Last week was a break from this blog for your writer. He used it productively in collecting and editing some past posts to create a pamphlet to publish and send to about 1,000 "leaders" in the US. Why? To give them truly new ideas. I can't bash them as they deserve, because I want them to read it. Writing an effective pamphlet requires one to incorporate principles of good advertizing to capture the readers. That rules out bashing them ... at least at first. The pamphlet is in re-write mode now as I proceed through many drafts to hone the language and thoughts. Publication will be this month ... or my name isn't Bunkerman.
The Panic of the Rich in Europe continues. European stocks markets cratered yesterday while we had our Labor Day barbecues. Today the Swiss National Bank set a hard ceiling on the Swiss Franc vs. the Euro saying it will buy unlimited quantities of Euros by issuing unlimited amounts of Swiss Francs. Will they do it? Time will tell. Thye have to stop the distortion caused by the flood of panic money coming from rich Europeans and the Middle East. Rich Europeans fear taxes and social disorder; rich Arabs fear revolutions and social disorder. Do you notice a common denominator?
Obama will make another speech Thursday evening. Judging from his Labor Day speeches, he will offer nothing new and mostly posture to his base for political gain. Your writer will make a post tomorrow with the correct answer to the correct question: how to help America and the American people get back onto a path towards more prosperity and happiness for all.
An Interesting Movie
Check out The Inside Job, which contains many quite intriguing and provocative facts about the Panic of 2008. I was quite surprised to learn the huge sums paid to economists such as Larry Summers and Glenn Hubbard by the financial services industry. These guys were [are?] getting $100,000 a speech. Uh ... that's not a speaking fee, it's a payoff. Big money has utterly corrupted that formerly academic profession. Remember that when the media puts people like this on TV to blather about what's good for America.
The movie missed a few points (such as the role of hedge funds), but has enough to make it quite worth watching.
Comparisons to 2008
These are all over the business press. Uh ... guys ... if that has any validity, why are TIPs prices so high? Why are municipal bonds yields so low? Sheesh ...
Idiots.
Word of the Day
"Contumely" - noun [$10] Shakespeare, from Hamlet's soliloquy.
Contumely means 1. insolent or reproachful language or treatment; 2. disgrace.
Sentence: The common man and woman need to start dousing the DC crowd with contumely - in old Brooklynese, give them the raspberry. Toss the bums out.
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The Longest Day
Almost every year around June 6 we watch the great movie, The Longest Day, which covers the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, in World War II. There is no doubt that this battle is one of the most critical, and decisive battles in determining the path of the world that led to the present. Failure would have prolonged the war in Europe for at least a year, and can we imagine what the world would be if Stalin had occupied most of continental Europe.
The screenplay is astonishingly accurate in many, many details. Cornelius Ryan wrote it, and it's a faithful depiction of the people and events in his book, The Longest Day, which I have and have read. The movie was made in 1962; many, many important participants in the battle were still alive then. Many figures portrayed in the movie were still alive then, too, and are listed as advisers to the movie. You can watch this movie and obtain a fine understanding of the overall battle and many individual heroic actions.
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was awarded a Medal of Honor for his decisive actions in effectively saving the Utah beachhead. Gen. Norman Cota did what the movie shows - saving the Normandy beachhead and the entire operation. The British units preformed magnificently as did the Free French units (both uniformed and underground). And when you see the actor, Eddie Arnold, playing as a key figure on the Normandy beach as Cota's assistant, you should know that he fought on Tarawa in the Pacific, which was one of the most difficult beach landings in that theatre.
When you watch the movie, one should be aware that it presents many Germans rather favorably and the word, Nazi, is not used in my memory. Germany was being rehabilitated at that time and was a integral part of NATO. The movie chose not to put attention on the dark side of WW II Germany, but it does present Hitler's decisions as contributing to loss of the battle. That is true.
British Gen. Montgomery gets criticized much for some of his actions in WW II, but he did prepare the battle plan for the Normandy invasion - his changes were crucial for its successes.
Why Normandy ? Germany was surprised by its choice, and the reason might surprise you, too. Normandy was the only place in northern France where the Allies could land five divisions abreast. And Montgomery had required that increase in the landings size to give it much more punch and staying power.
