover from the bush admin. is a solid citizen. his memo, leaked by somebody, that we dont have much of a plan to prevent a nuclear iran or deal with a nuclear iran is one of the most important issues today

given that i believe that china will work with us on north korea, there is no greater threat to global security than iran. and the questions are; are we committed to stopping iran from having nuclear weapons or not; whatever it takes?

while obama and clinton are busy beating up on israel, what are they doing about iran. we made iran more dangerous. by allowing iraq to invade kuwait and creating the first gulf war; and electing george II who took out saddam but created chaos; iraq disappeared as a counter force to iran.

both iraq and iran where trying to acquire nuclear capability for years. we did a poor job of slowing them down.

what are we willing to do? these are not nice people. they wont stop by asking nicely. sanctions? maybe if tough and targeted. but what if not enough? will we go military or not? i dont think they will stop without military threat or action. do we have the balls? and why are we beating up israel when they are the only ones with the capability and the balls to do something?

i think america is going to be too little too late with iran and put israel a difficult position

duck and cover!

BOMB ICELAND; SAVE THE WORLD; SHORT GOLDMAN

while many of us are operating under the assumption that the cloud over europe is an annoyance that will dissipate soon, this might not be the case. first of all the volcano might just keep erupting away for 2 years! second this is a baby volcano, sometimes connected to eruptions from Katla, a big mother volcano.

what might this mean? we should all think this thru but i would be selling airline stocks. this affects our whole global system. there are flowers grown in kenya bound for london that aint going to london. food, drugs ( was thinking legal here but maybe bad for drug cartels also) anything and everything that flies in and out of europe. should lower EU growth, bad for euro versus the dollar. bad for DHL; got to be bad for some insurance companies. companies are going to invoke force majeure clauses, claiming acts of god for non- performance of contracts. its going to be a mess. maybe go long cruise line stocks. we can travel between london and new york by ship; slow the pace down a little

maybe we will look back on this a major event in history that we didnt take seriously at first.

what should we do? well i think we should nuke iceland. here we have this little pissant island that borrowed billions and gambled it away and went broke and then did a reverse haiti; it destroyed europe!

what does goldman have to do with this? nothing. other than its probably their fault. they probably created a synthetic cdo that was long europe and airline stocks and sold credit default swaps against it and figured out how to trigger the volcano.

they are the next pinata. karmic payback for a bunch a greedy motherfuckers.

JEWS AND REPUBLICANS; AN OPPORTUNITY

i think i understand why the jews in america became democrats originally. whether poor or not, jews in america were subject to anti semitism and the democrats were better than the republicans re the disadvantaged.

why jews are still democrats is completly beyond me. now they are faced with a President who doesnt give a shit about israel and is willing to jam israel into a peace process that could could get and be ugly. he forgets that israel is the only democracy in the middle east and they are the only ones with the means and motivation to deal with the real enemy, a nuclear Iran.

this is an opportunity for republicans to reach out to american jews with a strong pro israel postion.

marx said something like capitalism will manufacture and sell the rope that will hang them. well the jews are doing the same by continuing to support Obama

POLISH LOSS;LACK OF COMMON SENSE RULES

poland is one of the promising countries to come out from under the yoke of the former soviet union. the recent loss of its president and a cadre of his leadership is a human and political loss of much magnitude.

i dont know who was flying the plane but this was a major fuck up and was avoidable, in part or in whole.

first you dont put your whole administration on one airplane
two, you dont have some cowboy flying the plane

i hope poland recovers from this and doesnt get pulled back into the clutches of russia

SOMALI PIRATES; SHOOT EM UP

for the first time, private security on a commercial vessel shot and killed a Somali pirate. immediately there is hand wringing. is this ok, who has jurisdiction, etc. it is unfortunate but if the world community thru and entity such as nato or such, wont shut these guys down, then owners are within there rights to do what is necessary to protect the lives and property aboard their vessels. yes shooting bullets should be the last step; but still a legitimate step.

this is a joke. there is a whole economy based on piracy and we are doing dip. its just like the Barbary pirates which we ultimately sent in the marines. we should not put ship owners in this position. it is interfering with world commerce and the world needs to intervene

