“What’s good for General Motors is good for America”.

Or something.

Because as long as the Fortune 500 is making obscene profits, nothing else matters. Everything is happy!

Trillion dollar deficits.

Rising entitlement payments.

Rising health care costs.

Reduced competitiveness

Reduced quality of education.

Zero manufacturing base.

Highly negative balance of trade.

Trillion Dollar military spending.

Radically reduced R&D spending.

A hated, hostile foreign policy.

Oil-dependent economy.

Rising energy costs.

Peak oil.

Global climate change.

Negative savings rate.

He says “The dynamic U.S. economy is on solid ground as is much of the global economy. Goldilocks is alive and well, so long as Congress doesn’t muck it up.

And it’s utterly taboo to question this conventional wisdom…

mikey

Some troll at Atrios found a way: ‘the markets are tanking because of the impending election of Hillary Clinton’.

Housing bubble? Barney Rubble!

This one is the pause that refreshes.

And the next 1000 point correction will be the Freshmaker(TM)

It appears that Ward Churchill was the only thing propping up the US economy. Who knew.

“In short sales,” Shapiro explained, “you don’t own the share you sell; instead you borrow it. Then you replace it when you cover the short. If you’re right and the price has gone down, you replace it at a lower price, and the difference between what you sold it for and what price you replaced it at is your profit. The problem with a naked short is that you don’t borrow the share you sell. You sell it without ever borrowing it. In effect, you invent a share.”

If this is beginning to sound like a game of Monopoly built on fake money, that’s because it is. By injecting so many invented shares into the market using naked shorting, hedge funds have not only created an economy in which they can manipulate the stocks of companies smaller than Microsoft and Wal-Mart, but they have also created a market in which there are more shares than actual stocks. And that’s about as hyperreal as an economy can get.

“It’s essentially counterfeiting,” Byrne added. “You’re creating counterfeit shares in the system. It works like this. In a normal stock transaction, you give me money and I give you stock. And not paper stock anymore. It turns out that there is a loophole in the system: When I come to give you the stock that you bought, if I don’t actually have any stock, I can give what is effectively an IOU. Now you never know about this unless you know the right question to ask your broker, but it’s possible that all you really have in your account is an IOU from your brokerage account from a different broker working with a hedge fund.”

http://www.alternet.org/stories/56443/?page=1

How funny is it that this asshat brandishes Goldilocks, a fairy tale?

In related items, that is things that relate to my writing, here’s a reference to a fictitious character.

By the way, WhoTF is this Ward Churchill dude? I have heard many mentions to him, but can’t seem to pay attention to his non-story long enough to absorb it…

I have no snark.

Except maybe to say “Letting rich people independently ‘regulate’ how fast they get richer.’ certainly has proved to be a BAD IDEA!

Big ol’ chunks of the legislation passed in the wake of the ’29 crash were done away with during the Clinton administration, too. Your bank probably has your money invested in the stock market – and FDIC insurance is a joke. It takes ages to pay out, and isn’t up to a huge demand on its reserves.

Just try not to think about it, because there’s really nothing you can do, unless you have enough time and money to transfer all your liquid assets into a FOREX account. For us workaday peons, nothing to do but have another beer, and watch a funny Youtube video – I recommend this one. It beats dwelling on just what a paper tiger our economy has become.

Thank you t4toby! I thought I was the only one who really, really didn’t givashit.

Seriously, this is getting embarrassing. I almost feel sorry for these people.

The escalation of Democrat anti-America lies is responsible for market plunges like this.

If the Democrats seize the White House (and they will if the Republicans nominate phoney Mitt, amnesty McCain, or soft-on-terror Thompson).. then it will be disasterous for America.

“What’s good for General Motors is good for America”.

If the Iraq war was outsourced to China I’m sure they could manage the killing faster and cheaper.

Thank you, that worked!

Odd music?

Shorter Kudlow: “Clap harder, dammit — or your Tinkerbelle economy dies!”

Corrected Gary: “If the Democrats seize the White House (and they will if the Republicans nominate phoney Mitt, amnesty McCain, or soft-on-terror Thompson).. then it will be disasterous for the thieving megacorporate enablers who pay my trolling pittance.”

If the Iraq war was outsourced to China I’m sure they could manage the killing faster and cheaper.

According to some sources, China’s already doing that in Darfur.

I’m sure the nominally-American megacorporations are taking notes.

Stock prices are a referendum on future corporate profits….

