The Trial of Chicken Little

Junk bonds will soon be do, lots of landmines await
These defensive lines that keep getting overrun
It takes time to entrench and build defense in depth
Needed, a little financial fire prevention and some education
We expect bilateral ties to strengthen
Knock! Knock! It just an eight-hundred pound gorilla
Pounding its chest

Talks of a "new world order" are emerging
Fallout of the current economic meltdown
Financial firms face a "new world order"
Economic catastrophic conspiracy is rampant
Allied to the solutions of predator globalism.
While the mainstream outlets continue
To parade out the same old economic experts
But thier images have been tarnished
A twelve step program for financial disaster
With major geopolitical implications

Who is there to believe other than your instinct
Turn off the sound and watch their faces its
A better method for thin-slicing
Look for their vested interests
It will say more than they do

The pace of dimunition of the US position
Shall accelerate
The generic question is, is the world falling apart?
And now that they see it melting down, they're nervous
What would JP Morgan do?
Even locked doors may not help
Triggering market collapse can be a very profitable undertaking
Regulators serving the interests of speculators

Who are the architects of economic collapse
America is the most indebted nation on earth
We are dealing with an absurd spherical relationship
The orb of self-confidence, the mirror of fate
Who is the fairest of them all

Under tighter control, debtors are not choosers but beggers
Neo-liberal economic discourse is often cynical and contemptuous
Neo-conservative dialog is in disgrace
Neo-socialist agendas are in ascendancy
Neo-postmodernism is hanging out its shingle

Our gluttonous appetite for spending
Has kept the greenback flying high
Financial meltdown escalates a global crisis
Hoard whiskey and cigarettes
Gold will just make you conspicuous
And besides weight you down
The first to go are the cows
Watch for the number of goats and chicken
To escalate - backyard feedlots poliferate

In the bunker the the sides collapsed
And the top blew away.
That there is the luckiest man on Wall Street
Swartzkoff said as he pointed at the stockborker driving away
The conspirators are trying to uunravel
The complexities of the New World Order
And authority has no veracity
Conspiracy theories are rampant
Old habits hard to break – the pointing of a finger

There simply isn't enough firepower
The generals are fighting yesterday’s war
It necessary to be nimble in assessing changing conditions
There is no playbook for responding to turmoil
There are no reserves to throw into the battle
No weapons to target financial markets
No WMDs or even remotely targeted munitions
The Swiss Army Knife is our only metaphor

It was a hard-fought battle during the early part of the day
The bulls are in fighting form
The picadors have done their job well
And the man with the cape is a butcher
A beachhead has been established
The bulls are launching their second assault.

We must once again repel any afternoon counterattacks
Are the bears in retreat, analysts sound downright cocky
Look around at the waddling ducks they’ve paraded out
Bouncing higher after the recent carnage
But you need a floor to bounce off of from,
Everybody's trying to get under the same table
At the same time and there's not enough room.
Very rarely will an analyst abandon metaphors entirely.
When they do, it's a sure sign of desperation
.
Running back for cover in the war on banks
Black operations, secret plans
Members fortify defenses against temporary capital account outflows
Attempts to fortify credit markets fail
And in the bunker he shall
Try the cyanide pills on the dog first
And reserve a jerry can of gasoline
Pass the metaphors and keep shouting

QUOTE: A race which could do nothing small is as defective as a race that can do nothing great – Henry James

Government Cheese

Don’t use the word “recession.” Instead, stick with “shrinkage"
The economic statistics are becoming decidedly less positive,
As they adjust for an over statement
How many more land mines exist out there
No one knows or ventures to guess
Will there be a Nobel Award this time

Inflation caused by fiscal policy is another problem
That few seem to be mentioning
We will be seeing much more inflation caused by fiscal policy
Created in many countries around the globe
New inflationary problems will arise before employment begins to rise
The long term rally will begin long before economic growth returns
That is our best guess

This may be an occasion for governments to rein in
Out-of-control capitalism
There are opportunities for the left to explain
How the economic system works
An excuse for pursuing a neo-socialist agenda.
This will be my number one prioity
With the administration scrapping the original centerpiece
Of it’s rescue plan
And they are still calling it a weak economy
A recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle

