-->A Year In The Daily Reckoning, 2002

The Daily Reckoning



Ouzilly, France



Wednesday, 1 January 2003



               
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*** Not the end of the world...but the end of 2002...



Happy New Year. And best wishes to you, dear reader.



               
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"Addison, what happened in 2002," your editor asked.



He was happy that the year was over. Good riddance, he

felt...but couldn't remember why.



"Piece of crap," Addison replied. 



"Huh..."



"You remember, Henry Blodget...May of 2002..."



"Oh yes, it was a year for recriminations and show

trials... Enron, Tyco, Kozlowski...Spitzer."



"Anything good happen?"



"Gold went up...the dollar went down...our forecasts were

right..."



"Anything else...?"



"The wines from 2002 are supposed to be pretty good...at

least the ones I drank were good."



"If you're already drinking the 2002s, they can't be very

good..."



"Tasted good to me..."



"What else?"



"Well, so far, no EOTWAWHKI...you know, the end of the

world hasn't come yet..."



"Yeah..."



"And Lisa Marie Presley got married...of course, then she

got a divorce... 



"I guess that means she's available..."



"Yeah..."



"And some fat people sued McDonalds for turning them into

slobs..."



And so, the year ends. Good riddance.



                 
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The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: The Daily Reckoning's Top 12

Essays for the Year...well, maybe not the TOP 12, but some

reasonably entertaining ones we hope you'll enjoy...



A YEAR IN THE DAILY RECKONING, 2002



01/18/02 GERMINAL



Early in the year, and your editor was already celebrating

the genius of central bankers everywhere (and exploring the

history of the Bank of France... and managed currencies...)

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2081



02/21/02 THE IDEA OF AMERICA



"...What are the ties that bind America together? Neither

blood, history, religion, or language...but only an idea:

that you could come to America and be whatever you wanted

to be. You might have been a bog-trotter in Ireland or a

baron in Silesia; in America you were free to become

whatever you could make of yourself..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2558



03/22/02 PAPA TRAPP'S TEARS



"...We may not know anything about foreign policy, but we

have a well-developed sense of absurdity. The WAT has been

such a big hit with the public, the patsies want more of

it. When will they have enough?..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2856



04/09/02 BEYOND NIETZSCHE



"...What is unique about man is his ability to reason.

Unlike the tse-tse fly or the wallabee, man can put 2 and 2

together. Working with things that make sense to him, he

comes up with 4 more often than not. But, when he applies

these same reasoning talents...collectively...using

compound abstractions...to other people's business - 2

somehow becomes 5.245 or a swamp in Indonesia..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=2943





05/14/02 THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT



"...A great empire is to the world of geopolitics what a

great bubble is to the world of economics. It is attractive

at the outset...but a catastrophe eventually. We know of no

exceptions..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=3129



06/27/02 THE AGE OF CHIC



"...What is this strange intersection we've come to? All

major governments seem to have come together in some unholy

socialism...but where are the socialists? Few politicians

will even admit to the creed they all share. And what voter

really cares?..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=3376





07/31/02 THE EUROPEANS



"...The European thought he had placed his money in the

strongest, most flexible, and most dynamic economy on the

globe...and then he discovered that the U.S. companies he

bought had cooked their books and went bankrupt...and that

the U.S. federal budget surpluses that were supposed to be

"as far as the eye can see" disappeared overnight...and

that G.W.B. had gone a little mad in his War Against

Terror..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=3578



08/05/02 IN GREENSPAN WE TRUSTED



"...And what of Mr. Greenspan; can he not save the

situation...by lowering the fed funds rate

again....loosening credit even more...or maybe even

printing more dollars? He can do nothing else. Raising

rates would kill the mortgage refinance business - and stop

consumer spending abruptly. The consumer is the last man

standing in the U.S. economy. Greenspan must do all he can

to hold him upright - even if he is already dead..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=3603



09/30/02 GRAY MATTERS



"...The problem with theory, outside of mathematics and the

'hard' sciences, is that nature is very much alive. She

won't stand still. Trying to force a theory upon her is

like trying to argue with a smart woman...she squirms,

feints, and distracts you from your point so thoroughly

that, after a few minutes, you have forgotten what you were

talking about..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=3927



10/16/02 VALE OF TEARS



"...Instead of coming up with innovative new ways to make

people rich, America's financial intermediaries - notably

Wall Street and Fannie Mae - came up with ways to make them

poor..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=4008





11/16/02 DEFLATIONARY PEOPLE



"...what if the Boomers have already become 'deflationary

people'? What if the largest group of Americans cease in

their desire for the goods and services they have built up

a reputation for desiring? After all, isn't this the group

that once traded in their Doors albums and dayglo t-shirts

for Donna Summer and sequins? Worse... what if all that

exploding credit is being used to - heaven forbid - service

existing debt?!?..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=4265



12/19/02 THE POST-WAR PERIOD



"...Manias are nothing new and have occurred regularly.

However, the one that popped on March 10, 2000 (Nasdaq

Composite 5048), others that may be hssssing now, and the

housing bubble to deflate some time in the future, in

combination, may constitute the largest financial mania in

history. A new investor reading Charles P. Kindleberger's

"Manias, Panics, and Crashes" would be alerted to the fact

that no mania goes on forever - that some have panics, some

have crashes - and others can be followed by years,

sometimes decades of shares going nowhere..."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/body_index3.cfm?id=4499





Happy New Year!