Well I have to admit I didn't watch much of the VP debate tonight. I actually listened and watched the Canadian Prime Minister Debate. For starters the entire system seems to be much more cost effective and intense than our system. Stephen Harper called the election September 7th and the election is going to be held October 14th and the new Government will take office November 12th 8 days after the U.S. Election. It's just a straight to business approach as opposed to this 3 year marathon we go through where it seems there is more campaigning than actual governance. Even the format where all 5 parties basically go at each other, although with a moderator seems more entertaining than this Q&A format that just seems stale.

I lost my reply to Josh's post the other night. But I though I'd share a top 10 list from this show last night of which I did not get a chance to listen.

From what I took in tonight just ease dropping on CNBC the bailout can't save everything. World economies are just slowly down too much to absorb all of the inventory sitting out there in warehouses. Inventory costs money by the day, eventually when too much stuff piles up the layoffs will come slowly and surly. Then are we going to bailout the big box retailers? Are we then going to bail out the commercial real estate developers? The ones that even faced with an empty plaza vacated from an anchor like Ames, Hills or Vix; Who kept on building another brand spanking new strip mall with tight spaces that sits half empty? Are we going to bail those guys out as well?

With all the new pork that has been inserted, maybe it is just a patch until after the elections like that top 10 list indicated. They can't keep everyone going since the only people left to borrow money from is the counties where we buy our goods anyway. They just needed to get enough guys to switch by throwing a pet project or cause their way.

That way back index from google is kind of crazy in looking back. I remember I googled an ex-girlfriend around that time and discovered that she was married. I later found out that it was a totally insane unbalanced Vegas wedding and later confessed some crazy things. So from that experience although I did get a chuckle that search result was still there, although the page that lead to her email at the time has long been taken down obviously. Ah memories...

On another thought the good old existential side of myself got some pretty good material over the weekend. I kind of knew her as she was a waitress at a local restaurant where I washed dished as a kid. Later she was the local bartender as mentioned in the article and kind of an institution, although I rarely ever went there.

The scary part was that I actually was driving the 290 that night as I was coming home from a birthday get together at the house of a guy i work with around 12 midnight or so. It was eerie foggy that night as if it was out of some insane movie on IFC or Sundnace. It also kind of got me thinking as Monday would have been my sister's birthday, if she wasn't in a car accident.

What am I trying to say. It's really a reality check as to why I am being so conservative with my life. What do I gain from living a frugal life and not doing anything exciting with my time or money? Yea as I learned in August going to the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas and partying like a rockstar isn't the answer to life, that rock and roll fantasy really threw me against the wall mentally in a way, but in some ways I needed to have reality slap me in the face. All that really did was reinforce the truth that you need close friends that give a shit about you if you ever get into a messy situation.

Another question is that even in the face of this coming clusterfuck (this bailout isn't going to save us all even in the shorterm "my opinion") did the people that spent and partied like there is no tomorrow have something right in their philosophy? They lived life to the fullest & some of them are getting their ass saved. Heck they most of them actually get laid and sleep with some beautiful people to boot. While stiffs like me just work, save and play it safe with most aspects of their life.

I guess what I'm just reflecting is maybe deep down inside I'm kind of disappointed that there isn't a payoff yet for the people that didn't overextend themselves. We'll have to get to the point of bank holidays and people selling pencils for some dorkish principles that I hold true to become attractive and pay off. The swagger of the last time period has not died off as of yet, unless you're (e:hodown) in NYC looking at people freaking out that their life as they knew it has ceased to exist.

If you made it this far thanks for reading my neurosis. I'm going to read some Jean-Paul Sartre and go to bed now...

