People Are Fucking Stupid

OK, I am still riding it out, but SKF is taking a beating today.

And you know why? Becuase Wells Fargo came out with earnings that were $.53 a share instead of $.50 a share. So, naturally, every thing is all of a sudden hunky-dorey in the banking sector and every bank is up something like 20%.

Now, if you had bothered to take a look at the reason given by Wells Fargo as to why they beat estimates you would have noticed the following statement.

Wells Fargo rose $5.03, or 25 percent, to $25.54 at 1:07 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest jump since at least July 1980. The lender said net income fell 23 percent to $1.75 billion, or 53 cents a share, beating the 50-cent average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 16 percent to a record $11.5 billion.

Hmmm......so, net income is down 23% even though net revenue rose 16%. That means that compared to last year they took in $1.16 for every dollar they took in in 2007, yet were only able to squeeze out 75% of the profit of a year ago.

That doesn't sound healthy to me.

But here's the real kicker.

Gains in credit-card fees and insurance softened the rise in bad home loans at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, which increased the quarterly dividend 10 percent.

So let me get this staright - the home loan portfolio is continuing to deteriorate but this was offset by "gains in credit card fees." Just what type of behavior, exactly, causes one to be charged fees by ones credit card company? Is it paying too soon? Is it paying too much? Is it when you stay under your credit limit?

NO! IT'S WHEN YOU FUCKING PAY LATE OR NOT AT ALL!!!!!!

I mean, what the fuck? Has this "gain" been realized? I doubt it. If you're not paying your bill I seriously doubt you're paying your fees. Hell, why not take this thinking one step further and say that if Wells could just get all of their customers to quit paying altogether well then, hell, they'll be good as gold! Think of all the fees they could collect!

Unreal. I knew this shit was volatile but why all this optimism over what is, in my mind at least, not very positive news at all is beyond me.