Wednesday Filler

I am getting a bit stressed out with all the finishing up at work I have to do. Always more than you think. It will be there when I get back I am sure. Two days to go.

Sad News
When I was in college it was a tough time. The last two years were very long. After my father died we had some family issues and my mother (my parents were long divorced) decided a long trip on the road was in order for her. Sounded good. With limited time to work at night (a biotech degree has tons of lab courses) I had no money. I mean none. I would stop over at my cousins when she got her food stamps and child support from the state and play all nice and grab something to eat. That was good for twice a week. I was at my old boxing weight (136 lbs) without trying to do that.

One night I was out and met up with two brothers who grew up not even 2 miles from me but just over the town line so we never went to the same schools. We hit it off big time. I started hanging out with them all the time and we would go out Thursday night through Sunday night and rip it up at the college bars and clubs. They both worked full time and had plenty of cash. They also never asked me about my situation. We all went out and things got taken care of no questions asked. I might never have seen a bar in college if not for them. It was not about the help though, they became MY brothers. We became very close and still are to this day. When we go out now (and for the last 7 years) I insist on paying for everything we do (they hate it!). Karma, you know.

One of the brothers called me last week and told me how sick his father was. I offered what help I could and all my support. My friend's father died last night. No matter what kind of distance one has from their parent, this is a terrible time and I only wish I could say more than cliches and a mess of "I'm sorry's". I know my adopted brothers can believe I am here for them. Just like they have always been for me.

Wednesday Filler
Assorted stuff for a distraction.

Earnings News
Besides a few names that missed, most firms are ripping the cover off the ball. The Apple (AAPL) train keeps on rolling. Pragmatic Capitalist (and some others) poke fun at the AAPL earnings game:

Only a Wall Street analyst could be shocked by the fact that Apple beat estimates and guided lower. I don’t mean to downplay the enormous quarter by Apple (it’s an outrageously good quarter), but how in the world is anyone still fooled by this guidance game they play? I know, I know…this is every analyst’s pet rock, but when your estimate is a full 20% off the mark you have to seriously consider another line of employment. You can’t be this wrong every single quarter and claim to be “analyzing” anything. The value added here by the analyst community is worse than negative.

Too funny.

Long time readers know I hate the cult of Apple but they continue to be a monster profits machine.

20 Questions by Macro Man
You need to swing by Macro Man and read the 20 questions with multiple choice selections, it's epic. Two samples:

3. Is it true that the Chinese reserves of 3 trillion dollars would:
(a) Stretch 3 times around the planet.
(b) Take 48 years to withdraw from a ATM in $500 tranches.
(c) Weigh the same in $1 bills as the total number of potatoes processed last year in Belgium?

18. Is it true that the date 19th April 2011 (yesterday) was:
(a) 13/4/7DB in hexadecimal.
(b) The day that the Machines in Terminator became aware as Skynet went active, in preparation for its attack against humanity tomorrow.
(c) Together with (b), why the algos trashed USDs and sent Tech Equities higher this morning.

Go check out the rest.

Robots - American Made
Readers know I am so way out in front of the bubble to be that is robots. Not one single leading writer has even come close to calling this trend, but I have. Reader Anon sends this video post of robots going into the Fukushima Nuclear plants to look around and test. Here is the video:
Robots Search Plant
At the 1:56 mark we learn that Japan got these robots from......The United States! Anon comments:

Are you kidding me? The UNITED FRIGGIN STATES??? COME ON JAPAN - you guys are obsessed with robots, and yet you dont have anything domestic to deal with Fukushima???
What do you think Get? Dont you think the japanese people would be up in arms about foreign robots taking "our robots jobs"? I cant believe they would stand for this :)

Indeud. This could start a globalization robot war, which is what Skynet wants!

Magazine Covers
My man David Batista had a post up about magazines and I think the point was to see if people still subscribed to magazines but I got sort of lost at the cover shot of the new issue of Rolling Stone:

For the record, I only subscribe to In-Fisherman Magazine (best in the wold); the rest I read online.

Of course any magazine that has Lil Kim, my favorite, is a sure fire buy. Here is a Maxim Magazine picture:

Now that the restraining order has expired (just a misunderstanding really) maybe Kimmy dear will call me? What do you all think? Call me Kim!

Have a good night.

All Bases Covered

First really hard frost this morning here. Going to have to locate the car ice scraper before too long.

