Friday, September 5, 2008

Friday Night Fights

Thanks for the kind words on the renovation project. Working for a living is rough stuff! Next up is the living room, but that only need paint, new heater covers, and a good cleaning. The never ending story.

Blog will be light on material tonight as I am as sick and mad over the current mess out there and I want to stay in a good mood. It is NFL opening weekend and I want to be positive.

Fannie and Freddie Bailout Plan at Hand
News on the wires this evening that a final plan to backstop FNM/FRE is about ready for action. Laddy freaking Da. More government jokers putting my money on the line to help banks and foreign debt holders. thanks a bunch guys. Not much detail as yet, but I am sure it is going to cause me to yell and/or throw stuff. Yahoo article here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnbc/080905/26564844.html

So after all the jawboning about how any backstop would not be needed, it is needed after all. Why the sudden rush now? I believe I have an answer.....

Bill Gross and a Steel Cage Match
The manager of the largest bond fund, Bill Gross of PIMCO, has come out and basically said the US government has to start putting floors underneath all kinds of assets to stave off panic and deflation. OK shit for brains, why not move to Pakistan where they are trying that very thing? Don't let the door hit you on the way out Bill. Let me get the timing of this straight; Mr. Gross pleas like a little baby for federal mass capital infusions, especially to cover the ENORMOUS amount of FNM paper that PIMCO holds to protect against losses and presto! A plan is about in place. Well color me unsurprised.

Get this Bill, I don't care what you want. I don't care if the only thing that will save me from a life of hunting and gathering to eat is a massive government sponsored backstop of all things financial. I would rather have the system collapse than keep up this charade any longer. You want to take my money and give golden parachutes to banking executives? You want to take my money and support home prices in ghost towns in Metro Phoenix? You want to take my money and keep your carp FNM paper good? I tell you what sir, you can have it. Just step right up and into a steel cage. They close the door and we have at it. Me to keep what's mine and you to take it from me. The person that can exit the cage gets his way? Are you game?

There has to come a time when we the people say No More. Enough is enough. The great credit experiment is over and it was a failure. Start looking for ways to rebuild a busted system instead of getting even more dumb and pouring whatever resources the US still might have on a lost cause. Enough said.

Friday Night Entertainment
Now that I have that off my chest, lets move along. I am sitting right now surrounded by all my books. Reading is FUNdamental ya know? As a new feature I will be posting lines from some of my favorite books. You may be able to source it by GOOGLE, maybe not. This might inspire some interest in some of my favorite books. Lets try it out with two selections form two of my favorites.

Novel Line One
"Hapscomb's Texaco sat on Number 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston. Tonight the regulars were there, sitting by the cash register, drinking beer, talking idly, watching the bugs fly into the big lighted sign."

Novel Line Two
"They must have a print. Why fingerprint if they didn't have something to match it to? They were checking that van for prints. No time to see if they were checking cars too.
Van. Carrying the wheelchair with Lounds in it-that tipped them. Or maybe somebody in Chicago saw the van. There were a lot of vans at Gateway, private vans, delivery vans.
No, Graham just knew he had a van. Graham knew because he knew. Graham knew. Graham knew. The son of a bitch was a monster
."

Film Clip
One of Ray Bradbury's greatest works was "Something Wicked This Way Comes". A film adaptation was made that was pretty good. Check out this amazing sequence as Mr. Dark steals life from Charles Halloway, very scary scene:


Rock Blogging
One of my favorite bands is Creedence Clearwater Revival, but I love so many songs it can be hard to pick out just one. Take a listen to the classic "Fortunate Son":


Found a great old clip of a live Kenny Rogers performance of "Ruby". Classic tune:


Black Sabbath always gets the rep that they only had heavy stuff, but they often used blues and alternative instruments for many songs (The Wizard, NIB, etc). One immortal song is "Planet Caravan" which is just amazing:


Final song for the evening. I heard this one on the way home and it got me all amped up. Billy Idol with "Rebel Yell":


Have a good night.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Novel line one = The Stand by Stephen King, I'm just guessing but I have to admit that I tried to google it to be sure but came up with nothing so I might be wrong. If not "The Stand" then maybe the "Talisman", but I'm pretty sure it's from a Stephen King novel. I guess I could get up and go down to the garage where I have my books stored and check and see, but it's dark outside and I'm settled in for the night.

Novel line two = I don't have a clue so I hope you reveal the answers at some point.

You and Bill Gross in a "cage match" huh? Two men enter, one man leaves, kinda like Thunderdome...

EconomicDisconnect said...

Thunderdome, exactly watchtower! I think I can take Bill Gross.

Line One: yes it is "the stand". How in the world you got that I have no idea. A clue for line two is that it was from a Richard Harris Novel.

Anonymous said...

"The never ending story."

Welcome to homeownership GYSC. LOL

Looks like the inevitable bailout we all new was coming has arrived and yes Gross needs to be hung. I feel very fortunate that I don't pay a lot of taxes and go out of my way to keep my income as low as I can so I don't have to. This is going to be one more arrow in the heart of a dying empire IMHOP. We simply will not be able to pay for all this crap. I don't think that 800billion that Hanky Panky has set up is going to cover the cost of this. Truly a sad day for this country.

Kevin

Anonymous said...

The Fannie/Freddie fiasco is only going to cost 25 billion for us taxpayers.
That is quite a bargain for saving the world from ruin.

Candidates weigh in on stabilizing Fannie, Freddie
By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writer

"A government bailout could cost taxpayers around $25 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_on_bi_ge/mortgage_giants_crisis

Anonymous said...

Watchtower

Northern Rock which is about 25x smaller the F&F cost the British taxpayers about 57 Billion to bailout so while I know you are being cynical that might be a proxy for what's coming or about 1.4 trillion

Were all MBS's holders now.
Kevin

Anonymous said...

Congrats everyone!

We are all now proud owners of Fannie/Freddie. What a great time to be alive.

G

Anonymous said...

Kevin
GYSC incourages this sort of behavior, after all he has a slogan on the side that clearly states:

"Sarcasm is just one more free service we offer" :)

We now have something in common with McCain, we don't know how many houses we own. :)
(I hope we didn't over pay)

Anonymous said...

WahBam!

That's the sound of the two metal giants hitting the floor.

G