Sellers? Or Short Sellers?

Wall St tumbles to worst quarter since Lehman fall
REUTERS — 6:33 PM ET 06/30/10

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks staggered to the end of a dismal second quarter on Wednesday in another low volume session as investors found little reason to take on risk after conflicting economic data.
To make matters worse, leveraged short ETFs, widely blamed for a portion of Tuesday's losses, were also cited for the late sell-off as managers piled on bets the market will fall. Those funds shorted the market to keep up with customer demand.

But this is ultimately good for stocks because those shorts will need to be covered and that will drive prices up.

Don't Buy What You Can't Afford

SIMPLE RULES

Don't buy what you can't afford.

Don't loan money to people with poor credit. If a situation calls for charity then call it what it is.

Plan for idiocy.

Be responsible.

Don't forget to pay your bills.

Don't ask other people to pay your bills.

Be thankful! Live in gratitude!

Austerity Means "Pull The Plug"

Austerity is the best route because it means reducing the least efficient parts of economies.
Government spending is inefficient and wasteful.
I wish I had a big argument to support that assertion. Maybe it is just axiomatic.
Stimulus means taking money from the efficient and giving it to the failing. That just ends up with less for everyone.
So, right now people don't like austerity, but it is best in the longer run.

We should not be lavishing our energy and attention on failing enterprises. Businesses and governments should be allowed to fail. Bankruptcy is good for the community. It is pruning, it is getting rid of dead wood. It is not euthanasia, it is just pulling the plug and letting the dead die.
They call them zombie businesses.
We are much better off without zombie businesses.

On another note.

We should not be searching for new energy supplies. We should be learning to use a lot less energy.

We should not be trying to return to past levels of employment. We should let the labor force shrink. People not looking for work are not unemployed. In my household none of the four of us are employed. But tomorrow we could decide we want jobs and then there would be three more unemployed people.

We are producing and consuming more than enough. We don't need to grow the economy. We need to be content.

Consumer Spending Hits All Time High

In spite of the "great recession" consumer spending is hitting new highs. But you won't hear that reported very often. Somebody seems to want to keep us thinking that the economy is terrible.

California Is Full

In the last ten years the population of California has increased by about 4.4 million people.
PEOPLE 4,400,000

Too many people are already in California.
My hope is that this increase will cease immediately.

INCREASED!

This increase is more than the total population of 25 states

JUST THE INCREASE is more than the total population of
Kentucky
Oregon
Oklahoma
Connecticut
Iowa
Mississippi
Arkansas
Kansas
Utah
Nevada
New Mexico
West Virginia
Nebraska
Idaho
Maine
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Rhode Island
Montana
Delaware
South Dakota
Alaska
North Dakota
Vermont
Wyoming

Pray For Property Rights

If my neighbor sprays oil on my property, he has violated my property rights.
I should be able to get damages.

If the government caps damages in this situation, then my property rights have been taken away.

Who owns the Gulf of Mexico?
Whoever it is, they should be able to get damages from whoever damages that property.

Canada Oil Economy

I was reading that the economy in Canada is better than the USA or Europe.
The article mentions banking regulation as a cause of the good economy. The article does not mention that Canada exports a lot of oil to the USA. In fact, the USA imports more oil from Canada than from any other country.

Texas and Alaska are also doing pretty well lately.
Being rich with oil certainly helps.

They must be really smart to have all that oil!

Problems With Gold

Gold just sits there. It does not generate any income.

If you hold it a long time and sell for a gain, you pay a gain tax.

Therefore, if gold appreciates at the rate of inflation, then when you sell you end up a loser.
It would need to appreciate more than inflation in order to just keep you even when you sell.

The nice thing about gold is that it is fun to hold. It has a nice weight. Gold coins are fun. But is that fun worth $1,200? I think a computer would be more fun.

No Bear Market

There is no bear market.
There has never been a bear market.
There is only a vast bull market.
It started with the Big Bang.

One enormous unending expansion.

Abundant Cheap Oil

There is a lot of oil at the bottom of the ocean.
Really deep oil
the entire Pacific ocean has oil under it, not just on the continental shelves
the problem is getting that oil

30 years from now we will be able to extract that oil cheaply
robots will work at great depths
no need for oil rigs at the surface

oil price will drop to under five dollars a barrel

technology will yield cheap oil

One Billion Americans by 2100?

The twentieth century was amazing for population growth and economic growth, which tend to go together.
U.S. population went from 76 million to 281 million. It increased by a factor of 3.7
Will that happen again?
If it does there will be more than one BILLION americans.

Who wants that?

Weirdthink Slowdown Not A Slowdown

"Slowdown Looming but No Double Dip"

What?
If I accelerate to 70 and then stop accelerating would anybody call that a slowdown?

Economic metaphors confuse and conceal reality.
Do economies really expand and contract?
Do they grow? Does growth speed up and slow down?
Do economies slow down?

CESSATION OF ACCELERATION IS NOT SLOWING DOWN

But in the news, if GDP growth slows, that is called a slowdown. It is a slowdown of growth, but not of "the economy."
Nobody would say that cruising at 70 MPH is slowing down.
Why do we always need to accelerate?

What is wrong with cruising along.
Why can't we be contented with a cruising economy?

To call gradual deceleration a slowdown is WEIRDTHINK!

Perpetual growth is impossible. If the economy were to grow at %5 perpetually, then it would double about every 15 years.

At that rate it would be one million times bigger in 300 years.
One million times bigger?
I don't think so.

Can't Plug Leak Too Busy Socializing

People will usually only drop their plans for an emergency like a funeral or a fire.

But sometimes the little things turn into emergencies.

Better to nip it in the bud, better to stay on top of things, put first things first etc.

So where is our attention? Maybe it is OK and maybe not. Maybe our attention is not on the leaks that need to be plugged but somewhere else. Like on ego trips

anyway....
seems to me the president does a lot of socializing
takes eye off ball at ball
party, ceremony, dinner, concert
how can the president really do a good job when there are so many distractions?

and we can all take a lesson from this

less is more

take care of business first
plug the leaks before they become catastrophes.