Skizvesting

Handwringers.org, a  leftist unthink tank, is having fun reporting the collapse of the stock markets due to frustration at the Court of His Obamaness. The source of the frustration is, of course, "conservative" refusal to finance yet another mink-lined chamber pot for the Royals.

(1) -- Yes, "The market"  is an elephant in the parlor, a schizoid beast for whom dopamine injections do not work. Greenspan had it right, "irrational exuberance," but he neglected to add its frequent counterpart, "idiotic depression."  The price of a stock, any stock, is an opinion about what the security will sell for in the future. -- tomorrow or midway through the second Chelsea Clinton Administration.  Said opinion is a compound chemical composed primarily of guesswork, greed, and fear  with trace elements of actual information and adequate judgment.


(2) -- The national nervous breakdown as we approach our credit limit has dropped the Dow and its companion indices by 2 per cent or so this week.  Fooey. I once personally moved the markets more than that by floating a rumor that Yassar  Arafat was Dwight Eisenhower's love child. And I didn't even have a sputtering Lawrence O'Donnell  to help me along.

(3) -- The pre-opening numbers this morning show the markets heading up a little. This is vastly significant, perhaps as much so as the latest teevee bid for a Casey Alexander interview.

Regulation FD disclosure: My direct personal exposure to the stock markets represents a full 2.7 (two-decimal-seven)  per cent of my liquidity.  That's an all-time low for my adult life. It may be too little. Then again, it may be too much. It all depends on whether a Siamese kid working for Barclay's in Singapore overexposes the bank to pickle futures.

I would liquidate this tiny remaining holding but for one sticky point. The only convenient alternative is United States dollars. Talk about fear of getting whacked with Jumbo's nose...