SNL: Geithner Cold Open

in

"Geithner parody" is redundant.

Also it was not a very good impersonation; he didn't once gesture like he was fondling something.

Dr. Strangeloan, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the derivative

Geithner: "Who is laughing now?"

Nemo, he should have been looking through his eyebrows more often.

It takes a very long time to change the direction of a market as large as the treasury market. Even the Federal Reserve, with its unlimited printing presses, can only move it slowly.

A deflating bubble

"Confidence in the U.S. dollar is ‘fraying’ and a shift away from the greenback after the financial crisis is inevitable."
- Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz

At the start of the year I said that the treasury market was a bubble that had to burst. There was no justification for such low yields.
Those who sold their treasuries at that time would have saved themselves from very significant losses.

Since then private foreign investors have consistently been net sellers of our debt. Even central bank buying hasn't been enough to offset it.
There's no secret why that has happened - we've been selling them bad debt.

Without the foreign creditors, and without any real domestic savings, we have no choice to fund our federal borrowing by turning to the federal reserve's printing press. This also has consequences (Reuters) - China and other emerging nations back Russia's call for a discussion on how to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency, a senior Russian government source said on Thursday.

China cancels America's credit card
Daily Kos: China cancels America's credit card

When this all plays out, Geithner will be as popular as Mrs. Oleary's cow.

Quit whining. You are not mentally equipped to deal with the challenges that face the United States of America. These men and women are experts in their fields and they understand the problems, and are supremely qualified to find the solutions. So stop the bleating!

reposted cause I spent so much time typing it to see a pig looking at me

This is the Rules! Please observe them.

  1. Continue working while you can. If you become unemployed, it is up to you to retrain in a field that will continue or improve your purchasing power. This is America! Dream big and win big!
  2. Do not curtail purchases. Real Americans believe in themselves and the future. Do not drag you, and your country down. by saving, bleating, or posting doom crap on blogs.
  3. Sure there may be a period of belt tightening. Remain compasionate and support those less fortunate than you in the absence of a government safety net. Remember! Americans can sacrifice, and rest assured you are building character and a better future!
  4. Should you find yourself in a cardboard box eating tuna from a can and trembling at the sound of approaching foot steps - remember this! You had your chance. You were obviously not loved by God or really stupid to allow yourself to get in this predicament. It is okay though. Your government still loves you.

Senate Provides Quatloos Regularly

Hail Caesar!

I don't understand the scoring system. I thought Citibank got all the answers correct.

The Russians and the Chinese could have made loans in Botswana pulas, Albanian Leks, Crotian Francs or Cape Verde Escutos or any other currency if they wanted to. But instead they bought (and continue to buy) and loan money to Americans investing in dollars. When I make a bad investment no one bails me out. Caveat emptor, you guys.

The Eastern Front is a Potemkin Village of financial chicanery hidden in plain sight.

The past 10 years are the golden age in modern Chinese history
The past 10 years are end of golden age of middle class America although most don't realize it yet.
So really "Who is laughing now?"

Imagine if currencies were rated like NFL Teams?

We'd be the Oakland Raiders.

Once again, satire - like that from Jon Stewart and Colbert - is more informing and accurate than Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN et.al.

I loved Obama's line from the Correspondent's Dinner last night (roughly) that everyone in DC was treating Geithner like a fire hydrant (but Beau, the First Dog, was being trained not to follow the others).

RD (reposted from old serious banking thread)
re: leverage and velocity

Not to nitpick but just so I understand, aren't these factors actually just another way of restating the other parts of the equation? That is reduced leverage is a reduction in the types of products and velocity is the smaller volume of loans?

Tom Stone: I think cat food was intended instead of tuna. But even then, cat food is pricey stuff, and so is peanut butter.

The stress tests were graded on the curve, Debtman's Curve.

Up to three. From Veratect:
US: Most recent fatal case in the United States registered in Washington State.

Had a death in Costa Rica too. Wonder what the WHO will say tomorrow.

JimPortlandOR,

We live in a bizzaro world.

