[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.bloombe...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!

[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.

Quote

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.

Quote

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]

Col Dashley, on Aug 24 2004, 06:44 AM, said:

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:

Quote

"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.

[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.survivalu...om/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......

Quote

  Current                Amount

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

[Hiding Bear]

Sphinxter, on Aug 24 2004, 08:37 AM, said:

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]

getsoutalive, on Aug 24 2004, 07:31 AM, said:

http://www.survivalunlimited.com/


http://www.survivalu...om/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...

[Sphinxter]

Hiding Bear, on Aug 24 2004, 07:47 AM, said:

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.