Bush, Cramer and the Power of Being …

Great Recap of the last 7 years of Bush plus a little Cramer bashing

(note: I think Cramer is no more wrong then any other stock adviser and his general investing advice is great)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=164178&title=broken-arrow

Enjoy

Private versus Public

I consider myself fairly well versed in the intricacies of finance, but every once in a while I realize how naive even I am.

Via Bloomber.com: House’s Frank Says Municipal Ratings Add Unfair Costs

To paraphrase, ratings agencies have been judging Municipal Debt and Corporate Debt according to different criteria. A single A rated municipality has less of a risk of defaulting on a loan than some AAA rated corporate entities. The result of this double standard being increased cost for cities and states and increased profits for high-net worth investors and debt insurance agencies.

Municipal bonds are only appropriate investments for high net worth individuals because of their tax exempt status. The rating of Debt determines how much the interest rate will be; think of it as a city’s credit score. A municipality with the same ability to pay, or rating as a AAA rated Corporation may only receive a single-A rating and be forced to pay a higher interest then is justified by their ability to pay.  In order to get high net worth investors interested these municipalities will pay large fees for bond insurance to achieve the necessary AAA rating or pay higher interest rates.

Hundreds of municipalities have been paying for this bond insurance to achieve the necessary AAA rating.   This insurance is now approaching worthlessness as the companies who sold this insurance have also insured vast sums of mortgage securities.  As the increasing default rate of mortgage’s saps the funds of the incorrectly named Monoline  insurers (AMBAC, MBIA et all), not only is Municipal Bond insurance possibly worthless, but also unnecessary.

Imagine purchasing Auto insurance only to find out that, not only is the insurance company bankrupt, but your car is really a bicycle.

 

What’s the matter with Kansas?

Woman sits on boyfriend’s toilet for 2 years

Ness City Kansas - Girlfriend was physically stuck to the seat — her skin had grown around it

Dolphin

One of the signs that 60’s environmentalism may have worked is the presence of seals in the canals around my home. We live on Long Island and seals have been repopulating the marsh flats over the last decade or so.

As a kid in the seventies these waters seemed to be populated only by horseshoe crabs and the occasional four inch snapper. Though we swam in these brown waters as kids, the pollution scared us enough that we never purposely touched the bottom.

In addition to the seals we see basking on the reeds or bobbing their heads in the water, just last year we even had a dolphin swimming around the shallows. Though it was deemed lost and guided back into deeper water, it was an amazing sight for the neighbors on the water.

It turns out the dolphin wasn’t lost, it had just been paroled and was looking for his girlfriend. I discovered this fact when I found the picture below hidden below my dog’s bed. Apparently they met while locked up together at the kennel.

Everything, but my reason for the dolphin’s visit and the above picture, are true.

Vive la Nature

McCain – Hidden Immigrant Agenda

NY Times: McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

Now we know why McCain has been so friendly to immigration; both legal and illegal.

And just because the Times left out the brainwashing he received at the hands of his Latino maids doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

I wonder if the Democrats can get pictures of him eating a taco.

La McCaino