Inflationary economic contraction - tightening in financial conditions
Data is deciedly on the soft side
Tighter credit, declines in stock prices is creating some headwinds
To boost the economy while also containing inflation.
This is something almost impossible

Having blown fiscal policy on tax cuts ill afforded
And a war that can’t be paid for
And historically war has helped the economy
Fiscal policy is now.a ‘no-go’
And with using monetary policy alone, it is impossible
Inflation and unemplyment were not supposed
To occur at the same time
GDP = P x Q. Therefore ΔGDP = ΔP x ΔQ

Evidence of a broad global recession continues to accumulate
The economies of the entire group
Are contracting and will shrink
Projections point to a protracted downturn
Weekly jobless claims are a volatile statistic
The safest course is probably to assume
That this reflects a genuine acceleration

There were other signs of global slowing
Forecasting for reduced global oil demand
The largest economies in recession
And the strengthening dollar will likely
Hurt overseas business
Chaos, everyone for the lifeboats
The captain has been seen wearing a dress

Weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments
Precipitated by fall-offs in tourism and bananas
Panic when it was rumored that the price of rice
Had doubled at Wal-Mart
The Euro dives amidst evidence of Q3 economic contraction
This may not have the typical ‘V’ shape and last longer
This is a shape indicative of glaciations
The game has changed
Global warming during a new ice age
Ugh!

Lots of buyout debt is coming due
Many private equity firms face a refinancing wave
At a very uncertain time
Nearly 30 percent of big leveraged buyouts defaulted
We are most assuredly in some kind of
Worldwide production plateau at the very least
But we can look at the peak in oil production
As a harbinger of things to come
Exacerbating this scenario may be the need
To increasingly adapt to climate change
Just as the amount of available energy
Per unit of time diminishes

We will reverse our historical trend
To grow in pseudo-measures
Or learn to tweak for more positive indications
Then how shall we perceive this contraction?
What will life be like in a permanent decline
The magic of technology is losing it luster
And they promised it wouldn’t happen again
We have learned our lessons they said
Can it be endemic?
Is this long awaited avian flu?

Is the underlying value of money, energy
Isn’t that what technology means
Thus it will take more units of money
To buy the same unit of work
Individuals will not be able to afford stuff
That they previously bought

But unlike previous business cycle downturns,
This one is caused by reduction in energy for doing work.
There is no recovery phase people will have less
Because there is less to have.
What’s next?

Are we in the grip of a profound
Geopolitical contradiction
The current economic crisis will surely accelerate
And continue the erosion
Biggest monthly drop ever in futures trading

Aspirational qualities
Are not simply about convenience
Over populated neighborhood outlets
Consumers are feeling the credit crunch
Americans dove 15 billion fewer miles
No growth in oil demand in ‘09
Planning to cut 1.5 million barrels of production

Economic contraction is here
Which comes first
Value-added attributes
The pocketbook
Or Government cheese
Will we be seeing a huge paradigm shift?


QUOTE: In 1993 a study even found that people were willing to pay more for airline travel insurance covering “terrorist acts” than for death from “all possible causes”. Logically, that makes no sense, but “terrorist acts” is a vivid phrase dripping with bad feelings, while “all possible causes” is bland and empty – Daniel Gardner

Come Duck Day

Shall it be a lame duck session
Drive one’s ducks to a poor puddle
Under the watch of the lame duck president
Any chances the ducks, come what may
And is it thus immunity time
Is there no box of fluffy ducks
For unspecified crimes
Who’s the biggest duck in this puddle

This the lamest of lame-duck sessions
Pull up your blue duck trousers
And bowl for a duck
Billy Ducks is roaming about
There is a lot of battle fatigue
Members of Congress are human beings
Not just broken down politicians
Butts on you Ducks!

