John McCain made the morning show rounds today. On Fox they were virtually begging him to "suspend" his campaign again in the wake of the bailout failure yesterday on the Hill. You know, since it worked out so well the first time. McCain's answer: He just might suspend again.
Labels: 2008 election, John McCain, palin
Labels: requiem
Labels: Economy, federal reserve
Barack Obama and John McCain reluctantly backed the $700 billion rescue deal yesterday in the knowledge that, while the bailout is critical to the US economy, it is still deeply unpopular with voters.
Labels: 2008 election, Economy
I know, you see the word Illuminati and you go, "Oh, brother." Don't worry, I do too.Labels: Economy, illuminati
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.
Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.
Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
Posse Comitatus? Gone.
Like I said, I'm still freaked out, and when I told Mr. Vidiot about it, he said, "No way. I don't believe you." So I showed him the article and then HE freaked out.
It appears that as part of the training for deployment within the US, the soldiers have been ordered to test some of this non-lethal equipment on each other.Someone knows something bad is going to happen and I'm not at all comfortable with the fact that NYC is within NORTHCOM's purview.
"I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered," Cloutier told the Army Times. He described the effects of the electroshock weapon as "your worst muscle cramp ever—times 10 throughout your whole body."
The colonel’s remark suggests that, in preparation for their "homefront" duties, rank-and-file troops are also being routinely Tasered. The brutalizing effect and intent of such a macabre training exercise is to inure troops against sympathy for the pain and suffering they may be called upon to inflict on the civilian population using these same "non-lethal" weapons.
Labels: police state, staged terror
In watching the debate, Sen. McCain actually looked younger than Barack Obama. McCain was on target and looked age 45 while Obama seemed to grey in his hair and look age 55.Depending on which side you're rooting for, that's who you're going to think won this one.
Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, debates, John McCain
A $1.8 Trillion Bailout: Where the Money's Going1.8 TRILLION dollars! That's a one and an eight trailed by a parade of zeros, (loan) floats, (lax) standard bearers and hot air gas bags.
Following are details of actions, proposals and amounts:
—Up to $700 billion to buy assets from struggling institutions. The plan is aimed at sopping up residential and commercial mortgages from financial institutions but gives Treasury broad latitude.
—Up to $50 billion from the Great Depression-era Exchange Stabilization Fund to guarantee principal in money market mutual funds to provide the same confidence that consumers have in federally insured bank deposits.
—The Fed committed to make unspecified discount window loans to financial institutions to finance the purchase of assets from money market funds to aid redemptions.
—At least $10 billion in Treasury direct purchases of mortgage-backed securities in September. In doubling the program on Friday, the Treasury said it may purchase even more in the months ahead.
—Up to $144 billion in additional MBS purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The Treasury announced they would increase purchases up to the newly expanded investment portfolio limits of $850 billion each. On July 30, the Fannie portfolio stood at $758.1 billion with Freddie's at $798.2 billion.
—$85 billion loan for AIG, which would give the Federal government a 79.9 percent stake and avoid a bankruptcy filing for the embattled insurer.
—At least $87 billion in repayments to JPMorgan Chase for providing financing to underpin trades with units of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers. Paulson said over the weekend he was adamant that public funds not be used to rescue the firm.
—$200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Treasury will inject up to $100 billion into each institution by purchasing preferred stock to shore up their capital as needed.
—$300 billion for the Federal Housing Administration to refinance failing mortgage into new, reduced-principal loans with a federal guarantee, passed as part of a broad housing rescue bill.
—$4 billion in grants to local communities to help them buy and repair homes abandoned due to mortgage foreclosures.
—$29 billion in financing for JPMorgan Chase's government-brokered buyout of Bear Stearns in March. The Fed agreed to take $30 billion in questionable Bear assets as collateral, making JPMorgan liable for the first $1 billion in losses, while agreeing to shoulder any further losses.
—At least $200 billion of currently outstanding loans to banks issued through the Fed's Term Auction Facility, which was recently expanded to allow for longer loans of 84 days alongside the previous 28-day credits.
