China's Strengths

China continues to make the news as our chief competitor and financier. One of my email newsletters had some interesting perspective.

Robert Hsu claims that China's strengths are:

• China has little exposure to the problems we have here.
• China has no restrictions on spending stimulus money.
• China’s banks are stronger, with no subprime mess holding them back.
• China has over a $2 trillion surplus to spend as it sees fit.
• China has turned its growth internal with a $586 stimulus spending program.
• China has its own 1.3 billion-man market to sell to and a workforce that’s growing richer and spending money every day!

Jefferson & Currency

"If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless." Thomas Jefferson

The Glacial Destruction

"A contracting banking system is like a glacier - it destroys everything in it's path."
Elliott Wave International - 9/25/09

The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Teet

My wife and daughter have been fostering cats and kittens from the animal shelter lately and I've had the opportunity to observe these precious little creatures. One of the funniest things to spectate is when the mama lays down and the kittens bombard her in search of a teet full of milk. They look like kamikazi pilots diving over one another in search of their meal. While there are enough teets for each and every kitten, it's hilarious to watch one abort his/her teet and leep over their siblings to fight for one that is already taken. Then the one that gets pushed off has to aggressively seek a new teet. In the end, they all get fed, but during the process, each one at some point decides he has to search for a teet that might be better.

While on the subject of milking the system, I wasn't shocked yesterday when Hank Paulson announced a major shift in his bailout plan. He stated "the facts have changed". Really? What facts and how can the financial system change that fast in four weeks? The reality is, they are perplexed on how to catch the "falling arrow". Now the auto industry is searching for it's teet. How many teets do the Feds have? At some point, mama's going to say, I'm all out of milk! Then what?

I thought that it would be informative to pass along the list of banks that have announced participation in the Treasury program:

FIRST ROUND
Citgroup $25 billion
Wells Fargo $25 billion
JPMorgan Chase $25 billion
Bank of America $15 billion
Merrill Lynch $10 billion
Goldman Sachs $10 billion
Morgan Stanley $10 billion
Bank of New York $3.0 billion
State Street $2.0 billion
TOTAL $125 billion

SECOND ROUND
PNC $7.7 billion
Capital One $3.6 billion
SunTrust $3.5 billion
Regions Financial $3.5 billion
Fifth Third $3.4 billion
Key $2.5 billion
Comerica $2.25 billion
Northern Trust $1.5 billion
Huntington $1.4 billion
First Horizon $866 million
City National $395 million
Valley National $330 million
Washington Federal $230 million
First Niagara $186 million
TOTAL $31.36 billion