Chalk up one for Al…I called this
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen at 12:21 AM GMT+4
April 14th, 2009
howard K stern
February 3rd, 2009
Smart Ass Pawn
Obama…he was a pawn and was actually able to become king
(skip ahead 2 minutes)
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Video at 8:29 PM GMT+4
November 16th, 2008
Grown Locally
This is a great idea. Having the government support local farming rather than the big producers means higher quality, chemical-free food, and an increase in the amount of money spent within peoples’ communities. Many policies can be implemented that would have a similar effect, with buying power grown organically through jobs and by creating incentives for people to spend more of their money locally.
It is true that the government would be ‘in the business of’ picking winners and losers. You or I could actually be in the running for once. (and I have for you a completely unrelated video – it starts out with a black tv anchor trying to act like a Gumbel)
Now compare the coherence of that interview to this one
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Video, politics at 1:54 AM GMT+4
September 30th, 2008
Yup
September 29th, 2008
Midnight Rider
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics, Music at 11:21 PM GMT+4
September 27th, 2008
Moby Dick
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics, Music at 8:37 PM GMT+4
September 14th, 2008
Lehman Brothers Files for Bankruptcy
This is going to be the focus tomorrow…buckle your seat belts! Trying to get it right in my head over the weekend wasn’t easy, until Sunday night came and there was no announcement to be made out of the Treasury Dept…here’s my take:
I picked up a couple of different scenarios that sounded possible, but the theme throughout seemed to be that the banking community had to come together and each eat a piece of Lehman’s worst ABS…apparently an altruistic streak runs through all great bankers…wow…What I’m worrying about is that the market has been trading w/ the impression that the treasury will consume the bad deals and coordinate like they did with Bear Sterns. Moral hazard is front and center, since Merrill bit the bullet and sold it’s distressed holdings for 30 cents on the dollar, there hasn’t been another one of these cleansings that has made news since then. The fact that Merrill could find buyers for what it had to get off of its books, means that Lehman can find a market once they decide to stop playing games…all I read is that ABS (CMO, CMBS, CDO, etc) are too complex to compare the holdings of one firm to another…this is a bad argument to use against the government or short sellers who are demanding that the firm mark those assets to market. Once Merrill was able to move its distressed debt to others in the market, the music stopped…no more ragtime
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 11:08 PM GMT+4
August 2nd, 2008
Don’t believe the hype
July 16th, 2008
Holdings 7/16/08
Two more transactions for this morning. Diversifying further out of gold, increasing stake in BAM and keeping cash on hand.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 8:40 PM GMT+4
June 26th, 2008
Bad Month
“U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market write downs and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong profit slump…Initial jobless claims totaled 384,000 in the week ended June 21, unchanged from the previous week’s tally that was higher than previously estimated, the Labor Department said. The total number of people collecting benefits rose by 82,000 to 3.139 million in the week ended June 14, the highest since February 2004.“ -Bloomberg
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 7:15 PM GMT+4
June 11th, 2008
Desertion
I don’t know if there’s a medical term for how my mind works, but the evidence of something significant going on thus far is irrefutable. My job used to consist of taking care of the boys by day, and going to school at night. Now my job is to go to work on weekdays and build up accomplishments to cash in when bonus season rolls around…get promoted, get my CFA certification, and build a future-telling model that will earn us some of that sweet Morningstar love. I’m locked-in everyday, like I used to be right here…only instead of the right words to describe one of the various clusterfucks helping to define this dark chapter in the history of our teenage republic, the engine purrs all day on a tank of glorious greed, in pursuit of answers to questions like…’what will lower prepayment speeds mean for the durations of FNMA 5.5s’ or ‘how artificially low is the 3 month LIBOR rate’?
The thing that I’ve found most striking is how the English language is used to its full potential by the financial brains who pump out analysis and the books I’ve had to read while learning about ‘Fixed Income Analysis’…while no where near as exciting as a Celtics playoff game (haven’t missed a single minute of any so far), it does get my adrenaline pumping to make a prediction and have it play out…this week has been especially joyful on that score, as before the opening bell on Monday I talked up Transocean (RIG), and the next afternoon called out a buy point on State Street Corporation (STT)…the latter was upgraded by Goldman Sachs this morning. Which means that someone else will have to write ‘The Murder of Jose Padilla’, along with the unfinished chapters of my Tolken-esque erotic story about an elf from a thus far unnamed land, and his epic journey in search of the magical three and a half entry sex doll that was stolen from him many years before.
