What a Find!

As many of you know, I am a mega boxing fan. When I am not reading Wikipedia articles for hours, I tend to watch boxing matches on YouTube for hours. Almost any fight you can think of is stored there and it can be a real treat for an avid fight watcher. I actually used to have a huge VHS tape library of fights, then a DVD collection. Now I just watch them on YouTube. In case anyone is wondering I have no affiliation with YouTube, I just use the site!

So while I was watching a few fights this evening (Leonard vs Benitez, Pryor vs. Cervantes, McGuigan vs Pedrosa) I saw the following fight listed in the "related" side bar. What a find, and a real treat. From the late 1970's here is Thomas "The Motor City Cobra" Hearns vs Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor in an amateur title fight:

Pryor would win the decision, but the respect and class Hearns shows after the decision is yet another reason to love Hearns.

That was a great find!

Have a good night.

Time to Go Home, the Streetlights are On

Another week in the books! It was a busy week all around. The Kitchen will be done by Thursday of next week and that is going to be very good indeed. The New England Patriots played their first preseason game last night and while I refuse to get too excited already, they looked really sharp!

Meat and Potatoes
I think I covered all I wanted to this week on things economic. If you MUST have solid stuff, then check these items out:

-The FHA will now make million dollar apartments part of their operation. You read that right. Can anyone stop these guys? The answer is NO!

-When Stoneleigh of The Automatic Earth gets going, you don't want to miss it!

-Great overview of where things are over at the Cafe.

-A MUST read, here is all you need to know about making a proper Tin Foil Hat for personal protection. I will be like Calculated Risk and suggest strongly that you learn these important techniques.

Friday Night Entertainment
What time is it? It is time for the Friday Night Show!

Free Material
The first fun item of the night was written for me, I only had to copy a couple of links. Check out these headlines:
Hong Kong Has Run Out Of Space To Store Ashes Of The Deceased
and now
China Has Enough Empty Apartments To House 200 Million People
Give the apartments away and include a free urn. Problem solved. I should work in government.

Did Someone Say Iconic Movie Songs?
I was in my element when I stopped over at Kid Dynamite's corner and found this post:
Iconic Movie Songs
Now we are talking! There is plenty of great stuff in the post, and the comments section has plenty more. I may have left a comment or ten, sorry KD! For reference, the 4 I listed (the first post anyway) were:
1. Tubular Bells from The Exorcist
2. Lunatic Fringe from Vision Quest
3. Bad to the Bone from Christine
4. The Road of the Gypsy from Iron Eagle
Of course there are millions more! Of note as well, it is Mrs. Dynamite's birthday today. Well Happy Birthday to you!

Apple Lovers Beware
This may result in an avalanche of angry comments, but I just love this ad via Geekologie(click for larger view):

That had me cracking up big time.

Visual Cues
Because you know seeing it in pictures is better. It just is.

Cats do not like water at all!:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

EPIC FAIL!:

Ouchie.

Film Clips
You may have noticed that I have a slight problem with being addicted to films.

For the skateboarders out there, this Natas Kaupas vintage clip is for you!

Ok, I read the Cormac McCarthy novel "No Country for Old Men" on Tuesday and Wednesday night. The film is a direct copy with just a few differences. I loved it of course. McCarthy does not use dialogue punctuation, or any punctuation for that matter in his novels. It was a little strange to read. Anyways, obligatory scene from the film is up! Here is Chigurh and Wells having their final conversation. In the novel after Wells tells Chigurh that he can get him 14k at the ATM, he adds it is a good payday. Anton responds: "It is, but it is in the wrong currency" and that should have made it into the film. Oh well:

Chilling.

A touching moment from the funny film "One Crazy Summer":

Too funny.

Rock Blogging
It would seem Friday Night music is becoming popular and that is a great thing!

