Greece just voted a few hours ago to elect their next "pro-Bailout" government, which assumes their people agree to various austerity measures. Interesting.
Citi and RBS say it doesn't matter, they still have a 90% chance of leaving the Euro in the next two years. Germany wants their loans paid and is already rumbling about extending the terms of the loans.
China decided to stop playing the world's money pump, and stopped their "stimulus". Fascinating.
India decided to go the other way and not slow their economy any further with rate hikes, and held at 8% interest rates while their national inflation is up over 10%. They've got bad problems.
And us... Here's an interesting Bloomberg article that *nails* the root cause of our problems... "People will do what they're rewarded to do."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...tors-woo-dimon-while-they-gut-dodd-frank.html
The article writer doesn't bother going further than using that line for Wall Street, but does mention our "Slobbering Senators" on both sides of the aisle bending over backwards in gushing lust for Jamie Diamond last week. It doesn't matter which Party one votes for, they're both completely sold out.
The only problem with the article is, it insinuates that the Senators are getting paid off, but doesn't connect the dots.
The "Slobbering Senators" fall under the same problem the article claims for Wall Street... they're being rewarded by someone. That or someone has the power over them to get them to fawn over Wall Street, so... follow the money.
Since the Senate is 100% exempted from insider trading rules, I suspect Mr. Diamond knows where the bodies are buried. It's Washington, after all.
And his Board should have fired him by now. So, my theory is that he knows which politician bought what. And if we knew, we'd be outraged.
Meanwhile, Warren Buffett apparently agrees with you on real estate. He doubled down on his offer to buy mortgages last week, and is probably rightly thinking that the average American still believes that 30 years of indentured servitude for a cardboard box with some electrical wiring is a good deal. American Dream and all that rot.
He pays a maximum 1.6% coupon for his loans for BH, so his risk is virtually nothing -- assuming inflation and more people born every second. We will eventually soak up housing supply in the long term. At 1.6% capital cost to purchase his cherry picked mortgage debt, there's virtually no way he can lose. Guy is a shark.
Everyone loves his folksy Nebraska charm, but he's ruthless. Not in a necessarily bad way , but he knows how not to lose anything in negotiations. His ploy to convince the average Joe that he really wants to pay more in taxes was truly the most amazing propaganda campaign I've seen in my lifetime.
Sleight of hand to keep the focus away from the terms he can negotiate in his deals. No one else has that power. Second best S&P rating in the world, Berkshire. Keep the focus on personal taxes, no one sees the Berkshire corporate tax shelter complex. Guy is masterful, really.
Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" while reaching behind your back for a big stick.
Diamond's getting paid, Buffett's getting paid, Senators are getting paid. Doesn't leave too much left for the People.
Citi and RBS sure seem to strongly want the world to think Greece will default. Wonder what they shorted this time and are going to get caught holding the bag on?
Reindeer games.
the brain rationalizes with the old investment cliche "it isn't a loss until you sell."