"Nova,who can afford Tuna? "

That stuff from Thailand is pretty cheap; but I've seen the Thai fishing fleet, and can tell you why.

The only good thing I have seen in the last 24 hours were rhianna's "leaked" nude selfshots. We live in an interesting world.

posted previously

US swine flu overtakes Mexico's as number of American cases soars to almost 3,000

US swine flu overtakes Mexico's as number of American cases soars to almost 3,000 - Telegraph

and this

Debating the Wisdom of ‘Swine Flu Parties’

- NY Times

Outlier (profile) wrote on Sun, 5/10/2009 - 9:21 am reply Ignore user
RD (reposted from old serious banking thread)
re: leverage and velocity
Not to nitpick but just so I understand, aren't these factors actually just another way of restating the other parts of the equation? That is reduced leverage is a reduction in the types of products and velocity is the smaller volume of loans?

I thought Wally answered this very nicely in that thread. Reduced leverage means their larger cut (spread) occurs less often and reduced velocity means they cannot double count the same money as it circulates and effectively take a cut of the float. So plus spread, minus volume, minus leverage, minus float and the banks prospects for real profitability is not good.

" I think cat food was intended instead of tuna. But even then, cat food is pricey stuff, and so is peanut butter. "

Exactly. So much of what is touted as TEOTWAWKI food is exotic, and someday perhaps extravagent. There's a tremendous amount of energy in foods like tuna and peanut butter that we cannot replicate in our backyards.

When we get to soy based foods like tempeh for protein, supplemented with cassava for carbs, let me know. A lot of smart people work all day everyday for just enough of it to continue the next day. Might cue soylent green is people for the haiku.

Don't know if there are any Howard fans here, but I just found out that there is a completed Solomon Kane movie (apparently the first of a trilogy) waiting to pick up a US distributor. No trailer yet, but it sounds interesting although I wish we had not included an origin story. Kane didn't need one. He just was. Sounds more promising than anything else coming out this summer though. Hope it comes out on the big screen and not just dvd.

one area for the banks will make a tidy profit is DIP financing. the lenders here were not a bank, instead PE, but banks are getting in the action.

WSJ Error Page - WSJ.com

GGP gets to pay LIBOR + 1200 bps + super-priority status! of course, priority isn't what it used to be...

Actually, this skit was not making fun of Geithner- it was making fun of the banks.

Actually, this skit was not making fun of Geithner- it was making fun of the banks.

The skit was making fun of taxpayers

Thanks. I'm just playing devil's advocate here in the bear den. This race between profits and write-offs seems like the central issue to me in how this plays out in the next 6 months. Didn't want to accept an argument favoring one outcome without knowing what data to analyze going forward.

I disagree with CR from the previous post.
The banks will have to show profits from here out not just in Q2, and Q3. Not only that they have to improve. They set the bar high in Q1.

"Sign" of the Times
http://media.npr.org/blogs/globalpoolofmoney/images/2009/02/forsale.jpg

"........private foreign investors have consistently been net sellers of our debt. Even central bank buying hasn't been enough to offset it."

........Jan & Feb 09 TIC is upside down $250-billion so far (more outgo) - March figures come out about 5/15. If this continues, this IS "end-game".

I am a slow learner. What finally got my attention this Mother's Day was the unemployment numbers. Am I correct in that for every month we add 500K to the unemployed, almost that same amount drops off the U-3 and moves to U-6? Because this "recession" is so long winded, almost as many are dropping off the released U3 rolls - moving to U6. Afterwhich they drop off from there never to be seen again. This doesn't even take into account the millions of 1099 people. 8.9%? BS - more like a REAL 20% PLUS 1099 people. That's Depression stats Folks!

Job losses slow, but is it from government hiring? | McClatchy

CR - thank you for posting this! I was planning on searching for it. Actually somewhat informative for those who don't follow the economy closely.

Far Out Economic News

If you were fortunate enough to be hiding under a rug or rock or prescient enough to have taken a soma holiday last week you missed some far out news. Those who were cognizant are suffering serious doom fatigue. Here’s a recap of links collected from last week, mostly from other commentators here.

.

