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I have heard many talking heads on TV proclaim that the market finally can go up now. The dow now is at 8150. These same talking heads were also despondent in  early March, as they proclaimed that oil would hit $25, and that fair value on the S&P500 was more like 9 times earnings of $50 (or S&P500 =450). Some  say that bear markets end when the market shrugs off bad news (-6.1% GDP for one) and goes up.  I say that given what the market has shown us in the last two years: that the market is a merciless (more…)

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I’ve been hearing the term “unintended consequences” alot lately.  Here are some of my most important unintended consequences:  1) The rush to implement the TARP program late last year by the Bush administration has yielded a huge benefit to the big government Obama administration.  They are using the TARP money to hold the bankers hostage http://tinyurl.com/cmol3v 2) Mark to market “adjustments” will kill the Treasury’s PPIP plan.  Congress and their lobbyist friends successfully changed the rules of the game.  They went for the quick fix.  Now it looks like the only investors in the PPIP plan will be some pension plans that (more…)