All Bases Covered
From across the web I saw many interesting and/or important stories today and so a recap is on hand. I apologise for the brevity of the posts lately, but I have been under time constraints from work and various errands the last 2 weeks.

I Told you So
Economic Disconnect has been perturbed by FED apologists who claim that the FED will navigate the waters of monetary policy without mistake. A while back (about 2 months) some were even making grumblings as if a FED rate hike was at hand in the near future. I savaged these types at the time, but I am not expecting an apology any time soon after this:
Fed May Not Increase Rates Until 2012, Bullard Says
The Bloomberg story recounts Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard's contention that based on prior history, there is still room to run with ZIRP:

"If you look at the last two recessions, in each case the FOMC waited two and a half to three years before we started our tightening campaign,” Bullard said today in a speech in St. Louis. “If we took that as a benchmark, that would put us in the first half of 2012.”

Mr. Bullard fails to describe the effects of those policies, but who cares about that anyway.

Bob Toll Knows Subprime
Quote of the day belongs to a villain of the housing bubble, Toll Brothers CEO Bob Toll:

"Yesterday’s subprime is today’s FHA,” Toll said today at a New York conference for builders sponsored by UBS AG. “It’s a definite train wreck and the flag will go up in the next couple of months: Bail us out. Give us more money.”

Now we could poke fun at one guy that is getting all kinds of breaks talking smack about another basket case institution, but that would be too much fun for a week day evening. I would just say for an industry Mogul to say something like this at this juncture of the fragile housing "recovery" means quite a bit.

Reduction of Deficit Spending, You are Doing it Wrong
Just after the president calls for less aggressive spending, here is how the US Senate reacts:
Senate health bottom line: $849 billion overhaul
This stuff writes itself!

As if Nothing Ever Happened
So you brought the US banking system to it's knees due to poor judgement, bad lending, and ridiculous leverage? What is your punishment? If you answered nothing at all, you are correct:

Wall Street on Track for Record in Profits
Ten months ago, President Obama said a time would come for Wall Street to make profits and pay bonuses, but “now’s not that time.” But it appears that was exactly when Wall Street began to return to profitability.
In a report released Tuesday by Thomas P. DiNapoli, the comptroller of New York State, Wall Street profits in 2009 are on track to exceed the record set three years ago, at the height of the credit bubble.

Now one may wonder how on earth profits could be as high as the height of the credit bubble, but why question such things? As a parting kick in the groin:

“The national economy is slowly improving, but Wall Street has recovered much faster than anyone had envisioned,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement.

As long as Wall Street is happy I guess the rest of us can bend over and kiss our own behinds. Your welcome for the bailouts by the way, fruitcake.

He Who Has the Control has the Power!
Courtesy of the classic film "The Neverending Story"

G'mork: Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries.
Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then?
G'mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the nothing grows stronger.
Atreyu: What is the nothing?
G'mork: It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.
Atreyu: But why?
G'mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has control has the Power.

Now who would want to control our behavior?:

Calif. requires TVs to be more energy efficient
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Power-hungry TVs will be banned from store shelves in California after state regulators adopted a first-in-the nation mandate to lower electricity demand.
On a unanimous vote, the California Energy Commission on Wednesday required all new televisions up to 58 inches to be more energy efficient beginning in 2011. The requirement will be tougher in 2013, and only a quarter of all TVs on the market currently meet that standard.

Now I could accept helping energy consumption, but this kind of control creep extends very quickly into all kinds of areas in the name of various noble causes.

Macro Man has the FED Skewered
Today's MUST read come via Macro Man and his missive "The FED and Bubbles". While I hate to excerpt such a piece (there are plenty of charts and great insight) I have to share a point I have harped upon many times:

Still, if Kohn's claim that "our abilities to discern the "correct" values of assets is quite limited", how can the Fed fail to recognize that Nasdaq 1999-2000 was a bubble....
...as was the 2003-05 housing market.....
...and oil last year.....
...but that a less than 10% decline in the value of the S&P 500 in the first few weeks of last year was sufficiently worrisome that it merited a 75 bps inter-meeting cut a mere 8 days before a regularly scheduled FOMC policy decision (which produced a further half-point cut.)?
Put another way, why does the Fed feel powerless to identify bubbles in real time, but is evidently highly confident in its ability to determine when asset prices have fallen below equilibrium?

This is a key point and it really blows the FED out of the water in their "Nobody Can See a Bubble" babble. read the whole thing.

Have a good night.