Saturday, December 13, 2008

Pinky, The Wayward Prognosticator

After the collapse of the Big 3 Bailout on Thursday, Our illustrious Senator Harry "Pinky" Reid took a shot at wall street analysis:

"I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It's not going to be a pleasant sight,"


The Dow dropped 215 points at the open, but finished the day up 66.5 points. All in all, a pretty average day on the street by recent standards. But, thanks to Seeking Alpha, it wasn't just the bailout that investors were watching.

At 8:30 AM EST, one hour before the market opened,
Bernard Madoff, founder and president of Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, a market-maker for hedge funds and banks, was charged by federal prosecutors in a $50 billion fraud at his advisory business. The firm specialized in handling orders from online brokers in some of the largest U.S. companies, including General Electric Co (GE). and Citigroup Inc. (C).


But he wasn't just a large investor:

Madoff served as vice chairman of the NASD, a member of its board of governors, and chairman of its New York region. He was also a member of NASDAQ Stock Market's board of governors and its executive committee and served as chairman of its trading committee.


So Pinky The Prognosticator could have been partially right for the wrong reason, which I believe fulfills one of the requirements for a job at CNBC, or any one of a thousand investment newsletters. With a little more practice, he could even start his own blog.

6 comments:

http://texex-xpress.blogspot.com/ said...

Boss Greed knew all along that this Big 4 bailout didn't have the votes to pass. It was just his way of pasting "anti-union" on the Rs foreheads to shore up union support in NevaDUH for '10.

It was just a game for him....

Ron said...

I imagine you're right about that. You were having so much fun ridiculeing him I thought I might try it. I've been in a bit of a slomp lately.

Ryan Jerz said...

I read the other day that the Dems had enough votes to pass it, but decided against it because they didn't have enough to withstand the fallout. Like, as in, maybe the fact that the entire population is against it might have swayed them to not screw around.

Ron said...

The problem the Democrats have now is that many are from conservative districts. The votes went their way, but the voters haven't changed. The Dem's will have to vote conservatively or face replacement.

http://texex-xpress.blogspot.com/ said...

I did a little googling today and found out the UAW pension fund has $102 billion and their health fund has $54 billion. DUH!~!

It looks like the UAW could buy out all the other Big 4 with their pocket change and let the inmates run the Cookoo's Nest for a change.

So why was Boss Reid wanting us to do it if it is such a good deal for America? The corruption isn't limited to Illinois...

Ron said...

When the boss needs a loan fron the employees, something is very wrong.