Notes from Venice

I'm here on a chess, whisky and photo trip with an old friend who is a Brooksian moderate squish who used to call himself variously 'conservative' and 'libertarian'. He calls me 'right-wing extremist', ideologue' and 'tosser', oh and now 'spawn of Sarah'. Naturally an old man's thoughts in Venice in the spring turn to US politics. My friend voted for Obama so I'm grinding him into dust with every tick of the stock market and every game of chess. That's the local colour. Now a couple of thoughts:

1. I guess that the market will bottom at about 4,800. It's hitting new lows now at 6,645, down about 46% since Obama permanently took the lead in polls last October.

2. Billary must be grinding their teeth that Hillary accepted SecState. That's gagged Bill. His cutting commentary on Obama was a pleasure of the Nomination contest. If the Harvard Law School dismantling of America goes on much longer, then Hillary would be favourite for Nominee in 2011 except that she's part of the wrecking crew.

Morning rant #4

Not one of mine, alas, but I do feel his pain; Jimmy Cayne, the former Bear Stearns CEO, on Geithner:

The audacity of that p—- in front of the American people announcing he was deciding whether or not a firm of this stature and this whatever was good enough to get a loan,” he said. “Like he was the determining factor, and it’s like a flea on his back, floating down underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, getting a h—-o-, saying, ‘Raise the bridge.’ This guy thinks he's got a big d—. He’s got nothing, except maybe a boyfriend. I’m not a good enemy. I’m a very bad enemy. But certain things really—that bothered me plenty. It’s just that for some clerk to make a decision based on what, your own personal feeling about whether or not they’re a good credit? Who the f— asked you? You’re not an elected officer. You’re a clerk. Believe me, you’re a clerk. I want to open up on this f—-r, that’s all I can tell you.

This was before Geithner's elevation to Tax-Cheat-In-Chief.