Silent Night

I recently remembered an NFL game quite a few years ago between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.  (Note:  I had to look up the date, and was surprised to find out it was Dec. 20, 1980-by pure coincidence, this marks the 30th anniversary…)  Normally, this wouldn’t have stood out in memory, but this particular game was a little bit different.  It was called the “silent game,” because NBC had decided on an experiment of using no announcers through the entire broadcast.  All you got were the sounds of plays, the crowd, referee’s whistles, tackling, etc.  No commentary on the action.  You were left to make your own interpretations and it forced a focus on some of the more subtle (or just appreciate the more obvious) aspects of the game, since so much of that was usually intertwined with audio commentary.  It ended up being much like attending a game in person, but without a stadium announcer and only occasional flashes of data and scores on the screen.  I remember thinking that, in a way, it was kind of refreshing… but, obviously, the idea never took hold.  It’s hard to imagine that happening today, with so much riding on the personalities and “expert” analysis of the action, during the game itself and in the accompanying coverage. Read more

Well, they tried. That’s probably the nicest thing that most people will say about the President’s deficit panel, which published its final report and disbanded. Government finances are in no better shape than they were yesterday, possibly worse. Chaired by Alan Simpson (former Republican Senator from Wyoming) and Erskine Bowles (former Clinton White House Chief of Staff), the panel tried to get people to at least think outside the box on taxes and spending. They started with lofty goals and a real world determination to change the discussion about government spending. They failed to get their package of changes approved by their self-imposed super-majority of the members, but did get a majority to sign-on to approach the budget from a different perspective. Read more

Social Security was back in the news again with the release of a series of recommendations from the President’s Commission on Deficit Reduction. You see, Social Security isn’t very secure right now. Any competent actuary would tell you that the way we fund Social Security is nowhere near sufficient to pay the benefits that are promised. That is why a goodly proportion of younger workers deride the idea of ever getting anything from Social Security for themselves. That is probably a little overstated, but none the less a good starting point for discussions. Read more

If you’ve ever seen ‘The Seven Samurai’, Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece (although a little slow for most modern tastes, brought up on Sesame Street and accustomed to explosions every couple of minutes in their movies) you’ll remember the somber ending when the elder samurai tells his acolyte “alas, once again we survive” (you see what he really wanted all along was an heroic death). Well, it looks like our democracy will survive again. Accosted by negativity, bolstered by hyperbole, misguided by half truths and yet, we have decided who will be the leading politicians of the next couple of years anyway. Luckily for all of us, we can change our minds every couple of years. The beauty of our democracy is that the founding fathers understood what stupid, boorish and easily lead people would follow them. They kept it fairly simple and kept the political power spread out among an elected legislature, the anointed judiciary and the powerful executive. Having just survived the rule of hereditary kings, they were anxious to keep the powerful executive from exercising too much power. Read more

It had to come to this sooner or later. Interest rates broke zero at an auction of 5-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities last week. The auction lead to a nominal negative 56 basis points coupon for the notes, so evidently folks are convinced enough to pay 102 for a bond that will return 100 in five years, with only the inflation adjustment to change that outcome.

  Read more

A buying stampede happens when a whole bunch of investors and speculators all decide at once that a market is moving and they have to get aboard, now. We saw something like that recently when despite a poor jobs report, no inflation pressure, Fed waffling on QE2 and other ambivalent news, the stock market started heating up. There are a lot of underinvested or un-invested people who decided this was what they were looking for, proof that the coast was clear to begin investing in this ongoing bull market. Sure stocks are up 70% from the bottom eighteen months ago, but there is a good argument why it should keep going up. The argument goes that the Fed will engineer what looks a lot like stockholder nirvana, lower rates, mild inflation, better growth, a lower dollar and yet not inhibit strong earnings (if you believe that, we’ve got some real estate we’d like to sell you just as soon as the tide goes out.) Read more