Monday Review

Oh ugh! Sutty on Babblevision again. Sheesh - is everyone else on vacation?

So what's new?
ECB and BOJ add liquidity again.
ECB mulling a dollar-euro swap with the Fed. That's interesting! I remember Fischer Black explaining that as a way to support - or peg - currencies.
Karl Rove to resign.
Mitt Romney wins Iowa straw poll - shows organizing ability - he's a successful businessman, he should have that.
Food inflation hitting Europe now.

In September, presidential politics will start to heat up.

On Friday, S&P 500, XLF, XLE, Nazz comp, Russell held lows. Dow Industrials and transports did not on intraday basis., neither did the Nazz 100. Since the DJIA was the index that had the followthru day, I think this "rally" is suspect as the DJIA broke the prior low.

I can't log-in to IBD online. I'm getting really annoyed with them. They might lose a subscriber.

So what could happen to spark another sell-off? I don't think more "subprime" screeching will do it now. But I think that Countrywide Finance could go under. That firm made huge numbers of the garbage loans to get fees. And they service many loans so will be the name foreclosing. Political pressure could get intense. Bad publicity could mushroom. And I read this weekend that they were adding staff recently. And it's hard to see MBS investors trusting their product, except perhaps for garden variety fixed rate loans. And they have residual interests in the MBS trusts that bear first loss on the MBS. And their servicing income gets cut when the loans default. So I see many, many pressure points for CFC.

Besides, the CEO is a pig in his compensation, he sold huge amounts of stock at the highs ... and he has too fine a tan for trust ;-) Anyone with a fine tan in a business suit gets a question mark in my book ;-)

PS: Retails sales were OK for July. MBA says prime mortgage delinquencies were down for Q2 [saw headline but can't find the story - checking]. Where is the contagion?

PPS: My closing out of soybeans and natural gas were very poorly timed. Ugh!

P^3S: Wall Streeters [on TV at least] are so self-centered. And the analysts, too. All they can think about is how a Fed rate would affect the beefers - bailout or not. But what about the common man scammed [some] on the other side of those slimy ARMs. Do they ever think about that? Nope.