We Can Catch Comet Dust and Return it to Earth, But We Can't Balance a Budget or Stop Financial Fraud
There was something TraderMark wrote the other day that has stuck with me:
Find an ETF which owns the stock - build a big position there while concurrently shorting every other stock in the ETF. This makes you uber long the stock you have (insider information) an information advantage on. Again, genius. More of God's work done by people 2 generations ago who would have been working at NASA or creating the next innovation in science or medicine.When I read that line I actually yelled out "CORRECT!"
I do not want to get into a philosophical or other kind of debate here. I will say that smart people more and more get drawn to the wild times and cash of finance instead of actually accomplishing something of note for more them them self and their clients. It's a sort of free country so each to his/her own.
Hands get wrung about what to do with Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac like it is hard to figure out. DO NOT even get me going on the pounds of baloney that was put out by Calculated Risk this week about this very subject. CR would like a system in place to cover all lending for mortgages in the next crisis that WILL be coming due to the actions of Bernanke whom was praised endlessly by CR as well. Part of the problem much? Those two posts effectively ended any interest I had in stopping over there.
Want more disagreement? Well load up Jesse's commentary at the Cafe:
Modern Monetary Theory: The Sophistry of the US Dollar
Which was in response to this item over at The Pragmatic Capitalist:
THE FED IS NOT MONETIZING THE DEBT
Big time conflict!
Because I have a small brain, or because I am stupid I cannot endorse TPC's view nor anything MMT related. The entire thesis is based on core structures that are in place NOW (US reserve currency for one) that may not be in the future. I suggest strongly that you read both items.
Anyways, where was I?
Instead of frontrunning via HFT crap or making the next round of garbage securitized paper, great minds could be doing this:
NASA Stardust Project
I have written about this before. A spacecraft can be launched from Earth, inserted in an orbit that will be on course to intercept a comet moving at like a million miles an hour, deploy an aerogel collector and grab dust from the comet, and then return the sample to Earth! That is just mind blowing. A second mission will contact comet Temple 1 on the 15th of this month.
Like I said, we can do so much yet accomplish so little.
Stocks in Final Review
I have to review a final 7 stocks for this week. I usually wait until Monday, but I had time. Quite a varied selection tonight, I may put orders in for 2 or 3 tonight:
JASO
YGE
NPBC
TRST
PRSP
AAP
COCO
Some were from my own screens and some were from screens author chessNwine made over at the 12631.
The Return of The Black Car
Childress Racing has brought back The Black Car. 10 years after Dale Earnhardt lost his life at Daytona, my man Kevin Harvick will be driving this evil looking car this year:
Let's go get'em all Kevin!
Added
My film quote contest had not even 1 email submission. I would jump at a thing like this, but then I am strange. Not that anyone cares but here are the answers:
1-"I don't mind getting the car" (The Godfather)
2-"What do they do for fun around here? Play checkers or sumthin? This place is out of it" (The Outsiders)
3-"Stop sir, I beseech you. I apologise for calling your wife a bloated warthog and I bid you good day" (Highlander)
4-"This job would be great if it weren't for the customers" (Clerks)
5-"Do not put on those things on too long it feels like a knife turning in your head" (They Live)
6-"Ok. Show me" (Christine)
7-"....But I have built a city" (Ben-Hur)
8-"People will think we're in love" (Silence of the Lambs)
9-"Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't got it no more" (Rocky II)
10-"I'm glad it was you" (Road to Perdition)
Have a good night.
"DO NOT even get me going on the pounds of baloney that was put out by Calculated Risk this week about this very subject."
ReplyDeleteI too felt the need to bring up Calculated Risk in my latest post. Opinions should not be stated as fact. He did that though when he said, "The key is most of the increase in the unemployment rate is cyclical."
It is not a fact. It is an opinion. It could be right but I suspect otherwise.
Structural Unemployment
"DO NOT even get me going on the pounds of baloney that was put out by Calculated Risk this week about this very subject." I too felt the need to bring up Calculated Risk in my latest post. Opinions should not be stated as fact. He did that though when he said, "The key is most of the increase in the unemployment rate is cyclical." It is not a fact. It is an opinion. It could be right but I suspect otherwise. Structural Unemployment
ReplyDelete