….and Junta Boy’s in for a drubbing.

Aw, ain’t Gary sweet?

Putting aside the obvious howler that somehow the prospect of responsible governance a year and a half from now– not, say, the foreseeable and forseen consequences of the housing bubble– is what’s tanking the markets, I think maybe li’l Garlito may have unintentionally pointed to something interesting.

Wall Street is just about the only place in the world where how a bunch of pampered rich white dudes feel about something actually has a significant impact on success and failure. Too bad for Bush et al that reality isn’t as easily manipulated as a bunch of stock market weenies.

The fact is, Gary Ruppert makes me laugh…

Oh, so now we have to keep killing our soldiers because Wall Street is happy? I’m telling you – unleash a bunch of parents who have lost their children to this money and oil grab on a roomfull of wall st. assholes and Republicans. Make it like EST training – no one leaves, no one goes to the bathroom. You will sit and listen to every word they have to say. You will see the before and after photos of the injured. You will look them in the eye and explain why they were sacrificed. I want to see every one of these smug jerks sweat and piss their pants.

intelligent investors should be shorting toxic bonds
A Shorter Toxic Bond [© DD]? There’s a challenge.

You will sit and listen to every word they have to say. You will see the before and after photos of the injured. You will look them in the eye and explain why they were sacrificed. I want to see every one of these smug jerks sweat and piss their pants.

Only if the Wall Street and Repub arseholes are afraid of being physically assaulted by the grieving parents, Bink. If you’re looking for empathy, for some recognition that their greed might have had unpleasant consequences, you haven’t been paying enough attention. These people, from Dubya and Cheney and Rove down to the “average” hedge fund manipulator, are sociopaths. Which means they’re psychopaths with educational credentials and expensive ties. Showing them the tragic results of their Ponzi schemes would be like showing a stripped goat carcass to a poolful of piranhas — they are not equiped to understand your indignation.

Owlbear1, naked shorting, in my experience, is shorting something when you don’t have a hedging reason for doing so. (I.e. I could buy a call on GSF, and then sell 60 shares short as a hedge…if GSF moves a lot one way or the other, I’ll make money, and otherwise, I could lose up to the amount I paid for the call option. This would not be a naked short by the definition I’m familiar with.)

Not actually borrowing and delivering a share certificate for shares you have shorted is another ball of wax. If you could get away with that, there never would be short squeezes (where many people may be short shares of some crappy company, such as overstock.com, and be forced to buy them back because the number of shares available to borrow decline).

I work slave away in the commercial mortgage world now, but I did misspend about 13 years of my youth in futures/equity derivatives/foreign exchange forwards. I can assure you many more people have been cheated out of their money by stock promoters and their enablers in the brokerage firms selling overpriced b.s. to the public (remember all those internet bubble stocks…such as Patrick Byrne’s overstock.com?) than have lost money due to teh evil short sellers.

Jillian, I got my dad to buy an Australian dollar bond a few years back (unfortunately, not back when it was .55 USD, but when it was .75 or .76).

He was able to do that in his Charles Schwab IRA.

As for who I would support, I would support the following Republicans in a primary

I’d support Giuliani (great on terror, great on the economy, promises to be unobstructive on social policy)

But, the best Republican candidate is Vice President Cheney.

When can we start outsourcing CEO’s and CFO’s to Vietnam and Indonesia? I’m sure WalMart and United Airlines would benefit greatly by only having to pay their head honchos 19 cents an hour. And to top it off, the outsourced CEO’s would probably make better corporate decisions, given their real-world (ie., they wipe theit own asses) experiences.

Not trolling at all, why don’t the boardrooms do this?

Because I have absoultely no information as to why your site crashed, I am going blame it on a vast right-wing conspiracy at MySQL AB.

It’s what Ace does when technology doesn’t do what he thinks it does. 😛

“The moral of the story is that intelligent investors should be shorting toxic bonds — whether they are corporate or mortgage backed — and buying valuable stocks as they correct lower. ”

Yeah, it takes a really intelligent investor to figure out “Sell crap, buy good stuff”.

Ben and Jerry’s tried to find a CEO who would get a “sensible” salary.. and they failed.

But liberals like Ben and Jerry’s don’t have to live by their own standards

The stock market has to be the worst clusterfuck ever.
It’s like all other forms of gambling, except on a bigger scale.
I can understand part of the logic of it, (you need investment)
but if you ever sell more than 25% of your company you’re setting yourself up for no end of assrape by stockholders.

