Cozy weekend reading.

Seeking Alpha: Corporate Bond Market Grinding to a Halt

“The market in my opinion is on the verge of ceasing to function… it is nearing the time when my next post will be an obituary for the fixed income market.”

Don’t miss this trader’s comment: Read the rest of this entry »

I am generally not one to delight in the misfortunes of others.  But schadenfreude has never been more at home in my heart than in the story of Denver’s own Gabriel Schwartz.  The obnoxious, self-impressed, clueless lawyer did an interview on the floor of the Republican National Convention… I don’t want to just  dislike him for his worldview (although I do) – which mostly revolves around bombing and plundering Iran.  I also dislike him because he’s such an assface.  Think I’m being harsh?  Watch the interview and tell me you don’t want to beat him with a stick:

I’m not the only one who has issues with this guy.  The day after he gave that interview, he met a woman in the bar of his Minneapolis hotel and invited her to his room.  Once they got upstairs, the woman asked him to get undressed while she prepared him a drink.  That drink made Gabriel a very sleepy boy.  (Is there a bomb joke here?)

When Gabriel “Iran, baby” Schwartz woke up, the woman was gone, as was more than $120,000 in money, jewelry and other Schwartzy bling.  After that righteous plundering, Gabriel said;

“as a single man, I was flattered by the attention of a beautiful woman who introduced herself to me. I used poor judgment.”

Poor judgment?  By the same Gabriel Schwartz I see in that interview?  No!

I can only assume she saw the interview, or had an equally maddening conversation with him in the bar that night.  Here’s what I wanna know: did she “plant a flag”?

Valleywag picked up a FriendFeed discussion between a few of us yesterday regarding the bailout bill within which Scoble blames “people like [me]” for the coming “breadlines”.  It rings a little hollow considering where I’ve been on all this and where he’s been (i.e. nowhere), but it brings a much more important issue to the fore.

To the thread in particular, I realize how acerbic my tone can be when discussing such things and try to be cognizant of that every time I write.  Sometimes my frustration – the result of a bit too much anguish about our national slumber – gets the best of me.  But Americans sat mostly silent as international and domestic crimes were perpetrated in their names and their economy was wrecked – choosing to glide along as if they had far more important things to think about.

Robert is right to describe the financial mess as the result of our collective idiocy.  The bill for one or two generations of stupidity has now come due and our remaining credit cards have been declined.  And for the moment, the social media characters participating in the specific tendril of web masturbation that is Robert’s “what to do” post have come up substantially empty.  So, I’ll see what I can come up with.

Read the rest of this entry »

Never been a huge fan of the man from Alabama.  But he had some great words of wisdom at today’s Bailout of the Century hearing:

“I understand the situation is dire.  But so is the condition of the taxpayer… yes, the market is overwhelmed by greed, a lack of oversight… and the bottom line, as I see it, is that you’re [sticking] the taxpayer with it.  I think that’s shameful myself.  I know there are better ways – would it be without pain?  Oh no… but the best – and Chairman Bernanke, I’ve heard you say this – the best disciplinary mechanism we have is the marketplace.  The marketplace will discipline all of us with pain.  But we learn.  I’m not sure people will learn if this goes through.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Congress Told To Act Fast On Bailout Plan

Then allow Princeton economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman [on Bill Maher's show last night] to bring home the gravity of our current predicament.  “We hit the wall but good this time … there are no atheists in foxholes.”

I just found out that genius writer and thinker David Foster Wallace hanged himself earlier this week.  He was a real inspiration to me and I am very sad to see him go, especially at such a young age.  He is survived by his wife.  In memoriam, here is a wonderful commencement speech he gave a couple years ago.  David, your influence and your way of seeing the world will be missed.

For anyone who’s been following this space over the last couple of years, the panic now engulfing world financial markets comes as no surprise.

We are now witnessing the opening innings of an economic disaster unparalleled in human history in its size and scope; it extends into every corner of American life.  We will simply not be able to carry on as we have.  Already – this early in the game – we taxpayers are being forced to bail out insurance companies and reckless mortgage pimps.  It’s criminal and it represents a massive socialization of risk unheard of in American history.  As the saying goes, if you are not outraged, you are not paying attention.

Top lawmakers were “petrified” by the briefing they got Tuesday night by Fed chair Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson, and what disgusts me is the underlying implication that any responsible leader could rightfully and credibly claim this comes as some kind of big surprise.  I’m not going to play politics in this post; let’s just say there’s plenty of blame to go around (including the public.)

You’ve heard the bullshit that AIG, Fannie, and Freddie were “too big to fail.”  And you’ll keep hearing that for a while, because there are more bailouts to come, and more itty-bitty-fingers in the big-groaning-dam.  But, the total assets of the FDIC and the FRB couldn’t even spit-polish the shoes of the derivative tsunami now breaking over the US economy, so here’s the question we ought to be asking: is the US Dollar “too big to fail”?

Today on MSNBC, Carly Fiorina said that this weekend’s Saturday Night Live skit that portrayed Hillary Clinton as substantial and Sarah Palin as a moron was a “sexist” skit.  How in the hell is that sexism?  Ms. Fiorina – what credibility you had with me is out the window.  What this really does is illustrate the McCain campaign’s clumsy strategy of dismissing any criticism of Palin as “sexist”.

So, let’s talk about true sexism.

What is truly sexist is gender tokenism – you know, picking a female for your running mate whom, had she been male, would never even have been considered -  not even as a joke.  Now that‘s sexism.

You know what else is sexist, Ms. Fiorina?  Decrying anything that points out Palin’s weaknesses as “sexist” merely because it attacks a female.  Do women need special protection from criticism?  A sort of affirmative action for chicks?  A criticism-free zone for all those who have a vagina?  I mean, if you want to move our society away from real sexism, then let’s agree that men and women must stand on their merits and may be critiqued on their merits.  If you are an intellectual and geopolitical midget – as Governor Palin is – then it doesn’t matter if you are Samuel Palin or Sarah Palin.  The fact remains.

Read the rest of this entry »