Long Louisville Sluggers and Short NEC-Mitsubishi

June 7, 2009 3:00 AM

I'm BackAn analysis of the present macro-economic and political situation. [SLYT] [Adult Language] [NSFCRTs] [Right-wing Smears x2] [PepsiGold Pitch at the end]
posted by @troy (37 comments total)

This guy would have fewer money issues if he took better care of his computer equipment.
posted by rokusan at 3:28 AM on June 7 [9 favorites]

A rather weird mix of truth, racism, and craziness. A whole lotta people are going to start pulling that crap with their credit cards if we keep it up with the bailouts though.
posted by Justinian at 3:40 AM on June 7

Well, he's good at drawing out the monitor-smashing, he manages to go about five minutes before he starts spewing racist rhetoric: I'd give this a 6 or so. If someone took out the monitor & added in lightsaber noises, though, it could hit an 8 or 9 easily.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:56 AM on June 7 [2 favorites]

People need to stop listening to right-wing radio. It's really kind of amazing what a good job the right wing 'noise machine' has done in creating an entire self-consistent worldview constructed out of lies.
posted by delmoi at 3:59 AM on June 7 [5 favorites]

He seems angry.
posted by slater at 4:04 AM on June 7

Lisa: Maybe we should calm Dad down.
Bart: I prefer to egg him on. Hey, Dad, has the movie economic recovery started yet?
posted by nudar at 4:13 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

So... because the financial sector was irresponsible then defrauding a credit card company, not to mention his precious bullion resellers, is hunky dory then. I'm a little curious who he expects to buy the gold from him later. The smarter bet, at least in his universe anyway, would have been to buy ammunition.

Oh and recording it too, nice touch. I think it could be possible to grab that CC number from the vid.

First time I've ever heard the term "green shoots", had to look that up on google to figure out what he was talking about.
posted by Talanvor at 4:18 AM on June 7

So we have an unemployed ironworker smashing CRT monitors et al. for food and gold bullion, agitating some local boss at the evil credit card company and preparing for the upcoming credit level end fight.

It's Redneck Super Mario World!
posted by Glee at 4:54 AM on June 7

Cute. Someone should explain to him that unemployment is what we call a lagging indicator, meaning its no uncommon for unemployment to continue rising after a recession has ended.

And those "green shoots" he's so worked up about? Just went over this data last week with the financial markets class I teach. The headline PMI data sorta masks what's really going on, so its always good to disaggregate a time series if you can. I grabbed the underlying data for the past six months, as that's the period most relevant to recent news stories.

We've got Suppliers Deliveries ticking slightly upwards , at the same time that New Orders and Backlog Orders are moving sharply upwards. The Aggregate PMI number is most definitely moving upward (I've tweaked the axis here a little to render the upward move a little more visible).

If you've only got time for a single chart, I've captured all series plus the aggregate here, and I've published the underlying spreadsheet here in case anyone wants to mess about with it.

So things are most definitely perking upwards, especially so (and I've commented about this a lot in the past) as we're seeing the spread between LIBOR and 3M T-Bills compress.

Whether or not these trends are sustainable are another question, of course.

I didn't watch the entire video (he's a little too agitated for my Sunday AM chill & mellow tastes), but if he's pitching gold good on him. I moved about one third of my equity into both gold and silver in 2004 / 2005 (originally all physical as there was no other option back then, but now I've got a mix of physical and ETFs), and Q4 last year I started purchasing physical gold & silver here in London.

Still buying, in fact picked up another twenty oz Silver physical two weeks ago - all my dealer had in stock.

Curious: the shortage of physical gold and silver that was saw develop Q3 of 2008 still persists, at least here in London. I ask my bullion dealer about it once every two weeks or so when I purchase more metal. Its a strange, strange situation.

My take on it is simple: lots of folks are anticipating a return of inflation. I'm betting about one year out we'll see above trend inflation. Let's hope economic growth returns as well, otherwise we're back at the stagflation scenario that's been on my mind for a while now.
posted by Mutant at 5:56 AM on June 7 [7 favorites]

I used to work with guys like him. They exist.
posted by bardic at 6:09 AM on June 7

That's some pretty cool work, Mutant. Thanks for putting the work into it. Also, you are my hero for owning you-suck.com.
posted by verb at 6:23 AM on June 7

walstreetpro2
Age: 29
Influences: HIGH GRADE MARIJUANA TRADING STOCKS


Dude, I think your dealer is fucking with your shit.
posted by orme at 7:02 AM on June 7

Steroids don't belong to office.
posted by Free word order! at 7:37 AM on June 7

My take on it is simple: lots of folks are anticipating a return of inflation.

Inflation will return. It has to. It's what happens when there is a decline in production, and production has declined in pretty much every conceivable way over the past year. All that "free" money flying around out there isn't helping either. I learned all this Economics 11.

The question is, how extreme will the inflation be? It could be very extreme.
posted by philip-random at 7:54 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Holy freaking crap.

(This comment is not "the best of the web." But it still needed to be said.)
posted by andreaazure at 8:11 AM on June 7

Wow.

There's a lot of ways to describe this video: uninformed, xenophobic, racist, simple, but "Best of the Web" is not one that comes to mind.