Was Rommel right in fighting at the beaches ? Yes, because he knew that Allied air power would prevent major reinforcements. From his experience in Africa, Rommel understood the power of Allied air forces, which generals (and Hitler) with only experience in Russia did not.
I could go on and on, having read so many books on this battle. But if you watch the movie, you'll get an accurate overview in both broad and specific details.
Word of the Day
"Beetling" - from "Beetle" (3rd meaning) adjective & verb [$10]
Beetle (this usage) means (of brows, cliffs, etc.) projecting, overhanging threateningly.
Sentence: If you ever visit Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, you can see how difficult the Ranger assault up the beetling cliffs was. I visited about 15 years ago and one can still see huge shell holes, and signs advise sticking to marked paths due to risk on mines.
The screenplay is astonishingly accurate in many, many details. Cornelius Ryan wrote it, and it's a faithful depiction of the people and events in his book, The Longest Day, which I have and have read. The movie was made in 1962; many, many important participants in the battle were still alive then. Many figures portrayed in the movie were still alive then, too, and are listed as advisers to the movie. You can watch this movie and obtain a fine understanding of the overall battle and many individual heroic actions.
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was awarded a Medal of Honor for his decisive actions in effectively saving the Utah beachhead. Gen. Norman Cota did what the movie shows - saving the Normandy beachhead and the entire operation. The British units preformed magnificently as did the Free French units (both uniformed and underground). And when you see the actor, Eddie Arnold, playing as a key figure on the Normandy beach as Cota's assistant, you should know that he fought on Tarawa in the Pacific, which was one of the most difficult beach landings in that theatre.
When you watch the movie, one should be aware that it presents many Germans rather favorably and the word, Nazi, is not used in my memory. Germany was being rehabilitated at that time and was a integral part of NATO. The movie chose not to put attention on the dark side of WW II Germany, but it does present Hitler's decisions as contributing to loss of the battle. That is true.
British Gen. Montgomery gets criticized much for some of his actions in WW II, but he did prepare the battle plan for the Normandy invasion - his changes were crucial for its successes.
Why Normandy ? Germany was surprised by its choice, and the reason might surprise you, too. Normandy was the only place in northern France where the Allies could land five divisions abreast. And Montgomery had required that increase in the landings size to give it much more punch and staying power.
Was Rommel right in fighting at the beaches ? Yes, because he knew that Allied air power would prevent major reinforcements. From his experience in Africa, Rommel understood the power of Allied air forces, which generals (and Hitler) with only experience in Russia did not.
I could go on and on, having read so many books on this battle. But if you watch the movie, you'll get an accurate overview in both broad and specific details.
Word of the Day
"Beetling" - from "Beetle" (3rd meaning) adjective & verb [$10]
Beetle (this usage) means (of brows, cliffs, etc.) projecting, overhanging threateningly.
Sentence: If you ever visit Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, you can see how difficult the Ranger assault up the beetling cliffs was. I visited about 15 years ago and one can still see huge shell holes, and signs advise sticking to marked paths due to risk on mines.
Friday, November 20, 2009
TGIF
It's Friday and the holiday season is coming. Next week is a shortened week and Christmas ads fill the airwaves. Hmmm ... that's a bit archaic, as now the "airwaves" aren't analog waves at all, but packets of bits and bytes. But at the fundamental level, the digital bits are still electromagnetic waves, although somehow configured be read by receivers as bits. I wonder how that's done ? Oh well ... you can tell I'm mostly a theorist when it comes to physics, etc.
Marketwise, consolidation continues. A few weeks ago I wrote that to hit my S&P target of 1200 by year end, the markets need some good news on the jobs front. That means unemployment claims dropping solidly below 500,000 per week, and the December jobs number showing a loss well under 200,000. We'll see ...
Europe is now going through the "Articles of Confederation" phase of nation-building. Eventually they'll copy the US Constitution, but it might take a generation for the need for that to be obvious to the leaders of member states. For now, Europe seems rather dominated by the big three, viz. Britain, France and Germany (listed alphabetically), but when will Italy, Poland and Spain (again listed alphabetically) start to get the respect they deserve ?
