Thursday, September 10, 2009

Alan's reign

Moral: Wherein we look at King Alan, as he did reign for many years, probably too many. Everyone seemed to hang off of his words, as they do now with Ben, the saver sacker.

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Alan comes up now since he was holding the rein for so long, and he appears to be unapologetic. Except, he did admit that his worldview was shaken (in particular, his belief in banks doing their own self-policing); that was earlier this year. Now, he's back with his message (see Tech Ticker).

So, before any discussion, let's start by reviewing the references that we have made to Alan. We thought of him early on as this mess unfolded.
Well, as Alan is saying, it's true that capitalism's take on the market does allow human characteristics to emerge, some of which may not be desirable. Near zero, when shown, will suggest that there are better ways for us to go.

Note: That finance could be run by those who do not salivate when money is passed beneath their noses is still to be considered. Of course, with the devaluation of the dollar, thanks Ben, we might get to the stage where our beloved buck is only play money in the US. All sorts of things to consider here, with Alan's reign as one factor.

Remarks:

10/21/2013 -- Alan has a book coming out. Ben still slaps savers silly; a new day is coming.

01/27/2012 -- Ben will continue to sack the savers; he must love the ca-pital-sino.

02/01/2011 -- The chimera shines.

11/26/2010 -- On the Greenspan Put (Rolling Stone).

11/02/2010 -- Over a year later, the message is the same, except some changes have occurred. But Big Ben continues in his ways. Of real note is that the jobless rate is high; out-housing really set up for that. Also, we need to re-look at that learned from the 'vons' guys, Ludwig and Friedrich. See Near Zero.

01/06/2010 -- Poor Ben, getting grief and criticism.

01/03/2010 -- More news on Goldman Sachs as the uber example of 'not on the behalf' comes to fore regularly. It'll need to be a separate subject at some point. Thanks to McClatchy: Nov 1, 2009 & Jan 3, 2010 (update). Goldman has to respond, of course.

12/29/2009 -- Time calls Ben an uber-Nerd.

12/28/2009 -- Ben was named the Time Person of the Year. Nice. We can't call him 'King' as we saw with Alan's 'cult of personality' reign.

12/15/2009 -- Requiem for the dollar (WSJ) and responses.

12/09/2009 -- The Street loves Ben who loves 'em back: The Street utterly loves the Fed's largess, earning massive profits from trading unstable currencies, the carry trade (borrow short-term dollars near zero, buy longer-term assets abroad), and the high-margin process of transferring America's capital abroad.

11/20/2009 -- To quote: Abjuration and Recantation. Yet, Alan and Ben, at best, can just spit in the wind, as long as the standard is gab. Our trust? We want to put those inclined to malefaction in a sandbox.

10/06/2009 -- Ah, yes, on the behalf of. It is clear that Alan and Ben act on our behalf, though one has to wonder what 'our' means as it sure is not the little guy. Finance, people, can be (probably ought to be) run as a non-profit affair. AND, the CEO (or whatever the titles at the top) would not make $1M! That is absurd. We have people who put their lives on the line for this country and its ideals for pittance. As said before, we really need a national service (Remarks 09/03/09) experience for the young'uns, especially for those of the privileged classes.

09/15/2009 -- Lessons, one year after Lehman. Also, Time on culprits. Ben is happy-talking, again.

09/10/2009 -- We'll tell this tale further. The trader guy on firstbusinessx says that it's hard for a trader to make money in this market. Yes, indeed. There is a whole industry that rakes off the fat from the labors of others. It's like this, folks, a gallon of milk (the cow did the labor) has only so much fat that is easy to skim off (cream - ah, that's the role of golden sacks). Then, with a little more labor (secondary), fat can be extracted through modern technology. Eventually, the residue is colored water which may even need some boost by added nutrients to be considered food. Well, the economy is a lot like that. We've had a generation or two of the best and brightest go apply their brains to gaming, essentially. Some of this was encouraged by Alan and the FED. That will be part of the analysis. What's left is the watchword; not much of value, under the current scheme of things, is the answer.

Modified: 10/21/2013

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