Spitting Distance ?

Cool title, no ?

Is this the Spitzer bottom ? Is Ms. Market within spitting distance of a bottom ? Time will tell, but that's my thinking. No need to be a hero, though. Be patient. Plenty of profits await the survivors. Follow the boxing adage: "Protect yourself at all times". Don't get stomped by the elephants searching for a new waterhole.

I write what I do or like. I don't "recommend" unless I know one's total financial situation. For example, I am selling much gold & silver to buy US stocks. Now if you don't have profits on old gold & silver investments, you need to think if buying US stocks makes sense. Maybe you already have enough. If so, wait ... be patient ... let the beefers play in the mud ... wait for them to head to the next waterhole and your existing holdings will go along for the ride. Don't get top heavy and risk falling off the elephant. I have to buy more US stocks to meet my asset allocation goals. You might not be in that situation. Or you might not own much. If so, consider making some buys slowly.

Far east Asia markets rejected US bearishness, rising about 1%. India also rejected US bearishness, rising over 1%. London is up a bit in opening hours.

So what do we learn from the Spitzer affair ?

Distrust the rich and powerful. Spitzer was a wealthy man who decided he knew better how the common man should live and how others should act. He craved power. He was a ruthless bastard who did some good acts, but obviously for unsavory reasons, mainly to get more power. A knave. Period.

Nietzsche wrote about the "will to power" that exists in humankind. That drive is quite strong in some ... dangerously. So distrusting those who want more power and are ruthless must be an axiom for the freedom-loving person. The US was created by trusting one with power who did not want power, namely George Washington. To me, we must evaluate demand by modern politicians for power on the Washington standard. If they do not show his characteristics of willingness to decline power, use judgment, to "live and let live" and not be ruthless, we should not support them or trust them.

Being a populist libertarian, you guess my attitudes about Spitzer's core actions. I don't even think hypocrisy is the most venal sin that the US press seems to make it. But Spitzer did violate the sworn trust with his wife and the implied trust of his children. That is his mortal sin. And if a public official breaks one oath flagrantly, how can we trust him with his oath of office ?

The 1990s gave us one example of that violation, which led to pardons of drug dealers for bribes. Let's raise our standards and foreswear support for such knaves on principle.

As long as prices hold up, I'll be selling more gold and silver all week. I buy US stocks with the money as I see good long term values.

Words of the Day

"Bathetic" - adjective [$10] from bathos (pronounced with long "a", short "o")
Bathetic means 1. characterized by bathos; 2. insincere or grossly sentimental pathos.
Sentence: Spitzer's bathetic statement yesterday seems to have been a self-serving attempt to do damage control as he did not announce his resignation.

"Bathos" - noun [$10]
Bathos means 1a. an abrupt, unintended transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect.; 1b. an anticlimax; 2a. insincere or grossly sentimental pathos; 2b. banality, triteness.
Sentence: Spitzer's bathos at his press conference was surprising on the facts but is also quite suspicious and self-serving as I wonder if he is deferring resignation to await reaction to determine if he can stay in power.

"Panjandrum" - noun [$10]
Panjandrum means a powerful personage or pretentious official.
Sentence: The press delights in the fall from power of a hypocritcal panjandrum.