One Piece at a Time

One of my favorite Johnny Cash songs is "One Piece at a Time." 

For the uninitiated, the song tells the story of a guy - we'll call him "Barack" - who gets a job at General Motors building Cadillacs. He devises an elaborate plan to steal a car from his employer - who we'll call "General Motors" - by sneaking a different car part out each day inside his lunchbox. Barack says he's not a thief, and he rationalizes that General Motors won't really notice that some of its assets have gone missing if he only does a bit at a time.

Barack nabs the fuel pump and the shocks and all of the nuts and bolts, but soon finds his lunchbox inadequate. He enlists the use of his buddy's RV to help "sneak out" the larger pieces like the engine and transmission.

He's feeling pretty good about himself until he tries to put it all together and finds he has a bunch of mismatched parts that weren't designed to work together. Barack and his buddy make some modifications and wind up with a Frankencar with three headlights and one tail fin.

And that, my friends, is the Cliff Notes version of the demise of the once-fabled General Motors.

Thank You, And May I Have Another

As further evidence that our newly minted President is indeed the one who will restore balance to the Force, the markets responded to today's events (all of them, not just the inauguration) by redistributing a sizable chunk of my retirement fund. Remember, financial markets are generally a fairly accurate measure of our collective expectations, hopes and fears. My largest single holding, comprising half of my 401k, shed a full 24%. For every $100 I had last night, I now have $76. I like to think I'm now lighter, more nimble.

I guess I was secretly hoping that the 50% of voters that installed this regime might actually demonstrate some of that hopeful vigor we heard so much about and do something to spark the economy and the markets. Some type of "Yes we can!" we-told-you-so statement directed at the prior administration. Today would have been the day to do it, right? What day would have been better?

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WOW! I just now got off the phone with robo-Steve Duin of KATU Channel 2. The first thing he wanted to know was my opinion of how well Barack Obama is serving as POTUS.

Can't say that I have much ground for evaluation at this point, ten and a half hours in. All I know is he's down $170 million to the house, is holding a poor hand, and likely does not have any aces up his sleeve.