I am not happy with what is being proposed. I prefer a single-payer system. But, H.R. 3200, seems to be the closest thing to changing a horrible system (not the best).
But it is horrible the amount of disinformation and misinformation that is out there. I got a chain email yesterday from a "friend" who thought I shared the same views. In it were all these total falsehoods about what was in H.R. 3200 such as the gov't wants people to commit euthanasia and eliminate specialists.
What is absolutely sad is that people take this stuff as gospel. Well, if I read it in an email or heard it on TV or read it in a paper it MUST be true. Now, we got these "grassroots" organization that are just fronts for lobbying organizations.
This is indicative of a much larger problem. Did we every have serious critical thinking skills? Or have we been dummied down to the point where we don't question what we are told?
We have been talking a lot the past couple of weeks about how screwed we are. But, when does it sink in and will it ever? I am starting to ramble - I think I will stop now.
The NewsHour is running the Bernanke Q&A in a 3-part series of 10 minute snippets this week.
You can find the entire series @ The NewsHour website
Part 1 was last night. Here are some highlights:
40% of what I saved for my retirement. I also invested in two homes. One in a suburb of the city, and one a beach house on Lake Huron. Nothing is selling. Add in the asses in Washington who are threatening social security and medicare, and exactly where is my retirement plan? Everything I saved and planned is out the window. Instead of retiring early, I will work until I am 66. Maybe by then, there'll be a new America. One that values producing instead of consuming.
Yeah, thank god for the blogs and looking at the nitty gritty, plus willing to be mistaken. You'd never guess that housing might be bouncing along a bottom or that prices can continue to decline from reading the MSM. But it's just another point to check our P's and Q's when writing, it's really easy to make mistakes.
Any company should continue to pay its employees any amount it deems it should. What went wrong with recent executive pay is that the government bailed out the companies - banks & automobile manufacturers.
People can express their disapproval with executive pay at shareholders meetings by voting out the executives. That's how that should be handled, not with more government regulation telling companies how to operate.
Despite the positive headlines in traditional media outlets, the seasonally adjusted number went down. I just read an interesting post on CR about what happened today - very interesting reading.
from coming to EP. Read more deeply. I look at the press release and Census Bureau numbers on residential sales. I found this glaring item:
This is 11.0 percent (±13.2%)* above the revised May rate of 346,000, but is 21.3 percent (±11.4%) below the June 2008 estimate of
488,000.
Two things: the margin of error is greater than the increase and what does that asterick refer to:
* 90% confidence interval includes zero. The Census Bureau does not have sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change is different from zero.
I should have known better to than just rely on what was in the corporate media. Thanks EP.
The measure gives shareholders an annual vote on salary and bonuses for top executives at all public U.S. companies. The votes are non-binding, meaning companies can ignore them.
Anyone want to tell me how this could possibly be effective if companies can just ignore shareholders?
I guess there is a cloud of good news in that the SEC can ban "incentives" which encourage "inordinate risks" but it appears to be just at banks.
But I am really wondering what happens if retail/consumer picks up.....do we get this massive trade deficit implosion which does indeed not only affect GDP but very negatively impacts employment? Right now it's down, but all global trade is down.
"This proposal seems suspiciously redundant given the widespread availability of high-schools, community colleges, libraries, churches, community centers, books, on-line resources, etc. that can provide basic financial skills, investing information, and home purchasing guidance for free or as part of a credentialed program."
I went through all of those programs- and still ended up having to dig myself out of $60,000 in debt when I hit rock bottom a decade ago.
I agree with you that the anonymous nature of the market is a bit of an information firewall for investors. But a larger problem is a culture of debt; an unspoken expectation that going into debt for investment in one's lifestyle, as opposed to investment in a business, is worth it in the long run.
It is NEVER ok to borrow for lifestyle alone; the costs of life come and go. One should only borrow for assets that are directly producing MONEY- and more money than the cost of borrowing for that asset.
