Nov 20, 2008 12:18pm
“ On any given day, a 1 percent move up or down is not unthinkable and as we’ve seen over the past few months, a 4 percent move up or down is no longer a rarity. And as we saw on October 10th, a 10 percent intraday move is not nearly as impossible as many believed. Here’s where merely thinking about numbers helps: You have to have previously thought, ‘Gee, if I ever see a 10 percent move down, intraday, I’m going to be buying the hell out of that.’ But if you haven’t gone through that thought process beforehand, when the opportunity confronts you, it’s like looking at a car wreck. Part of you says, ‘Gee, I ought to go over and help those people’ but the spectator part of you is just thinking, ‘Man, look at that thing burn.’ ”
Barry Ritholtz
Nov 20, 2008 11:09am
Nov 20, 2008 1:52am
More on this from here [PDF]. The bottom line is that there are two options: (1) spending is cut drastically and taxes go way up or (2) the Treasury issues bonds and the Fed prints dollars to buy them. Most likely it will be a combination of both with (2) being easier for re-election-seeking politicians to do than raising taxes or cutting spending and services. More on this from here [PDF]. The bottom line is that there are two options: (1) spending is cut drastically and taxes go way up or (2) the Treasury issues bonds and the Fed prints dollars to buy them. Most likely it will be a combination of both with (2) being easier for re-election-seeking politicians to do than raising taxes or cutting spending and services.
Nov 20, 2008 1:28am
“ That Mr. Obama had been sent by history to assuage the insecurities of the middle class with a “New” New Deal was always a tad detached from reality anyway. The reason is those giant legacies of existing New Dealism known as Social Security and Medicare, about which he was careful to say nothing intelligible during the campaign. These programs worked for a while too, but now their expected revenues are (in present value) about $99.2 trillion short of the expected outlays required to assure present and future workers their promised comfort in retirement. ”

Obama Hears a Giant Sucking Sound - WSJ.com

I wonder if that $99.2 trillion figure is correct. Cause if so, that’s pretty crazy. But I wonder if that means billion. (via josephweisenthal)

I’ve read two books and many articles on this subject and $99 trillion is the biggest number I’ve seen but it’s in the same ballpark, especially considering how much time has passed and how little has been done. For comparison, the number that the US Government Accountability Office most recently published was $54 trillion just counting the current debt and the next 75 years of budget gaps. That’s the official government number and it’s in their interest for that number to be as small as possible.
Nov 19, 2008 4:01pm

gmail themes?

yay or nay? I don’t like the new default colors.
Nov 19, 2008 1:11pm

The Worst Mortgage Predator Ever

(via clusterstock)

Great article. I’d love to see where this ranks among the worst domestic policy initiatives by a President ever.
Nov 19, 2008 10:40am
“ If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger. ”
Frank Lloyd Wright
Nov 18, 2008 8:26pm
The debate concerning the European Union’s response to the global financial crisis did not attract a big crowd during its plenary session in Strasbourg, France.via NYT
The debate concerning the European Union’s response to the global financial crisis did not attract a big crowd during its plenary session in Strasbourg, France.
via NYT
Nov 18, 2008 5:34pm
Justin Wolfers, Freakonomics: A Beet Paradox: When I arrived in the U.S., I was stunned to find Americans don’t add beetroot to their burgers. In Australia, beetroot on a burger is a given. In fact, during my undergraduate days the student cafeteria stopped serving beetroot on their burgers; I ran for election to the Sydney Uni student union partly on the platform of restoring beetroot on the burgers. (Obama should be careful, beetroot-lovers are a powerful constituency: I was elected in a landslide.) … Why is it that American and Australian children have such different reactions to such a simple vegetable? The rest of our diets are pretty similar; our upbringing is similar, and so are the broader social and economic milieus which shape us. Yet the same food elicits starkly different reactions. Why? About a year ago, I had dinner at Dressler (highly recommended) and asked the waitress which appetizer she recommended. She said, “The beet salad and I don’t even like beets.” I’ve been a big fan since. Justin Wolfers, Freakonomics: A Beet Paradox:

When I arrived in the U.S., I was stunned to find Americans don’t add beetroot to their burgers. In Australia, beetroot on a burger is a given. In fact, during my undergraduate days the student cafeteria stopped serving beetroot on their burgers; I ran for election to the Sydney Uni student union partly on the platform of restoring beetroot on the burgers. (Obama should be careful, beetroot-lovers are a powerful constituency: I was elected in a landslide.)

…

Why is it that American and Australian children have such different reactions to such a simple vegetable? The rest of our diets are pretty similar; our upbringing is similar, and so are the broader social and economic milieus which shape us. Yet the same food elicits starkly different reactions. Why?

About a year ago, I had dinner at Dressler (highly recommended) and asked the waitress which appetizer she recommended. She said, “The beet salad and I don’t even like beets.” I’ve been a big fan since.
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