What is $500 billion? What's a trillion?
A reader asked what any of the bailout numbers represent in the real world. We know $500 billion, $700 billion or now the new Paulson plan of $1.8 trillion is a lot, but put this in terms that everyone can understand. A few examples for 2007:
* Microsoft generated $51 billion in revenue.
* Citi, who has been hit hard in the credit crisis, saw $159 billion.
* Walmart's 2007 total revenue was $388 billion.
* ExxonMobil generated $404 billion.
Those are the numbers for some of the largest businesses in the US. For the US budget, here are a few examples from Bush's budget in 2007:
* Veterans' benefits at $73 billion
* Education was $90 billion
* Interest on US debt was $244 billion
* Medicare $395 billion
* Defense was $548 billion
* Social Security was $586
In total, the 2007 federal budget was a total of $2.8 trillion.
"We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else."But wait, there's more!
[...]
"We've got to get a more coordinated and a much more stringent oversight regime,"
[...]
"Government can play a very, very appropriate role in the oversight."
Republican Sen. John McCain said he would suspend campaigning to help tackle a $700 billion bailout proposalWell sure, if by 'suspend campaign' you mean going on talk shows, having your surrogates on every media outlet bragging about how you 'suspended' campaigning and continuing to raise funds and run campaign commercials:
McCain to do round of network interviews tonightWe can debate about whether the 700 BILLION Dollar bailout is a good idea, but what is not debatable is the fact that the house and senate, republicans and democrats and the actual congressional committees involved had worked out a plan they could agree on ... until McCain sang "Here I am to save the day!" and derailed the whole process, about which he knows nothing and isn't on any relevant committees:
John McCain will appear on all three network newscasts tonight, a top aide said.
McCain is at the White House meeting with President Bush, Barack Obama and congressional leaders now and will tape interviews with NBC, ABC and CBS after the West Wing session.
McCain also appeared in a taped interview last night with Katie Couric on CBS.
House GOP Aides: McCain ‘Not Familiar With The Details’ Of The Financial BailoutBTW, that's the Senator John McCain who has been absent on more votes than any other senator.
Maliki Suggests Bush Pushed To Extend U.S. Presence In Iraq To Help McCainWe've learned over the last 7 years that there is no low that a rethuglican who wants to gain or keep office will stoop to.
Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date.
Labels: more Bush lies, more McCain lies, presidential election
First, make sure you have enough supplies ( food and water) to last for a couple of weeks at least. If you don’t, rush to the supermarket and buy it using credit card if they still accept it.
If you have enough food, stay put at home and keep track through the TV of what’s going on. Don’t go out there just to fool around.
IN our case, martial law and curfew at 8 PM was established, people could not gather in group greater than 2 or 3 persons, so it was not safe anyway. None the less, few obeyed all this crap, but it was still established so you know what you were dealing with if cops caught you.
Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, debates, John McCain, rack Obama
The unrest started when the public was informed of the StarGate program after an Alien attack and the president suspended mid-term elections due to the unrest. Elections have not been reinstated and now the President rules with his own yes or no vote.Interesting. Especially since we're supposed to be visited by aliens on October 14.
Labels: police state
Sen. Chris Dodd, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Thursday that bipartisan meeting with President Bush at the White House on the mortgage rescue plan was nothing short of a disaster. In an interview on the CNN cable news network, Dodd described a meeting in which Democrats were blindsided by a new core mortgage proposal from House Republicans, with the tacit backing of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. "I am not going to sign on to something I just saw this afternoon," he said. Dodd said Republicans and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had to decide what they wanted to support. The whole meeting "looked like a rescue plan for John McCain," Dodd said. He said he was simply going to pretend that the meeting had never happened.Now, I'm not for the bailout and there's a part of me that actually appreciates McCain going in there and pooping on the process. And maybe if I believed he was doing it because he thought it was a bad idea, like these 200 or so economists who signed on to a letter decrying the bailout as a mistake, I might think more highly of him.
