Let's start at the end of it: "Ponzi schemes are illegal." - yes, for any entity that isn't government. Government calls their pyramid schemes, like Social Security or pension plans, "pay as you go". Government usually tries to "grow out of" old obligations through inflation, which of course, only makes it more expensive later - same pyramid, just bigger in size. But that's a whole other subject.
"phony war" tells me where his head is at on that subject.
"As soon as the credit markets froze up earlier this year the economy came to a screeching halt as the consumer “hit the wall” and even solid businesses could no longer borrow money." - unfortunately, too many people still don't understand that.
Re Bill Gross (PIMCO), with over $1T (trillion) in bonds under management he and few others can pretty dictate the Fed interest rates. The longer the Fed resists, the worse it would get, as stock and bond markets just go on "buyers strike", and after a short period of time artificial panic starts to propagate from Wall Street to Main Street. Then Fed starts saying "How low do you want these rates?" and skipping quarter points in a hurry, creating more panic and more market freeze as everyone waits for rates to stop falling before taking in debt. Fed is not really in charge of even short term interest rates, no matter how much most people think Fed omnipotent, and Fed themselves would like to think they are. But that's whole other subject, too.
“We’re All Madoff” - not really, most of us are not. But those who are, control or own most money and most politicians to affect all of us, so most of us are that part of the bottom of pyramid, whether we know it or not and whether we are willing to be or not. It doesn't make all of us "Madoff", it does make some like Bill Gross and others who are part of the financial pyramid because of what they do. And if one wants to get PO'd even more at Bill Gross, here's one of his missives: Bill Gross | July 2008 | Dear President Obama:
They ought to make Madoff the head of the Social Security Administration....
After all, he has a lot of experience running Ponzi schemes.
LOL
I don’t hold anything more than it takes to scalp it. Lately all I do is turn the scanner on during premkt to find what the hordes are excited about and do a bit of DD before the bell and if there is some sort of news I watch for an afterbell yankdown and take it at the turn and sit here with a sell ticket on the screen. More like blackjack than investing, LOL.