SOTD: Material Issue - Valerie Loves Me

Maria Bartiromo is an Idiot

She's never been too bright, and has always sucked up like some sort of business groupie to corporate power, but jeez, what a complete shill for the insurance companies she is...she makes Michael Moore look like a genius.

Not Quite Good As Gold

Great explanation of "fiat", or "funny" money.

SOTD: Brazilian Girls - Jique

dy

Makes Sense

Howard Blackstein makes an interesting observation...

The President's approval rating is 29%(amazingly, that is the exact % of the population with I.Q.'S BELOW 80!!!!).

SOTD: Loose Cannons - Superstars

Realtors attend worship service to pray for better market

Here's all you need to know about the state of the housing market.

DESTIN — More than 300 people with a keen interest in the Emerald Coast’s real estate market gathered Wednesday at Destiny Worship Center to ask for God’s blessing. The Real Estate Prayer Luncheon was organized in hopes of breathing life and positive thinking into the area’s slumping housing market.

For full coverage of the slow train-wreck that is the Bear Stearns suicide/housing implosion/ global-credit house of cards read Calculated Risk and Mish. They're at least six months ahead of the mainstream media (which means they're not covering Anna Nicole or Paris or the missing white woman of the week), and the analysis and comments are outstanding.

Same for Market Ticker, who has this to say about the markets, among other things:

Let me be clear - what I'm implying here is that this cycle of fraud and avarice in the markets may be worse than the '00 Tech Wreck. In fact, it may be much worse.

I agree with him. The leverage involved today is unreal. Like I said back in February:

There's a lot of people, banks, hedge funds, pension funds, little old ladies etc. holding mortgage-backed securities who simply are never going to be repaid. The money is gone.

SOTD: The Fine Arts Showcase - Chemical Girl

SOTD: Moby - Extreme Ways

Can't we all just get along?

SOTD: Mutya Buena - Just A Little Bit

SOTD: Lali Puna - Middle Curse

Quit your jobs
Don't cross your fingers
Don't work for people
You can't trust

Quit their money
Leave their places
Slam the door and
Don't look back

You've been here so long
Don't take the middle curse
Don't hesitate, it's overdue
Suit or revolt, it's up to you

All is Well

The managing director and founding Partner of the infamous Carlyle Group had this to say about the markets in January (full memo here):

"As you all know (I hope), the fabulous profits that we have been able to generate for our limited partners are not solely a function of our investment genius, but have resulted in large part from a great market and the availability of enormous amounts of cheap debt. This cheap debt has been available for almost all maturities, most industries, infrastructure, real estate, and at all levels of the capital structure. Frankly, there is so much liquidity in the world financial system, that lenders (even “our” lenders) are making very risky credit decisions...

I EXPECT THAT THIS EXCESS LIQUIDITY, LEADING TO HUGE AMOUNTS OF RELATIVELY CHEAP FINANCING, WILL CONTINUE FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 12-24 MONTHS. FRANKLY, I SEE NO CATALYST THAT WILL LEAD TO A QUICK, LARGE OR DRAMATIC CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL LIQUIDITY. HOWEVER, I HOPE THAT YOUHAVE NOTICED THE ROUGHLY 40-50 BASIS POINT MOVE UPWARD IN THE YIELD CURVE OVER THE LAST 45 DAYS. THIS IS A BIG MOVE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME AND IS PROBABLY A RESULT OF MARKET RECOGNITION THAT THE FED WILL NOT BE REDUCING RATES ANYTIME SOON.

I know that this liquidity environment cannot go on forever. I know that the longer it lasts the more money our investors (and we) will make. I know that the longer it lasts, the greater the pressures will be on all of us to take advantage of this liquidity. And I know that the longer it lasts, the worse it will be when it ends. And of course when it ends the buying opportunity will be a once in a lifetime chance. But, I do not know when it will end. "

The Dow may be at new nominal highs, but what good is that to Minnesotans who can't even pay their utility bills?

In what may be another troubling sign for the state's economy, record numbers of Minnesotans are delinquent in paying their natural gas bills.

You have to be pretty financially strapped to not be paying your utility bills in Minnesota. Good thing there's no inflation (if you don't count food or energy)...

Hey, a bond blog.

Finally, from Howard Blackstein (he likes ALL CAPS too):

WE TAKE YOU TO THE COURT OF LOUIS XVI AND MARIE ANTIONETTE- THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE COMMONERS ARE FOMENTING REVOLT! AFTER ALL ,THEIR ECONOMISTS ASSURE THEM THAT CONSUMER SPENDING HAS BEEN UP FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS(OF COURSE, 99% OF PURCHASING POWER WAS IN THE HANDS OF THE ARISTOCRACY!!!!). DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?- THE RICH GET RICHER,AND THE REST OF THE COUNTRY GETS FORCLOSED!!! I AM SURE THAT UP TO THE MOMENT OF THEIR BEHEADINGS, BOTH MARIE AND LOUIS WERE AT A LOSS AS TO WHY THE PEOPLE WERE 'MAD AS HELL'.

Yep.

Bush's Approval Rating Now 29%

Who are these 29%?!

I mean aside from relatives of Bush, CEOs, country-club members, Bill O'Reilly cultists, inmates of mental institutions and people who think the earth is 6000 years old, what kind of person thinks Bush is doing a heckuva job?

Why Not Outsource the CEO Jobs?

You'd save billions and probably not notice much of a difference.

Ying:

Compensation for chief executives at the largest US companies continued to increase last year, according to a study published by the Associated Press on Saturday. CEOs at half of the public companies listed on the Standard & Poor’s 500 received a combined total of $4.16 billion in 2006.

According to the AP calculation, the highest paid chief executive was Yahoo’s Terry Semel, who received $71.7 million in pay, stock options and other forms of compensation. Half of the CEOs in the companies surveyed pulled in more than
$8.3 million.

Yang:

Ford Motor Co. is entering this summer's national labor talks with a clear, if audacious, goal: Cut hourly labor costs by about 30 percent to reach parity with Asian rivals operating in the United States.

Confusing a Bull Market With Brains

These kind of stories are a dime a dozen now, but usually not on this scale...

A South Florida real estate broker Carlos Justo, flamboyant founder of Sol Sotheby's International Realty, is in deep money trouble. Justo, who catered to millionaires and became one himself, says: ``I am considering filing personal bankruptcy. I'm fighting for my financial life.''

He, along with some investors, lost $2.35 million in a deal at 3 Indian Creek Island, he says. He is in foreclosure on another property -- at 40 Indian Creek Island, where he now lives. He bought it in '05 for $6.85 million. The debt is around $11 million
with interest. (He's trying to sell the house -- for $14.9 million.)

Justo, 51, is fending off a battery of lawsuits, including one from agent Techrin Hijazi, who used to work for him. His net worth, which he says reached $20 million, has plummeted. He estimates it is now $2 million to $3 million.

''I should have really been in bankruptcy court a year ago,'' Justo says. His attorneys are trying to talk him out of it, but he gave them 60 days to ''settle everything'' or he's filing. ``It's a big mess.''

Complicating matters was the ugly split between Justo and Irving A. Padron, his former business partner and CEO. ''I settled with him,'' Justo says. ``I paid him $500,000. I owe him another $800,000. I have no intention of paying him what I owe him. I will see him in court.''

Justo invested in luxury waterfront properties, in addition to 40 Indian Creek -- 36 Indian Creek Island, and the former George Batchelor estate in the 2900 block of North Bay Road in Miami Beach. ''Between those assets alone, I have a debt of over $30 million,'' he says.

His timing was off, he admits. 'The market is slowing down. Everybody knows what's happening in the Miami market because of the condo oversupply. It's going to be a bloodbath out there. You know what the buyers are saying? `Let me wait, why should I pay $10 million for a house when it might be down to $8 million in a year.' ''

Or maybe $5 million?

SOTD: Boomclick - High Tide

Sopranos Finale Theory

This one is pretty good...from someone named yanks08....

"Tony falls asleep last week in a barren room. No sheets on bed, no alarm clock, nothing. When he apparently wakes up, there are sheets on bed, a mirror, an alarm clock with music going off. None of that was in the end of last week's show. Tony dreams the whole last episode. A.J getting settled, Phil going down and Agent Harris cheering for him, Meadow becoming a lawyer and getting married. In the end, he sees himself sitting at the table. He is dreaming of having dinner with his family. It ends when Tony wakes up from his great dream. When A.J. says during the episode, "you are all living in a dream", that is a clue. Sheets on bed, A.J's comment, and Tony seeing himself at the end are all clues that the show really ended last week. This weeks episode was all a dream."

They Love Him In Albania!

...maybe because he's an easy mark.

SOTD: REM - So. Central Rain

10/6/1983

SOTD: Madonna - Don't Tell Me

Joe Henry tune...

Ron Paul 2008

One can dream, right?

SOTD: Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man

Quick, before YouTube takes it down....

Bad News For Oil Prices

No, this isn't the Gulf of Mexico...

Currently a Category 5 storm, this is Cyclone Gonu in the Gulf of Oman, southeast of the Strait of Hormuz. About 90% of the oil exported from the Persian Gulf by tanker travels through this strait. Such a storm is apparently unprecendented in the area.

SOTD: Mickey Avalon - Jane Fonda

Reminds me of Bon Scott for some odd reason...

SOTD: The Motels - Take The L