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My name is Hartmut Mehdorn, and my 'soul' is 100% 34CrNiMo6 steel.
Mehdorn[de:] offers to step down.
Finally.
I cannot be polite here. This man is, or was, the human equivalent to a really huge pile of shit, fecal matter of all different colours and flavas rolled into one.
He was a Schröder plant, replacing Lacklustre Ludewig[de:]. Ludewig was Kohl’s man, second in the post since German Rail was formally privatized in ‘94 (though as of yet hasn’t IPO’d due to stauch resistance of … read more
The Con supreme-mayoral candidate of Cologne announced today that he’ll quit the race for re-election (elections due August).
He had been a staunch supporter of the subway project that came to almost topple a church belltower[de:], killed two, destroyed much of the documental archive of Cologne, sunk millions of euros; he had been investigated by the police more than once, had been entangled in networks of bribery, kickbackry, ill-spent funds, construction scandals and the likes. His time of office benefitted … read more
Starting March 9th, indices have adopted a new pattern, one not seen since long. The N225 bottomed out at 7k, and since has risen to above 8.5k-ish, rising again not quite 23% from the lowstand.
The DAX dropped to 3k 666, to rise again 16%ish to above 4.2k. And the DJIA stopped its decline at just below 6.6k, rising some 21% to just below 8k.
Today, DAX and DJIA recorded solid drops for the first time (IIRC) since the bear rally … read more
via the good anonymi at 4chan.
Indices bounced back, jerking, stuttering up steeply — about as steep as they, on average, had fallen throughout most of February, though the volatility is decidedly less. The DJIA has already made good 50% of its Feb loss; the N225 goes alongside.
The DAX, which performed marginally better (IIRC) then is more equivocal. The gov’t is taking its tiiiiiiiime[de:] as regards HRE; they think about having made their mind up whether to exercise their damn[de:] constitutional … read more
…not really. But the difference is about as much as fluctuation, with Citi stock dropping to about a buck a hit.
And yet[de:]: all the humans in the world legally entitled to conduct business could not own it yet, if each gave this one buck.
Indices bouncyballed, with the dax very tenderly raising Tue but strongly Wed - only to lose all and more today. Dow got a huge load of flak. It looks like the Dax is gonna take cover … read more
Loses only 0.2% tonight, after DAX (-3.5%) and especially DJIA (-4.2%) underwent major slaughter. DAX can be expected to try and make a mad dash for 4K, as bargain hunters will pick up the opportunity. Probably won’t make 4K though.
If it does not make a mad dash for 4K, a few aspects of current events demand reassessment.
UPDATE: N225 expands loss to -0.7%. Still, simply to have and — more or less — to hold qualifies as relative outperformance these days.
aig kaput. read all about it in the mass media.
they will feature it aplenty and in lurid detail. “march is the new october”, or what?
dow needs to hold 6k this week, or all bets are off.
in other news:
(background: the eu head-of-states’ decision[de:] that there will be no eur160-190mrd blanket bailout for non-eurozone eu eastern europe.
i assume that if they would have had the bucks, they would have shelled them out with kisses, smiles and flowers. eastern europe’s economies are … read more
The DAX made a brave attempt at recovery yesterday, but the DJIA was, for the time being, malade. So the N225’s attempt to pass on the hot potato and hope for a transatlantic recovery had not quite worked. Especially as it pulled itself above 7.5K, only for the DAX to come down in flames over the whole Opel and AIG and the Citi and whatnot mess.
(Note that to make up for a loss, you need to gain more percentiles than … read more
Indices cavorted all over the place, settling in for a solidly red week, though today — as did the DJIA a few days ago — the N225 manages to make a near spot landing with plusminus zeroish change. The last 3 weeks’ bumpy bounce, tumbling down a broken and rough slope, shaved some 12.5% off the DJIA, while the N225’s losses could well (for a while at least) be limited to just below another 10%. The DAX, in spite of … read more
As staple rice, I prefer the nondescript parboiled rice you get in kilo packs in the supermarkets over here. I have no idea where it comes from, what cultivar it is, and so on. It has a good combination of keeping fresh and being healthy (for a carb staple). I sometimes don’t like rice, so I eat something else as carb staple, taters or pasta or whatnot. Brown rice would start to spoil under such conditions ever so often, so … read more
Preliminary[de:] accountancy checks at Hypo Real Estate reveal nearly EUR600mrd, that is, nearly
600.000.000.000 euros,
or approximately the annual GDP (as per PPP) of The Netherlands,
in grey and black funds — not or not sufficiently accounted for.
The total sum on the brink of combustion is 10% of the annual GDP (as per PPP) of the US. It is a Lehman-scale event.
The problem is twofold:
First — if HRE is allowed to go bust, the impact has a reasonable chance to smash the global … read more
DJIA 7.466 (-1,2%)
N225 7.455 (-1,4%)
Now what?
Stanford turned up in Virginia (”Touch Her If You Dare!”), got some SEC paperwork NBC sez. Free to go (for now). Status of black helicopter unknown.
The SouthAms acted swiftly and no-nonsensical: about all accessible StandfordCo assets south of Panama City (methinks) have been seized and placed under gov’t control.
Cojones.
But about time some1 tried it, perhaps.
Bank runs! And I was almost missing them…
On Antigua and in Caracas, to be precise. Which has a delicious irony — one of the world’s top laundromats for smelly credit, and a bunch of coupist lovers. The latter find something in the realm of US$ 2.5mrd[de:] melting away like South American mountain snow in the 21st century climate.
