Nov

14

I am still looking for the proper expression for pretending that you are economical when you are a spendthrift, for pretending to have the public's interest at heart , when you are giving money to your friends and clients, for pretending that you're giving someone a good deal when you're setting up a big con. Where is Zachar when you need him?

George Zachar responds: 

I'm so depressed about all this, my fingers are scraping the bottom of my bon mot bucket. The classic definition of a demagogue is someone who deliberately tells lies to people he believes to be fools, so the fed chair certainly falls into that category. But there's also an element of affinity fraud, as he evokes the cool, disinterested, public servant technocrat. It's an awful, criminal deceit being perpetrated on the whole world, given that the dollar is/was the basis for the planet's financial system. Ben Strong and Norman Montague escaped the verdict of history for engineering the 1929 stock bubble/crash and the awful decade that followed. i don't think Bernanke will have such luck.


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4 Comments so far

  1. Alaric Investments on November 14, 2010 7:13 am

    You could perhaps group people these days along three lines, as they deal with or react to this reality playing out…which will undoubtedly end badly for those unprepared…

    1. Those who have no idea what is occurring
    (always the majority, no change here from any other time)

    2. Those who have an idea, do not like to hear negative things, and ignore it
    (many long only managers, service providers, politicians, those of an optimistic bent in general society)

    3. Those who know what is occurring and are truly alarmed — this is the most interesting…
    I have never seen more specific, well-articulated alarm coming from a portion of the investment community in my lifetime, and not just the doomsayers

    Two recent, cogent examples are Jim Grant (I guess you could say he was a doomsayer), who when responding to an interviewer’s question on Fed policy blurted out that minutes show all and that all complaints should be sent directly to Bernanke himself. Rather surprising from the soft-spoken man in the bow tie.

    Also telling is the visible agitation of Nassim Taleb, who emigrated to the U.S. from Lebannon where he had personal experience with the effects of inflation (like him or not, he does not have the exuberance of a Cramer)

    Nissam Taleb - recent interview:
    http://alaricinvestments.blogspot.com/2010/11/nothing-is-as-permanent-as-things.html

  2. vic on November 14, 2010 11:16 pm

    one never thought he would find himself on the same side of an issue with those two doomsdayers and lovers of the freight car loadings in evanstown. one must check his premises. It is possible as Milton Friedman liked to point out in his preferec for local politics over federalized ones, that the increase in corruption of the former is overbalanced by their responsiveness to the concerns of their constituents. Similarly, it is possible that the 30 or 70 billion emolument being given to the clients and past , present of future friends and their partners of the buyers is outweighed by the good that it will do to the totality, and or is better than the alternative. vic

  3. John Busch on November 15, 2010 3:51 pm

    I don’t have the expression you’re seeking but it seems a “Procrustean solution” is what we’re receiving.

  4. Nick Sont on November 15, 2010 4:40 pm

    As a sidenote, the amount of Wall Street bonuses for 2010 has been released…$144 billion. A new record!

    In the meantime, unemployment remains steady, food stamp usage on the rise along with foreclosures. This is quite the “change” we were promised not too long ago. Some “change”.

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