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The S&P 500 closed below 1200? Again? How is this possible?
Operation Rubicon
November 21, 2011. A date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was repeatedly and deliberately attacked by the same deflationary debt forces as the Empire of Japan.
There is some good news though.
We've also got $97 oil and a massive trade deficit with the world. Unlike Japan, we're therefore in a much better position to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity over the long-term.
Sarcasm!
Rubicon = Con the Rubes
See Also:
Crossing the S&P 500's Rubicon v.29 (Musical Tribute)
ICE: Mortgage Delinquency Rate Increased Year-over-year in October
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From ICE: ICE First Look at Mortgage Performance: Serious delinquencies hit
17-month high while foreclosure activity remains historically muted
• At 3.45% ...
2 hours ago
14 comments:
Rubicon = Con the Rubes
Too funny, that sums it up perfectly.
Is it any wonder that our propagandists (Clinton, Bush, Obama, Cramer, O'Reilly, Hannity, Krugman, etc.) are so highly paid?
As I see it, the key is CONtrolling propagandists in both parties! That's what makes "change" simultaneously ridiculous and effective.
America has indeed "changed"!
Where are my manners?
Thanks for the Rubicon (RubinCON) post, it made my day! ;)
mab,
Is it any wonder that our propagandists (Clinton, Bush, Obama, Cramer, O'Reilly, Hannity, Krugman, etc.) are so highly paid?
It is the nth wonder of the modern world! Miracles abound thanks to never ending financial innovation.
That's what makes "change" simultaneously ridiculous and effective.
Change is coming. It's crazy!
Mark,
Glad you noticed this Rubicon (back)crossing too. Of course, I only noticed it because I've been reading your blog and you've pointed it out a few times.
Glide path.
I read a little of When Money Dies, about inflation and the depression and WWII in germany, and the author says that every year everyone was using all the superlatives - awful, terrible, disaster, crisis, etc. and then it would get worse the next year, and the next. I think you are right - people are expecting it will be something big, but the biggest thing for most right now is the stress-related health effects as people wait, and of course, little by little, the trends continue. And they'll be bad too, but will hit people differently.
As the author of When Money dies put it, at the worst times, there were still people that were continuing on almost as normal, not really even aware of the carnage around them. I wouldn't believe it except I just this weekend talked to some folks who are either asleep or pretending to be. Talking about picking out where they are going to retire in ten years... I just about fell over.
Audrey
Audrey,
When I turned bearish in 2004 someone posted a worst-case stock market scenario on some message board.
The scenario had the stock market dropping massively.
I offered my worst-case stock market scenario.
The stock market trades sideways for far longer than anyone can imagine. Meanwhile, inflation and taxes continue.
Stock market bulls can't make money. Stock market bears can't make money. Nobody makes money. (Real yields die.)
He conceded that my scenario seemed worse.
David Weber wrote about an unsafe haven in 1993. Since 1998, we're certainly trying to live the dream! Sigh.
I read the comments in the unsafe haven link I posted last year.
In my opinion, about all the Fed can really do is spread out the pain. If it could actually generate prosperity then it would have been doing that even before the crisis.
So...
Would you like 30 punches to the face today? Or would you prefer one punch to the face every day for the next month?
Um, spread them out I guess. I think the former might kill me, lol. Sigh.
The Rubicon joke is based on daily face punching it would seem, lol. Sigh.
Some years ago Jim Grant quoted some anonymous poet of Wall St who referred to Treasuries as giving Return-free Risk.
Mark,
Now I've been watching the Rubicon myself and counting the crossings...all thanks to you. And yes we seem to be rolling up to a lot of pain...distributed unequally of course.
Mark,
Today, at the mall, I saw that in one of the hastily occupied storefront slots (just since two weeks ago) the fellow was making - by hand and airbrush - a Nike t-shirt. Is that... Isn't that what we've been hearing about in China?
Glide path.
Audrey
dearieme,
Some years ago Jim Grant quoted some anonymous poet of Wall St who referred to Treasuries as giving Return-free Risk.
I would argue that's true with the disclaimer that just about everything else is offering Return-free Sure-things, lol. Sigh.
fried,
Rumor has it that Rubicon watching will grow in popularity so much that it will become an Olympic Event.
I'm starting the rumor by the way. ;)
Audrey,
Today, at the mall, I saw that in one of the hastily occupied storefront slots (just since two weeks ago) the fellow was making - by hand and airbrush - a Nike t-shirt. Is that... Isn't that what we've been hearing about in China?
My girlfriend was given a sewing machine. She is currently working on the most expensive pair of pajamas that the world has ever known. I'm counting her labor costs mostly.
She's also knitting. The scarf she is working on is infinitely expensive per inch created. She's stopped and restarted quite a few times so far. She's now made 0.0 inches of progress overall.
And lastly, she's been working on a baby blanket for one of her sisters. The joke is that it should be completed about the time he graduates from high school. In all seriousness, using extrapolation and math skills that target seems completely doable, lol.
Mark,
How does the song go?
Anything you can do, I can do better! Anything you can knit, I can knit slower! Anything you can sew, I can sew slower! (from me to your gf)
I have also sewn expensive pj's and am knitting a scarf. I confess I don't want to finish b/c I know my son (for whom it is for) probably won't like it b/c it's nothing like a storebought scarf. So I'm going even more slowly and making it even more "valuable."
Ha-ha!
I might even be able to make it as infinitely expensive as your gf's scarf, but not sure yet...
Audrey
P.S. Happy Turkey Day
Audrey,
I actually sang your song to my girlfriend. Seriously.
Anything you can knit
I can knit slower
I can knit anything
Slower than you
No, you can't
Yes, I can. No, you can't
Yes, I can. No, you can't
Yes, I can
Yes, I can
It got a laugh. Hahaha! :)
Happy Thanksgiving!
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