Its a person or thing that
Who or which can’t catch a duck asleep
Unable to roll even a couple of ducks
Especially one that was previously proficient.
But now unable to crack his duck

Change-Alley bankrupts
Waddle out lame ducks
All in a double duck fit
The bulls had a balance to pay
To the bears and only one lame duck
Waddled out of the alley
And chance the ducks
If he makes one run he has
Broken his duck's egg

Lame-duck office holders
Never as meek as little duck butts
Against the wishes of their constituents.
Hence the Lame Duck Amendment,.
A time to reflect upon duck butter
There is still ample time to duck shovel
Lame duckers doing the unspeakable
A lame duck impeachment
Damn these duck noires

Many lame duck presidents travel abroad
Duck plucker presidents can simply be
Downright nasty it is said that
The Clinton whitehouse removed
All of the ‘W’s from the computers
A lame duck’s pardons can be particullary
Scandalous – a duck shoot
Truman just got on the train
And went home
Look out for a lame duch surge

QUOTE: Perhaps this is the difference between a town and a city; a town ends. You can walk down one street or another to a place where the houses stop, duck between the second and third strand of barbed-wire fence and find yourself on the open prairie – Dale Peck

50000 Pedophiles at Any One Time

A very round number
Can be very big
A very very big thing
The roundest number is zero
And although nothing , a lot
Of them can add up to something big
50,000 – names carved in the wall
50,000 Quaoar a likely dwarf
Orbiting the sun
Over 50,000 words
Without using the letter ‘E’
50,000 predators on the Internet

A price point can be a round number
That or a lucky number. But in the West
We like a round number minus one
We are price point odd
Round numbers are very rare
But no rarer than any other
Say numbers made up of all nines
And isn’t that a type of round number too
A round number is square root smooth
50,000 flee; 50,000 displaced
Chinese slaughter 50,000 dogs
50,000 toxic Britney Spears pictures
Thanks for over 50,000 views of my stream

And rounding a number
Is not the same and rounding a curve
Eight is considered a lucky number
And also round
Stations that broadcast with 50,000 Watts
Day and night
50,000 Hezbollah men said deployed
50,000 refugees forced into prostitution
The surge could actually total 50,000
Up to 50,000 jobs are at risk
50,000 wounded in the war


Mars closest encounter to Earth in 50,000 Years
Inventing a Way to Index 50,000 Memories of the Holocaust
And in 10 years we’ll have 50,000 channels
Of TV from all over the world

All new 50,000 BTU Gas Grill.
The Universe within 50,000 Light Years
A rich tapestry of at least 50,000 galaxies
The LMC contains more than 30 million stars,
And stretches more than 50,000 light-years
From end to end
Located about 50,000 light-years from Earth.
According to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Each year as many as 50,000 species disappear
50,000 individuals a year are being murdered for Satanists


50,000 Internet police enforcing limits
On what can be seen and said
Millions of Americans believe that 50,000
Men died at Gettysburg
50,000 children kidnapped by strangers and 4000 murdered
At least 50,000 people are kidnapped worldwide every year
Over 50,000 innocent Whites murdered,
Over a million White women raped
There are 50,000 errors in a Bible
50,000 babies are sacrificed per year by Satanic cults

One hundred is a very round number
A major threshold few of us cross
So we usually settle for 50
A major anniversary--500 years, a very round number
People just seem to love round numbers
And 50 is a nice round number.
Coincidently it came to a very round number
So I deducted three. Accountants
Are suspicious of round number
That is a very round number, so round, in fact
A perfect number to pluck from the air
In the mind of particle physicists, three is a very round number

Round numbers don’t seem to be
Lucky numbers
The year 2000, was a very round number
Waiting and watching for the zeros
To roll over on the odometer
America lost a very round number of soldiers
As of this morning
65536, which is a very round number
In the binary arithmetic
I think we threw out a very round number
Early on

Playing with numbers
Playing the numbers
Favorite number, lucky numbers
Round numbers, the round number
Picking a number, picking the number
50,000 is a good number
For picking out of the air
A round number is a milestone

QUOTE: The riddle we can guess / We speedily despise – Emily Dickenson

Wrong End of the Stick

Copper theft is a rising problem
No commodity is more stolen
Larger, more profitable hauls of copper.
Thieves cut down the cable
From telephone poles and haul it away
Copper is an enticing metal to steal
It's easily recycled, and it's relatively plentiful and accessible,"
It's certainly not a spur-of-the moment crime.
This is a stick up. Give me all your pennies
Increasing demand in China and India
Once the powers plundered the colonies
Now it is their turn
Every time prices go up, just free market enterprise
With a revenge

All around the country, stealing scrap metal:
Telephone wires, air conditioner coils, and old radiators
Are just some of the sought-after items.
Petty criminals have also resorted to stealing
Aluminum gutters and copper downspouts
And some folks even get aluminum siding ripped away
Thieves simply pull up, drop off, get it weighed,
And pull away with the money.

