The Economic Populist
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US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
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Manufacturing Monday: Week of 12.28.2008
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Much Ado About Oil
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US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 186234 reads
Manufacturing Monday: Week of 12.28.2008
- 16959 reads
Much Ado About Oil
- 106044 reads
The Golden Rule
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Will the NY Attorney General Bring Doomsday Charges Against Wall Street? If So, How Long Will He Survive?
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New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
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How Many Jobs Are Needed to Keep Up with Population Growth?
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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U3 and U6 Unemployment during the Great Depression
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The war on the middle class
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
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Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Generate Jobs
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looks at excess industrial capacity and says, "you guys can't make a profit making you normal lines, but you can switch to make this." For example, taking auto parts suppliers and easing their entry into the wind turbine industry. This is already happening on a limited basis, but an active government role in promoting it would allow us to put people to work while jumpstarting a new industry that will help us break our dependence on foreign energy sources.
When is the rebound to take place?
Yeeeaaah, it was those greedy bastard builders EXTRACTING EXCESS Profits!!! No, wait, it was those stupid consumers buying more than they can afford, those silly ninnies. But, ... hang on a second ..., wasn't it those beady eyed, lying realtors who sold their souls to fob off a "McMansion" on innocent, underinformed patsies. Aha, but now we're getting warm here. IT WAS THOSE PAGANS, the mortgage brokers!!!!! All we gotta do now is round em all up and do with them as the Messiah would have us do, and then we can go back to drinkin' free bubble up and eatin our rainbow stew. Everything will spontaneously return to normal and we can all go back to driving our Priuses. I mean, we know DC is doing the right things and we just gotta stay positive, right? The bankers will fix everything, .... right? 9 Trillion unaccounted for by the Fed is no big deal,.... right??? Fincorpogovernment is OK, isn't it? Please tell me it's going to be OK.... please. Remind me again, it's the builders, buyers, realtors, mortgage industry that we have to fear, ...right, ........right??? Please, somebody..... fascism, debauched currency and social chaos can't happen here, right?? The bankers in the Oval Office all look too nice to be evil, right? Congress won't let em plunder this country, right. They represent us, ................. don't they? And sure, the Administration has gotten a little heavy handed, made a few threats to bankers and auto execs, unleashed the brownshirts to intimidate hedge fund industry heads, but that's just anecdotal, right. I mean, sure we're a country of law, but I mean hey, everybody's breakin a few right now. Oh well, at least we're "winning" in Iraqistan and, darn, how do you spell that other place, Acoffinistan??? Yeah, at least it's all going well there, right......
And then he woke up! And meanwhile, while he slept, freedom and the American way had been stolen by the bankers, the very enemies our forefathers said would steal our Republic as soon as they got control of our money. We've been f***ed in little dribs and drabs before, but now it's happening on a scale that is nearly incomprehensible. And they call it CHANGE you can believe in!
Yeeeaaah, it was those greedy bastard builders EXTRACTING EXCESS Profits!!! No, wait, it was those stupid consumers buying more than they can afford, those silly ninnies. But, ... hang on a second ..., wasn't it those beady eyed, lying realtors who sold their souls to fob off a "McMansion" on innocent, underinformed patsies. Aha, but now we're getting warm here. IT WAS THOSE PAGANS, the mortgage brokers!!!!! All we gotta do now is round em all up and do with them as the Messiah would have us do, and then we can go back to drinkin' free bubble up and eatin our rainbow stew. Everything will spontaneously return to normal and we can all go back to driving our Priuses. I mean, we know DC is doing the right things and we just gotta stay positive, right? The bankers will fix everything, .... right? 9 Trillion unaccounted for by the Fed is no big deal,.... right??? Fincorpogovernment is OK, isn't it? Please tell me it's going to be OK.... please. Remind me again, it's the builders, buyers, realtors, mortgage industry that we have to fear, ...right, ........right??? Please, somebody..... fascism, debauched currency and social chaos can't happen here, right?? The bankers in the Oval Office all look too nice to be evil, right? Congress won't let em plunder this country, right. They represent us, ................. don't they? And sure, the Administration has gotten a little heavy handed, made a few threats to bankers and auto execs, unleashed the brownshirts to intimidate hedge fund industry heads, but that's just anecdotal, right. I mean, sure we're a country of law, but I mean hey, everybody's breakin a few right now. Oh well, at least we're "winning" in Iraqistan and, darn, how do you spell that other place, Acoffinistan??? Yeah, at least it's all going well there, right...... And then he woke up! And meanwhile, while he slept, freedom and the American way had been stolen by the bankers, the very enemies our forefathers said would steal our Republic as soon as they got control of our money. We've been f***ed in little dribs and drabs before, but now it's happening on a scale that is nearly incomprehensible. And they call it CHANGE you can believe in!