My friend from Michigan would like a Madonna tune. I actually do like Madonna quite a bit, and my favorite is "Live to Tell". I did just play that a little while ago. I dug up a cool live performance of "Dress You Up in My Love" that should work:

I like it.

Will it be an all ladies night? Lurker would like to see "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama:

This song is in the film "The Karate Kid" (the REAL one). Do you know which scene? You know I do!

BASS, How Low Can You Go? I need a heavy bass line and the radio provided me with The Greg Kihn Band and "The Breakup Song":

I like that one very much.

Blogger C-T must have a huge crush on the band Talking Heads, and they are pretty good. Here is "Road to Nowhere":

Interesting that this is one of my wife's favorite songs..........

Ok, who remembers this version of "Walk this Way"?:

Classic.

Only two left. We must always respect The Rule of Two:

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."

How about a little C.W. McCall with "Convoy":

Anyone see that film?

Last call! Now do not be upset, there is always next Friday and I usually throw out a post on the weekends as well. It will be ok I promise.

Closing the show with a real ripper, one to get you up and ready to rock the whole weekend. Take a ride with Judas Priest and "Breaking the Law" complete with vintage video:

Ha! You all thought an Ozzy/Randy tune was coming but I did not do it.

Ok, I lied! I am an unreliable narrator!


Have a good night.

Rise of the Machines

Stress can be a funny thing. Most of the time it just kind of sits there and you are aware of it, but as long as it keeps cool and does not get too rowdy you can accept that it is around with no problems. Other times you look up and notice there are way too many of them around and they are acting like it is last call! Today was sort of an accumulation of various strains and I am a little bit wiped out. Good thing it is Friday tomorrow! Get your requests in for the show tomorrow night. I know Lurker already has.

Tonight will be a more fun themed post though it is based on something I saw today.

Rise of the Machines
The last 6 months have been really rough at work. This has been true across my entire field (I know some readers really know what I mean!). Today I saw a presentation by a firm that builds robotic automation systems. I will not get any more specific about that and how it applies to what I do but I can say with 100% conviction these systems can (and will?) cut workforce by anywhere from 10%-30%. Usually cost is prohibitive in these kind of set ups. Not any more! It was a little unsettling.

A while back I had a poll up asking what would be the next bubble. I listed "Robots" as a pick and I was the only vote for that category. I am liking that pick more and more.

So how close are we to Skynet becoming self aware, or how close to becoming copper tops? Here are a few things to consider.

The human hand, long thought by all to be impossible to model by mechanistic means, may be closer than you think. The shadow knows!:

Made by the Shadow Robot Company in London. Plenty of links at the Wiki entry.

The TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot(TOPIO) maybe could beat Forrest Gump in Ping Pong!:

Ok, I am scared!

We all know the T-800:

But did you know about the YVH-1 robots that fought the Yuuzhan Vong in the expanded Star Wars Universe? Of course you didn't!:


We are jumping ahead! First, we must overcome the "Uncanny Valley" which is:

Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong revulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

So you have to start small.

Who has one of these?:

A good foot in the door, yes?

And now, even soldier robots are made to look like dogs:

The Boston Dynamics BIGDOG robot. That would scare me big time!

It is not all bad, maybe nano-robots could scavenge your blood lines and cells for clots or cancer. That would be good, right? Unless they are controlled by the government.....wait I wanted to stay off that line!

I often am reminded of the line spoken in the film "Jurassic Park" by Dr. Ian Malcolm:

Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Indeed.

During the Great Depression, many just could see the next paycheck, or their next meal if one was coming. Still that era was filled with dynamic progress and ours, I would hope, will be the same. I just cannot get over the draw to fighting the tide, the rocks always lose, how do you think beaches are covered in sand?

Have a good night.

The Bigger Picture

I had a cool treat this morning as I brought up The Reformed Broker site and yours truly made the Hotlinks list for the day!

