Quick Thoughts -- 7/20/11

Looks like another slow week in world of economics and finance; a week full of sadistic fear mongering, saber-rattling and demagoguing, all in the attempt by political leaders to scare common folk into voting for them in 16 months.  'Quick Thoughts' had to pick the bottom of the barrel this time but to paraphrase an old adage, a wild squirrel always finds his/her nut.  Onto today's "Quick Thoughts"...


Public Tilts to Lifting Debt Limit (WSJ) -- 38% say it should, 31% say it shouldn't and the other 31% will wait until after Aug 2nd to commit either way to a response

BofA reports worst ever loss, margins shrink (Reuters) -- No truth to my daydream that Bank of America be forced into bankruptcy & liquidation with all branches to close within 6 months and CEO Ken Lay be arrested for financial terrorism.

Borders to Close All of its Stores (WSJ) -- Expect liquidation discounts of 5-10% for weeks and weeks until all the quality books are gone, then Amazon-like sale prices on the garbage within the last 48 hours.

16 Arrested as F.B.I. Hits the Hacking Group Anonymous (NY Times) -- The arrests were in connection with strikes carried out by a loose, secretive federation of hackers called Anonymous.  Among those arrested were the hacker names "LivesWithParents47", "HarryPotterSuperPhan" and "RogaineWarrior".

Greece Threatened with Longterm, Widespread Poverty (der Spiegel International) -- To which the ECB, IMF, EU, Investors, Traders, and Bankers collectively shrugged then pretended to be moral, ethical people.

June housing starts at 6-month high, permits up (Reuters) -- Oh that's good news.. Yay.  But this is due to growing demand in rental apartments.  Oh.. thats' um sorta-good.. "Confronted with plummeting home values, Americans are shunning homeownership"  Oh.. thats.. um.. bad.


T-Mobile to Offer Unlimited Data Plans -  Horray! ..  But they were bought out last year by AT&T who does Not offer unlimited plans.. Boo!  Unlimited plans will be available with a two-year agreement for new and existing customers.  But.. Um. Huh?

Test Finds U.S. Students Slacking in the Geography Department (ABC News) -- This is important because students need to know just exactly where they will be immigrating to when they reach adulthood and find there simply not enough work to be found here.

Yao Ming Retires (AP) -- And so closes the book on the basketball career of the first Communist Multi-Millionaire NBA player; the human oxymoron.

Nissan Will Raise Price of the Leaf, Its Electric Car (NY Times) -- The vehicle's price is to be raised by $2450 to a starting price of just over $36k.  Good thing wages are rising by that much to keep up.  Oh, they're not?  Oh..