patrick.net

I am speechless.

Better to use a real pitchfork. That is a picture of what is more commonly known as a potato fork.

Of course, now they can blame the unavoidable recession on the couple of extra days it took to pass the thing.

You know, I'm not angry; I'm very, very sad.

Paulson, you mother fucking thief, I just hope we find out where they lay your wretched corpse to rest when you finally pass on, so we can perform unspeakable acts on your grave. You might want to make sure your coffin is urine-proof.

short Says:
Better to use a real pitchfork. That is a picture of what is more commonly known as a potato fork.

I asked those guys at Lowe's for a pitchfork, they didn't have any item called that! This was the closest I could find. At this point, it is an acceptable approximation.

Trust me - those tines won't bend if they hit bone.

Not that I've ever impaled anyone, but I have bent pitch fork tines.

"FuzzyMath Says:
September 30th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Malcolm,
Of course the dollar is stronger. We just saved $700 billion
The only thing we have to beware of is falling into a deflationary spiral… but Ben won’t let that happen. They’ll print money to balance it out.
The important thing about continuing to vote down the bill is the message behind it… that we will protect our currency."

From the last thread but I had the same concern so I wanted to agree with Fuzzy:
I am of the belief we need some inflationary pressure to stimulate wage inflation in this country. We have (Wal Mart Effect) deflated ourselves to almost completely wiping out our value-add base. If the decisions we make today don't lead to that we will see real stagflation as wages freeze and foreign pressures on supplies and consumption lead to increased prices on imports as well as our own products including food supplies.

Last night on CNN they did a great montage of the President's comments on the economy as time was passing by.

Robust->Fundamentally sound-->Troubled in some sectors but overall very healthy-->In trouble but still have the funamental strengths-->Down turn with some tough times-->Armageddon, we need to act fast or we could face economic collapse.

OO Says:
October 1st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
"Faced with the choice of fast death and a fairer society, we opted for a slow death the Japanese style and saving the first class passengers first when this Titanic goes down. Women and children don’t get off first, it’s those who have the most money that will secure a seat on the lifeboat."

Patrick, are you buying Puts on lifeboat seats? Some regulator will call it naked short selling if I reserve mine from now.

I can’t wait for Jan 20, 2009!

Why? So you can see which one of two senators who voted for the bailout will be President?

Headset, that's classic!

You're not making anyone feel better though.

Malcolm,

Let me see if I can cheer people up, even though savers like you and I have just been handed a bleak outlook.

Any gamblers out there? Circuit City (CC) has fallen to below a buck. It may double quickly to $1.50 or so - now that "credit" has been restored.

One of the "amendments" the Senate added to help the bill pass the House was to increase the FDIC limit from $100k per depositor to $250k. The sponsors said this would make the bill more palatable to the public.

If that does not show "out of touch," nothing does. How many of the "public" have $200k in banks ($100k per spouse) that would feel relieved since they need not spread there largess over more than one bank?

The bailout bill has been ballyhooed as to have restrictions on exorbitant exec pay and golden parachutes.

I hope some reporters are watching to see just how much those bailout execs run off with. Maybe exposing that pay cap lie will help with the campaign to not re-elect anyone who voted for the bailout.

Headset, they raised the FDIC limit to $250K in an effort to prevent capital flight. With short term lending frozen, there are probably a lot of banks in dangerous waters right now. If the big-CD folks started yanking out their cash, maybe that would be enough to push a few smaller outfits out into the undertow.

The National Debt counter doesn't impress me. My personal share is only $80,000? Barely a 1/3 Haha! People in Detroit are probably crying, but surely nobody in the Bay Area is scared of that puny number. You couldn't even re-do your kitchen for that much money!

By the way, now is a great time to buy or sell a house.

Has anybody considered starting a realtor implode-o-meter? It's probably harder than mortgage lenders, but so much more satisfying.

$250K limit is to prevent bank run. Foreign capital flight has already begun. I talked to a buddy in private wealth mangement in Hong Kong which typically parked Asian clients' asset in the US stock market or US banks. They are seeing millions of dollars leaving everyday starting about a month ago, rerouted to be split up to Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, Canada and other countries. The legal department are scrambling to put together new trusts to be set up in these countries.

That's why I do not buy the hype that USD's recent strength is due to flight to safety. Bullsh*t. It is because of margin call on all the leveraged financial institutions and hedge funds, and the USD carry trade is currently unwinding. People have started to stop viewing the US as the "safety" destination.

Brand,

Good point. But would not that "capital flight" merely be spreading it out among several banks? These big CD folks have already shown a preference for bank CDs over Treasuries, etc.

Headset, I am a gambler. After losing with WM I'm getting more reckless and bought SIRI. I'll look at CC. Funny how my consistent money making trades have been Ford and GM lately, up down up down. I need to get revenge for WAMU somewhere.

short,

SIRI, that has a similar history as CC. I do not know is a relaxed "credit crunch" will help satellite radio as much as an electronics dealer.

But, both are so cheap now, how much can you lose?

