Monday Random's

Back from a great 4th of July weekend. It doesn't get any better than spending time with family and friends while sharing a bunch of laughs in great weather. Add to that, we saw another Tiger victory (#68), possibly the best tennis match I've ever watched, in the final at Wimbeldon with Federer and Roddick, the Celtics signed a solid bench player in Rasheed Wallace and veteran Red Sox pitcher, Tim Wakefield, made his first all-star team. It's simply a great time to be a sports fan....actually it always is, but it's still great to be able to watch the careers of Woods and Federer blossom in front of our eyes.

Couple random thoughts from the capital markets/economy...

-California is now issuing IOU's to various state vendors, as lawmakers ineptly try to piece together a budget which will not send the Golden State further into bankruptcy. All I can picture is Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber, with a briefcase full of IOU's because they spent all the real cash. It sounds surreal and is quite sickening. California would be the 8th largest economy, as measured by GDP, in the world if it were an autonomous state. It now faces a $24.3 billion deficit for the new fiscal year which began July 1. I'd say that it's a pretty good leading indicator for what's to come for the rest of the states and the country as a whole. Not pretty. The most asinine news coming from this state is that the Democrats want to raise taxes to fund the budget deficit. You serious? Rather than cut wasteful government spending, let's just add more to the people's tab. Societal acrimony anyone?

-Sweden set bank deposit rates at -0.25%. That's right, -0.25%. How the hell do you entice people to save when they are getting charged to keep their money in a bank? Have the central bankers gone mad? Let's pray that this move is extremely unsuccessful so that our own central bank brainchild, Ben Bernanke, doesn't try this move at home. These Keynesian economists are really pissing me off with their radical thought process. How anyone can buy into this, I don't know, but clearly things are going to get a lot worse, globally, before things get better.

-In an interview with ABC, Vice President, Joe Biden, said,"Our administration misread how bad the economy that we inherited truly was." After that he goes on to say that talks of a second stimulus package are being discussed. Only 10% of the $787 has been spent so far. This has clearly done nothing other than put future generations deeper in debt and allocate money for pet projects for the good folks that voted for Obama. Another surreal and sickening piece of news.

-As if you can't tell, I'm not too happy/confident with the way things are going, stock market aside. It's as if many of our "leaders" are still living in some type of fantasy land. All we've been doing for years is kicking the can further down the road so that someone else has to deal with the problems. How about we man up for once and show some actual leadership. By now, people know that we are not in ordinary times. I'm not trying to turn this into a political statement, because honestly, I'm not a Republican nor am I a Democrat; I am a capitalist. I will affiliate myself with whichever party has the most viable economic policy. I believe that if a country has a healthy economy, wealth is created, the standard of living rises and social moods rise in kind. This is the way a country should be ran. Capitalism gives every man a chance to create as much wealth as he is willing to work for. It doesn't seem as if our "leaders" agree with my thoughts, but I truly believe, down deep, the majority of the American people do. When will a voice of reason emerge? Where is John Galt when you need him?