B4 The Bell Tuezelday August 24

[Hiding Bear]

Welcome to B4 The Bell!

 

B4 may be leaving for some well deserved R & R later today, and Doc is in transit home.

 

More on the coming bailout of the PBGC:

 

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A $350 billion pension shortfall among U.S. companies may force the federal agency that insures retirement plans to seek a taxpayer bailout similar to the one during the savings and loan crisis, according to the Cato Institute, a Washington-based policy research group.

 

The federal agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. had a record deficit of $11.2 billion last year after taking over plans for 152 companies such as Bethlehem Steel Corp. and US Airways Group Inc. Without changes to funding and premium rules, the PBGC's deficit is likely to swell to $18 billion in the next 10 years, and may reach more than $50 billion, said Richard A. Ippolito, chief economist at Cato.

 

``If exposures create claims that reach catastrophic levels, taxpayers will be called upon to provide a bailout,'' Ippolito said.

 

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1...id=akpUvkbWjU6k

 

 

Some more questions about how Google allocated stock in its initial offering:

 

As the dust clears from Google Inc.'s market debut, some successful bidders for the stock believe that they might have gotten substantially more shares in the deal ? if the company had conducted a pure version of the auction system it championed.

 

As it turned out, winning bidders large and small last week complained they got only about 75% of what they were willing to buy. On the face of it, the percentage seemed to contradict the idea that initial demand for the stock was weak.

 

The postmortems raised more questions about the degree to which the Internet search giant helped to engineer its first-day price pop, when the stock jumped 18% on Thursday.

 

Some Investors Feel Shorted by Google

 

Good trading!

[Guest]

How about a boner blast futures jam to go with your opening bell today. Can't have a nasty old free market ruining the bushman's chances of re-election to another four long years of hate, fear and war mongering in his quest for NWO fascist domination.

[Sphinxter]

Another installment of "All Spin, All the Time", brought to you by the makers of Prozac.

 

First, we know that the markets were a bit concerned by WMT's guidance to the lower end of same-store sales expectations for August.

 

As in "go to the left of our guidance of 2%-4%,...a little further, ... almost there,.... now keep going,... OK., You're at the bottom of our range? Good. That's the new top."

 

So, understandably there was some concern.

 

Given Wal-Mart's bellwether status, market observers look to the world's largest retailer as a gauge of the health of the consumer. A concern among economists is that fluctuations in the cost of crude and in prices at the pump may be taking a toll of consumers' wallets.

 

Luckily, there's alway's TGT to come to the rescue as they did, according to this little CNN.Money.com gem, with a well placed bullhorn.

 

However, Wal-Mart's rival Target (TGT: Research, Estimates), the No. 2 discounter, could help to somewhat alleviate the worries. The retailer late Monday said that its August sales at stores open at least a year were right on target of flat to up 2 percent growth.

 

So unless I miss my mark, TGT and WMT are both reporting flat 'growth' as a possibility.

 

Well.

 

That should be good for a 50 point rescue. I'm sold.

 

 

 

[Sphinxter]

How about a boner blast futures jam to go with your opening bell today. Can't have a nasty old free market ruining the bushman's chances of re-election to another four long years of hate, fear and war mongering in his quest for NWO fascist domination.

Well said.

 

William Rivers Pitts writes the way my heart feels about this mess. He crystalizes the points perfectly.

 

Here's a snippet:

 

"Most amazing of all," writes Parenti, "the OMB report showed that not a single cent of US tax money had been spent on Iraqi healthcare, water treatment or sanitation projects - though $9 million was dithered away on administrative costs of the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority. Most of the little that has been invested in healthcare, water treatment and sanitation has come from Iraqi oil revenues, managed for most of last year by the Development Fund for Iraq, a US controlled successor to the UN-run Oil for Food program. In all, the CPA spent roughly $19 billion of Iraqi oil money - on what exactly is not quite clear."

 

  And we wonder why there is an 'insurgency.' We wonder why a nobody named Moqtada al-Sadr has emerged as an Iraqi version of Thomas Jefferson, fighting the good fight against imperial usurpers. We wonder why so many Iraqis flock to his banner, pick up a weapon, and shoot Americans.

 

  Sit in the dark for a year, be unemployed because all the jobs have gone to non-Iraqis, have no place to see your children schooled, have no place to bring your children if they get sick, drink water that tastes like something you squeezed into your toilet, and stand a good chance whenever you step outside of being shot by a sniper, blown up by a laser-guided bomb, or run down by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and you might think about picking up a weapon, too.

 

  This is how terrorists and suicide bombers are created. Desperation is the seed, time is the fertilizer, and rage is the crop reaped by American soldiers sent far from home to die because they were lied to, as were we all.

[Sphinxter]

A plea for November.

 

If you live in a state with unverified electronic voting, use an absentee ballot.

 

Please, please, please, do this.

