As I format my cluster storage....

I read that McCain disagrees with the bailouts the Fed has been dropping on a regular basis, and wants to fire the current SEC chairman.

I'm all for canning the SEC chairman... in fact I think we need a total SEC overhaul.  I can't tell you the number of times I've yelled about fraud on the market.  Yes - it's a human institution that's bound to make mistakes... but one of the big reasons we're bailing out these giant companies is because of the SEC (and the FTC) has allowed these same companies to merge.

Speaking as a architect in IT... it's like putting the entire internet on 4 servers.  If one of those servers goes slow or dies... then you loose 1/4 of the internet.  But chances are also greater that one of the other 3 will also go down - because the load has increased from 25% to 33% (at best).  You can guess, that if 3 goes down - that 2 will certainly follow on quickly, and so on until you reach a complete collapse.

So what's the solution???  Diversity, redundancy, and backup.  Diversity is achieved by having functionality broken down into separate areas.  In business speak - that means going back to walling off investment & commercial banks.  Redundancy means having more than 2-3 major players in a market segment... Fannie, Freddie, and Ginnie should be broken up and sold to investment groups.

And finally, we get to backup.  And that means the Fed in this case.

Frankly, the Fed is doing exactly what it should be doing.  The main problem is that it wouldn't be this bad in the first place if Diversity and Redundancy in the market were alive and well.

What lead to the great depression of 1929?  

-- Stupidity and greed.

What made the depression last 10 years?? 

--No customers.  Plain and simple.  Call it underconsumption, lack of credit, gold standard lockin... whatever.

The fed has no choice here....  they've got to bail out these scumbags to keep consumption up.  People don't feel like consuming when they're bank is on fire.  They take their leftover money, stuff it in the mattress and start waiting around for the apocalypse.

Let's just hope they don't go bailing out Airlines and dogfood factories.  Even if they deserve it more than our banking mafia.

The good news is that the Fed now has these scumbags by the necktie.  If they had a pair - now's the time to start implementing the golden rules of market stability....  diversity, redundancy, and backup.

Anyway.. back to my SAN.

Interest Rates lowered again...

In an effort to stimulate investment, the Fed has again lowered rates.   I'm still wondering why though...

Liquidity has been holding steady thus-far, and inflation seems to be growing.  Growth is measly, but supposedly holding positive - at least according to our pointy-haired overlords.

Here's what I see happening though... this newfound investment credit isn't going to build new capitol.  It's not going towards real-estate, manufacturing, and I'd venture to guess that little of it is going overseas.

No, it's going into commodity markets.  Oil, grain, pork bellies, milk.  Yeah, exactly.  In other words - our supposed bailout is only going to exacerbate inflation!  Investors don't care, and honestly what choice do they have?  If I had 50 million sitting in the bank, you'd bet I'd be playing commodities and currencies.

It's time for [insert person in charge] to do the handout I'm afraid.  Yeah, it'll look weasel-y and "corporate friendly" - but honestly it does work.  Time to give away the capitol improvement tax credit.  Time to spur labs making cars, computers, and everything in between.  Do it on the cheap with big credits and small funding - and you'll likely drive the US into another boom 5-10 years from now.

Until then... every-time you buy a 2 dollar loaf a bread and a 6 dollar gallon of Milk, you can thank Mr. Investor and his friend Uncle Fed.   Break out the Caviar!