generally is being much more honest than most. That's quite an editorial for them to print but it seems more and more "establishment" financial media are really calling it out.
I also noticed they have put together a lot of interviews that are excellent.
So of course they are about the last channel that goes with any cable package and instead we get CNBC, which at least in the afternoons is almost noise at this point.
Outsourcing can and does at times make sense. What we should
oppose are the concerted efforts by various outsourcing [industry] groups aimed at undermining the U.S. sovereignty--and many of them, make no mistake, are anti-American and operate under the guise of being pro-Global. The "you're a racist" response is identical to those opposed to any reform to stop illegal immigration. Sunshine causes cockroaches to run for the rocks.
It's not surprising. After all, Geithner did say that he would do whatever is necessary to maintain our dear financial system. But do these people have any idea just how corrupt and imperial they look? Everyday, I want to take the observations of Ilargi and pass them on. He and his wife Stoneleigh are just so good at reducing our experience to the levels of absurdity it so richly deserves. Today's synopsis is, I think, a classic:
Ilargi: As the criticism of all the doomed to fail from the outset Obama financial plans reaches a first crescendo, here come the propaganda police troopers. And you still think Goebbels was devious. A lovely portrait of Ben Bernanke "revolutionizing" the Federal Reserve in the Washington Post makes me think the average IQ of the readership has tanked towards a fathomless and unfathomable bottom. Come on, Washington's happiest buy into that?
New York Magazine has a piece on the man who made Tim Geithner "telegenic". Excuse me? Larry Summers was sent out to do a speech, in which he claimed that we will recover in a few months. His terms are vague, but we can still nail him on that one (preferably by his ears) come fall.
We have entered surrealism of a size and grandeur nobody would have thought possible until recently. Average initial jobless claims were down 750 in the past 4 weeks, while continuing claims were up 146,750. Guess what made the headlines?
Bank stress test results are not published, but they are commented on by Federal Reserve regional presidents. They tell us all 19 banks tested are fine, though they need more money, though not all of them. Publish the numbers, I warn you, guys, people don't believe you anymore because you have such an honest face.
Then again, people do still trust Obama. God only knows why, but they do. If there's anything that keeps us from working to solve this crisis, that's probably it, that's the biggest reason of all, that Obama can say whatever his crew write for him, and it’s swallowed hook line sinker as some sort of new evangelism.
And everyone's looking the other way, where the Dow gains a percent or two surrounded by mass foreclosures and lay-offs. Salvador Dali would have left this theme alone; no amount of acid ever gave him visions that far removed from what he saw sober.
Me, I’ll have a stiff drink a reader sent me, mille grazie, and see what tomorrow brings. But the disconnect, I must admit, throws me off at times. I want Obama to visit the tent cities, to go see those who stand in a 3000 man long line for one job. Because that is what's real. Not Bernanke and Geithner and Summers claiming that they see recovery without having anything to show for it. Get out there and be with the people you have been elected to represent. Be a mensch or get the fuk out of here. This is no time for a political spiel, or theater, no spins or PR plays. Get down there where it matters. Or get out. You may fool a lot of people, but you can't fool them all.
Wow, mentioning Geithner, Summers, Obama and Salvador Dali in the same essay! That's just not easy to do. I was always proud of using the word "picayune" in a corporate memo years ago. I bow to the master.
The "too big to fail" banks grew as a result of bond-based
acquisition in the 90s, using leveraged tax-write offs. They did not organically grow their businesses. Now, they've become too big to manage...and are still being bailed because of all the good ol' Wall Street boys, i.e. Sanford Weil, Hank Greenberg, et al. The fact is, the FTC allowed all this anti-competitive consolidation (as a result of kickbacks and lobbying). It, like most of the Federal Agencies, failed to do its work because it was peopled by political hacks. It smells really bad. I'm ready for a huge clean-up...the FBI and Justice should just get out the weed wacker and go to it. Seriously.
1999 was my last year as a Series 7 person. If I had manipulated the facts, if I had misled the public like I see the banks doing today, the NASD would have fined me. There would have been possible criminal actions.
Instead the MSM prints this stuff, making it sound like it is some mystical stone that will turn lead into gold. Mr CPA what does two plus two equal. Answer....what do you want it to equal? This is a lot of accounting wizardry. But they rely on the fact that most people don't know the difference between debits and credits. Heck, maybe they are right because so far they it's worked for them.
God how long until people wake up or am I naive to believe people will wake up? Thirty years of wage stagnation but they still don't get it?
Help Mr. Wizard! Twizzle twazzle twizzle thwo...time for this one to come home. I'm not sure how much ore of this I can take without hitting the bottle.
