Boy am I Glad That's Over

And lo, the banks were profitable again and money was lent as manna from heaven and the markets sighed deeply and began their weary climb back up.  Would you like to buy a bridge?  I don't believe anything those banks say about their balance sheets right now, they have powerful incentives to lie about it.  I sincerely hope I'm wrong and that we've turned a corner with the economy in terms of the credit crisis but I find much of the optimism surrounding the Dow's recent uptick ill founded.  History is littered with defunct financial institutions that gave rosy projections until their last breath.  As a matter of fact, isn't that what we saw with Lehman and Bear?  Don't believe the hype.

On Edge

For the moment the market has stabilized teetering on the edge.  

I am worried that Obama's economic action team is not up to the task.  Their dithering on toxic assets, the banks and AIG merely puts the solution off to another day.  This has the unpleasant effect of increasing the cost of any future solution.  Treasury is way too tentative, vague, oracular and  shockingly understaffed.    Economists are losing faith.  You know, the ones that told us the free market would set us free. 

And what's this crap about Citigroup making a profit?  Aren't they on taxpayer life support?  What kind of accounting are they doing that they're showing a profit?  Isn't that the kind of accounting that got us into this mess in the first place?

The market surge after the news that Citigroup was projected to be "profitable" in the first quarter displays the desperate psychology of a wounded beast.  Charging wildly in any direction at the slightest provocation.  This beast is far from done.