Before we get deeply into the morning’s financial headlines, I’d like to note that this is when some years back that Christopher Columbus’ posse began the large scale looting of the Americas by landing on Samana Cay some 60-miles southeast of San Salvador. Since that time:
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Spain ripped off most of the treasure of South & Central America, forced people to learn Spanish, and don’t they continue their exploits by operating toll roads in Texas?
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England sent their religious castaways here, but kept them on a golden royal leash through interlocking directorships and secret agreements with only the highest of Norte banksters. England is still getting even, promoting Tony Blair’s career, for example.
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The new arrivals in N.A. successful installed a consumerist economy by locking Native Americans away on reservations; but only the ones the newcomers didn’t kill with small pox. We’re trying to do better lately with swine flu vaccine…or are we?
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The newcomers then fought a war over the right relationship between Big Central Government and States’ Rights, but repackaged the whole affair as a slavery-only showdown, in order to hide the early march to Marxism which had just recently been invented at the time. Small Government lost, in case you missed it.
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America turned around and saved Europe from the Kaiser’s conquistadoring attempts.
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Ditto, WW II when the mustachioed guy tried that.
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The Korean War was fought to a standstill – which drags out even today since politicians got involved instead of military men. Should’ve flattened the place when we had a chance, and yeah Schwarzkopf was right about all the way to Baghdad, too.
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Vietnam was, as I see it, a losing proposition since the politicians drove that one, too. Still, like we’re rediscovering in Afghanistan, there is this thing called ‘home field advantage’ whether you’re talking sports or defending a country. Don’t mention the Peace prize there.
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Tired of continental pillage, we’ve now exported huge segments of industry so America’s left with a ninny-class of accountants who thing they can manage, managers who think they can lawyer, and lawyers who think they can count. Seals the case against fluoride, doesn’t it?
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More recently, having tired of our borders, especially the Mexican one, we now station our military in something like 143 different countries around the world. We’re engaged in two largish wars and who knows how many conflicts (called peace-keeping operations but the bullets hurt either way) right now and despite this our president just got a Nobel Peace Prize.
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To remind ourselves of this fine heritage, parking is free in some cities today. There will be no mail delivery, however the stock market is open.
All of which eventually circles around to my first point of the day: Rain, sleek, snow, and hail may not stop the USPS, but politically holidays like this one does. On the other hand, the market’s are open and that’s a sure sign of the nation’s fiscal condition: Booking revenue is more important than getting the billing delivered. Dumb…really dumb.
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Most of us with Scandinavian backgrounds have given up trying to sell Leif Ericson who we all know got here first. I notice that the Chinese are also pretty damn quiet about Admiral Zheng who it’s well-documented circumnavigated the whole world almost a hundred years before the first pizza delivery man showed up.
Not really sure why the Chinese would slow pitch Admiral Zheng He’s discovery of the Land of Taxes and Bureaucrats. Maybe it’s because Admiral Zheng was born a Muslim. Or, maybe its because they really get a piece of municipal revenues, so why give the walkie-chalkies a day off?
A couple of glasses of Paisano and shrimp pizza…that sounds like a breakfast befitting this fine occasion, doesn’t it?
Chillin’
The BBC has been asking an embarrassing question here lately: “What happened to global warming?“ Something the folks in Montana are getting all too familiar with as cold records are falling. And in Idaho, it’s cold enough, earlier enough, to put some French fry sources at risk.
Not that headlines will straighten anything out: The Wisconsin State Journal headlines that “Gore upbeat on climate bill“. On the other hand, “VIDEO: Al Gore Gets Question About Errors In His Global Warming Movie, Has Questioner s Mic Cut Off” makes it sound a little different.
A quick check of the latest NASA butterfly chart of how things are going on the sun (northern and southern hemisphere, right?) looks like the sun won’t be warming up much until well into next year and say, don’t you suppose this has something to do with how cold it gets here on Rock 3?
Meantime, winter was expected to come earlier than ever to Chicagoland.