 

note: if you are unsure if your electronic voting is verified or unverified here's a tip: it's unverified.

[Guest]

Actually - WMT and TGT are telegraphing flat to negative growth as a high likelihood. The trend is down, and WMT gave INACCURATE guidance the last time it gave guidance, and missed. Why should we believe their new guidance?

 

Check out the chart of FRE and watch the Ten Year Yield today when the housing numbers hit. If you ask me, it looks like somebody already knows what the housing numbers will be. FRE is going to be the biggest train wreck in the world. NCEN should be interesting.

 

An "IMPLIED GUARANTEE" - isn't. Would you buy a house if someone offered you an "implied guarantee on clear title" at the closing? Implied Guarantee is yet another oxymoron (emphasis in "moron").

 

It's funny how every morning, the lates headline out of Iraq is "US tanks edge ever-closer to the shrine"

 

Two days ago it was 800' - yesterday it was 400' and today it's even closer than that. What a joke. By tomorrow they'll be parked with their tank barrels touching the perimeter wall, out of fuel, food and water. Then what?

 

"OK...we really mean it this time...if you don't come out with your hands up...well...we're just going to keep sitting right here!"

 

Strategic brillance in action.

[Guest]

Yesterday, Hypertiger offered ideas on surviival in the coming Storm.

 

He mentioned that you need to plan for one year without income, that the

Federal Notes in the US would be valid.

But he didn't point out that those Notes need to be in your house, in your hands.

You also need to have a variety of denominations, and sufficient coins to make

change. Otherwise you will be limited in your transactions. He also suggested having

1000 Silver Eagles on hand. That makes sense, as the Fed Notes fall, the Eagles climb.

 

I wonder how many of us actually know how much money we need for food for a year or even the types of foods needed. McDonalds won't be open.

What kinds of food do we need to have on hand?

Hypertiger says 365 cans of Dinty Moore's Beef Stew. While that is an excellent

choice nutritionally, what else can you supplement that menu with? Consider that

you may not have electricity to cook anything. How will you heat food?

Do you have some alternate energy sources available? Generators? Solar Ovens?

I am also thinking that we will be bored to death eating the same thing each day.

Are you planning for that?

 

Then there is the issue of water. How much water do you need to have on hand

to ride out a disaster? HyperT says plan for a year. Do you know how to purify water?

 

What if it gets REALLY COLD and there is no electricity/gas to keep you warm?

What do you do then? Seriously, think about this!

 

Or what if it gets REALLY HOT, how will you stay cool?

 

You see folks, we have relied upon "somebody else" to provide for all our needs,

now, there soon will be nobody doing that. In an economic collapse, there will be no

stores open, no ATMs, no gas stations and NO ELECTRICITY.

Therefore, how will you and your family survive?

 

Even if you think that an economic collapse is not possible, I suggest you

consider the above alternatives. Forewarned is Forearmed, as they say.

[Butterfield 8]

Thanks Sherlock. good list.

[getsoutalive]

Sherlock,

 

Lots of sites like the one listed below. Simple google search reveals hundreds of hits.

 

 

http://www.survivalunlimited.com/

 

 

 

As for food for long term storage, probably none better than this.....

 

 

http://www.survivalunlimited.com/mountain.htm

 

 

They do have a sampler pack and the Sports Authority near me has individual servings of MH foods for camping/hiking trips, so you can at least get a taste of what you are buying before stocking up.

[Sphinxter]

More rampant bull$hit from your fiends at the CB's

 

 

 

[Sphinxter]

Wow.

 

Not only did the Treasony dept. blow off updating the public debt on Friday, the blew off Monday as well.

 

I've never seen that either.

 

Another first.

 

Still have to go by Thursday's quote......

 

  Current                Amount

 

  08/20/2004        $7,341,885,233,567.71

[Hiding Bear]

More rampant bull$hit from your fiends at the CB's

 

 

 

Foreign central bank particpation at yesterday's T bills auctions was heavy, usually the after effect of US$ purchases already made.

 

Adding to that and looking at today's chart, one can safely say there is a concerted effort to keep the dollar up. However I am not sure what cb(s) are buying. The 'why' is probably to keep the dollar 'strong' and to keep interest rates from rising here.

[Sphinxter]

http://www.survivalunlimited.com/

 

 

http://www.survivalunlimited.com/mountain.htm

The wife and I 'invested' in several cases of Mountain House freeze dried food last year.

 

The thought process was "dang, this stuff actually tastes good and, unlike Dinty Moore, it won't expire for 30 years (!)"

 

MH food is the 'set it and forget it' of food storage.

 

We have 1 year's on hand for us and our 3 children.

 

The hard part will be what to do when all my idiot relatives who wouldn't listen show up hungry on the doorstep.

 

Well, actually when it comes to my jackass sister in law and her Matrix pod of a husband, I think at least 1 week of being hungry and groveling is in order...

