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.Above snap is in Surrey, Yesterday on the job.
Blackberry pager.
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Good Morning Friends,
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today is Saturday December 5, 2009
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Pretty nice weather actually. I guess the rains have subsided temporarily and that certainly has everyone in a good mood around here. Just one more week before Karen's big birthday. And, that is next Saturday, so like I said I will be doing a post to celebrate her life over on the main part of my blog. She is the girl of my dreams after all and it is the least that I can do to honor her. Would you expect anything less from me? Undoubtedly not.
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About the stock market. Actually, I was just looking things over and I really did recover all of my losses from the devastating declines of 2008. I found some cash things that were paying interest and I simply overlooked them that is all. So, we did make the recovery that I was looking for. But, unfortunately, the Canadian market had a bit of a setback near the latter part of the week so that set me back just a bit. But, it does not affect my year to date performance. And, my gains so far this year are in the order of + 13.26% as we speak. Speaking of stocks and the like, I was watching some videos on Bloomberg television concerning this banking mess in the States. Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, was being interviewed in some Senate hearing. Now, this is one of the guys that is actually responsible for this mess since he was part of the New York Federal Reserve when all the crap was flying around. And, now he is in Obama's cabinet.
.You have to realize that the banks are big and they are influential. They do not want any changes to occur that would limit their ability to make big gobs of money in the least amount of time. But, the thing is that they were allowed to run wild during the Bush Regime and that is where all of the serious problems developed. Predatory lending, bad products, lax supervision by the Fed and others responsible for regulation are at fault. And, don't forget the rating agencies either; they rated these bad products. Anyhow, there was Geithner being interviewed and he was actually coming across as concerned and expressing the idea that he was willing to play his part in cleaning up the mess and making things safer for us little people if you know what I mean. He seemed to know what the problems were and was willing to lend a hand as it were. But, the big banks are always in the background and they certainly do not want to cede any of their power if they can get away with it. So, I think what you have here is a little test of Obama's will to get something done.
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.But, the point is that Geithner, in his Senate hearings, is coming across as a straight shooter here and believing in doing the right thing for the country as a whole. It was good to see Senator Chris Dodd taking shots at the Fed as well. He claims that he will support Bernanke for a second term, but in the same breath realizes that the Fed has too much power, especially when it has lent out so much money to its banking comrades, at the expense of the taxpayer of course. And, Dodd was also critical of the fact that the Fed failed to supervise as well. ... I am starting to have some thoughts related to these big banks actually. Now, my theory is that these big banks and all of their power are bad for the economy. Everybody knows that now anyway. Through their recklessness and greed though, they have caused a lot of damage. But, my theory is based on the idea that the same thing happened in Japan and is also happening in Europe. Japan has had a stagnant economy for something like twenty years. And, when I look at my own portfolio, well, the European part has not recovered, and in fact, is the only section showing me losses. ...There is too much influence by big banks in those economies and when they are in trouble then the whole economies are in trouble. Too big to fail means that maybe there should not be institutions operating in an economy that can cause so much damage.