Hmmm in a year, this blogger will be semi-literate in all the major languages of the EU. I'll be able to add news from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain to my daily posts. I wonder how many bloggers world wide are able to do that ? Perhaps I'll then consider expanding operations to a real web site with more capability.
By the way, I can read enough of those languages to note that the leading newspapers in Italy and Poland did NOT have the appointment of the EU president as a top headline, while those from Britain, France and Germany did. The headline in a leading newspaper in Spain focused on the weakness of the #1 and #2 EU leaders. Interesting ...
Actions
The refrain continues ...
Je ne fais rien.
Ich machte nichts.
Nic nie robię.
Estoy haciendo nada.
Non faccio nulla.
Nihil facio.
I am doing nothing.
I wonder if I can make a poem from those lines ? Perhaps next time. I am listing to a course on "How to Read and Understand Poetry" from the Teaching Company. I might be able to combine those lines into some sort of verses with alliteration, assonance, consonance and half-rhymes and other poetic "sound effects". A good project.
Word of the Day
"Proxeny" - noun [$1000] and "Proxenus" -noun [$1000]; both from Greek
Proxeny means the office of function of a proxenus"
Proxenus means (in Greek antiquity) A resident citizen of a state appointed by another state to represent and protect its interests there. Readers of the fine book by Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, will recognize that function was called "consul" in the free trading cities of pre-1871 Europe. Proxeny is sort of like an official agency of a governmental entity in another jurisdiction.
Sentence: The position of EU president seems a bit like a joint proxeny for all the members states of the EU on the world stage.
Marketwise, consolidation continues. A few weeks ago I wrote that to hit my S&P target of 1200 by year end, the markets need some good news on the jobs front. That means unemployment claims dropping solidly below 500,000 per week, and the December jobs number showing a loss well under 200,000. We'll see ...
Europe is now going through the "Articles of Confederation" phase of nation-building. Eventually they'll copy the US Constitution, but it might take a generation for the need for that to be obvious to the leaders of member states. For now, Europe seems rather dominated by the big three, viz. Britain, France and Germany (listed alphabetically), but when will Italy, Poland and Spain (again listed alphabetically) start to get the respect they deserve ?
Hmmm in a year, this blogger will be semi-literate in all the major languages of the EU. I'll be able to add news from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain to my daily posts. I wonder how many bloggers world wide are able to do that ? Perhaps I'll then consider expanding operations to a real web site with more capability.
By the way, I can read enough of those languages to note that the leading newspapers in Italy and Poland did NOT have the appointment of the EU president as a top headline, while those from Britain, France and Germany did. The headline in a leading newspaper in Spain focused on the weakness of the #1 and #2 EU leaders. Interesting ...
Actions
The refrain continues ...
Je ne fais rien.
Ich machte nichts.
Nic nie robię.
Estoy haciendo nada.
Non faccio nulla.
Nihil facio.
I am doing nothing.
I wonder if I can make a poem from those lines ? Perhaps next time. I am listing to a course on "How to Read and Understand Poetry" from the Teaching Company. I might be able to combine those lines into some sort of verses with alliteration, assonance, consonance and half-rhymes and other poetic "sound effects". A good project.
Word of the Day
"Proxeny" - noun [$1000] and "Proxenus" -noun [$1000]; both from Greek
Proxeny means the office of function of a proxenus"
Proxenus means (in Greek antiquity) A resident citizen of a state appointed by another state to represent and protect its interests there. Readers of the fine book by Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, will recognize that function was called "consul" in the free trading cities of pre-1871 Europe. Proxeny is sort of like an official agency of a governmental entity in another jurisdiction.
Sentence: The position of EU president seems a bit like a joint proxeny for all the members states of the EU on the world stage.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Celebrating Columbus Day
Today is a holiday for celebrating the discovery of the New World by the Old World. Modern revisionists who make a hobby of denigrating the civilization created and still led by European white people like to say that New World wasn't discovered, it was there all along as a home for the "native" Americans. Why do they use that term ? Because they want to be under the panoply of implied "good" things created by America, yet differentiate themselves from the European white people. After all in their view, everything bad in the world is caused by them.
Turn back the clock to 1491. What was in the undiscovered New World ?
