Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Remarkable ...

Reading the Financial Times online this morning, I was flattered to find another prominent reader, viz. the leader of the opposition party in Japan. Recently I wrote again about the growing consumer-driven and self-reinforcing regional economies of East and Southern Asia, which I facetiously named the "East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere". And lo, what was said yesterday ?

FT: "Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of Japan's opposition Democratic party who is strongly placed to become prime minister after elections this month, has condemned “US-led market fundamentalism” and vowed to shield his nation from the effects of untrammelled globalisation.
With the era of US unilateralism ending and worries about the dollar’s future role growing, Japan should also work towards regional currency union and political integration in an “East Asian Community”, Mr Hatoyama wrote in an essay published Monday in the Japanese magazine Voice."

Well, I like my name better. It's a play on the name that WW II era Japan gave to the empire their war goals were to create.

Lots of talk worldwide about "US-led globalism" might be local politics - boob bait for the Japanese bubbas. That talk is misguided, as US-style consumerism and economic freedom is the key to future world growth and better lives for the world's billions. The focus of reforms needs to be reining the big, evil funds and ruling classes that cause so much turmoil. The rich and powerful seek to create a new world aristocracy. That's where regulation is needed. The common man should be completely unfettered in his drive to better his life. His efforts are the tail wind for economic growth.

Actions

Nihil. That's Latin for nothing.

Word of the Day

"Sardonic" - adjective [$10]; this word needs to be distinguished from the more common "sarcastic".
Sardonic means disdainfully or skeptically humorous: derisively mocking; (alternate) 1. grimly jocular; 2. (of laughter, etc.) bitterly mocking or cynical.
Sarcastic is from sarcasm which means 1. use of bitter or wounding, esp. ironic remarks; language consisting of such remarks; 2. such a remark.
Distinction: Sardonic includes elements of humor; Sarcastic includes more bitterness and irony.
Sentence: The fine book, "Elmer Gantry", by Sinclair Lewis, the first American winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is a sardonic novel about an evangelical preacher. I'm about 2/3 through it and highly enjoy the book. I wonder why this book wasn't recommended for reading in high school. It's certainly retain much applicability to modern life.

54 comments:

mfl59 said...

I guess we could say then that spin's prose may be considered sardonic, while Bud's may be termed sarcastic....

Bunkerman said...

sounds about right ...

My god, CNBC is bad. What a POS.

I listened during weightlifting this AM.

No content whatsoever.

Spin-em said...

then who is Snarky??lool

Bunkerman said...

uh ... the aleut.

Frosty said...

Bunky your heros at the FMOC going to cruse the $, time to short UUP...I know you and larry kudlow are all about king $...to early for that bs isn't it.

Bunkerman said...

when the US economy gets going, the dollar will do OK.

Kudlow ... pukacious.

mfl59 said...

Bunkerman is the US dollar an asset class?

Bunkerman said...

no

Frosty said...

'I've been a seller this morning as some stops have been hit and am not looking at any new buys yet."...thx jim...all buy buy buy yesterday, no wonder Bud a no show...Bunky think pigshark reads your blog, are you getting a cut of the skim.

Bunkerman said...

No, I neither receive nor would accept under any circumstances any skim.

I am a free man !!!

I labor for no one !!!

mfl59 said...

Bud may I please get a handicap update so I know how to direct my practice sessions leading up to Feb 2010? Thanks very much...Cheers...

"Meet the Mets, Greet the Mets, Come to Citi Field and see the Mets"

Bunkerman said...

re skim, that it, from "him"

Of course my own "places" provide plenty of skim ...

Bunkerman said...

interestingly, I was talking to a fellow who knows my businesses rather well. In general, they are very recession-proof: they rely on, in a broad sense, booze, "smokes", sex and gambling to make money.

;)

mfl59 said...

did Fischer Black teach about those subjects at MIT?

Frosty said...

Bunky...I think I have confirmation that your hero ben did indeed buy half of that 7yr auction last week...do you have no shame sir...some may say you are weak and unprepared.

Bunkerman said...

Does your "confirmation" distinguish between the Fed for its own book and on behalf or foreign central banks ?

Frosty said...

not specific in that regard, I assumed not as the purchase came in the open market after the auction.

Spin-em said...

dark mike like frank Burns when he knows he has a date with Margaret later...(shavin in the mirror)...bok bok bak bokbok..bok bak(sung to the tune Im back in the saddle again)

"This ol cowboy aint gunna be lonely tonight!!"



loooooool

Bud said...

lemme repeat ace...........you're a f'ng traitor........deserter.......i have no desire to associate with vermin like you ....you make me f'ng sick



meet the mets ??? is that the best you got...............pffffffffffffffffffft



go wack off to A-fraud ...............f'ng benedict arnold

Spin-em said...

GO CUBS!!!!!!!.....azzface

mfl59 said...

In my defense A Rod is quite handsome.....

Bunkerman said...

not necessarily, frosty. The Fed makes many open market purchases on behalf of foreign central banks in the open market.

