At least the funds should have no trouble beating their benchmark.

it seems like there is no where safe. fugly....

Markel its clear you have no future in politics. Stick with what they currently pay you for. Jeez questions like that... The never!

From the article:

Rates on some student loans might decrease to the lowest rates in the history of the student loan program

What percentage of students even know what AN APR is, much less what theirs is?

The Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund has (and always has had I believe) an expence ratio of 0.24%.  Probably still better than your mattress.  The American Century Capital Preservation Fund with identical fund goals as the VTMMF has an expense ratio of 0.47%.  I hope they will be reducing their cost or else I'll be moving my money

The war on prudence continues.

Italy is outright purchasing Parmigano-Reggiano in bulk to support prices. Now that's gubbmint cheese I can believe in.

I hate to say it Nemo but I hope you're right. A good hard deflation would give the prudent savers the last laugh.

I hate to say it Nemo but I hope you're right. A good hard deflation would give the prudent savers the last laugh.
trail

Sorry never been to the midwest. Dont know any.

.....

I am trying to wrap my head around this...these guys get paid big bucks to produce negative returns,but it is a good place to put your money because these are real negative returns and not imaginary positive returns.or something.Would this make better sense if I started drinking embalming fluid instead of scotch?

Comrade Bear --

Still can't stop laughing about all those characters this summer saying "... the next rate move will be up".

Yeah, whatever happened to ipodius?

Addicts do not kick their addictions so easily. He must still be here but under a different name...

What I can't get my head around is hopeless this all is. It's just posturing, dancing, and waiting on the inevitable.

I don't think now is the time to be chasing yield at flaky off-brand S&Ls. Can we positively be assured that the FDIC can or will pay off? Plus, your principal is insured, not necessarily accrued interest.

What I can't get my head around is hopeless this all is. It's just posturing, dancing, and waiting on the inevitable

Yes.

It's the definition of madness.

Now we begin to see the end of the road for the Fed. There is no going back to the old ways now that you have seen ZIRP.

Now we see if we can maintain the RESERVE STATUS OF THE DOLLAR

CR, I warned you this might get this bad, and now we are here.

There are three ways this can end.

We get massive deflation cushioned by bailout after bailout, and the rest of the world is content to allow the dollar to continue its current role. I give this about 5%.

We get massive inflation resulting from all the money we have printed, and we hit bottom fast enough to keep unemployment under 15% and inflation goes into wages, providing the save the Fed needs. I give this about 15%.

The worst of all outcomes. We have deflation in US assets, but the dollar loses reserve status. Imports and consumption collapse, and everything with a world price is sold based on the world price, and food and necessities cost a fortune in terms of wages. Exports soar, because they generate hard currency.
I still give this 80%.

None of these alternatives are good, but #1 would be the best of a bad lot.

Someday this war's gonna end...

He can push the cash out all he wants. What if nobody wants it? What if holding cash is is considered a bad idea?

The other reason I was surprised is that it could create an awkward situation for money market funds where they will have to give people negative returns.

And it's gonna make it a whole lot harder for Bill "stay away from those t-bonds" Gross to hide those 1.5% managment fees behind inflation.

Bet that little scam was fun while it lasted.

FED ANNOUNCES ZIRP, BONDIES REJOICE.

\tCOUPON\tMATURITY
DATE\tCURRENT
PRICE/YIELD\tPRICE/YIELD
CHANGE\tTIME
3-MONTH\t0.000\t03/19/2009\t0.03 / .03\t0 / .000\t21:00
6-MONTH\t0.000\t06/18/2009\t0.22 / .22\t-0.052 / -.053\t21:00
12-MONTH\t0.000\t12/17/2009\t0.44 / .44\t0.43 / -.024\t21:00
2-YEAR\t1.250\t11/30/2010\t101-04½ / .66\t0-04+ / -.073\t21:00
3-YEAR\t1.125\t12/15/2011\t100-19 / .92\t0-09 / -.095\t21:00
5-YEAR\t2.000\t11/30/2013\t103-07 / 1.33\t0-25 / -.162\t21:02
10-YEAR\t3.750\t11/15/2018\t112-27 / 2.29\t2-01½ / -.219\t21:00
30-YEAR\t4.500\t05/15/2038\t134-12 / 2.78\t4-05 / -.174\t21:04

Oh wait...

