Summing Up and a Sabbatical

Just about a year ago on March 1 I started this blog.

I said: "...There is much confusion and unhappiness all around regarding what is being done to bail out overpaid financial "geniuses" who got us into where we are.

Perhaps some straightforward thinking is in order devoid of patronizing and obfuscating technical terms preferred by those who run our system.

This blog hopes to contribute to that effort so that we, those who pay taxes and mortgages on time, may know what to do to make the system a little better in the future.

Towards this end all of us need to be a little more vigilant of future misdeeds committed by those we usually consider as our leaders or pillars of society: bank presidents, Treasury Secretaries, Central Bankers and elected officials.

Perhaps our vigilance will result in advance warnings before the next perfect storm could ever gather sufficient force to engulf us all as this one is doing right now"...

These days It is rare to find anyone who is not aware of how Wall Street went over board, how Washington DC has failed to put in rudimentary checks and balances reigning in Wall Street in exchange for a blank check; and how, as a politician, Obama has been self-destructing as a man whose promised changes one can no longer believe so readily.

After Obama compared multi-million dollar wages and bonuses paid to Wall Street leaders with those of baseball players, one can say for a high degree of certainty that Obama is essentially a "Chicago School" convert. Only alumni of that "Cathedral" could compare Wall Street pays with those of sports. Obama, as it turned out, ain't what many thought he was when they cast their vote for him as FDR V2.0. He is turning out to be "just another" politician.

Paul Krugman said it well, "Oh My God". He also said in conclusion: "He is clueless". To which I sadly concur.

The weight of money in influencing how public policies are formed in Washington, DC, indeed in so many other countries of varying degrees of political liberty, is perhaps the trend of the 21st Century.

If you detect a touch of helplessness and futility in what I have been trying to do, you are not wrong.

Here is what has happened:

The Great Depression V2.0 has been averted by the Fed and other major Central Banks printing money. However, due to the blanket no-question-asked way of doing so, a base is formed for another bubble down the road.

The unevenness with which public money has been spent lays bare how strong interest groups representing numerically small number of people, but numerically large sums of money, have managed to capture Washington DC.

USA is supposedly a true democracy. But in my view it is moving ever closer to a Third World Crony Capitalist model once dismissed in the land as corrupt and "Third World" with a barely disguised pinch of racist superiority. "We in the West don't do this sort of thing". "That" could only happen in "Asia".

Sure, mate. Whatever you wish to believe it's fine with me. We still live in the free world and we are all entitled to our opinions however stupid and wrong they maybe.

I am going to take time off to focus on other things including writing columns for publications, something I used to do far more regularly before I began this blog.

www.sinmingshaw.com lists most of my articles.

I want to add to that list. To do so, I will blog less frequently. So, it is not "adios", rather it is "hasta luego". See you soon.

Every now and then I could write something if I am so moved. But I shall not be writing everyday here. I hope you are not too disappointed.

If I publish something, I will alert you on this blog. So, check back every now and then.

Thanks to you all for being my regular readers. Until next time, keep well and keep alert for volatility in financial and other markets.

Ciao