Bob Morris @ Apr 1st 2008 21:01 - Category: Election 2008 Tags: Hillary Clinton;
From the always fun Colin McEnroe.
So Hillary compares herself to Rocky?
I’m stealing this idea from a caller to my show, but … does Hillary know the plot of “Rocky?”
He loses to a black man.
Bob Morris @ Apr 1st 2008 16:08 - Category: Credit crisis ;
UBS announced a $11.9 bn loss today. Lehman said they’d managed to raise $4 bn in new capital to prop themselves up. Ordinary rational folks might think this would be construed as being seriously bad news, but not Wall Street, which instead took off on a manic rally based on … well, you tell me. There’s no good news here I can see.
The Street has done this before, staging crazed rallies for the financials upon the announcement of bad or grim news. Sounds like irrational exuberance to me.
The euphoria didn’t last as that darned reality kept intruding instead. Wall Street partied today. The hangover will be along soon enough.
Bob Morris @ Apr 1st 2008 14:30 - Category: Anti-war ;
Music, say some sociologists, is just one manifestation of a more fundamental trend. Opposition to the Iraq war, which commands strong majorities in the polls, has not produced mass marches on the Pentagon or shut down college campuses.
The reasons are varied, including the lack of a military draft and much lower casualty figures than were suffered in Southeast Asia 40 years ago. But another big factor is the fragmented nature of how Americans live and communicate — with no clearer example than how we listen to music.
Back in the 60’s there were comparatively few radio stations, and they tended to play all kinds of music. A rock station would play the Supremes followed by The Rolling Stones, then maybe Roger Miller. Except for some public radio, that kind of mixing of genres hardly happens any more. So, while there’s some excellent protest music out there, maybe it’s just not getting heard because people don’t know about it (unless maybe they happen to see it on their iTunes recommendations.)
This kind of fragmentation is occurring in the society at large too. Maybe that’s another reason it’s hard to sustain mass movements. Things move on Internet time now and we’re all multi-tasking and switching activities. Thus, a sustained focus on political goals is difficult to encourage and maintain by advocacy groups, and that includes the antiwar movement.
Bob Morris @ Apr 1st 2008 00:07 - Category: Credit crisis ;
A bold new plan from the federal government proposes to end the mortgage crisis and provide extra troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time. Homeowners whose mortgages have reset to higher interest rates can now lower their rates by volunteering for combat duty. The rates would be lowered by a full percentage point for each year of service.
The White House admits that some thorny difficulties do remain to be worked out. Factors affecting the plan include the age and physical condition of those volunteering, and what some detractors have described as “miniscule” military pay that would be available to repay the restructured loans.
Nevertheless, the private sector seems to be enthusiastically embracing the government’s plan. New financial instruments based on years of combat service and their expected presumed reduction in the mortgage rate should provide a bottom to prices and an end to foreclosures. They will be bundled as mortgage backed securities, then structured as CDOs and made available to investors worldwide.
Government spokesperson Eva Sion decried as “appeasing the terrorists” the alarm expressed by some financial experts that this is precisely the same approach that created the credit crisis in the first place. “These financial instruments should provide stability to the market. We have shown in our financial modeling that these financial instruments will less risky than similar instruments currently on the market.” A Bloomberg reporter was then ejected from the room by security guards after asking if such “similar instruments” included bonds now selling for 5 cents on the dollar.
As for the vexing question of how to adequately prepare for the possibility that the “volunteer” soldiers might get killed or become incapacitated while in combat, the government announced a plan by the private sector to sell life insurance bonds (which of course will also be sliced and diced into CDOs.)
This could lead to the bonds being shorted, which means the investor hopes and expects some of the volunteers will be killed. In extreme cases, the investors could seek to maximize return on their investment by arming Iraqi insurgents to do just that. However the bonds themselves would remain profitable and the markets orderly - which of course remains the primary consideration.
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