Friday, December 31, 2010

Market stars of 2010 - Netflix, Caterpillar and the Metals


DOW+11%GOLD+29%
S&P 500+13%SILVER+82%
NASDAQ+17%PALLADIUM+94%
CHIP STKS.+14%COPPER+32%
EUR. STKS.+9%USD/CHF-10%
CAT+64%USD/YEN-12%
H-P-18%USD/EURO+7%
AIG+93%OIL+15%
NETFLIX+228%NAT. GAS-20%








some of the big stars in 2010, as totted up by MW - we are both customers and shareholders of Netflix but that Reed Hastings keeps finding a way to surprise us, he is my kinda CEO - the more 'new age' some things get, the more 'old school' they seem to get! :)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Toledo trashing neighborhoods with bungled automation of garbage pickups

Toledo trashing the neighborhoods with bungled automation of garbage pickups

pretty much your typical story of the government bungling away your hard-earned dollars, rather than let the private sector handle it

Fiber optic deployment lagging demand

Fiber optic deployment lagging demand

nothing has done more harm to American leadership in the online world than the cartelization enforced by the FCC! recently I was told by AT&T that all ports in my area code were taken, so I would have to wait indefinitely for DSL service, and this was in metro San Diego! fiber optic deployment would be much further advanced today with free market competition - are any of the keynesians studying the opportunity cost of squandering competitive advantages through needless regulation? ah yes, their friends and family comprise the "national interest", I forgot, sorry...

Good heavens! watchdogs at the Vatican! whatever will be next?

Good heavens! watchdogs at the Vatican! whatever will be next?

Banks open the loan spigot is how WSJ headlines this story

Banks open the loan spigot is how WSJ headlines this story

B of A agrees with Fannie and Freddie on a $2.8 bln buyback

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Minimum wage increases in 7 states, Ruth Mantell reports

Minimum wage increases in 7 states, Ruth Mantell reports

unless housing costs are permitted to find their natural market floor - i.e. bankers have to agree to a 'hair cut'! (er, what planet are we living in again?) - workers will be severely hampered in their efforts to be flexible with regard to wages, because the wage is not viewed as an absolute number but rather as what it means in terms of quality of life for the worker/family - if, short of moving in with family, there is no way to do what one is trying to do, then many will reject labor altogether because it doesn't make life sense any more

Housing dips again, consumer confidence clips, but jewellery and luxury leading retail

Housing prices tumble again, 6 cities hit new lows

Consumer confidence dips in December... certainly took me by surprise!

Mastercard says retail spending up 5.5% y-o-y, jewellery and luxury leading the way

pretty much tells you where the money is revolving, downward velocity is still lagging, and that can't be a good thing, right Dr. Bernanke? 

Here is GS reporting 4.8% same store sales growth... these numbers are crying for some proper drill down

Monday, December 27, 2010

Private trading in tech companies like Facebook and Twitter picks up

Private trading in tech companies like Facebook and Twitter picks up

I suspect some of the demand is driven by freedom from regulation that increases the unpredictability in the calculation (and therefore, complexity and cost) without any corresponding benefit of increased potential profit. The partial and fallible enforcements carried out by the regulators offer no "justice", only a mechanism for picking winners and losers.

Here is a follow up, Goldman gets into the act for $500 million

Here is some number crunching on the question, is Facebook worth $50+ billion?

Here is a story on the 'dark pools' of equity trading

China raises rates, Wen Jiabao confident of containing inflation (WSJ)

China raises rates, Wen Jiabao confident of containing inflation (WSJ)

 what it is is that they are betting on Confucian morality being able to overcome the gravitational pull of human nature... I mean, the whole thing is fascinating to watch, it really is... where there is relative consistency and predictability markets can adapt just fine, but of course, that doesn't mean all systems are equally good! :)

Here is an everyday look at inflation in China

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Euro bailout bonds anyone?

Euro bailout bonds anyone?

no matter how many times they look like idiots they keep coming out with more! in the private sector we feel bad when we are wrong, because error is costly - bureaucrats pass the cost of their errors on to you! not to mention, that never in history have bureaucrats ever done anything better than the private sector...

Monday, December 20, 2010

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Google scanner - airport security made easy!

Google develops a body browser
you setup your scan at home so Google knows you, you show up at the airport, stand in front of the computer, Google says you are who you are, bada bing bada boom

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

are Americans worrying too much? or too little? tell me, Ruthie

Americans are worrying away and muddling along

He-e-e-e-e-e-re's Ruthie! the whole point of charts and stats is to get the human message in it, and you cannot if the charts and stats have values and attributes accorded them entirely from the nuomenal "model", because the model cannot predict human action and reaction, it can, at best, only vaguely reflect what happened in the past

Americans are worrying away and muddling along

Yuan starts trading off shore, reserve of the future some say

are we looking at the reserve currency of the century? yuan starts trading offshore

India and China get ready for top level chit chat in Delhi

Premier Wen goes to Delhi (WSJ)

a good example of why banias pay to influence state policy, for all manner of protections from external competition, that ultimately hurts the customers and the poor

Premier Wen goes to Delhi (WSJ)

Monday, December 13, 2010

Gold climbs 1%

Gold climbs 1% - "inflation hedge", or a store of value - hmm, isn't that "money"?

