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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ild who wrote (50232)	1/19/2006 1:37:32 PM
From: ild	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Date: Thu Jan 19 2006 13:15 trotsky (newphys, 6:29) ID#248269: Copyright © 2002 trotsky/Kitco Inc. All rights reserved imagine the following situation: a bunch of gangsters try to rob a bank in a major city, say NY. something goes wrong, and they end up taking hostages. the police arrive on the scene, so what do we expect to happen next? we expect the police to first and foremost think about saving the innocent hostages. the lives of these innocent civilians are the paramount concern. catching the gangsters comes a distant second. no-one expects the police to grab a few grenade launchers and incinerate the whole building to make sure none of the gangsters can escape. we would be horrified if such tactics were employed. and yet, this is PRECISELY what the US military is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan. when a handful of suspected militants are thought to hide in a building, entire neighborhoods and villages get bombed, regardless of how many civilians die in these raids. this is in fact state terrorism. not only is it a moral outrage, it is also legally questionable and counterproductive from a realpolitik standpoint. when one demonstrates such disdain for the lives of innocents, one must expect that for every militant killed, two or more new ones will rise in his place. the question is, are our leaders too stupid to grasp this? i think not. i think they WANT terrorism to increase, as it allows for a perpetual state of warfare, which guarantees that the state's powers will increase in the name of 'security' even though the state actually lessens our security by creating countless new enemies. the financing of terrorism is really an ancillary question in this context. the entire 'war on terror' is a scam, just as the 'war on drugs' is a scam. the REAL targets are always the tax cows. Date: Thu Jan 19 2006 11:32 trotsky (refreshing lies) ID#248269: Copyright © 2002 trotsky/Kitco Inc. All rights reserved don't like the message from the CPI? why , just change it , AGAIN. in a nauseating demonstration of sheepleness, one economist confesses that he just loves to be lied to by the government. the BLS is about to change its basket of goods measuring the CPI again - with of course the express intent of LOWERING the reported CPI. well, reality be damned, the main thing is that the numbers 'look good' according to this dude. mainstream economists are nothing but a bunch of courtiers subservient to the state. macroblog.typepad.com "So, if you are like me, and would like to see the CPI trend closer to 2 percent than 2 ½ percent—the BLS might just have what you are looking for in next month’s report." where's the barfbag?

To: ild who wrote (50232)	1/19/2006 1:40:22 PM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

ild, that is really old now. I think it has changed a lot.

To: ild who wrote (50232)	1/19/2006 8:03:12 PM
From: kris b	Respond to of 110194

What are your favorite targets? I have been in construction business for 35 years so I know most of the tricks of the trade. The first rule is DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE STUPIDITY OF YOUR LENDER. They will wake up loooong after the company is on its knees. The most important thing for me is a financial strength. Especially, ratio of short term assets (cash on hand and receivables) to liabilities (payables to trades/suppliers). I don't care too much about long term assets (inventory, land) and long term debt. Negative acid test kills you when sales drop 20%-30%. You can't pay your sub trades and suppliers with land and housing inventory. No cash flow means that you are out of business in a hurry. CTX is the weakest of them all. Their entire net worth/retained earnings are tied up in housing inventory and land. Short term liabilities are 300% higher then their short term assets.