News heat map

Newsmap
.

Markets heat map

3D Map Heatmap 12/7/2009

.

Animated scary map of employment since 2004

The Geography of Jobs - TIP Strategies 
.

Employment situation smells of ass: “EMRATIO is officially into uncharted waters…”

http://energyecon.blogspot.com/2009/04/emratio-rate-of-change-and-civpart.html
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EMRATIO: Civilian Employment-Population Ratio sporting 1985 big hair

St. Louis Fed: Series: EMRATIO, Civilian Employment-Population Ratio 
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Uncle Tom Obama is hiring part timers! “an army of some 140,000 workers hired in part with a $700 million taxpayer-funded contract to collect GPS readings for every front door in the nation.”

Census GPS-tagging your home's front door
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Mortgage reset porn apropos.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_pMscxxELHEg/RxzD0s_7EYI/AAAAAAAABB4/ljDSXZhMG3o/s1600-h/IMFresets.jpg

copy
.

Home values plunge up to 30 percent in Clearwater coastal areas: la dee da

Home values plunge up to 30 percent in Clearwater coastal areas - St. Petersburg Times
.
Commercial Mortgage Delinquencies Increase Sharply
Commercial Mortgage Delinquencies Increase Sharply
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Distillate demand down 17.7% YOY. (see bottom)

The page cannot be found

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Auto sales plunge to near 30-year lows

Yahoo! 404 - Page Not Found
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Chrysler Files Bankruptcy - Part I: Assessing The Financial Carnage

bankruptcy chrysler Bankruptcy Litigation Blog: Chrysler Files Bankruptcy - Part I: Assessing The Financial Carnage
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Chrysler bankruptcy derivatives shenanigans

Chrysler Bankruptcy: Were CDSs the culprit? - BloggingStocks
.

MBIA Files Lawsuit against Merrill Lynch; Company Seeks Rescission and Damages for Misrepresentation and Breach of Contract in Connection with $5.7 Billion of Credit Default Swap Contracts

Yahoo! 404 - Page Not Found
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Scary Summary of Rail Freight Traffic: bloody

Railfax Report - North American Rail Freight Traffic Carloading Report 

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Baltic Dry Index: cost of shipping dry raw materials by sea

Baltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI) & Freight Rates 

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Lonely green shoot: ISM March vs. April

Chart via econompicdata.blogspot.com
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Wall Street Oligarchs Engineer Stock Market Recovery: worthwhile exposition and recap of macro and market situation.

Wall Street Oligarchs Engineer Stock Market Recovery :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website
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Zerohedge continues to add fiber to your data diet: “The major observation is that market dispersion does not exist any more, and all asset class returns are tracking each other with impunity - buy one thing and you buy everything:”

Market Dispersion Has Collapsed - “Systemic Correlation Is At October 1987 Levels”

Blogger: Page not found

Zero Hedge: Bizarro Market: End Of Week Edition

Zero Hedge: Bizarro Market: End Of Week Edition
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Naked emperor GS

Zero Hedge: The Incredibly Shrinking Market Liquidity, Or The Upcoming Black Swan Of Black Swans

Zero Hedge: The Incredibly Shrinking Market Liquidity, Or The Upcoming Black Swan Of Black Swans

Zero Hedge: Goldman Sachs Principal Transactions Update: 25% Drop

Zero Hedge: Goldman Sachs Principal Transactions Update: 25% Drop

Why This Rally Is Unsustainable — Seeking Alpha

Why This Rally Is Unsustainable -- Seeking Alpha

Reggie Middleton’s Boom Bust Blog - Reggie Middleton Releases More Goldman Sachs Secrets that Tim Geithner Might not Share with You!

Reggie Middleton's Boom Bust Blog - Reggie Middleton Releases More Goldman Sachs Secrets that Tim Geithner Might not Share with You!
.