During the late afternoon meeting at the White House (a meeting which was McCain's idea), McCain sat silently at the table until nearly the end, according to a Hill source who was briefed on the meeting. At that point, I'm told, McCain vaguely brought up the proposal being pushed by the Republican Study Committee, the group of House conservatives that is bucking the GOP leadership. But McCain didn't offer any specifics and didn't necessarily advocate for the plan, according to the Hill source.In other words, he's thrown his lot in with the conservatives going against the Bush party line. THIS is how he plans to differentiate himself from the Bush administration. Since he agrees with Bush on Iraq, social security, hell, on just about everything, he MUST do something different than what Bush wants to set himself apart. And he will use this differentiation like a bludgeon from now until the election. But like I said, it may turn the bailout into a bust, which I think is a good thing in the long run, (short run? it will suck big nasty green apples) but his motives are all wrong.
Labels: Economy, John McCain, pol
Labels: 2008 election, John McCain, politics
Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in American history.Mr. Vidiot has his own theory as to one of the contributing factors. If you've ever used a WaMu ATM, you'll remember that instead of the word 'yes', they used the word 'sure' in some stupid effort to sound hip and cool I suppose. Anyway, it really annoyed Mr. Vidiot. "Nobody wants to use the word 'sure' when it comes to their money. It's either yes, or no. That's it. Imagine, if, when the priest says 'do you take this woman to be your wife' and the guy answered 'sure'. Can you imagine how pissed the woman would be? 'Sure' is too vague. It was all wrong."
Labels: banks, Economy, wamu, washington mutual
Labels: corporate greed, Economy
With new polls showing his campaign dead in the water among California Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain has pulled out of a long-scheduled debate with Texas Gov. George Bush, set for Thursday in Los Angeles.I see a trend. Just imagine what he'll run away from if/when he's president!
Labels: debates, John McCain, polls
Labels: Economy
- Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.
- The events of the past week are no exception.
- The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."
New York TimesI'll probably get some sort of grief for posting the whole thing, but I don't care.
September 30, 1999
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities
and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the
credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other
lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15
markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage
those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is
generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae
officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been
under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand
mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure
from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been
pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime
borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are
not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans
from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates --
anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional
loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the
1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines,
Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain
too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our
underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying
significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one
study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went
to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional
loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae
is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any
difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized
corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a
government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in
the 1980's. [emphasis mine]
''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another
thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident
fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the
government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up
and bailed out the thrift industry.''
Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a
mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a
conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a
rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes
his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage
point premium is dropped.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not
lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks
make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of
loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more
loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to
all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add
that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and
low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than
non-Hispanic whites.
Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the
economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to
Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according
to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that
same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a
home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by
46.3 per cent.
In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for
homes increased by 31.2 per cent.
Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag
behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in
particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that
by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio
be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44
percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.
The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is
investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated
underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the
credit-worthiness of credit applicants.
Labels: Economy
Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
Start with a simple example. Assume I know the young son of the couple next door likes to crawl into closets and play with matches. I therefore see a reasonably good shot at "winning the disaster lottery" so to speak, by buying fire insurance on their $200,000 house.He doesn't post often, but when he does, it's worth it.
In simple terms, I now have a financial interest is seeing that disaster occurs. If the house, for whatever mysterious reason, burns down an insurance company will pay me the insured value of the house - even though I suffered no loss, financial or otherwise. My neighbor's misfortune is thus magically transformed into my good fortune. A polite way of saying I was paid $200,000, the insured value of my next-door neighbor's house, after I paid the $400 insurance premium.
Labels: Economy
Labels: 2008 election
Excerpt: The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.
Labels: Economy
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers Tuesday they risk a recession with higher unemployment and increased home foreclosures unless they act on the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry.The post 9/11 rhetoric sounded something like:
Attorney General Ashcroft bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers Tuesday they risk another terrorist attack with higher casualties and increased frequency if attacks unless they act on the Bush administration's P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.or this:
The administration is pressing hard to sell the plan, which it has asked Congress to approve by the end of the week.Could easily be this post-9/11
The administration is pressing hard to sell the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, which it has asked Congress to approve by the end of the week.I'm sure there are more examples, but you get the idea.
