The Final Installment Of This Series. I Think That It Ties Everything Together Quite Well.
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Money As Debt Pt. 5
Monday, December 22, 2008
Money As Debt Pt. 4
So, We Are Getting Close To The End Of This Series. This One Starts Out With About The Only Good Thing That Religion Ever Backed.
After The Next Installment I Have Found An Excellent Piece From NPR On How Our Economy Tanked. It's A Great Listen, Yet It's An Hour Long As Well.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Money As Debt
I Just Found This Video And Watched The Whole Thing. It's 47 minutes long so it's a little hard to take in all at once, so I'm going to post this in a 5 part series.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. In fact, it's hardened my resolve to get off credit as fast as possible. I guess I'm already in the process of it albeit unwillingly, at first. The upside of a recession/depression is that it makes you take long looks at your lifestyle and spending habits.
Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out. The Cowichan Citizens Coalition and its "Duncan Initiative" received high praise from those who previewed it. I recommend it as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool and encourage the widest distribution and use by all groups concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system in Canada and the United States.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
How The Market Tanked
Subprime mortgages (and all mortgages, really) are a fraction of the current problem. The bailout would have been enough to buy out every subprime mortgage in foreclosure across the country. In fact, it was enough to do that several times over. So why not do that?
The reason is that the purpose of the bailout (at least as Treasury Secretary Paulson sees it) isn't to stop mortgage foreclosures, but to save the banks. And the banks have some self-inflicted problems that make those mortgages an afterthought.
For example, the wonderful credit default swap. In essence, credit default swaps are (or were) nothing but insurance policies for loans. And yet in 2007 the total number of credit default swaps traded far exceeded the value of all loans. In fact, it may have touched $70 trillion dollars, which puts it above the gross domestic product of the entire planet.
DevilsTower From DailyKos
More Reading From Portfolio
Monday, September 29, 2008
Economic Scorecard
As We All Keep Reading About Failures In The Markets, I Have Decide To Put Together A List Of Dropouts/Buyouts/Rescues And Failures.
This Is Only What I Have Cobbled Together In A Short Amount Of Time. Further Input Is Welcomed Especially From Those In Overseas Markets.
I Have A Large Blank Area, Please Scroll Down.Failed Lender Method New Holder Countywide Mandated Rescue Bank Of America Freddie Mac Takeover Government Fannie Mae Takeover Government Merrill Lynch Sold Bank Of America Bear Stearns Bailout/Sale JP Morgan Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy AIG Bailout -80% Government Shares WaMu Takeover/Sale JP Morgan Overseas Bradford & Bingley Nationalized Government UK Glitnir HF Takeover -75% Government Iceland Hypo Real Estate Bailout German Institutions Fortis Rescue Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg
So The Question Is, "What/Who Is Next?"
Well, You've Got Goldman Sachs And Morgan Stanley Who Have Changed Status To "Holding Banks." The Latter Has Already Sold A 5 Billion Stake To A China Firm While Also Devaluing It's Holdings By 9.4 Billion.
JP Morgan Is Busying Itself Buying All The Crap It Can. They May Be Betting On A Bailout, However, They Came Out Good After The Great Depression. Due To Following Ethical Practices And Not Just "Staying Within The Law." If They Have The Same Mindset Now, It'd Be A Good Investment If, If You Have Any To Invest.
Wachovia Is Currently Prettying Itself Up For Citigroup.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Stock Market Bailout? Thanks, But No Thanks!
A Letter That I Sent To Both My House Representative And To My Senator. I'm Sure That It Is A Bit Rambling But, I Didn't Have The Time To Really Refine It As This Is An Issue That May Be Pushed Through At A Moments Notice.
I Advise You To Do The Same To Prevent Unfettered Socialism From Getting A Stranglehold On Our Economy.
You May Use Mine If You'd Like, I'd Advise Rereading It And Cutting The Fat.
Senator McCaskill,
I have sent this to my Congressman Hulshoff as well. As my Democratic Senator I hope that you will not let this go through unchallenged.
These monies could be used for so many better things than bailing out a group of people who clearly manipulated the system for their own benefit.
Think of what the average American will be forced to give up no matter who wins the presidential race. Please do not let these criminals ramrod a forced vote on this issue without adding some restrictions that are much needed.