I don't think we will see anything but move down because wages, job stability, income is continuing to decline. Until we have wage levels that can support these home prices, unless it's an asset bubble or foreigners buy up all of the houses, I don't see how it could happen.
The all important "move-up buyer" is AWOL.
Even if somehow the Washington club could engineer a bottom in housing the law of unintended consequences would take over.
Housing prices, still, are too high compared to salaries. Putting in an elevated false bottom creates a gap where there will be no new first time buyers to purchase existing homes, thus move up buyers will not be able to sell their existing residence for what they owe.
But Viagra? Yeah, that's just what a man who has lost his job needs: more children to take care of.
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Executive compensation is inversely proportional to morality and ethics.
someone can sell their home (without losing their shirt) and be able to buy another. This is not happening. I think Calculated Risk called it the "one off" phenomenon - there are very few to no upgrade buyers right now.
These are just random thoughts. There is right now the behavioral economics craze and I was thinking....has anyone examined research into propaganda (sales, marketing, press releases) correlating to massive bubbles? As I mull this it seems a host of propaganda has influenced economic decisions repeatedly and it's on steroids in the last 20 years....does this actually create these tsunami wave bubbles? How much effect does it all really have?
Anyone old enough to remember when advertisers were getting sued for false advertising? When we had a consumer movement in the 70's? They were all over everything from soap to subliminal advertising to false advertising? Seems like anything goes in advertising these days.
I saw the most disgusting ad from Charter cable. They try to associate finding a job with buying their digital cable. Now is that just sinister or what?
Instapopulist earlier. He basically turned the phrase systemic risk onto the very people using it continually as a buzz phrase and blames the Federal Reserve, Treasury for much of the mess.
He's clearly a conservative, part of the Hoover institute at Stanford, but he's also obviously a very smart conservative, looking at the data, stats.
Including forcing healthy institutions to take taxpayer funds when they didn't act irresponsibly in the least.
It's all about saving certain banks....who happen to have a lot of lobbyists and a massive revolving door to government. My suspicions I guess I should look at the overall statistics to see if this is true, but it's sure stinks to me.
I thought a spammer had attacked the site. Yeah, everything hinges around the almighty pole stiffener. How about some lab tests for free? Where's that freebie?
That would mean that housing won't hit bottom until 2011.
Given that real estate prices are falling by about 15% a year, we've got another 30% of price contraction to go through. And that's only if this correction is average.
I think the perfect answer to such destructive greed would be a 95% windfall profits tax on any credit-related insurance policy.
That ought to take the wind out of the sails pretty quickly.
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Executive compensation is inversely proportional to morality and ethics.
that S&P maybe back to trying to do their job. Isn't there pending litigation against them and Moody's?
Anyone read or get a glimpse of Ritholtz's book for I know he goes through the credit rating agencies in depth.
Treasury Secretary Geithner is calling for new record-keeping requirements for what he calls "non-standard" derivatives. Part of the issue with the recordation of derivatives is that technology (e-mail, text message and so on) has made the formation of legally-binding contracts (such as derivatives) very cheap and easy. Efforts to promote better documenation on derivatives will provoke massive new campaigns to capture, archive and comprehend electronic financial records. See Details: http://legal-beagle.typepad.com/wrights_legal_beagle/2009/03/record-keep... --Ben
But my take is different. We know GM is going to offshore outsource the jobs as in 98% plus is wanting to "move it's headquarters" out of Detroit. So, I think they should have never gotten any money at all and only protect the UAW health and pensions.
In other words, like GM has been doing for years, they are determined to screw over the workers anyway to sell their Aeros in China for $1200.
So, I think instead the U.S. should have either wiped out all management at GM, started over, forced it to be a real U.S. company...but something instead of what's happening.
Chrysler maybe different in terms of long terms plans to move offshore.
GM moving into bankruptcy or not, their agenda remains the same, to offshore outsource all production so I wish the U.S. government had become an auto manufacturer and truly taken over GM.
Chrysler is going to cancel 789 dealer agreements in bankruptcy.
