COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

The Fight Over the Euro and the Increasing Deficit in Washington



I think I am with Rufus, somewhat bewildered by what happened in Washington in the last two days. Boiled down we have a new stimulus plan that will add at least another $1 trillion to the deficit, the same deficit that was ending the world two weeks ago.

The stock market loved it till about lunch time and then took another look at Europe and lost its courage. Obama gave one of his bizarre talks and may have helped the downturn. Oil keeps going up as Obama keeps shutting oil wells down. No surprise there. What is also no surprise is the depth of their stupidity. Let me see if I have this straight.

WE have added another trillion to the deficit in a coordinated effort to create employment. At the same time we are shutting down high paying energy jobs in the gulf area by restricting oil drilling. The restriction is driving up the cost of imported oil which adds to the trade deficit. The higher price of oil is in fact a foreign tax on the American consumer and is another net job killer. This is being done for environmental reasons but foreign drilling in the same waters off Cuba continues.

rufus said...
Well, the votes are in. It's Overwhelming. A Landslide. I'm an idiot. The dumbest asshole in America. The Dumbest Asshole in the world!

I haven't a clue what's going on in DC. This is like a trip to "The Twilight Zone."

I'm not "sad." I'm not "glad." I'm bemused. I feel like I've gone to sleep, and awoke in the middle of a "Chinese Metaphysics" class.

Either I'm having a nervous breakdown, or the rest of the world is.

I feel like I'm watching that goofy Kenny Rodgers flick where the guy folds a Royal Flush (and, the rest of the world is standing around going, "that's all he could do." Huh?

Maybe I'll think about it in the morning. And, maybe not.

Mensa Ain't Us.

Dummer'n Doornails is Us.

Tue Dec 07, 10:05:00 PM EST


Meanwhile the fight between international financiers and the European Central Bank continues. The Euro goes down, the dollar goes up and the market gets depressed. Where this leads is very clear to someone, I hope.

_______________________________


Central Bank and Financiers Fight Over Fate of the Euro
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JACK EWING
Published: December 7, 2010
NY Times

On one side is the European Central Bank, which is spending billions to prop up Europe’s weak-kneed bond markets and safeguard the common currency.

On the other side are hedge funds and big financial institutions that are betting against those same bonds and, by extension, against the central bank, that mighty symbol of Europe’s monetary union.

The war keeps escalating as traders position themselves for what some believe is inevitable: a default by Greece, Ireland or perhaps even Portugal.

The strains grew Tuesday, when European finance ministers made no pledge to increase the emergency fund that the European Union has put in place to help protect the euro. The head of the International Monetary Fund, meantime, urged Europe to take broader action to fend off speculators.

“The game now is one now of cat and mouse,” said Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief executive of the bond giant Pimco.

Since May, when the Greek debt crisis exploded, the European Central Bank has bought an estimated $69 billion of Greek and other government bonds. It has also indirectly injected hundreds of billions dollars into weak banking systems in Greece and Ireland.

But the speculators keep coming back. After the bond purchases fell to zero in October, the central bank waded back into the market aggressively last week, buying about $2 billion of debt securities, mostly Irish and Portuguese securities, traders said. The bank, based in Frankfurt, has yet to disclose the size and scope of the purchases late last week, when its intervention was the most intense.

While the bank appears to have backed off this week, traders are waiting for the official accounting of its latest purchases. The data are due Monday — and will provide some idea of just how aggressive the central bank has been.

Already, the central bank owns about 17 percent of the combined debt of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Goldman Sachs estimates. Yet in the bank’s mano a mano with the bond market, psychology could be more important than money. No single hedge fund, after all, can hope to outgun the central bank.

The bank also has the element of surprise. By emphasizing that the central bank is “permanently alert,” Jean-Claude Trichet, its president, has raised the risk for speculators who might try to profit by selling short Greek, Portuguese or Irish bonds.

But the amount of intervention so far is far smaller than many investors and economists think is necessary to calm markets. These people assert that the central bank, its assurances aide, is concerned about taking on so many bonds of peripheral European countries — and being forced into what would be a de facto bailout of overextended government borrowers and the banks that bought their bonds.

And the markets continue to probe that discomfort. Pimco, for example, sold the vast majority of its holdings of Greek, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish government bonds late last year and early this year, although it continues to hold German bonds, considered Europe’s safest.

