More Ughhhhh

The positive reversal of late last week was cancelled along with the Bush presidency yesterday. Strong, real selling came in due to the surprise losses at State Street Bank, which is major custody bank. Why they have surprise losses is a bit of a mystery. They seem to be eating losses of institutional money market funds whihc they manage in order to maintain that business line. I guess they made some investment errors. The stupidity of financial executives continues to amaze me. Such risks were taken for miniscule spreads by so many "smart" people.

In the UK, the huge losses at Royal Bank of Scotland over the long weekend stunned markets there, too.

But IBM had good earnings and a good 2009 forecast.

As mentioned yesterday, my posts will be brief for the next three weeks as I take one of my dogs to get some medical treatment. The appointments are in the morning and involve a long drive, so my time to work on posts is much more limited.

Perhaps I'll re-post some old favorites.

In a very long term stock account at Vanguard, I am accumulating CCJ, RIG, JPM, GOOG, DVN, AAPL, and BHP for now - in other words, my old favorites. I might pick so other ones later. I just buy a few shares on big dips, using time diversification. This account complements Mrs. B's Sky Fund. I guess I need a name for it ... thinking. I suppose she will kick my butt over time, but I must try.

Word of the Day

"Coryza" - noun [$10]; a Mencken word. Pronounced kuh ri' za.
Coryza means a catarral inflammation of the mucous membrane of the nose, caused, e. g., by a cold or hay fever; a cold in the head. [Latin from Greek 'koryza' meaning 'running at the nose']
Sentence: [" ... " part is from from Mencken's example] The Republican leaders are facing a long period of Democratic domination, "so they resign themselves to it gloomily, just as they resign themselves to coryza and monogamy."