11/19   S&P new closing low, down from late Oct and this month.  GOOG at 280.
        BTW, did anyone watch that Bill Ackman video?  If so, can you tell me
        what the gist of it was?  If you were all watching the Keeley Hazell
        video instead, I guess that's excusable.

11/19   Jing Hua Wu, the engineer who police say fatally shot three executives
        at a Santa Clara startup company last week just hours after being
        fired, spent the last few years amassing a large portfolio of
        investment properties.
        Stick lolz under this.  I dare you.
        \_ Advice to executives: don't meet with someone you just fired.
        \_ Waiting for the Chico CCW guy to say something useful here <----
        \_ And he said he couldn't afford a private attorney.
           \_ mebbe he was just being a cheapazz
              \_ maybe he lost his shirt on all his investments
                 \_ and his wife was recently laid off
        \_ This guy is kind of my hero, I have fantasized about shooting my
           boss many times (but never actually go through with it, at least
           not so far...).
           \_ You are so hard.  Can I have your babies?
              \_ Spread your legs and embrace his hardness.
              \_ I think you are mistaken about this guy's intentions. He does
                 not seem to be attempting to come off as "hard".  Or, at least
                 he certainly isn't.  He's coming off more as the "you took my
                 swingline stapler" guy from office.  Do you think it is "hard"
                 to have fantasies about killing people?  I'm sure that all men
                 (/boys) have them at some point.  Or are you SO above all that.
                 'cause if so, i'm very impressed.  You are so superior, can I
                 to have fantasies about killing people?  I'm sure that all
                 men (/boys) have them at some point.  Or are you SO above
                 all thatscause if so, i'm very impressed.
                 You are so superior, can I
                 have your babies?
                 \_ No I think someone is trying to be hard when they cheer
                    that someone went into an office and killed 3 people.
                    \_ lulz
              \_ Can you take my thick 8 inches?
           \_ I am fully erect.
                 \_ maybe maybe maybe who cares.  He murdered 3 people.
                    Let him fry.
                    \_ Agreed. -sf liberal

11/19   O'Reilly show visits SF
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpmz2sKzg6g
        \_ It is good for his hate filled viewers to see where their new
           leaders are from.
        \_ Look, O'Reilly and Al Qaeda are in agreement:
           http://tinyurl.com/5bs9tp

11/19   Toyota to lay off temporary workers in US.  are we screwed now?
        \_ When GM goes under, they'll rehire them.
        \_ HAN: (over speaker) Now let's blow this thing and go home!
           \_ I know you don't believe in technical indicators, but today
              the S&P 500 very nicely bounced off of its Oct 2002 low.

11/19   politburo:  why are you running LDAP at all?  or alternatively,
        run it on soda.

11/19   An hour ago I saw this:
         11:02:56 up 21 days,  7:30, 28 users,  load average: 595.04, 732.07,
         766.67
        What happened?

        And now "top" says:
        Mem:   2076388k total,  1935992k used,   140396k free,  184428k buffers
        Swap:  3903784k total,      104k used,  3903680k free,  531404k cached
        Only 104K swap space used out of 3.9G?  That's strange.
        \_ lulz
       \_ the   reason Soda keeps screwing up is        the LDAP server that ssh
          needs to communicate    with to  let you      log in,  'keg', is always
           screwing up.            politely ask politburo   to fix      this situation.
           And      your next point... I am not sure        'free'      or 'top'        means what
           you      think it  means in linux.    the OS     is possibly smarter than you
           might think    about freeing up       memory     for use.
           \_ your emacs fu is low
        \_ I miss the days when SODA went down, there is actually a public
           motd that explains what happened.
        \_ Maybe Soda needs a cron job that reboots every week.

11/18   http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/19/BANK1478HP.DTL
        Hans Reiser, the computer programmer who admitted to strangling his
        estranged wife, is trying to appeal his conviction and sentence on the
        grounds of ineffective assistance from his lead attorney.
        Reiser gave a number of other reasons for his appeal, saying he wanted
        to explore "anything else that may help me get out of prison and
        reunited with my children" and get his "life situation improved."
        \_ Umm... little late for that, don't 'cha think?  Besides, do
           his kids WANT to see him now?  I sure wouldn't.

11/18   why are we completely fucking retarded in Iraq?
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/68dlo3
        \_ This is how we get people killed.
        \_ We are completely fucking retarded all over.  It just doesn't
           usually get people killed so directly.
        \_ this is consistant.  We simply don't *CARE* about Iraqi's lives.
           If they get murdered and all, it's ok, cuz we are pretty much done
           and we want to get out there soon.

11/19   S&P new closing low, down from late Oct and this month.  GOOG at 280.

11/19   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7737375.stm
        right after
        http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081118/twl-uk-somalia-piracy-saudi-20a4dd5.html

so i guess the saudis can tell who is terror and who isn't huh

11/19   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7737375.stm
        right after
        http://tinyurl.com/6oocct
        so i guess the saudis can tell who is terror and who isn't.
        lolz.

