(tim_from_pa;64201)
I was watching the FOX news all day about this developing story regarding the big 3 auto execs begging for money yet they flew in luxury jets. Finally, they put out a story about this.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454844,00.htmlLike they said, they come off of jets with hat in hand begging for $25 billion dollars.Hey, folks, I knew when I lost my good job 4 years ago that the economy was in serious trouble because all the corporations were sending the jobs overseas so that the big wheels can make their 7, 8 or even 9-digit income and bonuses. We peons are asking too much for a mid-5 digit income, I guess. And while I saw this happening, the economists were saying and I quote "The economy is basically sound" and they said this because the stock market was good and people had "jobs" (probably single-digit per hour).It all started IMO around 911 timeframe and with the original CEO's failing like in the Enron scandal and other big CEO's being lead away in handcuffs about 7 years ago. Then the auto industries started laying off and closing plants (like my plant Agere was closed and torn down). It does not take an economic Einstein to see that back then something was seriously wrong while the economists were piping that the "economy is basically sound".. Frankly, I'm surprised all this did not happen about 4 years ago.
Thought you might get a kick out of this guys take on the economyI'd like to share my view of the current economic paradigm with you; I call it "The Pony Express."---Almost everyone has seen an old black & white cowboy movie where there's a Pony Express rider. The rider, often times, will be riding into a horse-changing depot, many times called a way station, and will slow down, jump off his now tired horse, grasping the pouch with the mail in it, and leap onto another horse that's been freshly watered and rested...then off he goes on his journey. (About here, the bad guys sneak out of the corral where they've been hiding in many movies...) I think of paradigm changes - like the massive financial changes we're in the midst of right now, as being akin to this 'changing of horses.' While the astute investor is looking around for the 'next horse to ride' out of this mess, the old-timers are trying to figure out how to get the old horse that the Pony Express rider came in on, motivated somehow to the point where it might make it to the next town. So in this regard, the old-timers (paradigm defenders, if your coffee hasn't kicked in yet) will be busy debating among themselves how best to motivate, cajole, beat, spur, whip, or whatever it takes in order to keep the old horse going just a little bit farther. If you step back from most of the economic news today, you can see investors who are part of the old paradigm (beating a [nearly] dead horse, as it were. And, you can find investors who have caught sight of the next horse and are moving over onto it and about to head out on the next leg of life's journey, with their own bag of dreams, ambitions and desires, as symbolized by the contents. Each of us 'has our own bag', so to speak. Now let's see if we can leaf through some of the day's financial headlines and assign paradigm roles to some of the players, shall we? "Detroit hit as car firms beg for bailout" reports the BBC. Would it be unreasonable for the car-makers to be labeled 'old horse' supporters, having not kept their iron horses up to snuff compared to those off-shore Porsches, BMW's, Toyotas, and Nissans? Seems to me that Detroit is stuck 'between horses' - they know that the old horse offers relative safety and familiarity, but also, lacking a clear vision of what their next horse might be, the city is stuck defending the old horse, even though they noticed that it has been running lame these past few miles. Another group to watch would be the Government and Federal Reserve types. They sold us Pony Express riders the horse we jumped on during the last paradigm back and they're trying to tell us that with just a tiny bit of free water and feed, it can be made to go on to at least one more town. No, they don't want to necessarily get on a new horse, though, which explains why we're reading headlines like "Paulson resists Democrats' call to rescue homeowners." Can change horses in mid-stream, so to speak. Next, we look around and see who's gotten onto the 'fresh horse' and seems to be mounting up ready to ride into the future? Paradoxically, hedge fund manager John Paulson, who 'generated a six-fold return last year' is now running around buying that debt-backed paper that I told you recently was, in many cases paying upwards of 20%. With the 'old-horse' crowd waffling and jawboning, this Paulson is picking up a bag full of goodies and he's off! Similarly, as I told you yesterday, Ricardo Salinas Pliego has optioned himself into a 28.5% stake in teetering Circuit City which is in Chapter 11. He's obviously got something in mind that will convert this 'old horse' into a new one.Unfortunately, most of the world's leaders are not 'down on the waterfront' They're still mostly trying to figure out how to best beat that near-dead housing horse back at that Things Ain't Exactly OK Corral. ---
http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm
