Double Wow

Well played, John McCain, well played.

Wow

I'm just not comprehending how we don't elect this guy.

If you're on the fence, do yourself a favor and check out his speech on MSNBC.com and let me know if you've heard a better one in your lifetime.

Brilliant, truly amazing, I am speechless.

(*pic snatched from The Drudge Report)

Hil Clinton

Hey, Hilary just gave a fucking fantastic speech. I've never seen her so connected, so real. She was fucking lights out, funny, tough, lyrical and true. The bar is raised all around. Speak from source and we're with you, girlfriend.

It's happening, the enlightenment, throw out the focus-groupers and pollsters, speak from the heart, reckless abandon.

She will make a great President someday.

*I'm ripping the photos from the Huffpost (Hil) and the WSJ (Michelle Obama, previous), so thanks Huffpost and WSJ.

Michelle Obama

Hey let's go on record here. Michelle Obama just gave the best speech since Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address in like 05'. And the Obama daughters just sealed it.

It's called authentic communication.

I'm not even sure what she said, but it was deeply delivered from a very connected person. When I say connected, I'm talking connected to spirit, to God, to energy, to source, whatever it is you choose to call it -she spoke from that place.

You can't bullshit that connection. It's the connection that says, "I am of planet earth, I feel love, joy, heart-break and pain, I get it, you feel it too, we are connected, we are one."

You cannot do cookie-cutter anymore, you cannot bullshit us anymore. You cannot status quo us anymore. You must deliver, talk to us like you know yourself, like you have a sense of self.

Know thy fucking self.

I mean of course you can go year-2000-style political/ corporate double-speak, but you will be smoked out by a now too intelligent populace that gets their information, not from mainstream hacks, but from blogs, and that processes information in real time, and gets instant feedback from their online community.

You see this manifest clearly in the capital markets where absolutely no one of any intelligence believes what our bank CEOs or their shills are selling. These guys, and they're all guys, did not get the memo in '01, but thankfully they are disappearing faster than your 401k. CNBC doesn't get it, but SeekingAlpha does, Dealbreaker does, you get the idea.

John McCain used to talk like that. We'll see if he brings it at his convention. I doubt it, he seems to have lost his voice. Bill Clinton was a master of it, and George W. Bush did it 100x better than his competition in both elections, and that's why he's still blowing shit up.

Yeah, you won't hear this anywhere else, or at least you'll hear it here first, but that's it, the election is over. How can I be sure? Fuck off, of course I'm NOT sure.

Certainty is for idiots. But the probabilities are getting more favorable for an Obama win.

Yes, because of the usual regression to the mean, McCain has had a nice run of late, which is expected when you consider the population is still 50-50 Dem/ Repub. That's how it should be. One party rule is like China or Russia, working for them so far (see medal count/ Georgia), but not a long term trade.

Speaking of China, my Dad just wrote a book on biz practice in China that and I will plug it when I get the a link.

So yeah, I'm still bullish on this country 20 years out. Still believe we have a wicked awakening upon us in the markets and perhaps a depression, but we'll come out of it. I think we'll be all right now. I think so because Michelle Obama just delivered 5 million votes.

Warning: This is a Finance Post

Yes, your eyes will surely glaze over, but here we go. Just a little FYI: Did anyone tell you we are in a full blown financial crisis. No, good, let me.

Background: We've had 25 years of massive, and I mean massive credit expansion, a raging bull market starting in roughly 1980 that went parabolic in '95 and is now reversing hard, unwinding in a major way.

What has prompted me to actually start writing about it is that we have people making it worse, thinking they're making it better. Barry Ritholtz explains it best here: If this fucking link doesn't work, Google his latest Seeking Alpha piece (Fed Fiddles as Rome Burns).

Anywells, our "officials" are now trying to somehow short circuit the short sellers, which prompted a massive rally today in the worst companies on the board -the banks. I can't go into how ridiculous this is, other than to say: government intervention rallies based on ending short selling are to be sold short, preferably naked.

And yes, "naked shorting" is actually a (great) finance term, Yeah, we're talking stocks here, I warned you already about that, did you look at the title? That said if you are sitting at home and decide to buy Puts with no pants on, more power to you. And if you're standing nude in the middle of your trading floor, you are way too cool to be reading this blog.

So the question is: do you want the band-aid off fast or would you like it to take 8 fucking years. We've chosen the latter, so guess what, you cannot be long stocks or buy a house for any reason other than wanting to light hundred dollar bills on fire until around 2012 which I think is when the world ends anyway.

Here it is. We need the market to clear. That means we need the indexes down hard, we need several of the dumbest banks to fail, we need Paul Volcker to come in and jack rates, end inflation and sure up the plummeting dollar.

The guys in charge now are so compromised, so lacking in credibility, yet they keep tinkering around trying to plug holes where there are none, because guess what?

THERE'S NO MORE DAM, it's gone baby gone, you (we) are so under water, and messing around with short sellers, trying to bail out another I-bank, socializing risk is both prolonging the pain and making it worse.

But they will continue to take asinine steps like they did today because it's in their DNA. It's the strand known as the: Let's Keep Fucking Around With This Hand-Grenade Gene.

So tinker on, play politics, help out your idiot banker friends, you might get few hundred more points, maybe even a thousand, hell anything's possible, you may even get another bubble. Tinker on my friends, you cannot help yourselves, I know.

But, one thing is certain. This tinkering. . .will end in tears.

Alive Sushumnas, Alive!! or Ecstatic Dance 101

It has been many days since my last confession.

My apologies, I have been very busy doing nothing, especially with the Solstice festivities this weekend, a literal 24-3 of yoga and YRA (yoga-related-activity) peaking on Saturday night with ecstatic dance and the potent reishi mushroom elixir that alivens one's sushumnas.

The reishi mushroom elixir is a non-hallucinogenic compound thought to have magical powers and I was told it makes one's sushumnas fucking explode!

Now let me tell you this, I have no clue what sushumnas are, but yes, I was alivened! And also let me state that "aliven" may or may not be a word. But I like it, so let's go with it. Let me also say that "sushumnas" is in fact a word. I know this because wikipedia only prints facts.

Ecstatic dance is just letting go, going wild. It's not like dancing at a club where you're trying to be hot/ cool or whatever, it's about alivening the sushumnas, and dropping all that pretense. And it's about going back and forth between self-consciousness and pure consciousness, and noticing all that, and being okay with it. No moves, no booze, just abandon.

And of course, the more you let go, the more you give up, the cooler you end up being.

I have a new guitar. I'm learning chord progressions. Wonderfully humbling.

My trading has been lights out, but f-ck that, I know it bores you to near-death, and it can unravel any time. I'm understanding now more than ever, trading is mostly luck, and about managing luck rather than any half-assed analysis -talk about busy nothing. Plus, bearishness makes awful copy, so enough already.

Sushumnas alive!!

Love and so much gratitude for your time!

-yt

Bringing Ed Grimley Back

Just received a lovely note from an old friend reminding me what a great Ed Grimley I was in the eighth grade. You see, back then, I had many Grimley tendencies.

And to be totally honest with you (for once in my g-ddamn life) I've never felt so Grimley-esque as I do right here, right now.

You see, as a fully formed adult, I'm beginning to resemble Grimley more than ever.

She completely made my night, and I have not been able to stop thinking about Grimley since.

During these tumultuous times, the world needs more Grimley.

So, in honor of her and Barack Obama's victory, I am bringing Ed Grimley back.

Full force.

-yt