Rabbit Ear Randomosity

What's the biggest issue facing Americans? The economy? The war in Iraq? Afghanistan? Gitmo torture? Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts? President Obama and the stimulus package?

No. None of the above. It's the switch to digital TV in February. Will seniors still be able to watch "Good Morning America?" Will "Leave it to Beaver" reruns still come in?

These are dark times for those with rabbit ears mounted to their TVs. And especially for those who haven't received their government coupon to get a digital converter box.

The market continues to fade. Everything looks bleak. I'm still leaning to the "retest of the lows" scenario. No leadership in the market on the recent rally.

Remember when "they" were telling you that you had to own alternative energy because Obama was going to spend like crazy on windmills and solar panels? Have you checked out what's happened to those stocks and ETFs lately?

Good football games this weekend at least on paper. I need the Steelers to make a run to have any chance in fantasy football playoffs...

Monday Selling

Stocks tumbling on worries that economic conditions are worsening.


Or we could be on our way to retest the lows because that's just the way these things seem to work out.

I think there is a big concern about job safety out there. I hope folks have 6-12 months of a rainy day fund and have little if any debt outside of their mortgage.

Time to Read Atlas Shrugged?

Check out the WSJ column on Ayn Rand's classic novel, "Atlas Shrugged" and the actions of our politicians today. 

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?

These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."

If you haven't read that book, now would be a great time to hunker down under a Snuggie and go through it.

Bailout Saturday Randomosity

Everyone wants a bailout

• Banks. “With 20/20 hindsight,” the bank-capital injections have achieved their objectives and the decisions on TARP will “prove to be the right ones,” the Treasury secretary said.
• Automakers. With auto sales continuing to plummet, analysts expect the automakers to ask for more once the new Congress and Obama administration take over in January. And the finance arms of the Big Three are expected to seek bailout money set aside for banks and other financial institutions as well.
• Home builders.  Builders want a package of subsidies that would bring mortgage rates to just under 3 percent for the first half of this year. They also favor a tax credit of up to $22,000 for home purchases.
• Porn.  Larry Flynt says, "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America."

Gimme more

• Obama says his stimulus plan will save over 4 million jobs.  "The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries," Obama said on his weekly radio and Internet address. "And they'll be the kind of jobs that don't just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long-term."
• If you're an office worker looking for a job, I hope you know how to put up guard rail, lay asphalt, and build windmills.  "These made-in-America jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, developing fuel-efficient cars and new energy technologies pay well, and they can't be outsourced," Obama said.

Randomosity

• I thought maybe as a side gig, I'd build some iPhone applications.  You can make thousands with applications that make fart noises these days.  In what’s got to be the most incredible moneymaking story this year, developer InfoMedia (Joel Comm) created an iPhone app called iFart Mobile that has made them nearly $10,000 a day ($9,198 in one day alone).
• I thought I'd go more high brow, and work on the vomit sounds.  Somebody beat me to that.
• Did you catch President Bush at the dedication of the new USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier? 
• NFL Playoffs time, baby.

As go the first 5 Days...

• So goes the year... The first five trading days was slightly down for the DOW, and slightly up for the SP500. Overall? Flat.
• Today? Big selling. Still have some time to go and we'll see if we get a lift in the final hour. More later.
• Kind of a lackluster college championship, but the Florida Gators pulled off the big win. They're probably happy they didn't have to play Utah...
• CNBC says that whenever Barney Frank speaks, the market goes down. LOL.
• But seriously, I think we'd all be better off if the government did less, not more. It seems that the more the government meddles in the economy, the worse things get.
• Employment is a lagging economic indicator, but things sure look bad.
• CA state and city governments are having all kinds of financial trouble. I wonder if the next thing to get a look at are public employee pensions. So next time someone blames Proposition 13 for the problems of struggling governments, that person is using the wrong "p" word. The correct word is "pensions." Read it. It's amazing how much taxpayers are putting into the pot for government workers.

Obama Wants Stimulus

Seems to me the more the government intervenes, the worse things get.


I know. He was elected to do something. Anything.

With the costs of the proposed stimulus package running almost a trillion bucks, with a deficit running over a trillion bucks, with off the books accounting for Social Security and Medicare, and who knows how much for Iraq, there is a lot of money out there.

Watch out for inflation.

Thursday Randomosity

• You have to think that the eventual outcome of all this stimulus, lower fuel prices, and low interest rates will be a big ol' surge in inflation down the road. As in a big surge.  And that'd be bad.  Really.
• According to Hustler's Larry Flynt, the porn business needs a government bailout. (And that's adult star Tara Kai in the pic). Red-blooded Americans are "too depressed to be sexually active," says Flynt. 
• I guess when the government is giving out billions, everyone wants a cut.
• Orange Punch wonders why the government is responsible for  helping people convert to digital TV.  Drive-time radio this morning had a caller who made the obvious point. Where are our coupons for when eight-track tapes were made obsolete by cassette players? Hey, for that matter, where’s the coupon for the CD players that made cassette players obsolete?
• For those of you who blog and have an iPhone, the latest version of Blogpress now allows typing in landscape mode!  Woot!  Very cool.  I can type like crazy in landscape mode.
• I watched the first episode of the Bret Michaels Shot of Love tour Bus thing on VH1.  Total trash.  But I watched it anyways.  I don't know what to say.  I felt kind of scummy watching it.  It's that trashy.