Random Stuff for Fun

It was a tough day at work and I ran out of gas big time after lunch. Still not feeling all that well, but getting better. Only 4 weeks to go until I will be in Antigua for a week getting warm and tan. So soon.

Good Position Day
Had a pretty good day in the markets with some of the positions I took last week:
YGE

TAN

RPM

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

The Robots are Still Marching
I have not had a robot story up for a bit, but here is your regular warning about humans being taken over very soon.

A robotic bird?

THE HORROR! This thing is creepy!

We have talked about the Uncanny Valley here before. Here it is in chart form:

All I know is that as I watched the video I wanted to shoot that abomination out of the sky with a huge shotgun.

Small Crowd
From Geekologie, the countries that do not use the metric system:

Wow, I actually had no idea it was that bad.

Taxes Suck
The accountant called today and told me where we stand tax wise. Seems between raises at work for the wife and I, and the killing I made on the SLV trade last year, we have moved up to the next tax bracket! Well that's just aces really. Wunderful. Anyways, it put me in a mind of a film from way back, Kidco.

I wrote this last year about this time, but it still fits:
Paying taxes on money I made when it is done using after tax money I already paid on reminds me of a scene from an obscure film "Kidco". The set up is the owner of the all kid fertilizer business is taken to court on a charge of not paying sales tax on his product, which is horse manure. The lead kid represents himself and calls as a witness the man that sells hay and oats to his father to feed the horses that make the manure he uses as fertilizer. The exchange goes like this, but it is from memory so I may be off:

Kid: Mr. Jones, does my dad buy all his feed from your store?
Mr. Jones: Yup.
Kid: Does my Dad pay you sales tax on said items?
Mr. Jones: Yup.
Prosecutor: Your honor, the question is not whether the defendants father paid sales tax....(interrupted)
Kid: Good. Good. Your honor, you see all Kidco sells is manure, which used to be hay and oats! Don't you see!? We are getting taxed at both ends!!!
Court erupts with laughter.

A funny film if you can find a copy.

All There Is?
I still cannot believe the only copy of Craig T. Nelson's speech in the film "All the Right Moves" is this cruddy quality one. Must be copyright issues. Ugh.

Have a good night.

Items for Consideration

I really have way too much regular stuff to get done before the holiday weekend so I will leave a few things I am mulling over to think about and comment on.

Items for Consideration
In no particular order:

-Citigroup was halted today due to a fat finger miss trade of 30k. As Mark says, is that all it takes to crush C?

-Further, if this stock was a "non-protected" one, would the drop have held? I think it a bit naive that serious calls were not made about this stock as it is a pet of the government now.

-Some technical types see a big drop coming for stocks. Maybe so, and I have argued that another trip down (to 800 or so on the S&P) will keep regular investors out of the market for a LONG TIME.

-Something to keep in mind when US treasuries keep going lower in yield, where is that money going to go?

-Paul Krugman uses the basic argument that is best used AGAINST his policy ideas today and it is funny if you replace some words:

Of course, I know what will happen next: we’ll hear that the Irish just aren’t doing enough, and must do more. If we’ve been bleeding the patient, and he has nonetheless gotten sicker, well, we clearly need to bleed him some more.

Replace with the idea of pumping the patient full of blood even though he is internally hemorrhaging and it works against money dropping as well.

-TRIN index anyone?

-What if an ECB effort to sterilise its government bond purchases did not work out and nobody cared?

-I was wrong about the Financial Regulation bill being passed, it was not. It will when it really is a waste of time later in the week.

-Both Bernanke and Obama said today the economy is expanding and it is Europe's fault for "headwinds". I feel better.

-On a related note, if we piss off the Europeans too much they may join forces with the Russian Spy network and then we are in trouble!

-The whole game is built on confidence and you need to remember that.

-The feeling that I keep having is that all the tricks and gimmicks used by the policy guys probably should have worked but have not. They are now standing there smiling saying "why don't you believe that all is well?" and it is because people know better now for whatever reason. It is still quiet out there, but something is going to blow up.

Have a good night.

Sunday Snippets

Just a few small notes on a Sunday evening. Looking forward the the return of the HBO series "True Blood" tonight!

Snippets
-You have to feel for the Team England goalie in the world cup. Well on their way to closing out the United States, a small error results in a tie! Oops!

