Each morning I survey what I read, listened to and recorded yesterday. Then I search the morning’s news for good news. I find endless words, but little real hope.
There’s a continuum of madness. Ted Cruz wants to completely defund Obamacare. Some Republicans want to selectively cut back spending.on things they don’t like, but which Congress has authorized. Some are simply enjoying the TV fame that the whole madness is bringing.
I remember one time I owned a piece of a private equity fund. The goal was to buy companies cheaply, build them up and sell them for a huge profit. The fund concentrated on publishing. Which was good, since publishing was what the fund’s operators knew about. One day I heard they were buying a telecommunications carrier, called a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier). I was horrified. I hurried across town to beg them to get rid of their CLEC instantly. I marshaled my arguments. They listened politely and paid me no attention. Several months later, they tried to save their ailing CLEC by buying another one and achieving “economies of scale.” About 18 months later they wrote off every penny they had spent on their CLECs.
I’m not writing this to prove I’m a genius. It was simply a field I knew something about and they knew nothing about. But they had convinced themselves of a “reality” that was different to mine.
There are politicians who believe that not raising the debt ceiling will force spending cuts. There are those who believe that keeping the government shut down is saving money. These politicians believe smaller government is good government. They believe their own reality. They ignore the experts who warn them of dire consequences that comes from not paying your bills.
This shutdown and debt ceiling is abstraction to many politicians. Though our government is shutdown, our politicians are receiving their full salaries and their own exemplary health care — far better than yours or mine.(You can see this arrogance in third world countries like Cambodia, Egypt, and throughout Africa where the ruling class live like kings and the rest live in abject poverty. They call those regimes kleptocracies.)
I can’t imagine how the party of small business honestly believes that what it’s doing will curry favor with voters — hundreds of thousands of whom it’s seriously hurting day-by-day as this mess drags on and on.
I personally believe they will open the government and they will allow the debt ceiling to rise. But the affects meantime on all of us are painful. Some leading stocks have fallen 10%. There are terrible effects, like my friend who’s in the middle of getting a critical SBA loan for his business. With the SBA closed, he’s scrambling to pay his workers their salaries, and his suppliers their bills Everyone understands the reason for their lack of money. But they still got to eat and put gas in their cars to get to work. Many workers live from paycheck to paycheck. It’s not easy for them to understand why Washington seems to be so deliberately hurting them for seriously dubious reasons.
The Wall Street Journal had some semi-happy news this morning:
Shutdown Shows Signs Of a Thaw
The partisan logjam showed signs of easing as conservatives warmed to the idea of a short-term increase in the borrowing limit and House GOP leaders prepared to meet with President Obama.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Stocks I’m eyeing or picking at. The big downside to buying now is that prices will fall even further in the next day or two. I think that’s a real likelihood. I bought a little more APO and SAN and today I’ll pick up a little more COST. I’m eyeing a bunch of stocks and funds readers have suggested — including BIOPX, NDP, BERY, DGI, ILAN and XOOM. I covered my HPQ short yesterday. But I’m letting my BBY short run.
Harry Newton whose best news is that iceing, time and patience has repaired my should rotator cuff and I’m able to serve again. I even made a few aces yesterday. And I’ll try again today. Was the improvement worth the $250,000 in recent stock losses? A good question. Fortunately they haven’t been realized. When this mess gets resolved, the market should recover.
Harry, you don’t have a beard so you must look yourself in the face at least once a day. How can a successful person like you think about government and politicians the way you do? This is a battle of politics, the art of ruling by man, v. economics, the science of the distribution of goods and services by nature. Over time nature always wins. You can’t spend more than you make. The only limits to the power and tax money that politicians take is our Constitution and the voting of the people. As long as the “something for nothing crowd” wins over Freedom, the U.S.A. is doomed. Look at Detroit and Greece for examples. The Tea Party understands this.
Paul…Ryan?
If the Tea Party has such a good grasp of economics why do they have such a bad grasp of science?
“American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with
mice with fully functioning human brains.” ~ Christine O’Donnell
“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be
produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” ~ Rep. Michelle Bachmann
“From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented.” ~ Texas Gov. Rick Perry, on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010
“I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change. It’s not proven by any stretch of the imagination…It’s far more likely that it’s just sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ‘gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow.”’ ~ Ron Johnson
“I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.” ~ Rep. Michele Bachmann
“There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.” ~ Michele Bachmann
“You know what, evolution is a myth….Why aren’t monkeys still evolving into humans?” ~ Christine O’Donnell
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down” ~ Todd Akin
I need to talk to the IRS about a few things.
I assumed that the staff has been drastically reduced, but was surprised to learn that local offices are _completely_ closed.
This delays money from reaching the gummint, and when the revenoo
agents return to work, they’ll receive back pay for the work they did
not do.
GOPers, please tell me how your shutdown is helping the country.
Thanks for your cogent observations Harry.
And I am seeing the necessity for me to stop reading the comments because
of the trolls and true believers.
The big downside to buying now is that prices will fall even further in the next day or two. I think that’s a real likelihood.
Thanks, Harry. I needed to read the above right before the market opened today & the NASDAQ zoomed up 71 pts. Your opinions are always worth a big laugh. Also, you commented that “I’m no genius.” Unnecessary. Nobody in their right mind would mistake you for a genius, Harry.
Ha-ha. Have a great day!
‘There are politicians who believe that not raising the debt ceiling will
force spending cuts. There are those who believe that keeping the
government shut down is saving money. These politicians believe smaller
government is good government. They believe their own reality. They
ignore the experts who warn them of dire consequences that comes from
not paying your bills.’
You clearly dont understand how govt works. It not private enterprise. There is no profit motive. Political success of one party is undoing the legislation of another, in this case Obamacare. This has happened historically for many years. Further the reality is that the US doesnt have to default. Paying interest on debt is not default which we have more than enough tax revenue to fund. Rolling over debt(issuing new debt to cover expiring old debt does not require a debt ceiling increase because the amount of debt is net zero if done on issue by issue basis which is how it should be done. Only increase of debt(new issues) are what are on the table.
Smaller govt IS better govt. The liberals have caused a welfare state, Medicare and Social security fraud of untold proportions. Stopping a debt ceiling increase should at minimum for politicians to determine what can be funded by tax revenue, and state it publicly. That should wake everyone up to the devastation liberals have caused. BTW defense spending doesn’t come remotely close to Medicare/SS which are the items that desperately need reform/gutted. All Obamacare does is pick winners and losers, and raise healthy tax payers costs. Its is ridiculous legislation that should never have passed except for Liberal hubris and vote buying.
These ‘experts’ you speak of are the same ones that didnt see the financial crisis of 2008 coming. So their opinion simply doesnt count.
Let’s not forget the fraud committed by the Banksters and TBTF (AIG, JPM, GS, B of A, HSBC). The list and continued violations just keep going on and on and on to this day. Sure there is some SS fraud…but not to the magnitude of the collusion between some politicians and corporations. Why don’t you mention all the corporate welfare and additionally subsidies to Big Oil Exxon Oil, Chevron, BP…who actually pay no taxes and get a kick back of a $ Billion or so annually after they continually set record record profits year after year. Make no mistake, I am a capitalist, but this is not true capitalism. Corruption and rigged markets at it’s worst. Of course some entities love casinos and dictators. I prefer a Democracy with Liberty.
Thanks for some refreshing thoughts Mark. Let’s not forget the pointless wars and the military industrial complex either. What are the budget overruns on the F-35 fighter jets now?