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  • January 16, 2009 03:43 PM EST by Cody Willard

    Weekend Vittles: Someone Better Define "Nationalization" for the FDIC, Behind in the Emails, The Problem with Relative Bailouts, and Market Outlook

    * My SpokeUp.com Bookmark of the day: ” FDIC's Bair Says She'd Be `Very Surprised' by U.S. Bank Nationalization”. When the largest bank in the US, Citigroup has taken in half a trillion in welfare and the US government is now telling it what assets to buy and sell and when, including forcing Citigroup to sell its brokerage practice to Morgan Stanley which can pay for it with the ten billion in welfare MS got from TARP along with all the other welfare infusions and debt guarantees that they've gotten.

    Speaking of "bad debt guarantees", doesn't that mean the private investors at JP Morgan Stanley Chase Discover Smith Barney Salomon Brothers (I refuse to call it simply Morgan Stanley Smith Barney) will get to keep any profits and you and I will have to keep any losses? Isn't that by definition the very "privatized profits, but socialized losses" dynamic that the government's supposedly trying to stop?

    At any rate, given the anarchy that she and her other non-elected bureaucrats have created by annilating contracts between private investors and lenders and borrowers and shareholders and infusing the crooks at these banks who continue to lie, cheat and steal from their shareholders and customers and lenders…well, I’m a little curious as how Ms. Bair defines “US Bank Nationalization”.

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    * I'm way behind in answering emails, returning phone calls, and so on. It started when I was so lethargic I couldn't stay up with the inflow while I had Lyme disease-induced Bell's Palsey and was on those turbo-antibiotics, and while I'm finally back to stemming the new unread email growth, what am I supposed to do about the 11,567 unread emails in my gmail inbox? I have 1,033 unread emails in my internal fox business email inbox. I don't even know how to check how many unread emails are in the external fox business email inbox. This is my way of saying if you've reached out to me while or after I got sick and you've not heard back from me, please don't take it personally and please reach back out to me. I didn't mean not to get back to you.

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    * Humorous but poignant graphic from my superstar intern, Jay Zalowitz. The problem with this kind of logic is that we'll all end up on welfare if we rationalize that whatever industry, sector, location, or socio-economic class you belong to should get funded by the government since we've started funding private sectors and companies with these bailouts. To be sure -- WE DO NOT WANT THE FEDS FEEDING US, HOUSING US, OR PAYING FOR OUR EDUCATION...because they'll be as corrupt and incompetent and cronyized in every sector they touch as they have been with the banking industry, health care, military spending, farming, and every other sector they've ever tried to "help". Btw, Jay Z's blog is called "The Fresh Prince of Investing" ...great name for a college kid's trading blog, no?

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    * I sat down with Jon Friedman from Marketwatch.com for a couple video interviews...

    A Community for People to Speak Up: http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/a-community-for-people-to-speak-up/C877A292-B3AE-47D8-8D71-7CBB530FE1B9

    Talking 'Happy Hour' With Cody Willard:
    http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/talking-happy-hour-with-cody-willard/E7E7D3E9-9E02-4C49-8CA7-81AAB48E6AC7

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    * Regarding this market...well, the 8200 level that we're trading at is right about in the middle of the 7k-9500 range I've been harping on for months. Even as the path down remains the path of least resistance, we've been oversold in a hard way this week. Catch the breath if you caught this downdraft on the shortside as I'd suggest when we were above 9000. Because now's just not a good time to be swinging at pitches...

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Bob

Ra King, You need to use your calculator. To give 25,000 to 500 million people adds up to 5 trillion dollars. I've seen emails and posts similar to this one several times. The math is always wrong.

January 22, 2009 at 6:11 pm

Uncle Jimbo

Ra King, you use sound logic under a false assumption. You assume that the desired results of the government's actions are to "correct" the economy and do what is in the best interest of the public. The desired state is consolidated power and subjugation via monetary dependance. And it's working.

January 19, 2009 at 3:33 pm

joebhed

Cody, Actually, by way of definitions of all the novel things happening to the money system, I would refer you to this little item over a NakedCapitalism. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/01/wsj-bank-of-america-to-receive-20.html What we have is the opposite of the nationalization of the banks. Most aptly described as the 'privatization of the Treasury'. In such times as these, it is not necessary to nationalize the banks, despite the rhetoric we are hearing. A further glaring example of the power of the private bankers to control both the money system and the media response to this raid on both the Treasury and the taxpayers through actions at the FED is found in the little article on FOX's suit against the FED to open up. "We can't do that for business reasons". If anyone, FoxBusiness is gong to be OK with that. The last thing we would want is anything that gets in the way of "business". But if FOX were to PUSH the FED on this - you know, like it's TRILLIONs in contingent taxpayer liabilities, well then the FED would pull out its ACE card which is this - the FED is NOT part of the government and thus, NOT subject to your meager FOIA request. So, just there, Fox News. Whadda ya say, FOX? Is the FED part of the government? Thanks, Cody.

January 18, 2009 at 4:50 pm

about this blog

  • Cody Willard is an anchor on the FOX Business Network. Willard is also the principal of an investment management company. He was a long-time featured columnist for the Financial Times and TheStreet.com as well as a regular featured economist and stock picker on CNBC's ''Kudlow & Company."

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