Bank Stocks and ETFs Encompass 41% Of Today’s NYSE Volume

StreetInsider.com - Bank Stocks and ETFs Encompass 41% Of Today's NYSE Volume 
StreetInsider.com - Bank Stocks and ETFs Encompass 41% Of Today’s NYSE Volume

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Gambling in ultra short garbage ETFs continues to draw selling pressure off of stocks: FAZ volume

http://pragcap.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/fazzy.png
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According to S&P: S&P 500 PE as of 12-31-08 = 60.7, Earnings -23.25 (spreadsheet)

Someone should tell them a positive number divided by a negative number is a NEGATIVE NUMBER!

http://www2.standardandpoors.com/portal/site/sp/en/us/page.topic/indices_500/2,3,2,2,0,0,0,0,0,1,5,0,0,0,0,0.html 
.

WSJ reports S&P 500 PE as 15.08!

P/Es & Yields on Major Indexes - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com 

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PE on this

MarketGauge by DataView, LLC

BullandBearWise.com - S&P 500 Price/Earnings Ratio

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Say I start a dog grooming business and earn $10,000 per year. Then I form a corporation and run my sales through that so I can deduct my business expenses and take advantage of the corporate liability shield.

What dollar value would you assign to my corporation?

Does $515,300.00 sound about right to you?

That would give my dog grooming company a price/earnings ratio of 51.53, The same PE as the 2000 smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index.

.

Fed shows its fetid underbelly: buying treasury debt.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Permanent Open Market Operations

Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Permanent Open Market Operations 
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Fed needs to roll over 1.4 trillion by June.

energyecon: Treasury Marketable Debt Maturity Redux
energyecon: Treasury Marketable Debt Maturity Redux 

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10 year bond yield up 13.45% in ten days from 2.9% to 3.29%

10-YEAR TREASURY NOTE Index Chart - Yahoo! Finance
10-YEAR TREASURY NOTE Index Chart - Yahoo! Finance

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China fears bond crisis as it slams quantitative easing

China fears bond crisis as it slams quantitative easing - Telegraph
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TREASURY AUCTION RESULTS : echo chamber

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2009/R_20090507_1.pdf
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Fed funds rate near bottom of long term cycle.

http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/hello/101/3984/1024/K-Cycle-Interest-Rates.jpg

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Money multiplier fallen and can’t get up

St. Louis Fed: Series: MULT, M1 Money Multiplier

St. Louis Fed: Series: MULT, M1 Money Multiplier 
.

Money supply can get it up

St. Louis Fed: Series: MZM, MZM Money Stock

St. Louis Fed: Series: MZM, MZM Money Stock
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Purchasing Power of the USD (1920-2009)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FM71j6-VkNE/SgRR6Evs8cI/AAAAAAAACck/vX71NmV4yx0/s1600-h/purchasing+power.gif

.

A brilliant idea,

Obama Wants Fed to Be Finance Supercop:

t r u t h o u t | Obama Wants Fed to Be Finance Supercop: Sources
.

FDIC Insures $4.7 Trillion in Deposits with a $13.6 Billion Deposit Insurance Fund.

FDIC Insures $4.7 Trillion in Deposits with a $13.6 Billion Deposit Insurance Fund. This is Like Going into a Hurricane with a 99 Cent Store Umbrella.
.

Consumer credit suicide leap

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FM71j6-VkNE/SgM0TELgdQI/AAAAAAAACbM/Y5WlDA0jmY8/s1600-h/consumer+credit+bberg.gif
.

Shit on a stick

FITB: 8.49 +3.14 (58.81%) - Fifth Third Bancorp

Fifth Third Bancorp - Google Finance

COF - Capital One Financial Corp. - Google Finance

Capital One Financial Corp. - Google Finance 

Simon Property Plans Second Stock Sale Since March - WSJ.com
Simon Property Plans Second Stock Sale Since March - WSJ.com

B. of A. to sell 1.25 billion common shares - MarketWatch

B. of A. to sell 1.25 billion common shares - MarketWatch

Swine Flu and Bird Flu Stocks Index (*RXFLU) at tickerspy.com

Swine and Bird Flu stocks
.

Doom

The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It) — Seeking Alpha

The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It) -- Seeking Alpha
.