Meanwhile JaI think "screamed higher" was his phrase.

FT Alphaville, when they're not crashing, were reporting CDS spreads on the ramp up, incl on sovereigns.

Looks like everyone's expecting a return to normal programming real soon...

C

None of these alternatives are good, but #1 would be the best of a bad lot

The stupidist part of all these is the permanent damage that Bernanke is doing to things which have value in vain attemp to salvage bookkeeping entries.

It's insanity.
.

For most countries having hard currency is essential. But I do not understand what replaces the dollar? A basket? Or regional money?

tom stone go long bourbon... kentucky style

I remember reading that the interest rate was 2% during the depression. No one borrowed, even at what was considered a great rate.

followed by the destruction of the dollar and massive inflation
mock turtle | 12.16.08 - 9:36 pm

So long term T and CD's could be a bad thing.

The 10 yr T-Note will probably top out at 25% per annum within 6 to 8 years.
Ross | 12.16.08 - 9:34 pm | #

That seems excessive, but who knows what rate will be needed to service both the national debt and stave off inflation.  If we get to that level I would suspect defalult.

Nova, a world price would be the price the rest of the world sets in London and Tokyo and Shanghai. See what Iceland is paying right now after their devaluation.

What do you call a drop to 25% of your foreign purchasing power in your currency?

Imagine the runup to $150 a barrel oil in two weeks?

Imagine $300 a barrel in a month, and a lot of businesses seize up. Imagine scrap dealers moving copper with armed guards.
Imagine the rest of the world watching as we collapse.

Argentina with nuclear weapons.

That is the worst case. This summer was a prelude to the future. That is what most of the deflationists believe can never occur because house prices continue to fall. Why not? Our creditors don't want houses, they want resources.

Someday this war's gonna end...

Comrade Allen M:

Yep, I'm planning on #3.

Rice and beans, baby.

Rice and beans.

To take the other side:

Bernanke just announced what was already in place. FF rate was already ~0%, and he already said he was buying Fannie bonds, quantitative easing. What if his action is all for naught?

I've seen world market cap figures all over the place, but so far the fed has expanded its balance sheet by ~3 Trillion? And I understand the rush to gold, but the people who are buying gold are the savers, so who is left to buy gold afterwards?

Thank you AllenM. Deflation,or inflation, when it becomes bad enough then the internal currency is really barter?

On the retail side, most of banks revenues are tied to Prime, which just went down 75 bps.
I think the yield will go down less than by 75 bps.
Doesn't that mean than the retail net interest income for banks is going to take a hit?

Well for all my griping about the Fed earlier today, it sure is nice that bucky is a hot topic once again.

No international trade when there is no reliable currency to trade in. Is that it? What happened today is going to cause that?

Nope, most likely loonies, and old coins. Look to Argentina.

People will have to eat, and this government will have no problem issuing ration cards to provide a guaranteed minimum calorie. National ID cards, and control of the populace through sheer poverty. A lot of the erstwhile rich are going to be poor too. The politicians will no longer listen to the lobbyists. That is when things go off the rails.

But hey, I could be wrong. I admit that a well managed bailout program could alleviate enough of the symptoms to make it through to another economy. I just am pessimistic at the polity making the tough choices necessary to avoid disaster.

Someday this war's gonna end...

nova,

Yeah, international trade on the barter system. What happens to import prices when nobody wants dollars? Keep in mind that even though our "hard" currency represents a fraction of total dollars outstanding, most of it is already in foreign hands. Chew on that.
Comrade Bear (tj & the bear)

All this stuff seems to be following a predictable pattern. With economies around the globe devolving you'd expect trade to be one of the first things to go as the mediums of exchange become unreliable and nations become more hostile and suspicious.

