Friday, August 5, 2011

Chill Pill Friday

Had enough drama? I think this week featured more drama and angst than a John Hughes film. Think "The Breaking Trendlines Fast Club." Any ways, it was another crazy day and there is word tonight of a possible S&P downgrade of the US credit rating. Wonderful. I may have more on markets this weekend, but for now I think it best to move on to other stuff for the sake of sanity. Here is a daily chart of the S&P 500 if you want a graphic of a tough run:
Red and going down is bad for the new chart readers.

Added: S&P has downgraded US debt to AA+, outlook negative:
WSJ Coverage
There is so much more to this debacle I cannot cover it tonight. Holy shit.

Chill Pill Friday
No better place to relax than here on EconomicDisconnect's world famous Friday Night Entertainment.

Water on Mars
Lost in the mix this week was the exciting proof that water still exists on Mars. This has major implications, I love this stuff:
Scientists find evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars
Jupiter's moon, Europa, is thought to harbor a vast liquid water ocean under an ice covering as well.

Another cosmic mind bender? How about this:
Way Too Deep For Me: Our Universe Shows 'Bruising' Evidence Of Running Into Other Ones
Multiverse theory? Wild.

Film Clips
Movie time!

Great clip from the classic film "Dune" where Paul Atreides shows the weirding way to the Fremen:

Love that film.

You have not seen "Big Trouble in Little China"? Why not?:


Rock Blogging
Lots of requests so here we go.

Birthday girl C-T was looking for more Depeche Mode and I cannot deny a birthday request unless it involves the band that cannot be named. Found a great live version of "It's No Good":

Great performance!

A great way to get a request on is to have a tune with a steel guitar involved. Try out Sovereign Bohemian's pick of "4th of July" by Shooter Jennings:


Fellow 12631 member Mda1125 was looking for Lyrics Born and "Hello" and this is some serious techno funky music!:

Wow! If you are in the market, mda1125 is a guru for fitness and you can check out his site here:
Marc David

Gawains was thinking Rolling Stones and "Hand of Fate":

Fitting.

My man Tony of Macro Story has nailed the last 2 months pretty much exact. You should be reading his posts. AC/DC was his request so here is "Hells Bells" from a get out crazy show at Donnington where legends play:

Wow.

Ok, last two are my picks!

We need a consolation tune, and Bette Midler's "The Rose" is as touching as it gets:

Unreal pretty tune.

Last call! Grab a beer and get some cash from the ATM while you can. Got gold and silver? Too late now.

OAR with "Shattered":


Have a good night.

10 comments:

Watchtower said...

Well GYSC...

Is AA the new AAA or will interest rates rise?

Any thoughts?

CT-Hilltopper said...

AA is the new black.

Thanks for putting up the video! I thought I got to you too late.

LOL

Thanks for remembering my birthday!

EconomicDisconnect said...

Watchtower,
This SHOULD be a big deal. A warning if you will. But remember the US FED can only accept AAA paper yet they hold 1 to 2 trillion in worthless mortgage paper. Rules are rules until they are not. This makes me feel all will be well until some point when it all goes dark. Overnight with no warning. More this weekend.

C-T,
My lady how could I forget your birthday?

GawainsGhost said...

Black and Blue is an interesting album, a transitional one.

It was Brian Jones who named the band the Rolling Stones and gave them an edge. But then he died, got drunk, fell in a pool and drowned. Let It Bleed is a tribute to him.

Mick Taylor joined the band, and they recorded some of their best work. Albums like Sticky Fingers, the first with the tongue logo and the first recorded on the mobile unit, and Exile on Main Street, which really is their greatest album.

Then Taylor left, later to join Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. This was when the Stones recorded Black and Blue, with Mick Jagger on rhythm guitar and Keith Richards on lead.

When Ron Wood, formerly of Faces, joined the band, they recorded Some Girls, a phenomenal album and one of my favorites. I used to listen to that album every day for years.

Their later work was less interesting, except for the occasional hit. But they were still the band to see. I saw them in 1990 on the Steel Wheels tour. 90,000 people crammed in the Cotton Bowl for one hell of a performance.

