Tuesday Breakfast Links

Posted by Jeff Carter
on October 4th, 2011

The Rugby World Cup is still being played. Rugby is a little rougher than “footie”, so it takes a little longer. Only one huge upset, Tonga beat France. But France has enough wins and play the white roses of England on October 8.

Ken Rogoff on 2012. Interesting political year, interesting budgeting year.

Decoding the market on Twitter.

This morning on Twitter, the verb is “crushed”. Bank failure in Europe.

Hope and change. Not what you are thinking.

Overrated.

A recap of yesterday’s action. Look out below. 1054.

Was at the Economic Club of Chicago dinner last night. Jim Skinner of McDonald‘s was at the podium. In 2004, he took command of Mickey D’s under adverse circumstances. His solution: Focus on the customer. They have grown ever since. Skinner isn’t a flashy Donald Trump type CEO. He is matter of fact, and a straight shooter. The kind of guy you would want to work hard for. Might want to buy some $MCD only because their CEO knows their business and is honest about it.

Murders down 14% in Chicago after hand gun ban was dropped. Better policing? Or more risk for criminals?

Search for a political messiah. Good topic. In hindsight as we wistfully think of great leaders and orators of the past, they become larger than life. Truth is they were human. I have lots of comments about many Presidents. Truth be told,our greatest Presidents didn’t have the best pedigrees as far as gold plated credentials, but they were the best leaders. Washington, Lincoln, Reagan. All great. Stack up their credentials to contemporaries of their time, and you wouldn’t have elected them. Think about that with this current crop of candidates. We know the one in power is terrible.

There are many critics of this blog that are mad because I write about politics along with trading. Hedge funds now are paying for political intelligence. This is the apex of crony capitalism. One day, we won’t pay attention to what goes on in committee rooms of Washington, but today we cannot.

A little music for our market. Blood Red and Goin’ Down

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