There was a time, not too long ago, when the notion of going through a day without once obsessing over the minute details of this quest seemed impossible…and now I can’t even remember which hole the elf missed most…
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen at 9:55 PM GMT+4
June 1st, 2008
The voices of veterans
As much of this as they can afford to pay for!
компютри втора употреба
Posted by site admin as Al Swearengen, Military, politics at 12:45 PM GMT+4
May 7th, 2008
Ticking Time Bomb
How many of these scenarios have there ever actually been?
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, History, Justice at 5:45 PM GMT+4
April 28th, 2008
The Reverend Wright Gambit
It’s hard to get around the fact that this is an example of Obama playing on the stupidity of the media to get Hillary off of the television screen. It is a fact that by having him up in front of microphones, the utility of his most famous You Tube clip as a weapon for Hillary and the right becomes diminished. Clearly it is time for everyone to talk about Reverend Wright.
Airtime is oxygen to a campaign.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, politics at 9:34 PM GMT+4
April 16th, 2008
Merck wrote the research & doctors signed it for money
JAMA published this today. Every one of these doctors need to provide answers to the medical community, and if they didn’t actually conduct the research they attached their name to, their medical license should be revoked. People are dead because of this nonsense…
Recent litigation against Merck & Co Inc related to rofecoxib provided a unique opportunity to examine the practice of guest authorship and ghostwriting related to the research and promotion of this medication. Our objective was to provide a review using a case-study exploration of court documents, in tandem with a review of the medical literature, to describe the practice of guest authorship and ghostwriting related to rofecoxib.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Justice at 10:03 PM GMT+4
April 12th, 2008
The new thing
The final assignment was turned in at 2:34AM this morning, and the paper that says I have attained the rank of B.S. in our society will be here soon. It couldn’t come a moment too soon. The job I started in November is going very well. Now, if you combine the two ranks together, it’s ‘B.S. Investment Analyst’.
I had actually been working on a book with someone last year, but it died on the vine. I’m now working on a team that manages institutional bond funds…I write software and study the market. The key to the business, as I understand it so far, is in being able to come up with good ideas. For me that is much more relevant on the technology side, but having studied finance as a hobby for so long, I can understand more of this dialect right away than I would have otherwise.
Kevin Garnet will play his first playoff game as a Celtic in about two weeks.
My daughter will be born on May 1st.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen at 10:27 PM GMT+4
April 9th, 2008
I’ve got a trade on the way
Selling at least half of the gold. Buying Transocean (w/in a week or two), natural gas producers (basket – ETF, Russian play, NGS?), BAM (Brookfield Asset Management), long Yen short USD (looking for an ETF)…selling 15% of the IAU shares and turning 5% into shares of BAM at the opening price.
16,337 shares IAU, $1,506,108.06 (closed at 92.19)
2,450 shares sold at opening price 4/10/08
3,350 shares BAM bought at opening price 4/10/08
more to come…
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 11:02 PM GMT+4
April 4th, 2008
Randi Rhodes
I guess you can’t have a radio show and be controversial at the same time…she should sue Air America. To me it looks like she’s doing an appearance somewhere. So if her contract doesn’t stipulate what she can and cannot do when she’s not on the air…eh, I don’t even care really, I just wanted to post this video because as much as I’d like to ignore this election for the next couple of months, Hillary’s campaign makes me feel like Randi in this clip. It’ll probably be pulled shortly, but while it lasts:
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Video, politics at 11:07 PM GMT+4
March 31st, 2008
Going off on a storm trooper
There’s this idiot over at Control Congress named bb who back in November agreed to wager on which party would win in 2008. I’ve been working hard lately, so the blog world is pretty much dead to me. Never forgetting about an opportunity to take money from a fool, I check back in after a long hiatus to remind everyone…and being the little baby that he is, of course he’s backing out. A couple of comments were posted, and then tonight I think about ten pounds of stress was unloaded in the span of under 200 words…here’s a taste:
bb, you thought you knew something about the world, and like most of the ideas you and other right-wingers push in lockstep year after year, when it’s time to act, you either:
A) Go through with it and end up looking foolish
or
B) Back out and go off to talk some more shit about something else you know nothing about
The Iraq war is a fine example of right-wingers putting their money where their mouth is, and look how that turned out. At least you can recognize the fact that you’re not smart enough to predict how things are going to turn out before you push in all of your chips…that said, knowing the right-wing mentality, no amount of failure and disaster will ever convince you of the fact that your thoughts and ideas are wrong.
