Friday, October 23, 2009

Resuscitating a Dead Economy


There is no old fashioned God anymore on Wall Street.

We are at a crossroads in this economic disaster brought on by greed, deregulation and computers.

I am usually wrong but one analyst thinks that perhaps the worst is yet to come.

Recession Will Be 'Full-Blown Depression': Strategist
This global recession will turn into a "full-blown depression," Nicu Harajchi, CEO of N1 Asset Management, said Friday, adding that global stimulus hasn't come down to Main Street.

Wall Street is making money, while consumers aren't, Harajchi told CNBC….

"We have seen the G20 coming out with cross border capital injections of $5 trillion this year… But a lot of this money hasn't really come down to Main Street," he said.

The $5 trillion injection is "monetary expansion," according to Harajchi. "At some point, which we believe to be 2010/11, some of the central banks are going to recall some of that money and that will turn from monetary expansion to monetary contraction."

He also said he doesn't see the corporates or the public "being able to pay back that debt." …
Somebody is speaking as if to a naked emperor. Nobody is listening I fear or they are in total denial of reality and basic math. I am wrong a lot of the time. I admit it. But on some things I trust my instincts. This sounds about right at this moment. Things can change. Anything is possible in the future.

Jesus resuscitated Lazarus or so the bible says.

Gort resuscitated Klaatu in the classic 1951 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still. (Have not yet seen the 2008 remake - remakes usually suck.)

Regarding this Paulson, Benanke, Geithner textbook, theoretical, Ivy League Club band-aid Bailout approach - to bringing the frat house club on Wall Street back to past Toga Party levels – well as I have said before – if the Ivy League schools were really that good they could charge a million dollars a credit hour.

The WH appointed "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg is targeting the salaries of 175 Wall Street executives working on “The Street” for companies getting government mega digit cash relief handouts as corporate welfarees.

I don’t get it. I hope the “pay czar” also prevents the “illegal” printing of money via stock options for this new class of privileged modern American aristocrats.

In terms of myths regarding resuscitation. The rumor is that Lazarus got iced by the Temple crowd shortly after Jesus left town. Klaatu knew he was on borrowed time. The American economy is in on an anything goes mode at this moment. Cross your fingers.

One part of an equation that nobody ever factors into modern free market theology theory is the computer. The computer has made it possible to replace experience and balanced morality in the back office – outsource it to half a planet away - and to no longer offset excess in the North Pole, front office, trading room atmosphere driving so called sacred free market transactions happening faster than the speed of light. Collateral damage happens elsewhere - out of sight - out of your mind.

With computers and a REAL program, you could monitor all trades and tax pennies on each transaction to pay off the national debt. But computers are only good to make money. They somehow cannot work right to do other logical old fashioned business tasks like generating tax revenue directly from the source. ???

Alas, sad to say - there is no Gort to police Wall Street. Klaatu is long dead. God is retired I hear – and the rumor is - living in Vegas.

Life these days on planet Earth is indeed a crap shoot!