Paris continues to be awesome, expect more on that later. Bordeaux induced naps on the banks of the Seine are what honeymoons should be about, even if they are 11 months delayed.
In economic news, 163 Billion in stimulus for the euro zone. I suppose that's a good thing, much the same way shooting 22 rifle at a charging rhino is better than not?
It really is simple: rich people have assets like bonds and cash, which are immune to recession but vulnerable to inflation. Poor people have assets like human capital and houses, which are immune from inflation but highly vulnerable to recession. Since rich people run the central banks, they will continue to make inflation their first priority and do the minimum they can get away with for unemployment.
Since 2007, they also seem immune from losing any money on their bad bets with their bond holdings. Only one way that can happen and that is with the help of politicians who can change/stop enforcement of laws concerning accounting transparency, corporate reporting and bankruptcy proceedings. See Gramm/Leach/Bliley(1999-Pres Clinton signed it) and the concurrent gutting of Glass/Steagall as perfect examples. There are more. If laws are tuned right, there is never any reason for anyone/corporation to lose money on a corporate or sovereign bond position even when the company/country is augured into the dirt by incredibly poor management (MF Global--gotta love the name--where segregated accounts "evaporate" lol). Nice work, if you can get it, and buying it seems the best way to get it. Politicians are currently going at bargain basement rates judging by campaign contributions. Please compare Mitt and Barry's corporate contributors. But I digress...rant over.
ReplyDeleteJust came across this article:
ReplyDeletelink:
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/06/why-we-lie-cheat-go-to-prison-and-eat-chocolate-cake-10-questions-with-dan-ariely/
quote:
By the way, there’s some really disturbing results showing that the best financial investment in the U.S. is lobbying. Return on the money is really high. I mean, you can give someone a sandwich and they will start seeing the world from your perspective to a slight degree. The moment you do favors for somebody, the moment you put them in a different situation, their view does change.