November 23, 2010
Unreasonable Little Girls
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Republicans remind me of myself when I was a little girl.
I terrorized my family (My mother and my older sister; My old man wisely passed away at the age of 42 when I was 5) when I was a little girl with my constant temper tantrums. They couldn’t wait for the summer to come soon enough to send me away to a summer camp for a month or, with luck, for two, so they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. My grievances as usual had solid basis. I didn’t like the dress I was required to wear (Of course! It was a hand-me-down from my older sis, besides pirates don’t wear dresses – yes, I went through a “pirate” stage, and I even had an eye patch that I gleefully wore on the street and in the kindergarten purely because of the effect it had on pedestrians and my peers who, I’m sure, were dying of envy!) or I didn’t want to take piano lessons anymore. I was also afraid to sleep alone in a dark room, but, out of fear to appear to be a wuss to adults, I wasn’t saying I was “scared” per se, I was saying I was “bored”! I was very pleased with my clever strategy. I thought I was the shit!
So anyway, the reason Republicans are like unreasonable little girls is because they like to say “No” to everything without offering any alternatives. I remember very clearly how reasonable my mother’s arguments were for me doing or not doing something, and yet, out of childish spite, I chose to throw tantrums just for the hell of it. Because I could! However, I was an exemplary pupil in kindergarten, because the supervisors treated me in the most unceremonious manner for minor transgressions and I learned pretty quickly to behave. That’s why I totally understand what Republicans are doing right now – the more they say “no”, even to things they didn’t care about before, the more their poll numbers go up. Why not continue doing something like that if you don’t get punished by voters? Let’s see: They started with opposing the deficit spending, even though they didn’t have problems with deficit spending when they were in power. They opposed the health care reform, even though the blue print copy of the Health Care bill passed in Massachusetts under Republican Mitt Romney. In recent days their madness has exceeded all limits: they oppose the nuclear arms treaty with Russia (even though they revere Reagan for doing exact same thing in the 1980s) and they attack the Fed(!) for simply doing what it’s supposed to do – engage in monetary policy. Federal Reserve is a non-political entity but yet even here they found a hidden socialist agenda. Have they lost all their marbles? Or is it something else? Is it that they just don’t like that Democrats are doing it (and Bernanke isn’t even a Democrat)! I think it’s the latter. You see, as a little girl, I kind of knew I was being unreasonable, but it was fun to misbehave and push the boundaries. Especially when there was no punishment. Which is where the Republicans find themselves today. Do you think Sarah Palin can not become president? Now I think she can and given the political environment, where the piper will not lead us to reason, she has a good chance. Because voters don’t care that she didn’t read books or speaks in one-liners and doesn’t give interviews on unfriendly networks. She doesn’t have to! The more she’s criticized or dismissed as a dimwit the more popular she becomes. This strategy surely pisses of the elites (including the Republican ones), but it brings huge dividends. Being a misbehaving little girl consequence-free is a lot of fun, trust me.
Except for the summer camp part.
What would the GOP do?
November 22, 2010
A couple of Buffett’s quotes
Chasing my previous post. These quotes are from the 1980s but even more relevant today.
On a hypothetical shipwrecked 25 brokers stranded on an uninhabited island:
Faced with developing an economy that would maximize their consumption and pleasure, would they, I wonder, assign 20 of their number to produce food, clothing, shelter, etc., while setting five to endlessly trading options on the future output of the 20?
And another one:
We have “professional” investors, those who manage many billions, to thank for most of this turmoil. Instead of focusing on what businesses will do in the years ahead, many prestigious money managers now focus on what they expect other money managers to do in the days ahead.
November 21, 2010
Jedi Master has spoken
Many of you know my stance on taxes – I don’t think that progressive taxation is the end of the world. But when one of the richest men on the planet says that he and the ones like him are not taxed enough there must be something to it. Buffett Tells ABC Rich People Should Pay Higher Taxes Or as Fox News would conclude – a hidden socialist agenda.
I read a book about Buffett recently. His genius is simplicity. The way he succeeds is he gets the same information as everyone else – from annual reports – but he knows what information is important. He just knows how to ask the right questions. All of those Efficient Markets Theory apologists that question his record are a bunch of Ph.Ds that claim to know the future by looking at the charts of past events. There are still a bunch of those being employed by big banks to this day as market technicians. But in essence, they are no better than astrologists.
