Got the first "Kerry Crash" e-mail yesterday, from an "investment advisor." Apparently, the poor data, unsustainable Price/Earnings, declines in profit, and possibility of alternative investments isn't going to make the market fall, but the possibility that Bush will lose is.



Indeed, it appears that any decline in the market from now until after the election will be blamed on investors "fear" that Bush might lose the election. At least according to those who...er...fear Bush will lose the election.



Feeling guilt for having deleted the e-mail; wanted to reply to the sender with the list of Kerry's top ten donors, courtesy of, and with dollar figures at, CNN):

• Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo


• FleetBoston Financial Corp. (now part of Bank of America)


• Time Warner


• Hale and Dorr LLP


• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom


• Harvard University


• Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc.


• Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand/Piper Rudnick


• Citigroup


• Goldman Sachs Group

Yep; that's a list of firms having nothing at all to do with the market.

The always-readable Tyler Cowen leaps to a conclusion that seems dubious but may have a grain of truth:

"when you buy bottled water isn't fluoride what you're trying to avoid?"

Well, no. When I buy bottled water, I'm trying to deal with other issues:

convenience (sports caps, since my three-year-old cannot necessarily be trusted with cups)

safety (lead pipes in the house which are not cost-effective to replace, at least not for that reason while they are in working order)

storage/space (a flat of bottles from Costco may use more area than a Britta, but they can be stored away from the sink or the refrigerator, on their sides, etc.)

and, incidentally,

the bottles themselves can be used again (filled with tap/Britta water for traveling, converted to rattles or pet toys, etc.)

In fact, having grown up in the city that was, until two or three years ago, the largest metropolitan area without fluoridation (making the choices buy fluoride drops or have lousy teeth), I would probably pay up for fluoridated bottled water.

Brad De Long gets it EXACTLY correct:

"On my way in, I passed local government at work: three police cars in front of a house, a serious road repair and reconstruction crew, and our local public school. It looked like they were all working hard. And I'm not working for them: they are working for me."