Aztecs dominated the center of the hemisphere with a culture focused on ritual murders of captive peoples. Writing and science of the Maya civilisation had been lost, probably due to conquest.
No metalworking skills - not even copper axes. Steel tomahawks came from Europe as trade goods. There were no horses or even oxen, hence no wheel for transportation. Ships ? Nope, just canoes.
Almost no people lived on the Great Plains - hunting buffalo was very difficult without horses. Native peoples used spears and arrows tipped with crafted flint arrowheads. The skills were about the same as existed in the Old World 10,000 years earlier. "Armor" was made from folded hides worn over the upper body.
The northern hemisphere was a mass of tribes in constant warfare. I've read histories that focus on the very earliest contacts of the European with the New World in North America - both in the Southwest and south with the Spanish and in the north with the French, English and Dutch. accounts. The cultures are rather reminiscent of Germanic tribes depicted in Caesar's commentaries. Tribes fought and massacred each other to get as much land as possible for hunting, leaving a huge swath of vacant land around them.
The European gets blamed for the plagues that surely killed large numbers of New World peoples after "first contact". One area that I do know much about, viz., the Ohio area, was NOT depopulated by the plagues. The Iroquois did it, via simple genocide. A combination of the two destruction forces probably happened in most areas. A tribe was weakened with loss of half its people from plague, then the stronger neighbors could move in and wipe them out. [Reference: "The Battle for North America" by Francis Parkham who uses original French accounts of the earliest explorers.]
Plagues existed in the Old World, too. The Black Death is well known, but one can read a history book titled, "Plagues and Peoples" by William H. McNeill to see that many, many plagues swept through the Old World for thousands of years. Those arose from east and south Asia and Africa, mainly. Do we condemn those cultures for destruction of human life. Nope. They aren't the dreaded "white European".
Heck, AIDS came from black Africa. Do pundits and revisionists write about that plague as being from black Africa ? Nope. They concoct phony ways to blame it on the white man and the CIA.
The New World in 1491 was an early neolithic society with culture levels around the level of perhaps at most 4500 BC in the Old World - about 6000 years behind technologically and culturally. The discovery of the New World by the Old World lead to huge advances in human civilization, including the most important one to date, namely the creation of the United States of America, the first democratic republic of free people with no aristocracy.
Where would the world be without that discovery ? Germany would have won World war I, Bolshevism would rule north central Asia, and east Asia would be ruled by either a Japanese military empire or a Maoist theocracy or both. No forces of freedom would exist anywhere: just endless genocides and massacres. And then one of those "wonderful" nations would "discover" the New World and spread the same plagues and even more deadly technology to a primitive people.
Obviously, the world is hugely better off from the discovery of Columbus. Let's celebrate his drive to look over the horizon and find out what's out there; it was a great achievement for humanity that led to many great and wonderful events.
Actions
Nothing planned. I will go over my positions today and evaluate them for risks and reward potential.
Word of the Day
"Adventitious" - adjective [$10]
Adventitious means 1. a. acquired by accident, not inherent; b. accidental, casual; 2. added from outside; 3. Biological appearing in an unusual place or in an irregular manner; 4. Law (of property) coming from a stranger or by collateral succession rather that directly.
Sentence: The adventitious position of the western hemisphere permitted to its unexpected discovery by Columbus in 1492. Had it been 1000 miles further west, discovery may have been delayed for a century or more as all attention would have focused on the route around southern Africa to the East and its profitable trade.
Turn back the clock to 1491. What was in the undiscovered New World ?
Aztecs dominated the center of the hemisphere with a culture focused on ritual murders of captive peoples. Writing and science of the Maya civilisation had been lost, probably due to conquest.
No metalworking skills - not even copper axes. Steel tomahawks came from Europe as trade goods. There were no horses or even oxen, hence no wheel for transportation. Ships ? Nope, just canoes.
Almost no people lived on the Great Plains - hunting buffalo was very difficult without horses. Native peoples used spears and arrows tipped with crafted flint arrowheads. The skills were about the same as existed in the Old World 10,000 years earlier. "Armor" was made from folded hides worn over the upper body.