59.2 here at the ranch in East Texas this morning with 65 today, 74 tomorrow and 88 Wednesday with rainfall about 2½ inches ahead of last year.
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Word that George Soros may put a billion into greenish things hasn’t helped the Chicago Climate Exchange much…maybe they need some BIG sunspots to bump up that index?
Banker or Gambler?
Good coverage by the NY Post on James Gorman taking over the reins at Morgan Stanley – seems like they might dial back their risk-taking a bit.
Fated Buck
Gee, right after I do a whole Peoplenomics issue “The Day the Dollar Died” what do I see first up this morning? “Dollar facing ‘power shift’: analysts“.
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No “Shift”? Is that you call it when a country’s de facto global reserve currency is unseated and moved to the back of the bus? Well, if you say so…my golly.
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Did you catch the New Yorker piece on my favorite (although currently locked-up) economist Martin Armstrong? Armstrong’s “Great Bull Market in History” is the best 570 pages of economics I’ve read. A click over to the Armstrong support group yields two great reads: “A three year old with a pocket calculator can figure out we are screwed” is very good (ends in hyperinflation, but why do you think I own a gold coin and a bit of silver? Even more interesting: “Conspiracy Theories cloaking reality?“
Anyway, point is, time to kill the fatted buck may be upon us.
More Nobel Efforts
Word that Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel in economics for demonstrating “how common property can be successfully managed by user associations” struck me as a bit obvious, since husbands know the wife and kids constitute a user association in most households.
Sharing the prize was Oliver Williamson for his work in helping companies figure out when it’s better to purchase goods from outside the company rather than make them internally. I always thought the answer was “When it’s cheaper…” but what would you expect from a dime-store MBA?
But I suppose my simplistic view of economics which holds to the obvious like “Consumer-debt-driven economies can’t be growing when debt is going down…” will have to wait for next year’s Awards. Damn.
But hold on a minute: Would I want to be in the company of Kissinger and…oh I feel better, already. “mazing.
One Bettering Brown
I often chide the UK’s Gordo Brown fsor selling off his country’s gold at bargain basement prices. But no, doesn’t stop there. Now the UK is holding a fire sale on other assets, too, like the under Channel rail link. Wonder if any Spanish-based Texas toll road operators will be bidding, hmmm?
The Weak Ahead
Not looking too bad early on. Futures are up on earnings may not be dead rumors. Market seems bound for new (bounce) highs and 10,300 to 10,400 – the 50% retracement level – is the talk of the street. I’m a little more skeptical of 10,000, since somewhere along in here all the insiders will pull out leaving only retail investors to take the next haircut. Or, should I write “save” in this context?
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Wednesday brings Number Madness: import/export prices, retail sales (or lack thereof), inventories days and Fed notes. But the one I’m watching for is CPI because between the CPI figures and the Consumer Debt report from he Fed (G.19) I can sort of make out the path ahead. I try to make only one or two investment decisions a year and catching the long trends is easier than day trading and leaves me time for other activities. Like earning a living.
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While the happy talk abounds about how earnings are coming back (miraculously, without an increase in Consumer Debt, but I digress) we read how “Iceland Shrinks 8% as prices increase 11% in Deepest Recession.” Check with Al Gore…maybe that shrinking is due to global warming, or something…not bankster exploitation.
Argentina Media Watch
Why would I pay attention to how Argentina is about to bust up the main media group in that country which has had an (ahem…) clear channel to the population? If you haven’t figured it ouit by now, you should NOT consider being an M&A artist as a career.
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Probably a good thing, since it won’t matter in a year or three anyway…
Couldn’t Have Said It Better Department
“Francis Ford Coppola Sees Cinema World Falling Apart: Interview”. There, there. It’s not just the cinema world Mr. Coppola…it’s the whole bloody everything world.
Shortage Watch
Pumpkins? Well, burn somebody at the…no…wait! Belay that.
I forgot: October is National Fire Prevention Month. Witch leads us to…