I couldn’t agree more, Jeff…for your reason and others.

Amyways, any time one buys a stock, it’s speculation. The purchase of an investment is predicated on the expectation that one will find a bigger fool to pay a higher price for it at a later date.

As for the latest dip in oil prices, it’s the short sellers who are moving the market down. The same thing has happened in the recent grain complex blow off, and the CRB index decline. As for naked short selling, I have no problem with that, as naked shorts have a way of biting the seller in the butt if the stock is locked up and he can’t make delivery. Whatever way you look at it, it’s all very risky, and all speculation is a double edged sword. That’s why I repeat my mantra that the general public has no reason to be in the market.

Jeff

I wonder why nobody ever complains about speculators bidding up the price of stocks….

Jeff

Re Ribicoff: Remember that he was the one who Mayor Daley jeered from the floor and called “kike”? Personally speaking, that was the cherry on top of all the demonstrations that turned this previously apolitical 18-year-old sitting at home watching it on TV into a radical.

Re questions for aliens: I always wanted to ask one what forms of government and economic systems do they use on their planets. I have a feeling it’s unlikely to be democracy and capitalism. If only because their populations are likely too large to let everybody go his or her own way. In general, when in doubt, I always ask myself: How do they do it on other planets?

No, something like that would never happen in the world of modern, market capitalism. Wait, isn’t the pretty much what the world of modern, market capitalism encompasses? How many of those top CEO’s made their paychecks by doing (basically) just what Vitol did?

I suppose that i should care more deeply about the age of the Chinese gymnasts…i wish that i could, but Phelps is going to pen a memoir/self-help kind of book soon and that’s all that i can think about.

Let’s get one thing straight: if you buy it at a grocery store, your produce isn’t fresh. It never was fresh. It was harvested unripe and given a controlled rot in transit. It probably should be irradiated. After all, there’s nothing like putting out a fire by shooing away the smoke, eh? (p.s. irradiation isn’t going to remove the pesticides or the genetic modification…though i hope that the irradiated GMO’s might make some sort of super tomato who either saves the world from evil masterminds or goes Godzilla)

In a weekly S&R feature, Dr. Denny highlights hypocrisy and holds the powerful accountable in the most damning way imaginable: he prints the words they actually said. This week: Katrina, Pakistani polls, Bush and … Warren G. Harding?…