Labels: Economy
Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.
Labels: corporate greed, snark
Back from the graveI thought, "Don't politicians already demonstrate that ability?"
Research on near-death experiences is unlikely to find evidence that human consciousness can survive without a brain
Labels: snark
Avi sez, "This mp3 of the rarely heard “But If Not” speech by MLK is crucial to grasp his soaring moral vision and deep intimacy with the Bible. Essential listening for our times. The following quote from the speech does it for me (speech begins at 32:32 into the track):"I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.
And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”
“But If Not”: Dr. Martin Luther King Gives a Sermon On Civil Disobedience in a Rare Recording, Direct link to MP3
... So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,Update: I had written the Mystic Seaport museum asking for permission to post the images below. Today they got back to me and graciously granted it ... with a couple of requests that seemed reasonable.
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Olin J. Stephens II, 100, the premier yacht designer of the 20th century who revolutionized the sport of yacht racing, died Sept. 13 in Hanover, N.H.I mourn his loss but I think anyone who makes it to 100 had a pretty good run.
"The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective." -Henry David ThoreauThere is so much more.
Labels: requiem, Sailboat Blogging
Referring to the bailout, Klein said the “bomb has yet to detonate” and that the real crisis will strike when tax payers are overwhelmed when faced with the debt from the bailouts.
According to Klein, the bomb will detonate if Sen. John McCain becomes president and “rationalizes” that it is necessary to privatize government programs like social security and healthcare because neither the government nor Americans can afford them.
“The real disaster has yet to come; the real disaster is the debt that is going to explode on American tax payers,” Klein said.
Labels: Economy, naomi klein
skippy, VIA mudflats informs us of Sarah Failin's gushing remarks 3 months ago about a witch hunter who helped her get elected.
[...]
The witch hunter, aka Pastor Muthee, was the guest pastor from Kenya that appeared at Palin’s church, The Wasilla Assembly of God, and “prayed over” Sarah to help her become governor.
Muthee began his life in ministry in Africa by hunting down a local woman named Mama Jane after proclaiming her a witch.
[...]
“And I’m thinking, this guy’s really bold, he doesn’t even know what I’m going to do, he doesn’t know what my plans are. And he’s praying not “oh Lord if it be your will may she become governor,” no, he just prayed for it. He said “Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that’s exactly what happened.”
John McCain still thinks Social Security should be 'privatized.'
Scott Pelley: In 1999 you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?
McCain: No, I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.
Labels: blogtopiates
Chief Albert Naquin is tired. Tired of seeing his community flooded. Tired of begging for help.Read the whole article. It's interesting, though, it doesn't mention the legal battles the tribe has been facing with the oil companies like the al Jazeera story did.
More than a week after Hurricane Gustav pushed water over the ring levee protecting the island in south Terrebonne Parish, where descendants of several American Indian communities still live, Naquin, chief of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians, declared: "This is my last one. I'm not going to keep doing this."
Naquin says it is time for the island's remaining residents to move farther inland, surrendering their way of life to the twin threats of storm surge and coastal erosion.
Labels: gustav, louisiana, native americans
After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors. It was said that this fire was the result of gas pipeline burst running through the hotel. The million dollar question is that was the gas pipeline not running through the other floors? Why the fire broke out from the fourth and fifth flours? That is the question which perhaps holds the key to the mystery as why the hotel was targeted yesterday, in which more than 60 people died including many foreigners.
Though it would never get confirmed but the fire on the fifth and fourth floor of the hotel broke out because those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.
But aren't they always fishy? Well, the bomb was either intended for or to scare the new president. What's the message they were trying to send him?
The bombing, the most brazen yet apparently in a campaign by militants to destabilize Pakistan, came at a critical moment for the new president, Asif Ali Zardari. While he has pledged to continue fighting militants — now thriving in the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan — it was unclear whether he would face political resistance making it more difficult to keep that promise.
