Replies to post #7537 on The Black Box

[Chris McConnel]

From TheStreet.com:

"Patriot Crack"
Dan Fitzpatrick
10/28/03 10:08 AM EST

Anybody else try to switch brokerage firms recently? I'm now entering my fourth week of having my IRA in transition, and finally got sick of having my ACAT forms (acronym stands for "A Coupla Twits") repeatedly rejected. Finally decided last week to just sell all the stock in my portfolio and wire the cash as a distribution, choosing the IRS as the lesser of two evils to deal with. How's that for a Hobson's Choice?

And it still hasn't been done! My broker finally told me that the real problem is the Patriot Act. The Act is so cumbersome and vague, and the penalties are so onerous if they take money without verifying the source, that firms are interpreting the law differently. It makes transfers interminably long. It also makes transfers between certain firms downright impossible because of the way they interpret the Act. They require such specific information that is just about impossible to predict.

As usual, good politics makes bad law.

[wahz]

you want a bearish case?:

with all these long term loans of 5-6% out there, how is it going to work when the fed has to tighten and the banks are borrowing at 5-6% or more from the fed?

So the fed has been easy for a long time and is going to stay that way, fueling the economy to big gains...lets pretend that happens anyway...well so inflation kicks in a little and ol' ag being afraid to get agressive, he raises a 1/4 and another 1/4..and the old silly bastard chases inflation all the way up to 5% and gets rates to 7+ or higher. Banks will have a helluva time dealing with this..actually they won't deal with it, they'll collapse.

I just thought i'd let you all in on the joke. The crash we had wasn't anything compared to what's coming
How do we avoid this?

Raise rates very aggressively from where they over the course of 1 year starting next summer. Stall the recovery without killing it and keep rates from having to rise a lot more

Ag is incapable of this