Didn't we see this happen in the first half of the last century?

I understand AllenM. Hell, I was there 45 min ago. It's all over but what tunes we get to dance to as we go down. I just don't want to believe that. If I am going to believe I want to be able to front run it as much as possible. Believing that I will not be able to is very difficult.

Jas was right about 2% on 10 year bill.
\t Morbo | 12.16.08 - 9:53 pm | #

A broken clock is right twice a day...

Blackhalo,
This is not 1930- we will not be the last ones to fall. A lot of weaker places will fall, but a lot will cut themselves loose from the dollar. When that begins, and look to the far east for the first big cracks (read the article in Atlantic Monthly with our largest creditor!!!).

We are standing at a crossroads, and we will have a lot of events that we can't easily foresee starting to cause damage.

The Euro may not survive, and as I commented on Krugman's blog, the BdB in Frankfurt will pull out the old book from 1948 and roll out the next Dmark. There is always a successor currency in the wings, you just have to successfully identify it in time.

Someday this war's gonna end...

Got a letter today that the new rate floor for all cards is 9.9%, an increase for me.
Currently Accounting | 12.16.08 - 9:50 pm | #

Something not quite right about that.  They make most of thier money on the transactions.  Is USAA in trouble?  What else besides autos, might they have insured?

Yes, Faith. You can't measure it, sell it, or grow it. That is what money people never understand. They are burning through it faster than they other peoples money.

Not sure what you mean by this
sanity clause | 12.16.08 - 9:56 pm | #

Spent some time there when I was in Europe for a time and Brussels was my favorite place outside of Ireland.  So, it is just wishful thinking.

The Euro may not survive
Citizen AllenM | 12.16.08 - 9:57 pm | #

I would be surprized by that.

Nova,I put my faith in Murphy.

12th Percentile(Unrated) writes:
The only consensus I'm getting is that we are in uncharted waters. The place that on the old maps said "here be monsters"

The only question is how far down the rabbit hole goes.

God I miss the D-Mark!
Ross | 12.16.08 - 10:05 pm | #

I still have some.  If the Euro goes down, will they spend?

@lawyerliz:

Don't know if you are still around, but I'm sorry about that; I was racing and on deck for leaving, and grabbed the wrong saved URL.

Anyway, here are your bill quotes. And, remarkably, it's even on topic for this thread.

Bloomberg.com:
Government Bonds

Obama got elected with union money. If he doesn't pay off, no second term.
mock turtle | 12.16.08 - 10:07 pm | #

I might agree with the first part, less about the money than the machiene.  The second sentance though, the economic troubles we now face are going to fall fully on the Republican party for the time being, and B.O. just needs to suck less.

Blackhalo, you should talk to some Germans and read what they really think of the Med countries and their black hole of finance. They will bail on that fiasco sooner or later.

They will drop the Euro.

Someday this war's gonna end...

It has to work...We give the market NO other choice!....BB

If I don't like it, I can cancel the card. I wonder if they are trying to beat the new Fed regulations/ or coming legislation on cards?
Currently Accounting | 12.16.08 - 10:17 pm | #

If you don't carry a balance, it don't matter...

cd

I am with others; I qualify for a work out with my bank mortgage, but for some reason all of the options increase the monthly payment.

It appears to me that banks are doing everything possible to maximize their income right now.

The "real" market just like the banks NOT lending is telling you to stay out and things are worse...much...much...WORSE. Look for P/E ratios to tank next year taking stock prices down with them. Hold your nose because the more Ben stirs the $hit...the more it stinks.

CR writes: Just checked some money market funds, and for a few of them the expenses are now greater than the yield - so you'd do better with a mattress.

Really!?

Wow. I reckon we best light out for the territories, huh Jim?

