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I am so proud o' my local newpaper. They have finally reared up on their hind legs 'n' shown some backbone, some leadership, some strength, some courage, some intestinal fortitude, some outright (please forgive my use o' local slang) cajones. The local paper today decided to thumb its nose at the conventional wisdome on what constitutes news 'n' how it should be reported. Forget that we got troops fighting overseas. Forget that we got personal, local, state, national, 'n' international financial crises. Forget the climate problems. Forget that we got a new President in office who seems intent on getting more done in his first month in office than most other folks have managed to get done in their first year.
Forget all that stuff. The local editors 'n' reporters have decided that the single biggest item o' news they could report in today's paper, at least in terms o' space dedicated to it (at least a quarter to a third o' the front page, with a big ol' pi'ture to boot), was a nice little piece 'bout folks getting their pi'tures taken. O' course, it weren't just any ol' pi'ture taking event. It's this new project the city has undertaken to help "beautify" a new underpass into the downtown area they's spending $26 million on to complete. What happened was, they've contracted with this group o' photographers to go 'round town fer a few months 'n' take pi'tures o' folks that they are then going to put on tiles to be used to cover panels at the entrances to the underpass.
'N' that's just how they reported it. They didn't bother wtih anything that would have taken away from the charm 'n' feel-good nature o' the story. They didn't bother to comment on the downturn in American ingenuity er the failure of American technoloy that is forcing 'em to send the photos down to Brazil 'cause America ain't got the know how ner skills to prduce tiles that would be UV-proof. Ner did they bother to question why the town elders decided that, in this time of economic downturn 'n' budget deficits, it was more important to spend this money on "make-up" instead o' using it fer infrastructure er to help the indigent er fer education er something important.
No, sir. They seem to feel that, if we just start ignoring er downplaying all the negative stuff going on, it'll all just go away. Keep it light. Keep it uplifting. That'll help sell papers 'n' make us feel better. Course, it could o' been worse. They might have gone with a celebrity update er, worst of all, a sports story.
Showing posts with label finanace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finanace. Show all posts
Monday, January 26, 2009
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Fleecing o' the American Economy
First off, looks like my numbers on the election was just a bit off. Since I looked up the results, they've changed the status o' Missouri from having chosen the Arizona also-ran to "undecided", meaning they ain't finished counting all their ballots yet, so it may go to Oprahma, after all. If he does get it, that'll increase his lead in electoral votes by enough to put him up into the same numbers Slick got when he won both times, but it's still far short o' the overwhelming number of electoral votes both former Presidents Reagan 'n' Sr. got. The paper today also said that Oprahma got 52.4% o' the popular vote, vs. 46.2% fer the other side, so I weren't too far off on my numbers fer that.
Speaking o' numbers 'n' the way they can change from day to day, what 'bout what Wall Street's been doing over the past few days? There just ain't no logic to the way they's running the thing, these days. 'N' it ain't just the past few days, neither. This defiance o' logic started back months ago. Just look at the way they was acting back when they started with the whole bailout thing. Ever'body got all excited when Congress started talking 'bout their $700 billion plan to pump some life back into the financial markets. Then, when they failed to pass it on the first go, someone on Wall Street pushed the lever down 'n' tried to flush the economy. So, o' course, Congress gave in to their blackmail 'n' rushed to pass the thing on the second try. What did Wall Street do? Were they satisfied that they'd got their $700 billion ransom? No. The very next day after the bailout was passed, all you could hear on Wall Street was more flushing noises.
Then, this past week, ever'body's all excited 'n' hopeful 'bout the election 'n' the market reflected that by ending up 'round 300 points er so. Then, the next day when ever'one seemed so happy 'n' excited 'n' relieved 'bout Oprahama's win, the market falls over 400 points, followed by another 400+ point fall the next day. Then, amid reports that the unemployment rate is the worst it's been in something like 14 years, the market goes back up. It goes down when there's good news 'n' up when there's bad. What's it going to take to get these fellers to make up their minds? They need to pick a direction to go 'n' then just go there.