Please, please do not let the bailout proposition pass with section 8 still attached to it. Please consider your constituents in your decision for passing this bill.
Please do not make a rash judgment on this without first considering the ramifications that this bill will provoke.
Is this truly a necessary evil? Is it possible that the investment banks let things get out of hand on purpose? They want all the profits of the good times and none of the responsibility of the impending troubles ahead. Is this fair to the taxpayers? Why should we get to foot the bill for their mistakes while they get a handout and get to go about with business as usual?
They need to pay their act of contrition for the mess that they themselves created. I am expected to and so should they.
I expect that you will provide some guidance and put some provisions of oversight on how the money is distributed.
The deal proposed by Paulson is nothing short of outrageous. It includes no oversight of his own closed-door operations. It merely gives congressional blessing and funding to what he has already been doing, ad hoc. He plans to retain Wall Street firms as advisors to decide just how to cut deals to value and mop up Wall Street's dubious paper. There are to be no limits on executive compensation for the firms that get relief, and no equity share for the government in exchange for this massive infusion of capital. Both Obama and McCain have opposed the provision denying any judicial review of decisions made by Paulson -- a provision that evokes the Bush administration's suspension of normal constitutional safeguards in its conduct of foreign policy and national security. [...]
The differences between this proposed bailout and the three closest historical equivalents are immense. When the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the 1930s pumped a total of $35 billion into U.S. corporations and financial institutions, there was close government supervision and quid pro quos at every step of the way. Much of the time, the RFC became a preferred shareholder, and often appointed board members. The Home Owners Loan Corporation, which eventually refinanced one in five mortgage loans, did not operate to bail out banks but to save homeowners. And the Resolution Trust Corporation of the 1980s, created to mop up the damage of the first speculative mortgage meltdown, the S&L collapse, did not pump in money to rescue bad investments; it sorted out good assets from bad after the fact, and made sure to purge bad executives as well as bad loans. And all three of these historic cases of public recapitalization were done without suspending judicial review.
Please don't let this pass without proper oversight.
Thank you for your time,
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Get Ready To Take it In The Ass!
I'm On My Way Home From Work And I Notice That Gas Has Gone Up .25 Since I Went In!
I Think This Is Fucking Ridiculous! I Know That We Don't Have It As Bad As Some Other Countries Or Even As Bad As Other Parts Of This Country, But Dammit It's Crazy When You See That The Jackass Oil Speculators Jack Up The Price Just Cause They Can.
The Price Of Fuel Had Steadily Been Going Down But I Guess that Since It's Labor Day Weekend They Feel The Need To Ejaculate As Much Cash From The Average Person As They Can. After All, Despite Record Profits, Yet AGAIN, Last Quarter The Investors Were Dismayed That It Wasn't Higher.
Here's The Bullshit Part. There Is An Oil Coalition Called ICE. These Are The Main Oil Speculators, They Get To Trade Energy Commodities In The US. The Good Part Is That They Are Also The One's That Get To Set The Price On Fuel. "I Think That The Price Is Going To Go Up Because Of Blah. How About That The Price Went Up Cause I Said Blah!" They Not Only Get The Profits From The Sale Of The Fuel To Shits Like You And Me, They Also Get Profits From The Commodities Trading. Sounds Like Another Enron To Me.
But Hey Look On The Bright Side, The Government Looked Into It And At Least We're Not Being Randomly Gouged By A .25 Raise In One Day. I For One Plan On Parking My Vehicle For The Remainder Of The Weekend.
More Info Can Be Found Here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/22210615/candidates_for_saleOil speculators provide the perfect microcosm of what happened to the economy under Bush. Back in 2001, investment banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan got together and created an online exchange called the ICE for trading energy commodities. The ICE ended up buying the British-regulated International Petroleum Exchange; it then opened trading windows in the U.S., allowing Wall Street investment banks to make oil-futures trades on American soil, on their very own commodities exchange, without any federal regulation whatsoever.
"In financial terms, they were playing blackjack at tables where they themselves were the dealers, in casinos they themselves owned," says Warren Gunnels, a senior policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders. "It was crazy." Trading on the ICE had a massive impact on U.S. gasoline prices, and more than one legislator wondered if energy speculators were manipulating the market, as energy traders like Enron had been before.
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