Hanging by a thread writes:
I was out in back country all day and come back in to communication to find ...the market up 350 points.... This looks like a major pump job on the market. Who the hell is buying?
Hanging by a thread | Homepage | 12.16.08 - 10:19 pm | #

i guess (warning this is a guess) that the primary dealers and IBs are engages in a daisy chain

a sells to b

b sells to c
c sells to d
d sells to e
e sells to f
f sells to a

all for one a few cents more per share more than they bought it for...

and nobody is out more than a few cents per share

and everything goes up

The largest union representation by far is in public service, and that's the next great sector for widespread RIFs, too.
Comrade Bear (tj & the bear) | 12.16.08 - 10:19 pm | #

Teachers, maybe?  I like teachers, not thier union.  They fight tooth and nail against any form of accountablity, competition or merit pay.

Another disgusting image Mock Turtle, but again probably right on since the goal is to screw the little guy. This may suck one more set of widows and orphans in to the pit.

mine just went to 7.75%
my poor savings account | 12.16.08 - 10:20 pm | #

Yeah, I saw someone post a few threads back, that his floor was 6%.  Looks like risk pricing...

Hmmm... if I have a negative-am loan and rates go negative, does that mean that if I don't make a payment my principal reduces????
I think I see the road to riches here.

lawn grass writes:
Go long- toilet paper.

dont have to

in a pinch just use dollar bills

"What events can force CBs to rethink "reserve status of the dollar"?"

1. Viable, sustainable alternative.
2. General re-denomination of key productive commodities in other than USD.
3. Reduced need to support US import (into US) international trade monetary flows.
4. General willingness to accept the wrath and offensive responses of the US. (Economic policy is this century's foreign policy)

" Feckless Ness writes:
Why money market when you can get TARP'd? Open your free WaMu checking account today!
Feckless Ness | 12.16.08 - 9:10 pm | # "

If I open a WaMu account and get my TARP money, can Congress cap my pay?

"[Madoff] caca is getting shakespearean."

All the actors are not on stage yet, or even in the playbill. This is going to be a monster.

New Amex platinum offer in the post today, plus the weekly Capital One offer, all into the home shredder. Maybe I should be more proactive and call these fkrs and say cease and desist? Anyone with experience of that? Do they actually do it?

Anyhow, have had a week of wondering whether risk denial is personal, sociological, structural, or inherent in risk-taking businesses and bureaucracies.

No conclusions. Not good ones anyway.

But it reminded me of a trade deal I was doing in the Middle Kingdom a decade ago - it was mostly lined up until I found a potentially significant flaw in the deal.

Went to see my main counterpart - good relationship, lots of beers together under our belt, on the road to mutual performance rewards in getting this through, but laid the cards on the table.

He was incensed. Said something fairly theatrical like, "Weishenme ne??! Weishenme ne changdan zhei xie wenti!?!?", ie why, why are you shouldering this problem?

I was pretty frank, and had some pithy Beijing dialect phrases to throw back, which was well appreciated.

Agreed in the end to "study the problem", but had we not had that conversation, we would have got a sh*tty deal.

C

" Flic writes:
I know of at least one that is waiving the expenses to keep the yield positive. I assume others will have to do this as well.....
Flic | 12.16.08 - 9:17 pm | # "

How does that improve solvency?

"hell with mattresses, I decided to store it in Bollinger Special Cuvee."

Say what you will about Deflationary Jane; she has good taste.

Nova, if still there, the world price is ultimately what the various good/commodity providers believe is most stable. From 10000 feet up, it would appear to be a seamless transition. Up close is a total clusterf*** as it happens. You can plan out the wazoo, but how the plan works is different...

In short term, that could be the yen. Also bear in mind that Japan, S Korea and China are now working together in a financial ministry sense and that China is now the #1 global producer of gold and is going to ramp up its gold purchases. So longer term might be some regional currency (Asian?) with PM backing.

Memories of a long-ago mp comment re regional currency rise...just can't recall what screw-up prompted that.

