Talking Head Idiocy

So, it's Sunday. Not much happening. Got back late last night from taking Mom to see Harry Potter and the Order of Fries. Sometimes I like to watch the talking heads, but I got up too late to see the usual suspects, but then I got to watch the "Your Money" (if you have a lot of it) shows. What a bunch of friggin' morons.

First up was the Horrible, Terrible, Jim Cramer Flipping out OMG there goes Pestilance on his horse, collapse of the "Sub-Prime" Market. Now, I'll admit, this is a big problem. But the hand wringing and the "people who took out these loans should have known" coupled with the "bankers are losing their jobs" wailling is too much. It's gonna be bad. Yep. And when those banks posted record profits, and the economy looked so good, all those people who didn't see this coming should resign and leave their offices, because here comes the invisible hand of the market to give them all a slap upside the head.

Unfortunately, we (read, those of us in Government) need to do something about this. That the solution requires saving (mostly) the butts of those aforementioned people telling us all it's skittles and beer rankles me no end. The solution also means sacrificing those on the low end, which is even worse. So, yeah, some people are gonna be in a world of hurt, but those people whose annual bonuses are more than 4-year's salary of the rest of us will come out better than the people who are counting on their houses, and their retirement funds, and their 401k, and their invested pension funds... Disclaimer, I have a 30-year Fixed, so I'm in somewhat good shape (you know, except for the value of my investment going down).

And then there was the topper. Say, did you know that gasoline pump prices really aren't tied to the price per barrel of oil? Could have knocked me over with a feather. And with that saying that as ppb is still over $70 and gas prices are heading south of $2.60 per gallon, there was the talk of the cars we buy. And that, well, we Americans love our big cars, we love the road and we buy big cars to show that love. After all, the CEO of Ford said that Americans don't want to buy any small cars (he was quoted, I guess he reiterated that stupidity this week). Say, how's that perception working out for Ford anyway? Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't be listening to that person after all because Toyota and Honda are eating his lunch.

And please, oh please, do not talk to me about how the Unions and the workers are ruining the business. Sorry. When GM laid off workers last year, and the amount saved (that was absolutely necessary for the life of the company) is less than the signing bonuses of the top ten management, something else is wrong.