Don Valentine, a venture capital investing legend (Sequoia), gave this interesting lecture at Stanford. I especially like his blunt criticism of the boards of large companies.

Latest Internet trends from Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley, dated 7 June 2010. Notice how Apple users are leading the way in Internet Consumption. Is this because the more "connected" people (heave information consumers) prefer Apple devices or is it because Apple device owners turn into more "connected"  people because of the devices they own? Interesting material....

Darn...they deleted the presentation (Copyright infringement). Oh well - too bad.

An interesting UCLA forum video about the IndyMac collapse and the bank crisis in general.

Some short excerpts:

Why it is that Obama is rescueing these people that have brought the global economy to the brink of collapse...

he could have cleaned house...All of the hope that was there - in the election hype - that is not going to happen...

Because Obama's primary economic advise comes from the people who helped create the crisis. And as long as you get your advise from people who don't want to admit that they were wrong about essentially everything they did in their professional lives.

Parts of this video summarized exactly how I feel about the US government and the Obama administration right now. It really does break my heart that all the promises of the Obama campaign are turning into big lies. How could Obama appoint people in his government to deal with the largest crisis of my lifetime, that were so intricately tied to the whole system that has caused the crisis.

In Europe, I am not much of a socialist. In the US I would join the people (tax payers) if they were going out for a march on Washington and Wall Street. Can't someone start sueing these people?

There is a lot of talk in the media about so-called "green shoots" in the US economy after (Helicopter) Ben Bernanke first mentioned how he was seeing these "green shoots" of economic recovery in mid-march. I think it is a little early to be considering any form of "new growth" unless Ben was referring to the enormous growth in the US government spending (and the Fed's own balance sheets). I do not know that much about gardening but what I do know is this: when all the plants in my garden have been dying for months now and then they are suddenly dying a little bit less - I would not yet call this a sign of "green shoots" or that anything in my garden is "blossoming". I do have to say that it feels like perfect orchestrating by the US government: fool the fools (in the market) that recovery is on its way and then let them capitalize the banks.

On a weekend get-away in Luxembourg these past couple of days, we ran into a nice cartoon(contest) exhibition with a "green economy" theme (environmental). A few of these reminded me very much of the current crisis and of these much debated "green shoots".

The financial crisis has sometimes been referred to as the "Perfect Storm" and right now we might be in the "eye" of the storm. The drawing below at least visualizes the much-needed "deleveraging" of the financial system.

In case you missed 2008 in terms of financial news (the BIG crisis), here is a musical overview to get you updated:

I recommend loading the song on your iPod for work-out memorization of the biggest meltdown in our lifetime.

This is actually a new version of a early 2008 video/song about the 2007 meltdown. Things got more interesting since then however and the quality of the video improved as well.

For me, as a person with an more than average interest in economics and investing, these are exciting times. World food crisis, World energy crisis, Credit Crunch, The Second Great Depression, The end of the financial system, The End of the Dollar, etc. The media shower us with 'bad' news.

Are you a pessimist like me? Personally I believe that America will hit a very large and very deep recession that has actually been made even worse by current US politics. Is this the end of the World? No, not at all. The US, and the rest of the (western) world, will simply have some very lean years. Every day I am amazed at how easy it is for stock brokers and top-level financial people to ignore that enormous load of bad news that is raining down on them. I admire their positivism. However, I do not admire those greedy bastards who got us (and the US) in this mess. I do not admire the Bush administration for making it even worse (and for letting it happen). And most of all, I do not admire the fact that all those greedy (mis)managers are getting away with this: golden parachuting themselves into retirement. In the meantime, let us wait and see how American consumers get their quadruple whammy thumping at them. The party is over, people! Excellent analysis of the current state of the US economy: American Economy - The Long Hangover. Image comes from this article as well.