Prize

........... Recipient of the 2010 MacDougal Irving Prize for Truth in Market Manipulation ...........

July 30, 2011

Public Agendas

Democratic Congressmen
    Save Trees
    Save Whales
    Social Issues
        Union Stuff
        Black Stuff
        Latino Stuff
        Senior Stuff
        Immigrant Stuff
        Gay Stuff
        Poor People Stuff
        Sick People Stuff
    Tax Rich People

Republican Congressmen
    Save Capital Punishment
    Rich People Stuff
    Tax Union Workers, Blacks, Latinos, Seniors,
        Gays, Poor People, and Sick People,
        And Don’t Let Any of them Vote
    Shoot Illegal Immigrants
    Faith-Based Initiatives
        War
        Guns
        Ammo
        Waterboarding
        Kill Umamacare
        Kill Medicare
        Kill Social Security
        Kill Entitlements, Other
        Kill Collective Bargaining
        Dismantle Government
    Debt Ceiling Photo Ops - Daily with
        More to Come Next December

President
    Change Something Big

Voters
    Jobs

    It‘s easy to come up with people who‘d want to vote for some agenda position, and why, but we‘re pretty sure it’s mostly a matter of voting against things rather than for any of this.  Many, we think, simply cast their ballots against the voters who’re voting against them.  How the process can possibly survive is beyond us.

July 29, 2011

Breaking News

    The U.S. economy grew only 1.3% in the second quarter, less than expected as consumer spending barely rose after Emma Watson left Brown University and growth braked sharply amid press coverage of previously uncovered cleavage, which caused widespread gawking, according to accounts released this morning.

    Elsewhere, we just learned that Chinese ratings house Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd has already downgraded U.S. Treasury Debt twice in recent months, from whatever to AA-, then to A+, claiming that Washington has officially been defaulting for a while now by depreciating the value of the Dollar in foreign currency markets.  The revaluation has been eroding the wealth of creditors, including China, Dagong explained.

    Apparently news of the ratings change took its time getting over here, arriving late last night by container ship to Vancouver.

    The stock market dipped this morning in reaction to something, and this sure beats what Reuters came up with explaining it.

Secret Agendas

Republican Congressmen
    Take Bribes from Corporate Plutocracy
        Labeled “Campaign Contributions”
        Label Bribing Foreign Officials “Bribing Foreign Officials”
    Enable Plutocracy Stuff
    Support Other Rich People Stuff
    Oppose Everybody Else’s Stuff

Democratic Congressmen
    Take Bribes from Corporate Plutocracy
        Labeled “Campaign Contributions”
        Label Bribing Foreign Officials “Bribing Foreign Officials”
    Enable Plutocracy Stuff
    Oppose Other Rich People Stuff
    Support Everybody Else’s Stuff

President
     Keep the Missus Happy
    Fresh Ghetto Fruits and Vegetables

Corporate Plutocrats
    Create Chaos
        War
        Rancor
        Civil Unrest
        Financial Disarray
        Overpriced Knicks Tickets
    Loot the Company Salary Pool
    Pilfer Stockholder Shares

    Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Don’t you say a word.  They’re secret.

July 27, 2011

AA Treasuries

    In case any of our readers missed it, a guy at Fallutin National Bank estimates that the cost of maintaining the Federal debt would jump by as much as 70 basis points were the credit rating on Treasuries to drop a notch to AA from AAA.  That's around $100 billion a year on the $14.3 trillion ceiling they're all trying to raise.  Though the interest rate hike would only effect new offerings and the cost of maturing obligations upon rollover, investors would take an immediate hit in market price.

    Once the full impact settled in, this ratings cut would reduce the $2 trillion budget savings one of the two dunderheads expects to get over the next decade by substantially more than $1 trillion every decade, adjusted for compounding, decade in and decade out.

