Dennis Gartman on the dollar

Everybody, everywhere is short the dollar in any sort of manifestation they can get their hands on... In 35 years of watching markets, I cannot recall a single trade that has been this one-sided. And when the public gets that one-sided, it usually ends in tears.

~ Dennis Gartman, The Gartman Letter, as interviewed on Bloomberg Video, November 1, 2007

Dennis Gartman: Fed should drive funds rate under 3%

I think the Fed has to continue to cut the short end of the yield curve. Anybody who thinks that the Fed is done hasn't taken a drive down through Miami, hasn't gone out to Nevada to see what's going on in the housing industry there, hasn't driven to Cleveland to see what's going on in the housing industry there. That problem's going to get worse and the Fed has to continue to make certain that the short end of the curve stays low. They're going to drive the funds rate well under 3% before this is done, and if they don't, that will be a mistake.

~ Dennis Gartman, The Gartman Letter, as interviewed on Bloomberg Video, November 1, 2007

Dennis Gartman on ethanol

Ethanol is the dumbest idea we have ever come up with. We're taking viable, important land that we can be planting food upon, and we're taking it to create a fuel that is utterly inefficient. A gallon of ethanol gives you about 85% of the horsepower of a gallon of gasoline, and yet it costs you energy to produce it. If it were not for the senators and congressmen of Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska - there would be no ethanol production. It's just an utterly idiotic program that I hope we do away with.

~ Dennis Gartman, The Gartman Letter, as interviewed on Bloomberg Video, November 1, 2007

Glenn Greenwald on conservatives and external enemies

When Communists were the Enemy du Jour -- Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" -- they were the root of all Evil, the Soul-less, God-less Machiavellian Warriors with designs on World Domination who posed a grave, imminent and existential threat to our nation, to everything we held dear. Back then, in the Era of The Communist Enemy, even to suggest that there was anything restrained or unthreatening or at least rational about the Evil Communists would subject one to all sorts of invective -- involving allegations of anti-Americanism and treason and moral relativism and the like -- from the National Reviews of the worlds.

But no longer. Now that the Communist super-villains of yesteryear have been replaced by Islamic Terrorists as today's Prime Enemy, Communists have undergone a radical, retroactive make-over. According to National Review, back then we could afford laws like FISA and we could expect our Government to abide by annoying constitutional guarantees (such as the Fourth Amendment) because those Communist simpletons were rational, sensible, even honorable enemies -- and not very sophisticated.

Identically, and hilariously (in the most perverse way imaginable), some "conservatives" are even arguing that we treated Nazi detainees well during World War II only because -- unlike the primitive (though simultaneously cunning and sophisticated) Islamic mongrels we battle today -- Nazis were honorable Western gentlemen who posed a far less formidible threat and thus could be treated in accordance with civilized norms.

~ Glenn Greenwald, "The conservative vision of America, by National Review," salon.com, October 16, 2007

Ron Paul: "I don't want to run your lives"

My campaign is this: I don't want to run your lives. I don't intend to run the economy. I don't want to run the world.

~ Congressman Ron Paul, 2008 campaign for Republican nomination for U.S. president, "Paul Draws Disillusioned Republicans to Presidential Campaign," Bloomberg.com, October 31, 2007

John Bennett: Bearish on China and the Baltic states

It's gone daft. Chinese stocks are in a bubble and the Baltic economies are overheating. They'll end up collapsing under their own weight.

The Fed keeps going back to easy money as a solution,'' Bennett said. ``It's indicative of what's going on around the world. The Fed sets the tone and the last thing these countries need is a looser monetary policy.

~ John Bennett, 44, oversees GAM's $1.1 billion European Equity Hedge Fund, "'Overheating' Emerging Markets Change Bennett Into Baltic Bear," Bloomberg.com, October 30, 2007

Barton Biggs: Bullish on U.S. stocks

Barton Biggs of Traxis Partners joined the "Fast Money" crew to share his take on the markets. Biggs thinks the Fed did what it should have done and the market is being set up for a big surge higher. He also mentioned that he is hearing from the prime brokers that hedge funds are at their lowest levels of being net long in 4 years. He expects a stampede into year end in big cap big multinationals, tech, Asia and emerging markets.

Biggs feels China right now is just like U.S. tech stocks in early 1999. He thinks the investment banks are signaling they will perform well into year end.

~ TheStreet.com, "Fast Money Recap; Rate Cut Reaction," October 31, 2007