There has always been a strong feeling in Pakistani society that using force against militants would cause them to retaliate against civilians. Although there has been no claim of responsibility for the hotel bombing, some Pakistanis say they believe it was in retribution for the military’s current campaign in Bajaur, in the tribal areas.
And now the result of the bombing?
In the wake of the bombing, politicians and the military said they were determined to press the fight in the tribal areas.
“There should be no letup now in fighting those who do not believe in negotiations and are bent upon causing destruction,” said Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister of the North-West Frontier Province.
...
Current and former officials in the Bush administration, who have expressed concern in the past that Pakistan was not doing enough to fight the militants, said on Sunday that they were confident that Mr. Zardari’s government would continue or even increase its counterterrorism campaign, despite the threat of more attacks against civilian targets like the Marriott Hotel.
So, a suspicious bomb goes off, nobody REALLY takes credit and the result is that the new president does even more of what the US wants with, perhaps, disastrous results for the Pakistani people.
“It can be the work of America also,” Mr. Qadeer said. “Maybe our new president didn’t agree to its dictations.”
Labels: Pakistan, staged terror
It turned out, inevitably, that some of the financial institutions that made billion-dollar gambles - usually in the form of a thousand million-dollar gambles in the course of a few minutes or so, to be precise - couldn't pay up. These gambles all occur in microseconds, at strokes of a keyboard almost without human interference. In that sense it is not unlike alien pod people taking over. But in this case they are robot-like machines, hence the analogy I drew above with the Terminators.
Labels: Economy
There never was any consensus. Bush simply declared it by fiat.Obviously the phone calls are having an effect, so find your congresscritters at congress.org, get on the phone and JUST SAY 'NO'!.
Tell them ...
1. You will not pay for Wall Street's mistakes.
2. You will not vote for anyone who dares suggest you should pay for Wall Street's mistakes.
This is literally a death struggle for the life of the American Middle Class. If we lose, we lose it all, and our future generations will live in rank poverty while the wealthy gaze down in scorn from the tops of the marble palaces.
Now is the time to get angry; raw mad-dog-mean crazy angry!
Labels: Economy
Unfortunately, few people understand credit derivatives, or the full risks to the United States and global markets and economies. In this article, I will take a Credit Derivatives Primer that I published in the spring of 2008 - which anticipated this exact type of event - and update it for the current situation. Through reading this article, you should be able to greatly increase your knowledge of what credit derivatives are, and why they are a far greater danger than subprime mortgages. We will end with introducing some concepts about how individuals can protect themselves and even profit from these unprecedented market conditions – something you won’t find in recent financial history or conventional investments.How huge are they? Here's a graph from the article. It'll give you chills.
Labels: derivatives, Economy
The Pain in Spain Falls Mainly on McCain
When th' questioner spake, "Now let`s talk o' Spain" an' asked whether he`d invite Zapatero, McCain responded wi' a vague statement that he would meet "wi' them leaders who be our shipmates" an' then cited Mexican President Felipe Calderón as an example. Th' questioner tried several more times t' steer th' Senator aft t' a clear answer on Spain, but McCain neredirectly addressed th' nation, sayin', "What I would say be that me record be that o' someone who has worked in a friendly atmosphere wi' them who be our shipmates an' faced up t' them who aren`t."
From this, much o' th' Spanish press has concluded that th' Republican candidate, who hails hisself as th' experienced foreign policy choice in this election, confused Spain — a NATO member an' key ally in th' swashbuckle against terrorism — wi' one o' them troublesome Latin American states. That be certainly th' interviewer`s impression, fer she followed up wi' a gentle reminder that Spain be a country in Europe. As Spanish newspaper El País put 't, "In th' best-case scenario, [his answer] demonstrates his ignorance wi' respect t' Zapatero."
Labels: anniversaries, Talk Like A Pirate Day
"But if you look at what the Fed has already done, and the extension of power to Treasury to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I believe we're talking about a trillion dollars," he said.I mean, I don't even know what a trillion dollars is. It might as well be a bazagillion dollars.
