Welcome New Reader ...

That's for Rush Limbaugh, who borrowed my posted ideas of a few days ago for his broadcast yesterday. A few days ago I wrote in this blog that States were going to be shocked by the low amounts that will be paid in estimated taxes for the January 15, 2009 payment date. And yesterday he used that for part of his monologue. Of course he didn't cite me. Oh well ...

Here's another good secondary effect of the drop in oil prices: the world's bad boys, viz., Venezuela, Russia and Iran now have far fewer resources to cause trouble.

Russia continues to deteriorate. And why not ? After virtually driving foreign investors out and cheating them of contractual rights, and acting like the old Brezhnev regime in Georgia, Russia finds its budget gutted and the money it used to buy support gone. No economic reforms were done while the money was flowing well. So Putin squandered the good times and now must reap the whirlwind. And who in their rational minds would invest in Russia now ? Only a fool.

Reports and leaks now imply that Lyndon [that's the official blog nickname for W] will provide debtor-in-possession financing for GM and Chrysler. Good. I like that way to get a rational restructuring of those effectively bankrupt firms. Much of the money could go to suppliers, of course, to pay for goods already delivered.

From FT, I read that some Deutsche Bank investors are actually "shocked" that DB is exercising its contractual rights to not prepay on some subordinated debt. It is truly amazing to me that so many "sophisticated" investors seem not to bother to read the documents. Or wonder why such clauses are inserted, unless they might be used in a difficult environment.

Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 GNP numbers will be very poor. The auto production cuts and announced corporate layoffs are going to make this winter a long, cold winter. The poor and unfortunate will need help, so if you have some money for charitable gifts, this winter it will be quite needed. Contributions directly to local support organizations go the furthest.

Markets

Perhaps Ms. Market will perform for me and pullback nicely so the new Obama Fund can get good entries. The Master List is nearly complete. The cash is raised and ready in my Ameritrade accounts. I'll re-post it around New Year's Day as I begin making investments.

Holiday Schedule

I will be visiting my hometown in central southeast Ohio from Monday, December 22 through Monday December 29. I will not have Internet service so cannot write posts here. I expect to write the next post for Tuesday, December 29, unless something interesting happens over the weekend.

Auto Bridge Loan

Early rumors were wrong - Lyndon went with a straight bridge loan and a fig leaf deadline of March 31. Sheer BS. Oh well.

Words of the Day

"Inconcinnity" - noun [$1000] obsolete or archaic
Inconcinnity means inelegance, impropriety; want of congruence or proportion; inelegance, awkwardness, unsuitableness.

"Incincinnous" - adjective [$1000' obsolete
Inconcinnous means 1. incongruence; 2. inharmonious (musical).

"Inconcinn, -e" - adjective [$1000] obsolete, rare
Incincinn means not adjusted or adapted.

"Inconcinnate" - adjective [$1000] obsolete, rare
Inconcinnate means a) awkward, clumsy, b) not adapted, unsuitable

Sentence: GM and Chrysler needs deep and serious restructuring. A simple direct TARP bridge loan would be inconcinnate to their restructuring needs and unduly complicate a difficult process. Using this money as debtor-in-possession financing perhaps with some private loans in parallel would be much better.