In kitchen news, the counter tops should be installed Monday and my contractor is firm that by Thursday all will be complete! I have lost about 6 pounds over the past weeks due to not eating dinner much. I hate microwave food and getting a cook set up is really a hassle. When all is normal I think it will be a Big Steel Keg marathon.

A couple of financial thoughts tonight.

Rough Day for Markets
I am used to the futures being down big, it actually happens plenty. What the norm is a big gap down on heavy volume followed by a merciless melt up on about 5 shares traded to close the day either even or a little positive. Today was ugly going in and a late day high volume selloff closed the show (yes Mr Pisani, plenty of volume!). Ugly all around.

Culprits? Always a few:
-Markets throwing a hissy fit at Bernanke's "pittance" of help announced yesterday
-A memo somehow made the rounds that the on track recovery was perhaps more of a pipe dream and smoke and mirrors that anything substantial
-In a game ,understood by many that play, is built on confidence the rush to the door is always going to get a little crowded

In the end I of course have no idea exactly why the big drop today. I think a combination of the first and third reasons are most applicable. It is likely the markets want more action out of the FED, but what if the FED wants more action from Washington (as I wrote a few posts ago)? If a hack like me can see low volume ramp ups and headline euphoria trading then you can be sure the big boys (ha ha, I am inserting SMART MONEY tag here!) know sentiment can change in a hurry. Either way, this could be the start of a moderate sell off in an effort to pressure policy makers to do more "stuff" whatever shape that takes. I would not get too worried until S&P 1040 if you are playing in this sandbox, but that is quite a drop from here.

Can You make Do with Less?
Everything I see and everything I think can be summed up in the following question, the answer to which will dictate your wants for things going forward:

Can you make do with less?

Poor investment has created a supersized financial sector of the US economy that generally benefits very few. Poor investment turned homes, once a long term saving plan for those unable to save otherwise, into scratch tickets and ATMS. The acceptance of absolute maximum consumption has resulted in a service sector filled with lower paying jobs geared mainly at food and entertainment. Government salaries and pensions are massive pits for future capital that will have to be filled or renegotiated on. These are all structural issues that cannot be resolved quickly or easily.

The policy thus far has been to prop things up and hope all returns to "normal" but this expected recovery is running slow and running late (hat tip to "Ending" by Gavin Ewart). Wow, here at Economic Disconnect you even get poetry!

One of the reasons I have had the long term belief that we will see some kind of insane actions out of someone (D.C, FED, Treasury; take your pick) is the recognition of this fact. The bond market has been happy to go along with things so far, and I have my questions (and ideas) as to why this is so. This adds to the probability that something dangerous will be attempted as it has worked so far.

This post got a little big on the macro type view, but that is what I am putting together right now. The key idea to take home is time is an important factor here. The acknowledgement by the FED that things have slowed down after a year of saying how good things were is a punch in the face to the millions that never saw any recovery at all. Summer is almost over.

Have a good night.

FED Reaction from Around the Web

Another day, another dollar or so they say.

FED Reaction from Around the Web
I ran across many excellent one liners or short snippets that were insightful and/or funny regarding the FED decision to buy more treasuries with money they make on MBS assets they bought with treasuries. I know that sounds weird, but this is what passes for monetary policy.

My own take on the FED move today is that they are now deeply enmeshed with Wall Street. As I wrote last night, unable to influence the real economy the FED will now make sure Wall Street is getting all they need to keep the indices up. Absent that outlier (a higher stock market) there has been no real improvement in the economy in a long time. Everyone on the street knows it, and I think the FED does as well. There does seem to be a little gamesmanship going on here though; the FED does not want to keep doing these things and would prefer CONgress do something while the CONgress is scared to death of the November elections and would prefer the FED to do all the work! Classic indeed.

On to the rip offs!

The Housing Time Bomb noted a crazy day for the 30 year bond and closed with:

Expect some serious unintended consequences from today's policy shift. We already saw one today with the move in the 30 year.
Folks, you need to seriously ask yourself why the Fed decided to pile into treasuries when rates are at all time lows. I mean what is the point? It's not as if this is going to push rates much lower.