Mr Paulson, I predict; Someday a younger man than me will come to the door of the banking system of this country and with one blow will strike it to the ground. I pray that it be so. In that day I may have already died or be too old or too poor to participate in the revolution that will surely come and take you folks down. But as God is my witness that day will come and if all I can do is spit in the face of whoever happens to be the Fed chief at the time or, if I am dead, then smile in my grave, it will be done. I would happily give my life in the fight to take back this country from you bastards. I am so very angered by the bailout of the "fat cats" that have stolen this country's wealth and labor and even more angered by traitors like you that protect them.
I pray: G_d Damn you all! And may it be soon, so, we can quickly get on with rebuilding our country.
Labels: Economy
Labels: Economy
Labels: corporate greed, Economy
Labels: capitalism, Economy, wall street
Repeatedly, over the past 3 years, the Indians, peasants, miners, urban slum-dwellers and public employees have organized and fought for land reform, worker-controlled nationalization of the mines and oil fields and decent salaries and wages. What they have gotten from Morales is a government of fiscal austerity, economic agreements with foreign extractive multinational corporations and huge untouchable agribusiness complexes. Despite having a political mandate to rule, Morales has made a succession of failed efforts to conciliate with the irreconcilable economic and regional elites. If there is one lesson that Morales can learn from the peasants who have been degraded and horsewhipped in the streets of Santa Cruz, the trade unionists who have been burned out of their headquarters and homes in Pando and the street vendors who have been driven from the markets in Tarija, is that you cannot ‘make deals’ with fascists. You don’t defeat fascism through elections and concessions to their big property-owning paymasters.
lovely. of course, no one in ny is getting paid unless it comes from barclays so it's not really a different situation. today is another mess; the same thing that happened to bear and lehman is now happening to goldman and morgan stanley. they had some idiots (sens shelby and bunning) on this morning saying the fed shouldn't have done anything to save aig. of course bunning cited some poll saying most americans were against the bailout. politicians are such ignorant whores. it's still a fiasco out there but the game would already have been over if aig had gone down. we'll see how the background plays out, but i was being told today that aig's last straw was lehman going down and them having all the liability on swaps they'd written on lehman debt.
rumour goldman is trying to go private. sounds like a good idea if they can do it. morgan's trying to sell just under 50% to the chinese. or they'll sell themselves to wachovia (which is a mess, itself). that's the perfect example of two drunks holding each other up. if those two go down, look out.
Labels: Economy, wall street
And of the five, only two are left standing on wobbly legs; Goldman and Morgan Stanley.Is Financial Innovation just another word for excessive and reckless leverage?
Apparently so.
As we learn this morning via Julie Satow of the NY Sun, special exemptions from the SEC are in large part responsible for the huge build up in financial sector leverage over the past 4 years -- as well as the massive current unwind
Satow interviews the above quoted former SEC director, and he spits out the blunt truth: The current excess leverage now unwinding was the result of a purposeful SEC exemption given to five firms.
You read that right -- the events of the past year are not a mere accident, but are the results of a conscious and willful SEC decision to allow these firms to legally violate existing net capital rules that, in the past 30 years, had limited broker dealers debt-to-net capital ratio to 12-to-1.
Instead, the 2004 exemption -- given only to 5 firms -- allowed them to lever up 30 and even 40 to 1.
Richard Wright, the keyboardist whose somber, monumental sounds were at the core of the art rock by Pink Floyd that has sold millions and millions of albums, died Monday in London, where he had lived. He was 65.I'll fore go the divisions and recombinations of Pink Floyd, except to mention he was back in the band for the "Momentary Lapse of Reason" album and tour. I'd been a big fan for years and then I got a chance to work a part of the US part of that tour.
The cause was cancer, said his publicist, Claire Singers.
Wright was a founding member of Pink Floyd, and his spacious, enveloping keyboards, backing vocals and eerie effects were essential to its musical identity.
[...]
Wright was also sole songwriter on "The Great Gig in the Sky," a hymnlike track with a soaring, wordless female vocal at the center of "The Dark Side of the Moon," the 1973 Pink Floyd album that has sold some 40 million copies.
