Metaphoritis

The public discourse in the US suffers from that disease - Metaphoritis. It's a syndrome arsing from sloppy thinking, poor verbal skills and weak argumentation. The metaphor of the day is "green shoots", lately deemed to be "withering" by bears or "patchy" as I just heard on Blabberg.

Pundits and news writers seem intellectually incapable of simply discussing and arguing the facts. For example, Trichet says the economic downturn in Europe is decelerating. That's a simple statement based on European data. The rate of change of GDP must decelerating before turning positive. That's simple math. So why oh why do we get buried in these "green shoots' metaphors over & over again by every news outlet ? And then instead of pointing out conflicting data, those disagreeing resort to the metaphor on a metaphor - the "green shoots" are "withering" or "patchy". Sheesh, such thumping tosh !

However, some news writers in Europe (of course) do have some intellectual skills beyond formula articles and commentary. I just heard today's word of the day - deracinate -and another $10 word - rapprochement - on Blabberg by a person with a clear British accent. Hooray ! Maybe he reads this blog. As a bonus, the word, rapprochement, was spoken as it would be in French from which it was borrowed.

Europe is catching up with US, finally.

FT: “The European Central Bank is on track to deliver a record-breaking “stimulus by stealth” to the eurozone economy on Tuesday, as the first-ever offer of unlimited one-year funds could see demand running into several hundred billion euros.

“The size of the ECB’s emergency liquidity-boosting operation, which was announced last month, is expected to be bolstered dramatically by the belief in financial markets that eurozone official interest rates will not fall – and the opportunity to borrow on such favourable conditions will not be repeated.”

And: “German business confidence has brightened more than expected this month with companies in Europe’s largest economy becoming markedly more upbeat on prospects for the next six months.

“The Munich-based Ifo institute reported its closely-watched “business climate” index had risen for the third consecutive month, from 84.3 in May to 85.9 in June to the highest level since November.”

Emerging Markets Pulling Their Oar.

FT: “India’s Congress party-led coalition government is planning to invite foreign investors to participate in an ambitious move to increase road construction 10-fold as the country seeks to boost much-needed infrastructure development.”

Actions

I added a bit to positions in MOS, FCX, GSI and EXM in Obama Fund. And flipped a bit of EEFT. I am simply doing my stock my trading tactic, viz., "buy dips, sell rips" on a stock by stock basis when the market pulls back. With 50 stocks in Obama Fund, that's the only way to do it. I have six more stocks on the "on deck" circle for adds if they pull back a but more.

Word of the Day

"Deracinate" - verb [$10]; transitive, literary
Deracinate means 1. tear up by the roots; 2. obliterate, expunge.
Sentence: Without a doubt, this recession has deracinated whatever "inflation" truly existed in 2007. And Battleship Ben's superb monetary policy has deracinated deflation risks. The doomsayers, however, now are dreaming up a "hyperinflation" fear. What thumping tosh !

Słowo Tygodnia

[That's "Word of the Week" in Polish (I think). That letter - ł - is pronounced as a "w" and the Polish "w" is pronounced as "v"]

"Pić" and "Wypić" - verbs, imperfective and perfective forms, first conjugation
Pić and Wypić mean to drink. The imperfective form denotes incomplete or habitual or repeated action; the perfective form is used for completed actions. Polish verbs require this distinction.
Zdanie: Wczoraj wypiłem dwa piwa. Yesterday I drank two beers. Teraz piję czarną kawę. Now I am drinking black coffee. Dziś wieczorem wypiję dwa piwa. Tonight I will drink two beers.

By the way, the adverbs go at the beginning of the sentence, not at the end.