Bud and D-Marks

Universal Healthcare

Advice to socialists of all stripes. If universal health care is such a good idea, why not all get together with your socialist buddies and figure out how to pay for it amongst yourselves? Then let your chums in government run it. I am sure all the efficiency you have been looking for will be attained. Just hope really hard.

S&P Upgrades Three Tranches Of Benchmark CMBS Bond To AAA

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- In a stunning reversal in its evaluation of a clutch of mortgage bonds backed by commercial property, Standard & Poor's Tuesday raised the ratings on several securities it had downgraded just a week ago.

Among the bonds that have been moved back to the top-notch triple-A category from the triple-B minus category are securities that make up the benchmark GG-10 deal.

The ratings firm said it raised the ratings following the implementation of its "recently updated criteria." An S&P spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.

The upgrade means that these bonds are now eligible for a Federal Reserve program which offers investors cheap loans to buy them.

Market participants said they are confused by S&P's actions.

"Every time they do this, they erode their credibility as a ratings agency," said Derrick Wulf, a senior portfolio manager at Dwight Asset Management in Burlington, Vt.

This is particularly unnerving at a time when the market is seeking stability, said one market participant who declined to be named.

The market for commercial mortgage loans has been struggling, as the economic downturn has led to empty malls and offices. Borrowers have been unable to raise fresh funding or refinance existing loans, increasing defaults.

Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank is closely monitoring the commercial real estate market, given the difficulty borrowers are having to refinance these loans.

-By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2227; anusha.shrivastava@ dowjones.com

Walking on the Moon

One time the police showed up at a friends house. A friend had the good sense to request "Walking on the Moon." Apparently they forgot their instruments.

No Comment Needed

Lew Rockwell, Market Timer

March 5, 2009 1¢ Stock Posted by Lew Rockwell on March 5, 2009 07:33 PM
The Dow is below 6,500, headed to 3,600 (my then-joke prediction when discussing the book Dow 36,000) and maybe 1,400 (if the 1930s is our model). You don’t own any common stocks, do you? (Thanks to Bobby)




It amazes me how anti-stock market so many Austrians (and libertarians) seem to think the stock market is some sort of scam. Somehow owning a business is good, but once you are part owner and there is a liquid market to unload your share things all change. It becomes a scam, everything is overvalued, you should buy gold and nothing else. I am not sure when this happened. Rothbard seemed to cheer stock markets, and identified them as symbols of economic freedom in Making Economic Sense:

One time I asked Professor von Mises, the great expert on the economics of socialism, at what point on this spectrum of statism would he designate a country as "socialist" or not. At that time, I wasn't sure that any definite criterion existed to make that sort of clear-cut judgment.

And so I was pleasantly surprised at the clarity and decisiveness of Mises's answer. "A stock market," he answered promptly. "A stock market is crucial to the existence of capitalism and private property. For it means that there is a functioning market in the exchange of private titles to the means of production. There can be no genuine private ownership of capital without a stock market: there can be no true socialism if such a market is allowed to exist."

And so it is particularly thrilling to see that in the headlong flight from central planning and socialism, several of the Communist countries are actually introducing, or preparing to introduce, a stock market. A prospect that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago! The process is already in its early stages in Communist China. And the Soviet Union is beginning to talk about introducing a stock market.

I could understand a bearish, sell all your stocks, call if Lew or really any Austrian had a ever come out and suggested buying stocks when they were cheap. I haven't seen this.

Where Yellow?

Lance misses the maillot jaune by 10ths.