Comments on: Still More Odds & Ends (Twelve this Time)

By: adam

adam — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:17:58 +0000

One of the best websites on the web. Thanks for all your insight. I’m a nyc resident, if you have any spare time would be great to meet up and talk your ear off

By: mobk

mobk — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:58:57 +0000

“On Chavez, he is a dictator and not an oil executive.”

Huh? I would buy “fool”, “blowhard”, or “economic illiterate”, but how is the elected leader of a democracy now a dictator? Chavez recently held a plebiscite that would have allowed him to extend his term. This was voted down by the Venezuelan people. If he were a true dictator would he have held such a plebiscite and would he have honoured it if it gave the “wrong” result?.

Venezuela also has a largely free press (and with the exception of the state run media vigorously anti-Chavez).

For all I know Chavez would like to be a dictator but I just don’t see how he comes close to meeting the definition unless the word means something different in your country.

By: Josh Stern

Josh Stern — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:41:46 +0000

I was wondering if you would write about yesterday’s large collateral damage in the insurers. Another source of collateral damage yesterday you didn’t mention was CNA, which is bouncing like a rubber ball today. I’m hard pressed to remember a similar pair of consecutive trading days like CNA for an 8 billion$ company outside of the dot bomb era.

Also bouncing as hard or harder today than the insurance industry is Brazil. Many Brazilian stocks have been simultaneously hit by the twin theories that the Brazilian economy will slow because the U.S. slows and that Brazilian stocks will be hurt by interest rates going up because the economy there is too hot! It’s a pretty good bet that both those things won’t jointly happen.

By: Bill aka NO DooDahs!

Bill aka NO DooDahs! — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:09:20 +0000

Re: “the worst insurance state” – this is what makes me so furious at the nimrods who push for national regulation! Can you *imagine* how messed up the industry would be if there were a nation of FIFTY NJs for private passenger, FIFTY FLs for residential property, and FIFTY CAs for worker’s comp? What a nightmare! At least with state regulation, the capitalists have the theoretical option of taking their capital elsewhere, and states can actually promote meaningful reform. Take a look at SC PPA in the late 90s and imagine trying to push the political strings to make a reform like that happen on a national scale.

Side note: any time you see or hear someone saying “First, let me preface my comments by saying that I believe in free markets”, you know THEY ARE LYING!!!!!! As evidenced by “… I think something had to be done” and “I fear that in an entirely free market, …”. While there are political difficulties in achieving free markets, one either believes in them, or not. It’s obvious Marc DOESN’T. He believes in REGULATED markets, and just has quibbles about the specifics of the regulation.