October 2008

Here’s what was bouncing all over my brain today: 1. Desert of the Real 2. Don’t Buy Cheap Stocks 3. Greenspan Put Counterparty? 1. Real headline today: “Brazil Plans to Sell $50 Billion of Currency Swaps to Defend Value of Real.” If only the real values of the real contracts for real currency swaps were real, then that real headline might really indicate that the financial ... read more

So many stocks look so cheap.  Last night during Revolutionomics class at Seton Hall, my students and I ran through cursory balance sheet and price to earnings ratio analysis for a bunch of different companies. Great companies like Caterpillar, now down 70% from their recent highs, are trading at single digit P/E ratios.  Cat's gonna earn about $6 per share this year and with the stock ... read more

From every dingy basement, on every dingy street, Every dragging handclap over every dragging beat, It's just the beat of time, the beat that must go on, If you've been trying for years, we 'ready heard your song Death or glory, becomes just another story. Death or glory, just another story? We gonna march, a long way, Fight, a long time, We gonna fight, your brother, We gonna fight, ... read more

I'm sick and tired of waking up so sick of waking up sick and tired" -- Merle Haggard I'm sick of ranting about this $2.25 trillion bail out package that we just sent to the the Wall Street and other biggest banks in this country. But not quite as sick of ranting as I am by the fear-mongering cronies, their politicians and the rich elite pundits all of whom directly benefit from the bailout ... read more

Here’s what I was redistributing upwardly in my own head today: 1. Market? What Market? 2. Insuring Insured Insurance 3. Bernanke’s a Total Idiot 1. All these government interventions are, by definition, to manipulate the market. Ultimately, we, the public, will never have confidence (or the even more rudimentary principle of faith) in our systems while the central powers of the ... read more

"You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail." -- Catch 22, Joseph Heller I know I'm supposed to believe that since the politicians who created this economic crisis are sending trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to the bankers who created this economic crisis as well as hundreds of billions of ... read more

1. Oxymoronic Free-Market Republican 2. Freedom Is Always Right 3. Patterns of Randomness 1. Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, Neel Kashkari, says he’s a “free market republican”. Talk about an oxy-moron. Republicans aren’t for free markets and the fact that this dude in charge of $2.25 trillion dollars already is partisan is exactly why ... read more

Old man lying by the side of the road with the lorries rolling by, Blue moon sinking from the weight of the load and the building scrape the sky, Cold wind ripping down the allay at dawn and the morning paper flies, Dead man lying by the side of the road with the daylight in his eyes. Dont let it bring you down, its only castles burning, Find someone whos turning, and you will come around. ... read more

Here’s what was hitting 52 week lows in my head today: 1. Inside Intervention Information? 2. Stuck in the Middle with You 3. Renters to Bailout Hedge Funds? 1. We’ve debated on this show whether the government ever steps in and buys futures to prop up the markets and make their interventions look good. I had a billion dollar hedge fund manager tell me he was getting long for a ... read more

I wrote on Monday about following the playbook that I'd outlined last week -- that you wanted to sell the record-breaking rally on Monday, when the DJIA clawed back above 9000.   Well, this is why we put together a play book to begin with.  (I read on Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback this week that Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns invented the playbook...come on, surely other sports ... read more