That's a rule that none of the high school, community colleges, libraries, churches, and banks will never teach you.
-------------------------------------
Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.
from the Obama administration. I cannot find it, but I thought I saw stats earlier that the # of renegotiations was still incredibly low and of those, some of the terms were worse than the original.
I gotta run and do errands, so, this is just a real quick comment.
for example - I figured out that my health 'benefits' cost 819 a month from my paycheck.
to pay for that outta my pocket, with 25% going in taxes
.75x = 819, x = 1092, x = what I need to EARN a month.
1092 * 12 = 13104 a year,
now, we ALL need to get paid for 52 weeks of work a year, whether you're paid by week, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly. BTW, staffing is based upon 40 hours a week.
40*52 = 2080.
13104/2080 = $6.30 an hour I need to make, workign a whole year, JUST to pay MY health insurance.
EVERY workign stiff in America should be able to figure that out. Few can, fewer do, and we all get fucked by those who can figure it out AND DO figure it out.
rmm.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous
her employer is no longer paying the 250 a month on her completely CRAP 'health' insurance, AND, her hours got cut from 40 to 30 hours a week.
I so despise the fascists running htis country, but, even worse, are the pathetic sack of shit dems who suck up billions of dollars to be losers to the fascists.
You don't know jack shit about who I am. So before you go off and pull out some bullshit about FIRE think about that.
However, having said that. Financial illiteracy is a big problem is this country. If people knew how screwed up our financial/economic system maybe there would be more accountability.
Just like any great "freethinker" it is best to utilize the resources that are currently available such as the one you much mention in the first paragraph. Than you for your input in that regard.
This proposal seems suspiciously redundant given the widespread availability of high-schools, community colleges, libraries, churches, community centers, books, on-line resources, etc. that can provide basic financial skills, investing information, and home purchasing guidance for free or as part of a credentialed program.
Also odd is the description of the purchasing of a home (or, more accurately for most people, the acquisition of debt to rent a structure or apartment for 30 years) as investing. This marketing technique undergirds all housing bubbles. Paying on a loan for shelter does not produce capital. At best, a mortgage is a long-term savings plan that relies on the phenomenon of asset inflation, a serious symptom of a poor investment environment and falling currency value.
In any case, I hope some readers ponder how all those professional investors, including large public and private funds, could have blindly invested and lost with B. Madoff, Allen Stanford, Christopher Stanford, Anthony Vassallo, Kenneth Kenitzer, etc. despite having sophisticated financial skills and investment experience. Basic financial skills are no match for real estate and Wall Street cons who use fraud, public relations, marketing, lobbying and high speed computers to game the political and financial systems for the elite few.
As icing on the cake, R-Capitalist then nobly suggests that we use taxpayer money to fund these centers which, coincidentally, will be staffed (and managed) by people such an unemployed financial industry types. I've heard this message more than a few times this year. It seems to be nothing more than the latest, faux-populist marketing ploy cooked up by unemployed or underemployed opportunists from the flagging financial industry / real estate / insurance (FIRE) sector to again fleece the shmuckdom using greed and fear. You guys & gals are such innovators!
Perhaps I should be more sympathetic. After all, why should the unemployed from the FIRE sector not feel entitled to heed the clarion calls from elected officials and regulators to hurry and pilfer from the public? Their employed brethren have left little in the public purse.
But, in case the ex-FIRE sector employees arrive after the public cupboard has been picked bare, let us hope they don’t despair. Just maybe they can dream up a new proposal. And maybe they next one will involve developing a viable, sustainable business plan that does not rely on either government subsidies or Ponzi schemes.
One of my "issues" surrounds professional labor and getting these people to organize, hell you cannot even get them to write a semi-comprehensible blog post on some of the facts...getting them to organize or physically show up and plain protest...they won't even pay dues to join a union or even a professional society.
It's just unreal, it's only their economic lives that are on the line.
