At least . . .

What to do, what to do?? The Goldilocks economy is about to be gobbled up by the three bears–housing, earnings, financials.

But, but, isn’t this the best of times??

Perhaps the only bright bit of news we can point to is that the Northwest Passage was finally dicovered.

Nothing To Do But Feed All The Kangaroos…..

“AT LEAST THE ECONOMY IS STRONG”

So he’s got that goin’ for him; which is nice.

G.W. Bush, 10/11/07:

“There’s a variety of reasons why people are uncertain,” Bush said in a taped interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartimoro. “But when they take a hard look at the statistics–and the reality–I hope it brings them some comfort to know this economy is strong and is setting all kinds of records.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/21254673

G.W. Bush, 10/17/07:

Q: The Commerce Department reported today that the housing starts last month fell to the lowest level since 1993.

How concerned are you that this housing recession will spill over into the broader economy? And what more can be done to prevent that from happening?

BUSH: I’m encouraged by the rate of inflation, the job growth. We’ve had 49 consecutive months of uninterrupted job growth, which is a record here in America.

I’m pleased with the fact that our deficit is shrinking. But like our secretary of the treasury, I recognize there’s a softness in the housing market.

By the way, we had growth in the GDP because of exports. In other words, there’s positive elements of our economy, but, no question, the housing is soft.

–snip–

I’m not a forecaster. But I can tell people that I feel good about many of the economic indicators here in the United States.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iBAo1yCOOLr02NJfYtgrYmyZQKxAD8SB5LLO1

‘Area Man’s Pop-Culture References Stop in 1988’
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28796

Mongo, I don’t know whether you’ve got brass balls the size of grapefruit or are totally lacking frontal lobes, but that’s funny.

Umm– I haven’t seen Caddyshack. Can someone help me out.

BTW: the economy’s doing GREAT. Bush oughta know– all his golf buddies say so.

I’m quite amused by today.

Lions don’t get the natives when they’ve already gotten up, gotten their torches and are beating the bushes for the mankiller.

The lions get their natives when the natives are asleep… contented and peaceful. Go back to sleep, sweet natives… nothing here that’s going to wake you up this weekend. Nobody in the Walking Around Economy (WAE) knows Julian or cares what he thinks.

My guess?…

By Wednesday (if not by Sunday night even), the entire flavor of today will all be a distant memory… all headed in a new direction… all tuned in to the G.S.N.T. show… all back to peaceful contented bliss.

Nite Nite Barringo.

You can put Julian, Benazir Bhutto and The Philippines (both significant terrorist threats still), oil, option expiration, bad Cat, the ass-deep coverage of Mr. 10/19/87 (it’s the most you’ve posted on one topic since the last Apple wetdream – in fact, by now you’re probably homesick for one), and everybody from Hank Paulson to Popeye the Sailor Man talkin’ trash on the economy… and put all of that in a sack with some bricks and toss it in the creek.

It’ll all be like just so much Chicken Talk, prolly by Monday.

BTW, Barringo…. know why the Chicken crossed the street quickly?

…to keep from gettin’ his ass run over by the Treasury stampede.

When I googled the Dali Lama / Caddyshack joke bit, the first hit I found was a complaint by a Minnesota resident…apparently, Jesse Ventura also met the Dali Lama, and HE ASKED THE SAME QUESTION! That is too funny :)

ps. I like Jesse, and I like Manny.

interesting that in his interview w Maria the President left World War III off the list of all the great things Amurricans can look forward to…

Barry, why the caveat about hostile reactions? Is there a thinking person left in America that supports this buffoon or his policies?

Here is the classic Caddyshack bit:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RnHaTlI1p7o

No wonder Google is at $700

Was happy houring with my buds, good guys, but I can’t convince them to go all low cost ETF, their brokers calling them… “it’s time to get in” “buy the dips” “it always works” I said… wait a minute.. just a minute…

Reply, “Hey thanks for just saving me a thousand bucks, let me buy you a beer.”

So I’ve figured out how I’m going to survive it.

