More Foxes In The Hen House

It just can't get anymore ironic. It just can't.
Ok, here we go. The SEC announced today its appointment of 29 year old Goldman Sachs employee, Adam Storch to a new position in the Securities and Exchange Commission. His new job, as the LA Times puts it, "the first chief operating officer in the agency's enforcement division".

So Goldman Sachs, who just got a crapload of money from the government (aka the taxpayer) and has had its own people at the helm in high places in government, like Henry Paulson, who helped to create the worst economic scenario Americans have seen since the Great Depression, gets the nod from the SEC to to let them hire one of their 29 year old minions to help "make the SEC's Enforcement Division more efficient" ?

Excuse me while I laugh and cry at the same time.

Lets take a look at how much money has been given (stolen) to Goldman Sachs from all of us. Here's a piece from Shelly Roche's post on her site ByteStyle.tv on how much money Goldman Sachs got from our federal government's bailouts and how they're magically profiting these days:

How did Goldman, Sachs & Co. -- saved a year ago by the US taxpayer -- magically make $3 billion in 3 months a year later?
This as the US dollar collapses, unemployment soars and foreclosures hit a record?

Here is the Goldman, Sachs & Co. revenue break down for the past 3 months:

Financial Advisory-M/A: 325 million.
Equity Underwriting: 363 million.
Debt Underwriting: 211 million.
Trading-Principal Investments: 10 billion.

Notice that 10 billion is much bigger than two or three hundred million made from the traditional Wall Street businesses.

That $10 billion is evidence of their magic trick. For we the taxpayer gave Goldman Sachs the following:

10 Billion in TARP
11 Billion from the Fed
30 Billion from the FDIC
13 Billion from AIG

For a grand total of $70 Billion (Goldman along with every other bank and AIG would have been defunct without this money).

There you have it. Goldman Sachs...er I mean.. Your government has everything under control.

Lets call the Webster Dictionary people to give them the heads up on the new definition of "regulation".

Dow soars on news of missing "Balloon Boy"

Dow tracks Balloon Boy's altitude.

After closing above the 10,000 barrier on Oct 14 for the first time in almost a year, the Dow continued to soar Thursday Oct 15th on the news of missing "Balloon Boy", 6-year-old Falcon Heene. The Dow opened sluggishly on Thursday, but news of Heene's disappearance had day-traders queuing up to get into the market while less sophisticated investors were distracted from profit-taking.

A market insider spoke under the condition of anonymity: "Using triangulation and some sophisticated calculations we were able to gauge "Balloon Boy's" precise altitude, which then translated tic for tic our market conditions. I wish I could thank him with a wagon full of blow or chocolate or hookers. I'm so glad that he didn't crash before the bell."

Shilo Goldschlong of Goldschlong & Goldschlong Investment Group, Inc. explains: "We had been looking for some sort of sign of the Dow's next move after breaking 10K on Wednesday, and we found it. 'Balloon Boy' was just the forecasting tool we were looking for." Goldschlong joked, "If he weren't only 6-years old, I'd get him a penicillin shot and his choice of hookers... hell, I'd give him the old reach-around myself."

With "Balloon Boy" safe on the ground, the market was melancholic today, peaking above 10,000 shortly only to close at 9995 for the week.

Farmers and Hemp Industry Business Leaders Plant Hemp at DEA Headquarters

Its time to end the ridiculous policy against growing industrial hemp.

Right? Of course.

So check this out, this is great.

A group of farmers and hemp related industry business leaders, including Isaac Nichelson, owner of Livity Outernational, a hemp based clothing company, and David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, protested on the front lawn of the DEA building in Washington D.C. With ceremonial shovels in hand, the group began digging and planting hemp seeds right there on the DEA's lawn. What a beautiful act of defiance against another auspice of the failed war on drugs. Kudos to these guys. Its time to legalize industrial hemp. In this economy, its insane not to.