Thieves smash windows, break in and gut property
For the copper pipes
As the economy slows and foreclosed homes stand empty and vulnerable.
Stories are unfolding nationwide as a glut of home foreclosures
Coincides with record highs in the price of copper and other metals.
Growing numbers of banks are balking at lending
To prospective buyers of foreclosed homes
That are stripped of copper pipes and other metals,
Further depressing housing prices.

Along with copper, the air conditioners and garbage disposals
Are often torn out.
When all the copper is taken out, the house
Becomes a knock-down.
Having a depressing impact on property values.

80 percent of recycled copper is exported to China and India.
To build their infrastructures
A different sort of prospector is at large
On a quest to harvest the dark metal
Shinning up utility poles
Stealing hundreds of feet of cable at a time
Wire is wire and pipes are pipes
Just another commodity


Recycling is working
It's just that now its our turn
To be on the wrong end of the stick

Welcome, to the Third World


QUOTE: Things and events happen at certain moments, the judgement which determines the occurrence of the thing or the event can only come after them; it therefore has its date. But this at once fades away, in virtue of the principled deep-rooted in our intellect, that all truth is eternal – Henri Bergson

Today its back to the Coffee Break, its bleak (the weather not the coffee) a cold front having blown in, leaves are falling and today I am reading:

Gertrude Stein – Three Lives;
Philip F Gura – American transcendentalism: a history;
Deborah Baker – A Blue Hand: the beats in India;
V S Naipal – A Writer’s People: ways of looking and feeling;
David Gardner – The Science of Fear;
Robert Musil – The Man Without Qualities
The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer
Mark Strand - Chicken, Shadow, Moon & more

I am hunkering down for the winter, not my favorite season - the stubble of barren wheat fields and a flat horizon of boney fingers grasping for a washed out sky here in the Mid-West.

Greater Oversight Needed

Everyone is demanding it
The culprits are all expecting it
Oversight repeated over and over
There should be more oversight
Appoint an oversight board
It’s the universal buracratic
        Answer

Announce hearings
After the horse gets out
Is that oversight
What good is that
Oversight implies a failure
Resulting from an unintentional
         Omission
I'll admit that this mess
Was indeed unintentional

Greater oversight and rigorous safeguards
More comprehensive safeguards and oversight measures
A national system of oversight
Greater oversight and quality assurance
Time for greater oversight
Urge greater oversight
Greater oversight needed well before this

Oversight means dotting the ‘i’s
It’s the triumph of the grammar nazis
It’s what a proofreader does
Conformance with the style guide

Greater oversight implies greater responsibility
Growing pressure to impose greater oversight
Greater oversight likely
Industry needs greater oversight
New rules impose greater oversight and increased penalties
Pondering greater oversight
More leverage in exchange for greater oversight
Wanting greater oversight
Insisting on greater oversight and accountability

Oversight implies bureaucracy
Rules against which performance is measured
No child left behind is oversight
More oversight is always the first response
A public reassurance that eyes are on the Rhine
What you get is compliance not performance

Oversight committees had never been properly informed
Requiring greater oversight by boards
Greater oversight was warranted in certain situations
Policy makers usually call for greater oversight
Penalties for fraud and imposing greater oversight

More stringent compliance requirements demand greater oversight
Registering offenders for greater oversight
Having to exercise greater oversight than in the past.
Including greater oversight
Mandating greater oversight
Needs greater oversight to ensure goals
Albeit with perhaps greater oversight
Demanding greater oversight and sensitivity to governance
Demands for greater oversight and stricter accountability

