Another Whatnot Wednesday

It's uncanny. Today is Wednesday and, as usual, nothing is happening.

Well, not quite. GMAC asks for more taxpayer money. Why ? I don't know ... the WSJ article is hard to understand - lots of "facts" but not the ones that might help one understand why they need more taxpayer money. I guess it's unable to borrow money at sufficiently low rates to then finance car purchases at competitive rates for car buyers.

Obama looks like the new 21st century Alfred P. Sloan; he's putting together a car empire of multiple brands under US government control: GM, Chrysler and all their brands, plus their finance companies. What will he do with them ? No one knows; I suspect he has no idea either. He's improvising ... well, at least temporizing. He just wants to put that mess aside until he and his co-conspirators in Congress to pass climate change and health care cluster FUBARs. Once passed, even if the Democrats lose Congress, they'll be in a position to use Senate filibuster rules to prevent repeal. What a wonderful system ! ... NOT !

In case anyone missed it, the Case-Schiller home price index showed broad month-over-month improvement in a majority of major cities in the US. Data thus shows that the house price "bottom" is in, presuming that no further shocks occur.

Actions

I'll be looking at charts this morning, thinking. MT, one of the few remaining 1-2-3 Fund positions, reported earnings in Europe this AM. Blabberg says the stock is trading lower in Europe. I'll read the news on Briefing to see how the numbers compared to "expectations" and then read the press releases. Whether I take action or not will depend on what I see. My plan was to hold through January, but it's always subject to change, as any speculation is.

Word of the Day

"Dualism" - noun [$10]
Dualism means 1. being twofold; duality; 2. (Philosophy) the theory that in any domain of reality, there are two independent underlying principals, e. g. mind and matter, form and content (cf. idealism, monism, materialism); 2. (Theology) a. the theory that the forces of good and evil are equally balanced in the universe; b. the theory of the dual (human and divine) personality of Christ.
Sentences: (A) [from "Great Ideas of Philosophy", a Teaching Company CD course, part 5, Notes page 24] cf. monism: "For the ontological dualist, there are two: the dualist adds the mental to the physical."
(B) Dualism seems to be immanent in the "World" at many levels: elementary particles and their rules of interactions, good and evil, man and woman, and even ideologically in libertarianism and totalitarianism as extremes. In addition, for optimality actual states of existence seem to require both to manifest an optimal resultant "World State". As written yesterday, the World's naturally evolved state always seems to result in "some A and some B", and not "A or B".