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First, here are the posts with 'chimera' in the name and the date: The big chimera (11/09/09), Chimera II (08/31/2010), Chimera, again (01/27/2011), Chimera IV (06/10/2011), Chimera explained (07/05/2011). For each of these, I'll have to do a recap (which ought to be fun to do as the posts parallel the climb out of the morass, helped along by Ben and his largess).
Aside: chimera is mentioned in a whole lot (namely 64) of other posts. One has to wonder if it was an improper characterization. Well, wonder not. I knew what I was doing and will be explaining why we're still in deep dodo (Europe's PIGS are only one thing to point to).
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Today, the Dow is around the 13.6K mark which is close to the high point before the drop. How can this be considered a chimera?
Well, there is another market that might be approaching, similar to the Dow, its value of our, or so, years ago. Remember, please, that this exchange's value is one-half, or so, of its peak around the 2000 time frame, before what was called the tech bust. Oh, you forgot?
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The Dow is at the current level since the taxpayers are propping it up. Ben's balance sheet is at ridiculously full. Too, he has stiffed people who are older and who need more stable financial instruments. Ben is holding, and wants to buy more, toxic stuff.
Where is his head?
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Today, too, one can also find an article talking about people who are staying out of the stock market. This would be anyone who needs their basis (and does not want to get on the dole or reliant on other people for charity). We'll not belabor the FB point (Zuck got his money), but it could be used as an example (there are plenty of other examples, so FB is off the hook, for now).
Remarks:
06/11/2013 -- CDOs and tranching, once again.
03/22/2013 -- Imagine. WSJ using both chimerical and moral hazard in the same article, albeit with a twist that we'll respond to (that is, clarify what the notions mean -- has to come from outside the financial community).
03/21/2013 -- Ben on Cyprus as a type of archetypal situation, or not.
01/15/2013 -- Force quiescence on the thing, regularly.
12/13/2012 -- Don't know how long this page will be there, Daily Ticker. But, when I looked, 69% had said 'no' (hurt rather than helped) as to whether Ben has helped.
10/24/2012 -- Ben is sticking to his guns. Lucy people like myself will continue to pay through the nose. Thanks, big guy.
10/16/2012 -- Chimera has had many uses, from mythology on. Basically, the connotations being applied here relate several ways. For one, though, consider Bookstaber's use of 'demon' as he characterized problems with markets, hedgies, and such. Of course, many demons might be apropos for use, but chimera is up there on top, or close to it. That, folks, relates to the reality behind the other use. There, no doubt, are physical, and process, entities that can be pointed to (yet, are these under control?). No, we cannot even have a daily accounting (to wit, the realization on the part of some that things like the unemployment rate are estimated (albeit, with supposedly sound basis) and never really pinned down). So, anyone building upon this first type of chimera is impaired as to practicality (yes, it's that bad, folks). How can we have a sustainable economy with such flimsy mechanisms (you see, they are only effective in so far as they allow those who run the game to pilfer - the only real expectations, in short). Hence, the use of the mirage is not off, either. Okay? The real question is what can be done to make things better?
10/12/2012 -- Chimera has been used for that which the ca-pital-sino pushes, including the mechanisms involved. What are hedge funds? Another set of tools. What we have is too much money running after too few opportunities. To boot, there are too many looking to extract more than what they deserve (yes, I'll venture there - my gripe with Harvard, the first school in the US).
10/12/2012 -- Hedge fund mirage. Chimera works, too. Harvard. Its big endowment is the envy of all (but the rational - who see the naked emperor). ... Harvard, talk to us, please, about how you feel that you deserve big earnings (what? earned?) in terms of near-zero (quite graspable concept, even for the heavily endowed).
Modified: 06/11/2013
