Thought for the Day

[broncofan]

I looked at a brokerage account that has my savings in it. I am not so happy about it. This makes sense given that the market is down about 10% and at least some of my investments are equities.

I get annoyed that people seem to think that short-term gains in the stock market are somehow a useful indicator of either the President's performance or even economic strength. In the short-term the value of stocks can fluctuate wildly based on expectations, the opportunity cost of stocks relative to other securities, and people's tolerance for risk. In fact, the price of stocks can deviate wildly from underlying fundamentals for fairly long periods of time.

As a result, it may be too early to decide that the dip represents anything other than short-term volatility, though if anyone needed their money immediately it would represent a real loss and probably represents that anyway, because if one were not in the market they could purchase now with assets that have a greater value. One thing the market does not like in the short-term is instability. I am not sure what effect shutting down the government has on people's expectations about the future value of American companies, but it might not be good. I am not sure what effect our former Secretary of Defense saying the President is basically a moron who is destroying old alliances and soft on our adversaries has, but it doesn't bode well for stability. Or the recent reports that the President is obstructing Justice even more flagrantly. Or the President's daily tweets about some Kafka-esque design for a wall with steel slats. Or any of it. Maybe it's the fed.

But is this conman going to claim credit for the upside and lay blame on everyone else for the dip? Of course.

[broncofan]

Or the President's daily tweets about some Kafka-esque design for a wall with steel slats. Or any of it.

When I say Kafka-esque I'm think of In the Penal Colony about the commandante with his excessive pride in some high tech device meant to punish the prisoners and provide enlightenment to them at the same time. I haven't been following the steel slat conversation but I saw the picture of the proposed design. It looks like steel bars with spikes at the end of them. Someone on twitter made a joke about Vlad the Impaler, but I haven't heard any In the Penal Colony references but maybe because that's a stretch. In addition to being creepy and sadistic sounding, the entire thing makes it seem like he's completely lost what's left of his marbles.

[Stavros]

If you want to know what a mess your President is making of your economy and watch the value of your stock continue to decline, the article by Robert Reich in The Guardian a few days before Christmas will help. I just hope the UK avoids dealing with this debt-addicted con man who wants the UK taxpayer to service the US debt. US based payday loan companies are entering the country for that very purpose, they should be banned from doing business in the U.K.

As for funding the border wall to end the shutdown, who is going to blink first? Surely this is one battle the President must lose?

[buttslinger]

In a couple weeks Democrats get their teeth back. There are lots of New York Real Estate Tycoons who belong behind bars, but only one of them has a multi-million dollar investigation hanging over his head, run by the best in the business. This Country will be fucked by Trump, but Trump will be fucked in the end in the end. That's kinda how we roll over here.

[broncofan]

If you want to know what a mess your President is making of your economy and watch the value of your stock continue to decline, the article by Robert Reich in The Guardian a few days before Christmas will help.

My investment advisor is a Marxist. He's trying to abolish the system of private capital starting with my brokerage account. He's purchased shares for me in some strange international equity fund that he's assured me is uncorrelated with the market. The problem is it achieves this by going down no matter what the market is doing. It's a hedge against profit making.

I'm not sure what I'm getting at here except that I'm gonna take a flight to safety. The market is all over the place and I don't have the stomach for it....the President is literally moving the market with his tweets. He misspells a word and the Dow drops a hundred points.

This is not a bourgeois thing either. People's pensions are also getting hit. You don't need a lot in the way of savings to want to have some equity exposure. Like Buttslinger I too am excited for the Democrats to control the House Intelligence Investigation. That really is something to look for because it takes place in full view of the public.

[buttslinger]

I think if Daniel Boone stepped off a Time Machine he'd love the Safeways and Home Depots, but the constant hum of continuous advertising would make him quite ill. Everywhere you look somebody's trying to get your money through some scheme. The Land o' the Free is deceptive advertising.
I'm going to try to focus on what's important: the NFL playoffs, maybe Mueller will Sing in February. The Republican's unexpected windfall will come to an end. Republicans-sell. Democrats-buy. The good, the bad, the ugly, you can get it all right here in the USA, ….Cash, Check, Visa, I have friends who live just to buy stuff.

[Stavros]

Here is a thought for today:

If the Federal Government compels Federal officers and employees to work without pay, is this not the restoration of slavery?

And if Slavery has been abolished in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, does this not mean that the President has violated the oath of office he took to protect and preserve that Constitution?

And have the Republican Senators who support the restoration of slavery through their support for the shutdown also violated their oath of office to protect the Constitution?

If so these are surely clear grounds for the impeachment of the President and all and any Senators and Congressional Representatives who support the shutdown and in doing so the restoration of slavery, and has the time not come to begin immediate proceedings to remove them from office?

Impeachment in the past has been cited in allegations of corruption, or in the multiple cases of Senators who supported the Confederate States that attacked the United States of America in 1865-
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory...on_Censure.htm

Or it could just be that the Republican Party and their boy in the Oval Office approve of slavery, or at the very least, really don't care if people are forced to work without pay, can't pay their bills, have their homes re-possessed, commit suicide -whatever. It makes for a leaner government and a lower payroll bill.

[buttslinger]

I think you could impeach Trump for watching TV if you wanted to, and had 60 votes in the senate.
You still have Republicans voting for Russian Oligarchs. Unbelievable.

The Mueller Report is going to blow minds.

[Stavros]

The Mueller Report, if it is ever published may indeed change things as they are. What may also be happening is on one level the dream of every Libertarian -of the 800,000 Federal workers enslaved in a 'work without pay' relationship some may decide to stop working for the Federal government and take their employment elsewhere. The question then is can the Government function without them? If so, the shutdown has in effect been a job shredding exercise that would have caused outrage had the Govt decided to sack 800,000 workers.

On another level it is not just the clerks, the cleaners and transport security staff who might leave, it is also the scientists, the researchers, the translators -so that the Federal Government would be losing the unskilled staff it needs to clean toilets and polish floors as well as professionals who provide the Government with reasonable advice based on years of experience and research. We know Tillerson shredded jobs at the State Department and that the US is now increasingly poor in resources such as foreign languages, country analysis and experienced diplomacy though we also know the President and his son-in-law appear to regard foreign relations as their personal briefs, presumably because there is so much money to be made and because they don' want experts with years of experience telling them what let alone how to 'do' foreign affairs.

The irony is that as the US appears to be preparing to intervene in Venezuela, one wonders if there is anyone in the administration who speaks Spanish and can find Venezuela on the map. Dare one say there are quite a few on the southern border who do, and maybe even know more about Venezuela than Hare Kushner? They can't all be rapists and drug mules.

[Stavros]

So let me get my head round this: has the President encouraged Pecker to publish photos of Jeff Bezos's pecker? And if Pecker has photos of one man's pecker, does he have photos of the President's pecker, and is this why Pecker is a publisher with the power to penetrate the egos of powerful men? Who gains from watching boys comparing their peckers, and does it mean size matters?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47166938