More of my take on the economy and markets

I am back. Man, my posting frequency has been bad. Oh well. I have been watching the fun in the markets and economy. The Dow and TSX were up big time today. It seems Ben Bernanke, Helicopter Ben, is all for a stimulus package, increasing spending, out of Washington.

Now, I am left with two thoughts...where, pray tell, are they going to find the money for such a stimulus package? They have $700 billion, to be borrowed, to pay for the financial system bailout. That is on top of the $85 billion and other billions they had to put up for to bailout AIG and lest we forget the billions spent on backstopping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (I was and am in favor of that one, as their bonds were bought by foreigners because of the implied assumption that the US Government would backstop that debt).

On top of that, W decided to fight a long term war AND CUT TAXES!!!!!! That is right folks, you can go to war, or at least send YOUR troops off to war and not have to make any sacrifices at home. It can be done....or can it? If this is indeed a WAR on Terror, then shouldn't the citizens of the country that has declared this "war" be making sacrifices for a victory? It seems to me the only sacrifice is one of freedom/liberty within their nation and hours at the airport so that they can make me take off my shoes (and not even have the courtesy to give me foot massage while they are down there checking for explosives) or get rid of the toothpaste in my carry-on. I guess having to live in confined space with my "stink breath" is sacrifice enough. Whoopee, the war is won!

Now, Helicopter Ben is all for stimulus. Where is this money coming from? Oh yeah, he runs the printing press. Print more money, that must be the answer. I guess it is, if the question is "how do we create some great inflationary pressures and make the dollar worthless?" How do you beggar a nation in a few easy steps.....thank you US Congress and President Bush for fine stewardship of the economy.

It is one thing to do nothing and let the market sort things out, for better or worse. It is quite another to see the fire and add more fuel, but do nothing to stop the fucking thing. Now, the cure is far more painful than the disease. All in the name of trying to avoid the necessary pain of a recession. Pussies...all of them!

So, the easy money spigots are turned on yet again. Was this not the problem in the first place? I think that it was. All that credit, all that leverage, all that inevitable and painful de-leveraging and they are adding more credit and creating more dollars which will fuel inflation. Great planning, there.

That is the whole point. Who the fuck is the Fed to "plan" what the proper level of interest is? They are not smarter than the combined knowledge of all those in the market. This has been the fallacy in the US, especially, the Fed, or somebody will bail them out of their mistakes.

You can bail out stupidity. Eventually, you have to let the stupid lick the cold fence post, get stuck and freeze to death. It is nature's way to make sure those stupid genes are not passed on to the next generation. It could be the reason why my brother in law has never married and has no children (actually, that is more a thought on salvation than anything else).

In any event, and not to depress anybody, but we do live in interesting times and that is something to be thankful for. Time to get back on the roller coaster.

Okay, time to go catch Prison Break and Hereos. Got to love Mondays these days. Ciao!