    Most disgusted observers, including ours here at The Post, feel that the rating change would reflect a dramatic deterioration in the quality of governance, not the numbers, and expect it to happen whether the ceiling gets bumped up or not.  Most of that disgust reflects the stupidity of aligned voters hell bent on returning these morons to office no matter now ridiculous this thing gets.

July 26, 2011

Hullabaloo

    The way our ruling class of corporate elites kneads politics to prevent the central political issue of our time from getting identified, let alone addressed, is downright Satanic.

    The minions are skimming our shares.  Pilfering a little here and a lot there every business day for more than 30 years now has transferred all the money your family had in the stock market on December 31, 1980 from your pockets into theirs.  And it’s still going on.

    These gangsters own the media, so you don’t hear about this there.  Washington is bribed with “campaign contributions”, and our paid-for politicians just keep making things worse.

    As for the debt ceiling falderal, that’s simply another deception, the latest in a continuing stream of nonsensical illusions, trick pitches designed to take your eye off the ball.

    Hey, anything to keep the National Consciousness preoccupied for a month.

    All that’s going on in this country today is the theft of the electorate’s family savings through equity compensation racketeering, and the electorate is too math-challenged to realize that, let alone do something about it.

    Forget the hullabaloo.  Vote them all out in 2012.

    Every stinking one.

July 22, 2011

Iconic Multinational Behemoth Theme

    The iconic corporate behemoth thrives on bad times.  While its earnings get chopped along with everyone else’s in an economic downturn, behind the numbers this typically beloved colossus is busy repositioning itself at the expense of smaller, weaker competitors.  Fortified with rock solid finances, superior management, a winning business model, brand loyalty that can border on adoration - to wit, Harley-Davidson and John Deere - any behemoth worthy of icon status is a voracious bottom feeder.

    The recent Global Financial Apocalypse dredged the iconic behemoth investment theme to the surface once again.  When the ensuing depression ended, it was thought, these guys would be emerging fatter and healthier than ever.  The added multinational touch was new this time, sprung from a spate of political insanity hitherto unseen in America.  First, there was the spectacularly irresponsible Republican fiscal agenda, fighting wars on tax cuts, leaving the nation with a deficit the symbolic size of Mount Rushmore.  Concurrently came the remarkably clueless Democratic push to manipulate the nation’s financial institutions into lending money to people without any money.  It became tough to see how any large company could go much of anywhere only doing business in this beaten, punchdrunk country.

    Caterpillar reported second quarter 2012 results before the market opened today.  In the earnings release, Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman indicated why the argument for investing in multinationals has been going the iconic multinational behemoth’s way for almost three years now. 

    “Economic activity and our business in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, CIS and greater Asia are robust …. While we expect moderate U.S. economic growth, we believe a lack of confidence in the business climate is the major impediment to a stronger recovery and job creation.  Lack of clarity on a U.S. deficit reduction plan, trade policy, regulation, much needed tax reform and the absence of a long-term plan to improve the country’s deteriorating infrastructure do not create an environment that provides our customers with the confidence to invest.  We’re confident that as a country we’ll eventually get it right, and we’re positioning Caterpillar to be ready when we do.”

    No one could’ve put it any better.

July 21, 2011

The Presidential Missus

    Less than three years ago, financial Armageddon, wrought by reckless, myopic, political ninnies strong-arming the mortgage industry into financing houses for people who don’t buy houses, brought down the civilized world and Iceland, not to mention our common stock portfolios.  Now Mrs. Blatant Umama announces that she has strong-armed businesses into bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to people who don’t buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

    Who knows how this reckless, myopic political ninny did it, but companies like Wal-Mart and Walgreens as well as some we never heard of will now be selling where no company has sold before.

    When will we ever learn?

    The MacDougal Post again calls for the immediate impeachment of Blatant Umama as well as the publication of that Princeton thesis, or whatever it was, written by the missus, purportedly warning us voters about this kind of calamari before it ever had a chance to start hitting the fan.

    God only knows how this one is going to end.