Not to mention that I have this hour sold the old Dixon ZTR 4421 for the asking price.
Bless internet classified ads. Bless the few remaining back-yard mechanics who like to tinker with machinery which "needs a little repair." (That phrase is usually one of the Three Great Lies, but at least in this case I described every flaw I could think of in the old girl. She was, by the way, the last of three or four Dixons who contributed to the respectability of the Camp J Greensward.)
Now, off to beautify the weedy patch where she has idled away the seasons since before anyone ever heard of the Tea Party.
Jun 3, 2011
The unthinking writer
June 1-3, inclusive has been too pleasant to spoil with vile thoughts brought on by examining the fools who would rule us. Thus I leave it to you good folks to keep your boots on the necks of our political masters. Do it . After all, it is for the children.
43.31 N by 95.18 E, has been rain-free most of the week, and Camp J at last bears a springtime shine, thanks in part to the lucky find of another John Deere 318 which reduces mowing time to a couple of hours while leaving the other one outfitted with its dozer blade for pushing things around. A hideous corner of the place is being tidied.
And the main F150 is again seaworthy at smaller expense than I feared, meaning I can park the small emergency backup F150. And New Dog Libby hasn't escaped to the swamp for a full 24 hours. So this morning I am with Sidney Harris: "When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
43.31 N by 95.18 E, has been rain-free most of the week, and Camp J at last bears a springtime shine, thanks in part to the lucky find of another John Deere 318 which reduces mowing time to a couple of hours while leaving the other one outfitted with its dozer blade for pushing things around. A hideous corner of the place is being tidied.
And the main F150 is again seaworthy at smaller expense than I feared, meaning I can park the small emergency backup F150. And New Dog Libby hasn't escaped to the swamp for a full 24 hours. So this morning I am with Sidney Harris: "When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
-
Jun 1, 2011
Back to beautiful basics
Sometimes I get tired trying to make sense of the government loonies. So back to basics, to the TMR I intended -- libertarian thought as revealed to the perceptive mind through exploring guns, dogs, and women who manage allure even with privacies decently covered.
Lessee, there are bad girls...
Cute Luddite girls...
And girls with dogs and guns.
Lessee, there are bad girls...
Cute Luddite girls...
And girls with dogs and guns.
Be still my beating heart.
Do you believe? Really believe?
It isn't this morning's ADP report holding that the recovery is a politcally inspired myth. Every hour brings reams of such excited reports about whether we were up or down last month or last quarter. Or, Hell, in the time elapsed since you wiped and stepped into your shower this morning.
In and of themselves they serve mostly as marketing bullshit designed earn broker commissions by persuading the gullible to get into or out of one stock, bond, option or another -- what ever the brokers behind the reports are pushing. "Quick, Widget is up and the Zloty is down. Time to make a move, Bunkie."
But taken over a long time, they get amalgamated into a database which can be sensibly interpreted. As Michale Penta does in explaining his view there is almost certainly a QE3 in our futures. QE3? It's the third round of "Quantitative Expansion," weasel words for massive money printing.
Penta dissects the Federal Reserve promise to defend the dollar by beginning to soak up a tiny bit of the extra funny money it created and distributed during QE1, QE2, and the earlier bailouts and giveaways to the too-biggies-to-failies.
To do that, the Fed must sell something. Trouble is, it has nothing much to sell. It is leveraged about 50 to 1, meaning it already owes $50 for every $1 it possesses.
Through quantitative easing efforts alone, Ben Bernanke has added $1.8 trillion of longer term GSE debt and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). (In fact, the Fed now holds more of these mortgage instruments than their entire balance sheet before the crash.)
Conceptually, it is no different from cleaning out your kitchen miscellaneous junk drawer and hoping the contents will pawn for enough to pay off your Lexus.
And yes, the Fed does in fact count as an asset the mortgage your idiot brother-in-law left behind when he finally found a stripper desperate enough to run off to Mexico with him.
---
So what?
So it explains why the dollar bill which a few years ago would buy a pound of nice bacon will now buy three thin slices of nitrated pig fat with a thin red line inked on. (Buy bacon today; tomorrow it will be two slices.)
In and of themselves they serve mostly as marketing bullshit designed earn broker commissions by persuading the gullible to get into or out of one stock, bond, option or another -- what ever the brokers behind the reports are pushing. "Quick, Widget is up and the Zloty is down. Time to make a move, Bunkie."
But taken over a long time, they get amalgamated into a database which can be sensibly interpreted. As Michale Penta does in explaining his view there is almost certainly a QE3 in our futures. QE3? It's the third round of "Quantitative Expansion," weasel words for massive money printing.
Penta dissects the Federal Reserve promise to defend the dollar by beginning to soak up a tiny bit of the extra funny money it created and distributed during QE1, QE2, and the earlier bailouts and giveaways to the too-biggies-to-failies.
To do that, the Fed must sell something. Trouble is, it has nothing much to sell. It is leveraged about 50 to 1, meaning it already owes $50 for every $1 it possesses.
Through quantitative easing efforts alone, Ben Bernanke has added $1.8 trillion of longer term GSE debt and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). (In fact, the Fed now holds more of these mortgage instruments than their entire balance sheet before the crash.)
Conceptually, it is no different from cleaning out your kitchen miscellaneous junk drawer and hoping the contents will pawn for enough to pay off your Lexus.
And yes, the Fed does in fact count as an asset the mortgage your idiot brother-in-law left behind when he finally found a stripper desperate enough to run off to Mexico with him.
---
So what?
So it explains why the dollar bill which a few years ago would buy a pound of nice bacon will now buy three thin slices of nitrated pig fat with a thin red line inked on. (Buy bacon today; tomorrow it will be two slices.)
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