Cal Pers gets their ass handed to them...if only they would have read here a few years ago...:

And I can guarantee the Cali state budget impact from the payroll increases are not being factored properly. Throw another couple billion per yer on the pile.

REBear writes:
What events can force CBs to rethink "reserve status of the dollar"?

Promise you, they will do whatever it takes. The reserve status of the dollar? You're so far away from the nut cutting...have you ever put a rubber band on a pig?

Volker the Viking | 12.16.08 - 10:33 pm | #

No offense, Volker, but what the hell did you just say? What does that even mean?

LOL thanks MP. very yummy stuff! You wouldn't believe what I got it for by the case. If this is deflation, I can't wait to see what happens to the price of Louboutins. >; )

Had to be uber-bulls trying to force a short-squeeze.
Comrade Bear (tj & the bear) | 12.16.08 - 9:27 pm | #

I have to concur.  Not enough volume or movement to make it convincing.  I had to add to my short positon.  Still, I expect record levels of volitility until either the shorts or longs go broke.

these T-bond prices are being caused by some sort of extreme, synthetic domestic demand for the paper.
Austin Tex | 12.16.08 - 10:53 pm | #

I do not for a second belive it has anyting to do with any domestic demand.  Until proven otherwise, I am convinced that it is BIG money forign interests fleeing to a percived source of saftey in a volitile and uncertian environment.

mp:

That all-caps regional currency "rant" you put on that Saturday afternoon has stayed with me.

Noted that S America is having it's own little klatch without the US for a first. Would that be one? Doubtful since I don't see Brazil hooking up it's wagon to Argentina. Oil-rich Venezuela perhaps.

Some get put off that politics enters into this site and I understand why. But occurred to me that the formal name of the discipline used to be "Political Economics" as I recall.

What do you mean..nobody wants it.

IF you give me cash for 0% , I would take it. I have mortgages to pay for and credit card folks are breathing down my throat.

Right now the banks mortgage and credit card arms are writing their acceptance criteria for 0% money. Here is the pseudo-code:

If Need_0%_Cash = True Then
Reject Application
Else
Accept Application
End If

The Japanese enacted a 20% interest rate cap on consumer loans in 2006. The fact that consumer were paying as much as 30% interest rates after a decade of ZIRP should destroy the myth that 0% means free money for J6P.

More Board Members from Clearing House LLC

Juergen Fitschen\t\t207 Relationships\tDeutsche Bank AG\t59
Youssef Nasr\t\t105 Relationships\tHSBC Holdings plc\t53
William Harrison Jr.\t\t257 Relationships\tMerck & Co. Inc.\t64
Richard Kovacevich\t\t72 Relationships\tWells Fargo & Company\t64
G. Thompson\t\t72 Relationships\tFederal Reserve Bank of Richmond\t57
Martin Glynn\t\t154 Relationships\tMF Global Ltd\t56
Richard Davis\t\t48 Relationships\tUS Bancorp

"Trade wars baby, protectionism just like in the 30's"

Perhaps. But they still need what importing capacity we will have. I think, and fervently hope, that cooler heads will prevail - at least w.r.t. our major export markets.

I feel like the anti Jas/anti Mish.

What people have to remember is that confidence is the key, and what is starting to disappear is confidence in the ability of the US Government to successfully manage this crisis.

Not just confidence, but utter confidence in the purchasing power of assets denominated in dollars. The crisis in trade and letters of credit is the first big sign that the crisis is running far deeper than a contraction in the US economy.

Nobody would care that the US economy is finally having a recession, what they care about is the utter panic and disbelief in the actions of the politicians in charge.

That article in the Atlantic Monthly confirmed my Weltanschauung that we are in a path to a dollar crisis.

That crisis is tied up intimately with international trade, the dollar, and the glut of treasury bonds that sustained the BWII system.

That failure will have consequences beyond almost anything that people here are contemplating.

Now, I have a cold, and I am going to bed, good night all.