I thought a better idea was to force or negotiate a merger between Chrysler and GM. Then restructure the auto industry including making it smaller. We would have preserved some manufacturing base at the same time preserving some jobs.
during the roar of the dot.com. I tried my best to show people that the dot com was false and would eventually blow up. But people just wanted what they want.....make the highest return. I had to tell quite a bit of clients to find another guy, a gentle way of firing clients. I was worried about their principal and they were worried about making as much as their neighbor. I saw more greed/need and want from the public than I care to think. It was too much to handle and in 1999 I sold my business. I wanted OUT!
I also saw how the big wire-houses worked hand in hand with NASD (now FINRA), and the SEC to have rules promulgated in their favor. They didn't like competition from independents such as me.
So it is no surprise to me that the New York exchange is out of reach. New York exchange as a clearing house? Maybe something changed but either the brokerage houses cleared their own (self clearing) or they used their party clearing frims like Pershing. I wouldn't feel comfortable making New York Exchange as a clearing house. That's like having the fox in the hen house.
Robert as you say, the govt and others don't want the secret to get out to the people.
When derivatives first came out the joke was, "what is a derivative?" Answer....it is what ever you want it to be. You will still have a trading instrument that is not well defined, why have it? In one word greed.
In 1982 when I was a commodity trader you would have never, ever seen a CalPERS in the commodity market. One thing that defined benefit plans did was that it made the person managing the investments to be prudent. If memory serves me, in a court of law, a fiduciary responsibility is a bigger stick than the Prudent Man rules.
So you have the never ending want of the people, you have the greed of the new Wall Street bubble world and I am to think this will change things. I started out with all the zeal in the world, my client was not going to be the well heeled, I wanted to help the people that needed help, to teach them how to plan for their future. In the end, I was a shell, jaded from what I saw in Americans.
Now the PTB want to blow up another bubble. I wonder if Vegas has given odds on it?
I have a deductible of $3200. It is a 100% plan...meaning after I pay my deductible everything is covered at 100%. I have had this plan for several years and have over $4,000 in the HSA account. So if I need to use the insurance, the money is there to pay. I now have a first dollar health plan.
My wife worked for a CPA firm that was number 9 (back when there was the big 8) , they used to ask me in to give financial management talks to their CPA's, I've taught part time Risk Management classes at our local college. I think...just maybe....maybe, I know a bit about managing financial affairs.
An HSA is a good way to go. Silly me, thinking that people can manage their own affairs. I could have given an extra $300 a month to an insurance company for a low deductible but why? Why not put that $300 into my own HSA account?
But hey, we are in a new world, a world that people can't manage their credit, can't buy a house that is within their financial grasp and now they clamor for the government bail out.
Tell me Mr Oak. How is my plan going to bankrupt me? I really, really want to hear you explanation in numbers. Tell me how I am going to go through the max of $8 million dollars.
When I looked into them they had many different plans. They did have some plans that I would never have touched. Plans that had limits on chemo and other stuff like it. Those are sucker plans. Which plan did you look at?
OK...you made me pull out my policy and read it. It is 23 pages and in my State an insurance contract can not be a contract of adhesion.
Inpatient/outpatient/surgical/reconstructive surgery/x-ray and labs/prescription drugs/anesthesia is covered up to lifetime maximum ($8 million). It is a PPO with the Physicians Health Care Services.
What I was taught about contracts, if it is not excluded by contract it is included. I looked for any cancer exclusions or reduced benefits....there was not any.
But I got around to opening yesterdays mail and my health insurance
renewal was in the mail. I am going from $247.36 a month to $272.36.
Caveat here.......I live in an area of my State that is not anyplace near an urban area, prices of houses, hospital stays so my insurance is lower.
I don't know your age but I'm old enough to have watched friends die, people I know having strokes, and other nasty stuff. They all had insurance and had no problem with their insurance paying.
I asked my EMT friend in for coffee this morning to ask about the ambulance thing said, he has heard of the problem in big cities but never in our two hospital area. I told him why I asked and said about my insurance company. I showed him my insurance card. He recognized it. Turns out that 15 years ago (it was called Fort insurance or something like it back then) he was between jobs and had a short term policy with the company. A week after taking out the policy he was playing volley ball and took one to the nose. Broke it. The insurance company paid (after $250 deductible) for the broken nose....no questions asked.
I think that a certain sector of our society does what I've been accused of doing......presenting only negatives. Why do I get the feeling that you choose the lowest denominator when saying my plan doesn't cover enough?
Just did an online quote with the Blues ($3500 deductible/90% plan) so my maximum out of pocket would be higher. The premium is $375.00.
So clearly our views are different because of the areas of the country we live in. Actually I was surprised that the Blue Shield plan was so low because usually they are the high cost people.
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