Ferrago for a Friday

Farrago may not have been a recent "Word of the Day", so I'll help: a farrago is a confused mixture; a hodgepodge; a medley. Example: A farrago of doubts, fears, hopes and wishes.

That word alliterates with Friday and fits my post for today - no logical, unified thesis, just a collection of observations and thoughts.

Oh, for any Philistines - an "alliteration" is the occurrence in a phrase or line of speech of two or more words that begin with the same sound.

My, my so much alliteration in this post: farrago, Friday and Philistine.

To work ...

China -
Chinese Premier Wen is quoted in FT as worrying about Chinese holdings of US Treasury securities. “We have lent a huge amount of money to the United States,” Mr Wen said. “Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am a little bit worried. I request the US to maintain its good credit, to honour its promises and to guarantee the safety of China’s assets.”

Dear Mr. Wen: You bought US Treasury T-bills with the $ that US consumers used to buy Chinese products. You use those bonds as reserves for your currency so that someone might think the renminbi is something other that a worthless scrap of paper printed by a Communist, crypto-fascist government. The promise that US made is to give you US dollars (nominal, not real unless you own TIPs) in repayment. If you are 'worried" about those T-bills, redeem then for dollars and come over here and buy some US products or assets. Stop using the US as an engine of growth for your economy. Give you own people some spending power so they can buy more US products. Otherwise, shut up.

Madoff -
Madoff says he's sorry ... sure ... he's sorry he got caught before he could die in peace in his apartment. So far, it looks like about $17 billion actual $ were invested. Apparently this Blogger was correct as where most money stole Madoff went: taxes, fees, his front operation and his lavish lifestyle.

Expectations -
Are very low. The WSJ has a big, high-five, headline cheering that the DJIA broke 7000. Wow. Gosh. amazing.

Markets

Obama Fund is fully invested, doing nothing. Fido Fund is fully invested, doing nothing. Krypto Fund is as invested in stocks as possible, but is quite underweight. It's sutructurally unable to transfer more $ to stocks as its remaining bond investments are locked up in non-tradeable fixed income investments and must fund the shortfall with new money.

Word of the Day

Demijohn - noun [$10]; a Mencken word
Demijohn means a bulbous narrow necked bottle holding from 3 to 10 gallons and usually in a wicker cover.
Sentence: If ever a new bull market has clearly begun and world economic growth is strong, Bunkerman thinks that perhaps fireworks, barbecues and celebrations with demijohns of one's favorite spirits are in order.

Le Mot du Jour

Niveau - noun, masculine; plural niveaux
Niveau means level: le niveau de l'eau - water level; au niveau du sol - at ground level; de niveau (avec) - level (with); niveau de vie - standard of living
La Phrase: Le niveau de vie du peuple des États-Unis a chuté dernièrement.
Sentence: The standard of living of the common people of the United States has fallen recently.