Get your own strategy.

We want rock blogging and we want it now! I have “Atomic Punk” for my friday rock blog, what’s Barry gonna do?

ADDENDUM:

I just watched Kudlovia, and it’s like I said. Sweet dreams, dear natives, sweet dreams.

Today was just a bad dream… “maybe a bit of undigested beef:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y48PQGbdY60&mode=related&search=

Mr. 169 Bernenke,

I don’t think you know the difference between shit and shinola:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4FFyPQzI_M

Here’s the shinola:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5ETNX&t=1d

There’s a Tab and and Twinkie I’ve left for you above that red line.

Take a lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZg2jtg8Yw&mode=related&search=

They were batting around issues surrounding the falling value of the dollar and interest rate cuts at the next FOMC meeting on Kudlow tonight. Mr. “Free Market” was suggesting that some amount of U.S. Treasury Intervention/collaboration with other countries might be need to support the dollar (citing to Robert Reuben’s timed interventions–although infrequent– into the currency markets to support a falling dollar during the Clinton Administration). And that as the World’s most important reserve currency, it’s in no one’s interest for the dollar to trade much lower.
It looks like the Bond Market and the Fed Fund Futures are pricing in more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. It looks to me like the recent sell-off in the dollar has accounted for some of such move by the FED but it’s hard to say to what degree.
So we have a .25-.50 bp Discount Rate and/or Federal Funds rate cut at the next FOMC meeting (11 days away) and then we can expect what– some amount of Upward correction in the value of the Dollar due to Central Governmental Intervention in the Currency Markets (or JawBoning therefrom to that effect). Price of Oil corrects — due also in part to warmer weather forecasts on the East Coast. Gas price at the pump comes down (it hasn’t risen much at all considering the upward move in the price of Oil). And the Stock Market is once again (temporarily) saved, falling value of the dollar “crises” averted (but that was suppose to be a good thing for the Multi-Nationals/Trade Deficit/U.S. Exports right??), Global credit market turmoil behind us (yet again) and the impact on the U.S. consumer from the Housing Crises/High Energy Prices is softened.
I don’t see how Bush’s economic team, politcially speaking, can afford to let the Stock Market fall substantially (a Nice 25-30% correction) in lieu of the deteriorating Housing/Credit Markets, if Paulson’s and Bernanke’s most recent statements on the matters are to be believed. My (Layman’s) take on the Market is once we get through this 5-10% correction, which many seem to have been expecting, we get another big move up… and the day of reckoning by Mr. Market is postponed for a while longer yet.
But I think this is starting to get more difficult even if it’s a Global Central Bank Concerted Effort to put a bid under the Markets… Dow Theory Non-Confirms all over the place. Nikkei still down from previous High, Transports still down, SemiConductors which (some years ago) use to lead the Nasdaq, looking like their going to pullback due to a Head and SHoulders formation, A/D ratios, Volumes on recent Stock Market Advance down etc….
Given their positions on Taxes it will be interesting to see how close of a presidential race the Democratic Candidate can make it. Maybe a close race could give us a Nice Stock Market Correction…

MarkTx, your kangaroo reference made me fall off my chair laughing. thank you!

Brian,

Nuthin’ funny about six and a half years of negative job growth:

CHART
.

Brian,

You’re projecting.

It’s lame.
.

I have a philosophical observation, a paradox that might make sense for you. It goes like this:

What would happen if an unstoppable force met an impenetrable barrier?

Now, before you just jump at an answer, spend some time trying to envelop yourself in the logic of each side’s argument.

What would happen?

…The answer is that willfulness will win, because, in the end, it can’t be beaten no matter what. Willfulness has no logic, no reason, no forgiveness and no tolerance for even a slight tendency it might find in itself to be influenced to have the opposite view.

Willfulness is visceral, not intellectual… it’s religion, not philosophy. Willfulness doesn’t take prisoners. It’s its own soothing balm.