You meddle in areas of seriousness, where adults are discussing important things, and slip in a dick joke (read: “* adverb adjective Liberal *â€) every now and then.
Your bullshit is of no consequence to me – besides the scientific thrill of conducting an experiment to see precisely how full of it you actually are – so you can wipe your ass with that greenback in my honor and then stick it in the collection plate for all I care. I didn’t mean for you to mistake my engaging you in a wager as anything more than the opportunity to make some money…sincerely, I’d rather cut off my own feet than toss treats at your stupid repetitive yap from now until November.
To prevent this retard from somehow finding his way over here, I’ll just point you to ‘Control Congress’ on my blogroll. Rest assured, he’s by far the dumbest you’ll find over there. Everyone else is great, and most of them have a healthy sense of humor.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, politics at 10:52 PM GMT+4
March 21st, 2008
Obama’s Speech on Race
One of the best speeches in my lifetime:
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, History, politics at 4:47 PM GMT+4
Warren Haynes and Trey Anastasio
They’re talking for a bit, and then it’s a free-flow jam session with my two favorite guitarists.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Music at 4:23 PM GMT+4
March 16th, 2008
Bush surveys the front, on a mission to boost morale
Maureen Dowd: Bush, who used his family connections to avoid Vietnam, told troops serving in Afghanistan on Thursday that he is “a little envious†of their adventure there, saying it was “in some ways romantic.â€
(left) my alma matter
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Military at 3:18 PM GMT+4
Gold Closes Over 1000
March 8th, 2008
+16.72% since November ‘07
November 27, 2007 – I liquidated the portfolio and put it all into gold, ending with 16,337 shares of IAU – avg price $77.70 Total Value – $1,329,020.80 – (The fantasy portfolio had gained 20.16% since it’s inception in February ‘07 with $1,106,000)
Current Value – $1,551,292.37 – 16.72% since 11/27/07 – 40.26% since 2/21/07
My view hasn’t changed. There is no reason to be confident enough to enter the stock market at this point. My advice…check your 401K options and see if you can park it all in an ‘Inflation Protected Bond Fund’ or short of that, a money market account.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 2:59 AM GMT+4
March 7th, 2008
How are the new MREs?
Being a smart ass while in the military…it’s a right of passage.Â
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Military at 8:01 PM GMT+4
February 20th, 2008
Omar – RIP
February 15th, 2008
Alan Greenspan – Professional Douchebag
How much of an asshole is this guy? Bernanke and Paulson are testifying before Congress, the former having just slashed 125 basis points off the Fed rate faster than any central banker in history…every week brings out the discovery of another body (UBS being the latest). As if they didn’t have enough to worry about:
Greenspan says U.S. on the edge of recession
And who are the nitwits handling other peoples’ money for a living, traveling or paying to hear Greenspan’s take on anything? They should all be fired first thing tomorrow!
