Friday, March 28, 2008

Batman's Date Car

I don't know what this is, I just think it's great.

Who Likes Whom?

Former governor Bill Richardson recently decided to endorse Barack Obama for the Presidential Race, thus pissing off the Hillary Clinton camp, who thought he was going to support their candidate instead.

A conservative congregation leader from some numbnuts place like Texas decided to endorse John McCain after all the other Republican contenders dropped out, thus pissing off the far right wing lunatic fringe of the Republican party, who all seem to want McCain to slide under a gas truck and taste his own blood.

Barack acts like he doesn't want to look, but he wants to sneak up and lift the edge so everybody else can peek under Hillary's skirt.

Hillary wants to kick Barack in the nards.

Spring is in the air, and the Presidential hopefuls are getting homicidal in their quest for the holy grail, the brass ring, the most powerful job television has ever seen.

Thank God that God hasn't endorsed anyone this time around. It was bad enough in 2000 when, according to George W., he got God's nod.

In a surprising move, Mohammed endorsed the Independent ticket of Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X.

Of course Buddha endorsed The Dalai Lama. (Again! No surprise there... Jesus! I mean Buddha!)

Joseph Smith endorsed Mitt Romney, on the condition that Mitt up the wife count a little.

Mother Theresa endorsed John F. Kennedy.

L. Ron Hubbard endorsed the Felons, Counterfeiters and Scam Artists Party.

The Marquis de Sade endorsed Ralph Nader.

And today Beelzebub endorsed all the past and present candidates, all the delegates and the superdelegates, all the electors, pollsters, media figures, and the general population and other politicans from this and every other country in the world...

Good to know someone has faith that we will do the right thing.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

What Will We Leave Our Children?

THIS ?

OR THIS ?

International Relations

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood,
A Beautiful Day For A Neighbor,
Would You Be Mine,
Could You Be Mine,
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
*
Okay, now that's done.
When the US Presidential election is over,
let's go bomb somebody.
*
Have any of us seen the documentary shown recently called "Bush's War"?
Or more correctly, that should be, "...have any of we seen the documentary?"
*
Let's just say that all the hard line stuff about Iraq was strongly supported by Cheney and Rumsfeld, and Bush liked those guys a lot, cause they're serious dudes, so he generally liked whatever they told him.
*
There were apparently many times when the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of State were completely shut out of major foreign policy decisions, especially those regarding Afghanistan and Iraq.
*
And there were actually times the Secretary of State could not even get a meeting with the President of the US on his own; he had to enlist the help of the National Security Advisor to even see his boss.
*
!!!!!
I mean, seriously.
!
*
Another lesson:
*
When President Bush makes decisions, even major, important decisions, he is known for making them quickly.
*
This is not a bad thing in and of itself.
*
But after he has made such a decision, he seems to feel, and has expressed to others, that to later change a decision is somehow just plain wrong.
*
Wow.
*
So there is no learning from experience, no contemplation of new information. This behavior leads to: No going back under any circumstances, no matter how wrong a decision was, even one made on false or incorrect information...
?
!
Yes, we are stuck with this Alfred E. Newman With Nukes until January 20, 2009.
How can such a person actually get elected President?
*
By getting support from herds of Washington DC, New York, Texas and Connecticut family old cronies and old money fat cats, by smearing John McCain early in his first Presidential Primaries, by casting doubt on McCain's war hero status (compared to Bush who stayed home due to the old money / crony family connections !!!).
*
I mean, really, Jesus, sometimes we are a monumentally stupid electorate.
*
But then Bush's record was there for all of us to see:
*
- Mediocre academic student at Yale
- Member of Skull & Bones, and a cheerleader
- MBA at Harvard - grades unknown but generally well liked
*
- He was a Senior Partner or Ceo in several failed business ventures,
including the following businesses:
*
Which all failed in consecutive order, even while getting cash investments from old family friends and Middle East oil connection investors.
Arbusto became Bush Exploration, got cash invested from a family friend and still was failing, so it merged with Spectrum 7.
Spectrum 7 lost money and was bought out by Harken.
Harken was failing as well, until it got a contract to drill for oil off the coast of Bahrain, which shocked industry insiders because Harken had no experience in offshore drilling. Shortly after that, Bush sold most of his shares in Harken and one week later the company reported a loss of $23.2 million, triggering the SEC investigation. There were charges against Bush of insider trading, which after an investigation, the SEC concluded that Bush did not have enough inside information to warrant a case.
*
- He invested $800,000 in the Texas Rangers baseball team, becoming managing General Partner for 5 years, which is the one position in which he seems to have been successful. He was creating publicity and promoting the team, generally being a cheerleader again, and his initial investment grew to $15 million in 9 years.
*
- Received special treatment many times over the years, but probably not much more than the average wealthy, connected family's children received, and yet, do we really want to elect a kid like that as President? His Father, George H. W. Bush had the same privileges, but that man actually served in war, and actually built a successful company, and was a better leader because of those experiences.
*
- Hires Cheney to form his Vice Presidential Search Committee, and then Cheney says, "Hey, I've decided what the most important attributes for the job are, and it turns out I'm the only one in the country who has them all, so I'm your VP!" And Bush doesn't keep looking, but accepts that answer?????
Few things shout "Dimbulb" as loudly.
*
- Says that God wanted him to be President. That should have been all the warning we needed, but nooooo...preachers, pastors and priests everywhere told their congregations to vote for the evangelical guy, and look what it got us.
*
Let's hope we can break the cycle and elect someone competent this time.
*
Someone willing to think things through, at least a little.
Someone willing to learn from their own mistakes.
Someone who doesn't claim divine providence for their every action.
Someone who won't hire Cheney or Rumsfeld and then do anything they say.
*
If not, big suckie time again! And we don't need that. Do we need that? We don't need that...
*
Really.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

