CHANGE OF PLANS

No C. Fred today. Today was simply too bizarre to let slip by without comment

The day started slowly with the stock market in a bit of a funk primarily over the reports of monetary tightening in China. The, right on the dot for a change at 11:40 came The Leader, flanked on one side by Paul Volker and on the other by Bumbles Biden who rumor has to be the Vice President. The topic was the banks but rather than talk of taxes which everyone expected came this rambling, almost incoherent attack in the most populist of language culminating in the announcement that banks would no longer be able to trade for their own account (I think), have hedge funds (I think) use their deposits (I think) plus a whole bunch of other stuff...then exit stage left. The market, especially for financial shares tanked as The Leader was speaking. Even the talking heads, who are never at a loss for words didn't know what to make of it.

That wasn't bad enough. Two hours later, Barney Frank popped up to say that yeah, he supported what The Leader said, but it wasn't about to happen except on Barney's timetable which was 3-5 years. The market recovered for a brief period then really tanked as everyone seemed to realize that nobody knew what the hell was going on.

I'm exaggerating for effect of course and what everyone meant will come out in the clear tomorrow but I'd like to make a couple of points apart from the actual meaning of the two statements today.

1. What the hell The Leader is doing with a show like this with confidence in his administration a a low ebb and having just gotten his butt kicked in Mass is beyond me.

2. That Barney Frank can feel confident enough to stand up and in effect say I don't care what The Leader says, this is happening on my watch in my time frame tells me The Leader aint got much for street creds.

3. On every international initiative up to this point, The Leader has been essentially ignored. After this week we could be looking at the greatest collapse of American influence since the War of 1812 . If Barney feels he can tell the leader of his party to mind his own business, Foggy Bottom has a problem.

4. The Suit was nowhere to be found in all this. Methinks The Suit is toast.

5. Business confidence in this mob is slipping fast. We could be in deep do-do by mid year.

C. Fred tomorrow unless this tale has legs