More Failures in Government

Today's papers illustrate that government in the US at both the Federal and local levels has moved further into fantasy land.

On the local level, read this one from the FT: "Health campaigners have opened up another front in the battle against childhood obesity after a California county prepared to approve a ban on the use of toys and gifts to sell fast-food meals. ... Ken Yeager, the county supervisor who introduced the latest measure, told the Financial Times the ban was a “tool to combat the skyrocketing rate of childhood obesity”."

Why stop at fast food ? Candy, etc. to follow ? No more baseball cards in bubble gum. No more toys in Cracker-Jacks. Heck, they will probably ban Animal Crackers, too.

Why not just seize all children at birth and put them in state-run clinics where they can be properly indoctrinated into agents of state policy ? Where does one draw the line there ?

Here's another example of arbitrary government from the WSJ: "When officials at New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext and the Nasdaq Stock Market's owner Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. decided last week to cancel certain transactions made during Thursday's market tumult, they drew a sharp dividing line. On one side stood investors allowed to cash in on the trade of a lifetime. On the other side were people who narrowly missed. Now some are speaking out against the exchanges' decision, which they say was arbitrary and has served to undermine confidence in the markets."

Who can say they aren't correct ? The order cancellations WERE arbitrary. Why a cut-off at 60% ? That's a HUGE change. Why not 10% ? I'd guess the SEC/Exchanges want to protect the "market makers", letting as many trades go through as possible.

The SEC/Exchanges (except NYSE) really don't care about investors. All they want to do is preserve the vig for the Street and the big money boys.

We need people with a clear philosophy of fairness to INVESTORS and who want market to serve INVESTORS, not the Street or big money traders. But all we have now are people who want their next job to be a high paying one with the likes of Goug'em Sachs or its law firms.

Sigh ...

We need to clean out the stables full of manure that is DC.

Actions

None yet. Krypto wants lower prices to swing her bat.

Word of the Day

"Gimcrack" - noun & adjective [$10]
Gimcrack means (adjective) showy but flimsy & worthless; (noun) a cheap, showy ornament, a knickknack.
Sentence: All I expect from the SECto the latest market disaster in another gimcrack response to be announced in a big press conference with soothing, but meaningless words.