What's Next?

Investment Bank Collapses,
Gets Bailed Out By The Feds and Another Investment Bank,
US Economy Remains Surprisingly Robust,
Clearly Due To Favoritism By Jesus.

Okay, so Bear Stearns was drunk and stoned beyond belief, and became (and still is) ready to die, and JP Morgan grabs the nearly lifeless body for a song, hauls it into their hospital, and gets ready to either resuscitate it and skinny it down, or start selling off parts and organs to the black market.

Either way, the old body is gone, and the new one presents a cautionary tale that we can all learn from:

Don't party hard around the Federal Reserve or JP Morgan, or you might wake up without your spleen.

So now we have to understand that the reason Bear Stearns was bailed out, bullied and bought cheap, was the amount of certain derivitaves they carried on their books - specifically Credit Default Swaps - which are basically a form of compex insurance against the possibility of some of the other investments they made going bad - - -Bear Stearns had Credit Default Swaps totalling:

$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS WORTH !

And Credit Default Swaps are only ONE type of complex financial investment they have.

These complex investments have not been around long enough to really know what they will do in times of market major corrections or crisis.

These vastly complicated financial instruments are all together called:

DERIVATIVES.

There are many types of Derivatives, of which, as I mentioned, Credit Defaulty Swaps are only ONE.

That is important for this reason:

The amount of just Credit Default Swaps held by all investment banks, etc., in 2001 totalled:

$900 BILLION DOLLARS.

Now all the Credit Default Swaps currently held by investment banks and other financial businesses total:

$44.5 TRILLION DOLLARS

And this is important when you compare it to the size of the Entire US Economy annually:

$14.5 TRILLION DOLLARS

This means that the size of only this ONE derivative held by all the banks, investment banks and hedge funds, is

THREE (3 !!!) TIMES BIGGER
THAN THE ENTIRE US ECONOMY !
And Did I Mention, No One Knows What Any Of These Derivatives Will Do In A Big Market Downturn, Or How They Will Affect Anything Else In The Economy?
Warren Buffett, the Sage of Stock Investing, the Oracle of Omaha, the new Richest Guy In The World, famously said several years ago that derivatives are,
"Potential Weapons Of Mass Destruction."

So the Federal Reserve, the Bush Administration, and Wall Street pretty much had to act to save Bear Stearns (a private investment bank, which the government does not regulate and has never before acted to save in times of trouble).

They had to do so because no one knew, nor still knows, what would happen if they did what they have almost always done with struggling businesses before - just let it fail, and let the capitalist market forces do their job.

