Open Thread

dave, I belatedly noticed the “signature” of your 10:45am post. ^^^ LOL.

I just like to tease Legion, dave. Did you not see my wink?

[Don’t tell Legion, but I’m trying to finish something up at work, and I didn’t read his entire post.]

Oh, sure, Legion only posts when he knows no one is around to contradict him.

😉

“By Montrose Morris on January 12, 2011 1:07 PM

I have a problem with “American Exceptionalism”. It’s not that Americans haven’t done exceptional things, or aren’t great as a people, or don’t have a wonderful free society, good laws, etc, etc. We do, and America is a unique and wonderful place.

But that definition of American Exceptionalism brings with it an overweening arrogance and supreme confidence that we are somehow better than the rest of the world, and therefore, whatever we do is justified. Every empire that has thought that, and operated that way has fallen, and fallen hard. From the Egyptians, to the Romans, the Spanish, to the British to the Germans, with plenty of others in between.

We are a great country, and we have accomplished great things. But we are not superior to anyone else. We are all human beings, and every group of human beings throughout history has done both great good and great evil. Are we as a nation evil? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean we’ve not done evil deeds. American Exceptionalism, as expressed by people like Palin, sweeps the evil under the rug with a mighty wave of the flag and with great patriotic blinders, and has a tendency to demonize anyone who doesn’t agree with it. I don’t see anything exceptional about that.”

I could not disagree more with MM’s assessment.
First, because it denies the idea that the United States has accomplished exceptional things during its history, something which is clearly at odds with know history.

Second, and perhaps more insidious in its sentiment is the statement that there is an “overweening arrogance and supreme confidence” in the idea that citizens of a given nation could express an approval of their nation’s core value system.

These notions of a vague moral equivalence or a relativistic sense of right and wrong only serve to allow true evil to flourish in the world.
I could define true evil, but why not look for it with an unblinking eye on the internet where you shall surely find evidence of it and the United State’s earnest attempt to counter it for the past 100 years.

There is a reason why millions are lined up around the world to join us here in our prosperity and our value system. To deny a certain exceptional atmosphere drawing those individuals here is an exercise in self-flagellation.

well, lets do some analysis. The book value per share last quarter was $5.60. Banks rarely sell below 1x BV in normalized environment. Additionally, the dividend was 32 cents per quarter a share at one point. Even at 4 cents a quarter, the yield would be a really nice 3.2%. It has nothing to do with market cap without putting that in some other context, nothing.

When things become more normal, it should sell for at least 1.5 x bv, which will likely have risen to about 7.00 at some point in the next year or so. My options expire next Friday so I have to make a decision to roll or not.