-Tim Iacono is sharing his own ongoing short sale experience in a post today that is worth a look.

-Kid Dynamite has two good ones up today;
A Horrible Solution to NY's Pension Woes
Key take away:

"Under the plan, the state and municipalities would borrow the money to reduce their pension contributions for the next three years, in exchange for higher payments over the following decade. They would begin repaying what they borrowed, with interest, in 2013.
But Mr. Paterson and other state officials hope the stock market will have rebounded to such a degree by that time that the state’s overall pension contribution burden will have been reduced."

Just unreal. Mish adds that the pension plans are still looking for 8% yearly returns which is just silly.
and
State Bailouts: The Tragedy of the Commons
Plenty worthy of discussion here.

-Housing Doom picks up a strange way to try and sell your home; check this progression of price swings:

Good luck with that!

-Paul Krugman sees that Ireland is having a tougher go in the CDS/Bond arena that Spain and concludes that clearly the austerity plan in Ireland is seen as worse by the markets than the Spanish printing plan. Sure thing Paul.

-Econbrowser has some thoughts on Gold and Inflation. Another academic that cannot figure out why gold is not a commodity. The summary:

But with the long-run fiscal challenges facing the United States, are 10-year Treasuries really the safest place to put your money? The yellow metal seems to be one way some people are hedging that bet.

Not too bad.

-The Ten Most Annoying Car Owners is worth a few laughs. The sidebar on the right side has the commentary for each car. My number one is the Prius owners who are so annoying I just want to punch them. I prefer to gloat about my 300 plus horsepower monster instead to piss them off.

Added
-One cool new site I have been checking is io9.com which is a mix of all kinds of interesting stuff. Try it out!

-An oldie that I had not checked for a while is the RedMeat comic strip. Great stuff here, use the meat locker to get the archives. Anything with Milkman Dan and Karen is awesome. Here is a newer one which is the perfect metaphor for the Credit Card Industry:

Nice!

Have a good night.

Do Not Settle for Shades of Gray

It is now officially that time of year when it is night time dark when I leave for work in the morning, and night time dark when I return home. This is also known as "Economic Disconnect Solar Deprivation Depression Season". At least football is on.

Cause It's too Late Baby, Now It's Too Late
While it may be hard to believe, there still exists a large proportion of financial observers that think more government regulation will both protect normal people and affect the behavior of the banking system. This line of thinking assumes two huge things:
-The banking system would accept any regulation that may hurt them
-The banking system will not side step such regulations
I would add there are plenty of regulations as is, but zero enforcement, so why not add another layer or two for show?

Today's example of wasting both time and my patience is the quickly passed credit card protection bill which may have been useful a while ago and if it had any teeth. Take a look:

House OKs expedited effective date for credit card rules
The House voted 331-92 to move up the effective date of recently approved restrictions on credit card companies from the current February, 2010, deadline of the law. The credit card law limits the ability of banks to hike interest rates and bans deceptive practices.

While I excerpted this piece one may notice that there are no clauses which will undo the already implemented rate hikes of around 20-30% for most large banking credit cards.

Many legislators were all proud of themselves for getting this done, thinking they have helped pressured consumers. Well, "Bzzzt. Sorry Hans, wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change?"

Thanks to John McClane from Diehard for the quote inspiration.

Bloggers In Washington Follow Up
Checking over the blogger posts about the Treasury visit was a let down. Most did not really have much to say about the whole thing. The one exception was Kid Dynamite's World. I would point you there to read his tale, it has a bit more detail and interplay than the other summaries I have seen.

As an aside, the site itself is very good, and the author is a poker player! I have no idea how I missed that site, but I have added it to the blogroll so I can get caught up.

Political Arena
I try and stay away from politics here for all the usual reasons. I will venture in if the political has bearing on the financial, and that is the case tonight.

There were a number of elections last night, and quite a few incumbents got bounced. I will not recount the democrat/republican slant on things, as you all know I am anti-incumbent and very anti-anyone that voted for TARP/Housing Tax Credit I and II, etc whatever side they fall on.

What is important is that all the exit polls I saw rated the economy as their number one issue. Health care scored a distant 3rd or 4th place. Add to this that it is not only jobs that are a major driver for voters right now, but items like the deficit, bailout backlash, and anger over banking issues (obscene bonuses, high rates while banks borrow cheap) are really moving voters. In this perhaps there could be a chance for change. Economic Disconnect's slogan for the next election is:
"Vote, And Hope You Still Have Some Change Left in Your Pocket!"

