Phil Grossfield's Blog

Thriller Terror.   Like a major league ding-dong, I let my 8-year old daughter and 5-year old son watch the beginning to Michael Jackson’s video yesterday…here was yesterday’s post. Well, I was punished and rightly so…I had to sit in my daughter’s room until she fell asleep, which was much later than usual, and my son slept in my room. That wouldn’t be so bad except my son sleeps like he’s angry…it’s not pleasant.

In other thrilling household news, the Tooth Fairy paid my son a visit last night and left him $5. Isn’t that a lot of money for a 5-year old tooth? Or am I that old? He lost a tooth last week and also got $5…that makes $10 in less than a week. And my daughter lost a tooth this morning…another $5? The Tooth Fairy needs more loans people!  Lock ’em in!

My Market Watch:   It’s Over – the Government Opens It’s Doors. Bonds Up +38bps.  The  30-year Fannie Mae bond reacted positively to the end of the government shutdown. As previously mentioned, this is fantastic news since most predicted a relapse in lending rates/pricing. But thank goodness that didn’t happen. The 30-year Fannie Mae bond opened +38bps better this morning and held its ground all day.

Now, if you follow my Blog I rarely get political. That’s not to say I don’t type about politics, but usually I stay close to the middle and point out the strengths and weaknesses of the counter arguments. But not this time. No, this time I’m just, well, angry. I’d say disappointed but the emotion is stronger than that. Here was my sarcastic post on September 30.

I’m angry that the government shutdown was entirely unnecessary and avoidable. I’m angry that the 15-day shutdown cost billions. I’m angry that the GOP party leaders tried to change an already existing law, Obamacare, using extortion instead of due process. I’m angry that the GOP leadership is so far out of reality that they cannot learn from their mistakes, namely, failing to appeal to the middle-minded Americans after losing back-to-back elections. I’m angry that our President and his cabinet are unable to bring our leadership together.  I’m angry this whole debacle got us no closer to a resolution and will simply resurface in 90 days.

I once drew an analogy that the government is like a football team and President Obama is the current coach. You may not agree with his game plan at first, and you may not like him at all, but the only way to get to the playoffs is to work together and execute the game plan. If it doesn’t work, then you fire him and get a new coach with a new game plan. That’s how it works. One thing is certain, if half the team works against the coach, the game plan will surely fail. Well folks, I hate to say it, but our team is failing miserably.

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