Interesting graph from resident party animal Broward illustrating efficacy of mass media “green shoots” saturation bombing.

http://www.realmeme.com/roller/page/realmeme?entry=green_shoots 

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Penis extension

http://uk.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20070503&t=2&i=742622&w=450&r=742622

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Don’t go to sleep in the Denver Airport

Flickr Photo Download: Scary airport art
Flickr Photo Download: Scary airport art

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Taffy for Krugman

James Candy Company manufacturers of salt water taffy and other boardwalk candy-James’ 1 lb Box of Chocolate Seal Taffy
James Candy Company manufacturers of salt water taffy and other boardwalk candy-James' 1 lb Box Chocolate Sealed Taffy 

june-july should be interesting for unemployment numbers.

a bunch of graduates with no jobs, followed by a bunch of teacher and other state employee layoffs...
guess they can all become census takers.

You must listen to this if you plan on living for the next 8 years.

Hear: Japan's Lost Lesson - Planet Money Blog : NPR

what will be the next big event?

"Large pools of 'pent up demand' are forming and will soon begin to be transformed into actual spending. First quarter (growth) estimates indicate that consumer spending is coming back," William Dunkelberg, the chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a survey

I can see the pools from here.... What a steaming pile of horse puckey...

I think the truth will start to hit home even more when the segment of the population who feels like the economy has just stumbled a bit and everything will be fine in a couple of months realize their children can't get real jobs with real hours. There is a peace and love type who works in my wife's office who is so mad at his son for enlisting in the army. Son couldn't find anything else. The weird thing here is that there are lots of job wanted posters around, but no one is paying enough or giving enough hours for takers. That will change soon as well I believe.

My best guess still involves some large entities unable to make payroll or pay pensions.

National Bankruptcies... Russia?. Afghanistan conflicts spills over to Islamabad. Reality hits bank balance sheets.

$4 gasoline. look what that did, and the dow was still above 11000

Vb77,

On May 8 the European CDC made an interesing language change in their daily sitreps,

from May 7 report "no evidence of sustained transmission within the EU"
http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/files/pdf/Health_topics/Situation_Report_090507.pdf

to "No sustained community transmission is currently reported from any EU and EFTA countries, however sporadic cases of in-country transmission are continuing to be
identified."
http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/files/pdf/Health_topics/Situation_Report_090508.pdf

Detail item noted in the May 8 report that I have seen no follow up on, all previous detail information on in-country transmissions has been to determine that case to be acquired from as part of a cluster associated with close contacts of a returned traveller (not tertiary transmission):
In-country transmission was reported in four new confirmed cases in Spain, no further information is available on these cases.

Pension failures could wake up ordinary people in ways colorful graphs never can.

It is ironic but the USA might go bust before Russia, this time.

Japan's Financial Crisis and Its Parallels to US Experience

"A combination of mismanaged partial deregulation and regulatory forebearance gave rise to the crisis and allowed it to deepen, and only the closure of some banks and injection of new capital into others began the resolution. The Bank of Japan’s monetary policy from the late 1980s onward, however, was increasingly out of step with US or other developed country norms. In particular, the Bank of Japan’s limited response to deflation after being granted independence in 1998 stands out as a dangerous and unusual stance."

You forgot this piece of news: S&P up 6%. Fits in with the rest, no?

Tim waiting for 2012,

That DEBT to GDP ratio isn't as scary as it looks- thanks to Medicare, we will all live to 120, thus giving ourselves enough time to pay off our debts using our Social Security and our returns on our pensions. [/sarcasm]

Container shipping traffic
Baltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI) & Freight Rates 

Actually, the Baltic Dry Index is not related to container traffic. It reflects the cost of transporting bulk dry raw materials by sea.

Yancey +1 We live to 120. Everyone under 50 will be out of work

MrM. Ever take physics, Even a bowling ball can bounce.

"Star Trek’ Makes $72.5 Million, a Franchise Record"

“Star Trek” topped the series’ previous high, $30.7 million in first-weekend sales for 1996’s “Star Trek: First Contact,”

Of course ticket cost about 30-50% more now. However I see this as a disappointment as Wolverine made 85 million. That movie was panned by critics and released two weeks early on the internet,

Are we predicting the future? The next big event?