The weak business fail and die, the strong businesses survive and thrive.

We say that, though the truth is not always that way, because sometimes the government does step in and rescue a business that is believed to be vital to the US economy or national security in some way - so banks, airlines, certain corporations, etc have sometimes been rescued, sometimes been left to die.

Maybe it also depends on how powerful your lobbyists are.

The Feds also acted faster than they had ever before when faced with a collapsing commercial bank, (the type of financial institution which they do regulate and they have generally previously rescued, since the Depression at least, when they learned the wisdom of doing so).

- - -

What does all this mean?

If Bear Stearns were allowed to fail, holding $2.5 TRILLION in Credit Default Swas, plus Who Knows How Much More in other types of Derivatives,

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.

Seriously.

That $2.5 Trillion alone could have possibly started a domino-effect and brought down other financial institutions connected to Bear Stearns in any of the numerous types of derivatives investments...

It could have taken down other private investment banks, public commercial banks, bond companies, reincurance companies, hedge funds, and who knows what else.

But exactly what would be the result is completely unknown.

COMPLETELY UNKNOWN.

And the fear of the unknown sometimes creates desperation, and can lead to decisions that will turn out to be either brilliant or retarded.

We won't know which this was for some time...maybe as much as a year or a year and a half.

In the meantime, stay tuned...
same Bat time, same Bat channel, for the next episode of:

"The US Economic Demolition Derby"

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Way Ahead

We have to force our politicians to confront and work on the following problems:

THE US NATIONAL DEBT - TOO BIG!

BECAUSE THE ANNUAL BUDGET DEFICIT IS TOO BIG, AND KEEPS ADDING TO THE NATIONAL DEBT MORE EVERY YEAR!

THE WAR IN IRAQ - COSTS TOO MUC H MONEY AND MAKES US TOO MANY ENEMIES!

BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT BROUGHT TOGETHER A COALITION OF OTHER COUNTRIES TO HELP US, TO SHARE THE BURDEN, AND TO PRESENT A UNITED FRONT TO DO THE RIGHT THING, WHATEVER THAT IS.

OUR INFRASTRUCTURE - HIGHWAYS, BRIDGES, WATER AND SEWER SYSTEMS, AND MANY BUILDINGS, ARE ALL CRUMBLING TO SOME EXTENT, AND NEED REHABBING BADLY.

BECAUSE WE HAVEN'T BEEN UP TO FACING THE PROBLEMS AND SPENDING THE MONEY TO FIX THEM.

OUR TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE - TOO WEAK!

BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT SPENT THE MONEY TO KEEP UP WITH THE REST OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD, WHICH WOULD MAKE US MUCH MORE COMPETITIVE. WE NEED FASTER INTERNET AND CELL PHONE SERVICE. WE ARE WAY BEHIND OTHER COUNTRIES - CANADA IS EVEN 4 TIMES AS FAST AS US ON THEIR AVERAGE INTERNET CONNECTION SPEEDS !!!

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM - FAILING!

BECAUSE WE LET LOCAL COMMUNITIES DECIDE HOW MUCH TO SPEND ON EXDUCATION, AND TO A LARGE EXTENT HOW GOOD THEY WANT THEIR SCHOOLS TO BE. WE NEED TO REQUIRE HIGHER STANDARDS, AND TAKE AWAY LOCAL DECISIONS ON HOW MUCH TO SPEND. SPEND WHAT IT TAKES, OR WE CREATE GENERATIONS OF UNCOMPETITIVE GRADUATES THAT LET OUR ENTIRE NATION FALL IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE, ETC. !!!

MEDICARE & SOCIAL SECURITY ARE TOTALLY UNDERWATER AND CLOSE TO GOING UNDER!

BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE USING WAY TOO MUCH UNNEEDED MEDICAL CARE, IN ADDITION TO THE VAST NUMBERS OF TOO MANY OTHERS USING NEEDED MEDICAL CARE, AND BECAUSE MEDICAL COSTS ARE RISING FAR FASTER THAN INFLATION AND HAVE BEEN FOR YEARS. AND BECAUSE THERE ARE FAR MORE PEOPLE RETIRING THAN BEFORE, USING FAR MORE SOCIAL SECURITY MONEY THAN BEFORE, AND FAR FEWER WORKERS CONTRIBUTING FAR TOO LITTLE TO KEEP UP IN THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS TO SEVERAL DECADES. WE NEED TO REMODEL BOTH SYSTEMS AND FIGURE OUT HOW TO STRETCH THE RESOURCES WE WILL HAVE, WITHOUT BANKRUPTING THE SYSTEMS OR KILLING OFF THE POOR. AND THE RICH AND MIDDLE CLASS RETIRED WHO HAVE MONEY NEED TO PUT OFF RECEIVING THEIR GOVERNMENT BENEFITS FOR FAR LONGER, SO THE POOR CAN STILL GET SOMETHING. THERE JUST DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ANY OTHER WAY !!!

IF WE DON'T ACTUALLY WORK ON AND FIX THESE PROBLEMS, WE WON'T HAVE ANY RESOURCES WITH WHICH TO FIGHT GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, FOOD CONTAMINATION, IMMIGRATION REFORM, INCOME INEQUALITY, CRIME, ETC.

THINK.

Futurists Forecast

The Sky Is Falling!

What Would Bob Do?

One of the interesting things that happened to me while I was away, was the following...

I was at a wonderful art gallery opening, a private showing one evening, for a fiber artist named Artemis.

She is from Lichtenstein, by way of Greece and Paris before that. She still has a French accent.

Her monumental weavings are abstract, beautiful, expensive and unique.

At this show, I met the Lichtenstein Ambassador to the US, as well as Honorary consuls to the US from Peru and another from somewhere else.

I also talked with another guest, former US Senator from Oregon, Bob Packwood.

He and I talked about the US Presidential race with a Washington, DC lobbyist who is also a former Lichtenstein representative (from before they had an Ambassador.)

Senator Packwood's analysis of the Democratic race was really interesting.

He said that a lot of people are looking at the possibility of a Hillary/Barack ticket because of the way the two could combine their positives, but the most people do not recognize that ticket would carry more weight with their combined negatives.

He also thinks it will play out with some interest, as Florida and Michigan try to come to terms with either a way to have a voice, or with a resignation to having no voice.

It was a lot of fun to talk politics during a Presidential election with an intelligent, very experienced, retired powerful US Senator.

I haven't had that opportunity before.

And he is a really nice, polite guy as well.

He is a little shorter than you would think, but very stylish and dapper, and extremely well spoken.

Where Are We Now?

Okay, it's been awhile since I wrote anything here...
Took a bit of a break from absorbing all the detritus of modern life.....

What's new?

The Markets Tumble!
Bear Stearns Crumbles!
The Fed Fumbles!

Or maybe it does the right thing, but it is so hard to tell right now. We will know more after 2 or 3 quarters, so be sure to hold your breath.

And actually, after the Fed moves to help Bear Stearns and their 3/4 of 1 % interest rate drop, the markets are behaving a little better.

But the markets have been see-sawing for months now, and it won't stop here.

There is a lot more of both good news and bad news to come in the credit / finance sectors problems to be sorted out over the next 6 months. The markets will respond to future news releases over that time as they have been lately, like manic-depressives.

Hillary and Obama slug it out to see who can be the Democratic Victor and, probably, the Presidential General Election Loser.

Not that I want such a scenario, but I still think McCain will gather support from those concerned about security, those who want a divided government, and those who just can't yet pull the lever for a woman or a black person.

And who do I think would make the best President?

Hillary?
Barack?
John?

How about Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York?
With his running mate, Vice President Arnold Schwartzenegger?

I don't know...who would be best for what, exactly?
Best for the Economy?
Best for National Security?
Best for Education?
Best for the Environment?
Best for our Infrastructure?
Best for Health Care?
Best for Medicare reform?
Best for Social Security reform?
Best for U.S. Competetiveness in the World Trade?
Best for Immigration?
Best for Food Safety?

Who knows, really?

I'm a little discouraged by the media and popular concentration on a lot of little things in the campaign, and not much concern for the largest issues facing us.

But that really happens in almost every campaign, so this one is not unique.

And so it goes...