Here’s a couple of random musings on a slow news day:
Did Bernanke appear overly nervous today? That was my take and I was rooting for the guy to make a good impression. The BofA-Merrill deal has become politicized and someone is going to have to pay the price. My guess is that it’s Gentle Ben. No perp walk but I couldn’t help visualizing his reappointment flying out the window. Somehow it doesn’t work for a Fed Chairman to keep intoning “I don’t recall” from the witness chair. If you think about it, that’s a sad commentary on our current times.
There’s a report out tonight that Japan is going to sanction Citi for lax oversight of money laundering activities. How many times has this bank screwed up on blocking and tackling. It really is unmanageable — break it up and end the pain. They shoot horses, don’t they?
How close is Boeing to screwing the pooch? Building a new aircraft of the complexity of the Dreamliner is always a bet the firm sort of move. Boeing has been rolling those dice for decades and coming up sevens and elevens. Have they finally tapped out? I have a hunch this one is going to get ugly. The latest delay that calls for reinforcing certain parts of the plane sounds like more of a fundamental engineering problem as opposed to the production issues that have plagued the plane. Can you see a government bailout looming?
And finally, I think that the Obama veto or promised veto of the defense bill because of the inclusion of the F-22 program is going to set up a confrontation with Congress. This isn’t about Democrats and Republicans but about a good old fashioned pork program. Congress smells a president that can be rolled and this will be the test case. So far Obama hasn’t shown he can stand up to them and he seems to be drawing a line in the sand on this one. If he backs down look for a tumultuous period and troubles for the Democrats in 2010.
That’s it. Kind of an opinion dump so don’t be shy about telling me I’m so far off base I can’t even see the ball field.
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