Pavan Wadhwa, head of European rates strategy at JPMorgan Chase, one of the main dealers in European government debt, said many clients had been eager to sell bonds of peripheral European nations to the central bank and would do more if the bank continued to buy, reflecting a belief that one or more countries were headed for insolvency.

“If the E.C.B. wants to buy, I would still be recommending to sell into the demand,” he said.

Mr. Wadhwa said in its latest operations the central bank had hoped investors would hold onto their bonds, encouraged by its presence in the markets. Instead, many had taken the opportunity to sell.

The chief investment officer of a large New York-based hedge fund, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said his fund and others had shorted Portuguese and Irish government bonds during the summer. They had done so by selling bonds in the cash market directly but mainly by buying protection against default in the market for credit-default swaps, a type of derivative.

“That trade was profitable,” this money manager said. But he said the fund had closed its position because the trade had no further to run — the market was now discounting a strong likelihood that Ireland would be forced to restructure its debt in four or five years.

Even after the central bank’s intervention last week, speculators have been maintaining large positions in credit-default swaps on Spanish bonds and on the debt of Spanish banks.

According to JPMorgan’s calculations, the credit-default swaps market implies around a 15 percent probability in any year of a Spanish default for the next five years.

Still, traders and analysts say the central bank is a sophisticated market actor. It conducts many trades via the Bundesbank and other national central banks, which in turn act through a circle of commercial dealer banks.

Mr. Trichet is known to keep a data terminal on his desk and speak frequently with the bank’s 20 in-house bond traders. He also occasionally visits them on a lower floor of the bank’s headquarters.

For the central bank, the timing of the latest flare-up was, in a way, convenient. Bond trading typically tapers off at the end of the year as fund managers close out their positions. So trading was thin and the bank was able to move the market with relatively small sums, traders said.

“It may be that the E.C.B. could have moved spreads a long way without buying that many bonds,” said Steven J. Major, global head of fixed income research at HSBC in London.

By placing a lot of orders with numerous banks, the central bank also created buzz in the market, which helped exaggerate the effect of its bond buying.

But according to many traders, the bank has so far not intervened in the markets for Spanish or Italian debt, which would be harder to influence because of their relatively large size.


Stephen Castle contributed reporting.

100 comments:

  1. There is little in the way of "Central Planning", Deuce.

    By design and for the better, I was taught. Recall that private profit is the great benefactor of public good.

    No one has profited nor garnered more power than the DC elites and the "Wall Street Bankers" from the current economic woes created by foreign adventures and balance of payment imbalances, on a macro level.

    The "Invisible hand" of the Market.

    "Bemused" nah, amused is the better termed. These characters are playing to the script.

    Co-opted, that was November's word.

    "Stay the Course"!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Talk about shock and awe. The Democrats are in it big time over the self delusion that was required for them to fall for a community rabble rouser with teleprompter skills and elect him president.

    ...and the idea that the Republicans will let the Democrats call them hostage takers is astounding.They are fighting words.

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  3. Obama was talking about his lines in the sand. I guess he likes lines in the sand since they are so easy to move.

    Good old Bibi knows a bitch when he sees one. He rolled the Nobel Laureatte big time. Settlements, what settlements? Condos, what's the big deal?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Explosive-laden Calif. home to be destroyed

    Prosecutors say Serbian-born George Jakubec quietly packed the home with the largest amount of homemade explosives ever found in one location in the U.S. and was running a virtual bomb-making factory in his suburban neighborhood. How the alleged bank robber obtained the chemicals and what he planned to do with them remain mysteries.

    Now authorities face the risky task of getting rid of the explosives. The property is so dangerous and volatile that that they have no choice but to burn the home to the ground this week in a highly controlled operation involving dozens of firefighters, scientists and hazardous material and pollution experts.

    Authorities went into the home after Jakubec was arrested, but encountered a maze of floor-to-ceiling junk and explosives that included 13 unfinished shrapnel grenades.

    Bomb experts pulled out about nine pounds of explosive material and detonated it, but they soon realized it was too dangerous to continue given the quantity of hazardous substances. A bomb-disposing robot was ruled out because of the obstacle of all the junk Jakubec hoarded.

    That left only one option - burn the home down.

    San Marcos Fire Chief Todd Newman acknowledges it is no small feat:
    Authorities have never dealt with destroying such a large quantity of dangerous material in the middle of a populated area, bordered by a busy eight-lane freeway.

    He said the burning of the house would provide "an amazing textbook study" for bomb technicians in the future.

