Monday, August 7, 2006

It's Nice to See Efficient Markets Working

I despise dead beats.

My favorite is when some schmuck who bled every penny of equity out of his house to pay for a brand new pick up truck, an ATV, a flat panel TV and a snowmobile (because he doesn't earn enough money to pay for these things) comes to my company begging for a loan because he can't afford all the new interest he's incurring and needs to consolidate all his debts.

And then when the interest rates on the ARM's adjust, WOW, who would have guessed;

They all go into default.

Now, that's usually on some slack-jawed yokel up in the northern hick suburbs of Minneapolis where (if you're not familiar with the area) it is nothing but a sea of trailer courts and a severe dearth of tornadoes. However, these are not the only dead beats.

The biggest dead beat of them all is probably Argentina.

Remember Argentina? When they defaulted on what amounted to $132 billion in debt (and accrued interest)?

Not a lot of people think about Argentina and ponder even less about the country's historic finances, but I do. And since I so despise dead beats and what an utter parasite they are on society, I thusly despise Argentina. (I further despise the country because the arrogance of some of their people were to BLAME THE US AND THE FOREIGN LENDERS THAT LOANED THEM THE MONEY FOR THEIR INCOMPENTENCE AND INABILITY TO PAY IT OFF!!!! I even recall a couple foreign banks getting torched and destroyed).

Alas, I was very happy to see this;



While most people may have forgotten the fleecing they received for loaning Argentina money, it seems the market's memory is more keen. And this makes me happy for this is exactly what the markets should reflect; Argentina is a higher credit risk in that it cannot be relied on to pay back its debts, therefore it should be charged a higher interest rate as it is essentially a "super-sub-prime-borrower." Even more subprime than the slack-jawed yokels of the northern Minneapolis suburbs (heck Argentina's even worse than Nigeria and Pakistan!)

Now, if you want a good guffaw, check this web site out;

http://www.inversiones.gov.ar/ing_info.htm

I'm glad I could give you your Monday morning laugh.

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