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics at 12:30 AM GMT+4
February 3rd, 2008
Super Bowl Sunday
The time that passes is a frustratingly slow grind. No big plans or recipes, nor are there the usual assortments of imported drink, all replaced by laundry folding, floor cleaning and anything else I can direct my nervous energy towards until 6 o’clock finally rolls around. I don’t want to hear about the game or even think about it. My neighbor shares that he was able to wager on a -6 Pats/+18 Giants teaser…that makes it worse because then I start to think about how it’s come to this last day, and the perceived risk of that wager is so low…the WEEI crew has turned Patriots fan-dome into a neo-evangelical experience, with a victory today only the surest of sure things that there ever was or ever will be. You are damned for all eternity if the cocky swagger doesn’t appeal to you (unless you’re a player or a coach on the team of course), with doubt being the sin of eternity, never to be washed off, and never forgiven.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, sports at 5:23 PM GMT+4
January 31st, 2008
Harper’s Weekly Review (part)
“…Dwarf thieves had infested Swedish buses,9 Lithuania was pondering changing its name,10 and a plot by retired Turkish Army officers to kill Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was foiled. 11 Police in Malda, India, were battling avian flu by conducting a poultry massacre. “We have planned to collect ‘backyard chickens’ from the houses in the evening and kill all of them late at night,†said the district’s deputy director of animal-resources development, N. K. Shit.12 George Piro, the FBI field agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein, recalled his last meeting with the Iraqi dictator, when the two smoked cigars and Saddam kissed Piro on the cheek three times. “It made me feel,†he said, “somewhat awkward.†(by Christian Lorentzen)
Scott Horton is without a doubt my favorite writer at the moment. Harper’s online has his work up for free on the site’s front page. You can find out why John Yoo hasn’t come over for dinner lately. Keynesian economics, Leo Strauss, J$hn Ashcr$ft, Afghanistan, “Blitzwasser†or hot-water incident (so named for the kettles of boiling water that the citizens threw at federal tax collectors), Don Siegelman…
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Economics, History, Justice, Military, politics at 11:25 PM GMT+4
January 14th, 2008
Veteran Killers
Al Swearengen on 2/23/2006:
“Iraq Vet Mutilates Wife” – Get ready America, the war’s not over when these guys leave Iraq. Typical of youngsters who sign up while suffering from a mental disorder commonly known as ‘outrageous stupidity’…Marry a woman who, like yourself, just entered legal adulthood, then take off for a 9 month horror show in Iraq. Combine this with a smart mouth and (perhaps) a man on the side, it can trigger something within this wounded, emotionally disturbed, 19 year old, “battle-hardened†trained killer…like, memories of a time not long past when someone running their mouth could be easily silenced in a number of different ways.”
We know that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been committing suicide at higher rates, and that in an effort to maintain troop levels, the Army has been intimidating soldiers seeking treatment for post traumatic stress and other mental health issues, then separating those who fail to ’suck it up and drive on’ without medical benefits. The Army defends its poor government from all these gold-digging fakers by declaring that the soldier’s brain damage was an undeclared condition they developed before enlisting. In the air-conditioned Pentagon, our Army’s top generals assure us that the numbers look good – no doubt the product of this internal campaign of terror, while on the front end ramping up (exponentiating) the number of “volunteers” who meet their recruiter in prison.
It is a numbers game. Like police having to turn murder into manslaughter for the bosses, wounded soldiers are considered full strength. This sort of policy helps to explain why suicide numbers for both active duty and veterans keep rising. Then there’s the job itself, a bloody ordeal experienced in as many fifteen month deployments as one’s luck allows. Come home all fucked up, be without the support of this country you just put your life on the line for, and try to hold on. Along with the amount of terrorists we have created since 2003, I wonder how many Americans have been turned into psychopathic criminals along the way. How many McVeighs have the Army and this loser already produced?
“Killings After Combat 1/13/08 – NEW YORK – At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a killing or been charged in one in the United States after returning from combat, The New York Times reported Sunday. The newspaper said it also logged 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel and new veterans in the six years since military action began in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. That represents an 89-percent increase over the previous six-year period, the newspaper said. About three-quarters of those homicides involved Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, the newspaper said. The report did not illuminate the exact relationship between those cases and the 121 killings also mentioned in the report.
The newspaper said its research involved searching local news reports, examining police, court and military records and interviewing defendants, their lawyers and families, victims’ families and military and law enforcement officials…The 121 killings ranged from shootings and stabbings to bathtub drownings and fatal car crashes resulting from drunken driving, the newspaper said. All but one of those implicated was male. About a third of the victims were girlfriends or relatives, including a 2-year-old girl slain by her 20-year-old father while he was recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq. A quarter of the victims were military personnel. One was stabbed and set afire by fellow soldiers a day after they all returned from Iraq.
Compared with what this former military interrogator described in March of 2007, it’s pretty clear that Iraq just isn’t a “by the book” type of gig:
Confessions of a Torturer It was bad, in particular the First Recon they’re sort of like marine special forces, an elite unit [attached to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, known as 24th MEU]. Every time they went on a raid it didn’t matter who they were bringing back, they would just fuck these guys up. Old men, 15-year-old kids, they all came with bruises and broken bones. One guy came with a blister on the back of his leg. It was big, it was horrible, a burn blister. They’d made him sit on the exhaust pipe of a running truck.
Watch Out!
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Military at 12:58 AM GMT+4