I'll never forget that, because I bought my ticket from a radio station that also included a bus pass. It's about a 13 hour ride from here to Dallas. There were these Mexican nationals in front of me. They only spoke in Spanish. But when the Rolling Stones started playing, they sang along, knew the words to every song in English.

That only goes to show the Rolling Stones deserve the title The Greatest Rock and Roll Show on Earth. When Kiss tried to use that title, the Stones sued them.

Anonymous said...

FYSA:

Downgrade happened. (Check)
AA+ is now the baseline for the markets. (Check)

How will they react and behave?
Now what are you all going to do?

My employer is going to operate with over a trillion USD budget cut. My test to the severity of the cuts will be:
Will I have the opportunity to continue my service at the pleasure of the president in 2013? Or will I be thanked for my service and shown the door? Mind you either way, it is a door I don't mind walking through at times.

Will the commodities pull back in this now "real" situation? What will play out?

8 Seconds--------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_riding
-----------------------

Dune is still one of my favorite movies of all time. The new SCIFY series had nothing on D Lynch's version (vision) of F. Herberts literary brilliance.

http://www.dunenovels.com/

It's a shame that John Carpenter was unable to make a BTILC 2 or able to convince K. Russel to make another one. K. Russel did however go on to make another gem --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyMht6Xmh7c

As a young boy I remember manually turning on my parents TV with my own hand. Turning the knob to the MTV station and watching ZZ Top:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eUMB8FS6C8

Do you remember those moments in life where you changed? You woke up or had an emotion that ran deep for years after the actual event?
Think for a moment how unfortunate young adolescents have it today....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-rftpZ7kCY&feature=related

Then again.... There might be hope for their memories to be fond like ours ;)-<

Some of my brothers recently made the ultimate sacrifice over seas. When you see a soldier be respectful and thank them for their service.

G

PS: "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." --George Orwell

EconomicDisconnect said...

G, thanks for the comment. Love reading what is on your mind. My sincerest best wishes for you.

GawainsGhost said...

So S&P downgraded the US economy. Big surprise. When was the last time they downgraded a mortgage backed security? Or a collaterized debt obligation or a credit default swap?

I'm only asking because it was these financial "innovations" that brought down the global economy. Financiers betting against their own products, with the full approval of the rating agencies.

How will the markets react? It's hard to say. Markets do what they do. In times of certainty, they grow. In times of uncertainty, they shrink.

I'm more worried about the next house I have to sell. But I can't sell it to someone who doesn't have a job or can't afford to pay for it. This is the real problem.

When a country exports its manufacturing base, thereby destroying its middle class, imports cheap (illegal) labor, then depends solely on consumerism, finance and the service industry, it's only a matter of time before the inevitable downgrade.

Lack of production, high unemployment, stagnant wages, collapsing house prices, welcome to the new normal.

Who's really going to suffer in all of this is the institutional investors, pension funds and the like. They assume an 8% ROI and base their growth on that, which is ridiculous. Anytime someone promises you a return of more than 4-6%, you should know it's a scam, just another ponzi scheme.

Give me a modest 3%, and I'll be happy. But I can't even get that these days, which is why I don't play the markets. Or invest in real estate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUT99a6UR0A

The Sovereign Bohemian said...

Thanks GYSC for the Shooter vid. I was and still am a big fan of his Dad, too. I also loved the AC/DC (being an old timer myself).

I agree with GawainsGhost second comment, too. We need jobs around here for people to afford anything. It seems like the country is changing to a tech driven economy and is leaving a a lot of people hurting, like when we went from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing one. The problem is not everybody can work in tech, just like not everybody could work in manufacturing, and not everybody could be farmers.

To be a strong country we need all of the above. Instead of being a strong country, things are being driven by the elite's influence in DC to push globalism at the cost of the average guy. It's all about the almighty dollar until that's not worth anything either.

I'm cooking some skirt steaks this weekend a la GYSC!

EconomicDisconnect said...

Hey all,
was at an amusement park all day long and just getting caught up. Great comments here, I know I have the best readers anywhere. Will try to get a well thought out post tomorrow for all that is going on.

GawainsGhost said...

I don't know if you're into funk, but it doesn't get better than this. My recommendation for Sunday Night Entertainment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB4JDJiet5M