Someday this war's gonna end...

Anonymous makes a good point.

Final demand.

Everything proceeds from there. The US consumer as buyer of first resort is no longer confident enough to buy. The EU consumer is almost at that point. This is why the entire supply signal and production chain is breaking down.

In a JIT provision environment, dislocations at key points, whether credit, demand, supply, or failures mean the whole system is thrown into chaos.

Bad sh*t happens next.

C

As an aside before I retire and thank God that I didn't marry the ex-girlfriend.

This stuff absolutely makes me crazy.

But sometimes a few days off from this is healthy, too.

And there are worse things than a financial cluster...

Good night.

ps to sbalive: have to think about the BW II comment and whether it was because we were the consumers.

Used to have a girlfriend that carried one in her purse...
homedad43 | Homepage | 12.16.08 - 11:10 pm | #

That is an odd place to keep a wedding ring...

Is it too early for thread music posts??

Here's American Dreaming:

YouTube -

C

Click, click, click.

That's the sound that eminates from a handgun when the last bullet has been fired, and fear is the expression when the enemy is still heading towards you.

Congress passes historic bill. Saving money is now AGAINST THE LAW.

Asia just figured out Uncle Ben stuck a fork in thier ass.
Anonymous | 12.16.08 - 11:17 pm | #

Yessirree.  Â¥88.64 and headed towards the fields.

cd

While regulators screwed around with Martha Stewart they could have been using their massive resources to look at Madoff and probably a dozen or more others. They had information with much more potential investor damage about Madoff than they ever had on Stewart's lack of business judgment.

Mexico said on Tuesday

~~~~

Mexico is already in compliance ... production there is headed down sharply ...

Rmember back, when we used to care about the TED spread? Ahhhh the good old days.

craig --

whoops, $75 GDP, so i'm not a quant guy.

I would say you are overqualified by modern hedge fund standards.

Velocity matters also, and velocity has reduced a ton recently.
that's what the books say anyway.
\t craig | \t \t \t \t12.16.08 - 11:40 pm | #

Sliced in half (at least)
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Humpty Dumpty On Inflation

I have a question. I have my IRA cash in (Columbia Treasury Reserves) NDLXX with a 0.80% expense ratio. It is payiny 0% and I am wondering if it can go negative. What would be a good place to park this cash where it would be safe, liquid and not get a negative return rate?

NDLXX with a 0.80% expense ratio. It is payiny 0% and I am wondering if it can go negative.

Sorry to bear the bad news.  It's already negative.

craig- nicely done, someone who admits a quant mistake. I likum, likum a lot.

If only the rest of the industry had been so open.

Let alone engineering entire dark pools on dubious bases. This one has yet to pop, but pop it will.

Fuse lit, blue touch paper burning, stand well clear...

C

hell breaks loose when Soc Security recipients get a -COLA

And who in this world can back their currency with sufficient assets, said currency to be in wide circulation, readily accepted in international commerce?
Anoddamoose | 12.16.08 - 11:51 pm | #

I can back the new world reserver currency with all my assets right now.  You can audit me right after auditing the FED and their member banks "assets".

hell breaks loose when Soc Security recipients get a -COLA

butter | 12.16.08 - 11:55 pm | #

Have to wait a year for that. For 2009, it was something like +5.7%

--
"...what they care about is the utter panic and disbelief in the actions of the politicians in charge."

AllenM,

Why shouldn't people panic when they discover that Gangistan is in-charge and raping the public is their favorite sport?

BTW, born-and-bred American dopes are right every second of the clock. They are too stupid to know when they are wrong! They are BRED to never admit failure and to blame others, or attack others, for their own problems.

Dopeland is full of pychos. Gangistan and Dopeland are highly entertaining and it would be fully if it weren't so sad.

Jas

OT: been ripping my CD collection to disc (AAC, 320kpbs). If nothing else, so long as the power stays on, there is some fine, fine music to listen to while all hell is breaking loose. Need to stock up on scotch, tho.

"While regulators screwed around with Martha Stewart they could have been using their massive resources to look at Madoff and probably a dozen or more others. They had information with much more potential investor damage about Madoff than they ever had on Stewart's lack of business judgment."
--FFDIC

Stunning, isn't it? And now we see Chris Cox calling for an investigation.
Shocked, I tell you.

Bank Failure Friday may have to re-named 'Fess Up Friday. Maybe the SEC should have a quick look at the other suspicious activities that they have received warnings about over the last 10 years.

Better still, maybe we should declare a new Wall Street holiday: St. Ponzi's Day. Once each year, the crooks would have an opportunity to come clean in exchange for a fixed sentence of five years in Club Fed, a financial anal probe, and permanent banning. Crooks who failed to come clean on St. Ponzi's day, when caught, would get life in prison with weekly waterboarding and a cellmate named Bubba.

Some balance of incentives could be reached in which it would be better to come clean. Of course, one could argue that Madoff was a psychopath and would never have taken a clean way out. I'm interested in others opinions on this, but it seems like providing the option might work in some cases at least.

Jas Jain | Homepage | 12.16.08 - 11:57 pm

Too true I'm afraid ...

I like to think of myself as not being a dope but I'm sure surrounded by them ...

The SEC has been a joke for the better part of a decade. They used to be fairly respectable ... and feared. Thanks again, chimp.

I guess we're all dopes now...
.
sm_landlord