Gory Puppet spake thusly:

“I’d support Giuliani (great on terror, great on the economy, promises to be unobstructive on social policy)”

Please, do elaborate!
Should be good for a laugh.

“But, the best Republican candidate is Vice President Cheney”.

Okay, now I’m almost certain you’re a troll.
The fact that I have to use the modifier “almost”
is sad in and of itself.

HairlessMonkeyDK, I’m with you: the stock market, particularly the way it runs now, is basically gambling, and is headed for a major crash. Along with all the things Mikey listed, there’s the fact that stock “value” bears no resemblance to actual value. There are all sorts of absurdities that arise as a result, and when the herd panics, you get something like the East Asian Meltdown of 97: perceived values tumble, currencies dive, and squillions of pretendy dollars simply evaporate.

That’s not business. It’s not helping the economy. It’s about as rigorous as crystal-ball-gazing.

But that’s what the neocon cult has let the world in for.

Lebowsi, millionaire or no: that’s such a great idea. Imagine how profits would skyrocket once CEOs were outsourced! Imagine how grateful shareholders would be, once the fat was trimmed, the enterprise made lean and mean, operation downsized and the entire doowop reorganized!

Why, they might even take the rash step of actually employing workers, to do actual, real-life, honest-to-Jebus work. You know, making stuff and doing stuff and stuff.

Nahhhh, it’s all a fantasy.

C’mon Wall Street, don’t be slow; why man, this is war a go-go!”

So help me out here; I’m confused. Are we going to have another Clinton-Gore Recession ™ or not?

CEOs won’t be outsourced because it would break up the Mutual Back-Scratching Society that corporate boards are.

Think about it. Mr A is CEO or Corporation A, Mr B is the same of B, Inc., Mr C is the same of CCorp. Mr A sits on the boards of B, Inc. and CCorp. Mr B sits on the boards of A and C, Mr C on A and B. The board decides CEO pay. They’re all best buddies and golf partners. They all want to get more dollars. Always approve your pal’s pay raises, and he’ll approve yours. It’s that simple, and that corrupt.

Larry hates when the US pullls out prematurely, it leaves his stocks unsatisfied.

Honestly, I can’t believe how ignorant so many of my Lefty Anti-American Muslamunist Fellow Travelers have become! Ward Churchill is our beloved leader, unjustly ripped from his job at some university or another, I think in Colorado, which means we now won’t know WHAT to think until The Secret High Os Council (Soros, Atrios, Markos) engineers a new Moonbat Cyborg Ayatollah!

OK, I’m done with him now. Had a good run. Or not. But I had fun anyway. Fuck you all.

Dear Larry K, I have some Enron, Caterair, and Arbusto stocks that I think you should look at. And you really should consider some Texas Ranger season tickets.

Annie Laurie: I know, I know. My ex-husband was one of those who cannot empathize or understand. But I was hoping to get at least 1 in 10 of the hangers-on, the wannabees, to have to confront what they have wrought.

These people, from Dubya and Cheney and Rove down to the “average” hedge fund manipulator, are sociopaths

Actually, it’s much, much worse than that. They’re wannabe sociopaths. In fact, to call them that does a real disservice to those of us with a righteous DSM based diagnosis. But here’s the thing. They imagine themselves to be stoic, tough, worldly and most importantly, dangerous. But I’ve seen what happens with them, in war, in bars, in parking lots. When blood sprays in gouts, when the jagged edge of a shattered bone pokes through bright red flesh, when teeth shatter and people go down with the most awful whimpers and groans, when stuff spills out that we really shouldn’t ever see, that’s when your “sociopath” works his crowd, at home in a horror of his making. But these guys just fall down and beg. You can’t even kick ’em around, they give everything about personal combat a dirty, foul edge. You just want to take out your personal weapon and end their unpleasant, noisome protestations. But you don’t, because they are such an embarasing, damp, tearful mainfestation of every useless, hateful bucket of pus you ever carried through hell, only to find ten years later they wouldn’t even hire you to drive their trucks. Honor? They have nothing. With a change of underpants they regain their natural-born authority and speak in commanding tones. The only lesson learned is to hire someone like me to protect them from someone like me. Oh yeah. I’ll take the money….

mikey

It appears that Ward Churchill was the only thing propping up the US economy. Who knew.

Slayed me. Deserves to be said again.

Oh, I did.