Do Not Settle for Shades of Gray
In direct opposition to what may have been the signal sent in last night's election, the handouts and taxpayer leveraging continues unabated:
Congress Poised to Keep Homebuyers’ Tax Credit
I will not cover again the expansion program, by now you all know the deal.

It is known this program is wasteful, full of fraud, and a direct handout to the realty/banking lobby. The government insists upon doing wrong things in the hopes of having some kind of a good effect. this is where I am going to get a little philosophical, so bear with me.

It is not acceptable to do "wrong" things to end up with a "right" result. Now I am well aware in this day and age there is no "Black and White" but only shades of gray for most denizens of the planet. I reject this.

All efforts to "save" housing may be in good faith, but you cannot target and punish the majority to prop up the few. The major argument is "if this is not done, many more will suffer even worse" but that argument is empty. Things happen. Home prices go up, and they go down. Sometimes life is, gasp, rough. Lowering rates across the spectrum, adding all kinds of incentives to buy houses, and bailing out banks that lent money foolishly outweighs the benefit of a slightly more valuable home on face, and it is wrong in principle.

I will use one example couple, John and Jane, and apply the current actions of the government and how it affects them.

John and Jane are a young professional couple, recently married (2004), and looking to buy a home in 2005. After seeing open houses that looked like Walmart the Friday after Thanksgiving the couple slow down and look at things. They notice that home prices are not even affordable for them even thought they both make great money. They notice the houses they are looking at were selling for less than half of the 2006 prices in 2002. To top it off, a known high school drop out (but casual friend) from Johns old school was bidding on a home they were, and he has no job. Clearly something is wrong.

The couple do some study, and decide a crash is in the works. They decide to save money and wait for the price rocket to come down.

And it begins.

By 2008 the couple are seeing what they have waited years for: dropping prices. While putting off a home purchase and the possibility of having kids to wait things out, they now are inspired that their efforts will be rewarded.

And then the government steps in.

The lowering of rates kills the savings return the couple was seeing, even severely dropping their CD rates as well. The FED goes to 0%, just like Japan:


Next up, mortgage re-works for fools that bought too much house, effectively giving those irresponsible buyers a new lease on life in their home until they default again.

Tax credits have given low end buyers (where John and Jane are looking to enter) who now have renewed vigor to use the free money no down payment FHA program to get into homes they will default on anyway.

I could go on, but where exactly is John and Jane's bailout? How are they served by all these actions? In what way have they been helped?

For being prudent they have been assailed at all sides.

As an extreme example, consider this:
You could solve unemployment in one month. Have all the unemployment receivers go to the main office to pick their check. Load them all into cargo ships and drop them off in Antarctica. Say "Have at it" and leave them there.

Presto! Unemployment just went to zero in a month!

So I ask, is doing "wrong" to get a "right" still ok?

If you answered "No", and unless you are a Keynesian to whom people are numbers and lines on a chart so you may not really care, why are other "wrongs" ok?

Is it scale? Are we arguing semantics? What is the difference?

When you lose sight of "right and wrong" then all bets are off. The greater good is nice in theory, but usually the greater good in today's mess are the banks and their entrenched hold on politics.

Have a good night.

Friday Weekly Close

Many thanks to reader Sedentary State who pointed me to the perfect item to clean up the acorn mess in the front yard. I will have to make sure I buy one, I hope a store around here has one. The benefit of reader comments never ends!

Random Musing Ripoff
Tonight I am a bit worn out from a busy work week. As such, instead of a unified essay I am going to blatantly rip off Todd Harrison of Minyanville and his format of "Randoms" which is a list of various ideas, questions, and observations Mr. Harrison has at any given time. You could say this is a window into my mind, so be advised it may be a strange trip!

-Plenty of gold bugs advise not putting gold in a safety deposit box in case the government chooses to take it in the future. I always wonder about placing gold holdings on a home owner insurance policy as this would provide a clear paper file on what you held anyway

-The "New Economy" does not need jobs for an economic recovery, its different this time

-Many smart people keep saying that multiples expand in an environment of low rates. Rates have been at all time lows for a long time, why are multiples expanding bigger than ever right at this moment? Were low rates not "priced in" already?

