Monday, January 4, 2010

Back to the Grind

After a week and a half off and not getting up at 5am I can state that this morning was no fun at all!

Odds and Ends
On a day when the markets gap higher and stay at that level all day there were some interesting items making the rounds.

Karl Denninger at Market Ticker finds some puzzling action in some PIMCO funds:
Carnage Continues: PHK (Who Smells Smoke?)
and
Uhhhhh.....Ok, Keep Buying Fools
Funds like PHK, DPO, and PCN are getting slammed lower and no one has a clear idea as to why. Obviously there is some kind of insider knowledge but that does not help us normal folks!

In a preview of the actions that will be taken if another market meltdown occurs, please consider:
NASDAQ Cancelling All Rambus Trades At Or Below $20.73 After Massive, Unexplained Price Dip
Obviously RMBS stock was just artificially depressed by liquidity concerns and thus no trades are allowed under $20! Forget "pretend and extend" and just go for "You cannot do that!". Lovely.

Along the same lines Zero Hedge offers up the rule change that may make getting your hands on your own money in a money market account somewhat difficult, again, should a market crash occur, which of course it will not this is all just in case, wink, wink:
This Is The Government: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied

Jesse chimes in with some thoughts:
One also has to wonder if and when the government will begin to more aggressively manage the access of private citizens to their 401K's and IRA's and other forms of savings. Or is it just sufficient to manage the things that one might hold in them. Hard to say.

Now that the government will be forcing Americans to buy private health insurance (and presumably use it to prevent certain trasmittable diseases for the public good as your private health insurer will have your records) where will they stop? What about life insurance, long term disability insurance, and retirement plans? How about psychological counseling and sensitivity training for social malcontents? "A gram is better than a damn."


The over reach of the government is fast approaching critical mass. I would ask for something to be done, but I am not going to waste my time. Most are all too happy to trade a FED/Government massaged market for a few bucks than try and take a pricipled stand against corruption and theft. Have at it, just don't complain later you whiny little babies that need everything handed to you so you do not have to think for yourself. If everyone is doing it it must be right, just like in High School.

The Golden Truth muses that Bernanke is Either a Complete Idiot or an Unambiguous Liar as he goes over Big Ben's defense of everything the FED has done with respect to poor policy. I read over Bernanke's crap arguments and that guy just does not get it at all. Our best and brightest indeed. I keep thinking of that line from the film "Men in Black":
"You're everything we've come to expect from years of government training"
Heck of a job Bennie!

Have a good night.

6 comments:

EconomicDisconnect said...

US Ponzi finance, "Its Turtles All the Way Down!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down
or
http://tinyurl.com/nqtv5

Anonymous said...

Look, about everyone agrees Bernanke is intelligent. So how can he be blind to the results of his actions.

Ben works for a PRIVATELY owned organization. Does anyone out there thing the owners of the Fed are altruistic? Is it a stretch of imagination to consider that Ben is merely following orders from his masters.

Same more or less for Obama. Goldman was his PIMP for the Prez election. And who owns Goldman?
Would Goldman's owners perhaps be the same ultra rich that control the Fed?

Does the U.S. economic policy now make more sense?

These folks are thinking of instituting a worldwide Fed.
Cap & trade so that every time someone burps or goes to the toilet they pay a fee. Use the military might of the U.S to control oil resources in the Mid East.

There are NO bounds to their greed or thirst for control.

regularly scheduled programming said...

Way off subject, unless Ben Bernake is a sociopath, which I doubt. Greenspan, maybe.

But I found this to be the scariest non-fiction I've ever read (available through the Look Inside section).

Interesting, in a disturbing kind of way. The kind of thing everyone should know about though. That's why I thought it was worth a post.

http://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next-Door-Martha-Stout/dp/0767915828/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262811108&sr=8-1

EconomicDisconnect said...

RSP,
wow 4% of the population are sociopaths? I bet my neighbors have me in that group!

regularly scheduled programming said...

Well, the hooded pic makes you look the part. If you do the yard work, and come and go dressed in that attire, the neighbors probably would be a bit spooked. :)

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