    San Diego County authorities plan to burn the home Wednesday but need near perfect weather, with no rain, no fog, and only light winds blowing toward the east, away from the city. They have warned residents in the danger zone that they will be given less than 24 hours notice to evacuate their homes for a day, and that nearby Interstate 15, connecting the area to San Diego, will be closed.





    Prosecutors said the chemicals in the house include hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), and pentaerythitol tetranitrate (PETN), which was used in the 2001 airliner shoe-bombing attempt. The home has been declared a public nuisance and therefore the county does not have to reimburse the owners, who were renting the house to Jakubec.

    Authorities also found a grenade mold, a bag with pieces of metal, a jar with ball bearings, three wireless doorbells with remotes, molds of human faces, handguns and a blue Escondido police shirt, among other items, according to court records.

    The federal grand jury alleges that Jakubec made nine detonators and 13 grenade hulls containing high explosives.
    They were discovered in the home after a gardener was injured in November in a blast that occurred when he stepped on chemical residue in the backyard, authorities said. Mario Garcia, 49, suffered eye, chest and arm injuries.

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  5. It seems my befuddlement won't be forthcoming, today. My computer is on the fritz, big-time.

    Toast is Us.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Luckily, computer care has not yet been nationalised.

    No chance of it succumbing to a death panel.

    Yet

    ReplyDelete
  7. Reunion turns bittersweet

    Where they once raced frantically to survive fire and bombs, the Pearl Harbor survivors who returned yesterday on the 69th anniversary of the surprise Japanese attack lingered at a new $56 million visitor center, retold war stories, relished the camaraderie of other veterans -- and wondered if they would make it back again.

    Japanese planes flying off aircraft carriers attacked Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay; Hickam, Bellows, Wheeler and Ewa air fields; and Pearl Harbor.

    The attackers killed 2,390 men, women and children; 21 ships of the Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged; and 75 percent of the planes on Oahu were damaged or destroyed.

    About 8:06 a.m., a Japanese high-level bomber dropped a 1,764-pound armor-piercing bomb onto the battleship USS Arizona.

    The bomb penetrated the forward deck and the resulting explosion ignited aviation fuel stores and the powder magazines for the 14-inch guns, instantly separating most of the bow from the ship and lifting the 33,000-ton vessel out of the water.

    Louis Conter, 89, remembered the blast that killed 1,177 of his shipmates.

    "Very few men from the mainmast forward got off," Conter said. "Everything from the mainmast forward was just burning and in flames. They didn't have a chance."

    A bomb similar to the one that sank the Arizona hit the West Virginia about 15 feet from where Hedley was standing -- but it was a dud, he said.

    "If it would have exploded, we would have been the reverse of the Arizona -- it would have been our stern that went down instead of her bow," he said.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now 1.5 million workers' insurance saved by waivers.

    Others not so lucky.

    A life and death lottery of sorts.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the senseless murder of John Lennon by a banal, "Nowhere Man".

    Re: BiBi, settlements and condos

    Both Israelis and Palestinians continue to build apace on land that has not been granted or agreed to or by either party.

    I am always amused by calls for an Israeli "settlement" freeze without a call for the same from the other side. It just goes to prove, I think, the lack of bono fide partners, foreign and domestic. These angels of hope for peace on earth operate from the forgone conclusion that Israel has lost and must backtrack. BiBi's shaky government is saying "No" for the moment, but that is likely to change with the landing of the first F-35 on Israeli soil (assuming there is such a thing).

    By the way, for the purpose of illustration, the materials flowing into the PA for the construction of homes and businesses are approved by Israel. Israel is halting the flow of materials that might have a duel military use, such as outsized rebar.

    Let the record show that the topic of Israel was introduced first at 06:27 am by the proprietor.

    Nowhere Man

    ReplyDelete
  10. That the Israeli have,once more, maintained the administration of the occupied lands in violation of the Geneva Accords, not surprising.

    That allen would like us all to assume that there is an equivalence between the claims of the occupiers and the occupied, not surprising, either.

    He "Stays the Course".

    The "change" being that the US has announced, to the whirled, that it has no influence upon Israel, now that is different.

    Wonder what the next step is, for US?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Much as I would wish for it, I truly doubt that we will take our check book and leave that area of the whirled to its inhabitants.

    That is just not our style.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The very fact that Israel maintains the ability to "approve" the importation of construction materials, another violation of the Geneva Accords.

