Shenandoah

by John Galt

January 10, 2010

While this can not be said as a 100% affirmation that “all” public transportation systems are a joke, the reality is that anything run, managed or influenced by the bureaucratic arms of government are usually run like hell. Just like the chapter in Atlas Shrugged where two trains collided head on thanks to political interference and bungling America is now witnessing what happens to our largest cities when the government tries to prove that they run the “transportation” networks. That idiot socialist lightweight who runs New York City is going to solve the gridlock problem by raising taxes and fees on drivers while closing streets. Brilliant. And his ban on public cigar smoking in cigar bars made everyone in NYC quit smoking cigars too, right? Today’s example is courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel and it really speaks as to what happens when you allow the omnipotent powers of bureaucrats, the lowest life forms on the planet (Yes even below the Ebola virus), to manage the affairs of our society:

Lynx: As fares and unemployment rise, service and ridership decline

Yes, fares are rising to keep the operations runing but ridership declines as unemployment rises and those in the lowest strata of society are unable to afford to ride on their pet project.  Remember, brilliance like this requires a college degree from one of those Wisconsin Idea institutions where neo-Marxism is the rule of the day and independent initiative and intelligent common sense thought processes are banned.

Good thing we have these degreed souls ready to take over health care and management of the sheeple’s 401K and IRA retirement accounts as soon as the President’s pen meets the legislation when it hits his desk.

by John Galt

January 10, 2010

The AP produced one gem of a story today:

Main St. to Wall St.: We don’t buy rally

Investors, their faith shaken, have begun to shun stocks

It was published this morning in various newspapers around the land but if you’re a regular reader of the ZeroHedge blog (Link on right side of the page) you’ll understand why this validates even more so the skepticism posted there and on these pages about this 60% rally we have seen in equities since the March 2009 lows. They even quote one of my all time favorite economists in the piece:

“People have been lured into two bubbles seven years apart, and for a lot of them it’s over,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Toronto money manager Gluskin Sheff. “The bulls say if the market is up this much without retail investors, just watch when they come in, but it isn’t going to happen.”

Oops. But Jim Cramer said it was a banner year for stocks and everyone should be participating and the numbers reflect that. Uh, James, no they don’t.

Per the WSJ the current S&P500 P/E ratio is a whopping 75.60 using the trailing 12 months earnings. That is so far outside the historic norm it’s a joke.

Average daily volume for the past 30 days was a measly 903 million.

Average HFT component on that volume (Hat tip ZeroHedge) was between 40-60% daily.

Yet the clowns on Bubblenetworks across the cable spectrum keep telling us that the sideline money is returning soon and the small investor will get the bull on its feet again and running hard?

Well, let’s go back to the article and quote the small investor who lost $700,000 because he trusted the “system” with the lying moronic big house brokerages who could care less about the “small investor” and only really care about dealing with real investors with a minimum of 8 figures to play with. Here is the quote that says it all:

“It’s like investing in Bernie Madoff,” he says of the stock markets. “Anyone not putting money into stocks has it right.”