The smart robots arrive and take over all work... All humans are given a generous living allowance. The price of goods represents the cost of production plus a demand premium... The standard of living is 10 times better than today... Everything is kept spotless and sterilized by swarms of cleaning robots... Infectious diseases are a thing of the past... A small percentage of humans commits suicide as they are unable to psychologically adjust to the new lifestyle... Humans realize they no longer need to accumulate goods and spend their time traveling the globe with no luggage, confident that they can get what they need when they arrive at their destination... Japanese style 'Cube Hotels' become the dominant mode of housing... The largest project underway is the construction of a massive interplanetary space vehicle, actually a small planet, to be used to spread humanity throughout the universe...

Remember folks, you heard it here first!!

damn doomers. You can not stop the power of The Green Shoots!!!

Shadow. "Spread Humanity and freedom" Robots will do the rowing on the spaceship until they realize that they are second class citizens... segue to 2018 Judgment Day.

There is long lagtime between the onset of the symptoms of a terminal illness in a public pension plan and its ultimate demise. Based on my state's most recent report, I'd say palliative measures will buy two years of extended life expectancy.

I usually dont see movies but I did watch "Wall-E" with my granddaughter... Even though it was a cartoon I was thinking these are the blueprints... Check out all the fat people reclined in front of a screen, sipping sugary beverages... Uh oh - I are one of those...

Listeners moan at (real) Geithner press conference (at 0:50).

YouTube - Geithner: Stress Tests Bring Transparency

Tim I never thought of it that way but you are right - does look a lot like a morgue... I would imagine that the hotelier sometimes thinks of it that way too - probably has to get the coroner from time to time...

Incidentally those cube hotels also rent chairs for overnight sleeping, for those who cant afford the cube... it's rather popular amongst the young men who stay out late drinking - they get a recliner to sleep in and access to the bathroom - but no privacy...

Also - only one person per capsule please... and it is segregated by sex too...

I wonder if you could even get a building permit for a cube hotel anywhere in the USA?

what will be the next big event?

I'd guess... muni bond auction failure in any of the usual suspects.

New FY coming up very soon.

"The smart robots arrive and take over all work... All humans are given a generous living allowance. The price of goods represents the cost of production plus a demand premium"

And then some psycho starts WWIII because "this endless partying with morons is just so boring and torturing robots just does not feel like the real thing" Smile

bobn
Thanks.
Did you get that part where it shows Geitnher and Bernanke giggling like school girls and they are scolded by a lady off camera, "Be serious guys"

Star Trek for tv series!!!!

Morse Code Otis, why doncha cheer us up even more.

That Seeking Alpha Senario is especially up lifting.

A few years ago I had a chance to attend a meeting at Intel.... They brought in some people who talked about their latest processors etc... So I said looks like the computer biz is getting a little flat, have you thought about what else you could make that would sell hundreds of millions of units and everyone would want? They just sort of looked vacant.... Japan is way ahead of USA in robots and the way I see it that is the next big thing - truly smart, all networked, robots... even our transports will be robots - no more driving - I cant wait... At my age it wears me out to have to focus on driving for more than a few hours... Housecleaning is also one of my least favorite activities and I will be happy to hand that over to the robots... I like cooking though so I would probably keep doing some of that...

Here's a link to some of Marshall Brain's great stuff...

Robotic Nation, by Marshall Brain

Also by Marshall Brain - How Stuff Works - one of the best sites ever...

HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works!

JUST IN CASE the still believe that 401ks are not a crock of stuff. Here is further evidence.

401(k)s Hit by Withdrawal Freezes

When Ed Dursky was laid off from his job at a manufacturing company in March, he couldn't withdraw $40,000 from his 401(k) retirement account invested in the Principal U.S. Property Separate Account.

That fund, which invests directly in office buildings and other properties, had stopped allowing most investors to make withdrawals last fall as many of its holdings became hard to sell.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/401ks-hit-withdrawal-freezes/story.aspx?guid={983D252E-EAA9-4012-A8D0-0F358A272698}

Heinlein.