The northern hemisphere was a mass of tribes in constant warfare. I've read histories that focus on the very earliest contacts of the European with the New World in North America - both in the Southwest and south with the Spanish and in the north with the French, English and Dutch. accounts. The cultures are rather reminiscent of Germanic tribes depicted in Caesar's commentaries. Tribes fought and massacred each other to get as much land as possible for hunting, leaving a huge swath of vacant land around them.
The European gets blamed for the plagues that surely killed large numbers of New World peoples after "first contact". One area that I do know much about, viz., the Ohio area, was NOT depopulated by the plagues. The Iroquois did it, via simple genocide. A combination of the two destruction forces probably happened in most areas. A tribe was weakened with loss of half its people from plague, then the stronger neighbors could move in and wipe them out. [Reference: "The Battle for North America" by Francis Parkham who uses original French accounts of the earliest explorers.]
Plagues existed in the Old World, too. The Black Death is well known, but one can read a history book titled, "Plagues and Peoples" by William H. McNeill to see that many, many plagues swept through the Old World for thousands of years. Those arose from east and south Asia and Africa, mainly. Do we condemn those cultures for destruction of human life. Nope. They aren't the dreaded "white European".
Heck, AIDS came from black Africa. Do pundits and revisionists write about that plague as being from black Africa ? Nope. They concoct phony ways to blame it on the white man and the CIA.
The New World in 1491 was an early neolithic society with culture levels around the level of perhaps at most 4500 BC in the Old World - about 6000 years behind technologically and culturally. The discovery of the New World by the Old World lead to huge advances in human civilization, including the most important one to date, namely the creation of the United States of America, the first democratic republic of free people with no aristocracy.
Where would the world be without that discovery ? Germany would have won World war I, Bolshevism would rule north central Asia, and east Asia would be ruled by either a Japanese military empire or a Maoist theocracy or both. No forces of freedom would exist anywhere: just endless genocides and massacres. And then one of those "wonderful" nations would "discover" the New World and spread the same plagues and even more deadly technology to a primitive people.
Obviously, the world is hugely better off from the discovery of Columbus. Let's celebrate his drive to look over the horizon and find out what's out there; it was a great achievement for humanity that led to many great and wonderful events.
Actions
Nothing planned. I will go over my positions today and evaluate them for risks and reward potential.
Word of the Day
"Adventitious" - adjective [$10]
Adventitious means 1. a. acquired by accident, not inherent; b. accidental, casual; 2. added from outside; 3. Biological appearing in an unusual place or in an irregular manner; 4. Law (of property) coming from a stranger or by collateral succession rather that directly.
Sentence: The adventitious position of the western hemisphere permitted to its unexpected discovery by Columbus in 1492. Had it been 1000 miles further west, discovery may have been delayed for a century or more as all attention would have focused on the route around southern Africa to the East and its profitable trade.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The European Union Survives, Stronger.
The large majority vote in Ireland a few days ago to ratify the Lisbon treaty, after narrowly defeating it last year, showed how much public opinion can change in a crisis. A crisis causes people to re-think their values and question assumptions. Decisions that could not be made in normal times can be made in or just after a crisis. A few years ago I questioned whether the EU could survive a crisis. Would its members focus on narrow, selfish interests ? Or pull together ?
At that time, I thought that it would crack up and fall apart. The events show I was wrong. Europeans seem to have learned how to live together peacefully and not resort to excess nationalism and hate-mongering of their neighbors. The big countries did not put undue pressure on the small ones. Perhaps that's because they had huge economic pressure on themselves.
The small countries realized they were far too vulnerable on their own. The vote in Ireland proved that.
I now expect all the small countries of Europe to join the Euro-zone as quickly as possible, as they know their economies and currencies are too at risk to raiders and unscrupulous or foolish financial practices. The lessons of Iceland and Hungary make this very obvious.
This is good news, a big gain for world stability. This removes a huge risk to world economic growth.
Actions
Je ne fais rien. Ich machte nichts. Nic nie robię. Estoy haciendo nada. Non faccio nulla. Nihil facio. I am doing nothing.
More precisely, I'm riding this bull elephant comfortably loaded with plenty high powered ammo in the form of a call options on stocks that I think will outperform due to overseas growth.
Word of the Day
"Mereology" - noun [$1000]; a word from logic.
