Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for July 26, 2012

Yeah, cut in the middle man…..

I wonder which one of those guys has a momma that needs new pair of shoes……?

The ’ol 5 card Ponzi.

This is pretty much the truth…

It’s all tainted money. Tain’t yours any more.

This is a repeat strip from some years ago.

And if he should lose, the middleman has a friend who will gladly help him out….

Spot on.

“We make money he olde fashion way”.

…it’s all explained in the microscopic print.

A great line from the old Doris Day/James Garner Movie- The WheelerDealers….“It ain’t about the money little lady, that’s just how we keep score.”

Because Karl Marx believed that only physical labor created value, modern Leftists are unable to understand modern finance, so they deride it as merely gambling. Hence this cartoon. Of course, Wiley and many others will just say it’s only a joke.

Fits in with today’s Cornered

BRILLIANT!And, unfortunately, accurate.Great one, Wiley!

This is why 401K’s are immoral!

And, of course, you notice that the guy talking to the woman is pointing a gun at her. He’s also lying by telling her that he is going to make money off her investment should SHE decide to make one.

Inside Wall Street. All those big buildings, offices, computers and stock market scenes are just show for the media and rest of the public……

Really? For a fee you will place a bet for me? Oh, well let me look in my purse…where is my wallet….no, no, that’s a Smith & Wesson…well, that might do…it’s got six bullets and there are only five of you…(Children! I am not advocating violence against Wall Street Urchins or any other scammers!)

Nathan Detroit, where are you when we need you ? The NYSE is " The Oldest Established, Permanent Floating, Crap Game in New York ".

The confusion with this issue – and ignored on the financial page daily – is the difference between investors and players (gamers). The day to day shifts in the markets have nothing to do with real investing in anything. It’s gaming (i.e. gambling)…. as so elegantly depicted in Wiley’s panel today!

Very good representation of Wall Street.

My life savings are in the hands of that bunch of frightened little girls on Wall St.

These Dow Jones gamblers never are distinctA crowd of bulls or bears each in their turnThey travel in a flock of herd instinctAnd drink their tea and fiddle while we burn

And while our backs were turned the brand-new StandardHas made us Poor: we can’t afford farm pondsThe housing bubble and the dot.com dastard?The fault, dear Brutus, lies in our junk bonds

But now these Dow Jones lemmings head for cliffsComputer sell-off programs join the frayAnd I am far too gloomy for jazz riffsThough possibly wise heads will win the day

Behold, thou: though economy is crassThou must needs know that even this shall pass

Jesus! hallelujah…I had a positively religious…or zen…moment reading this. You REALLY are Wiley…and the guys who tipped the rates…for Libor…they actuallyare a prior guy between the sucker’s money AND the middleman placing the bets…there is one phrase that seems to hold true in every field I know about…for a pro, the FIX is in FIRST…whatever the fix is needed to tilt the results.

And what I get from this is right on…never attack people lower on society’s totem than you, the poorer or weaker…your REAL problem is further UP…Robin Hood and the Lone Ranger were RIGHT ON.

This is too true for me to laugh at.

playing is not investing

The main thing Marx got wrong was because he only had the US and French revolutions as a base and assumed that violent revolution was the only way the poor have to get justice. The Reich-wing has been trying to prove him right ever since.

Good one Wiley!My only fear, is that you may have given Vegas, and the other gambling areas, an idea for a new revenue stream.

I thought that was said by Jule in Guys N Dolls!

Hmmm. The lottery has a much lower payoff than casinos (or street craps games like this), which is lower than a home poker game (assuming you have equal chance of winning), which is lower than a random picking of Wall Street stocks, which is lower than investing in companies and industries you know something about.

.

The real problem with short-term trading is that it is hard to make enough to offset the brokers’ fees.

Win or lose the broker still gets his commission.

Ain’t that the truth!

I prefer the Pournelle Chart myself. It gives a bit more room for specifying where a person stands. In fact I thought of it the other day, when someone was trying to describe why Ann Rand was not a “real” anarchist.

I for one INVEST. I don’t enjoy gambling (not a moral judgement but simply a personal feeling); therefore, I don’t speculate. A couple of friends who do speculate on the stock market told me that they “play the side bets” (their words) because it was more profitable than straight stock speculation.

Wall Street Bankers are:Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves !Dressed in Armani suits and Gucci loafers.

[John Houseman voice] “We make our money the old-fashioned way. We STEAL it.” [/John Houseman voice]

Godfreydaniel, “And I am far too gloomy for jazz riffs..” A truly excellent line…..congratulations….

bmonk re: Marx: Good point, and to make matters worse, he was in London when he wrote it. Canada’s becoming an independent country was on the same pattern, but much later. Internal self-rule in 1872, separate army in 1920, flag in 196whatever, financial and foreign policy self-rule late ’70s, etc. (Dates not guaranteed, I am working from memory late at night.)