Waiting ...

So we wait for the various government plans for aid the credit markets to take effect. You do know that NONE of those has actually funded yet, right ? The Fed has not bought any commercial paper and the governments have not put any money in banks equity yet either. BUT the Fed has FINALLY been quite reasonable in adding to the monetary base. This writer has been complaining about that for months.

So the recovery to date is ALL due to better psychology and the Fed increasing the monetary base. And why should that be true as the entire "crash" was due to a panic of the rich.

Today we find out who was stupid in writing a net open position in LEH credit default swaps and what they must pay. This will be quite interesting. Here is my position: any financial firm that shows a net loss to those shall have its CEO fired after a severe horsewhipping. No one should have ever done that. Sure, hedge funds could gamble like that with their gullible investors' money. But no actual firm - bank, investment bank, insurance company, etc. -should have done that.

Actions

I am still waiting for Vanguard to clear that check so I can buy more US stocks in Krypto Fund. I suppose part of the delay is that the size was large. But it's annoying to me. Ameritrade always gave me trading & buying power instantly.

Word of the Day

"Estop" - verb, transitive [$10] (estopped, estopping)
Estop means (Law) bar or preclude, especially by estoppel.

"Estoppel" - noun [$10]
Estoppel means (Law) the principle which precludes a person from asserting something contrary to what is implied by a previous action or statement of that person or by previous judicial determination.

Sentence: One would think that if W [aka George W. Bush] had any principles he would consider himself estopped from opposing a second economic stimulus plan and merely want it spent effectively, perhaps to help the common man better. After all, he and his Republican cronies spent money as prodigiously as Ronald Reagan's "drunken sailor" metaphor.