Wednesday, May 16, 2012

What we need is MORE Federal Oversight!

When the story about the JP Morgan loss hit late last week, our elected worms from the anti-profit, anti-risk side of the aisle, started screaming about more control of the financial markets.  Every sound bite I saw, was combined with a montage of that big ass Merril-Lynch Bull and JPM's office in NYC. Silly me, I thought the "loss" (excuse my quotes, more on that below!) was in stocks, bonds, commodities traded in NYC.  Some pundits have likened it to the 'great collapse of 2008', under George W. 'screw the TxANG' Bush!  That's a bold statement IM-not-so-humbleO
.
Today I just read, the trader in question works in the JPM office in  LONDON ENGLAND.  Seriously?
.
That being the case, just WTH kind of rules are they planning on implementing HERE that would have stopped this, or if it was illegal NOW already, what law out of a UNITED STATES big-book-of-laws would he fall under while living, selling, trading and screwing British pooches in London?  That leaves out the fact that every prospectus I ever looked at, or heard on TV or radio, STARTED out with a disclaimer telling you that you invest at YOUR own risk.

So it's a risk based financial gamble, based out of London, how should, or better still WHY should Congress care?  Where's their power in this?  Not to mention, I find it odd that an American Congress who helped frivolously spend $5T in the last 3 years, had the stones TO point at anyone else who squandered money!  A firm that squandered around 5% of what Congress did, BTW.
.
But back to my parenthetical above. 

Did JPM in fact LOSE $2B?  I'm not so sure they did kids.  In the same Fiscal Quarter where Congress said JPM lost $2B, they paid dividends on $4B in earnings.  Huh?  How do you LOSE but still GAIN?  Well the simplest answer is, that you don't.  The real story here is American Leftist financial gurus (that's the oxymoron of the century I think ) have decided that there's financial hay to be made here by accusing JPM of causing dire financial strain on the world economy.  But here's the truth.

If some people 'lost' $2B investing (betting ) that the world-wide left handed widget market was gonna crash, then the people who invested (bet) that it would go up, 'won' most of that $2B, minus all the JPM fees.  The money is still out there, it's just NOT in the hands Congressional malcontents on the Left think it should be bundled up in at this particular moment.  If the stories are true, this was REAL money, dollars, deutchmarks, euros, yen, yuan, etc, not digital 'gains' like the 2008 'collapse', where the actual dollars was tied up in real estate and 'futures'.

You can't destroy those without pilin' 'em up, and cookin' steaks, bangers, wursts, goats, sheep or fish over 'em!  So they're out there.

I'm not at all certain just what this circus is supposed to be hiding, maybe the damned near imminent collapse of the EU.  But one thing is certain, this is THE unstory of High Finance right now, given the trouble in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and Germany AND here.  All of whom are about go belly up because of overspending or because they backed those who were.
.
And before I sign off, I'd like to say, Zhù Nǐ Hǎo-Yùn, to our future Galactic Financial Overlords, the Communist Chinese!  Isn't it odd that the guys who were dead st AGAINST capitalism, have THE best economy now, because they loosened the rules,, while everyone ese was writing millions of new rules?
.
I'm betting there's a lesson in there.  But Congress is about to make betting and investing illegal, so I'll just move on now.  I can tell you, that when we get paid from now on, starting in June, I will leave ONLY enough of our money in the bank to cover our bill pay stuff.  Then, if there's a 'run' on my banks, I'm golden.  Maybe platinum if dollars in hand becomes THE only way to go!  
.
.
Schteveo says, Texas looks better EV-RY-DAY baby!

1 comment:

Spider said...

Cash is king, as always!

Relax bud. It's all a game, one that we little folk are not allowed to play. And if we do play, the plan is that we take the losses and "they" take the gains.

A sure way to win on Wall St? Stay away from it! It's nothing but a crap game for rich people. The rest are just the suckers.