Posted in haha, politics on May 16, 2008 | No Comments »
… [W]hen Bush was last in Riyadh in January, his appeals to the Saudi government to increase oil production were quickly, albeit politely, rebuffed, allowing his political opponents at home to criticize him and accuse him of “begging.”
But this time around, a plan appears to have been in store between the Bush administration and the [...]
Posted in doomsterism, haha, politics on May 7, 2008 | 4 Comments »
That’s what happens when you have someone like Fred Thompson run a fraudulent, stalking-horse campaign solely to fracture the southern white/ evangelical vote.
People don’t just “take” a limitation of choices, as Thompson inflicted upon the party. They stay unhappy.
Voters may be dumb. Just not as dumb as GOP strategists think. Black turnout across the South [...]
Posted in federal reserve, haha on April 27, 2008 | No Comments »
“Greenspan came onto my radar screen in the late sixties as a seller
of economic and financial advice to the investment industry. To be
brutally honest, he was considered run of the mill by anyone I knew
then or have met later who knew his service then. His high point in
most memories, was a famous call in January [...]
Posted in dawn to decadence, federal reserve, haha, inflation, monetary policy, politics, wall street on March 31, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Not sure where they got the ‘reluctant’ from …
“Comrade Ben is determined that there will be no financial meltdown and no depression while he is in command,” economist Ed Yardeni wrote to clients. “Given the initial reaction [on Wall Street], I suppose this means we are all financial socialists now.”
Posted in doomsterism, haha, wall street on March 27, 2008 | No Comments »
Chase mortgage memo pushes ‘Cheats & Tricks’
The bank says it never backed the strategies, which detail how to get an iffy loan approved
Thursday, March 27, 2008
JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian Staff
A newly surfaced memo from banking giant JPMorgan Chase provides a rare glimpse into the mentality that fueled the mortgage crisis.
The memo’s title says it [...]
Posted in environment, global warming, haha on March 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
New derivation of equations governing the greenhouse effect reveals “runaway warming” impossibleMiklós Zágoni isn’t just a physicist and environmental researcher. He is also a global warming activist and Hungary’s most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. Or was.That was until he learned the details of a new theory of the greenhouse effect, one that [...]
Posted in culture, haha on March 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
http://economics.uchicago.edu/pdf/Prostitution%205.pdf
Quite informative, actually. For example:
“… We estimate that prostitutes are officially arrested only once per 450 tricks, with johns arrested even less frequently. Punishment conditional on arrest is limited – roughly 1 in 10 prostitute arrests leads to a prison sentence, with a mean sentence length of 1.2 years among that group.5 For many johns, [...]
Posted in culture, haha on March 11, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Apparently, “Study shows …” is today’s equivalent of “The Bible says.” It allows you to frame an utterly ridiculous finding, such as “200 million people to be displaced by 2020 due to flooding caused by global warming” “steroids have no effect on baseball performance,” or as Drudge is broadcasting today, “1 in 4 American teen [...]
Posted in F*** ELIOT SPITZER, haha, politics, wall street on March 10, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I invite all fellow foes of prosecutorial-fascist state Aspiring Governors Attorneys General to join me in an solemn toast, to whatever mole nailed Eliot Spitzer to a bunch of hookers.
And my biggest, most heartfelt congratulation goes out to the hookers themselves. Who wouldn’t be honored to partake in the destruction of the nation’s leading (non-federal, [...]
Posted in doomsterism, haha, shitigroup, wall street on March 10, 2008 | No Comments »
MBIA has kept up a game of begging for massive ratings concessions from Fitch in private, while trash-talking the ratings agencies (especially Fitch, which is by far the most aggressive of the three) in public.
Fitch is not amused.
13:20
MBI MBIA Inc: Follow up on Fitch’s response to MBIA; willing to continue ratings without charge to MBIA [...]
Posted in haha, inflation, shitigroup, wall street on March 10, 2008 | No Comments »
Barry Ritholtz has a bullseye Bloomberg screenshot showing that a single buyer pumped up ABK’s share price 25 percent, at 4:05 pm. I’m sure it’s a “complete” coincidence that that day happened to be the day before Ambac’s “$1.5 billion” share offering. The picture really says it all: this is the most obvious pump (as [...]
Posted in haha, shitigroup, wall street on March 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
As we predicted, the massively CNBC-hyped “Ambac bailout” has been revealed to be nothing but smoke and mirrors. Kudos to whomever duped Charlie Gasparino of CNBC so that the HF manager could slough his garbage upon credulous speculators. Barry Ritholtz gloats:
Riddle Me this Batman: Over the past 2 months, we have seen at least 3 [...]
Posted in federal reserve, haha, shitigroup, wall street on March 4, 2008 | No Comments »
*KOHN SAYS BANKS ARE `WELL CAPITALIZED,’ NEED TO RAISE CAPITAL
Posted in haha, shitigroup, wall street on March 4, 2008 | No Comments »
Sounds like everyone’s favorite bank needs more cash - soon.
March 4 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank, may need additional capital from outside investors as losses stemming from the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market increase, the head of Dubai International Capital LLC said.
Citigroup received $7.5 billion [...]
Posted in doomsterism, haha, inflation, politics, shitigroup, wall street on February 27, 2008 | 1 Comment »
What the debt market believes, and what the ‘Save the Sheeple’ monolines/ banks/ realtors caucus believes, are clearly two very different things.
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s say MBIA Inc. has enough capital to withstand losses and justify its AAA rating. MBIA’s debt investors [...]
Posted in haha, politics on February 26, 2008 | No Comments »
The Drudgico:
EDINBURG, Texas - For all the positive press Barack Obama receives, as he moves closer to clinching the Democratic nomination he is establishing himself as the candidate who keeps the most distance from the national media.
Reporters covering Obama can no longer move freely among the thousands of zealous supporters at his events — unless [...]
Posted in dollar, federal reserve, haha, inflation, monetary policy, volatility on February 25, 2008 | No Comments »
From Merrill Lynch forecaster-in-chief David Rosenberg’s morning memo:
“… New York Times article by Louis Uchitelle in December 1990 on the housing and credit crunch. In the article, there is a quote that goes like this –
“This is different from the experience of the Great Depression, but something related to the 1930’s is beginning [...]
Posted in environment, haha, politics, volatility on February 25, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Any enviros want to refresh me on how well the 2007-8 temperature forecasts of Pope Al and the cardinals of climatology stacked up to reality?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities [...]
Posted in haha, politics on February 24, 2008 | No Comments »
Hans-Hermann Hoppe couldn’t have stated it any better.
Although a quiet, reflective man, the prince decided to take a rare public stand. Accused of aiding and abetting tax fraud – the banking principality does not recognise it as a criminal offence [where do I apply for citizenship?--ed] – he shot back that Germany had “trafficked in [...]
Posted in dawn to decadence, federal reserve, haha, inflation, monetary policy, shitigroup, volatility, wall street on February 21, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I have not read a single article about the government’s eye-popping bailout of the American mortgage and banking sector, through the quasi-governmental Federal Home Loan Banks, other than a single article by Krishna Guha and Gillian Tett in the Financial Times more than two months ago. This is the most underreported story in today’s financial [...]
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