Whither The Ohmstead Break ?

Historical Bottom for a Bear Market? About Dow 6,000 By: Ian Welsh Tuesday October 7, 2008

I’ll go out on a limb and say that this is the point no one except masochists want to see. I’m sure there are those sorts of assholes out there who are hoping to reach that point for whatever reason their warped thinking along this subject may have impelled them to such hope.

The problem, besides margin calls, is there doesn’t appear to be any structural method for dealing with that event unfolding once it does starts. I haven’t heard any MSM mention of this problem either, so it is doubtful that any institutional activity will occur to address the problem before it resolves itself on its’ own simply because the pressure applied in todays information exchange paradigm always come after the event not previous to.

Given the amount of advocacy work that the cable outfits engage in on political and ideological questions it would seem that salvaging what remains of the economy would be of some import, if we are in fact being addressed by “experts” in all these other matters of conjecture and innuendo. One must presume they haven’t got a clue, or there is some other constraint that would limit free, open and respectful debate on solving problems on the horizon.

It is not, in my opinion, a question of who is right or wrong at this point. Could I prove myself, or be proven by others to have been completely wrong on all other issues that I have addressed previous to this post I would gladly accept the humble pie and eat it with relish if that would in and of itself resolve this current predicament that endangers not just friends, but foes, not just those near at home but also abroad. This sentiment could be ascribed to either my faith or my liberal tendencies without the slings and arrows of atheists and conservatives impacting my opinion on this matter one iota.

My generation has spent its’ entire lifetime waiting for its’ historic moment, and the false flags of the last decade have not risen to the current challenge as this issue does. There is a way to break the spiral of margin calls feeding into steeper and tighter spirals.

Months ago I called for an American jubilee, something so massive as to be virtually ignored by my better educated peers for whatever non feasibilities of the concept they could think of. Debt forgiveness and restorations being out of the question of the hard hearted, then pragmatism leads me to call for a freeze on trading in equities and bonds until the psychology of the market has had time to absorb the realities of the market’s failure and address the situation without the emotional impetus of making or losing money.

Lacking any other input on the situations resolution, if I ran the world I’d freeze trading so fast your heads would spin. What would you college kids do?

Let The Dams Collapse Mr. Brooks?

What about those working downstream?

But this, apparently, is about to change. Democrats from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi want to grant immortality to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. They have decided to follow an earlier $25 billion loan with a $50 billion bailout, which would inevitably be followed by more billions later, because if these companies are not permitted to go bankrupt now, they never will be.

This is a different sort of endeavor than the $750 billion bailout of Wall Street. That money was used to save the financial system itself. It was used to save the capital markets on which the process of creative destruction depends.

Let’s not conveniently overlook the FEDs “loans” of nearly two trillion dollars to “unkown” banks and enterprises in the discussion sir. Three trillion dollars makes the the big three bailout requests look like chump change to be honest.

I am more concerned with Paulson’s decision to introduce accounting for profitability into what is the non profit government’s customary role of accounting for accountability, all without any clear idea of where the reporting and accounting functions are separated within the Treasury, than the big threes request of less than five percent of the bailout amount to financials and banks, whom you seem to think are above creative destruction themselves.

The problem of the auto industry extends beyond their own labor forces, which must compete with the subsidized foreign auto manufacturers in the Southern states, into the downstream suppliers who will collapse when the big three fail.

You on the other hand, will continue to be paid to write about that calamity as well. Mismanagement is not just a thing of the big three auto manufactures, but is the government of George W. Bush personified, a trait the current government has encourage in the behavior of the private sector, and that you have heretofore been a cheerleader of and for.

Between The Two

Russia Backs Off on Europe Missile Threat

NICE, France — President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia retreated Friday from his threat to deploy missiles on Europe’s borders, but only if President-elect Barack Obama joined Russia and France in calling for a conference on European security by next summer.

Sarkozy backs Russian calls for pan-European security pact

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France joined Russia in condemning the Pentagon’s plans to install missile defence bases in central Europe yesterday and backed President Dmitri Medvedev’s previously ignored calls for a new pan-European security pact.

Nothing Could Go Wrong

Bailout Lacks Oversight Despite Billions Pledged

Along the way, the Bush administration has committed $290 billion of the $700 billion rescue package.

Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste. Nor has the first monitoring report required by lawmakers been completed, though the initial deadline has passed.

“It’s a mess,” said Eric M. Thorson, the Treasury Department’s inspector general, who has been working to oversee the bailout program until the newly created position of special inspector general is filled. “I don’t think anyone understands right now how we’re going to do proper oversight of this thing.”

Isn’t that how we got into this mess, or better yet, isn’t that how Congress and big business got us into this mess?

You Gotta Be Putting Me On

Silo fire casts another cloud over U.S. nukes

Problems revealed by the investigation include unclear instructions on the installation of parts for the battery charger, quality assurance issues and the use of duct tape on cables, the command said.

I will assume by the spelling of duct tape that it was the original duct tape and not some knock off, and not the high dollar duct tape that is metallic backed, but heh, this is a government operation, and as you know if you watched Apollo 13, duct tape seems to be standard government issue.

John Pike, a nuclear expert with the think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said the report, which revealed that duct tape was being used in the silo, is cause for serious concern.

“The notion that you’re patching up your H-bombs with duct tape is not encouraging,” Pike said. “You also have to wonder if you have this sloppy activity that is revealed by a fire happened, how much other sloppy activity has not been detected.”

Pike said if the fire had escaped the equipment room and ignited the missile, radiation could have contaminated the silo and surrounding area.