Despite having grown up in a very conservative family (his father was a member of the John Birch Society) he nonetheless learned to think for himself and has become known for his support of progressive causes throughout his career. But he does not let any sort of ideology guide him. All that matters is economic sense and right now that means to lower taxes on middle class and raise them on the top 1%. That also means that without Uncle Sam coming to rescue in 2008-2009 there would be no Ford, GM and Citi anymore and millions more would be unemployed. Pretty Good for Government Work
Of course, our fiscal conservatives love to point out, in horror, to France and Germany with their constant strikes that paralyze railroads and airports, etc. implying that this is what we’re going to turn to if we raise taxes on the rich, but, frankly, it’s like comparing apples and oranges: the unions in this country are so neutered that the only thing they can do these days is give concessions to the employers. Unions Yield on Wage Scales to Preserve Jobs Trust me the strike in this country would be suicidal for workers and unions. Employers would just move operations elsewhere. The diminished union influence is, in my opinion, one of the primary reasons why middle class is disappearing here. The top 1% controls about 23% of the wealth in this country. And the rest are living paycheck to paycheck while voting Republican and fearing Socialism.
November 11, 2010
Obama keeps tax cuts for the rich
First of all let me congratulate those destitute 1% of the population who were scraping by paycheck to paycheck and who can now breathe a sigh of relief. I heard so many frightening stories about how the 3% increase of their tax rate will slow the economic recovery. Now these 3% will sure trickle down to the rest of the population. But enough sarcasm – I’m really happy for them. Maybe now they will finally stop complaining that Obama administration treats them unfairly. From my previous posts you probably know that the abundance of complaints and general thinness of skin (real or assumed) on Wall Street (who else is in the top tax bracket?) is my favorite topic. The amount of wimps in the top bracket is breathtaking. Makes you wonder how is it that they made it to the top?
I think it all comes down to the fact that being viewed as a victim has become fashionable in this country. It’s a foolproof PR strategy. Moreover, it’s convenient – you get to blame a third party (Obama, government, stiff regulations, communists, etc.) for all of your misfortunes.
Obama, unfortunately, got himself in the position where he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. One part of the country thinks that he’s in bed with Wall Street, the other part of the country is convinced that he’s out to destroy capitalism, and media doesn’t bother to notice the controversy. For their own convenience certain news sources can criticize Obama for having too many Goldman guys in his administration (alluding, of course, that he’s conniving against the working man) and in the same breath accuse him of socialistic tendencies. I fault Obama for not fighting back hard enough against this nonsense. He’s in dire need of some pit bulls and a Fox-like echo chamber with talking heads. If there’s one thing I admire about the Republicans is that they are masters at propaganda. Their mantra that repetition makes it true really works: death panels, Obama’s Kenyan birth, middle class tax increases – all of it stuck.
Now that Obama kept Bush’s tax cuts do you think that he’s going to be thanked by the business community? Fat chance! Investors Show Obama No Respect in Global Poll as Profits Surge As I described above it’s convenient to always be pissed off about something. Investors made money this year, profits surged – but they’re still not happy. If they are not pissed off at Obama they really have no one else. They need him as a human receptacle of all kinds of misdirected anger. Especially now that the Congress is Republican.
To Obama I say – may the force be with you!
November 3, 2010
Elections 2010
Well, I don’t know about you but I’m quite pleased with the outcome of the elections. First, Harry Reid held on to his seat. It’s not that I particularly like him, but think of the possible alternative the “2nd amendment remedies” Sharron Angle.
Second is that Democrats lost with much smaller margins than the polls showed. The Rasmussen polls consistently had Dem Senate candidates in Pennsylvania and Illinois behind by 5-6% margin but they lost by a razor thin margin. This makes me question whether Rasmussen polls are biased against Democrats. In other words, I didn’t really see a tsunami. I saw a lot of independent voters expressing their displeasure by smallest of margins and knowing their fickle nature I don’t see why they wouldn’t change their mind and vote the other way 2 years from now.
My predictions about the elections and the markets that I made on July 19th were quite right.
some-predictions-for-the-near-and-not-so-near-future
The market rallied about 10% since then.
Now, show us how it’s done, guys!
