Recent comments

  • which is why Hillary went begging on her knees for them to continue buying our debt.

    Trade imbalance? What trade imbalance?

    Reply to: China's premier worried about safety of U.S. debt   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • is what worried me most about Geithner. AIUI he was one of the IMF's point men in the East Asia crisis (he majored in Asian Studies and speaks Mandarin) and if he's criticizing China essentially for repegging to the dollar then he didn't understand the role of hot money in that crisis. Surely he must have noted that nearly every nation around China was collapsing and that the one nation -- China -- that did not go free market was the one that survived best. Either he's stupid (he's actually very smart -- I met him back in college) or any residual Washington Consensus-think still lies pretty thick.

    Defloating the yuan hurts the US. And having the de facto global reserve currency has downsides as well as benefits. But if central currency manipulation prevents private currency manipulation such as we saw in 1997 I think everybody benefits.

    China here is clearly calling the shots, whether they intend to or not. If that means our Administration gets that the policies of the last 30 years must be discarded, well, that would be a good thing long overdue.

    Reply to: Geithner Backs Off China currency manipulation   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • Does that mean we don't have to buy or provide incentives to private investors to buy their toxic assets?

    Reply to: Why Are They Allowed to Talk-up Their Stock?   15 years 8 months ago
  • The machinery of government is dedicated to keeping stock valuations as high as possible. The SEC isn't going to split legal hairs with bank CEO's that can drive a 600 point DOW rally, and maybe more. It's baked in the cake.

    Reply to: Why Are They Allowed to Talk-up Their Stock?   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • I'm glad G posted this note, it's the essential reason why consumers pulled in their horns, especially on big-ticket items.

    We'll get out of this, eventually, when consumers have to replace durable goods like cars, etc., and the backlog of overbuilding from the early part of this decade is finally worked through. There's a number of routes from here to there, some a lot worse than others. I do like posting the occasion piece of good news, though!

    Reply to: Record fall in household net worth   15 years 8 months ago
  • cnbc for over six months. Bloomberg has replaced cnbc. Bloomberg has more substance than cnbc.

    Reply to: Why Are They Allowed to Talk-up Their Stock?   15 years 8 months ago
  • those are fixed incomes, who already have their homes paid off, it directly affects them.

    Reply to: Record fall in household net worth   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • in the Sunday Morning Comics I put the Daily Show "take down" of CNBC but this has been a problem generally with cable financial news channels.

    They enable these CEOs to use the media as glorified advertisements to promote their company instead of being unbiased and getting to the truth of a particular stock, company, details.

    Anyone remember the 1990's when Lou Dobbs left CNN financial news channel and we had this woman who looked like a model constantly just interviewing various CEOs who used TV to pump up their own stock?

    Bloomberg is always the lonely child on cable TV, it's the last of the channels to be included in a package but they do have online streaming TV news...

    Maybe we should switch, are they any better?

    I've got another fact, many of these executives just made out like bandits by betting their corporate stock price would increase. Of course that's a huge improvement versus getting bonuses for mergers, acquisitions or when there corporation is run into bankruptcy, nationalization and failure...

    Reply to: Why Are They Allowed to Talk-up Their Stock?   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • Here's the article about property taxes rising.
    I can sorta see why cities and counties are raising taxes. Most of them can barely afford basic services like police, firefighters, and schools. However, it directly counter-acts the federal stimulus that is trying to reinflate the housing bubble.

    Reply to: Record fall in household net worth   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • I read earlier that local property taxes are dramatically increasing while property values decline...

    Now is that stupid or what for all of these governments to feed off of the housing bubble and now that it has collapsed...adding so significantly to the cost of owning a home.

    But the entire net worth story, I kind of winced at these numbers.

    I mean fictional wealth, most of it in bubble inflated home price evaluations...

    eh....doesn't disturb me. What does disturb me is retirement funds as well as wages, income.

    Somehow, of all of the economic indicators out there...

    anyone notice the one not monthly reported, never makes the news is actual wages and income?

    and as far as retirement funds....anyone ever heard of an economic indicator reporting those monthly totals?

