Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Bubbles


(H/T S. Walsh)

Not much news going on at the moment but I did stumble on investors or should we say speculators wanting to corner the market on potash. Seeing as how real estate investments have been completely raped and gold is beyond anyone's pocketbook, I'm guessing that the wolves of wall street are looking for their next meal. Pump it and dump it while the other areas like our infrastructure crumble before our very eyes. Climb in bed with a foreign investor and while he isn't looking grab all he's got. Not enough bubbles and the compressor isn't big enough. Bubble bubble toil and all we get is the trouble.

To stop and think in the most simplistic terms, now would actually be a great time to rebuild. There's actually a ton of cash out there in spite of what's said and the interest rates have never been lower. What would that do? Or a better question, what would it do if we just called a time out and stopped the economy? The collapse would continue. No spending? No tax revenues. Lower tax income resulting in yet more spending cuts. And the cycle would continue until even those at the top would need to produce funny numbers at the next shareholders meeting. No one expected the length or extent of this depression. Yes I used the D word. Because while some continue with life as usual they know in the back of their mind that they could be next. Don't think about taking a vacation because when you get back that cheap fill in just might have your job. Do you play that game of chicken at work? You know it. It's called who's going to be seen as the last to leave work. Always want to wave to the boss as he's leaving and let him know you'll be there late but not to worry about overtime you'll work something out with him later. Comp time I believe they call it.

All I can hope for at this time is for one last bubble. That would be the unemployment bubble. And for me it can't break soon enough.

7 comments:

Tom Harper said...

Yes, this is an excellent time to start rebuilding. Millions of people out of work, billions of dollars worth of infrastructure to repair -- what are we waiting for?

Oh, that's right, the minority party says No. And when they say No, the Democrats fold.

Randal Graves said...

Is 'bubble' the new codeword for Schedule I substances, hippie?

MRMacrum said...

As you and Tom say, there is no better time to rebuild than now. Unless of course we use hindsight and state the obvious that 20 years ago would have been the time to at least make plans and sock away some funding for the future that was then but is now presently on our doorstep.

While we piss away the minutes, the energy and air pointing fingers and arguing over stupidity like worrying now about the deficit, the crisis that began many years ago is peaking and soon it won't matter if we make plans to rebuild.

If ever a lesson from the great Depression should be paid attention to it is the rebuilding that took place during the 1930s. Government programs like the WPA resulted in dams for hydro electricity, buildings and parks built and rebuilt, bridges erected that actually went somewhere and roads improved so that when we needed these improvements to gear up for WWll, we had a head start on being ready.

What gets me is the continued short term thinking that has American Capitalism in its grip. I had hopes that big business in this country would see the writing on the wall and stop trying to squeeze blood from the stone we have become when the banks failed and the last bubble burst. But no, they took our money and went back to business as usual.

And still there is a sizable portion of this country's citizenry who would like to see them continue to call the shots. If ever there was a time to make the top 3% income bracket pay through the nose, it is now.

Collectively, we are indeed a bunch of dumb asses and deserve all that has happened.

Phil said...

That is exactly what happened to me, went on vacation, came back, worked one day and got laid off.

Potash, btw, is what they make fertilizer out of.....
Still gambling with the food supply, assholes.

Demeur said...

Tom True enough

Randal Takes one to know one. :-P

Crum Nice rant.

Busted they'd bet on your grandmother making it across the street if they though they could make a commission.

S.W. Anderson said...

I wonder if our economy would start to improve if we could somehow force half the financial industry to permanently relocate to China or the UAE, and force the other half to downsize by 50 percent. Kind of like an unruly shrub that you have to cut down to a nub every few years, or else it takes over your yard.

I wonder this in part because we only have so many prisons and there won't be money for building a lot more of them anytime soon.

Ranch Chimp said...

Very observant Sir as far as having an understanding of the manipulative strategy and mindset. As far as not expecting this recession to be like this at this length ... No ... many seen it actually, but didnt want to talk about it, I for instance pointed all this out the minute I bought my first computer over 2.5 year's ago ... and started writing "what" to expect ... go to my earliest posting's ... and pick anything I wrote ... as far as what's to come economically .... and it's almost like a carbon copy of what you see now. Also .... this is not going to get better any time soon ... at all ... so get used to the unemployment figure's and even they are greater than we are even told ... you yourself know that well Demeur. Right now ... I would throw every damn thing I could into domestic infrastructure, I dont give a shit how in debt we are ... it's a matter of who we have more interest's in ... our homeland and domestic's ... or fucken Arab's and China ... who frankly aint gonna give a shit about us any way you slice it, beside's what they can get out of us. Were so fucken stupid across the board ... some of what we get we deserve.