-I respect chart type market players, but I am getting sick of all these lines and counts that show a huge (30% or more) move down in the indices beginning any day now. Come on.

-Zero Hedge and Karl Denninger say the FED's 30 minute turnaround buy of agency paper is clearly evil. Accrued Interest says it is just coincidence. I hate it when smart people see the same thing so differently

-On that note, was consumer credit down in August? Ask Econompic and Credit Wrtedowns and the answer is clearly "not sure"

-What does it mean when we cannot even agree on data that is pure numbers?

-Peter Schiff says Gold is going to $5000 as the dollar falls apart. I say if gold is at $5000 in the next 2 years gold holders are not going to be as happy with the state of things as they may think

-Of course gold holders will be more happy than people with no gold

-Yes I am a gold and silver bull, but it is not all roses should it pan out

-I can guarantee the New Orleans Saints will not lose this weekend

-I wish I could guarantee victory next weekend!

-40% or respondents said they clicked zero banner ads, and 40% said they did 1-5 ads in the past year. I have clicked on about 1-5 as well, but if those numbers are true across the board then I wish they would just get rid of the things

-What the hell is "Evony" anyways?

-Why does beer from a bottle taste SO MUCH BETTER than beer in a can or aluminum bottle?

-Remember Coca Cola in bottles? It tasted better too

-I will go long glass I think

-Who knew Iridium held the key to the Dinosaur extinction?

-Is it unhealthy to read 2 books in 3 nights?

-Wikipedia should be a regulated substance and treated as highly dangerous

That should do it.

Friday Night Entertainment
My favorite part of the week, the kickoff to the weekend and a fun start on Friday night.

Comic Relief
Courtesy of the always hilarious Fail Blog:
Great suspect description:

see more Epic Fails

There is always one of these kinds of kids in school:

see more Epic Fails
Nice!

Film Clips
A sampling of film clips to perhaps motivate you to check one out.

One of my favorite films is "Glory" starring many top line names (Mathew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman). Enjoy this scene when the black soldiers refuse to take a lower pay than regular soldiers, and their commander follows them:

Give em Hell 54th!!

A new age classic, "No Country for Old Men" has many scenes that I think will live on well into the future. Enjoy a chilling scene with the always terrifying Anton Chigurgh (played by Javier Bardem):


Rock Blogging and a Personal Request
I am told that as we mature we move forward in our development. Something like that anyways. As I get older I find myself regressing! I was thinking about when Mtv used to have "Friday Night Video Fights" where two videos were set against each other and you could call in to vote (for only $1 a call!). At the end of the night the results were posted and the winning video shown. It was plenty of fun.

My request to the readers is to submit your favorite song/video over the next few days. Next Friday I will select 16 videos to duke it out over the next few weeks in head to head matchups. At the end, the best (as voted on by the readers) video will win the championship. If this is well received I will extend the tourney further. Anyone interested? Start leaving video nominations in the comments.

That said, let us begin the musical send off!

Leading off with a throw back, enjoy Thurston Harris and "Little Bitty Pretty One". Major bonus of a blog shout out to the reader than can identify the film that uses this song in a very scary scene. Only hint, I have featured the film many times here on the site:


By a personally relayed request (yes, there are about 5 people that know who Economic Disconnect is in real life!) is some Alice in Chains unplugged. I picked "Down in a Hole" because the song is so moving. The lyrics hurt. The sound is amazing. Add to this, soon after this performance the lead singer died from a drug overdose. Sadly his struggle was a clear losing endeavor for a long time:

That song hurts.

I had this one on about 6 months ago, but I have to admit, after finding it I have been playing it all the time! I absolutely love this live version of "Harden my Heart" by Quarterflash:


Of course, now I am on a "all live" kick!

Raise your lighters and grab a girl for Dokken and "Alone Again" live from Philadelphia (this video loads very slowly for some reason, but worth the wait):


Last call!

Am I alone in the fact that later I will sit down, load all the music, and listen to it for a while before bed? I am? Well, forget it then.

Closing the show. Will it be Ozzy (not again you say!), some stupid country song (come on, I like country), some wild movie tune (gee tough crowd!).

I end the night with a top 10 favorite song of this author. Please enjoy (I am sure you know the song) Simon and Garfunkel with "The Boxer":

Maybe one of the greatest somgs ever written and performed.

Have a good night.