    Reply to: Record fall in household net worth   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • is just one macro economic indicator. I'm with you, we need more production, but currently the economy is 70% consumer.

    Now that's one sad number but if you are referring to NDD's post, he tracks on economic indicators to see what's going on in terms of just the overall recession, etc.

    I don't think he is "promoting" the idea that the United States continue to "consumer mass quantities".

    Reply to: Record fall in household net worth   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • I've heard this directly from CEOs. In discussion of costs they say it's easier to manufacture in Ireland and that's just due to health care costs. It's 20% more in the United States for them.

    Then, I've posted here many times the OECD data which shows the United States pays 8 times more in health care costs than any other industrialized nation.

    Sounds like we need yet another overview blog post on how this is not just a right, a citizen right to quality health care...but also is killing the United States as a location for worker intensive production.

    The place I really disagree here is the idea of letting the drug companies, the insurance companies have a seat at the table, as well as medical equipment, records processing...

    all of these health sector industries are for profit and by their nature are going to try to wring as much profit out of sick people as they can. I'm for H.R. 676. Single payer, universal health care.

    Reply to: U.S. health care system has become a liability for global economy   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • a reliable source for increased economic activity or growth.

    Reply to: Record fall in household net worth   15 years 8 months ago
  • people are at rock bottom, buying only what they need and when they cannot afford that.....

    Seriously, how much has it overall dropped?

    I'm just not that focused on consumer spending as any sign of stability, if I see industrial production increase, wages increase, unemployment rate drop.....then I will be a believer.

    Reply to: Retail sales stabilize!   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • The same old bull comes out of the government. If banks are so bad, why are they wanting to give back the tarp money? Ailing financial system? bull? This is the time that little start ups and small business can pull this out. This government and big business will not let them grow? Let all these big businessess FALL!!!!

    Now regarding credit card industry?

    THE BUCK STOPS WITH THE PEOPLE. Don't pay your credit card. What happened to the people's power?

    DOES Anyone really believe that the private industry credit cards companies, wall street, etc is really going to change anything for the good of the people on their own? Of course not!!

    Reply to: Bank TARP Recipients - Charging Loan Shark Rates   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • The last time we, gasp, had state-based usury laws.

    -------------------------------------
    Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.

    Reply to: AIG: The systemic risk of too big to fail   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • amount. Geithner needs China. He needs China to keep buying treasuries.

    I like this part:

    Geithner’s move to tone down the G-7 statement came amid a flurry of phone calls and meetings he had with Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Finance Minister Xie Xuren, according to details of Geithner’s schedule provided by the administration.

    “Geithner’s change of attitude showed that he’s paying more attention to China’s effort in reforming its currency over the past few years,” said Peng Xingyun, a senior international finance researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government-backed institute in Beijing.

    I read a report several months ago that the Chinese government instructed the government-backed "think tanks" to figure out ways to exert leverage over its U.S. holdings. Are we starting to see that? Will we start seeing it more particularly with trade?

    Reply to: Geithner Backs Off China currency manipulation   15 years 8 months ago
  • people. The financial industry lobbyists were all over this too.

    Why are lobbyists good for democracy? Oh yeah, money is free speech. What bullshit!

    Reply to: Congress prevented FDIC from collecting premiums from 1996-2006   15 years 8 months ago
  • Corporate Welfare, plain and simple.

    Notice that this started in 1996 - when Democrat Bill Clinton was president.

    The Democrats got the ball rolling towards the our economic demise with NAFTA, China PNTR, removal of Glass-Steagall, failure to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this FDIC handout to poor bankers, ...

    George Bush and the Republicans gladly kept the ball rolling with CAFTA, Bankruptcy "reform" bill, gutting of the SEC, ...

    There is little difference between Democrat and Republican. They are both owned by corporate interests. Mussolini defined fascism and the merging of government and corporate powers. Isn't that what's happened in the USA?

    Reply to: Congress prevented FDIC from collecting premiums from 1996-2006   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:
  • reading this, that they own more than just US debt. Something tells me, that America is in, to put it lightly, a crowded room....if you know what I mean.

    Reply to: Geithner Backs Off China currency manipulation   15 years 8 months ago
    EPer:

Pages