80 replies to this topic

[Orik]

I'm sure you'll like it. There's another place nearby called L'Auberge Basque, run by a Ducasse alum, which is perfectly fine (and its cuisine is far more elaborate) and has a terrific wine list but it's not nearly as enjoyable - I'd skip it next time in favor of another dinner at a basque restaurant.

[Orik]

btw, it's sort of amusing when the Basque nationalists (who seem to be very much against fast trains on both sides of the border) spray over the French on roadsigns, but when a couple of places happen to only have a French name on the sign you may find yourself circling a roundabout quite a few times.

eta: then again, if you're circling about you might as well get a pint of Gariguette strawberries. wow.

[Anthony Bonner]

I'll think of you as the euro trends towards parity

Yes, it's down to $1.27 today, but last year it was similarly low in May and jumped back to $1.46 in September, which is wneh we go to France! Hope it stays low this time!

1.21 and the Germans are now pissed at the ECB for buying Greek Debt claiming its a trichet-led French cabal to protect the greek debt holding French banks. Good times Good times. I'd laugh but 6 months from now I'm sure Imhofe will be on the hill claiming FDIC bailouts in CA and FL are politically motivated.

[Orik]

I'll think of you as the euro trends towards parity

Yes, it's down to $1.27 today, but last year it was similarly low in May and jumped back to $1.46 in September, which is wneh we go to France! Hope it stays low this time!

1.21 and the Germans are now pissed at the ECB for buying Greek Debt claiming its a trichet-led French cabal to protect the greek debt holding French banks. Good times Good times. I'd laugh but 6 months from now I'm sure Imhofe will be on the hill claiming FDIC bailouts in CA and FL are politically motivated.

A rate hike is coming very soon, and a war.

[Anthony Bonner]

A rate hike is coming very soon, and a war.

so many options for a war too.

[Chambolle]

pissed at the ECB for buying Greek Debt claiming its a trichet-led French cabal to protect the greek debt holding French banks.

Well, if that's what the ECB wants to do, it's a terribly doomed strategy destined for failure.

You protect French banks by directly pumping capital into French banks. Ditto, German banks.

You know, it's been tried before recently somewhere. And it worked flawlessly. I just can't remember where.

[Orik]

And by flawlessly you mean increasing taxes until no new businesses are started and then causing inflation that takes whatever the middle classes have left, yes?

[Chambolle]

And by flawlessly you mean increasing taxes until no new businesses are started and then causing inflation that takes whatever the middle classes have left, yes?

Mis-attribution problems.

Money pumped into banks will cost us zero. We'll turn a profit. Other endeavors are a different story.

ETA: I mispelled endeavors. It should read adventures.

[Chambolle]

I mispeled mispelled too.

[Anthony Bonner]

pissed at the ECB for buying Greek Debt claiming its a trichet-led French cabal to protect the greek debt holding French banks.

Well, if that's what the ECB wants to do, it's a terribly doomed strategy destined for failure.

You protect French banks by directly pumping capital into French banks. Ditto, German banks.

You know, it's been tried before recently somewhere. And it worked flawlessly. I just can't remember where.

the issue that makes me laugh is the Germans accusing Trichet of pursuing QE solely for the purpose of protecting the French banks.

I may or may not disagree with policy, but there are reasonable ways to arrive at a multitude of options.

ETA: Additionally most of Europe has a proud tradition of nationalizing private assets so they don't have the barrier to good decision making (if you really think that's the right path - I don't but its silly that Americans freak out about it so much)

[Chambolle]

I don't but its silly that Americans freak out about it so much.

Me neither. Nationalizing housing worked out pretty well, right?

[Anthony Bonner]

I don't but its silly that Americans freak out about it so much.

Me neither. Nationalizing housing worked out pretty well, right?

lets wait a few years on that one.

[Chambolle]

Wait a few years? I'm talking about what already happened.

[Orik]

Wait a few years? I'm talking about what already happened.

So is AB.

Look at asset values in Venezuela to see the future.

Anyway, housing around Hegia is still significantly overvalued.

[Chambolle]

So is AB.

I'm always impressed how one person can so clearly interpret someone else's short one-sentence quip. (Me, with Sifton, there's a lot more meat on the bone.)

I'm talking about what had already happened for years and years with the cloaked, under-the-radar "nationalization" that facilitated (along with many other facilitators) the 2007-2009 housing implosion before the most recent unambiguous "in full daylight" nationalization. Let's just say that it's good to be a bondholder and it's less good to be a citizen.

Nothing in the future fixes that past.

For the record, I'm talking finances here. Everybody was guilty. Some more than others, but everybody was guilty.

P.S. And I know the NYT-Krugman cabal's "Fannie Freddie Phony" (google it) blog position on all this - "Maes were withdrawing from the market at the height of the bubble" (translation: massive facilitators in a major way all the way up to the height of the bubble and then they ran for cover), "the vast majority of the loans now going bad came from the private sector" (reality: those loans never would have existed for the most part without Mae purchases and/or insurance. Krugman can be a brilliant Nobel-prize winning economist if he opts to be, but most of the time when he is casted as a NYT journalist, he has a NYT axe to grind. Serious economists across the spectrum are in agreement on Krugman's sharp-tongued yet monotonous and ultimately dull (and even dimwitted) elephant axe. He knows better. It's truly sad that people denigrate the prestige of Nobel-prize winners by writing like that. For the record, Chambo would never do such a thing.

P.P.S. Google "Wynn Rant on Housing" and listen for 45 seconds if you so desire. "We are doing it AGAIN." For the record, I agree.

P.P.P.S. And these longterm mortgage interest rates sure can't make any sense to you if you're predicting middle-class-mauling inflation, can they? That's should be an easy way to make a patient buck if you are a true believer.

Look at asset values in Venezuela to see the future.

Anyway, housing around Hegia is still significantly overvalued.

I'm not up to date at all on VZ or Hegia homes. I'm all ears though and I'm trying to subtly steer the conversation back on track.