OO,

Is the "foreign capital flight" you are talking about the removal of dollars to foreign banks, or the exchange of dollars for other currencies? Are they worried about a devalued buck or are looking for better interest rates.? Raising the FDIC limit would only prevent flight from those who think US banks will collapse and depositors will lose anything over the limit.

Headset, sirius is needing to refinance some debt, I think that is a big reason the stock is depressed. When the "bailout was considered last week it shot up over a dollar. If it actually passes I look for a repeat, and a quick buck. How much can I lose, well, everything if it goes against me.

I have a question for anyone that was pro bailout...

After housing drops another 20%, then what?

$2 trillion?

Fuzzymath,

it is not about then what, it is about buying time to get out before the mama ship sinks.

Nobody in the Congress or particularly the Senate is stupid enough to believe that $700B is able to save the US, not even for a dumbf*ck like the Scrub himself. This is a plan to BUY time, so that the very wealthy can loot the US for the last time (or last couple of times), put up the facade as if things are under control while moving their own asset offshore to Geneva or Malta.

Without the bill we are all bagholders, with the bill, we, the second class and third class passengers are now holding the bag.

The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked

by Greg Palast
Global Research, March 14, 2008

While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an "escort" $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush's new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.

Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there's a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush's man Bernanke was using ours.

This week, Bernanke's Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks' mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers' bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

Who are they kidding? Spitzer's lynching and the bankers' enriching are intimately tied.

How? Follow the money.

Link to rest of the story:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8336

No, I am talking about exchanging USD for other currencies especially when the USD exchange rate is high. They are afraid of a collapse of the USD. Swiss Franc seems to be a big favorite.

The net effect of such dollar flight is more than canceled out by the joint CB intervention out of self-interest, and the de-leveraging process of USD carry trade right now. But if the public sentiment starts to change, the latter factors are just temporary.

Raising FDIC limit will only keep domestic dollars from fleeing, for now, because we live in a USD denominated world. I am more afraid of what will happen if the system gets lubricated enough later so that people don't have to scramble for USD for their margin call.

I don't know why anyone is mad at Paulson, he represents the finest of American capitalism. He simply wants to preserve his own capital. Who can argue with that?
And he has hundreds of millions of it...

The majority of the $700B *will* go to Wall Street, which will in turn prop up the house of cards a bit longer so that this country full of self-centered a-holes can get their loans for overpriced pieces of trash.

Meanwhile the big players get away with even more money, your kids and grandkids are taxed into slavery, and system crashes down in six months anyways.

The entire system is broken, and needs a correction.

BTW, did anyone read the bill? Oh yeah, it went from 3 pages, to 110 pages, and now the bloated turd that the sold-out senate passed is 450 pages loaded with every bit of pork and pet projects any senator wanted to stuff in.

450 pages!! Doesn't that scare anybody? Not to mention the $700B bailout at the center has not changed a bit.

I think I would have rather had the original 3 pages from Hanky Panky, because he still gets what he wants, and we get 447 pages of new laws.

Effing Morons!!!

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00212

Link to how the vote went down. Thanks a lot Feinstein and Boxer. What a disappointment.

I'm going to frame the letter I got from Boxer some time ago saying there weren't any plans for bailouts.

Just got back from watching Lakeview Terrace starring Samuel L Jackson. It is a very good movie. So what does this have to do with the bubble blog? Well that movie recently came out, we went at a peak time of 8:00 and we were 2 of a total of 6 people in the theater. Also, this isn't a dumpy theater that no one goes to, it is a Regal stadium theater.

They had to go and stuff the solar stuff in the bailout plan. God almighty give me strength.

OO , I agree with your conclusion that dollar will eventually fall. I am not sure about the timing though.Dollar inherently is overvalued and the current mess makes it more so.It has to go down just like US housing went down due to economic fundamentals. The timing could be way off though.Its interesting that the financial collapse is causing all other currencies to look bad too. safety is relative and not absolute. Dollar's strength is relative and not absolute.Dollar is rallying during all financial uncertainities due to its "relative" safety. I can see a slow death of dollar and not a sudden one unless we go into a deep depression in which case it would be world wide and no currency would be safe except gold.
I am skeptical that it will turn into germany type hyper-inflation when production is not even enough to cover basic goods/services. I see more of a very deep recession with more deflationary inclination.When banks become paranoid in lending, its mostly deflationary.

* not an investment advice*

Ok, but the previews for that movie looked ridiculous. Who wants to see a movie where a cop neighbor goes crazy on the new couple?

But 6 people? It was a pretty good movie, though I have to admit that could account for some of the corelation. Hey at least it was easy to find a good seat.

correlation -sp sorry

per the dollar,

I get the feeling we're just going to see more of what we saw earlier this year. Dollar declining, commodities rising, economy sucking even worse.

As for exchange rates with other countries... who knows. They're all fucked too.

I can't think of any possible route where this turns out ok. Anyone?

I think OO is onto the bottom line. We just got looted. They aren't protecting the dollar, but they aren't giving up on it either. If they picked one or the other, the people would be better off. As is, we're going to muddle along for 4-5 years, while the fucks we are giving $700 billion to squeeze the rest of the remaining hard cash out of our pockets.