the recession bites deeper...

let's face it, it must be an absolute nightmare not making it in forbes' magazine top 20 richest people list...

bernie madoff. proof that you never want all your eggs in one basket. and also that if you're perceived as rich, somehow you must be trusted.

of course, if you're an ex-banker/financier that has already reaped huge bonuses while helping to drive the world's economies into a ditch and subsequently 'retired' now that taxpayers are stuck with footing the losses, then i guess you've won.

too big to fail simply means an incentive for so-called 'moral hazard'. in the good years, bonuses flow, and when on the rare occasion everything goes so horribly bad (like now) that the institution that showered financial rewards during all those successful years (when they were busy making bad bets) can no longer meet its capital obligations once those bets prove to be a disaster.

heads the banks win and tails the taxpayer loses.

the best show on tv.

brilliant.

the absurd notion that somehow we can fix everything...

is it only me, or does anybody else find it disturbing that the economic reality we are facing today has been met (bush: the economy is strong...), or presently: 'we can rebuild, and america will once again lead the world..' is fundamentally flawed?

why do we collectively think that we (western ideology) can make everything better?

while we have been happily sailing towards the cliff edge, nobody cared, and yet as soon as the house of cards starts crumbling around us, we expect miracles (and immediate ones, at that).

greed, credit, and leverage, and a policy of deregulation created the problem, and it's not going to be fixed until we address the root cause - however unpalatable the consequences may seem, both for 'main street', which is media-financial speak for you and me, and the the investors of this world and those that work in the industry.

so here's my take:we're all in a big ditch. and we are just going to 'be' in this ditch until someone gets us out. but i can't tell you exactly when the tow truck will arrive...

...nor how deep the ditch actually is.

as for the so-called 'best & brightest' on wall st. they ALL got it wrong.

perhaps it's time to revisit whether the profit motive of the individual actually benefits the long term of the whole.

and by that, i mean the poorest of the world as well as the richest.

and there is an awful lot of the very poor that didn't benefit from all the past's wealth creation in the industrialised nations of this planet ...

or to put it another way:

why does the business cycle exist?

daytona 200

watched the daytona 200 race last night on speed channel.

if this is north america's most prestigious motorcycle road race i must be missing something.

a rolling start, safety car, cautions...the last few laps were a farce.

boring!

nascar on two wheels.

this chap won the first ever race there in 1937.
i imagine it was a lot more interesting.

better than watching the news...

been watching the long way down - a motorcycle trip from john o'groats in scotland to cape town, south africa.

liked this one more than the earlier 'long way round', perhaps because i'd seen it, and africa is such a vast, mixed continent.

adventure.

brilliant.

at least the racing's good...

great opening round from phillip island in round 1 of the world superbike championship.

haga won by just 0.032 sec in the first race, with ben spies notching up his first world superbike win in the second.

it promises to be a great season.

(among all the economic gloom & doom).

Dow Below 6,800; Lowest Close Since ’97

AIG reports biggest ever quarterly loss by a company ($460,000 a minute)


...and that's after receiving $150,000,000,000 of taxpayer money.

i must be a little slow...

credit created the problem, so we're solving it by creating more credit and securitization, so that those securities can be sold to investors that bet on them. sound familiar?

...and just what figure does 'systemic risk' amount to?

if the banks aren't willing to lend, they'll have no income. so make them give up their so-called toxic assets at a bargain price to the taxpayer, and let all americans profit when the economy turns around, instead of existing shareholders.

why do 19 banks have more say than 300 million people?

everybody else is having to 'deleverage'.

oh well, i guess it's just bad luck if you're retiring soon and you had all your savings in equities...

but that's your problem, right?

six nations - ireland vs england

england play ireland today at croke park (ireland).

have to pick ireland at home.

:(

5 weeks to change the past 30 years...

it took obama just 5 weeks to reverse an economic policy in america that has prevailed since reagan took office.

let the rich pay, instead of the poor.

like i always say, it has to get really bad before it gets better.

wait for the sell-off on wall st, when 4th qtr GDP figures bring home reality to what's going on.

comet in the night sky

o.k. the challenge is to spot it from heavily light-polluted downtown washington, d.c.

that very bright 'star' you see in the early evening night sky is actually venus.

i'll have a go this evening using binoculars.

saturn should be easy, but i'm not too hopeful about spotting the comet (at least it will be clear - er, and very cold up on my rooftop)



see:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/35992534.html

it's not all bad news.

2009 world superbikes begins next weekend.

philips island in australia.















and yes, that is a bmw (not the girl).

New York Post Apologizes for Chimp Cartoon

how can one cartoon manage to fuck up on 3 levels?

the woman who was attacked.

the new president who has to fix the mess the last one got us into.

oh, and racism.

that's pretty good going.

your future - brought to you by the american people who put him in office..TWICE

republican = tax cuts. just ask californians, whose republican governer can't even get his own party to support him in an effort to balance the budget.

that's it.

welcome to a new era.

i predict that the S&P will go down to 650, and the DOW will tumble to 6,500 before we emerge from the greatest financial crisis since the great depression.

just think about that. greater than a world war and the oil crisis, and 9/11.

it's the great unwind of credit-created assets and wealth, deregulated financial markets, and an ideology that simply has been proven wrong.
free markets clearly don't work without a government protecting the interests of the taxpayer.

obama can't 'mend' the economy in an instant, just like we didn't get here in an instant. the only difference is that this time, everybody will feel the impact. and it's going to take time.
only this time you will be paying.

in 4 years time, when it's time to re-elect, remember how successful tax cuts and 8 years of a republican president has worked out for you.

it could be worse...McCain could be your 'trickle down' president, right now.

the republican party looks so 20th century.
sorry, make that 18th century.

apologies for not blogging enough...

A-Rod signs new endorsement megadeal.

...along with every other MLB baseball player.

image of the day

bank loans - simplified

...and we have to give you $700,000,000,000 of tax payer money to keep you in business.

why doesn't the government just give each working, retired and unemployed american, school kid, college student, 3-month old baby, et al, a check for $2,300?

now that's a stimulus package.

motorcycling in god's country...

it's true - michael phelps is dope

feel-bad photo of the day award...

it's your typical superbowl sunday at the whitehouse

yes, it's business as usual at the whitehouse...

five of the 15 lawmakers invited to join obama are from pennsylvania, and two are from arizona. there are four senators and 11 representatives. the group includes 11 democrats and four republicans.






kurt warner - always praying to god and giving thanks when he wins, but whenever he fucks up, he's like a teenager who can't get laid.

biden is also hosting a Superbowl party at the naval observatory.

if arizona wins, flat eric says he will go without beer for a whole week...