Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. EUROPE

I am watching and reading as I see Europe on the verge of collapse. The technocrats are scrambling to halt this collapse, but it is coming. Greece is done, and I expect them to exit the euro. Spain is right behind them as people start withdrawing cash in what is being called a "bank jog." I expect the rest of the dominoes to fall. On that chain is the USA.

Central banking is to blame for all of this bullshit. Granted, governments spend too much, but they are supplied with endless revenue from central banks creating money from thin air. Bailout after bailout merely papers over the much needed correction because wealth does not come from a printing press. Wealth comes from savings and production which are both punished in today's world. This is what central banking does. It punishes people who work and save. The result are entire nations who don't save and want to live on welfare.

It is said that what can't go on forever won't go on forever. This shit cannot go on forever. This collapse is coming, and there isn't much any of us can do about it. Things are going to get very ugly.

2. MARY KENNEDY

The estranged wife of RFK, Jr. hanged herself this week. She was having money problems and was struggling with depression, alcoholism, and drug abuse. But it seems that her biggest problem was being married to a Kennedy.

I read a lot about Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and the picture emerges of a man who was your typical Kennedy. In short, he was a philanderer, and Mary was deeply in love with him. She lost her shit completely when he filed for divorce. Before Kennedy, she seemed like a very together woman beloved by all her knew her. After Kennedy, her life was devastation as she discovered his affairs. One person said that Kennedy had used her up and tossed her. That is some sad shit.

Ladies, here's a tip. Don't ever marry a Kennedy.

3. ZIMMERMAN

Zimmerman is getting off. Whether he deserves to get off on murder charges is another matter, but there is no way a prosecutor can get a conviction on him. No defense attorney would accept a plea deal after the latest evidence came out confirming Zimmerman's story. The evidence merely confirms my belief that Zimmerman got his ass whipped, but it is obvious that he shot Trayvon during the ass beating from close range.

The debate seems to have shifted to issues of racial profiling and Zimmerman being too eager for a confrontation when he should have cooled his heels for the police to come and fuck Trayvon up in the legal manner. You can call Zimmerman a Rambo and an idiot, but he walks purely on the conflict itself. No murder charge will stick. This is why the cops did not arrest Zimmerman at first.

What will be the aftermath of all this? It is hard to say. I see a civil suit or perhaps federal charges on civil rights grounds. I will wait and see.

4. FACEBOOK IPO

I'm all glad that Mark Fuckerberg can finally cash out of Facebook. My advice? Dump all those shares as quickly as possible. Facebook is popular but so is Snooki. There are no moats for Facebook just as there weren't any for MySpace, AOL, Yahoo, etc. Even Google is vulnerable, and that is as solid a stock as you are ever going to find in the tech world. The Facebook IPO has made a lot of rich people, but I suspect it will impoverish many more over the long term. I could be wrong, but I always ask myself one question when it comes to tech stocks. How are they going to make money? With Facebook, I can't answer that question. They can sell ads and consumer information. That's it.

I am a heavy user of Facebook, but there is a reason I hang on to my blog. Facebook is disco. It is CB radio. It isn't Coke or Levi's. As such, there is no reason why it deserves its current valuation. This is Greater Fool territory. If you own Facebook stock, cash out now. I could be wrong, but the billion in the hand is worth two billion in the bush.

5. SCHUMER VS. SAVERIN

Chuck Schumer really hates it when people don't pay their taxes. The claim is pretty basic. Eduardo Saverin, Facebook bazillionaire, got a little anal action here in the USA without giving the politicians in DC a reacharound. This isn't about fairness, but the fear that individual rich people will do what corporations already do which is to move their wealth offshore. Tax competition is here to stay, and Schumer shouldn't ask how he can fuck guys like Saverin. He needs to ask how he can keep guys like Saverin from leaving the USA. The answer is simple--reduce or eliminate the capital gains tax. That isn't going to happen. This is why US citizenship is fast becoming worthless.

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