Multum In Parvo

Just a few short items of (possible) interest:

• Los Angeles County has apparently banned swearing this week. The kid that proposed this said that he wanted people to be more civil to each other. What he forgets is that swear words are as much a part of our language as any other word and they indeed have their place. What he also forgets is that his idea would be accepted from the start...when have you ever known the government to turn down a chance to tell people how to behave? To gain some perspective, take a lesson from Professor Carlin. Don't agree with me and George? Well, fuck you.
• New Illinois Governor Pat Quinn seems to have paid some of his own expenses when he was Lieutenat Governor. You know the political state of affairs is pretty sad when we are overjoyed that a guy paid for his own dinner from time to time.
• Maureen Dowd on the Obama Administration's silence on pork in the bailout legislation. At least John McCain tried to say, "no se puede."
• How low will stock markets finally go? Wall Street icon Henry Blodget thinks a lot lower. Steve Forbes is worried too. I tend to agree with them, though more with Blodget than Forbes. Look at the open interest in March SPX puts at the CBOE. Those numbers are too big to be an accident.
• The White House contiunes its assault on CNBC, this time on Jim Cramer's charges of "wealth destruction." I find Jim Cramer to be smarmy, unseemly and just plain wrong a lot of the time. He did, in this famous blow-up, have things right on interest rates in 2007.