Cody on RM: On My Mind: Fed and Freedom

On My Mind: Fed and Freedom
08/04/2006 4:02 PM EDT

Today's market was nasty enough to shake up a lot of the bulls that had just started to find some confidence during the stealthiest 5% S&P 500 rally in the last few years. Tough market, indeed.

Here's what's on my mind as we head into the weekend:

Why do the shorts love the cyclicals so much if they hate the economy so much?

Is it time to buy the cyclicals and sell the defensives?

How different would the setup be right now if it were Alan Greenspan instead of Ben Bernanke who will sign off on the next Fed announcement?

Why did Microsoft choose to do this stupid buyback instead of just starting a 5% dividend?

Should we just assume that every single company implicated in the options irregularity scandal is guilty? (Probably.)

Are most of these companies really going to get away with sneaking around behind the backs of their shareholders and our government, as seems to be the consensus?

Does this consensus really think the IRS is simply going to say, "Hey, thanks for writing us this check, after you got busted for lying to us, have a great life"?

If eBay, Google and the rest of these lobby-happy Internet companies who want the government to legislate the status quo are really concerned about the "end-user/consumer," then why don't they all just form a standards body and agree never to pay the pipe owners for premium access to the "end-user/consumer"?

Are they worried that the pipe owners and the companies that would pay them would create a better experience than can be created on the current platform?

Shouldn't we want better experiences? Isn't that the whole point of innovation?

Once we open that legislated can of worms, how will it effect peer-to-peer networks, which I think will be a much bigger driver of innovation than the telcos and cablecos that have the right to build their own style of networks ever could be?

Freedom is what it is, and no matter how these companies try to frame their crying to the government, asking for intervention and legislation, they're trying to strip one of our freedoms, the one to choose to pay for a different type of connection. (This one's not a question.)

Might the very fact that these Internet companies are fighting against their own ability to innovate and therefore generate profits be what's behind the endless declines in their stock prices? "Flip it™," eh?

And with that, I'm heading out to watch the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows tonight. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.