"Don't believe them, don't fear them, don't ask anything of them."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The pom poms and nearly everything else was swinging wildly in the breeze this morning as the American financial press was wildly cheering the earnings news from Bank of America and their brilliant acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
Does anyone bother to notice that none of these banks are making any money from traditional banking activity? You know, the kind that is supposed to be supporting the capital allocation process and growth in the real economy? Its as if all the carpenters, plumbers, engineers and teachers left their real work and became carnies and professional gamblers, or even worse, politicians. We're celebrating that as a sign of a rensaissance and economic recovery.
I wonder if Sir Alan provided any counsel to the Paulson fund on that Abacus deal with Goldman Sachs that just blew up in their faces. Greenspan is one of their advisors, after all.
The Michigan Sentiment number came in at a very disappointing 69.0 versus expectations in the 75 range. What is wrong with the public, don't they see that the stock market is hitting new highs almost every day? This is what the anchorperson asked this morning on Bloomberg TV. But she was obviously not chosen for her analytical skills.
The news on the Goldman fraud took the wind out of their sails, at least temporarily. I thought it was cute that the SEC chose to announce this on a stock option expiration day.
The spin maachine is working overtime to digest this latest scandal, and turn it into something more palatable for the folks at home. But really, it looks pretty grim here. What happens when you are in the middle of a crowded con game, and someone yells, "Fraud!"