There. Now it's the best of the web.
posted by orville sash at 8:12 AM on June 7 [2 favorites]

There. Now it's the best of the web.

That would be more awesome if the video was sped up a bit.
posted by Talanvor at 8:16 AM on June 7

Looks like he is gunning for Jim Cramer's job. All the yelling, twice the crazy, AND he brings in the NASCAR demographic.
posted by Xoebe at 8:24 AM on June 7

So I take it he's voting for left-wing candidates who support a good social safety net and is going to completely boycott Wal-mart? Because shopping at Wal-mart is a big part of the reason that Americans don't have well-paying manufacturing jobs - Wal-mart pressures suppliers to constantly lower prices, which means lowering wages and moving to overseas manufacturing.
posted by jb at 8:41 AM on June 7

Also if you want unemployment insurance, you also love taxes.

I want unemployment insurance and a strong social safety network, and I support high taxes.

I also support very high gas prices - $4 a gallon at least, if you $6 or $8. But that's just because I like the planet. It's the only one I have.
posted by jb at 8:44 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

But that's just because I like the planet. It's the only one I have.
posted by jb

That's where I keep most of my stuff.
posted by Balisong at 9:02 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

tl;dw; ...but did he smash his CRT in his house? Mmmmm, mmmm, yummy, yummy lead dust!
posted by five fresh fish at 9:24 AM on June 7

The lucid quoting of statistics, the observational banter, the fusion of policy and drama... I thought I was watching The West Wing.
posted by bicyclefish at 10:02 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Well, as I've heard many a conservative say (usually directed toward women holding down two jobs to support the kids that the conservative redneck husband isn't helping with): stop whining and get a job. In fact, he probably *is* one of those deadbeat douchebag dads; he's just got that aura about him.
posted by jamstigator at 10:36 AM on June 7

Made it to 1:02. Tired of human ugliness and failure. Going to go watch my tomato plant grow.
posted by sleevener at 11:15 AM on June 7 [2 favorites]

That's no attic, that's his garage. And he's so pissed off because his gun case behind him is empty. Probably pawned them off to pay for Milwaukee's Best and internet access. But he sure didn't buy his beer from Wal-Mart. Probably had to walk a long way to find a liquor store that wasn't run by Korean immigrants, and that pisses him off more. Then he got holes in his shoes because those damn Brazilian children who made his shoes couldn't figure out how to use glue. But he sure showed those damn Japanese what he thinks of their CRTs. It took him 10 hits and broke his sledge before the screen finally broke.

I wonder what this guy used to do for a living?
posted by Balisong at 12:51 PM on June 7

Inflation will return. It has to. It's what happens when there is a decline in production, and production has declined in pretty much every conceivable way over the past year. All that "free" money flying around out there isn't helping either. I learned all this Economics 11.

It's what happens where there is a decline in production and no corresponding decline in consumption. All of the money the government is printing is offset somewhat by the massive destruction of real wealth that has occured in the last year. Now, the problem is that the government will almost certainly not stop the printing presses when the wealth destruction stops, which will indeed lead to inflation.
posted by Justinian at 1:43 PM on June 7

orville sash: There. Now it's the best of the web.

Talanvor: That would be more awesome if the video was sped up a bit.

True dat. Here you go.

I just rewatched the Star Wars Kid, & the similarities (the threatening advancing toward the camera, for instance) were entertaining.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:30 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

This pretty much is the same attitude I see in my southern neck of the woods: Angry 'conservatives' who have no jobs or health insurance moaning about socialism and seething at the fact that a black man is president and a damned liberal black man at that!
posted by UseyurBrain at 2:56 PM on June 7

I'm sure Rage Against the Machine is stoked to have their music in this video.
posted by snofoam at 4:27 PM on June 7

I'm sure Rage Against the Machine is stoked to have their music in this video.

I've heard "Take the power back" as bumper music for Rush Limbaugh. I've also heard Queen and other similar music. I doubt Rush knows or cares, but I bet some of the musicians aren't too thrilled to have their craft used to promote such blather.
posted by Balisong at 4:33 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Honestly the guy could be talking Chinese but as long as I knew the context was about the current economic shithole, I shamefully say "beat the shit out of that thing... and that!"
posted by hillabeans at 6:29 PM on June 7

"I'm sure Rage Against the Machine is stoked to have their music in this video."

The only RATM fans I've ever known were either jocks, frat-boys, or both. And always white dudes.
posted by bardic at 7:23 PM on June 7

Pronoiac: True dat. Here you go.

That gave me some good laughs, thanks!
posted by Talanvor at 7:53 PM on June 7

but if he's pitching gold good on him.

I think he's pitching gold at Mexicans (I didn't get far enough to see if he dropped an n-bomb).
posted by dirigibleman at 4:10 AM on June 8

I'm just glad that the gun cabinet in the background is empty.
posted by Pollomacho at 4:52 AM on June 8

Balisong: "I bet some of the musicians aren't too thrilled to have their craft used to promote such blather."

Many of them probably aren't, but due to the way radio-broadcast licensing works, they don't have a lot of choice in the matter. At least until someone makes it seem like the artist is endorsing the broadcaster, anyway.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:56 AM on June 8