So Captain Ahab, er, Lewis, how's it feel?
Yes, we know, you closed. Congratulations. May you choke on the Tanzilo lawsuit brigade. Florida piled in yesterday, just in time to prevent you from raising a BS defense about you being a federally-chartered institution and thus immune from state actions, never mind that "all the bad guys left." Good luck with that one in front of a jury.
I wonder how long it will take before BAC shareholders come after the company for breaching their fiduciary duty - by closing instead of walking away!
My money is on Lewis' tonsils being tickled -from below.
Oh, speaking of smarmy banks, how about UBS?
"UBS AG, the biggest wealth manager, fell to the lowest level in almost a decade in Swiss trading after U.S. prosecutors sought the authority to force the bank to reveal names of American clients with secret accounts."
Go get 'em IRS! Its about damn time that the "private client" folks got nailed for what is clearly rampant tax evasion. The only part of it that I suspect will be missing is a criminal indictment aimed at UBS - which should happen, but probably won't.
Oh, you'll love UBS' quote in that article:
"UBS spokeswoman Rohini Pragasam in New York said the bank ``takes this matter very seriously and is working diligently with both Swiss and U.S. government authorities.'' "
Riiiight. You'll have to pardon my skepticism.
There was a fair bit of pumping of liquidity in the slosh yesterday, yet the market didn't go anywhere north. Lots of people scratched their heads as to "why", and today we found out. The EFF yesterday came in at 2.47, nearly a full 50 basis points over the target! Oops. Heh Ben, is it getting claustrophobic in that box as the walls close in on you?
In the Mideast Oil Mess we have new "news" out claiming that an Israeli attack on Iran is increasingly likely:
"An Israeli strike might be triggered by the production of enough enriched uranium at Iran's Natanz nuclear plant to make a bomb, ABC cited the official as saying. A second possible trigger would be the delivery of a Russian SA-20 air-defense system, the installation of which would make an Israeli attack more difficult, the U.S. official told ABC. "
No really? You mean that Imadinnerjacket's repeated statements that could easily be construed to be a threat to nuke Israel isn't a good enough reason to prevent them from getting a bomb?
Well who'd-a-thunk?
I know, I know, there will be lots of people who say that Imadinnerjacket has a right to nuclear power for "defense and energy" just like everyone else. Uh huh. Last time I checked he's the only "head of state" that has made explicit threats to use said weapons in a first strike.
Iran, of course, is threatening to block the Straits of Hormuz if attacked. Its questionable as to whether they could pull it off, but its not at all questionable that they'd try.
That we find ourselves in a position where the price of gas could double in a day due to the geopolitical ramblings of a madman in Iran is nobody's fault but ours. As I have repeatedly noted, we have boxed ourselves into this corner on our own initiative, and the blame can be found directly behind the eyeballs that you're using to read this column.
We keep talking about oil like its some sort of magical thing, or there's some speculative mess involved. Uh, no. What's happening is that internationalization and offshoring has produced a "middle class" in nations where there wasn't one before, and suddenly people have discovered that motor bikes and cars are better than donkeys and bicycles (not to mention feet!) for transportation.
So suddenly there's demand where there wasn't before. No, really? You mean that people want to live "just like us" and the "living large" thing is taking hold in other nations?
Why golly, how would that impact the price of a commodity that happens to be in relatively tight supply?
That people find all this difficult to understand speaks poorly to the IQ of the average American - and especially the IQ of those in Congress.
Still looking for my bounce, but this morning its quite clear that we're going to get more crash first. Heh heh heh - works for me. Yesterday I put on an XLF Call position thinking that we were getting so far into the "ridiculous oversold" territory that something - anything - could light it off - but quickly took it back off (and ate the round-trip commissions) when the internals deteriorated badly in the last hour.
I do have to admire the pumptards that have, for the last week, bought the futures to the tune of a half-dozen points every night for the last week, only to get crushed when Europe opens. How many times do you have to lose money trying the same trade before you come to the conclusion that you're wrong? We shall see.
One thing to remember folks - the test of your prowess as an investor does not come in a bull market. Its easy to make money in a bull market - you just buy the index.
No, the test is whether you keep your money in a Bear market. Note that I didn't say "make money". I said keep your money.
If you have the same amount of money now in your investment accounts as you did at SPX 1576 in October, you are doing better than 90% of all institutional money managers and 95% of all individual investors. This puts you in the top 5% - and that's just by going to cash in October and sitting on your hands.
If you've actually made money since then, you're in the top 1%.
Really.
Yes, you are that good.