Yeah, I saw it and I feel really wonderful that so much discussion has followed my post. That is how this country will get back to fulfilling the promise for all citizens that it was founded on.
Even though BO talked about it during the election, I don't see him pushing us to the point where we, as a society, just discuss stuff and kick it back and forth. That was the first thing I noticed in English pubs. Everyone wanted to talk politics, philosophy, economics, immigration and UK vs USA. There was a lot of disagreement but it was always polite and usually informed and enlightening. Everyone was more than willing to listen to everyone else, regardless if they shared their point of view. That's why the lack of any honest discussion about the bank bailout, especially in light of so many high profile professionals questioning its veracity, is so profoundly disturbing. It just has the feel of being anti-democratic and immediately gets your radar up.
Ya know, whenever my buddies and I are tippin' a few and talking sports, I always maintain that the way to build a successful professional sports program is to select athletes who are good citizens first, regardless of their athletic rank or statistics. Same goes for government, IQ and credentials should take a back seat to character and common purpose. We need a whole lot more Elizabeth Warrens, I'm sure of that.
I can't speak for all of the support groups, I'm not that familiar with most of their causes. On the other hand, I am very familiar with Jane Hamsher, Mike Lux, Simon Johnson, David Sirota, Chris Hayes, William Greider, and Yves Smith. I have the utmost respect for each of these individuals and find little, philosophically, that we disagree on. Moreover though, this is a huge issue that seriously affects all citizens right now, and going forward. We need to get this right before we start tackling other related issues. These are high profile people who are very much progressive by nature. Success here can give us some hope that we can believe in, i.e. we, the public, can make a difference. Maybe I'm naive but some wise old man once said, "nothing ventured, nothing gained". What do we have to lose by supporting this initiative other than a Saturday afternoon? Of course, we could just pray over it I suppose.
That, i.e. U.S. domestic diversity, meritocracy is simply disappearing from the debate.
Women engineers have a cut rate of 52% on the job...black engineers are non-existent, I believe more than one traditionally black college cut their engineering degrees.
Older workers, good God, the age discrimination is beyond shocking and now claiming college is only for ages 18-22 is common place. (with so many layoffs, the college age should be dramatically increasing so people can modify their skill sets, it's opposite).....
I'm not so sure Summers was in line for Hillary's plans, you're probably right but Obama....well, I always said he was more Bill than Hillary was.
What can I say, I just am not surprised by any of this.
What I want to do is why does he have all of this accolades...I mean is being an economist a great career choice like executive? You can be dead wrong, have your recommendations defy all statistical evidence and historical data yet somehow still walk away with more prestige and millions?
Commongood, did you see you already picked up a fan raving about your writing? (I told ya so!)
I'm just kidding. I happen to know many of these people and yes you're right, you have a bunch who will scream "you're a racist" if you disagree with "amnesty" and even guest worker Visas and they do ignore labor economics realities...
but this is about the TARP, the trillions to the banks and it's a different issue. Here on EP at least we seem to be right along with them on this one.
I would also say you have various levels of support for U.S. workers from the above people. I think it has helped to amplify the actual facts of H-1B, offshore outsourcing...
I put my subject title to poke fun, because I am all too aware of these claims....
but the good news is when someone points out the facts, statistics, facts on the ground one can get to some realistic conclusions.
I think most on the left (including myself) are pretty committed to equality, diversity, social mobility and it takes a strong heart to swim through this issue to get to the perversion of these ideals that is what is going on right now.
So, firstly you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater on a large coalition wanting to stop this financial U.S. taxpayer feeding frenzy because if this continues...there won't be any jobs left even for cheap labor guest workers and it's possible we will be border hopping spinning the message into countries like Canada and Europe just to try to improve our economic lot. Good news is we sure know the rhetoric to go bust into Canada and demand their jobs!
I am filled with gratitude and pride that Commongood has finally posted and that there is more to come from this thoughtful and intense man. It is through a forum such as this where the articulate, and those of us less articulate, can begin and advance the process of "challenging the conventional wisdom." Keep em coming Commongood and friends!!!
There was no way that Larry Summers could stay out of the "game". He had himself positioned in the primaries last year to be THE player, regardless if Hillary or BO was the nominee. But he is right, the world has changed since the late 90s. He was the trusted Goldman Sachs insider that every administration needs. Who could have known then that he was a pompous, misogynistic asshole? I'm pretty sure that a lot of Harvard alumni, especially women (including my daughter in law), were glad to see Larry go.
Larry Summers represents the ultimate Washington insider and epitomizes what is wrong with our government system. He is a prime example of why we do not live in a functioning democracy.
