September 2008
September 30, 2008 –
I'm really not so happy to see this bit of turgid copy running at the top of Fool.com. I'm not happy to have to pick apart the work of two of my favorite colleagues, but I wouldn't be much of a Fool if I just looked the other way from a piece that I think is below our usual standards. [more]
September 30, 2008 –
Don't click here if you want to believe the fiction that the Mother of All Bailouts can fix home prices. They're dropping like stones, and it ain't because of a lack of lending. It's because people know prices are far too high. Since the exotic, bogus loans that people used to bid up houses are never coming back, prices will continue to fall. [more]
September 29, 2008 –
The more I look at the reaction I'm seeing from "Main Street" and today's bailout vote today, the more I think that's the prevailing mood. [more]
September 29, 2008 –
Hmm. “Markets” don’t seem too amused with our bailout plan. Dow down 2.7%. Naz down more than 3%. Hang Seng down 4.3%. [more]
September 26, 2008 –
One of the things that's troubled me about this whole bailout discussion (aside from the fact that so many so-called supporters of free markets flip-flopped on that the minute their paychecks seemed threatened by the gloom and doom predictions) is the story that the government is buying "assets" that are purely temporarily impaired, that are bound to be worth more in the future. [more]
September 25, 2008 –
Guess I shouldn't have closed my red thumb on this one, but I didn't want to gamble that Comrades Bush, Paulson, and Bernanke wouldn't welcome WaMU to the glorious peoples' paradise with a well-deserved show of patriotic support.
Sj
September 25, 2008 –
Sales of new one-family houses in August 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 460,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 11.5 percent (±11.7%)* below the revised July rate of 520,000 and is 34.5 percent (±7.3%) below the August 2007 estimate of 702,000. [more]
September 25, 2008 –
Can one claim to be pro markets and pro-bailout at the same time? Really? [more]
September 24, 2008 –
Read 'em all. Number five is pretty interesting, and would stimey the "stem the foreclosure" motive of both Paulson and the Democrats. [more]
September 24, 2008 –
CBO warns that the bailout may acellerate the collapse of financial institutions by putting a market price on formerly hidden garbage, forcing big writedowns, and starting yet another capital death spiral. [more]
September 24, 2008 –
Latest word is that Paulson has caved on the executive compensation thing for the bailout plan, but won't yet agree to equity stakes in payment for the taxpayers' taking on banks' rancid debt. [more]
September 24, 2008 –
Home prices dropping at record rates and still we have a major drop in buying activity.
Conclusion: there's plenty more to come.
September 23, 2008 –
Is it a government bailout? No... A rules-based rescue?! No... [more]
September 23, 2008 –
Dear Mr Watanabe/Herr Schadenfrude/Xian Sheng Wu [more]
September 23, 2008 –
"We certainly understand a lot of the questions up there," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "What the vice president and others will emphasize is that this is absolutely necessary to do right now. In no way should it signal any abandonment" of the free market system. [more]
September 23, 2008 –
Sigh. I used to think Ben was OK. But no longer. [more]
September 23, 2008 –
This site will let you.
Two caveats:
1) It's virtual taking-partness
2) It's got naughty words on it.
September 23, 2008 –
Hey, it worked with that whole "Saddam has nuclear weapons and was responsible for 911" thing. Why not try the Armageddon scare for this, too? [more]
September 23, 2008 –
McCains Economic Plan For Nation: "Everyone Marry A Beer Heiress"
Sj
September 22, 2008 –
A wee note to all the editors, reporters, and caption-writers out there. [more]
September 22, 2008 –
So much for the short constraints. [more]
September 22, 2008 –
And that's not something I say very often. [more]
September 22, 2008 –
Yesterday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would travel to New York on Wednesday to discuss what he called the "first crisis of the global economy." Brown said a "global regulatory system" should be established to govern a world where national borders often have little meaning. He added that Britain "was paying a price" for problems that started in the United States. [more]
September 22, 2008 –
Jeez. And this is the guy they fired? [more]
September 21, 2008 –
This is truly amazing. [more]
September 21, 2008 –
As Calculated Risk points out, you are now on the hook for bad debt held by foreign operators too! (This was already a reason -- perhaps the primary reason -- for the Fannie/Freddie bailout.) Now, it's extended to... who knows? [more]
September 20, 2008 –
Rufus Harris, of Conversion Solutions Holdings -- who had a supporter (or sockpuppet?) here in CAPS, got what was coming to him last week. [more]
September 19, 2008 –
THIS is why financial stocks were dropping like rocks. The shorting you blame is the after effect. And yes, we know why you want to stick Americans with all the mortgage debt. It's because no one in their right mind would pay for debt while the following is happening: [more]
September 19, 2008 –
I imagine it will be among the first victims of the current "market rescue" too. [more]
September 19, 2008 –
These two things go great together -- if you're a bank executive or bad debt holder who needs a deep pocket, ignorant bagholder: [more]
September 19, 2008 –
Dunno where they got that, but it's funny.