I am not happy with what is being proposed. I prefer a single-payer system. But, H.R. 3200, seems to be the closest thing to changing a horrible system (not the best).
But it is horrible the amount of disinformation and misinformation that is out there. I got a chain email yesterday from a "friend" who thought I shared the same views. In it were all these total falsehoods about what was in H.R. 3200 such as the gov't wants people to commit euthanasia and eliminate specialists.
What is absolutely sad is that people take this stuff as gospel. Well, if I read it in an email or heard it on TV or read it in a paper it MUST be true. Now, we got these "grassroots" organization that are just fronts for lobbying organizations.
This is indicative of a much larger problem. Did we every have serious critical thinking skills? Or have we been dummied down to the point where we don't question what we are told?
We have been talking a lot the past couple of weeks about how screwed we are. But, when does it sink in and will it ever? I am starting to ramble - I think I will stop now.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
The NewsHour is running the Bernanke Q&A in a 3-part series of 10 minute snippets this week.
You can find the entire series @ The NewsHour website
Part 1 was last night. Here are some highlights:
40% of what I saved for my retirement. I also invested in two homes. One in a suburb of the city, and one a beach house on Lake Huron. Nothing is selling. Add in the asses in Washington who are threatening social security and medicare, and exactly where is my retirement plan? Everything I saved and planned is out the window. Instead of retiring early, I will work until I am 66. Maybe by then, there'll be a new America. One that values producing instead of consuming.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/28/95232/5317
Did you see this?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/28/95232/5317
Yeah, thank god for the blogs and looking at the nitty gritty, plus willing to be mistaken. You'd never guess that housing might be bouncing along a bottom or that prices can continue to decline from reading the MSM. But it's just another point to check our P's and Q's when writing, it's really easy to make mistakes.
Any company should continue to pay its employees any amount it deems it should. What went wrong with recent executive pay is that the government bailed out the companies - banks & automobile manufacturers.
People can express their disapproval with executive pay at shareholders meetings by voting out the executives. That's how that should be handled, not with more government regulation telling companies how to operate.
We hear all this talk about China focusing domestically to increase domestic spending and aggregate demand and domestic consumer spending.
If that happens will they actually buy stuff from us? Probably not.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Despite the positive headlines in traditional media outlets, the seasonally adjusted number went down. I just read an interesting post on CR about what happened today - very interesting reading.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Answer: Not surprising. Unemployment.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
from coming to EP. Read more deeply. I look at the press release and Census Bureau numbers on residential sales. I found this glaring item:
Two things: the margin of error is greater than the increase and what does that asterick refer to:
I should have known better to than just rely on what was in the corporate media. Thanks EP.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Say on Pay voted by House Financial Services Committee.
Anyone want to tell me how this could possibly be effective if companies can just ignore shareholders?
I guess there is a cloud of good news in that the SEC can ban "incentives" which encourage "inordinate risks" but it appears to be just at banks.
With all of the rhetoric of "getting credit markets working again", credit card companies are busy squeezing their customers and small business.
But I am really wondering what happens if retail/consumer picks up.....do we get this massive trade deficit implosion which does indeed not only affect GDP but very negatively impacts employment? Right now it's down, but all global trade is down.
"This proposal seems suspiciously redundant given the widespread availability of high-schools, community colleges, libraries, churches, community centers, books, on-line resources, etc. that can provide basic financial skills, investing information, and home purchasing guidance for free or as part of a credentialed program."
I went through all of those programs- and still ended up having to dig myself out of $60,000 in debt when I hit rock bottom a decade ago.
I agree with you that the anonymous nature of the market is a bit of an information firewall for investors. But a larger problem is a culture of debt; an unspoken expectation that going into debt for investment in one's lifestyle, as opposed to investment in a business, is worth it in the long run.
It is NEVER ok to borrow for lifestyle alone; the costs of life come and go. One should only borrow for assets that are directly producing MONEY- and more money than the cost of borrowing for that asset.