Mereology means the general theory of the concept of 'part of': a 'part' is understood a section of a given object, and such a section is not identical with the object itself. The formal mathematical theory was developed by S. Lesniewśki; it is an extended system of Boolean algebra.
Sentence: Thinking about parts and wholes and how different (or alike) a part can be from the whole, that is, mereology, is quite essential to analyzing the fallacy called "composition and division". Mereology helps to critically assess many analogies and metaphors that might be false, or quite valid.
At that time, I thought that it would crack up and fall apart. The events show I was wrong. Europeans seem to have learned how to live together peacefully and not resort to excess nationalism and hate-mongering of their neighbors. The big countries did not put undue pressure on the small ones. Perhaps that's because they had huge economic pressure on themselves.
The small countries realized they were far too vulnerable on their own. The vote in Ireland proved that.
I now expect all the small countries of Europe to join the Euro-zone as quickly as possible, as they know their economies and currencies are too at risk to raiders and unscrupulous or foolish financial practices. The lessons of Iceland and Hungary make this very obvious.
This is good news, a big gain for world stability. This removes a huge risk to world economic growth.
Actions
Je ne fais rien. Ich machte nichts. Nic nie robię. Estoy haciendo nada. Non faccio nulla. Nihil facio. I am doing nothing.
More precisely, I'm riding this bull elephant comfortably loaded with plenty high powered ammo in the form of a call options on stocks that I think will outperform due to overseas growth.
Word of the Day
"Mereology" - noun [$1000]; a word from logic.
Mereology means the general theory of the concept of 'part of': a 'part' is understood a section of a given object, and such a section is not identical with the object itself. The formal mathematical theory was developed by S. Lesniewśki; it is an extended system of Boolean algebra.
Sentence: Thinking about parts and wholes and how different (or alike) a part can be from the whole, that is, mereology, is quite essential to analyzing the fallacy called "composition and division". Mereology helps to critically assess many analogies and metaphors that might be false, or quite valid.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Smart Investment
Not mine. I'm writing about China ... again.
FT: "Brazil and China signed a landmark agreement on Thursday that will ensure long-term supplies of oil to China while delivering much-needed financing to help Brazil develop enormous reserves of oil and gas recently discovered in its coastal waters. ... Petrobras, Brazil’s publicly traded but state-controlled oil company, will supply China with between 100,000 and 160,000 barrels of oil a day. In return, China will supply loans of up to $10bn (£7bn, €8bn) to help Petrobras and its private-sector partners develop the so-called “pre-salt” fields."
China is also build lots of nuclear power plants.
Meanwhile, Barry and Nancy are hitting the bong, listening to "Green Tambourine" and sipping green tea, and listening to their green yogis bloviate about "global warming'. And investing in "green energy". What fools !
Meanwhile, in Europe ...
[FT] "Members of the European parliament walked out in protest on Thursday after Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic president, said the institution suffered a “democratic deficit” and likened its workings to those of eastern Europe during the communist era. In his first address to the parliament, Mr Klaus characterised the institution as one that alienated voters and offered no credible opposition. He argued that decision-making powers should be pushed out of Brussels and back to individual member states.
"Mr Klaus said: 'Here, only one single alternative is being promoted and those who dare thinking about a different option are labelled as enemies of European integration. Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives.' "
He does have a point. The bureaucrats running the EU do seem afraid to hold real elections and to create a representative United States of Europe. They don't want nations to hold referenda on ratifying the Lisbon treaty.
Otherwise, it's more of the same whining and handwringing. By the way, the problems in Europe show this is not a purely American problem.
Markets
They still have the flu ... or is it pneumonia. ? Or ???
Today is option expiration day, so anything can happen as the beefers fight it out.
Yesterday I did a small asset allocation trade, taking some excess cash and buying the VNQ - a Vanguard real estate trust index fund. My real estate holdings were below target allocations by quite a bit.
NYTimes suspends its dividend ... so the spoiled rich & powerful will now bear some of the pain they love to pontificate for the common man.
Word of the Day
"Repine" - verb, intransitive [$10]; from the card file.
Repine means 1. to be discontented or low in spirits; complain or fret; 2. to yearn after something.