Short term treasuries are about as crowded a trade right now that I have ever seen.

Keeping things short and sweet, The Reformed Broker offers:

So the Fed Groundhog came out of his hole at 2:15 pm today, sniffed the air, took a glance at the data and decided that there will be 6 more months of kitchen-sink policy. He certainly signaled a continuation of economic winter.

You knew Paul Krugman was going to be unhappy unless a 5 trillion dollar program was announced, and he does not disappoint:

Roughly speaking, it has gone from a completely crazy policy of monetary tightening in the face of massive unemployment and incipient deflation, to a policy of standing pat in the face of same. Whoopee.

Does that make this a whoopee cushion move Paul?

The Golden Truth wonders:

The FOMC announced today that the Fed will be buying more Treasury debt to help support the economy. Can someone please explain to me how enabling the Government to borrow even more more money actually supports the economy?

Sorry, I cannot help with the answer!

This Yahoo Finance piece was full of fun lines:

"I don't think they are going to raise interest rates until it is very clear that unemployment is moving definitively lower and that doesn't look likely until late 2011," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

But was it not Zandi that wrote the paper "How the FED/Treasury Saved the World"? I am thinking of a term for this guy that I have not heard in a long time...give me a minute...it is.....POSER!

"The Fed talked loudly but carried a small stick," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

Another one ultra long SPY going into the meeting. Poor guy.

"The news is positive but not meaningful," said John Merrill, chief investment officer of Tanglewood Wealth Management in Houston. "The money is a pittance."

You are welcome!

The NY Times header reads:
Fed to Buy U.S. Debt, Saying Recovery Has Slowed
This time it's different!

While not related to today's action, Kid Dynamite notes a Ben Bernnake quote from earlier:

"Unlike the federal government, every state except Vermont is required to balance its budget, forcing spending cuts, tax increases or both -- actions Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week are contributing to the nation’s sluggish recovery."
Translation: Our inability to spend beyond our means is hurting our "recovery."

All you need to know in one sentence.

Have a good night.

Will Lower Long Term Rates do Anything for Anyone?

Another Monday in the books. Hard to believe that August is already a week old. The summer is getting away! Today is the funky sequential 08-09-10 date as well for whatever that is worth.

Will Lower Long Term Rates do Anything for Anyone?
I have not pulled up a Yahoo Finance article in a while, so I am going to take a look at one tonight.

As recovery loses speed, Fed mulls ways to help
Right off the bat I have to ask, didn't the Treasury Secretary just pen an article welcoming us to the recovery? Things move fast I guess as the recovery is NOW losing speed. Amazing.

Every one's attention is turned to the FED meeting tomorrow. Wall Street and the banks are licking their chops at an extension of easy money and maybe even more help making record profits.

From the article:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve policymakers are in a bind: they want to say and do things that will energize the economy, but in doing so they risk making things worse by sending signals that the recovery is in really bad shape.

I always love this logic; if the FED says "boo" everyone will panic, but if the FED says nothing everyone will panic. I wonder if business at this point is taking their cues from the FED as to how the economy is doing. More:

Economists say Fed officials have a handful of options at their disposal, but would likely consider two options for perking up the economy:

-- Clarify that the Fed will keep short-term interest rates at record lows for as long as it takes to encourage more use of credit.
-- Use the proceeds from the Fed's investments in mortgage securities to buy government debt on a small scale. That could help drive down long-term interest rates.
Both steps would signal to markets that money could be borrowed cheaply for a longer period of time, giving businesses and individuals more confidence to finance major purchases. Still, economists doubt how much practical impact they would have. Interest rates are already at historic lows and that hasn't generated more buying activity.

A bolder step would be to restart programs undertaken during the financial crisis that involved large-scale purchasing of mortgage-backed securities and government debt.

