To call the political blogosphere a wasteland would be an insult to vast, empty tracts of land -- at least the tracts of land might someday prove useful, unlike say, Hot Air.

Wealth preservation portfolio since inception (QE2 start) -- up about 27%.  This, by the way, is roughly the true rate of inflation -- over 50% annualized!  Silver -- up an astounding 59%.  Blended stock market -- up about 11%.  So, barring complete lunacy, any hedged strategy would be up very nicely.  If someone (cough) had hedged somewhat intelligently with puts, they'd be up about 20%.  How's my ass taste, political hacks?

Just read Zero Hedge.  Sure, it's sensationalist.  But for the intelligent reader (in other words -- no one in the political blogosphere), there's more valuable content on that one site in one day than there is on all the political sites combined in a year.

I might update again in another 3 months or so, assuming I can take a brief break from laughing at the fucktards who take the political circus seriously.  Hasta la vista -- baby.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 09:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Going into the holiday season, with a lame duck Congress, and QE2 rolling along, there is probably not going to be much to discuss.  It's likely to be status quo until January.  Hopefully, if the new Congress can get their act together, the new year should bring lots of interesting things to talk about. For the time being, however, I don't expect to have much besides the Friday fund review and maybe some lame-ass xtranormal movies.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 09:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I added a new blogroll category for 'fake internet friends'.  These are blogs of other folks who, like me, comment at doubleplusundead, but don't post there.  They also tend to focus on stuff other than the usual politics, as frankly, reading about the same old shit for the 100th time gets pretty damn boring.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 06:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I just looked at the page views, and I've got way too many this month.  Which means that either some morons are reading this drivel (1% probability) or the spam-bots have found it (99% probability) and I'm about to get some great comments from Lace Wigs et. al.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 10:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Michelle Malkin is far more conservative than I will ever be. However, she is philosophically consistent, and is willing to base her writings on her philosophy rather than partisan politics.

She regularly calls out Republican pols when they differ from her philosophies, has been a huge Tea Party supporter, and has a very clear sense of self outside of the political arena.

Are her writings political in nature? Yes, very much so. This is not my particular baliwick, yet I appreciate her ability to compartmentalize her philosophy from her politics. First, she is a conservative ... second, she applies that philosophy to politics ... third, she combines that into her economic views.

I often disagree with her starting point (I'm far more socially liberal), yet her writings are highly consistent, so that it is easy to follow her logic. On economic fronts, I agree with her a large majority of the time. Her weakness in this area is merely one of information; however, this is also a strength. She doesn't pretend to an economic education that she does not have.

Again, Michelle Malkin is a conservative first and foremost. As I've noted before, I think this is putting the cart before the horse (and there is zero doubt she'd honestly disagree with me on this point), but given the consistency of her approach, she is always worth reading.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 09:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm adding a number of sites to my blogroll.  Eventually my blogroll should reflect the mix of economics, markets, and politics that I think is correct (and that I read).  For now, all the sites going in are economics and finance oriented, with some attention to market details.

As I've said before, I think putting economics before politics is the proper order of things, and I'll add more political sites later.  My personal blog reading history has been mostly political, as I already had a sound base of economics, finance, and markets (EFM).  From what I've seen of the political blogosphere, however, most have zero clue about EFM whatsoever (watching CNBC doesn't count, in fact it's a net negative).

So, as a public service, to the zero people who read my blog, I'll continue to focus my efforts, links, and blogroll towards nonsense EFM, in the hope that all of my (zero) readers will try to educate themselves at least a little bit in these areas.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 08:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Finally, after being a blog consumer / commenter since the early days of blogging (when we had to use tin cans and string to make comments), I've started a blog.

Hermit Dave, you are asking yourself, why the fuck would a hermit start a blog?  First, go find your own cave.  Second, I started quitting smoking for the 7th time today and I'm going insane.

I don't expect this blog to be read by anyone.  I don't give a rat's ass about my statistics.  The sole purpose of this blog is to amuse myself while I try to forget about how much I want a smoke.

So, there you have it ... the one and only reason for this blog.  Now, go away.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at 07:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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