Teabagging the Congress

You are probably already aware of this 'tea party' invitation making the rounds of email and the internet.

What is remarkable is that I received this today from one of the most conservative people that I can imagine, who STILL won't admit that the George W. Bush administration was a disaster for our economy.

It appears that the full spectrum, from left to right, of the public is angry, very angry, and the Democrats led by Obama are setting themselves up as the lightning rod to receive it, primarily through their bungling of the financial crisis.

Send a teabag if you wish. Personally I would make some tea with it first. Why waste? I am not sharing my Typhoo with anyone.

It is good, though, to do something if you are angry. Symbolic protests are a good first step. But what will get the attention of these power players will be something with a monetary impact, such as a major boycott, or a move away from the dollar and into non-financial assets.

The paid help may be fearful, but the ringleaders are drunk with power. They have been at this for some years now.

It has been some time since I have seen ordinary people so generally angry and disgusted by the US national government. Certainly not since the Nixon Administration. Something will have to give if the current course does not change.

Bailout Anger Creates Peril for Both Parties - MarketWatch

Tea Party - Please mark your Calendars

A tea party, what a wonderful idea, I just wish it had been mine. I have a feeling that USPS is going to have a lot of tea to contend with, after all it only costs 42 cents to send a message, hopefully heard round the world!!!

So please mark your Calendars

There's a storm abrewin'. What happens when good, responsible people keep quiet?

Washington has forgotten they work for us. We don't work for them. Throwing good money after bad is NOT the answer.

I am sick of the midnight, closed door sessions to come up with a plan. I am sick of Congress raking CEO's over the coals while they, themselves, have defaulted on their taxes.

I am sick of the bailed out companies having lavish vacations and retreats on my dollar. I am sick of being told it is MY responsibility to rescue people that, knowingly, bought more house than they could afford. I am sick of being made to feel it is my patriotic duty to pay MORE taxes.

I, like all of you, am a responsible citizen. I pay my taxes. I live on a budget and I don't ask someone else to carry the burden for poor decisions I may make. I have emailed my congressmen and senators asking them to NOT vote for the stimulus package as it was written without reading it first. No one listened. They voted for it, pork and all.

O..K. folks, here it is. You may think you are just one voice and what you think won't make a difference. Well, yes it will and YES, WE CAN!!

If you are disgusted and angry with the way Washington is handling our taxes. If you are fearful of the fallout from the reckless spending of BILLIONS to bailout and "stimulate" without accountability and responsibility then we need to become ONE, LOUD VOICE THAT CAN BE HEARD FROM EVERY CITY, TOWN, SUBURB AND HOME IN AMERICA.

There is a growing protest to demand that Congress, the President and his cabinet LISTEN to us, the American Citizens. What is being done in Washington is NOT the way to handle the economic free fall.

So, here's the plan. On April 1, 2009, all Americans are asked to send a TEABAG to Washington , D.C. You do not have to enclose a note or any other information unless you so desire. Just a TEABAG.

Many cities are organizing protests. If you simply search, "New American Tea Party", several sites will come up. If you aren't the 'protester' type, simply make your one voice heard with a TEABAG. Your one voice will become a roar when joined with millions of others that feel the same way. Yes, something needs to be done but the lack of confidence as shown by the steady decline in the stock market speaks volumes.

This was not my idea. I visited the sites of the 'New American Tea Party' and an online survey showed over 90% of thousands said they would send the teabag on April 1. Why, April 1?? We want them to reach Washington by April 15. Will you do it? I will. Send it to; 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington , D.C. 20500 ..

Visit the website below for more information about the 'New American Tea Party'. I would encourage everyone to go ahead and get the envelope ready to mail, then just drop it in the mail April 1.

Can't guarantee what the postage will be by then, it is going up as we speak, but have your envelope ready. What will this cost you? A little time and a 40 something cent stamp.

What could you receive in benefits? Maybe, just maybe, our elected officials will start to listen to the people. Take out the Pork. Tell us how the money is being spent. We want TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY. Remember, the money will be spent over the next 4-5 years. It is not too late.

Of course, if you agree with the way things are being done now, just delete this e-mail !!!!!

SP Futures Hourly Chart at Noon

It is important to remember that this is a 'triple witching' week with options expiring on Friday. In markets such as this in particular it is a week of shenanigans as the bigger house players squeeze the option punters who are essentially speculating with too much leverage. March is a big expiration.

