Market Ticker-- A bill (H.R. 1149) has been introduced that essentially would reinstate Glass-Steagall and resurrect the separation between commercial and investment banking. The big banks won't like this at all but H.R. 1149 is long overdue by about three financial crises. Here's how Karl Denninger put it:
EXXXXCELLENT.
CALL YOUR CRITTERS AND DEMAND A PUBLIC POSITION STATEMENT ON THIS BILL. IF THEY WON'T CO-SPONSOR AND PUSH IT, USE THE WORDS: "YOU'RE FIRED!"
Jesse's Cafe Americain-- Here's the key quote:
If there is a waterfall decline in stocks, which is a possibility, I would expect to have my trading account weighted to the short side by the time it gets underway, and make a significant sum of money as I have done the last two times this happened in the past ten years. I would expect not to touch any of my long term gold and silver holdings and take the charges of turning over long term assets such as bullion. I will not touch them until something fundamentally changes in the makeup of the dollar based money system.
This is pretty much the approach I outlined for myself a few days ago. I doubt I'll be astute or nimble enough to make money in a bear market. Realistically, I'd be thrilled to just not lose a lot. Or as I read elsewhere recently, I'd like to "sidestep" the bad years.
Along The Watchtower-- Turd Ferguson, who deservedly gloats all the time, penned this today:
The president's speech/plan was an absolute farce. The U.S.A. does not have a tax/revenue problem. The U.S.A. has a spending problem. The deficit and debt cannot be controlled by "eliminating waste and abuse" and raising taxes on millionaires. This is nothing but class warfare politics and SPIN. The only hope for the U.S. is that serious leaders will emerge with serious proposals. They then act on their proposals, re-election hopes be damned. Let's just say I'm not expecting this anytime soon.
Neither am I Turd, and that's the reason why hard assets are appreciating. There's no hard asset bubble, just a dollar bear market.
Zerohedge-- Michael Burry saw the housing bubble coming and profited handsomely. Here's what he has to say now:
I am worried about a future of a nation that refuses to acknowledge the true causes for the crisis. A historic opportunity was lost. America has instead chosen its poison as its cure... Today I expect the US government to attempt to continue easy money policies into the next presidential term, past the foreclosure crisis, and past the corporate and public refinancing humps that are forthcoming. Junk bonds incredibly are again at all time highs. Quantitative Easing seems to be working for now. But this is an invalid validation of what America is doing. This is in fact a Pyrrhic gamble. As we continue to debase our currency, Bernanke says he is not printing money, again I disagree. As it stands I get an email from the Fed saying we bought another X billion in Treasurys. I don't know - that's pretty clear to me. In fact this program QE2 its scope and breadth raises the severe question of the Treasury's needs. The government's borrowing of money for the purposes of injecting cash into society, bailing out banks, brokers and consumers, is a short-sighted easy decision for a population that has not yet learned that short-sighted, easy strategies are the route to long-term ruin. We never quite achieved the catharsis necessary to stoke the reevaluation of our wants, need, and fears.
So who's right, Krugman or Burry? We'll see soon enough, but my money's on Burry.
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