Door Into Summer

Household robots.

By 2000.

And all we got was the Roomba.

Every once in a while the Merrill Lynch people call me up to get me to invest in something.
Not yet I say.

Will be going out for a nice dinner for mother's day.

Any guesses about next Mother's day?

Here's a fictional novel about the age of nanotechnology... It's another book I would say is a lot like 20,000 leagues under the sea, a blueprint for the future...

The Diamond Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The roomba works well on solid flooring but not so well on carpet or big messes...

I have bought several books by Neal St and have never been able to get through any of them. My fault perhaps.

I want a metal (or plastic) slave who will clean the kitchen, wash the dishes and clean out the refrigerator. Messes and all. And keep the floor clean. And chase the cats off the countertops.

I would pay a great deal of money for this, if they lasted a really long time.

isn't that what the SO is for?

I would pay a great deal of money for this... That's what I was pointing out to Intel but they are all up in their chips and cant see out...

I think a truly smart personal robot would command a price equal to a big SUV...

Here is a sad metric for the overall economy - food bank drive by the post office - when demand is skyrocketing....

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drives Comes Up Short
[snip]
Two years ago the food drive brought in more than 100-thousand pounds of food.

Last year that number fell to 65-thousand.

And this year, another drop, just 55-thousand pounds of food was collected.
Stamp Out Hunger Food Drives Comes Up Short - KMPH Fox 26 Central San Joaquin Valley News Source in Fresno, California Entertainment, News, Sports and Weather |

3. Sure there may be a period of belt tightening. Remain compasionate and support Goldman Sachs in the absence of a government safety net. Remember! Americans can sacrifice, and rest assured you are building character and a better future!

Fixed your typo.

i want a younger clone of me to entertain my girlfriend a while before i harvest his liver.

"To sell property at inappropriately low prices in order to generate cash for a few would hurt the majority of investors and violate our fiduciary obligations," said Terri Hale, spokeswoman for Principal Financial Group Inc., the parent of the fund's manager. The fund, which had $4.3 billion in net assets at the end of April, still is making distributions for death, disability, hardship and retirement at normal retirement age.
As of April 28, redemption requests that had yet to be honored totaled nearly $1.1 billion, or roughly 26% of the fund's net assets. Principal doesn't anticipate that it will make any distributions to investors who have requested redemptions until late 2009 or beyond, Ms. Hale said. Meanwhile, the fund continues to fall, declining 25% in the 12 months ending April 30.

Lots of people have no idea what their 401k is invested in. If you ask them what their retirement funds are invested in, they reply "It's in a 401k"... then I say but the 401k is just a container, what's the money in? They have no idea.... and a lot of the fund administrators seem to be getting kickbacks from the plan sellers too - I worked at a place where the plan was so awful I couldnt believe it, and when I talked to the plan admin about getting some no load funds in there her response was "These are long term investments." I was once again thankful that I was a contractor with a SEP-IRA....

Insane Clown Posse - and then they voted...

Hee hee, you'll like this one seriously, liz

Dan Reeder - You'll Never Surf Again

YouTube - Dan Reeder - You'll Never Surf Again

Yeah, at least if I pick wrong for my IRA, I have nobody but myself to blame.

Never Surf Again was average, in my opinion, but I really liked the pictures of the curling wave water tunnels

re: Pension funds
American version of Japanese cross-ownership effective leverage.

Your clone would trash his liver as well.

For the liver: milk thistle.

You know, I'm surprised no one has yet made the comparison between China's handling of their economy and our own. For years we have criticized and mocked them for artificially controlling their economy by limited the value of their currency. We boasted about free markets and the like. And here we are, rigging the stock market so that it can only go up.

japan's government public employee pension fund has like 1.1 Trillion in assets. not bad for a country of 110M total.

I saw endless summer.

Those gorgeous surfer dudes and dudettes have problems?

Oh, Danny, doncha know the stock mkt only goes up anyhow?

lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 5/10/2009 - 11:07 am
Heinlein. Door Into Summer Household robots. By 2000. And all we got was the Roomba.

