So, the savior of all mankind – the $700B federal bailout of the financial markets – was finally passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law over the weekend. Hoorah. Pardon my lack of enthusiasm, but I’m on the side of (depending on which poll you look at) the 70 – 85% of American taxpayers who think this was a BAD idea. But I understand the rationale and I can see how it works. I just don’t like the direction that it points the country. And before you get into this lengthy diatribe, let me say that I will not be discussing the effects it had on Wall Street after one whole day.

First, let’s examine how we got in the mess. I think we can all rationally agree that the root cause was greed. Now, Gordon Gekko (one of my personal fictional heroes) and his mantra notwithstanding, greed wasn’t good and certainly didn’t work here. I’m not very religious, but it’s one of the 7 Deadly Sins for a reason, folks. Anyway, all of these bankers and lenders that jumped, without much forethought or reservation, into the “subprime mortgage” lending business are reaping their whirlwind now.

I’m certainly not an economist but I understand more than just the basics, so let me put this in a nutshell: They gave people, who have either proven themselves unworthy of borrowing or NOT proven themselves worthy, loans for more than what most of the property was worth (mostly houses, but some cars and even credit cards), that in the standard market said people would not be able to afford. Or phrased a la an analogy, the lenders gave them $250,000 for a $150,000 house when they could only afford a $100,000 house. And both parties thought everything would be okay with this.

Well, that thought process, while without the backing of logic, wasn’t without precedent. The stock markets, thus the economy, was at an all-time high and growth rate. Everybody was doing great financially. It was like the good old dot-com days all over again. Ummm, yeah. That turned out well, didn’t it. See, if you remember the dot-com bust from days past you’ll remember what happens when an economy grows faster than it can sustain itself. See the Federal Reserve looks at things like this and, in a effort to curb this nasty thing call inflation, takes steps to try to keep growth steady and solid. Rather than watch the economy get so gluttonous (another of those Deadly Sins) and eat its own head. But, if you listen to some of those pie-in-the-sky “economists” and lenders, the whole dot-com economy bust was based almost solely on 9/11.

So, what’s happened more or less is that Newton’s Third Law has hit the financial sector. See, because we were having such a tremendous upswing we were simply due for a tremendous downswing. Well, because that downswing started causing some of the oldest and most respected names on Wall Street (e.g., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Wachovia) to outright fail it shook confidence on Wall Street. Say what you want about the motives for saving corporate America from itself, but this action was prompted by saving the failing mortgages of voters, who probably are too stupid to be voting anyway – and it’s an election year. And because 95% of Americans’ only view of the economy comes from what the Dow did today (and another 4% add mostly biased media coverage that doesn’t like the current administration), they all freaked out. Which means that the government HAS to do SOMETHING, right? Here’s where I start to get concerned. read this entry »

This is a current event type thing, so I’ll post it before I back fill the historical posts. My God, I may actually have to vote Republican this year. I’m a right-leaning registered Libertarian, but I’m a little disconcerted with that candidate this year (I’ll get to him later). Basically, I’m a two issue voter: Military and Second Amendment, but only in so much as the candidate can actually AFFECT these things. As I’ve got older I’ve started to vote with my wallet a little more and I’m getting a little too tired of big government and feeling a little too much like Winston Smith (which is funny if you know my background and what I do for a living now). I’m not a member of the brainwashed masses, in other words – I’m not for or against something just because a Republican or Democrat takes the other side.

So why would I pick the elephants over the asses? This is why. These are pics of the Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin. Mrs. Palin is the governor of Alaska. She’s married, has 5 kids, and while this will certainly merit attention from the Secret Service – she’s smoking hot!

Oh, she’s also going to decide this election believe it or not. A lot of the talking heads and keyboards in the mainstream media are calling this a Hail Mary by McCain, and I tend to agree. With the elections about 2 months away and a lot of these “polls” showing the race as a dead heat, McCain had to do something dynamic. And this is either brilliant or colossally stupid, but he DID something. And I think it’s going to work. read this entry »