Yea, I'm a bit surprised that the numbers for the Dow and Nasdaq worked out so nice. The only time I can remember closing numbers being so freaky is when the U.S. went into Bosnia & the Dow closed @ 10,666. Actually thinking back to that time wasn't it the Clinton administration ? Wait someone did talk about the Clinton administration today:



There is some validity in the speech, but at the same time a lot of stuff was sure left out as to how we ended up at this place in the recent past. This video is for the most part a McCain campaign ad, but it does bring up one point. The GSE's that were protected by the democrats in committee here were NEVER under SOX or Sarbaines-Oxley that little Accounting law that was intended to prevent things like this from ever happening after Enron.

So all I'm saying is that both parties are to blame and nothing that was done 6 months or a 1 year ago caused this to all happen. Also 40% of the Democrats voted AGAINST the bill. Did she say the things above just to get a word of spit in knowing that the whole thing was dead at that point? What happened to the new era of post-partisanship?

To play on the downside that is...

Wachovia gets taken out

The ironic part is that at the end of the day it was worth pennies. Which totally pissed me off in the sense that this whole "Get Shorty" thing with the markets is just a big central planning lie. In reality short sellers are just playing a game of "I Call Bullshit" on a grand scale. Now that it's monday how can anyone say that the company really deserved to be trading at 19.71    as recently as 9/8/2008??? The thing was just as overpriced as a house on the coasts.

I recieved a text tonight from my friend in Las Vegas that I am in a Fantasy Hockey League with saying he was going to just watch over and over again tonight the movie Slap Shot

Yes, Paul Newman had a great career and also kick ass Salad Dressing. But it's the role of Reggie 'Reg' Dunlop that really blew me away as a kid watching the movie on WUTV Ch 29 some random evening in the mid to late 80's

Then again most people just remember the Hanson Brothers. Well, here's a clip that kid of combines the two...

I just love it when the political and financial worlds collide. The sad part is all of this has become a game or many at once.

So in the last 24 hours we have a game of chicken in regards to the debates. Are they going to go down to Ole Miss and debate tomorrow? Will the just say screw it and have something on the spot right in D.C., i mean why bother hopping on a private jet at that point? The logistics would be pretty brutal for either candidate. This has almost gotten to the point of reminding me of "wrasslin" back in the day when it was descent, during the Monday night wars. When the seed of doubt would be planted if such and a such wrestler would show up on Nitro/Raw. Some sick part of me can see John McCain busting in on Obama's 1 hour free commercial right @ :49 past the hour. You know the whole, shot of the limo on the jumbotron and then suddenly an emergence from the crowd. It's is just so mind boggling to think of the different angles being played in regards to posturing for the presidential election, along with the party values of the extreme wings. Just flipping on cable news you seen Barney Frank giving one update and Richard Shelby giving another on another channel. How could you even being to think that Bush would let either McCain or Obama get in the mix of this insanity and take away any credit in helping with this "Bi-Partisan" effort.

Plus just when you think things get worse, we play "Deal or No Deal" with the whole Wall St Bail Out thing. We then have a middle of the night, bank failure with Washington Mutual going under. So it now becomes the "biggest bank failure", hey wait a minute wasn't Indymac the "biggest bank failure?"

I just though that I couldn't talk about this crap anymore until after the election, but it keeps getting more insane by the day.

So enjoy filling up under $4 a gallon. That isn't going to last for too long...

I guess what's good for Wall St isn't good for Main St

This is why you need Shorts in any market. Look what happens when they are forced to cover their positions.

Yea, I was listening to Virgin Radio today from Toronto on my drive into work this morning. For the most part I was just daydreaming, then thing song came on




Yea, Reality used to be a friend of mine...I love that line along with a few others in this psychedelic/trip hop song or whatever category it is.


The funny part is I do have this really self defeating sense of empathy for attractive "old maids." I actually cried one year when there was this really attractive news reporter that did her "Happy Holiday's" commercial appearance with just a stuffed reindeer. This while all of the old anchors had their wife and 3 kids waiving and baking cookies. For some reason it really bothered me and I shouldn't be because I have my own problems in being alone in this world. The thing that struck me was this song in how he mentions Christina Applegate. It got me to think about her being in her late 30's with no husband or kids. It kind of is a tragedy that she hasn't passed on her gene's yet, especially with her battle with breast cancer. Yea I would like the be the one to procreate with her of course ;-) but still a part of me feels bad that she hasn't done so already with anyone. But logically it is just fucked for me to think about such things because I have my own lack of relationship problems.

