Out of the Beast

I arrived home last evening after 1.5 days in the belly of the Beast ... aka New York City, Manhattan. The Gold Kryptonite martinis at the "club" bar were perfectly made by my friendly bartenders. Then on Tuesday, lunch at the Harvard Club was very fine - poached salmon, fine vegetables and the berries with coffee. The Grill Room was packed with people ... ugh, I wish they had not relaxed the dress code - so many slobs eating in a finely paneled room decorated with paintings is depressing.

People in suits seemed worried about the markets and many were quite bearish. But the common man seemed more interested in the Mets and the playoffs and the Giants and Jets. This is still a rich man's panic.

My special ties again received compliments from strangers of both sexes.

The stupidity of Congressmen and women continues to astonish me.

Buffet buys sweetheart deal from GS. Next time one hears him talk about taxes, remember that his preferred stock dividends are 80% tax-free to Berkshire Hathaway. And when people gush about following his ideas, that might be hard as I didn't notice a public offering of that preferred stock and warrants deal.

A giant beefer reveals huge short positions against some UK banks after the UK's FSA requires disclosure. What a surprise !

The oil market was wild - and oils stocks, too. The signs of beefer liquidation seem strong.

Alpha Fund owns BAC, JPM, CVX, DVN, RIG and FCX in reasonably sized positions, and has a smaller speculative position in MBI, too. BAC is about 1.3x normal size still after the partial sale posted Monday AM. Alpha Fund is roughly 1/2 in the big two fins and 1/2 in the oils+miners. Alpha Fund is on slight margin, about 125%.

Doing nothing. Might buy heavily if more signs of a bottom in home prices emerge. I expect this soon as mortgage rates are low again and anecdotes of real buyers are more frequent.

PS: Hmm I guess I'm being baited - "what do Libertarians think about the Paulson 'plan' ?"

A purist, unthinking libertarian would be against it, I suppose. However one that thinks and has read "Anarchy, State and Utopia" by Robert Nozick might connect the philosophical justification for using the State to protect against violence from persons and catastrophic events with violence against the common man by big money pools and frightened rich & powerful people. And support some parts of it. Uniting resources to avoid catastrophe from being trampled by their stampede makes sense for the common "protective association".

This is why Bunkerman, as a populist libertarian, supports it as it has so far been disclosed. Just as government protects the common man from pirates and gangsters - or should - so should the common man unite and use government to protect themsleves against both the gluttonous Dukes and the Viking raiders in the financial world.

Word of the Day

"Recrudescense" - noun [$10]
Recrudescence means a new outbreak after a period of abatement or inactivity; renewal.
Sentence: Will October 3 bring a recrudescense of rumors about financial firms once the beefer Viking raiders can again profit from short selling raids ?