Man became the most successful animal on the planet by exercising his intellect to become an independent thinker and innovative, but deep in his primitive evolutionary history there remains the tendency for herding, because at one time it was necessary for staying alive. The wildebeest doesn’t intellectualize with the croc. It’s a waste of time and effort:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURwBbwUymE

It’s the reason that markets have booms and busts… it’s the reason some people can ride stocks into the ground, and it’s also the reason that political parties exist…

and why we have and will always have wars.

Nope, didnt see it.

We had a storm last night, and my whole neighborhood lost electricity.

Not only did I not watch K&C, but I was going to post Steely Dan’s Black Friday as a Friday night Jazz Video — no luck.

Still no juice, this is coming to you via Starbucks

I’m never without Eclectricity.
—
Greg… tiny school with no band, no football team… 12 grades under one continuous oofray, about 28 students in the senior class, although I moved my senior year (260).

Basketball, baseball, track and field… although I never used a jock strap. My boys have to be free and they’re not big enough anyway.

I persist in clinging to the notion that I might’ve only been slightly below average.

May I inquire the basis for your question?

I did try to get on the debate team, but the surrounding schools filed a protest against me for unfair competition…

and all my prior teachers said I’d used up my eligibility anyway.

Excellent sentiment, Greg!

The true original objective of religion and politics was to manage that element of human interaction that you express relative disdain for… religion for managing the internal man, for his soul… and politics for his external dealings with others.

My perception is that, lately, the direction of that objective has been misdirected in these two elements.

Religion is often promoted externally and forcefully on others, and politics rules the soul.

Winston,

Too strong for me on the class business, but it’s a reasonable argument anyway.

You got it… W (V) W = War, or at least perpetual conflict, since neither side will yield.

Unfortunately, they won’t even yield if presented with a logical proof that they are wrong. That’s the strength of willfulness. It ignores logic… even ignores it when the ignoring is to its detriment.

Winston… to my mind because of the growing universality of rapid efficient communication. It facilitates herding and the subsequent cultural, religious and political polarization that results from it.

You’d think just the opposite, but it turns out that the polarization creates the virtual equivalent of real geographic boundaries.

But… please don’t give me too much credit. I’ve formulated the application of the concept of willfulness as being a type of optimism or pessimism without a valence operator (a plus or minus converter, since optimism and pessimism ought, by logic, to be perfect mirror opposites), but the origins of human psychological herding were basically explained by Freud, although I don’t know that he ever used the word, “herding.”

Freud long ago traced the psycho-evolutionary basis of human conflict. I wasn’t aware of that until I read Walter Isaacson’s book “Einstein: His Life and Universe” found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Life-Universe-Walter-Isaacson/dp/0743264738

In letters exchanged with Einstein, Freud didn’t hesitate in informing Einstein (himself an unusually optimistic problem solver) that human conflict was a permanent and insoluble condition. Here he summarized the ultimate conclusion of a long letter to Einstein:

“The upshot of these observations, as bearing on the subject in hand, is that there is no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity’s aggressive tendencies. In some happy corners of the earth, they say, where nature brings forth abundantly whatever man desires, there flourish races whose lives go gently by, unknowing of aggression or constraint. This I can hardly credit; I would like further details about these happy folk….” end quote.

You can read the letter here:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1993_March/ai_13886280/pg_1

Einstein had asked Freud to debate the question “Why War?” You can read Einstein’s invitation to Freud here:

http://www.idst.vt.edu/modernworld/d/Einstein.html

I think if you take the time to read these letters, you’ll be astounded at what Einstein was asking of Freud and how Freud answered him. Since Einstein was searching for intellectual support for The League Of Nations, Freud’s letter was a dash of cold water tossed on his quest.

hum – same old story – if I red (read) between the lines & websites

merchantilist – our ideas and willfulness make the world go round, take what we give and be content, or else

laborer – but our hands do all the work
(and buying as a matter of fact)

the power of the take

Eclectic:

Freud was obviously a brilliant mind – it is interesting to see his theories being played out in real time.

When, do you suppose, will the second revolution begin?