Well this is going to be my last post on this topic for a while. This bear is going to hibernate for about a month or so until the end of the election. I figure that I'll come out in 2 months just like the bear on Wall st did after the rally in mid-July and some of August. So after the excitement ends we are just going to stagger sideways for a while just like we did in the summer.

The kicker is that the government is going to ban short selling outright. Is it going to work for the short term? Yes, it sure will. I'm just counting on it making it worse when the real stuff happens a month or two from now. I have my small bets and my plan all set. All I can lose is the amount of money that I placed in the pot when I bought my options. All I can do now is just sit and wait until the hoopla ends, most likely after the election in November.

The only could have would have should have thing that is knawing at me is not being in gold. I had always owned a gold stock for the last 9 years or so and when the gold and silver market tanked in July and I took my profits and ran I never got back in. The whole "catching a falling knife" adage was just something that I wanted to avoid. Now what do I do? Do I get back in and chase a parabolic move up and run the risk of losing money when things come crashing back down to earth?

I have enough money working in a contarian kind of way. It is going to be touch to watch the market with my "downside" play for the next month or so. It's just that all I can lose is what I put down and nothing more. The key is not over leveraging yourself like a Wall St firm. Because I know that the taxpayer is not going to bail me out ;-)

Anyways this should be very interesting to say the least! I'll have to remember where this post is at the end of the year...

OK I re-entered my short position or actually doubled it this morning as I walked out the door to work. I saw that the S&P was below a key support/resistance level of 1200 & decided to take a shot. Yea I was surprised to see that at the end of the day the whole thing still tanking hard. I guess it's due to the margin calls & people dumping their mutual funds/401k's as they usually book the transaction @ the close of business.

So the Treasury is going to ban naked short selling across the board. I must admit it is kind of shady practice, but was legal until today. It does violate the principle of a buyer/seller as the actual transaction was never fully consummated as the shares were never actually delivered since they never were actually sold. All I can say is in the case of a P.O.S. company like Lehman or Indymac it wasn't too evil since the actual underlying company was worth 0 in the end. If the companies were actually worth something, wouldn't there be a bidder???

All I can say is that the govenrment or whoever is going to have to really pull the stops soon to keep people from making runs on the bank if this crap continues to hemorrhage. Gold shot up $90 bucks in a day, an all time record! The Yield on a 90 day U.S. Government Treasury Bill is 0.04% !!!! That's right the lowest level since WW2

What really scares me is that those "safe" money market funds losing money when they were designed to never drop under the initial $1 investment.

Seriously if you are getting less than a penny for T-Bills & the MONEY MARKET FUND IS LOSING MONEY, the mattress isn't looking that bad to be honest. What's the point of having your money in the bank if you earn negligible interest? Plus who knows if there is enough money in the FDIC to cover many banks going under at the same time? I know Indymac took a big chunk out of the FDIC reserve fund. Just think how many trillions of dollars that are in bank accounts across this country?

It's just too bad that we don't have a respectable casino in Western New York that that could be trusted with a Front Money Deposit. To be honest if shit really hit the fan I would actually do that over a bank. It wouldn't mean that I would go there and gamble it, but all I would be doing is putting it in the casino cage for safekeeping, just like a bank account/safety deposit box. Believe me when I worked there there were people that would actually do this. They would deposit say $10,000 to the casino cage and leave it there until they would stop by to make a withdrawal and possible gamble. The funny part half of the time they wouldn't gamble. It's safer than your mattress or your floorboards and they are legally responsible for it. Maybe I should look into making a deposit @ that racino down in Erie, PA?


BTW if anyone is interested my favorite Radiohead Cover Band, The Karma Police are playing Mr. Goodbar Friday night @ 11PM