Don't be fooled by this group of pro-India outsourcing lobby shills. Will they be carrying big signs on April 11th that read "We want our jobs back!"?
Screen these "big names" for their position on American technology jobs going to India and what they are doing to pressure the Obama administration to stop it and surprise! These are the same bunch that support calling American's "racist" for wanting jobs and who don't want to be replaced by cheap, imported labor. This is the group who bash Lou Dobbs for reporting on H-1b visa abuses and how this is hurting professional American workers.
You will find these "big names" in this "grassroots group" are chartered to rile up the masses via general distractions (bankers = bad and rich people suck etc.) as they did during the Obama campaign. Have you followed who these "big names" associate with? There is big money in the India tech lobby and these people are tied to it.
Specifically, Americans must put a stop to the bleeding of their jobs to India, and this organization has every intention of PROMOTING it (unless they have changed horses overnight) and NOT stopping it. Just ask them. Oh, and don't be surprised if they tell you what you want to hear...(just like Obama did when he campaigned on Bush's illegal wiretapping, and now he's an even bigger proponent.)
I have deep reservations about polling, especially Rasmussen's. They seem to produce too many outliers.
JV, you're right to point out that 70% favored "free markets". The question is, what does "free market" mean to each respondent. Same for "socialism", what is that? The value of polling is directly related to how well the question is framed and to what use the results will be applied. The best interpretation I can find in this particular poll is that the respondents under 30 were almost evenly divided as opposed to the overall results. To me, this supports one of my main points, that the propaganda initiated in conjunction with the cold war, equated socialism with some pretty negative, even nefarious scenarios. It was red scare lite and, from these poll results, it looks like it worked.
The younger generations just don't see the world in a cold war context. There is a chance that some convergence will occur (that's what we talked about back in my college days) now which will bring the socio-political pendulum back to the humanitarian side. That was the change I voted for and I guess that just goes to show how ridiculous our election process is. It's no better defined than so many polls, and the outcome reflects that. Obama's early actions on the financial crisis, unitary executive powers, state secrets, torture, fair trade, even the environment, are all creating resistance to changing the unbalanced and unfair status quo.
NOD's & NTS's for Wells spike up since December.
This summer is going to bring housing right back to the headlines again. I feel sorry for all those people who are swallowing the MSM kool-aid.
FTA: "The question posed by Rasmussen Reports did not define either capitalism or socialism"
Which makes me wonder, with the state of current propaganda against socialism, what percentage of the respondents actually knew what the hell they were talking about.
-------------------------------------
Executive compensation is inversely proportional to morality and ethics.
to one that is based on production, one that focuses on the importance of the investment in people. One that provides a safety net for those who are victims of globalization.
Pres. Obama's budget had that opportunity but unfortunately it risks totally being crowded out by the bailout.
To some people this sounds utopian but hell we recently elected the African-American president after that anything seemed possible. I am not too sure now.
Also, the Rasmussen poll also showed that folks still favored free markets. Not to be a Doctor Pooper here, but what we have here is more evidence of a lack of education by the general public not just of economics but of meaning of certain words. This is the only country, that I'm aware of, were the word "Liberal" connotates a statist definition.
generally is being much more honest than most. That's quite an editorial for them to print but it seems more and more "establishment" financial media are really calling it out.
I also noticed they have put together a lot of interviews that are excellent.
So of course they are about the last channel that goes with any cable package and instead we get CNBC, which at least in the afternoons is almost noise at this point.
And then there is this report from Bloomberg. So many why's and so few answers. Not the kind of stuff that leads to confidence.
Outsourcing can and does at times make sense. What we should
oppose are the concerted efforts by various outsourcing [industry] groups aimed at undermining the U.S. sovereignty--and many of them, make no mistake, are anti-American and operate under the guise of being pro-Global. The "you're a racist" response is identical to those opposed to any reform to stop illegal immigration. Sunshine causes cockroaches to run for the rocks.
It's not surprising. After all, Geithner did say that he would do whatever is necessary to maintain our dear financial system. But do these people have any idea just how corrupt and imperial they look? Everyday, I want to take the observations of Ilargi and pass them on. He and his wife Stoneleigh are just so good at reducing our experience to the levels of absurdity it so richly deserves. Today's synopsis is, I think, a classic:
Wow, mentioning Geithner, Summers, Obama and Salvador Dali in the same essay! That's just not easy to do. I was always proud of using the word "picayune" in a corporate memo years ago. I bow to the master.