Treasurys Rebound as Fed Buys - the dicey reflation roulette

Treasurys Rebound as Fed Buys 

QE3 signaling has already begun, because these gushes of liquidity are what the primary dealer banks are using to repair their balance sheets, primarily from their trading desks. The trouble is that the exposure to toxic mortgages is historically unprecedented - quite shocking, really, underscoring the fiduciary irresponsibility state protections can cause.

Dr. Bernanke has said, the fog over the green is so thick he is going to hit some small approach shots till the pin becomes visible, so that is what is in operation. For a trader that is a clear enough signal, we know how to discount that. For the economy of course it is enervating to continuously be thwarted in discovery of real market interest rates. A tug-of-war between the Fed and the bond market may develop. If both central banker and market get obstinate at once, but in opposite directions... do I really need to go on?

Treasurys Rebound as Fed Buys 

the people never fail to respond to a real crisis, charitable giving up in US

More Americans are in a giving mood again

a victory for the constitution? you don't say!

Judge knocks out compulsion plank of Obamacare

Govt demands secrecy, SC gags the press from naming names

TOI blogger Shalini Singh tellling it like it is

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Radiagate reveals another sordid chapter, Vir and Barkha roasting

http://www.outlookindia.com/

essays showing why we need to be cautious about "great leaders" like FDR

Ralph Raico - Great Wars, Great Leaders

some essays to help revise the default versions of the Wilson, FDR and Truman presidencies - it is so important to understand properly what the heck happened in the 20th c.

Dr. Manmohan Singh worries about parliamentary democracy, in the absurd theatre of daily Delhi

oh dear, the man who has never won election by the people is worried now

for perspective, Dr. Manmohan Singh is a PM who rules from the upper house of India's parliament, he was elected by the state legislators of the small state of Assam, not directly the people - a bit of a 'loophole' in the constitution was used by Indira Gandhi in the 1980s to establish the precedent of PMs sitting in the upper house even after losing a popular election for the lower house (other ministers are also being brought into govt. through this route)

the good doctor is heading a govt. led by the very party that is the cancer in Indian democracy, the party that has leveraged the historical capital in its' name to relentlessly subvert and evade constitutionality with every sinew and fiber of its' autocratic being, rendering the polity a putrid swamp of lies, legal obfuscations and feudal skull duggery!

the party carries the same name as the broad coalition that led the civil society protests against British rule in India, but today bears no resemblance whatsoever to it, it has no ground organization to speak of and obviously therefore no internal institutions of popular democracy, it buys elections the standard keynesian way, and preferably with the help of criminals!

oh dear, the man who has never won election by the people is worried now

Friday, December 10, 2010

The Art of Not Being Governed - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily

The Art of Not Being Governed - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily

it is often lamented by young Rastafarians that Rastafari has no government, when they probably mean state - this is a review of a new book about early state formations in Asia which touches upon the difference

I think beauty grows around wisdom, and inspires a spontaneous submission for enrichment, because there is value in the accumulation of wisdom and therefore in co-fostering such accumulations. Non aggression is sufficient for me. If theft and violence are the necessary instruments of state formation, then the same dangers cannot be said to attend orders of governance that derive from neither, only wisdom and beauty, and possess no instruments of coercion. The art of wisdom is the greater than the art of not being governed in my humble opinion. The Sons of Mises are naturally unaware how much they are governed by Mises. :)

The Art of Not Being Governed - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily

who do you want to give your data, government or Google?

the government wants Google to turn over your data

sure, make the breach of privacy much worse by giving it to government! that is the solution

To the government your data is like porn, they will dream up ways to rape you more often and put away anyone they don't like. Google will bring you better products and services. How come we don't hear Google customers screamin and hollerin about their data? They get it, it is an exchange they approve the value of, they are satisfied broadly with Google's "Do no evil" corporate philosophy and have placed trust in them.

I have no problem with Google tracking me at all - fire away, boys and girls, bring me the good deals and the good search results. But do NOT hand over my data to the government!

(who am I kidding? we have no privacy from government here, we have freedom to yak away but no privacy - if they have determined to they can frame anyone at any time, they just trust in their own ability to make the right judgements, all the time, in secrecy - we are in this predicament because the masses have been educated by the state and/or statists)

the government wants Google to turn over your data

higher oil prices may be coming, as the cartel meets

Commodities are primed to wake, Myra Saefong on MW

Block ripping Friedman's tolerance, or lack thereof - you decide

Walter Block on Milton Friedman

the bit about Mises stomping off with "you are all a bunch of socialists!" is priceless! - in conclusion Block mentions Mother Teresa and Gandhi among others

The difference between the non aggression principle and Gandhi's non violence couldn't be more profound. Gandhi was seeking to bring a moral change in the aggressor, to 'force' a repentance in the aggressor through sheer volume of tolerance.

