A Reprise

"Of late every reflective American reader must have noticed the inaccuracy and imbecility of most of the special correspondence issuing from Washington. In it the frauds, high and low, who flourish in that town are treated with the utmost gravity, and their cheapest and most venal maneuvers are depicted as masterpieces of statecraft. Is this bilge ordered by Wall Street ? I doubt it. Is it demanded by customers of the [media] that [produce] it ? Again I have a doubt. Far easier and more plausible is the explanation that the Washington correspondents write it willingly and in good faith - that they are too stupid to penetrate the fraudulencies by which they are surrounded."

I read the above quote last evening. This paragraph from H. L. Mencken, written for the Chicago Sunday Tribune June 26, 1927, seemed so applicable now over 80 years later that I copied it for today's blog. I'm reading "The Impossible H. L. Mencken", which is a collection of his best newspaper stories published in 1991. He has a gift for the American language and words - in almost every story I find a new $10 word - or even $100 or more words, too.

Now consider this: he wrote for a daily newspaper during the years from about 1900 to about 1948. His columns were read by millions of Americans. Yet I find numerous $10 and $100 words in them. In truth, I cannot remember that last time I found a $10 word in The Wall Street Journal or any modern newspaper or heard one on the television since William F. Buckley retired years ago.

Daily discourse is depressingly dumbed down.

Markets

Oil kept falling. Banks stocks rose again. Perhaps those two bubbles - actually one up-bubble and one down-bubble - are dying.

I have very large positions in BAC, JPM and C as well as GE and CCJ. I have lots of buying power and would like to re-buy sizable postions in AAPL, GOOG, CVX, and DVN, and smaller positions in FCX and EDU, but will be very patient. Beefer rotations out of those stocks might take awhile.

WB was a painful mistake aggravated for me by its rise all day long yesterday. I suppose the statement by the new CEO that new capital wasn't expected to be needed caused the huge short position to cover as they couldn't expect get new shares to fill their borrows. But with no significant dividend anymore, I couldn't see owning it, hence sold my shares. Unfortunately I did it pre-market near the day's low prices. When I decide to sell, I just sell and move on.

PS: I forgot to post the monetary base growth on Monday from Barron's. Year over year monetary base is now growing at 2.1%. That's better. I think it needs to get to 2.5% to be neutral. The Fed is still not accomodative compared to lower range of normal economic growth bands.

Words of the Day
[All of these words are from reading articles of H. L. Mencken.]

"Dubiety" - noun [$10]
Dubiety means 1. a feeling of doubt; 2. a doubtful matter.

"Ofay" - noun [$100]
Ofay is a US slang, offensive word meaning a white person (esp. used by blacks) (20th century probably of African origin).

"Pecksniff" - noun ][$100] from "Pecksniffian"
Pecksniff means a person of Pecksniffian attitutes or behaviors: "a virtuousness that only a pecksniff could aspire to."
Pecksniffian means critically or untuously affecting benevolence or high moral principles.

A "hat trick" sentence: Exposure of Obama's Pecksniffian attitudes towards small town and rural ofay adds to their dubieties about him as a President.