Vee Jay likes the NY Times very much. She reads it almost every day. She was concerned enough about another little NY Times article to send it to us for a comment. It came out about July, 22 2002. Some excerpts:

"By David E. Sanger, Washington
July 21, 2002
The Global Cost of Crony Capitalism
Throughout much of the 1990's, Washington had a standard - and somewhat preachy - message to the rest of the world: In an era when markets rule and military might is of limited use, a nation's influence rises and fall largely on its financial credibility. "

"a sobering question is settling over Washington. "

"If America's corporate prowess and clean markets were as much a source of its superpower status as its military might, could corporate abuses erode a key element of national power? Is America going to pay a diplomatic price for crony capitalism, as so many other countries have? "

"So more than the fate of the Dow may be riding on the quality of the reforms that Congress and Mr. Bush agree upon in coming weeks. "

"If so, the rest of the world would see more of the hard edge of America, the America of pre-emptive strikes against its potential enemies, and less of the open economy the country hailed as a model for the world. "

"American clout hinges on far more than just the reliability of profit-and-loss statements - the power of its ideas, its culture and the astounding reach of its military are all part of the mix. This was a point President Bush underscored Friday when he escaped questions about corporate America's troubles, and his own behavior as a private investor, to travel to Fort Drum, N.Y., to bask in the reflected glory of the 10th Mountain Division, whose troops chased Al Qaeda through the caves in Afghanistan. "

"perhaps these past months will prove to be just another ugly blip in American capitalism. But this is the first major American downturn since the country emerged as the winner of the globalization sweepstakes. The fact remains that when global success and global influence are commodities, it hurts when the world yells "sell."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/weekinreview/21SANG.html

Here's what we think...

Bear markets happen. Bear markets can be good. You needn't worry about the financial downside since your personal financial advisor has consistently given you good advice.

The equities markets are one of the most interesting aspects of American society. A Japanese friend, the Kabu Sensei had been doing Japanese stocks for about five years when he asked us for advice. He wanted to trade American stocks starting back in 1998 or so. Using some tips he traded some stocks and made about 5,000,000 yen. He cashed out and put his winnings into a substantial 30% down payment on his new house bought well after the bubble had burst and real estate prices had decreased. He had used his own tried and true techniques which had brought him successfully through the Japanese bubble. The Nikkei had been around fourty thousand and bottomed at around 7,500. Most people forget that the unit of the Nikkei average is the yen so that 40,000 is only three hundred dollars and change. The 7,500 level is only about sixty dollars and change.
Kabu Sensei used to follow some basic rules.
One: Don't believe anything you read.
Two: Don't believe anything you hear.
Three: Read the charts. Think contrarian. A 100% rise in an index within a year's time followed by a change from a Dem president to a Repub president is a gift which doesn't happen often. Winners bet on the downside.

Sometimes stocks seem to follow the traditional conventional wisdom that stock prices are based on earnings and sometimes not. The main determinant is always constant, GREED. Greed is the common denominator. Greed in this case is bad only when you don't understand what's going on.

The average earings of the Nasdaq companies had been zero. Now it is less due to the realization that the reported earnings didn't always include the losses. Duh.
Who moves the market daily? CNBC uses the term, "investors." Are they individuals like you and me? Not really. They are large numbers of traders working on commission. They can make an MACD chart do anything. The big boys whose funds they use always win. Why? Because they know where the prices of stocks will go next week and tommorrow. How do they know that? Because they are responsible for the fluctuations in price. The rest are along for the ride and are just guessing. When market averages are lower, a 100 unit move up or down represents a greater percentage ROI than when the markets are at higher levels. The 12,000 and 5,000 levels for the respective indexes were artificial. The way the DOW and Nasdaq achieved these absurd levels was managed astonishingly well. Who was buying QCOM at $660? The same commissioned traders who manipualted the price to $880.

The stock market and economy are behaving thus far exactly as Cheney and Bush predicted again and again and again in their first year. Maybe they know something?

Two versions of morality.
NNPC, ninety-nine per cent.
OPC, one per cent.
Legalized Megatheft now uses the 97-3 Rule to create dummy companies. Counting profits as earnings while ignoring losses was once considered so bad that it was illegal. Paying execs in stocks and options, thereby encouraging a corporate mentality of "pump and dump" should perhaps be illegal, depending on whether you are in the OPC or the NNPC. These apparently corrupt practices seem very bad to those simpletons who live life as though the NNPC morality were the definitive reality. It isn't. The OPC morality is the determinative form of morality. Its rules always prevail.

There is an apparent lack of congruity at present. This is being managed quite well. At least as well as the Savings and Loan scandal. That scandal yielded a higher visible total loot scammed off by the "crooks," $500 billion. But this time there is no scandal. Or at least attention has been successfully focused in all the correct ersatz places. And very little of what has occurred can be prosecuted as explicitly illegal activities, not even the document shredding.

The up side is that people who write articles, like the one you read last, can make a living by pretending that the NNPC morality has determinative significance. Not only that, these current "problems" can be used as justification for both perpetual war and restricting liberty.

What could be better than that?