11/19   if someone gave you a new GM car, would you take it?
        \_ Do I have to pay taxes on it?
        \_ If it was a corvette, almost certainly (even if I had to pay tax).
           \_ I think this is precisely the point.  I'm sorry, but problem with
              GM is NOT the current financial crisis.  They have not be able
                to make attractive AND reliable product for decades.
                I am in China right now, and I see *PLENTY* of small, fuel
                efficient car made by GM.  I just don't understand why don't
                they just import those back to US again.
              to make attractive AND reliable product for decades. I am in
              China right now, and I see *PLENTY* of small, fuel efficient car
              made by GM.  I just don't understand why don't they just import
              those back to US again.
                \_ Maybe those cars can only get one star in NHTSA crash tests.
                   tests.
                   \_ and that is not GM's problem?  GM should of made their car
                      globally accessable a long time ago.
                   \_ and that is not GM's problem?  GM should of made their
                      car globally accessable a long time ago.
                      \_ Yes it would be GM's problem.  I'm just saying that
                         this might be GM's reason for not importing those cars
                         back to the US.  -- PP
              \_ The other part of the problem is that no matter how good and
                 attractive GM cars may be, there are plenty of people who
                 "bought American" to be supportive and patriotic at some
                 point and got stuck with lemons. If you've ever bought a
                 bad car, you're very likely to never buy that manufacturer's
                 cars again. Similarly for friends of people who have
                 bought lemons.
                 \_ Is this like when I date white women?
                    \_ Exactly. White women are like American sportscars.
                       They're fast and fun in the beginning but they give
                       you a lot of problems down the road. Asian women
                       on the other hand are like Japanese sportscars.
                       They're not as wild and loud as American sportscars
                       but they sure last a long time.

11/19   http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/664-Ben-Steins-Idiocy.html
        Angry sysadmin's comments today are pretty good, and extend beyond Ben
        Stein's idiocy.  What he really needs to do is nail Krugman.
        \_ You need to find yourself a new hero.
           \_ can you point out what's wrong with his position?
              \_ besides the complete lack of data backing his own position,
                 and the logical fallacies present in virtually every
                 paragraph?  -tom
                 \_ click on November 18.  Ignore any discussion of technical
                    indicators--they are not necessary to support his position.
                 \_ click on November 18.  Ignore any technical analysis--it
                    isn't necessary to support his position.  Yes, I try to
                    ignore the hand-wavy statements.
                    ignore the hand-wavy claims.
                    \_ He is mostly wrong here, too, the credit markets have
                       in fact mostly unfrozen, which you can see by looking
                       at the LIBOR rates. He is just looking at recessionary
                       indicators here.
                       \_ Corporate bond yields.  Commercial paper.
                          Securitization market.  CDS spreads on BRK.
                          here's a Reuters article saying the "credit markets
                          are still frozen":  http://tinyurl.com/5snj6q
                          consensus (which may be wrong) is that credit markets
                          are "thawing"
                          \_ Risk is just being priced appropriately, with a
                             major recession looming. Money is there to be
                             borrowed, the interest rates are just high.
                             \_ what is it called when market rates are so high
                                that the seller of debt can't afford the rate,
                                and therefore doesn't want to sell bonds?
                                and therefore doesn't sell the bonds?
                                consensus is also that central banks are the
                                only entities lending right now (in volume).
                                \_ What do I call it? A return to rationality
                                   in lending. Okay, yield spreads are higher
                                   than I realized, but plenty of bonds are
                                   being issued:
                                   http://tinyurl.com/5by2g8 (Reuters)
                                   in lending. Non-junk bond yeild spreads are
                                   not unusually high. Billions of dollars of
                                   commercial paper are being rolled every day,
                                   so your "consensus" (which is not what I
                                   have seen in places like the WSJ and The
                                   Economist) is wrong.
                                   \_ "growing signs of a thaw" != "in fact
                                      mostly unfrozen"
                                      \_ fair enough
                              \_ Recession looming? We're in it. We just
                                 haven't made it official yet.
              \_ Yes, he is a moron with no understanding of economics. We
                 do in fact need inflationary government deficit spending, so
                 as to avoid a deflationary collapse. Pretty much every
                 economist agrees at this point, outside of the Austrian
                 school nutters.
                 \_ I think the misunderstanding here is that deficit spending
                    is not necessarily exclusive of the transparency he
                    is not necessarily exclusive of the transparency/reform he
                    proposes.
                    \_ In this post at least, he mostly claimed that
                       stimulative
                       government spending would lead to hyperinflation, which
                       is plainly wrong. He has some points, but they get lost
                       in the big mistake he makes where he presents the false
                       dilemma of deflation vs. hyperinflation.
                       \_ a huge weakness is he does not forecast an inflection
                          point.  sure, we spend like Yermom, but when is it
                          when foreign purchasers decide U.S. Treasuries are
                          not a good bet?  This could theoretically last 20
                          more years or forever for that matter. -op
                          \_ Well, since long term Treasury rates are under
                             4%, we must be a long way from saturating the
                             demand for US backed bonds, don't you think?
                             \_ the uncertainty here is exactly my point.
                                there is the rumor that the Fed is buying
                                long-term T's to reduce the rate, but I'd
                                consider that tinfoil for now. -op
                                \_ You understand how unlikely that is, right?
                                   That would reduce the money supply, which is
                                   the exact opposite of what The Fed is trying
                                   to do right now.
                                   \_ can you please stop repeating what I'm
                                      saying back to me and sounding like you
                                      made a point?  it's irritating.
                    \_ I can agree that transparency would be good, but I don't
                       think he has any data which show that lack of
                       transparency is the root cause of the market problems
                       as he claims.  -tom
                       \_ okay, step by step.  shadow banking system.  SIVs.
                          securitization.  major effect on the global market?
                          yes/no.  take all the data you know yourself--let's
                          not confine it to this one blog post.
                          \_ Wake me up when he starts talking about ameros.
                             \_ ameros are truly tinfoil -op

11/19   Graph of four bad bear markets (they need to add the Nikkei to this)
        http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/11/four-bad-bears.html