Hi Liz, (Happy Mother's Day where applicable),

Please enjoy the book "Hacking the Roomba" to extend and enjoy your roombatic enterprises. Remember, motors and processors are the basis for non-carbon life forms. They just need your programming skills. Hacking Roomba

Also, "we" not only got the Roomba we got robots with weapons. But we don't get to use them:
iRobot Corporation: Government & Industrial Robots
Irobot Warrier, Irobot Ranger, Irobot Packbot.

etc.,etc.

The packbot has an eerie similarity to the walkers in Star Wars

Mount a twin 30mm cannon on it and it would be a killer! Literally!

[There was no justification for such low yields]

Of course not by purely economic measures, but fear of all risk based assets drove yields into the root cellar. Could happen again if there are big dislocations as a result of GM/Chrysler or other big institutions... or a clear leg down in the real economy.

But, I could easily see gains in the dallah or treasuries... on the heels of a large scale dangerous international conflict. Aside from that, Jas is screwed...

Apparently "education" does not include finance.
404 | MiamiHerald.com

Worse, despite a good credit history, Kearns' bank reduced her card limit and increased her interest rate from 9.9 percent to a numbing 25 percent.
...
The survey also found that about two in five students charged items knowing they wouldn't have the money to pay for them.
...
''There are many indicators that student debt is the next big crash to happen,'' Peters said. ``We already have been seeing it in the delinquency rates. It will not be good.''

Doom is easy to find. I'm gonna start me a doom bank.

"Those gorgeous surfer dudes and dudettes have problems? "

As long as they have adequate supplies of baby wax for their surfboards.

Adam Davidson on this week's Planet Money thinks Elizabeth Warren is a left wing partisan.

Naturally they select the segments that show her yelling while he's not yelling, as if that proves anything.

Then they have the gall to sit around and criticize her and the COP between themselves.

Hear: Elizabeth Warren Checks In - Planet Money Blog : NPR 

What he and his buddy fail to realize is that the middle class in America is in fact disappearing and that it is happening in large part because of the emphasis being placed on the banking system.

Planet Money's position is that all efforts should be focused on the banks and that we should only be concerned with the American family once the 'crisis' is over (no timeframe suggested).

Those guys have been bought off by the bankers and they have a lot to learn about being fair to NPR's guests.

"Doom is easy to find. I'm gonna start me a doom bank. "

I heard they pay good money for good news at Ebay.

Rex - the person referenced in that story is 33 and still not graduated ... Carrying any balance on a credit card is a sure sign of financial ignorance... Never borrow money to buy a depreciating asset.... What do you bet she is working on a degree in 'education'.... as Walter Williams says, "The Education Dept. is the intellectual wasteland in every university."

It was a bad sign when first the government gave $700 Billion to the banks and then it occured to someone that they should run a test to find out if the banks need money.

sportsfan,

It's been disappointing to note both NPR and the New Yorker departing from past resourcefulness. Or am I getting old, now?

After reading the article in the Miami Herald again, I see she is working on a degree in healthcare administration.... oh great, she wants to be in charge of a hospital's budget? Well,not to get too excited - I always think that these writers make this stuff up anyway...

burnside, I'm not that far behind you. It's an interesting experience.

They are. All the way to the bank in Caymans, or some other out of the IRS eyes..

Davidson could seriously be out of a job following this train wreck of an interview. The backlash has been building fiercely since Friday.

"Up to three. From Veratect:
US: Most recent fatal case in the United States registered in Washington State."

I wonder how many folks died in car crashes during the same time period?

It's amazing we've reached a place where the Treasury Secretary is famous enough to be parodied on SNL! Geithner's a star, and it's a little scary haha! How many Treasury Secretaries, in the last 50 years, could the average American recognize?

I enjoyed the skit because the underlying message was: the stress tests weren't all that stressful. And for people who follow along, stress tests are done by banks, to themselves, all of the time. So what was the Treasury planning to learn? I've seen better impressions, but Forte gave us that Geithner aura we've all grown accustomed to. How would you describe it...vainglorious?

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