The "too big to fail" banks grew as a result of bond-based
acquisition in the 90s, using leveraged tax-write offs. They did not organically grow their businesses. Now, they've become too big to manage...and are still being bailed because of all the good ol' Wall Street boys, i.e. Sanford Weil, Hank Greenberg, et al. The fact is, the FTC allowed all this anti-competitive consolidation (as a result of kickbacks and lobbying). It, like most of the Federal Agencies, failed to do its work because it was peopled by political hacks. It smells really bad. I'm ready for a huge clean-up...the FBI and Justice should just get out the weed wacker and go to it. Seriously.
1999 was my last year as a Series 7 person. If I had manipulated the facts, if I had misled the public like I see the banks doing today, the NASD would have fined me. There would have been possible criminal actions.
Instead the MSM prints this stuff, making it sound like it is some mystical stone that will turn lead into gold. Mr CPA what does two plus two equal. Answer....what do you want it to equal? This is a lot of accounting wizardry. But they rely on the fact that most people don't know the difference between debits and credits. Heck, maybe they are right because so far they it's worked for them.
God how long until people wake up or am I naive to believe people will wake up? Thirty years of wage stagnation but they still don't get it?
Help Mr. Wizard! Twizzle twazzle twizzle thwo...time for this one to come home. I'm not sure how much ore of this I can take without hitting the bottle.
Yeah, I saw it and I feel really wonderful that so much discussion has followed my post. That is how this country will get back to fulfilling the promise for all citizens that it was founded on.
Even though BO talked about it during the election, I don't see him pushing us to the point where we, as a society, just discuss stuff and kick it back and forth. That was the first thing I noticed in English pubs. Everyone wanted to talk politics, philosophy, economics, immigration and UK vs USA. There was a lot of disagreement but it was always polite and usually informed and enlightening. Everyone was more than willing to listen to everyone else, regardless if they shared their point of view. That's why the lack of any honest discussion about the bank bailout, especially in light of so many high profile professionals questioning its veracity, is so profoundly disturbing. It just has the feel of being anti-democratic and immediately gets your radar up.
Ya know, whenever my buddies and I are tippin' a few and talking sports, I always maintain that the way to build a successful professional sports program is to select athletes who are good citizens first, regardless of their athletic rank or statistics. Same goes for government, IQ and credentials should take a back seat to character and common purpose. We need a whole lot more Elizabeth Warrens, I'm sure of that.
I can't speak for all of the support groups, I'm not that familiar with most of their causes. On the other hand, I am very familiar with Jane Hamsher, Mike Lux, Simon Johnson, David Sirota, Chris Hayes, William Greider, and Yves Smith. I have the utmost respect for each of these individuals and find little, philosophically, that we disagree on. Moreover though, this is a huge issue that seriously affects all citizens right now, and going forward. We need to get this right before we start tackling other related issues. These are high profile people who are very much progressive by nature. Success here can give us some hope that we can believe in, i.e. we, the public, can make a difference. Maybe I'm naive but some wise old man once said, "nothing ventured, nothing gained". What do we have to lose by supporting this initiative other than a Saturday afternoon? Of course, we could just pray over it I suppose.
That, i.e. U.S. domestic diversity, meritocracy is simply disappearing from the debate.
Women engineers have a cut rate of 52% on the job...black engineers are non-existent, I believe more than one traditionally black college cut their engineering degrees.
Older workers, good God, the age discrimination is beyond shocking and now claiming college is only for ages 18-22 is common place. (with so many layoffs, the college age should be dramatically increasing so people can modify their skill sets, it's opposite).....
I'm not so sure Summers was in line for Hillary's plans, you're probably right but Obama....well, I always said he was more Bill than Hillary was.
What can I say, I just am not surprised by any of this.
What I want to do is why does he have all of this accolades...I mean is being an economist a great career choice like executive? You can be dead wrong, have your recommendations defy all statistical evidence and historical data yet somehow still walk away with more prestige and millions?
Commongood, did you see you already picked up a fan raving about your writing? (I told ya so!)
I'm just kidding. I happen to know many of these people and yes you're right, you have a bunch who will scream "you're a racist" if you disagree with "amnesty" and even guest worker Visas and they do ignore labor economics realities...
but this is about the TARP, the trillions to the banks and it's a different issue. Here on EP at least we seem to be right along with them on this one.
I would also say you have various levels of support for U.S. workers from the above people. I think it has helped to amplify the actual facts of H-1B, offshore outsourcing...
I put my subject title to poke fun, because I am all too aware of these claims....
but the good news is when someone points out the facts, statistics, facts on the ground one can get to some realistic conclusions.
I think most on the left (including myself) are pretty committed to equality, diversity, social mobility and it takes a strong heart to swim through this issue to get to the perversion of these ideals that is what is going on right now.