~~~~

Part of the same receding tide ... we're just dopes who know it ...

What if GLD is another Maddoff enterprise ?

No gold in the vault.

mmckinl | 12.17.08 - 12:09 am | #

Nothing domestic, never fear

"gold"
--bgates

Been there since 2001, but loaded up some more miners last week. I sure hope I'm right. So far, gold been berry berry good to me (other than a few scary months this year). But I expect the govt to find a way to screw me on that as well.

Ok folks here's the real economy fracture, I'll do bonds and Asian equities later tonight, but here you have a serious demand collapse and a series of price signals:

Pacific Shipper Online -- Buckling under

C - in public service mode.

"GOP budget plan: Slash $10 billion from schools"

~~~~~

Schools don't vote ?

"GOP budget plan: Slash $10 billion from schools"
--Speed

Do you live in California? Maybe even in LA? The wastage is beyond description. It really does not surprise me that some people are taking the "starve the beast" approach to California schools. They spend untold billions on facilities but don't buy enough textbooks. They protect incompetent teachers with tenure but do not staff other classes. School boards play political games with administrators, who play political games with teachers, and teachers manipulate the process through their unions. It is the most unbelievably fscked up system, even Rube Goldberg would be shamed if it were his creation.

California badly needs real education reform, starting with the elimination of elected school boards and the teacher's union. Real reform could proceed from there.

Yo folks

Here's the Asia bond picture, not looking that great, and I'll get currencies up simult:

\tVALUE\tCHANGE\t% CHANGE
Nikkei 225\t8,490.00\t-70.00\t-0.82
Topix\t822.00\t-6.00\t-0.72
Hang Seng\t15,266.00\t197.00\t1.31
Singapore Straits Times\t1,786.00\t10.00\t0.56
S&P/ASX\t3,530.00\t-25.00\t-0.70

And here's how currencies thought Bernanke's moves were really kinda cool. Not.

\tVALUE\tCHANGE\t% CHANGE
USD-JPY\t88.4190\t-0.6395\t-0.72
USD-HKD\t7.7500\t-0.0001\t-0.00
USD-SGD\t1.4564\t-0.0037\t-0.25
AUD-USD\t0.6972\t0.0030\t0.43

Jeebus, yen:USD at 88?

Time to re-post some blues:
YouTube - PJ Harvey - Down By The Water

C

"Jeebus, yen:USD at 88?"
--Counterpointer

And this surprises you because...???

Futures looking anemic ...

Dow -86