CapitalistMarks

The bull . . . or bull#%@&.

Posted on 23. Jan, 2009 by scott in general musings

Its cold here.??Rainy.? Better than the snow we have had for weeks on end.??I suffer from SED and as anyone who has seasonal effective disorder knows the worst days are when it is cold, snowy, cloudy and smoggy.? Achoo!

Just read in the paper that the air in our wonderful state of Utah is the worst in the nation, and the worst air is right here in the Wasatch Front.? How awful.??We have smog that you could cut with a knife and spread like peanur butter.??Yechhhhh what an image.

To get a break from this?I went golfing yesterday.? Yeah,?I know, sounds stupid.? My wife thinks so and so do my parents and my kids.? But the important thing is that iI don’t?think so.?? Drove to the only course that is open within a 150 mile radius at this time of year (and rarely that). . . wingpointe at the Salt Lake International airport (don’t laugh . . . there are actually a few flights to Canada and so it really is an international airport).? Teed off at one o’clock, when the temperature was 33 degrees farhenheit with wind 15 mph out of the north.? There was still so much snow on the ground that?I lost three golf balls when?I hit them in the snow and they just disappeared.? And?I mean to tell you that these were not just good shots they were great – plus?I lost the balls which is something?I can ill afford to do (not in the monetary sense – think score here).?

Then, there were the greens.? Most were okay, well some were okay, but a bunch were so covered with snow you couldn’t really putt without a snowplow.? One green’s hole and?flag were solid? ice and so the best you could expect was to roll you ball over the frozen hole and count it as a made putt even though the ball didn’t stop.? Fun stuff.? By the fourth hole the temperature?was down to 32 and?I had four layers of clothes on and that wasn’t enough.? The wind was the worst?part of it.??Made a few pars, no birdies (who would’a thunk pars were even possible in the conditions) and a few others? (which on the scorecard?show up as double bogeys?but only because?I can’t stand to put down?anything higher when my fingers are frozen to the pencil).

So, what does this have to do with the bull, as in the market bull (not the kind of bull your broker gives you every time he (or she) calls to tell you that your account needs more cash so he can lose it as well)??

Here’s the deal.

I?had a couple of shots that I simply ‘chunked’.? You may not be intimately familiar with?that term in the sporting sense but?I can tell you that iIam and so is every other golfer who tries to play with not one but two gloves on. . . . (or with a hitch in the backswing)?.???The?’chunk’ . . . a shot that is?made by?swinging the?club with great power but not great finesse.? The ball is hit by just a tiny part of the club and slams into the ground inches from the tee and then rolls about the length of a club before it feebly stops within reach.? Oh, my gosh!!? Its flat out embarassing?– particularly when you are playing?from the blue tees (the one further from the hole and intended for the big boys) with guys who all have complete sets of Taylor Made clubs and custom winter golf outfits.

Back to the title.??I hit two?’chunkers’ yesterday and on the second one?I had this image of giving up golf and trying something less challenging, like badmiton or perhaps nuclear engineering, or running for Congress without a millionaires backing.?

Dang those ‘chunks’.??Sucks when?you try to do something and it just doesn’t turn out the way you?expect.

Hence the bull.?

Our new President wants to get a stimulus plan passed (and by the way so do I? and?about 300 million other Americans).? Problem is Congress is notoriously slow to act . . . they have other?things on their mind. Imporant things such as decorating their offices or framing their pictures from the inauguration.?THe?important stuff that keeps them from doing what they are paid to do.? Obama wants the stimulus immediately and so Congress has agreed to shorten vacations and start?thinking about voting on it in a month or so (guess that is immediate to those knuckleheads).

But assuming congress decides to actually work there are two problems.

First the stimulus coud be a ‘chunk’ . . . kinda like the one Bush pushed through last spring.? The one where $168billion was?doled out to citizens who filed taxes with the intent that they would spend it and stimulate the economy.? The one that didn’t work because you and? I saved the money or paid off bills and didn’t spend it like we were supposed to.??Bush’s advisors said it would work because the brains at treasury said so.? It was supposed to work because if you put $168 billion into people’s hands and if they spend it? . . . then that thing economists call ‘the multiplier’ kicks in and pretty soon that $168 becomes $4-500 billion.? Cool stuff when it works. Didn’t.? Nada.? Zip.? ‘Chunk’!

Second the stimulus needs to work fast (the $168 billion not only didn’t work fast it didn’t work at all).?Fast means weeks or a few months unless you are a politician and then it means?years.? We can’t afford another ‘chunk’ on the coming stimulus.

Whatever amount of our money the government finally decides to pass out needs to be spent so that it does three things (in order of importance):

??? 1 — increase jobs significantly and fast,

??? 2 — improve confidence of the consumer (make ‘em feel like their jobs and salaries are going to be there in a year or two so that they will spend, spend spend),

??? 3 –?(i’ve added this?one as a result of the?$168 billion fiasco) spend our money in such a way that it gets into the hands of people or?businesses that will pump it back into jobs, tvs, vacations . . . .

So Obama and Congress.? Its up to you.? Are you going to?give us the bull back . . . or just more bull#%@& ?

I wish?I had some real hope but these guys don’t play?together well when the?good of the nation is involved (not historically anyway)?and besides they really don’t have to worry about their jobs? so why should they go the extra mile?? Work on the weekend?? You gotta be kidding me!

#%@& (crap)!? I’m going out to practice my?swing so that when the rain stops I can go out into the cold and hit a few more golf balls.? My extra effort?will hopefully mean?I won’t hit more ‘chunks’.?

Sure wish our leaders?would make the same?kind of extra effort for the good of our economy.? Assess, think, debate, agree.

and fast!

Important point.? Send me some stimulus $$ and I PROMISE I will spend it–fast!? Just give me a second chance.

And fast!

?

thanks to michiwurm for the flikr photo.

Tags: congress, ecomony, president, stimulus