MANS BEST FRIEND

speaking for myself, sometimes the rat race, the state of the world etc. gets me down. but recently, mans best friend, in my case Wrinkles, my daughters old english bulldog reminded me how to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

yesterday as i was getting dressed for work i spied 4 ducks doing mischief in the swimming pool. i charged out to scare them away with wrinkles hard on my heels. at some point my geometry savant dog figured out that a straight line between her and the ducks was through me. pursuing this point A to point B strategy she bowled me over in mid stride causing me to fly into the swimming pool nearly fully clothed.

needless to say the ducks escaped and wrinkles peered at me quizzically wondering what i was doing in the swimming pool dressed for work. i had to just laugh hysterically. reshowered, redressed and refreshed, i sallied forth into the silliness.

thank you wrink

THE POPE MUST GO!

the abuse of a child is the most heinous crime conceivable. as the story unfolds it is clear that then archbishop ratzinger knew he had a priest that had abused children. abuse is really a euphamism for a truly evil act. he approved the priest being moved to munich for therapy. his old #2 is taking the fall for him but it is not good enough. under the concepts of failure to supervise and breach of fiduciary duty the pope should resign.

24

we all have guilty pleasures, i have too many but includes watching the program 24. for those of you similarly afflicted i want to share question about the last episode.

a young suicide bomber locked himself in a barometric chamber in a hospital and was trying to blow himself up. ctu disabled his device electronically but he was hard wiring it to override. for some reason there were three fuses and three lights that needed to turn green to ignite. he is working away, one green light, two, and ultimately three and boom. but i have a question

why didnt ctu turn off the lights inside the chamber? he couldnt hardwire the circuits in the dark?

next back to more worldly concerns

BONUSGATE; HOW IT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED

why didnt i think of this sooner. most people other than the recepients have been annoyed all the way to apoplectic about the bonuses paid out by banks and investment banks (not sure if there are any of those left). now bonuses, unless youre merrill lynch come out of profits. but what is profit when you have large leveraged balance sheets? as the december 31, 2009 financial statements come out, we are seeing that many of these banks have very high per centages of non performing loans. these will undoubtedly lead to more loan loss reserves in 2010. what we should have done was reserved the hell out of these balance sheets in 2009; reducing profits thus reducing bonuses and gone into 2010 with stronger balance sheets.

what do you think?

HELP CHILE

the US and the world reacted quickly and significantly to help haiti after its earthquake. this was the humanitarian thing to do. we now need to do the same for chile. haiti was pure humanitarian. it is strategically irrelevant. chile is in need also. but it is a developed country. all the more reason to support it. with the exception of brazil, it is maybe the only other democratic, capitalistic country on the whole continent, a continent significantly under the sway of chavez with his followers in bolivia and peru. chile deserves our humanitarian support and but also it is strategic.

TOYOTA BASHING SHOULD HAVE LIMITS

whacking toyota is the in thing to do. do they deserve it, yeah. but up to a point. there have been many recalls over the years, many for us auto makers. this is getting politicized. lets beat up the japs and help sell more american cars.

toyota became the biggest and best auto company in the world not by accident. they built a quality car. the reason us auto makers lost market share was that the foreign cars had a better value and quality propostion. now toyota fucked up and has and will take its drubbing but lets remember they employ tens of thousands of americans here in america. now these jobs are in red states in the south and are non unionized. do you think that the million the unions have paid to the democrats have anything to do with whats going on with toyota in washington?

lets have a measured response

DALAI LAMA YES, BACK DOOR NO

in keeping with my attempt at fairness. once again obama did the right thing by meeting with the dalai lama. china should not tell us who to meet with or who to sell arms to.

however, let him out the back door, past bags of garbage was not classy or the right thing to do. its like letting your mistress out the back door as your wife walks in the front.

anyhow, at least they met

NUKES; GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE

president obama has just done something intelligent. he has, not for the first time but this time with gusto, endorsed new generation nuclear energy power generation to be built now.

in the short to medium term, the next 20 years, we can chooose coal or we can choose nuclear. there is nothing else. so called renewables are great but cannot grow fast enough to fill the gap.

no i dont like nuclear waste either but the latest reactor technology and designs create a fraction of the waste as before, are way safer and the rest of the world very much including china, are building them

keep up the good work

DONT TRUST IRAN

we cannot trust iran re nukes. they are playing us. just like north korea, only worse. they diddle us all the while developing nukes. this has gone on for years.

what to do. hard sanctions focused on the commercial interests of the Guards. support for the democracy movement.

keep israel on standby

BAE AND EXTRATERRITORIARITY

BAE was recently fined 400mm dollars by the US for probably bribing people in tanzania for contracts in tanzania. now bae is a british based multi-national. the brits only fined them like 60 million. why should we fine them 400mm? seem like none of our business.