September 19, 2008 –
I am apoplectic. I can't rant. I can barely drink my coffees. Time to green thumb ever rancid financial out there, I guess. I closed my reds on most of that stuff, because I suspected some kind of nutty gobnment bailout might come along. I never expected these two simultaneously.Velcome to the glorious workers paradise, comrades. Let us all salute our brave leaders who have come togeser in zis time of woe to strengsen our financial system and distribute rewards to all deserving serfs.
Sj [more]
September 18, 2008 –
Were you buying yesterday, or pulling up stakes like everyone else? [more]
September 17, 2008 –
One of the things you have to respect most about MSFT's Zune effort is the way they've included the early adopters in all the major tech upgrades to the platform. I have the brown T |_| R D and today it updated itself with the latest PC software and device firmware. [more]
September 17, 2008 –
but funny.
Seriously, don't click this link if you:
a) don't like swear words
b) believe in BS naked short conspiracies
c) don't like a funky giggle.
September 16, 2008 –
I'm truly disgusted by what's going on at the Fed tonight. I don't believe for a second the BS about "protecting taxpayers" by providing a failing corporation with a taxpayer-funded "bridge" loan for more than twice the amount that AIG said it needed only days ago. With all the other "liquidity" out there available to banks, if AIG's collateral were believed to be any good, why wouldn't someone else -- or a group of someones -- stepped in to provide this financing? [more]
September 16, 2008 –
You now own 80% of a failed insurance business that the spineless Feds deemed too big to fail.
Fed to Give A.I.G. $85 Billion Loan and Take 80% Stake
I got the feathers. Anyone got a line on tar? Bernanke and Paulson need some work.
Sj
September 16, 2008 –
They ruin their businesses with terrible loans and head in the sand "risk management," and when it finally comes to whale on their shares, what's their cry?
Well, right after "Give us taxpayer-funded loans," it's "Stop those nasty short sellers!"
Unreal.
Sj
September 16, 2008 –
Apparently, Bernanke, Paulson and Co. don't want to let AIG die the death it so richly deserves. [more]
September 16, 2008 –
If you've been wishing it so -- and be honest, who hasn't -- this nifty application will let you get your Palin name without having to move to Alaska and endure snowmobile races.
My new handle, by the way, is Moose Roadster Palin.
September 15, 2008 –
In an effort to prop up giant insurer American International Group Inc., the Federal Reserve on Monday asked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase to help make $70-$75 billion in loans available to the company, according to people familiar with the situation. [more]
September 15, 2008 –
Lehman is allowed to fail as Hank Paulson finally shows some spine. Spooked Merrill jumps in bed with Lothario Bank of America. [more]
September 11, 2008 –
Driving Hope for Chrysler
Cerberus's bet that it could turn around ailing Chrysler rides on a single vehicle: The New Dodge Ram.
September 09, 2008 –
Now that's what they call "relentless reform." [more]
September 05, 2008 –
|
RELATED TICKERS: FMCC
, FNMA
This is why I despire our needless, 7-day holding period on CAPS. I just wanted some quick points from a few days worth of long-side idiocy and FRE and FNM! Is that so much to ask? I gotta hold these dog dinners for a whole week, and BANG! [more]
September 05, 2008 –
Those employment numbers don't look so great. Now, put 'em together with the foreclosure numbers, and you've got yourself some bad pumpkin. [more]
September 05, 2008 –
Something interesting going on here.
September 05, 2008 –
Senor Market will not like this: [more]
September 04, 2008 –
I'm not exactly sure what's going on here, but this creature creator demo is almost enough to get me to buy the game.
Sj
September 03, 2008 –
Maybe. [more]
September 03, 2008 –
Or worse. [more]
September 03, 2008 –
Clooney raises moolah for Obama in Geneva.
I for one am glad that Clooney is doing so much to make sure that the rich Swiss are no longer disenfranchised during U.S. elections.
September 03, 2008 –
Notice: Not for immature web surfers nor brittle people. [more]
September 03, 2008 –
Trying out Google chrome. Pretty funny. Won't, for instance, run Google's own "lively" virtual space. Remember that? Lively? The thing that was supposed to take down Second Life? Yeah, that's what all the short-attention-span knuckleheads in the press were saying at the time. Problem was, of course, that like just about every other Google "killer" app, it went nowhere fast. [more]
September 01, 2008 –
Just so long as free doesn't offend brittle, establishment political types. [more]
September 01, 2008 –
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With mortgage foreclosures throwing hundreds of families out of their homes here each month, dismayed school officials say they are feeling the upheaval: record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are homeless or poor enough to qualify for free meals. [more]
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