He had a good enough understanding of the English conscience to know how to smite it through the media, but of course, quite different results would have obtained in the Spanish or French empires. The libertarian understanding of state and empire would permit no assumptions about the quality of conscience in state officials, because it is understood the moral trash of a society will accrete, and elevate, in the state structure.

The tactic of fast-unto-death was primarily a media tactic, a clever calculation on the British empire's policy not to let Gandhi become a martyr. He never tried, for instance, to convince his countrymen to abandon caste by fasting, because certain death would have been his reward for that fast! The hindu "tolerance" is for doctrinal diversity and pantheism, but only within the framework of Aryan supremacy, i.e. caste hierarchy supported by state law, and enforced with violence. Life for the so-called "dalits" of India has been one long Jalianwala Bagh nightmare.

Liberty requires no tolerance of evil, no tolerance of aggression. We require only that you do not initiate aggression. If it is initiated against you it is not only your right it is also your duty to terminate the aggression with the utmost urgency and force. The histories being written by Indian nationalists perpetuate the fiction that Gandhi's movement won Indian independence from Britain. The truth of the matter is the empire ran into a terminal obstruction of its' own coercive force, a mutiny in the Indian army, led by the soldiers' refusal to accept the court martialed executions of three Indian generals for treason - terminal, because the Indian army was "the sword arm of the [worldwide] empire" (Lord Wavell)

Walter Block on Milton Friedman

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Ludwig von Mises: Human Action $10

buy it here, at the for profit, private Mises Institute bookstore

Liberalization of Airport Frisking: Federal versus Private Security Screeners - Cristian Gherasim - Mises Daily

Liberalization of Airport Frisking: Federal versus Private Security Screeners - Cristian Gherasim - Mises Daily

the financial ruins of parliamentary communism in Bengal

Jaideep Mazumdar in OPEN

laws and morals in Darfur

"Nicolas 'Alphonse-d' ...you know what i think is also missing in this juridical international system is international morality. Right now im workin on the mandate for the peace operation in Darfur and its just crazy how much bull shit there is in there. so many articles and dispositions explaining why they just dont have the right to stop the genocide..."

of course, lawyers think the solution to all problems is the writing of more laws! in reality, this clogs up the courts and brings justice to a halt, while lawyers make a pile of money arguing - 9 out of 10 laws these days are about other laws that didn't work!

law and morality have unhinged in a diarrhea of obfuscatory minutiae, the net result of which is an opacity behind which crime can be committed freely

Is China ready to debate Mao?

the view from Shanghai

from a small Indian weekly called OPEN, with definite libertarian leanings

the view from Shanghai

Is the US state "western civilization"? perspective from the highly placed

Paul Craig Roberts (formerly WSJ editor) on InfoWars

"In contrast, the information requested in the secret directive is the kind of information that would be used to steal a person’s identity. Why does the U.S. government want information that would enable it to steal the identities of U.N. officials and impersonate them?"

good question from a person with serious credentials; I suspect the answer is, the same reason it steals the info from ordinary citizens, to serve the criminal exercise of war and empire

P.C. Roberts' blog

Facebook's Zuckerberg joins the party, pledges fortune to charity

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-ceo-to-give-fortune-to-charity-2010-12-09?dist=afterbell

this is what freedom does to peoples' hearts... the 'gupta dhana' (hidden wealth) concept practised by the banias is a deeply ingrained defense against historically regular theft by the aryan state, it is a way of refunding themselves after economic demolitions resulting from inter-state warfare... indeed 'gupta dhana' is, I believe, the key to why banias have been able to quickly adapt to "liberalization" in recent decades, they have gone through these vagaries of state policy many times before...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-ceo-to-give-fortune-to-charity-2010-12-09?dist=afterbell

Dr. Ron Paul bats for WikiLeaks on Fox

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rep-ron-paul-makes-special-request-of-wikileaks-on-foxs-freedom-watch/

Rep. Ron Paul bats for WikiLeaks, "when truth becomes treason we are in big trouble" - couldn't have said it better myself! (youtube video embedded)

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rep-ron-paul-makes-special-request-of-wikileaks-on-foxs-freedom-watch/

India takes world No. 1 title in state corruption

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Corruption-on-the-rise-54-Indians-paid-bribe-last-year/articleshow/7071768.cms

the way it works in the shiny new "liberal" India, the "new normals" of aryanist fascism are essentially identical to the old normals of brahminism, i.e. the brahmin controlled state "redistributes" wealth to ensure "justice"...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Corruption-on-the-rise-54-Indians-paid-bribe-last-year/articleshow/7071768.cms

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Jobs gets it, CEO of the Decade

Steve Jobs gets CEO of the decade from MarketWatch, I couldn't agree more. A perfect example of why you don't want to get in the way of your genius individuals - let alone deprive by force 75% of your people, like India - because they are the ones who will soar high, see far ahead and come up with ideas and products that really advance human life big time. The products he has produced have greatly advanced the usability of internet driven applications, even for technology novices.  Masses of people are now receiving a dazzling wealth of services, like doctors getting live updates on their patients' vital stats.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apples-jobs-rock-star-of-corporate-america-2010-12-08