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That quote is from <i>former</i> Fed Governor Lyle Gramley, not Bill Poole. No sitting FOMC member would tie their own hands like that. Martin

I've been bearish on housing and financials for quite a while and I'm making bank on this downturn. July was my best month in a long time, and August is looking good so far. I've had only about half a dozen down days since July 1. I don't mean to gloat or anything but you asked. A shout...

I short quite a few illiquid stocks, so I see forced covers more often than most. I generally get about three or four forced covers a year. It's just one of the risks of selling short, and a cost of doing business. Hasn't stopped me from making money shorting stocks. Martin

Nice job of backpedalling, AAA. Good to see you agree with me and disagree with your own post! :) For my part, I agree that entitlement spending is a big part of the problem and it'll be a tough getting Democrats to bring entitlement programs into solvency. But they can hardly be worse than...

Hell yeah. If you can't afford $362,875 of Berkshire Hathaway, you shouldn't be trading. Fucking odd lot pikers. Martin

He's the Comptroller General and director of the Government Accountability Office. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptroller <i>A comptroller or controller is a person who supervises cash flow in an organization.</i> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Accountability_Office <i>This...

I'm pretty bearish and cynical about Wall Street and its BS, but that article is a poor and shallow excuse for analysis. Invective like that gives cynics everywhere a bad name. What a shoddy piece of work. If he'd written that six months ago maybe it would have been insightful. Today it's just...

What a crock. Republicans, like the Germans I guess you could say, were poor judges of character. But once Bush's character flaws were revealed in his policy, I think the Republicans have displayed good American common sense in their skepticism and search for a new leader. You can't have a...

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2003/0430.asp http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2003/0303.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act Martin

Wow, you'd think that after bringing us 8 years of George W. Bush, you guys would have found a little humility. Maybe a change of heart is too much to ask, that's fine, I can live with it. But just back off a bit on the hyperbolic rhetoric, please. Whatever you despise us for, it can't be worse...

Solving trade problems with military power is like doing open heart surgery with a broadsword. A poor choice even in the last resort. So, what <i>is</i> your policy recommendation, AAA? I've made mine: raise the taxes Bush cut, cut the reckless spending Bush raised, and buy back our debt...

Oh sure. By that standard we can destroy the economy of pretty much any industrialized nation. The cost to the US and the world economy would be unacceptable. We would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. ...at interest rates that reflect their status as third world nations. They are...

We can call it confiscation, but foreign buyers of US debt will call it default. I can't think of a faster way to turn the US into a third world country than to default on our debt obligations, no matter what the political justification. What, are you joking? Most of what we send to China is...

Hear, hear. Of course if things get bad enough we can just go to war with them. Last time that happened we ended up retreating from the Yalu River past the 38th parallel, longest retreat in US military history. Never underestimate the Chinese. Martin

As a liberal, it pains me to say this, but I agree with every word. This is one issue where Congressional Democrats are and always have been on the wrong side. Martin

Fortunately Republicans would never try to legislate morality. Just those damn liberals. Martin

You and Paulson are apparently the last two people in America who think our problems are limited to subprime. Subprime loans are mostly 2 year ARMs so they are getting nailed first. The more prosperous areas are awash in 5 year option ARMs and IO ARMs. These are time bombs too, they just...

The best explanation I have heard is that the high end of the residential housing resale market is still moving, whereas the mid and low end market has all but seized. This causes median sale prices to rise, since more expensive houses are disproportionately represented in sales. The...

You guys aren't being creative enough. Get ahead of the game. The time to short the subprime lenders was when the homebuilders were getting hammered in 2006. The time to short the alt-A lenders was when the subprimes were getting roached in March. The time to short the mortgage...

<a href="http://www.callwriter.com/newsletter/images/cfc-insidertrading.jpg">Like mad.</a> 8 million shares in 2007 alone. That's 1.5% of outstanding shares, sold by the CEO in 7 months when he was crowing about how Countrywide was going to be the only mortgage specialist left standing...