    It is administrating the occupied lands, which is a violation of the Article 4, of the Geneva Accords.

    If one takes the words of the Geneva Accords at face value.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This Serbian bomb maker,
    a follower of Christ or Mohammad?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Richard Hinkel -- who appeared in court after making $25,000 bail -- had his bail increased to $125,000 by Vista Judge Marshall Hockett and was taken back into custody.

    No turban.
    No beard.
    A Caucasian that dresses for Court in a camouflage shirt.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It was indeed, inspired by Obama's line in the sand comment.

    For the record I do not care who builds what or where in the Middle East. Frankly I prefer building to blowing things up. I just don't want to pay for them going up, coming down or worse yet paying them not to build anything.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gold eases towards $1390 as dollar firms
    Reuters -

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  17. Last week the Palestinian Authority abrogated Oslo; thereby, killing the possibility of a negotiated peace. Oslo and every falsity upon which it stood is now passé. Conspicuous by their absence is the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the US DoS and the POTUS…strange that…almost as if they are belittling the PA for declaring its destiny.

    Secondly, last week, the Palestinian Authority was recognized as a country by Brazil with pre-1967 boundaries.

    Israel should react to both moves vigorously and decisively by setting its own defensible boundaries in the disputed territory and moving all non-citizens to the Palestinian side of those boundaries. Palestinians might also consider moving to Brazil.

    ReplyDelete
  18. " I truly doubt that we will take our check book and leave that area of the whirled to its inhabitants."


    You must mean the rubber-check book and our all too familiar American attitude: "Hey, if I've got checks in the book, I've got money."

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yep, that'd be the one.

    Those checks that all the whirled want. The Sauds & Israelis, both.

    Denominated in Dollars, not Euros, Yen or Yuans.

    That'd be the one, all right

    ReplyDelete
  20. Last week the Palestinian Authority abrogated Oslo; thereby, killing the possibility of a negotiated peace.

    I still haven't seen that reported in any non-blog news source. Maybe you're thinking of when Bibi pulled out of the Oslo framework:

    Haaretz.com:

    In an interview on Israel Radio in 2002 Netanyahu said that "the Oslo Accords are null and void - after all, what is left?"

    ReplyDelete
  21. Contrary to the opinions of the world’s foremost (only) authority on the “Law of Nations”, Hamas Returns to Executing Opponents, UN Returns to Boosting Hamas Aid

    “Naturally the UN is currently seeking another $575 million for Gaza, on top of the White House’s billion-dollar stimulus from last year and the piles of cash that the EU and UN tirelessly dump into the area.”

    ReplyDelete
  22. Brazil and Argentina recognize PA state, contrary to Oslo Accords

    The recognition by these two countries of the PA along pre-1967 boundaries and the PA's demure acceptance of this recognition makes the case that the PA has abrogated the Oslo Accords, officially.

    Whatever Mr. Netanyahu's personal opinion in 2002, it did not rise to that of the Isreali government.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "Those checks that all the whirled want. The Sauds & Israelis, both."


    And you, unless I'm terribly mistaken.

    ReplyDelete
  24. On second thought, the checks aren't really rubber, although they will be ultimately worth about $0.00002 on the dollar. They are guaranteed by the servitude of our children and grandchildren.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  26. When I first mentioned that the 'bond vigilantes' would turn their attention to the US after the EU bond mess was finished I was told here that no way that would happen.

    Mind you it is a Chinese analyst but still:

    "U.S. fiscal health worse than EU's: China

    The U.S. dollar will be a safe investment for the next six to 12 months because global markets are focused on the euro zone’s troubles but America’s fiscal health is worse than Europe’s, an adviser to the Chinese central bank said on Wednesday.

    Li Daokui, an academic member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, said that U.S. bond prices and the dollar would fall when the European economic situation stabilized.

    “For now, market attention is still on Europe and for the coming 6-12 months, it will not shift to the United States,” Mr. Li said, when asked about U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan to extend tax cuts for all Americans.

    “But we should be clear in our minds that the fiscal situation in the United States is much worse than in Europe. In one or two years, when the European debt situation stabilizes, attention of financial markets will definitely shift to the United States. At that time, U.S. Treasury bonds and the dollar will experience considerable declines.”

    U.S. Treasury prices fell sharply for a second day on Wednesday as the proposed tax deal sparked concerns over the government’s ability to service its massive debt burden. Moody’s Investors Service said it is worried the tax cuts could become permanent, hurting U.S. finances and credit ratings in the long run."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/us-fiscal-health-worse-than-eus-china/article1829375/

    ReplyDelete
  27. I'm still higher than a kite.

