Saffire

You're Haitian? Intriguing...

Goodnight Makayla, and may your dreams be filled with visions of our band's global tour! I'm already printing t-shirts for us.

oh god, :laugh3:

Psh, nobody ever said that to you! :P You're up past your bedtime anyway. ;)

Does Coldplaying.com suddenly have tourette's syndrome?

All work and no ASSS makes Jay a dull boy.

I agree, we're all really hot. We should get together and start a band with no musical talent, but people would come see us in concert anyway because we're so good looking.

I just thought of something so dirty. Hint: "Chapstick". ;) I'll shut up now.

Oh gosh Nick... lol. I'm glad you ditched the Emo look. You are one fine looking chap! :sneaky:

Nick, this is where it would get difficult running a hedge fund with you. ;) Which one of us would have the power to veto the other? You make a really convincing argument, and you were absolutely right about oil being an attractive investment... it's up almost 19% since you mentioned it on here a few weeks ago. I sold that 3x Bull ETF literally two days before the huge rally. I would have made another 24% if I had held onto it... still kicking myself for that.

Who are you, the Pope? :laugh3: Briggins, that pic reminds me of the Coke superbowl ad: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKwTWtyOjgM]YouTube - Superbowl 2009 Coca-Cola Coke Commercial: Heist - Open Happiness HQ[/ame]

I'll post my mugshot as soon as I can get it, I couldn't find it on the Kershaw County website so next time I go by the jail I'll ask them if I can get a copy... I doubt they'll give it to me but it's worth a shot anyway! I looked pretty snazzy the night I was arrested, too. I was wearing a brand new white collared shirt from American Eagle. PS: Josh, quit being such a n!ggerfagg0t. ;)

I barely remember seeing the first Gulf War on TV, my dad was watching the news. It frightened me and fascinated me at the same time... I was glad it was so far away.

This is a "pump and dump" scheme. Basically we borrow money from China to buy Chinese goods, then when it comes time to return the money, we print it. It's almost exactly like shorting a stock you've got control over. At first you borrow shares at the high price, immediately sell it, and later when it's time to return the shares to the broker you buy them back at the lower price. I feel sorry for the Asian folks who worked their asses off for us. Oh well, now they know better!

Well I agree about there being inflationary pressure across the globe, and you may be right that the dollar won't be the currency that's hardest hit. But I tend to view our Federal Reserve as too proud to admit its mistakes. Which means it will probably keep printing dollars long after it should have raised interest rates. The possibility of Obama making it to a second term is difficult to imagine. The increased regulation and power of the government under his watch will make America a far less attractive investment for foreigners - just the other day, Obama announced he would like the power to seize financial businesses (not necessarily banks) that pose a "systemic threat" to the economy. That means hedge funds and the like. If such a bill passes, it would be insanely investor unfriendly. So far the stock market has gotten it right. Investors are aware that increased regulation is bad for the economy, and the market has reflected that after each announcement by Obama and Geithner. These short-burst rallies you see are people like you and I trying to eek out a few extra percentage points here and there. I don't consider it anything more than market noise and volatility. A sustained rally in this environment would be very difficult to pull off... anything more than 1,500 points in the DOW would catch me way off guard.

Great podcast, JD! Okay, I have another question/request for you: Name a song you like and then try singing it (and/or) mouthing the sounds of the instruments in it. This could be funny.

Moving out isn't really as big of a deal as you think (cause you can always visit your parents and you'll love spending time with your roommates). But I agree with the others, there's nothing wrong with going to a community college. Just make sure you get kickass grades while you're there and you'll save a TON of money! Oh and once you transfer to a 4-year uni, join a lot of clubs. It'll look good on your resume and you'll meet some great people that way.

Have you ever kissed a boy? And did you like it?

12:49 AM: At a friend's house listening to the new Doves album with the lights out (except a few blacklights).

When it's cold and you pee, do you ever shiver? I think it's called "pee shivers" or something.

Yep, that's right. The theory is known as "Keynesianism" (pronounced cain-see-an-ism) named for the early 20th century economist who came up with it, John Maynard Keynes. He's well regarded by many academic economists these days, but it is my opinion that the Austrian school of economics disproved keynesianism. Basically the goal of Keynesians is to use the government to create an ideal amount of demand in the economy. The theory is that low demand throughout the economy ("aggregate demand") is what causes depressions. Keynes' phrase was "animal spirits"... that somehow psychologically, everybody decides to cut back on spending at once. So the solution, they say, is to increase demand by making credit easy to come by. Credit is defined as loans - loans to businesses, homebuyers, credit card holders, etc. The way you do that is to print money (lowering the interest rate in a decidedly unnatural way). But of course the Austrians say this is nonsense, because they view the economy as having no "aggregate" demand. Just because Alex doesn't feel like spending money on an iPod, doesn't mean you won't! Each individual in the economy chooses what percentage of his income to spend versus save. You can think of the Austrian school as the cranky uncle who everybody sort of avoids at Thanksgiving dinner. He's unpopular, but right... sort of a party pooper. Because if you accept the Austrian theory of economics, you accept this really far-out political theory (anarchism) by extension. EDIT: Noonsun, here's Peter Schiff, an investment advisor and economist (who's more on the Austrian side of things) discussing the American economy. I bet you'll understand most of what he's saying. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPmdzKcDe-s]YouTube - Peter Schiff The Crisis Just Begun[/ame] Remember all these debates boil down to is what you choose to do with the "savings pool". Leave it alone, and let interest rates remain high (so people are encourage to put their money in the bank)! That will naturally lower interest rates, rather than the unnatural method of lowering them (printing money).

Yes indeed, you're right! So TZA is leveraged 3x. Think about the key part of that word, "lever"aged, and you can get a mental image of a lever with a fulcrum in the middle. The more money I borrow to trade, the greater my leverage. So if I borrow a billion dollars for one day, and make just 1% return that day, I'll be massively leveraged but I would have made a gobsmacking ten million bucks for hardly doing any work. That's what's dangerous about low interest rates. Money is tossed around like candy, and before you know it everyone is in debt because they've made bad investment decisions. Except me and Nick, because we always make good investment decisions. ;)

Nick and I play the market to make money. Sometimes it's like gambling because we aren't professionals, but when you win you win big! ;) We come up with theories about how the market will react to certain news and position accordingly. So in this case, I'm buying TZA, which is a three-letter symbol for an ETF (exchange traded fund) that trades like a stock, but is actually a basket of underlying assets which attempt to mirror the Russell 2000 index (which is an index of stocks that are "small cap" which means they are tiny companies - small capitalization) and then multiplies the result by 3. So if the Russell 2000 drops 4%, TZA will go up 12%. Attempting to explain that made me realize how damned convoluted it is.

I'm downloading the leaked copy now, but it's going kinda slow. I'll give my detailed review when I get back... I've been a Doves fan since Last Broadcast, so I can't wait to hear it!

Nick: The DOW just broke a key trendline according to Kirk, starting to look overbought: I put in an order to buy TZA after hours today.