Sharks & Political Blood

"Congressman Charles Rangel is still negotiating Friday to prevent an embarrassing public trial on ethics charges, but Republicans are wasting no time making it difficult for him. The sharks are in the water, and they smell blood. That's why a group of Harlem civic leaders are demanding a criminal probe of the ethically wounded congressman, CBS station WCBS-TV reports."
Source: CBS

"Politicians ratings will continue to fall aligning with a continued decline in mass social mood. Incumbents beware."
Random Roving - January 1, 2010

Sierpinski's Triangle and The U.S. States

In February 2009, I made a post referencing Sierpinski's Triangle for a theory on the fractal nature of this calamity. The New York Times reports today about "the state of the States":

"California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. And states are responding in sometimes desperate ways, raising concerns that they, too, could face a debt crisis. New Hampshire was recently ordered by its State Supreme Court to put back $110 million that it took from a medical malpractice insurance pool to balance its budget. Colorado tried, so far unsuccessfully, to grab a $500 million surplus from Pinnacol Assurance, a state workers’ compensation insurer that was privatized in 2002. It wanted the money for its university system and seems likely to get a lesser amount, perhaps $200 million. Connecticut has tried to issue its own accounting rules. Hawaii has inaugurated a four-day school week. California accelerated its corporate income tax this year, making companies pay 70 percent of their 2010 taxes by June 15. And many states have balanced their budgets with federal health care dollars that Congress has not yet appropriated."

The entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/economy/30states.html

Babysitting The Politicians

"The great issue, this friendly critic added, is debt. The public knows this; Congress and the White House do not. 'To me the Republicans are as rotten as the Democrats' in terms of spending. 'Almost.' 'I hope we have big changes in 2010,' the friend said. Only significant loss will force the president to focus on spending. 'To heal our country we need to get the arrogance out of the White House and the elitists out of the Congress. We need tough love. We need a real adult in the White House because we don't have adults in the Congress.'"
Peggy Noonan's Friend

Source: The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704878904575031563325226450.html?mod=rss_Today

The 1%

"My sole purpose one and a half years ago when I started writing about what I saw happening in this country was to convince enough people that the fiscal and foreign policies of our politician leaders would lead to disaster, so that we could change our path and I could leave my three sons a future brighter than my own. I have come to the conclusion that less than 1% of Americans or 3 million people really care about the path of destruction we are on. Approximately 1% of the population owns 90% of the wealth in the country. The actual number of people in control of the country is quite small. There are maybe a couple thousand people who control the reins of power (100 people in the White House, 535 Congressmen, 50 bankers, 20 people in the Federal Reserve, 9 Supreme Court justices, 100 people in power at governmental agencies, 50 media titans, 100 corporate CEOs, and maybe 200 rich influential people such as Gates, Soros and Buffett)."
James Quinn

http://www.theburningplatform.com/

Witches In Edinburgh

A few years ago, I had the exciting opportunity to travel to Edinburgh, Scotland for several business trips. It's one of my favorite cities in the world. My cousins, the Scots, are a great passionate people. Edinburgh is a great city with an incredible history. The castle towers over the city and shines brightly at night.

I was playing tourist one Saturday and took the tour of the castle. At one point on the tour, we were standing next to one of the walls looking over the edge and the tour guide stated "it was at this location over a ten year period that two hundred witches were thrown over the wall to their death in the bogg below." One of the tourists yelled "what happen to the witches after the tenth year?" The guide quickly responded "I guess that they all disappeared!"

It's interesting to watch "the shift" occur live. After crossing a significant inflection point in the year 2000, we have seen a downward trend in mass social mood. Aligned with this shift, we've seen many witch hunts. Suddenly there are witches everywhere! The SEC is chasing the bad guys. The CIA is chasing the bad guys. The U.S. military is chasing the bad guys. Right wing Christians are chasing the bad guys. The tea party protesters are chasing the bad guys. Rush, Sean, and Ann are chasing the bad guys. The amazing aspect is that when mass social mood is trending upward, the witches don't seem to be that bad. Ask Clinton, OJ, and Madoff about that.

If I could, I would ask the castle tour guide, where have all of these witches suddenly come from?

"Bear markets bring recrimimation. Practices that were routine during the bull market suddenly become vilified. We cannot say exactly who the culprits will be this time, but they will probably be some of the most successful and aggressive exploiters of the old uptrend. In the interest of justice, (and the enformcement of a whole new social mood), many will be punished. Investors are itching for a fight. Soon, charges of manipulation and the need for reform will be flooding out."

Robert Prechter, 2007 Elliott Wave Financial Forecast

"There is clearly more such mayhem to come, and Congress and financial authorities of every stripe are hard at work preparing the tar and feathers. A big bear market in social mood always attaches itself to the reputations of those who rose highest in the preceding advance."

Robert Prechter - January 2009

Organized Chaos

I was working on the laptop out on the back patio today and noticed this excellent example of organized chaos. While the team appears in total chaos, they very efficiently achieving their objective of transporting a piece of dog food (100x their weight) across the patio (15 ft.) in ten minutes. Very impressive. I only witnessed one brawl between two ants. In true Darwinian fashion, the larger one took care of the smaller one. It must have been union versus non-union!

Wouldn't it be incredible if the Senate and Congress worked as efficiently as these little critters!!