Bud said...

Bman is atticus capital a beefer ???


i am sure the news today on them is giving you a woodrow


PS......no need for government to crack down on beefers............the free market will take care of it

mfl59 said...

without beefers the SPX would be at 800....

Bunkerman said...

without beefers, SPX would never have gone below 1200.

Bud, my answer yesterday with metaphors about the bear and the Pope apply to your question.

Yes, I like seeing beefers crater. If only 90% of them would flame out. All that money flowing to real buying vs. trading schemes would get S&P back to 1500

mfl59 said...

SPX 1500?????

Do you really believe the underlying fundamentals support such a price?

Now I know for a fact you are watching too much CNBC....

Bud said...

never gone below 1200


LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


good one Bman



what a bunch of thumping tosh

Frosty said...

Bunky...spot on...with the help of the paid off SEC and a blind eye toward naked shorts, no uptick rule, 3x dark etf's and crazy margin levels, beefers ran wild creating a panic selling environment.

Bunkerman said...

The underlying fundamentals would be a lot better if the beefers hadn't caused the panic last year.

Bunkerman said...

yes, frosty, and don't forget all the beefers buying the subordinated pieces of those CDO/CLO/CBO etc. And for the subprime crap, too. None of that could be created without beefers buying the junk rated classes.

mfl59 said...

Yes a decade of debt fueled growth coupled with zero job or income growth surely was sustainable....but I digress...

Bunkerman said...

I don't wacth any CNBC anyome, and very little Bloomber, either.

I've been doing more reading and cleaning my "equipment" and getting my gear ready for teh wilderness canoe trip.

Just had pemmican again for lunch - two weeks old & better than ever.

Tomorrow's breakfast will be hardtack, coffe and sugar ... like the Union Army at Chattanooga.

A masterpiece by that great general and president, U. S. Grant (he was from Ohio, too, as were the three greatest Union generals (Grant, Sherman, Sheridan)

Bud said...

the greatest american general of all time is a tie


george washington and robert e lee..........the confederacy was a high school football team...........the union was an nfl team.............without lee..........dixie would have gotten slaughtered much earlier



3rd place = general patton

Bud said...

Bman where is general westmoreland on america's greatest generals list ??

Frosty said...

Bud...thanks for that FTK (25%) today...well played sir.

Bud said...

tommy franks goes on america's worst generals list................schwarzkopf lame too


beat up an army that used ww1 equipment ...............and acted like the defeated the nazi's...........or stalins red army

Frosty said...

Bunky...what is the best weapon to smoke a dirty lil jap datsun pick-up...we may have a mission, will keep you posted.

Bunkerman said...

flamethrower, frosty. I've smoked many nip cars with one.

The best way is to put a few belts of .30 cal into it, then light it up through the rear window. The bullet holes make a beautiful modern art pattern.

Bunkerman said...

another way is to put some .50 cal armor piercing incendiary tracers (APIT) low into the engine compartment (oil pan is target) - they burn well.

I lit one up in Vermant last month.

Spin-em said...

looooooooooooooooooooool "bob"

Bunkerman said...

disagree Bud.

Toommy Franks & Schwarzkopf did very, very well - kick Iraqi butt totally and lost very few men.

Westmoreland was a disaster - like one of those WW I Brit or French generals.

Bunkerman said...

Lee was OK ... but his opposition generals were very poor ... until Grant.

Lee completely blew Gettysburg.

Bunkerman said...

Agree about Washington - amazing man in all respects.

Bunkerman said...

Winfield Scott in Mexico was excellent, too - a remarkable campaign. One of the greatest, as the Duke of Wellington wrote at the time.

Bunkerman said...

In WW II on US side, I'd put Patton at top for Army alone (not perfect), but Macarthur was very, very good in combined arms. As he proved at Inchon later in Korea.

A prima donna, unfair glory hound, yes. But won without bloodbaths using combined arms.

None were perfect - in a long war, they all got a chance to make blunders.

mfl59 said...

How do neither Stonewall Jackson nor Patrick Cleburne not sneak into this discussion?

Bunkerman may I suggest the book "Class of 1854" about West Point's famous generals who graduated that year...A fine read...

Bunkerman said...

Stonewall Jackson didn't live long enough to prove himself in the bigger fights.

Frosty said...

anyone know the current spot price for an "around the world", with a double happy finish kicker.

Bunkerman said...

I think I have that book, mfl, but haven't read it.

Bunkerman said...

Grant was the best in the Civil War by far ... Vicksburg, Chattanooga, then Virginia. He directed Sherman & Sheridan to do their fine campaigns, too. Without Grant, the Union bogs down in 1863 and 1864, then Lincoln loses the 1864 election. He was decisive.

maverick said...

ummm..... I thought we won the war....we still have servants at our tailgate parties

maverick said...

as mernie would say....someone shit the bed?

Bud said...

Bman...........do beefers ever manipulate the market up ??


oh wait..............real buyers


what a bunch of thumping tosh

Frosty said...

are silk turbans an asset class.