Real time?… That’s like saying it’s interesting to watch gravity play out in real time.

It’s been the condition of mankind for all its existence… past time, current time, and future time… all the time. Freud didn’t invent it… he just explained it.

Revolution?… When?

Sorry, at the moment I’m tied up worrying about Ellen’s dog, about Britney’s kids, and about how many shopping days are left until Christmas, and also dodging these freight trains that you can pass a birthday or two waiting for them to pass, all loaded ass-deep to a brontosaurus in coal, scrap iron, corn, pulp and other hard assets high-ballin’ it to the nearest sea-side assembly of War-Of-The-World-lookin’ cranes. Self-same cranes are all waitin’ to flip ’em for containerized unit loads of Chinese goodies (so fast the ships don’t even have time to shallow out their drafts) headin’ backwards down the rails to block my railroad crossing ventures once more. The trains get me a-goin’ and a-comin’ back again. I could read “War And Peace” at the crossing barrier, forwards and backwards.

No, you’d have to close the malls and pass out a flyer with a schedule for when R-Day was to begin in order to get a respectable showin’ for a rev-o-lution.

Even then some Big Box would cut prices by 20% on R-Day and the whole thing would be off again. They’d toss the bandoleers for toting the shopping goodies and dump the ammo out of the SUVs to make room for the latest battery powered gewgaw. Why, you’d have to beat Barringo away from the door at Best Buy just to wedge yourself in sideways for a moment of consumer en-joyment.

No, you’d have to have an entirely different line-up of political platform issues with both of these Bozo Parties before there’d be any worries about a revolution.

Now, that Kasparov guy… he’s onto something I think… something with meat in it. He’s not flying Aeroflot or eating and drinking anything in Mother Russia that he didn’t himself see canned or bottled. There you go! – there’s a guy with some real R-worthy stuff to think about. Let’s see how we’d react if one of the Pubs or Dems couldn’t run because of a threat to life, limb, family or stomach, and you might get me interested in re-examining the topic.

Checkmate.

I’m sorry VJ, but I can’t maintain any self-respect if I allow myself to associate with a known pre-2000 Tech Boom Denier.

I believe, subject to correction, that you’re the only P2KTBD on TBP, and thus you are subject to irrational willfulness.

I can deal with optimists, pessimists, Democrats, Republicans, Supply-Siders, Keynesians, Classicists… and the occasional asshat… but I can’t enter into rational dialog with a willful P2KTBD.

Good day.

Storm,

Maybe we’re on different pages. I watched Kasparov on Mahr’s “Real Time” this weekend.

Eclectic,

It is interesting you pointed me toward the Freud letter at this time, a time when I had been pondering the affect of anarchy in an isolated environment.

We seem to see this in Gaza and the West Bank, in Iraq, and in other areas of the world where a handful of soldiers is given what amounts to supreme power due to the absence of law. It may well have ocurred to a lesser extent even in New Orleans after Katrina. With isolated anarchy, men, it seems, revert to their more base nature – it is only the threat of law that seperates civilization from the law of the jungle – have we really evolved so little?

In that comparison, I considered what may be termed para-anarchy, or anarchy tendency, where laws, rules, and regulations are minimalized – would it not make sense that base nature intercedes to the degree of lawlessness tolerated?

Have we not witnessed this in microcosm as deregulation of businesses and of the markets has led to anarchal tendency and thus base nature of participants? Has a small part of civiliation been replaced by the nature of warriors?

And lastly, I don’t know if you agree but I sensed a common rhythm to the ebb of flow of Freud’s power shift that reminded me of Mises’s business cycles – it would be interersting to see if there is some apparent connection between business cycles and regulations/rules changes.

Eclectic,

“I’m sorry…”

Well, what can I say ? At least you’re self-aware.

“..but I can’t maintain any self-respect..”

That can be problematic. My sympathies.

“..if I allow myself to associate with a known pre-2000 Tech Boom Denier.”

As I never made such an assertion, your reference must be to someone else.

Great day !
.