Sentence: Some leadership out of Barry might help the stop the endless repining of the ruling classes - woe is us ! - and motivate positive actions to rebuild the future.
Le Mot du Jour
"Maladresse" - noun, feminine.
Maladresse means 1. clumsiness, awkwardness; 2. tactlessness. Examples: Quelle maladresse ! how tactless ! Maladresses de style - awkward or clumsy turns of phrase.
La phrase: L'adminstration d'Obama montre de maladresse par ses premières actions.
Sentence: The Obma administration shows some clumsiness through its initial actions.
FT: "Brazil and China signed a landmark agreement on Thursday that will ensure long-term supplies of oil to China while delivering much-needed financing to help Brazil develop enormous reserves of oil and gas recently discovered in its coastal waters. ... Petrobras, Brazil’s publicly traded but state-controlled oil company, will supply China with between 100,000 and 160,000 barrels of oil a day. In return, China will supply loans of up to $10bn (£7bn, €8bn) to help Petrobras and its private-sector partners develop the so-called “pre-salt” fields."
China is also build lots of nuclear power plants.
Meanwhile, Barry and Nancy are hitting the bong, listening to "Green Tambourine" and sipping green tea, and listening to their green yogis bloviate about "global warming'. And investing in "green energy". What fools !
Meanwhile, in Europe ...
[FT] "Members of the European parliament walked out in protest on Thursday after Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic president, said the institution suffered a “democratic deficit” and likened its workings to those of eastern Europe during the communist era. In his first address to the parliament, Mr Klaus characterised the institution as one that alienated voters and offered no credible opposition. He argued that decision-making powers should be pushed out of Brussels and back to individual member states.
"Mr Klaus said: 'Here, only one single alternative is being promoted and those who dare thinking about a different option are labelled as enemies of European integration. Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives.' "
He does have a point. The bureaucrats running the EU do seem afraid to hold real elections and to create a representative United States of Europe. They don't want nations to hold referenda on ratifying the Lisbon treaty.
Otherwise, it's more of the same whining and handwringing. By the way, the problems in Europe show this is not a purely American problem.
Markets
They still have the flu ... or is it pneumonia. ? Or ???
Today is option expiration day, so anything can happen as the beefers fight it out.
Yesterday I did a small asset allocation trade, taking some excess cash and buying the VNQ - a Vanguard real estate trust index fund. My real estate holdings were below target allocations by quite a bit.
NYTimes suspends its dividend ... so the spoiled rich & powerful will now bear some of the pain they love to pontificate for the common man.
Word of the Day
"Repine" - verb, intransitive [$10]; from the card file.
Repine means 1. to be discontented or low in spirits; complain or fret; 2. to yearn after something.
Sentence: Some leadership out of Barry might help the stop the endless repining of the ruling classes - woe is us ! - and motivate positive actions to rebuild the future.
Le Mot du Jour
"Maladresse" - noun, feminine.
Maladresse means 1. clumsiness, awkwardness; 2. tactlessness. Examples: Quelle maladresse ! how tactless ! Maladresses de style - awkward or clumsy turns of phrase.
La phrase: L'adminstration d'Obama montre de maladresse par ses premières actions.
Sentence: The Obma administration shows some clumsiness through its initial actions.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Back in the Saddle
Ahhhhh ... home again.
Rome is a great, wonderful place to visit. The city is loaded with fine sites of antiquity, fine paintings and sculptures, fine food and the people are quite friendly and helpful. It's easy to get around, too, as much is within walking distances. And did I walk ... up and down the seven hills of Rome. Or at least up and down a few of them many times. Mrs. B strongly prefers walking over taxis and so I obeyed.
We had fine weather every day except some rain on half of one day. The temperatures were comfortable at 75-80F midday when sunny, which was most of the days. I'll write more later about Rome. Also, this "one city" or "one country" method is really the way to travel if one expects to do it a lot over a decade or two. Staying in one hotel and then using walks and tours to see the area is really comfortable and not stressful at all.
OK, I admit I did not live as a "common man" on the vacation. Regarding the flight, "business class" is about 90% of what "first class" was in the 1980s when I experienced it with frequent flyer miles on a few long flights overseas. So it's really worth it if you have the extra money [quite a lot, actually] or can get the seats with mileage awards.