    They passed the fucker with no conditions.

    I'm grand fathered in.

    And I know for certainty it's going to get rougher.

    Clap your hands, give a creative man a break.

    And let's toss one - here - I am buying - BARKEEPS -

    A PLEROMA ON ICE FOR EVERYONE

    (even though it's not quite the holy season yet, the transcendent energy a few days away)

    (even rat, Cl, and Quirk)



    Everyone should have a NRA women like I have, Sarah Palin with a law degree.

    Damn I'm glad to be through with it.

    Now I know what to do.

    Everything is simple.


    :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Know your own back yard.

    !!!

    I wish you all well.

    I'm going back to bed.

    ReplyDelete
  29. You know, I've never asked you, Blue, if you go to church.

    Nor whether you still find Christmas unenJOYable.

    An Enquiring mind wants to know.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The Bob that never went apeshit on me, that Bob I offer congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  31. "Nor whether you still find Christmas unenJOYable."

    Welcome to my world.

    ReplyDelete
  32. .

    On the previous post, I postem you decide.

    :)

    .

    ReplyDelete
  33. .

    I've had a few nights ending up like this.


    It's A Wonderful Night.


    .

    ReplyDelete


  34. 3 guys are in a cafe,

    one says: I've got the smallest arm of the world!

    another says: I've got the smallest head of the world!

    last one says: I've got the smallest dick of the world!

    The 3 guys go to Guinness World Records.

    First one goes first and returns happy: I've really got the smallest arm in the world!

    Second returns happy too: I've really got the smallest head of the world!

    The last one returns angry and screams: WHO THE FUCK IS JUSTIN BIEBER?

    ReplyDelete
  35. "Welcome to my world."

    I've had unenjoyable Christmases.

    I've had memorably wonderful ones.

    The notion of finding the holiday generally without unique charm is a little alien.

    ReplyDelete
  36. My unique charm is at the bottle of the wine bottle while I'm sitting around the dinner table with my sister's in laws.

    ReplyDelete
  37. And I take it that's a no on the church.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Congratulaitons, bob, on your good news.

    Now, sit on the property, don't spend any money on infrastructure yet and don't let them tax you out of house and home.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I never heard that version. It's awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Mel, I think you and Sheryl could get into a little trouble together.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  41. That would be a no on church. It's nothing personal. And I'm not one of those ones that go just on holidays.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Whit, trust me I do just fine on my own.

    ReplyDelete
  43. On the other hand, I've lived in that since the beginning.

    I just never realized it.

    ReplyDelete
  44. i NEED MY DAUGHTER.
    I need a ipod, whatever that is.

    aaargh i know how to win here it was such a delight
    those that think politics don't matter have their heads up the ass

    ratshit comes to mind


    by the way, i'm drunk with happiness

    god bless you all

    i'll see you in couple days...

    ReplyDelete
  45. George Thorogood's one bourbon story reminded me of this.

    This is the one I was looking for when I found the other one.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Waz up, Trish? You seem pensive.

    ReplyDelete
  47. It's amazing we carry around joy within us and seek its expression or correspondence in the world outside of us.

    We carry it, even when we are unaware of it.

    ReplyDelete
  48. That was one hot video, Chief.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I think I'd much rather get into a little trouble with Toby Keith than Sheryl Crowe.

    ReplyDelete
  50. With Sheryl you could get into a little trouble.
    You could get into a lot of trouble with Toby.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Red, I am not a church going man. Frankly it bores me. Funerals, weddings and Christening excepted, and an occasional Good Friday, which I find inspirational.

    Jesus always confused me and it is difficult to sort the man from the myth. I have tried.

    I find in Good Friday a certain pathos in Christ hoisted up on the cross and feeling betrayed by all including his belief in his God. We all eventualy get betrayed and abandoned by life and in the end our brief privledge of being alive simply ends.

    I went to a very fine and small classical liberal arts college where Handel's Messiah was done on a magnificent scale. That has been my closest communion to religion.

    I do pray but not sure to whom. I am probably a pagan of one sort or another.

    ReplyDelete
  52. ...we carry around joy within us

    yes, we do and it's best when shared with others. Through a smile and a laugh.

