Desperate times call for desperate measures

FINALLY!  Weigh-in is today.  I'll probably eek out a flat finish. Whatever!  Please don't ever join a weight loss competition!  It's dumb and girls simply can’t compete.  Unlike guys, we can't chug laxative tea by the gallons and then shamelessly excuse ourselves to the bathroom, newspaper in tow.  Sorry to be gross but those are tactics boys will use.  Welcome to my world right now.

We also FINALLY got the size of Europe's LTRO-2 (help for banks package) announced yesterday.  And part two was even bigger this time at EUR 529.5b!  Maybe sounds a little bit like bankers getting another bailout?  Kind of, but it's bigger than that as healthy and functioning banks are critical. Just quickly go back to that disaster scenario of deflation. Deflation is a general decline in prices (opposite of inflation) often ‘caused by a reduction in the money supply or credit.’  Precisely what happened in the scary 2008 Financial Crisis.  Everyone wanted their money back!  Banks (who had lent generously to McMansion owners); stock-market investors (who were once proud Lehman Brothers shareholders); and then of course the poor Madoff investors.

For this reason governments need to be prepared to aid banks and literally be the lender of last resort.  That’s what the US government did in the 2008 Crisis and currently what Europe is doing.  Yes there are critics of this and it's expensive but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Speaking of desperate...I have to run now...Need to wrap myself in a plastic suit and sit in the sauna. Weigh-in is in 2 hours.