I did not eat at McDonald's, but went into one to see. The place was fabulous with a Travetine marble floor, and sold fine coffees, gelato [a form of ice cream] and the usual foods. There were places to sit and enjoy the coffee, etc. Prices were high vs. Bunkerman's town, but about equal to NYC Manhattan prices. One of our guides said, jokingly, that churches and McDonalds were everywhere in Rome. But I asked and the Vatican state has no McDonald's.
Markets
I hear that AIG re-invigorated the financial bears ... sigh. Why did anyone believe that company ? They can manufacture whatever numbers they wish from the bag of assets.
The S&P is about where it was when I left for Rome. Hope all enjoyed the beefer ping-pong games.
Core CPI is at 2.3% year over year - very low inflation. The BLS has it right. Energy and food prices rises are purely supply and demand related. Energy price increases are due to the emerging market demand bumping into no new supply growth. Food is weather-related and idiotic US ethanol policies.
The monetary base is growing about 1-2% - there is no money fueled "inflation". The Fed should really force that to grow faster to accomodate growth.
Word of the Day
"Moloch" - noun [$10]
Moloch means 1a. a Canaanite idol to whom children were sacrificed; 1b. a tyrannical object of sacrifices; 2. a grotesque spiny slow moving Australian lizard.
Sentence: [from "Shah of Shahs" by R. Kapuscinki, pg. 64 - a really fine book, ref the corruption of the Shah of Iran in the 1970s] "As prices rose, the bribes got bigger and ordinary people complained that more and more of their earnings went to feed the moloch of corruption."
Rome is a great, wonderful place to visit. The city is loaded with fine sites of antiquity, fine paintings and sculptures, fine food and the people are quite friendly and helpful. It's easy to get around, too, as much is within walking distances. And did I walk ... up and down the seven hills of Rome. Or at least up and down a few of them many times. Mrs. B strongly prefers walking over taxis and so I obeyed.
We had fine weather every day except some rain on half of one day. The temperatures were comfortable at 75-80F midday when sunny, which was most of the days. I'll write more later about Rome. Also, this "one city" or "one country" method is really the way to travel if one expects to do it a lot over a decade or two. Staying in one hotel and then using walks and tours to see the area is really comfortable and not stressful at all.
OK, I admit I did not live as a "common man" on the vacation. Regarding the flight, "business class" is about 90% of what "first class" was in the 1980s when I experienced it with frequent flyer miles on a few long flights overseas. So it's really worth it if you have the extra money [quite a lot, actually] or can get the seats with mileage awards.
I did not eat at McDonald's, but went into one to see. The place was fabulous with a Travetine marble floor, and sold fine coffees, gelato [a form of ice cream] and the usual foods. There were places to sit and enjoy the coffee, etc. Prices were high vs. Bunkerman's town, but about equal to NYC Manhattan prices. One of our guides said, jokingly, that churches and McDonalds were everywhere in Rome. But I asked and the Vatican state has no McDonald's.
Markets
I hear that AIG re-invigorated the financial bears ... sigh. Why did anyone believe that company ? They can manufacture whatever numbers they wish from the bag of assets.
The S&P is about where it was when I left for Rome. Hope all enjoyed the beefer ping-pong games.
Core CPI is at 2.3% year over year - very low inflation. The BLS has it right. Energy and food prices rises are purely supply and demand related. Energy price increases are due to the emerging market demand bumping into no new supply growth. Food is weather-related and idiotic US ethanol policies.
The monetary base is growing about 1-2% - there is no money fueled "inflation". The Fed should really force that to grow faster to accomodate growth.
Word of the Day
"Moloch" - noun [$10]
Moloch means 1a. a Canaanite idol to whom children were sacrificed; 1b. a tyrannical object of sacrifices; 2. a grotesque spiny slow moving Australian lizard.
Sentence: [from "Shah of Shahs" by R. Kapuscinki, pg. 64 - a really fine book, ref the corruption of the Shah of Iran in the 1970s] "As prices rose, the bribes got bigger and ordinary people complained that more and more of their earnings went to feed the moloch of corruption."
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