That's a rule that none of the high school, community colleges, libraries, churches, and banks will never teach you.
-------------------------------------
Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.
from the Obama administration. I cannot find it, but I thought I saw stats earlier that the # of renegotiations was still incredibly low and of those, some of the terms were worse than the original.
I gotta run and do errands, so, this is just a real quick comment.
for example - I figured out that my health 'benefits' cost 819 a month from my paycheck.
to pay for that outta my pocket, with 25% going in taxes
.75x = 819, x = 1092, x = what I need to EARN a month.
1092 * 12 = 13104 a year,
now, we ALL need to get paid for 52 weeks of work a year, whether you're paid by week, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly. BTW, staffing is based upon 40 hours a week.
40*52 = 2080.
13104/2080 = $6.30 an hour I need to make, workign a whole year, JUST to pay MY health insurance.
EVERY workign stiff in America should be able to figure that out. Few can, fewer do, and we all get fucked by those who can figure it out AND DO figure it out.
rmm.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous
her employer is no longer paying the 250 a month on her completely CRAP 'health' insurance, AND, her hours got cut from 40 to 30 hours a week.
I so despise the fascists running htis country, but, even worse, are the pathetic sack of shit dems who suck up billions of dollars to be losers to the fascists.
rmm.
You don't know jack shit about who I am. So before you go off and pull out some bullshit about FIRE think about that.
However, having said that. Financial illiteracy is a big problem is this country. If people knew how screwed up our financial/economic system maybe there would be more accountability.
Just like any great "freethinker" it is best to utilize the resources that are currently available such as the one you much mention in the first paragraph. Than you for your input in that regard.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
This proposal seems suspiciously redundant given the widespread availability of high-schools, community colleges, libraries, churches, community centers, books, on-line resources, etc. that can provide basic financial skills, investing information, and home purchasing guidance for free or as part of a credentialed program.
Also odd is the description of the purchasing of a home (or, more accurately for most people, the acquisition of debt to rent a structure or apartment for 30 years) as investing. This marketing technique undergirds all housing bubbles. Paying on a loan for shelter does not produce capital. At best, a mortgage is a long-term savings plan that relies on the phenomenon of asset inflation, a serious symptom of a poor investment environment and falling currency value.
In any case, I hope some readers ponder how all those professional investors, including large public and private funds, could have blindly invested and lost with B. Madoff, Allen Stanford, Christopher Stanford, Anthony Vassallo, Kenneth Kenitzer, etc. despite having sophisticated financial skills and investment experience. Basic financial skills are no match for real estate and Wall Street cons who use fraud, public relations, marketing, lobbying and high speed computers to game the political and financial systems for the elite few.
As icing on the cake, R-Capitalist then nobly suggests that we use taxpayer money to fund these centers which, coincidentally, will be staffed (and managed) by people such an unemployed financial industry types. I've heard this message more than a few times this year. It seems to be nothing more than the latest, faux-populist marketing ploy cooked up by unemployed or underemployed opportunists from the flagging financial industry / real estate / insurance (FIRE) sector to again fleece the shmuckdom using greed and fear. You guys & gals are such innovators!
Perhaps I should be more sympathetic. After all, why should the unemployed from the FIRE sector not feel entitled to heed the clarion calls from elected officials and regulators to hurry and pilfer from the public? Their employed brethren have left little in the public purse.
But, in case the ex-FIRE sector employees arrive after the public cupboard has been picked bare, let us hope they don’t despair. Just maybe they can dream up a new proposal. And maybe they next one will involve developing a viable, sustainable business plan that does not rely on either government subsidies or Ponzi schemes.
One of my "issues" surrounds professional labor and getting these people to organize, hell you cannot even get them to write a semi-comprehensible blog post on some of the facts...getting them to organize or physically show up and plain protest...they won't even pay dues to join a union or even a professional society.
It's just unreal, it's only their economic lives that are on the line.
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