Oversight starts at home
Negligent in its own function
Oversight in face of resistance
      Is difficult
Clean your own house first
It sounds good – a sound bite
Greater Oversight

QUOTE: We have so much trouble in distinguishing between an evolution and an unfurling, between the radically new and a rearrangement of the pre-existing, in fact between creation and simple choice – Henri Bergson

Money, Money – Who’s Got the Money Now

"I just found a 20 on the floor in the subway."
"Man that’s money chicken!"
This money shot an enjoyable little thriller
The money making shot in money ball
Provocative sensational

You pay him for his money shot
Money cock up the monkey butt
Do it or don’t get paid
Do the money shot swag
One funky ass party tune
Hump day hump for the money shot

Money talks – big bucks
What do you say
I can go to the bank on that
The left bank, the right bank
The poliltical bank
Money quote, money quotes
The money quote of the day

Help it over the hump ‘
Make that the money shot
The essence or most newsworthy part
Comes through in the clutch
The money position is in
The most accurate sharpshooters to the front
A money shell is just a butter clam

And hope that that money spider lands on you
Rainmaker, moneymaker
Shake that moneymaker
Miss Moneypenny
Money sex and power
Economics in a virtual world
The Money sports game
Trading virtual shares for real dollars

Big money sports
The money game
The moneyball game
The big money game
Big Money quick
Welcome to big money
Big money easy money

Big money ventures, make money
Big money Sundays
Making big money
Big money monkeys
Raking in big money
Big money online

Where the big money goes
Monkey knife fights
Big money from big action
Big money market funds
Attracting big money big dollars
Bowling for big dollars
Big money Bingo
The big money
The big monkey

Some big money,
A lot of big money
Big money deluxe
Big money rap
Big money talks
Big money mistakes
The big big money opportunity
Big money interests
Big money farts

The big-money givers
A big money month
Big money deals
Big money lobbyists
Big money entertainment
Campaigns get big money
Drawing big money
Big money solutions
Paid big money

Get pig money monkeyface
Egg money is chicken feed
Big money decisions
Big money is delicious
Save big money
Go for the big money
Big money flowing
Tell for big money
Tell anything for money
Money mouth. Anything for money

Big money spying
Big money crime
Tracking big money
Big money earners
The best money earners
Secondary money earners
Top moneymakers
Big dollar fuckers

Moneymakers and takers
Baby boomer moneymakers
Rooftop moneymakers
Ingenious moneymakers
Extra moneymakers
Supreme moneymakers
Serious moneymakers
All time moneymakers
Little known moneymakers
Moneymakers for stay at home moms

Maverick moneymakers
Moneymakers of America
Moneymakers’ toolbox
Fast moneymakers
Moneymakers 4kids
She is a money Jane.
The Money Jane... She give me bling-bling

'Beer money' jab - not meant as a slam
Pocket change for a six-pack
'Dalí need more money'—Jab!
'Then Dalí had better start painting again
Total money jab
Passive aggressive money jab
On-the-money jab
Find yuh money, jab jab, prepare to pay, jab jab,

Putting money in the basket is our privilege
What happened to the money in the basket
I went to market with the money in my pocket,
And brought back my purchases in a basket;
Now I take the money in the basket
Put your money in the basket
There's just enough money in the basket
To take me to the next town
There’s never enough money in the basket
I believe you will have money in the basket when you die

Show Me your money tongue
Do the money tongue wiggle
English is the money-tongue
Money Tongue is lyrically sweet and throaty
A game-winning (or game-losing) shot--the money ball.
Money ball – who’s making it – and who’s earning it
Take the money and run

Money cock and alcohol
Suck steaming loads of cash from the money cock
A fat wallet is a money cock
Sold out and sucked the money cock
Sucking on the Hollywood money cock

Obscenely large sums of money – moneyhats
Moneyhat is still cool
Moneyhats run rampant
Moneyhats, moneyhats and more moneyhats
When they're cornered marketwise
My secretary just gave me a moneyjob
Something that is totally cool radical or awesome.
Man that girl's body is all money chicken.


QUOTE: We are once again in danger of drawing the wrong conclusions from the lesson of history. This time the danger comes not from communism but from market fundamentalism – George Soras