quanta Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'll take an alt view of these matters. The US entry into WWI ushered in a new era of government propaganda and direct meddling in the economy. While the result was probably a shortened war and what ifs are a fools game a huge price was paid and it's arguable if it was worth it. Vietnam was unwinable and it was a politicians and technocrats war. While communism was a mistake for Vietnam like everyone else the fact is it doesn't make any difference what government form Vietnam has. The people of the North worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 25 years without pay and fielded one of the best lead, trained and disciplined armies in modern history and the Souths political leadership and military were corrupt and chicken shit. We picked a loser. The blow back from the loss in Vietnam all involve our own refusal to give up our pigheaded historical exeptionalism. The Iron Curtain fell and China stopped starving its people just fine after we lost Vietnam. The cheap nationalism of war that we embraced in WWI as in the Spanish war before and the Mexican war before that all went to one purpose. That purpose was to glorify the nation and the degree to which a nation is glorified is the degree to which freedom wanes. No two concepts are more opposed than the desire for individual liberty and the desire to be part of a great and powerfull nation. It follows that the existence of gigantic and all powerful banks and financial institutions serves first the needs of a great nation, not the needs of individual citizens. The Wall Street giants have always served more the desire to extend American power globally than the needs of us, the people, writ small. 55,000 Americans died in Vietnam first in pursuit of a mistake and later just to cover it up. As Iraq has proven yet again; War is the last great hope of the incompetent to order the unwilling to attempt the impossible. Terry Gross (Fresh Air WHYY) has replayed some interesting interviews: 1. Robert McNamara On Doubts, And Vietnam In a 1995 interview with Terry Gross, McNamara reflects on Vietnam and admits his serious doubts about US policy and the decision-making that escalated the war. He also talks about the behind-the-scenes decision-making policies that escalated the war. 2. McNamara And The 'Fog Of War' In 2003, filmmaker Errol Morris released the documentary The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Taken from a series of interviews Morris conducted with McNamara, the film, which received the Academy Award for best documentary, offers fresh insight about the man many consider to be the architect of the Vietnam conflict. Worth lisenting to, just to get a sense of the thinking behind what happened and the historical perspective of those involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jickiss Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 jickiss is back! jickiss is back! and returning to the ugly present, "Nothing Has Happened yet" is still a jickiss theme, Sourced and directly attributed to, of course, the great Buddha. now, it has been a while since your jickiss posted the following chart, but do recall that this chart of the ratio of the Long Bond to the USDX item is "What the Desk sees" as a Major owner of long dated usa paper. Well, your jickiss merely suggests that you keep and eye on One Thirtayee Five ps, jorma, your jickiss does not disagree with your assessment at all, but adds that as the very very top becomes blind to the growing list of harmful items that you outline, then, the risks to da sheeple become so great that Trouble, when it begins, will spread, for the reason that systems breakdown when they become unbalanced in favour of the few, like a market that is maniped so much that the manipulators start to think they understand it, when they merely think that they control it. jickiss!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwd Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 jickiss is back! jickiss is back! and, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0601197_pf.html From its conceptual foundation as a Republic, to the Top of Western Civilization in 1966-1968, the United States was a leading entity. you may not have agreed with many things that happened, but the United States was good on its International Promises. The simple entry of the United States into WW I ended the horrors of WW I. yes, there were battles and deaths, but the United States stopped WW I. Then, of course, American power, American Science, and American support of Russia eventually ended WW II. your jickiss argues that America was still, at the moment of that ending date, good for its International Promises. Then, one fine day, America cut and ran out of Vietnam. America Promised, and America did not deliver. Then, it merely said: "We declare victory, and good bye!" This was pure evil, and the leader of the strategy and many of the tactics of this greatest failure just died. Since the end of Vietnam, your jickiss wants to see a list of New International Friends and Supporters of the USA. It has been said the success has something like a thousand fathers, whereas Failure is a bastard. your jickiss personally knows several that served in Vietnam on the ground, in missions that Exceeded Dangerous, by factors too high to count. your jickiss also met the last man out from the roof of the American embassy. your jickiss also knows asians who were in Vietnam and other countries during the war, as real victims. Proof of the Failure is the way that everybody averts, turns away, switches topics, and can't deal. Failure. Once the Leader is no longer good for the International Promises that it made and affirmed, that Leader will Fail, ultimately. Like Rome, it may take a goodly while, as time is counted or measured...But most of what you see today can be traced back to all them that turned away from their promises. The term Fool is much too kind. thimk! Right on again. Jick Another great post. As the late great General of the Army Douglas MacArthur stated when we decided not to win in Korea said "in war, there is no substitute for victory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charmin Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 returning to the ugly present, "Nothing Has Happened yet" It could be that nothing has happened when it comes to the economy. Joe Biden even says it was "misread." http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/07/bi...e-economy-.html How many does it take to "misread" an economy - all of Washington or all of Wall Street? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 ben dover Mom & Pop! we gotta nother $half-Billion crapcommon ta cram up yer keysters! Discover Financial shares fall after common stock-sale scheme exposed A tawdry scheme by Discover Financial Services to unload more worthless common stock on the public sent the company's existing shares down nearly 8% in the late-trading session Monday. "We're not sure how much more they can take," explained worried CFO Hank Piledriver, "so we'll just keep poundin' it in 'til they scream 'uncle'." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 Potential NDX launchpad? looks broken to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe3pack Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 game plan today was to back out of some of my inverse funds and wait for a better entry. when it seemed the bear party had lost its juice, i sold TZA @ 24.91; entered @ 21.98 a few trading days ago. sold FAZ @ 5.21; entered @ 5.00 a couple weeks back. miniscule profit, but what can i say, my entry was poorly timed; this sucker went down to the 4.40s between purchase and sale. saw some green on SRS and failed to capitalize on it earlier in the day; now i'm a bit underwater, but no worries--yet. if the mahkits head back up for a session or two, i'll have TZA back in my sights. gut feel is that we're going to test some I-beams in the near fyuchur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charmin Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 More TJ millisecond SPARC ex goldman news http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-c...industrial.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe3pack Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 if we take out the lows with a gap open down around 650 maybe we can get a decent sell-off started Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe3pack Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 if we take out the lows with a gap open down around 650 maybe we can get a decent sell-off started sir shorty, will you begin der nibbling on the long side around, oh, say, 480? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 sir shorty, will you begin der nibbling on the long side around, oh, say, 480? that looks like decent support except the corps keep printin' so much common, it might all go to zero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 sheesh GMAC said on Wednesday that it has converted to a corporation from a limited liability company, a move that could allow the auto and mortgage lender to sell shares to the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 tens of millions of people in the U.S. have simply stopped making their credit card payments, car payments, and liar loan mortgage payments now these clowns want me to invest in common stock backed by credit card payments, car payments, and liar loan mortgage payments? what a joke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rationalize Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 More TJ millisecond SPARC ex goldman news http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-c...industrial.html My point of view on this is that the game is reaching saturation. I interviewed at a competitor firm recently. Profitable Program Trading Strategies: - Automated Index arbitrage. Index futures vs Index basket. - Automated Options Market Making. Conversions, Reversals and some delta hedging. These seem to be the main strategies that these guys are doing profitably. Clearly the arb / market making profit will tend toward zero over time, as competition increases, in the same way that it did when humans dealers were doing the same trades. Nothing sinister about this. ... From what I hear, there is very little profitable program trading as speculative trades. It's basically all market making and pure arbitrage. Can you imagine trying to get a risk manager to sign off on a computer doing spec trades? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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