 

[Guest]

How about a boner blast futures jam to go with your opening bell today. Can't have a nasty old free market ruining the bushman's chances of re-election to another four long years of hate, fear and war mongering in his quest for NWO fascist domination.

Well said.

 

William Rivers Pitts writes the way my heart feels about this mess. He crystalizes the points perfectly.

 

Here's a snippet:

 

"Most amazing of all," writes Parenti, "the OMB report showed that not a single cent of US tax money had been spent on Iraqi healthcare, water treatment or sanitation projects - though $9 million was dithered away on administrative costs of the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority. Most of the little that has been invested in healthcare, water treatment and sanitation has come from Iraqi oil revenues, managed for most of last year by the Development Fund for Iraq, a US controlled successor to the UN-run Oil for Food program. In all, the CPA spent roughly $19 billion of Iraqi oil money - on what exactly is not quite clear."

 

  And we wonder why there is an 'insurgency.' We wonder why a nobody named Moqtada al-Sadr has emerged as an Iraqi version of Thomas Jefferson, fighting the good fight against imperial usurpers. We wonder why so many Iraqis flock to his banner, pick up a weapon, and shoot Americans.

 

  Sit in the dark for a year, be unemployed because all the jobs have gone to non-Iraqis, have no place to see your children schooled, have no place to bring your children if they get sick, drink water that tastes like something you squeezed into your toilet, and stand a good chance whenever you step outside of being shot by a sniper, blown up by a laser-guided bomb, or run down by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and you might think about picking up a weapon, too.

 

  This is how terrorists and suicide bombers are created. Desperation is the seed, time is the fertilizer, and rage is the crop reaped by American soldiers sent far from home to die because they were lied to, as were we all.

 

David Bloom:

 

"Mr. President, we've been hearing increased rumblings about the apparent disappearance of the vast majority of the money that had been set aside by Congress to rebuild Iraq in the aftermath of the war, do care care to clear up this matter once and for all...don't the American people have a right to know? After all, it is their money!"

 

GW:

 

"Now don't go all nucular on me here, David. As you know, none of these other pussy-whipped countries ponied up a dime for this effort, which means I had to bare the entire cost myself. So I git to thinkin', how can we double our money on this deal, pay ourselves back out of the profits, and own all the awl in the entire damn country fer nuthin'?

 

So here's the deal. Ya see these here Eyerackees got all this oil, right, which is great, but that's what we Texan's call a One Trick Poney. Well, that dog just won't hunt! So I figure, hell, what these brown-skins need is a little deservification.

 

Dick put together a meetin' with me and Al, and we set to figerin' it out. Dick said:

 

{"What the fu*k GeeDubya? Rathern' shippin' all them US dollars over to that unsecure hell-hole of a country, why not just put that money in a tradin' acccount right here in Chicago in the good 'ol US of A" and let ol' Al bouble 'er up in nothin' flat. Said all that stimulation would keep the markets hummin' right into the erection. Said every time them Hedge Funds loaded up on the short side, Al would just pull the ol' jamma-ramma, n bingo - all them assholes bettin' against America would pay for the damn war themselves!"}

 

Thing a beauty if ya ask me...are ya with me so far?

 

Well, I don't understand none of the details since that's Al''s business, but Al said if we just handed over the money to the Federal Reserve Bank, he'd oversee investin' it on our behalf, sorta like a Hedge Fund Manager. Told me he knew just the feller to run it at an oufit called Gelber. Al said this plan would make American shareholders richer, so I said hell, they're my base, so there ya go!

 

Well them damn Eyerakees now own more shares of some of America's biggest companies than most mutual funds here in the United States, 'cept we don't have to worry about 'em sellin' cuz we run the account...sort of a buy & hold at gunpoint strategy, I think is how Al put it. Teachin' em 'bout Democracy and Markets all at once...ya still with me?

 

So ya see, them boys is invested in the biggest Democracy in the world, and if they need some money for little things like health care, food, water, sewage treatment, infrastructure or other basic human stuff, well hell, they can just borrow against their stock portfolio - set up a line a credit for 'em n everything! We'll lend em the money, and even let em pay some of the interest out of our new oil revenues.

 

Is this President shit easy, or what?

 

Next question?"

[Sphinxter]

Foreign central bank particpation at yesterday's T bills auctions was heavy, usually the after effect of US$ purchases already made.

 

Adding to that and looking at today's chart, one can safely say there is a concerted effort to keep the dollar up. However I am not sure what cb(s) are buying. The 'why' is probably to keep the dollar 'strong' and to keep interest rates from rising here.

Thanks for the input.

 

The part I find incomprehensible, is that other oil denomiated economies, such as Japan and the Eu, would want their currencies weaker in the face of rising oil prices.

 

I guess there's some complicated formula that proves keeping the US consumer engine reved is more important than the effects of higher oil prices.

 

Either that or it's just regular-style panicky desperation.