R.I.P.: The U$ Dollar, the Nobel Prize, the Financial Crisis... all in one week

Its  De-valuation Stupid!

Back to Business As Usual on Wall St.

(We've even devalued the value of the financial crisis)

Death by a thousand paper cuts,  a million bad policy decisions, the $9 trillion financial bail-out (including guarantees), $700 trillion in nuclear derivatives outstanding, the Iraq War,  Vietnam Redux (aka Afghanistan), Iran,  California tanking, health care mess, deferred pension liabilities,  endless deficits, inability to create jobs etc

This week saw two major devaluations: the dollar continues is tortuous slide into oblivion in economic terms and  and stature but the Nobel Peace Prize going to a shocked Obama is pretty hard to wrap your head around. Probably the most massive unilateral devaluation in history  While getting the prize was not Obama's fault (although he probably lusted in his heart)  now it's his problem.  Hint Mr. President: read Tom Friedman's proposed peace(keepers) acceptance speech.

                                                            Help me....I'm shrinking      

                       

        

   

Utter Jibberish: Dem Senator Offers Highly Reassuring Assessment of Healthcare Bill

Sponge Bob  Selected by White House to Settle  All Interpretive Disputes of Impenetrable Drafting Via Arm Wrestling Contest

Results Will Be Announced on Twitter

Tim Geitner's Vacation Photos

Getting a Little R & R away from the Land Sharks

Geitner: Serious Media Training Needed Urgently

Circular Reasoning Hits New Level

The Federal Reserve: Rebuilding Confidence Through Nutcrunching Diligence and Oversight

This Interview Will Help You Sleep at Night

Now About those $9 Trillion in Off Balance Sheet Obligations... Can You Tell Me Anything????

If Voltaire or Cervantes were alive they would be having a field day.  This gem of a interview speaks for itself

Let the Healing Begin...Calpers Takes on Rating Agencies

As Goldman Makes Billions Calpers Takes on the Real Culprits Previously Unscathed... the Rating Agencies

Rating Agencies Lost Way More for People Than Bernie Madoff

Not sure if I were running PR for Goldman, I'd be sleeping too easily.  OK so the edge of  financial precipice off which hordes of  little lemmings drop to their deaths has been moved back six feet at least for the time being.  Do you really need to brag to the world how much f%$king money you made trafficking in tragedy with in monthsof a bailout  while the rest of the world is still reeling?  Two narratives emerge equally damaging:

Narrative One: Goldman Sachs is the Smartest Bunch of Guys who ever lived, making fortunes out of a mess they helped create.  Remember envy is a powerful insecticide on Wall Street and making people and Presidents in Washington look like idiots is not a good long term communications startegy.  And just what system risks are embedded in the  GS Value at Risk management model?

Narrative Two, the Dark Narrative, is for the conspiracy theorists.  Paulson-Geitner- Bernanke-Freidman whipped this whole thing up including putting two of Goldman's biggest competitors out of business-  Bear and Lehman-- got all their money back from collateral calls on AIG starting a financial tsunami even thought their were no underlying defaults on anyof the investments.  All in a days work.  Dark narrative hard to debunk for the guy on the street.

JULY 15, 2009, 1:31 A.M. ET

WSJ: Raters Sued by Calpers Over Losses