MARTIN FELDSTEIN IS SMART

i was reading a special section of a recent wsj that was reviewing the first year of the obama white house. it had a broad spectrum of types of op ed types both in terms of their age, politics and area of expertise. there were i think 4 economists. one old dog, martin feldstein made what i considered an amazing if in hind site obvious observation about the health care bills in congress. both i believe prohibit insurance companies from preventing or possibly even rating a new insured based on a pre existing condition. now this seem pro consumer on its face. but, he pointed out an amazing negative arbitrage.

it would make sense for relatively healthy people to pay the penalty for not having mandatory health insurance, save on paying the premiums and if they got seriously ill, apply for health insurance at that time and the insurance company would have to take them. in this hypothetical, the individual can free ride till they get sick, then after not paying premiums for say 10 years, send the bill to the insurance company. this arbitrage would ruin the insurance industry. a point that feldstein said maybe was not an accident.

at age 70, martin is as sharp as ever.

THERE IS A GOD

i am not a religous person; most of my friends are not religous people. and yet an amazing thing happened last nite. at 6:24pm pst i got an email alert from the wsj that brown had won massachussetts. within 2 minutes i got a call from one of my best friends and several email with huge distributions saying, "there is a god". now maybe this is a beggining of an outbreak of spirituality but i think not. i think many people were getting appalled and depressed by a democratic white house and congress running roughshod over the country; remaking it in their vision, whether a majority of the people wanted it or not. and out of nowwhere comes the unlikliest of events; a guy no one has heard of nationally beating a machine picked democrat IN MASSACHUSSETTS, FOR TED KENEDYS EX SEAT. i mean its like charlston heston parting the red sea. its mind boggling. hence, the saying there must be a god. we have been miraculously delivered from the tyranny of the majority.

now what does it mean? does it mean the people of massachussetts want a social conservative senator? probably not if you include the voters who gave him the victory. i think it means people are fed up, disgusted, and scared. between the corruption of the the unilateral, behind closed doors, buy the last 3 votes healthcare bill, to the focus on copenhagan and a half in half out afghan policy, i think people are saying, heh guys, the economy is still in the shitter, unemployment is too high, deficits are out of control, the banks you bailed out (which was necessary by the way) are paying out billions in bonuses, iran is bulding nukes, china is kicking our ass, DO SOMETHING!!!!

REID WAS TELLING THE TRUTH; STILL A JERK

harry reid is being pilloried for saying that obama was advantaged by being light skinned and well spoken. he has apologized. the democrats have forgiven him. though he is getting off way easier than any conservative would have been treated.

now i think that harry and nancy (sid and nancy?) are taking the country down the drain and should be pilloried. by the way let us not forget that to pillory is to put in stocks in a public square and and throw vegatables at! however not for this. harry was telling the truth. not a wise thing in american politics. there is ample research showing that light skinned, well spoken afro americans do better than dark skinned, less well spoken afro americans. ask them. then we have that goofball vice president, joe biden who more or less said the same thing, describing obama as clean cut and well groomed i believe. and he became vp.

now maybe it is wrong. certainly as to color, as to well spoken, i beg to differ. i believe it is ok to prefer people who speak well of those who dont.

so fry harry for being a corrupt jerk as oppossed to an honest idiot.

FOX; TIME WARNER; SEN. KERRY; TOTALITARIANISM

they couldnt make this stuff up! so Fox is a privately owned company; it didnt take any tarp money. it has a contract with time warner that runs out, it expires. they think their content is valuable so they ask for more money to renew the contract. any crime so far? time warner demogogues it to their customers suggesting that a crime has been committed and that the price increase will be passed on to time warner customers. if the price of wheat goes up do the bread manufacturers take out full page adds decrying farmers and telling their customers that they are passing this on to them?

then senator kerry, you know the one with the jaw like jay leno, gets into the act and says in essence that a private company does not have the right to not renew a contract with another private company and threatens to sic the fcc on fox! wow. Fox is not the post office, a utility company, a public school. hell, they are on obamas enemies list!

now the anti-climax; time warner and fox cut a last minutes deal but why the drama and why government intervention. are we living in venezuela?