Bush not smirking anymore!
Bill
Is it that he and his greedy buddies are having a bit of financial trouble
lately?
Before all this, Bush was at a meeting of his rich friends saying...
"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and have mores"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4daYJzyls
I think some of them are in the "have less" category now...
Jeff
> Saw Bush on TV the last few nights and he is not smirking anymore!
>
> Is it that he and his greedy buddies are having a bit of financial trouble
> lately?
Well, the oil boys are doing extremely well.
The rest of the fat cats have been mighty pleased with their tax
cuts, and certainly corporate profits have been the primary recipient of
any economic good news there has been.
But, if you are rich and have been riding the derivative markets to
greater wealth, the last few months have been a shock. Since all this is
leveraged it's easily possible to lose the value of your investment. And
what with the value of the collateral dwindling, their lenders have been
making margin calls or refusing to renew short term loans.
That is why the Fed bailed out Bear Sterns. If you fire sale Bear
Sterns assets, you have to mark to market all the collateral the other
fat cats have put up. That could have resulted in widespread margin
calls and a real panic in the "have more" set.
Just how confident would you be that everything is going to turn out
well?
There's a great deal of uncertainty, no one knows the level of risk
they have, and it's not exactly like the leader of the free world has a
great track record. It's all being propped up with cheap money (notice
the big rally when the FED dropped rates 3/4 point) and a plummeting dollar.
What shoe will drop next? What does the FED do when the discount rate
hits zero?
Jeff
Rod Speed
> Bill wrote
>> Saw Bush on TV the last few nights and he is not smirking anymore!
>> Is it that he and his greedy buddies are having a bit of financial trouble lately?
> Well, the oil boys are doing extremely well.
Nope, the main effect on the oil price is just the dollar sagging.
It hasnt done anything like that in euro terms.
> The rest of the fat cats have been mighty pleased with their tax cuts,
Nope, the worst of them avoid paying any tax at all with offshore arrangements.
> and certainly corporate profits have been the primary recipient of any economic good news there has been.
Pity there have been fuck all real corporate profits.
> But, if you are rich and have been riding the derivative markets to greater wealth, the last few months have been a
> shock.
And it aint just the derivative markets either.
> Since all this is leveraged it's easily possible to lose the value of your investment.
And lose a lot more than that too.
> And what with the value of the collateral dwindling, their lenders have been making margin calls or refusing to renew
> short term loans.
> That is why the Fed bailed out Bear Sterns.
Nope.
> If you fire sale Bear Sterns assets, you have to mark to market all the collateral the other fat cats have put up.
Nope.
> That could have resulted in widespread margin calls and a real panic in the "have more" set.
Wrong.
> Just how confident would you be that everything is going to turn out well?
Yep, with operations of the size of Bear Stearns going down
so spectacularly, only a fool would be confident currently.
Which might just be why so many pulled out of Bear Stearns while they could.
> There's a great deal of uncertainty, no one knows the level of risk
> they have, and it's not exactly like the leader of the free world has
> a great track record. It's all being propped up with cheap money
Nope.
> (notice the big rally when the FED dropped rates 3/4 point)
That doesnt make it cheap money. In spades when there is a
liquidity crunch, that interest rate is an entirely separate matter
to whether you can get anyone to lend you anything at any rate.
> and a plummeting dollar.
Thats not propping anything up.
> What shoe will drop next? What does the FED do when the discount rate hits zero?
What the japs did when theirs did.
P.O.W.
"Rod Speed" <rod.sp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> only a fool would be confident currently.
is it a confidence game?
who's being Conned?
--
when you believe the only tool you have is a hammer.
problems tend to look like nails.