Now tell me guys:
Ain’t Capitalism Grand?
On Antigua, PM Spencer calls upon the populace to maintain calm. Most of his native citizenry … read more
Whatever.
As it seems, Arnie is having a bit of a hard time. The Handelsblatt at least says so[de:], and they are usually pretty nonpartisan for the exuberant mouthpiece of Capitalism that they are. But I think we had this coming, with the State practically bankrupt for the last 4-6 months or so.
“The Terminator is an end-of-line model, little more fit for reality than Detroit’s Big Three.”
(Rüdiger Scheidges, loc. cit., 17th February 2009)
If you understand German, the article gives you … read more
Some mixed odds’n’ends…
“No police officers will be prosecuted over the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, Crown prosecutors Service say.”(BBC, February 13th 2009)
Those were strange days, back in 2005. For a conspi take that is at the same time kooky and rather interesting in an unJonesian way, try 7/7: The Ripple Effect. It seems certain from the weight of evidence that some MetPol honchos were investigating rumours of an upcoming attack on some Israeli interest, although the question of whether … read more
… our Federal Minister for Economics and Technology threw the towel rag[de:] this weekend.
“I had no idea of the Ministry of Economics’ address [til I was picked as their big kahuna].”
(FRG Federal Minister for Economics and Technology Michael Glos, November 2005[de:])
We get some faceless 37-year-old übernerd named Karl-Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. The last bit is “Baron of and at Guttenberg”, meaning that his clan did not just legally own that fief, but also resided there. Roman Catholic, married … read more
“Mientras en Davos se reúne el mundo que muere, aquí se reúne el mundo que nace”
(Hugo Rafael “El Commandante” Chávez Frías, ibid.)
Yes, it would be about time. No, not yours I hope. (There are elements that are cool, but as a whole — no!!)
Commie (as in “one of the rather few good commies”) journalist Wal Buchenberg discussed[de:] some statistical graphs on de:indymedia these days. Graphics were provided by frosch. This stuff is cc-by-sa-20
So here we go:
This is the US GDP … read more
[...] I expect the rate of decline to slow asymptotically when the DJIA hits 5,000ish ticks [...]“(mihi, October 16, 2008)
“Asymptotically” was of course a major /facepalm kind of mistake. There’ll always be a bit of bouncing when a new carrying capacity, strange attractor or whatnot is reached, particularly after such a steep deline.
Markets held econo-porn pattern for what looks like two one-month waves. Some stabilization in December, just around what values I had guesstimated: in the short run, 8-9K for … read more
See also this Onion spoof act of clairvoyance.
“… the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq.”
(George W. Bush, December 1st, 2008)
No.
The biggest regret — the only regret — is that Barbara Pierce Bush did not, shortly after V-J Day, speak the magic words:
“George Herbert Walker, pull out before you cum.”
At the 2009 EU parliamentary elections, you may well be able to vote for a CIA enterprise.
D. J. Ganley. Made a killing with Slavic crudes and Pentagon comm equipment. Image from Albanian Canadian League Information Service.
The June 12th, 2008 plebiscite about the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of [the Republic of] Ireland Bill yielded a resounding No. One very happy miltech entrepreneur was Declan James Ganley of Watford, Hertfordshire (England), who got himself a big gift when about 28-28.5% of … read more
Back for picking up some pieces.
Icelandic krónur, somewhat worse for the wear, definitely qualify as "filthy lucre" these days.
The IS króna is being re-floated; trade in that currency was essentially suspended since mid-October to prevent hyperinflation. As is to be expected, “float” is fairly misleading here. The official term is “managed refloat” anyway, which basically is the fiscal equivalent to dropping a fat chunk of volcanic rock overboard somewhere in the GIUK Gap, with a safety line tied to it … read more
DJIA Goes South[de:].
Dell Goes to Hell.
[Profits declined 5% [when?], it was reported after NYSE closure]
I actually wanted to say a few things about pirates.
Maybe later. The N225 has quite a bit of catching-up to do.
7K’s the name of the game, or what?
“[... Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant will be operational by 2009 ...]”
Spokesman Mohsen Delavizi, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. November 18th 2008
n-tv gives some details[de:] IRNA lacks; I have no idea where they got it from. Al-Jazeera does not carry the news yet. Neither does CNN. In any case, the Germans claim that they’re doing final outfitting in Bushehr as of now and adds a “we hope” before the quote above.
I observe: there is not a cratered landscape littered with debris … read more
Citigroup to cut 50K more jobs. On top of the 13K that already are gone, and the 9K that remain to be done in.
“What all of us have done - and perhaps injudiciously - we’ve added a lot of people over [...] this very benign period [...]”
Citigroup chairman Win Bischoff, November 17th 2008
Maybe so. What you guys did do was to play around, as late as 2008, with investments — a lot of investments — that had “EXPIRY DATE DUE … read more
I won’t discuss the G20 meeting, as it’s gonna be all over the papers.
Markets have slid nervously, are rather volatile and partly decoupled. The reaction on the G20 meeting, I suppose, will be unison. As the DJIA has left last week in a pessimistic mood after a good start, the N225 has actually a chance to pull quite far ahead of it. I do not know whether this matters in the long run; I suppose not.
FRG Minister of the Interior … read more
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