House Passes ‘Stimulus’ 244-188, Spites Face
Yet another stimulus bill has passed under supposedly “urgent” circumstances. “We don’t have a moment to spare,” Obama declared (perhaps pretending that he is the new George W. Bush). The last trillionesque-dollar stimulus was hurried through under much similar circumstances - though at that time, the House had enough sense to vote against it the […]
SEC Bans the Selling of Financials at a Loss
Under new SEC rules, selling of financial stocks for less than the price purchased is to be banned.
The SEC approved the ban, which will prohibit investors from reducing or selling positions in all publicly quoted financial companies at values less than the purchase price of those positions. The ban will remain in force until such […]
The Government Takeover of Fannie and Freddie: Observations of an Unmitigated Disaster
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over by the government. This is an economic calamity of unprecedented proportions. Let me offer a few observations.
First, Treasury Secretary Hank “Bazooka” Paulson should immediately resign. Over the past few weeks as Freddie and Fannie have stumbled through huge losses, Hank went to Congress and stumped for […]
The Education Bubble
One test of skill for investors is the ability to spot a bubble. As I’ve had it recently described to me, a bubble exists when there is a mentality that prices in a certain area will always rise. Take housing, for example. The wisdom for many of the recent decades has been […]
Bare Stearns
Much has gone down in the financial markets over the last week. The Fed first moved to increase liquidity by injecting $200bn. worth of credit to the big banks - and allowing them to borrow for four weeks instead of the traditional overnight window. This came as good news to the Dow, which […]