So, firstly you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater on a large coalition wanting to stop this financial U.S. taxpayer feeding frenzy because if this continues...there won't be any jobs left even for cheap labor guest workers and it's possible we will be border hopping spinning the message into countries like Canada and Europe just to try to improve our economic lot. Good news is we sure know the rhetoric to go bust into Canada and demand their jobs!
I am filled with gratitude and pride that Commongood has finally posted and that there is more to come from this thoughtful and intense man. It is through a forum such as this where the articulate, and those of us less articulate, can begin and advance the process of "challenging the conventional wisdom." Keep em coming Commongood and friends!!!
There was no way that Larry Summers could stay out of the "game". He had himself positioned in the primaries last year to be THE player, regardless if Hillary or BO was the nominee. But he is right, the world has changed since the late 90s. He was the trusted Goldman Sachs insider that every administration needs. Who could have known then that he was a pompous, misogynistic asshole? I'm pretty sure that a lot of Harvard alumni, especially women (including my daughter in law), were glad to see Larry go.
Larry Summers represents the ultimate Washington insider and epitomizes what is wrong with our government system. He is a prime example of why we do not live in a functioning democracy.
Don't be fooled by this group of pro-India outsourcing lobby shills. Will they be carrying big signs on April 11th that read "We want our jobs back!"?
Screen these "big names" for their position on American technology jobs going to India and what they are doing to pressure the Obama administration to stop it and surprise! These are the same bunch that support calling American's "racist" for wanting jobs and who don't want to be replaced by cheap, imported labor. This is the group who bash Lou Dobbs for reporting on H-1b visa abuses and how this is hurting professional American workers.
You will find these "big names" in this "grassroots group" are chartered to rile up the masses via general distractions (bankers = bad and rich people suck etc.) as they did during the Obama campaign. Have you followed who these "big names" associate with? There is big money in the India tech lobby and these people are tied to it.
Specifically, Americans must put a stop to the bleeding of their jobs to India, and this organization has every intention of PROMOTING it (unless they have changed horses overnight) and NOT stopping it. Just ask them. Oh, and don't be surprised if they tell you what you want to hear...(just like Obama did when he campaigned on Bush's illegal wiretapping, and now he's an even bigger proponent.)
I suspected it was all about fictional assets by the modifications on mark-to-market.
18%, that's just incredible.
And we have not even delved into commercial real estate on EP. That is supposedly one of the next neutron bombs, along with unsecured debt.
I have deep reservations about polling, especially Rasmussen's. They seem to produce too many outliers.
JV, you're right to point out that 70% favored "free markets". The question is, what does "free market" mean to each respondent. Same for "socialism", what is that? The value of polling is directly related to how well the question is framed and to what use the results will be applied. The best interpretation I can find in this particular poll is that the respondents under 30 were almost evenly divided as opposed to the overall results. To me, this supports one of my main points, that the propaganda initiated in conjunction with the cold war, equated socialism with some pretty negative, even nefarious scenarios. It was red scare lite and, from these poll results, it looks like it worked.
The younger generations just don't see the world in a cold war context. There is a chance that some convergence will occur (that's what we talked about back in my college days) now which will bring the socio-political pendulum back to the humanitarian side. That was the change I voted for and I guess that just goes to show how ridiculous our election process is. It's no better defined than so many polls, and the outcome reflects that. Obama's early actions on the financial crisis, unitary executive powers, state secrets, torture, fair trade, even the environment, are all creating resistance to changing the unbalanced and unfair status quo.
This is the first good, timely article I've seen about the back side of the mortgage reset hurricane.
NOD's & NTS's for Wells spike up since December.
This summer is going to bring housing right back to the headlines again. I feel sorry for all those people who are swallowing the MSM kool-aid.
It has always been about class warfare.
FTA: "The question posed by Rasmussen Reports did not define either capitalism or socialism"
Which makes me wonder, with the state of current propaganda against socialism, what percentage of the respondents actually knew what the hell they were talking about.
-------------------------------------
Executive compensation is inversely proportional to morality and ethics.
to one that is based on production, one that focuses on the importance of the investment in people. One that provides a safety net for those who are victims of globalization.
Pres. Obama's budget had that opportunity but unfortunately it risks totally being crowded out by the bailout.
To some people this sounds utopian but hell we recently elected the African-American president after that anything seemed possible. I am not too sure now.
Did you have in mind?
Also, the Rasmussen poll also showed that folks still favored free markets. Not to be a Doctor Pooper here, but what we have here is more evidence of a lack of education by the general public not just of economics but of meaning of certain words. This is the only country, that I'm aware of, were the word "Liberal" connotates a statist definition.
Pages