Wait, there’s a good article on Marketwatch?!?!?!? At first, I couldn’t believe it myself. Other than TH’s trading war stories, I haven’t seen anything useful on that site since the Nixon era. But now Paul B. Farell has got my attention, and my respect, for writing THIS article entitled “11 reasons America’s a new socialist economy”.
After all, it doesn’t really matter what you believe politics- or investment-wise, the fact of the matter is our country stopped being great and now everyone’s scrambling around to figure out where we went wrong.
The incompetent SEC is trying to skapegoat short sellers (FYI prohibiting a free stock market and trying to save suicide kings like Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM) — Fannie Mae — and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (NYSE: FRE) — Freddie Mac — screams socialism.
And investors, specifically sissy value investors, aren’t helping as their flawed ideaology is losing sheep-like, marketing-gullible investors prey billions as their “long-term investments” in bumbling behemoths like General Electric Company (GE) & American Express Company (AXP) goes straight to ____________ (fill in with the derogatory word of your choice).
Blah blah blah, enough of me whining, see some of the article’s snippets below to see how much better of a whiner Farrell is:
2. Where did all the leaders go with their moral character?
Friedman’s economics requires leaders of moral character. Did it run into Lord Acton’s warning: “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?” Former Ford and Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca said yes in “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?”
Friedman’s great conservative principles have been commandeered by myopic ideologues whose idea of leadership is balancing the demands of self-interest lobbyists with the need for campaign donations. Unfortunately, a new “change” president won’t be enough; there are 537 elected officials in Washington controlled by 42,000 special interest lobbyists.
4. Deregulation creating new socialist housing system
Back in 1999 a Democratic president and Republican Congress were in love with a fantasy called the “new economics.” Enthusiastic lobbyists invented the brilliant idea of dismantling the wall between commercial and investment banking: They killed the Glass-Steagall Act that was keeping the sleazy hands of short-term hustlers out of the pockets of long-term lenders.
Flash forward: We lost 85-year-old Bear Sterns and $32 billion IndyMac. Lehman’s iffy. And 90 banks. With the virtual takeover of Freddie and Fanny, Wall Street’s grand experiment with free-market ideology is backfiring, having socialized the housing market. They have nobody to blame but their self-centered greed.
8. Warning, the market’s under 2000 peak, losing money
Imagine you’re on Jeff Foxworthy’s fabulous show competing to see if you really are smarter than a fifth grader. Question: “If you put $10,000 in the market in March of 2000 when the Dow peaked at 11,722, how much money would you have today if the market’s 10% under 11,722?” So you guess $9,000.
But then two fifth graders raise their hands: One asks if the CPI inflation rate should be considered? If so, maybe $5,000 is closer to the right answer. The other kid wants to know if you’re buying stuff in Chicago or Singapore.
The truth is, the best answer for most adults is: “You’ve lost a hell of a lot of money in the market under the grand conservative ideology the past eight years.”
Posted in Breakdowns, idiots, Rants