I think it's 'bout time we come up with a new term fer this kind o' market shenanigans. We've all heard 'bout the "Bear" 'n' the "Bull" markets, when the general trend is either up er down. So what do we call a market when the trend is up 'n' down from one day to the next? I think I've come up with a pretty good one. Let's call it the "Sheep" market, 'cause that's the way they're acting. They just all bunch up together, follow 'long behind whoever moves first, even if it's right over a cliff, 'n' shy at the least little thing. Looks like the lions o' Wall Street have turned into nothing but lambs.
Oprahma's saying this is the greatest economic challenge we've faced in a lifetime. He also said he's going to defer to President Jr. 'n' his cronies until Jan. 20, but once he's officially in office he's going to jump on it with both feet. Let's hope he can knock some sense into the heads o' the folks on Wall Street. He's talking 'bout even more "stimulus packages", but they ain't shown much use it getting things back in order so far. Personally, I think he should just walk out onto the trading floor on his first day 'n' start swinging a 2 by 4 'round. In my experience, folks respond a lot more quickly 'n' decisively to a good hunk o' lumber than they do to a little piece o' paper.
If we're lucky, Oprahma'll turn out to be a sheep dog er a leader sheep that can get those folks in line 'n' herd er lead 'em where they need to go. I just hope he don't become some form o' Judas goat er sacrificial lamb. I guess we'll just have to wait 'n' see how this all plays out, though.
Speaking o' numbers 'n' the way they can change from day to day, what 'bout what Wall Street's been doing over the past few days? There just ain't no logic to the way they's running the thing, these days. 'N' it ain't just the past few days, neither. This defiance o' logic started back months ago. Just look at the way they was acting back when they started with the whole bailout thing. Ever'body got all excited when Congress started talking 'bout their $700 billion plan to pump some life back into the financial markets. Then, when they failed to pass it on the first go, someone on Wall Street pushed the lever down 'n' tried to flush the economy. So, o' course, Congress gave in to their blackmail 'n' rushed to pass the thing on the second try. What did Wall Street do? Were they satisfied that they'd got their $700 billion ransom? No. The very next day after the bailout was passed, all you could hear on Wall Street was more flushing noises.
Then, this past week, ever'body's all excited 'n' hopeful 'bout the election 'n' the market reflected that by ending up 'round 300 points er so. Then, the next day when ever'one seemed so happy 'n' excited 'n' relieved 'bout Oprahama's win, the market falls over 400 points, followed by another 400+ point fall the next day. Then, amid reports that the unemployment rate is the worst it's been in something like 14 years, the market goes back up. It goes down when there's good news 'n' up when there's bad. What's it going to take to get these fellers to make up their minds? They need to pick a direction to go 'n' then just go there.
I think it's 'bout time we come up with a new term fer this kind o' market shenanigans. We've all heard 'bout the "Bear" 'n' the "Bull" markets, when the general trend is either up er down. So what do we call a market when the trend is up 'n' down from one day to the next? I think I've come up with a pretty good one. Let's call it the "Sheep" market, 'cause that's the way they're acting. They just all bunch up together, follow 'long behind whoever moves first, even if it's right over a cliff, 'n' shy at the least little thing. Looks like the lions o' Wall Street have turned into nothing but lambs.
Oprahma's saying this is the greatest economic challenge we've faced in a lifetime. He also said he's going to defer to President Jr. 'n' his cronies until Jan. 20, but once he's officially in office he's going to jump on it with both feet. Let's hope he can knock some sense into the heads o' the folks on Wall Street. He's talking 'bout even more "stimulus packages", but they ain't shown much use it getting things back in order so far. Personally, I think he should just walk out onto the trading floor on his first day 'n' start swinging a 2 by 4 'round. In my experience, folks respond a lot more quickly 'n' decisively to a good hunk o' lumber than they do to a little piece o' paper.
If we're lucky, Oprahma'll turn out to be a sheep dog er a leader sheep that can get those folks in line 'n' herd er lead 'em where they need to go. I just hope he don't become some form o' Judas goat er sacrificial lamb. I guess we'll just have to wait 'n' see how this all plays out, though.
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