Labels: requiem
I hiked over to Lambda Center, the gay AA club hear my home. they have power and free wifi so I'm answering 49 emails. Let me tell you that Bush and his f-cking fema is a waste of time.
Mayor White on the air telling off Fema. Thousands of people without water, power or food lined up at public announced FEMA sights to get ice, water, and food. Fema did not show up at most of the places. Older people in wheel chairs, etc. The press not covering this f-cking fiasco.
Then to top it all off f-ckhead Dubyah arrives in town. The prick will be guarded quite heavily I'm sure. FEMA is a disgrace. I'm fine but I am disgusted with the response from our state and federal government. This is the second time a mayor of a major city goes on the air to tell the state and the fed fema people to get their shit together. The hurricane was Friday and her it is Tues afternoon. FEMA only open a few places. Bad news I must say.
I'm doing fine because I planned well with canned foods and plenty of bottled water. I have enough for one more week. Then I'll get worried if we still do not have power. Beautiful trees down all over the place. Just the most remarkable devastation. Heart braking to see the beautiful trees destroyed.
More later and hopefully will have power soon.
Labels: fema, hurricane ike
Invoking extraordinary powers granted after the 1929 stock market crash, the government seized control of the insurance giant American International Group to preserve a crucial bulwark of the global financial system.Wow. Who woulda' thunk I would've grown up to be part owner of one of the largest corporations on the planet?! Momma's gotta' be proud.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.Hrmph.
Labels: AIG, Economy, government
Engraving of Kilroy on the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Credit: nps.gov
At one of the country's most prolific shipyards in Quincy worked James J. Kilroy — a rivet inspector who, like everyone in his trade, was paid by the number of rivets he checked and recorded his day's work on the machinery itself with a chalk mark. To avoid having his marks erased and moved by unscrupulous workers continuing his line of rivets, Kilroy began inscribing "Kilroy Was Here" on the machinery, historians say.
The dire need for ships overseas meant that most were launched into action before the workers' marks, including Kilroy's, were painted over or covered up.
American GIs began noticing the puzzling phrase scrawled on outgoing ships almost immediately, often tucked into hard-to-reach spots. At first, sailors treated an appearance of "Kilroy Was Here" like a kind of talisman, certifying that their ship had been properly checked and would be protected against the enemy. GIs later adopted Kilroy's standard and began tagging the places they'd visited across Europe, Asia and Africa.
Just a little diversion for you during these crazy economic times.
Labels: meme, Memorial Day, wwII
Bush Secret Order To Send Special Forces Into PakistanThis latest invasion, against a country that Bush has said:
A secret order issued by George Bush giving US special forces carte blanche to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistani territory raised fears last night that escalating conflict was spreading from Afghanistan to Pakistan and could ignite a region-wide war.
[...]
Following Bush's decision, US navy Seals commandos, backed by attack helicopters, launched a ground raid into Pakistan last week which the US claimed killed about two dozen insurgents. Pakistani officials condemned the raid as illegal and said most of the dead were civilians.
[...]
The move is regarded as unprecedented in terms of sending troops into a friendly, allied country.
- July, 2008 "Pakistan is a strong ally and a vibrant democracy."The Bush Doctrine specifically delineated the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan as 'preemptive war' when they stated that
- July 2008 Pakistan has been a strong partner in the fight against violent extremism
-September 2006 This President is a strong defender of freedom and the people of Pakistan, and I appreciate your leadership.
"Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent."Bush would have done well not to make that distinction, since it is the difference between a just war and "Due to the speculative nature of preventive war, in which the adversary may or may not be a future threat, preventive war is considered an act of aggression in international law"
Let me be clear: Analysts differed on several important aspects of these programs and those debates were spelled out in the estimate. They never said there was an imminent threat.
Labels: bush war doctrine, more Bush lies, War On Terror
vidiotspeak: vɪdiətspik [vid-ee-uht-speek] -noun
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
Click above to download the album, click below to contact
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
