The cynic gives with eyes averted, and doubts when he hopes, because most of all he fears dissappointment–that is loss of control.
I think I made it clear, when I presented to you the sprouting change, that danger threatened the sprout from every side. I intimated the militant ranks of people who would not take a Click Here to continue reading.

Okay, so technically this is a typhoon not a hurricane. But I could not resist the irony.
People who watch the oil markets have been worrying because they say that one strong Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico could send gas prices sky high in the US. Now there is a Category 5 typhoon heading towards Click Here to continue reading.

As one of our rants of the week here at the Ethereal Voice, we selected an article by Joel Salatin called, “Everything I want to do is illegal.” It is all about how regulation keeps the little guy out of the market place.

A recent NY Times article demonstrates that this is no accident…..

The Agriculture Department tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn’t have the authority to restrict it.

Basically, the meat industry is afraid that Creekstone is going to get a competitive advantage by testing all their meat and they are trying to use the Government to stop them. Shows how free market the Bush administration is.

As people who follow Iran know, the country is currently dealing with a high inflation rate. So what do they go and do? The Lebanese Daily Star has the answer….

Iran’s moderate press and economists Thursday slammed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to slash interest rates, describing the move as incomprehensible” and risking “economic suicide.”

The rate cut, which economists said could overheat an already inflationary economy, appeared to have been taken without the knowledge of Iran’s economy minister, who had said exactly the opposite just hours earlier.

“Economic suicide for banks,” the Mardomsalari (Democracy) newspaper said of Tuesday’s move.

“The economy minister and the head of the Central Bank have to explain this decision since this decree is incomprehensible for economists,” Saeed Shirkavand, economy minister in the previous reformist government, was quoted as saying.

Apparently this decision was made the normal way that decision are made when one madman is calling the shots (this from the Guardian)….

Iran’s financial system suffered a fresh jolt yesterday with panic selling on the stock market after the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, abruptly ordered banks to cut interest rates sharply, despite surging inflation.

The order, which Mr Ahmadinejad issued by telephone during a visit to Belarus and which flew in the face of expert advice – has triggered warnings of a financial crisis and spiralling corruption amid fears of a capital flight from the country’s lending institutions.

The main thing that worries me: If they are stupid enough to do this, what else are they stupid enough to do?

This week’s rant comes from the one and only Joel Salatin who is famous for popularizing pastured poultry among other things. I have heard Mr. Salatin speak and I have to say he was one of the most charismatic speakers I have ever heard.

That is not nessearly a good thing in my book. I have an ingrained suspicion of charismatic types. I am always wondering how they are trying to blind me.

Ingrained suspicion aside, I have to say that I agree with Salatin’s complaint in this rant. The government, not the market place, is destroying the small family farm in this country.

I knew nothing about manufacturing or business when I came to Acme, so I heave learned all my notions of the proper way to do things from influences within the company. Any time I point out something that is not being done the right way, there is a discrepancy between theory and practice in Acme.
Now Click Here to continue reading.

From the Financial Times…..

The Chinese government is to use $3bn of its vast foreign exchange reserves to buy a 9.9 per cent stake in Blackstone, the US buy-out fund, in an unprecedented move that underlines Beijing’s desire to tap into the private equity boom.

The investment will coincide with Blackstone’s landmark $40bn-plus stock market listing, expected in the next few months, and will allow the private equity group to nearly double its original target of raising $4bn.

Not only are the Chinese subsidizing the US government (through the purchase of treasures) and the US housing market (through the purchase of Fannie Mae and other agency bonds. They are now going to pour money into the stock market. And this at a time when P/E ratio’s in America are already at a record high. This is just unreal.

I wonder if the Chinese are awere that takeover booms traditionally herald a crash in the stock market?

Of course, 3 billion is small change in the grand scheme of things. It is certainly small change compared to the 300 to 400 billion that the China’s Central bank is going to spend on the US this year (on present trends). Still, it cracks me up. Next thing I know China’s central bank will be playing the lottery here in the US.