We also have the Fed in a two day FOMC meeting with their announcement tomorrow at 2:15 EDT.

The uptrend has held so far. The first chart shows the hourly action up close, and the second chart shows the same scenario but within the context of the bigger picture.

This feels like a technical rally. And surely there is no recovery in the real economy six months out, which is what is required to justify a sustained market uptrend and a new bull market.

Although Ben Bernanke has made noises about a possible recovery at the end of this year, we would file that with his other economic pronouncements about the credit crisis being confined to subprime and so forth. He is constantly talking his book, which demands a rosy recovery. He won't get it.

There will be no recovery in our nation until there is significant reform enacted to bring our economy back into balance. The financial system, gone off the track with gambling, is draining our energy away from real productive efforts, acting as a hidden by substantial tax on the quality of our growth.




A view of the above chart within the greater context of this rally.

Senator Grassley: Throw AIG to the Wolves (and Ignore Us)

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
Abraham Lincoln

But you can bloody well try.

Senator Grassley is a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committe. As such, he presided over a decade of erosion of safeguards and balance in our financial system.

He is also a member of a political party and a government that had the lead in ruining our country, undermining the Constitution, and allowing financial racketeers like AIG to flourish.

The fellows at AIG are indeed amoral pigs, and they make no pretentions to be otherwise, whereas Chuck Grassley and his ilk are venal hypocrites who are attempting to deflect attention from their own significant role in the current financial crisis, and a disastrous foreign policy conducted under false pretenses for the enrichment of private interests and corporations.

Those who take his pious pronouncements seriously are born to be shorn, over and over, again and again.

"I don't know whether the [$165 million in bonuses] is an issue as much as just the chutzpah of the people running AIG," Grassley said. "That they could thumb their nose at the taxpayers, it's more that.

"The attitude of these corporate executives and bank executives, and most of them are in New York, that somehow they're not responsible for their company going into the tank," he said.

"I suggest, you know, obviously maybe they ought to be removed, but I would suggest that the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them [is] if they would follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I'm sorry and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide."

FASB to Make Dramatically Favorable Changes in Mark to Market Rules

It looks likea return to mark-to-assumptions is in the cards. The prospective rule change is targeted at large banking institutions with hold-to-maturity MBS portfolios.

This rule change will be generally known as marked-to-official-policy accounting, wherein our desired objectives are achieved by definitional manipulation and corporate decree. This is consistent with our national currency.

If the holder of a financial asset cannot obtain an active price, they can assume the cash flows will be maintained to maturity and value the asset based on that.

This is not decided yet, but we would imagine FASB is under intense pressure from the federal government and the banking lobby.


FASB to Propose Improvements to Mark-to-Market and OTTI
The American Banker
March 16, 2009

The Financial Accounting Standards Board agreed today to propose alternatives for improving mark-to-market accounting in illiquid markets and for “other-than-temporary-impairment” (OTTI). ABA has been requesting improvements to these mark-to-market issues for the past year and for improvements to OTTI for many years.

Mark-to-Market.

The proposal for estimating market values will take into consideration whether there is an active market (such as the number of recent transactions, whether price quotes are based on current information, whether price quotes vary substantially, etc.). If there is not an active market, then the quoted price is a distressed transaction unless certain other conditions exist. For distressed transaction prices, “Level 3” techniques (such as present values of future cash flows) are used instead of the distressed prices and should reflect an orderly transaction between market participants, including a reasonable profit margin for uncertainty in a non-distressed situation.

Other-Than-Temporary-Impairment.

FASB will also propose that the full market loss continue to be reported through earnings (and capital) only if the entity intends to sell or will be required to sell the security prior to its recovery. For all other OTTI, the amount of market loss will be split between the credit portion of the loss, which will be reported in earnings, and the remainder of the loss, which will be reported in “other comprehensive income.”

Effective Date and Comment Period.

The proposed effective date is for periods ending after March 15, 2009. However, FASB is concerned that some may not be able to prepare the information in time for March 31, 2009, reporting, and will request comments on whether it should be effective for periods ending after June 15, 2009, with early adoption (for March 31, 2009) permitted. Comments are due April 1, and FASB hopes to make its final decision on April 2.