The aggressive action has the potential to spur growth by driving down interest rates even more, but it comes with considerable risk. It could rattle investors about the health of the economy and lead to a sell-off on Wall Street. Panicked financial markets could prompt businesses and consumers to retreat further. That could push the country back into recession.

This is a jumbled mess. The key point is that low rates have accomplished nothing tangible in the real economy and even lower rates will not do anything either. Why bother then? You would have to ask the FED. Going on:

"Such a move is unconventional, and no one knows if it will work," said Chris Rupkey, economist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. If Fed policymakers' take such action, "they risk their credibility," he said.

Um, this guy works for a big Japan bank and he is not sure IF QE will work? Here's a hint buddy, look around Japan and get back to me. Final snippet:

That means rates on certain credit cards, home equity loans, some adjustable rate mortgages and other consumer loans will stay low. Commercial banks' prime lending rate would stay at about 3.25 percent, the lowest point in decades.

The Fed also could bolster its policy statement, echoing Bernanke's promise to lawmakers last month that the Fed is "prepared to take further policy actions as needed," said Michael Feroli, economist at JPMorgan Chase Bank.

We have had almost 2 years of free money and no one is running over their mother to grab any of it. The law of diminishing returns comes into play here. If you could borrow at 5% instead of 10% that is something. Borrowing at 3.2% instead of 3.5% is really not going to get anybody too excited. How's that ultra low rates being a structural part of the US economy working for you? I told you this would happen.

When I go fishing at the Quabbin Reservoir there is a point in the day when I cross over to the other side of the lake. To do that I pass between two large islands (Mount Zion and Mount L). This section of the reservoir is the deepest part that I go through. The depth finder will read up to 140 feet deep at this point. Now there is no real difference between driving a boat over 20 feet of water or 140, but I have to tell you I always feel a bit scared knowing I am passing over water that deep in a little aluminum boat! Is there a point to this story? I think so.

For all the cracking I do on the FED, they are not dumb people. They know full well that these little games with rates are not going to do jack crap. The only benefit to such a thing is more liquidity for banks to continue to hunker down with and trade crap back and forth to each other. The FED has chosen to have a stock market assets "recovery" rather than no recovery at all. This of course will further make the financial sector the biggest engine of the US economy, which stinks because it benefits very few. Instead of reigning in the banking sector which blew itself and the country up, the policy has been to make sure they get even bigger. Puzzling I know.

My above boat analogy fits here because the FED is going over deep water right now and they are doing it by their own accord. They got in bed with the banks and now will have to answer Wall Street calls for more easing, programs, bailouts, etc. If they do not, the only recovery anyone can point to will be gone in about 1 weeks trading time (well maybe 2, due to the new limit down rules). It must be an uneasy feeling.

Have a good night.

Foodless Sunday

I did have a pretty cool cook planned for today but.......

The mom in law HAD to have Legal Seafood and wanted to go out. Of course the wife and I just had steamer clams and lobster rolls yesterday up at the beach! You gotta do what you have to sometimes. I think I will do the cook next week instead, and it is going to be funny, I guarantee it.

Clip Collage
To make up for the lack of food pictures, here are a few clips from various films or just funny things.

"Network" Rant
Awesome rant, and fits today's mess as well:


"People Always Say the Same Thing"
Anton Chigurh meets Carla Jean at the end of "No Country for Old Men":

That guy is scary!

Guy hit in head with .50 caliber ricochet
I have no idea if this is real, but it looks real:

OUCH!

"My Father Didn't Think So!"
George Bailey's classic speech from "It's a Wonderful Life":

One of my favorites.

Must See
If you have not seen the film "Breaking Away" (1979) then you are really missing a fine film. Go get it someplace and watch it, you will not be disappointed. Here is the old trailer which does not do the film justice, and the sound is miss matched as well:

Wonderful film.

Tannhauser Gate
One more, the "Blade Runner" finale:


Have a good night.