    Buona notte, dormire serrato

    ReplyDelete
  53. I enjoyed Christmas as a boy. I went to the Latin Mass six days per week and carved my initials into a pew with my rosary.

    I loathed the High Mass because it was 25 minutes longer and I hated the smell of incense.

    I lusted after Sister Virginia before I knew what lust was. Nuns all smelled the same, a pleasant familiar sacred soap I suppose.

    I liked pleasing Sister Virginia.

    We used to collect dimes for pagan babies.

    Something went wrong somewhere.

    On summer vacation to a Baptist Bible school. Life was simpler then.

    ReplyDelete
  54. I just like the song, ya'll don't read anything into it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  55. Right back atcha, Chief.

    An excellent way to end the night.

    ReplyDelete
  56. and carved my initials into a pew with my rosary.


    I guess I don't feel so bad now when my friend and I decided the statue of Mother Mary needed a little color and painted her face with crayon. I was 7. We were proud. The church had been closed for years.

    Peace out.

    ReplyDelete
  57. "We all eventualy get betrayed and abandoned by life..."

    EVEN-tually?

    EVEN-tually?!

    Goddamn, that's actually a rosy view.

    (My first impulse, however, is to say that life, properly understood, does not betray.)

    ReplyDelete
  58. Years ago, in the pit of despair, I asked for a cross...for my birthday, maybe.

    My rough and ready understanding of that cross was as a symbol beneath which one deposits one's sorrows.

    Curious, that.

    As if sorrows were offerings.

    Well, no. Not really.

    As if there were someplace of infinite sympathy and solace to deposit them.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Welcome to the 21st Century. Enjoy the ride.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Biggest sell-off in Bonds I've ever seen, or heard about, I believe. 3.0 to 3.30%. Amazin'.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Unremarked upon, in all the brouhaha: Consumer Non-Revolving Loans have taken off the last two months. Mostly Car Loans.

    About the only "really" good sign I've seen.

    ReplyDelete
  62. .

    What are you doing up this late Ruf?


    Or is it that you are just up early?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  63. "I do pray..."

    What do you pray for?


    I picture a somewhat stern and remote, grudgingly loving and necessarily omnipotent, version of Dennis Hopper's blind monk in Young Frankenstein.

    Tried to think of a non-comedic example.

    James Earl Jones?

    With a beard.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Got my hours messed up again, Q. Had a busy day, yesterday. Took a long nap today. Voila. Upside/down, again.

    ReplyDelete
  65. "I picture..."

    That is, when I picture God...

    ...God is kinda like my dad.

    Which is not at all surprising.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Watching Sarah Palin's Alaska. They're hunting Caribou. Stopped off at a Camp up on the North Slope, I think it was. Woman lives all alone up there.

    Was attacked by a Bear. Killed same. After Bear chewed on her head for awhile. She sews 10 stitches in her head. Waits ten days for help to arrive.

    That's the one we ought to be running for President.

    ReplyDelete
  67. "...yes, we do and it's best when shared with others. Through a smile and a laugh."

    A little too Hallmark card-ish.

    ReplyDelete
  68. .

    Sounds like some one I could vote for Rufus.

    I suspect she is probably a libertarian. Maybe even a Rosecrucian.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  69. That's funny. My wife made a similar remark about something I said to her earlier.

    I guess I was in a sappy mood. :)

    ReplyDelete
  70. .

    She obviously knows how to handle herself better than those dolts in Idaho.

    She could probably track down a wolf to if she wanted to; although I'm sure she wouldn't.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  71. .

    Sorry, Whit.

    My note was obviously intended for Rufus.

    Not that I'm not sure that your wife would have been able to take care of that bear too of course.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  72. I'm glad, at least, that bob found his always initiating wife.






    Oh, my God.

    That's funny.

    ReplyDelete
  73. "As if there were someplace of infinite sympathy and solace to deposit them."

    There oughta be.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Sarah Baby looked pretty good pulling the trigger. Looked like she'd done it before.

    Her dad fell, and knocked the scope out of alignment on what looked like a .223, but when she switched to the bigger (looked like a .30 cal - that'll knock your dick in the dirt) she popped the caribou with one shot. Looked to be about 200 yds, give or take.

    ReplyDelete
  75. I figure that this isn't really about me.

    It's about you.

    Whoever you are.

    ReplyDelete
  76. I don't mind opening the window, just when I have to take a piss, but why does kitty have to land on my head?

    She does that.

    I'm thinking of quiting PETA.

    ReplyDelete