The scary part is how these people are used by the body shops- they're often paid in their home currency, at home rates, and housed in company housing. Infosys gets about a 75% cut off of an L-1 visa holder, in comparison to a 66% cut off of an H-1b.

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

He may have been anti-union for the longest time, but at least he knew that for new technology, the best customer is the guy who built the machine.
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Moral hazards would not exist in a system designed to eliminate fraud.

Reading the words from Magna Carta seem to suggest that the land was not common land but land which belonged to the person who wanted the pond, etc on it. I have not checked but the preservation of commoner's rights was the Statute of Merton 1235. When common land was enclosed the Lord of the Manor was required to make sure that sufficient commoners' rights remained. This was confirmed by the Commons Act 1285 which has just (time relatively) been repealed by the Common Act 2006. My Common Lands Handbook covers this and much more.

It is so maddening that the officials in the know, those at Treasury, Fed, AIG, etc. are just stonewalling everything. The investigative journalists are really having to work this story hard to flesh out the facts. This article by Gretchen Morgenson actually advances the Joe Nocera article from last weekend, albeit incrementally. The scope and timing of what will no doubt go down in history as a giant fraud are becoming clearer. One could even say that the AIG story is the exemplar for the entire bank bailout fiasco that Paulson/Bernanke/Bush set into motion.

Having said that, I realize that I should put a little more effort into interpreting these posts, rather than just throw up the link. Like I said, I don't want to beat a dead horse but this is such an important story. My bad.

Odd. 1913 just came up under my radar on an apparently unrelated issue: it was the year Indian Hemp was, according to a news item I read, prohibited in California. It just seems a striking timeline to me.

It's the modern-day Invisible Hand?!

I think quite simply, it means that investors have lost confidence in the valuation of assets (real estate, stocks, bonds, etc. .... sound familiar?)in the UK and they are fearful that the real strength of the UK economy is not strong enough to withstand the stresses being put on their financial system. Of course, this capital flight will further decrease the "wealth" of the UK and will devalue the pound. This will, in turn, increase the price of imported goods which will have further dampening effect on the UK economy. In short, this is the deflationary recession/depression soon to visit us if we don't change course, like immediately.

I was particularly struck by the reporter's reference to "Reykjavik on Thames", which is no small psychological factor. I recently read this remarkable article retelling the cautionary financial tale of Iceland. The UK was very active in this incredible story of hubris and greed. It's long but well worth reading. I think it will give a new perspective to the seemingly insurmountable task of unwinding all the financial nonsense that has gone on for far too long.

I agree James, Geithner, et al are just front men. I think Geithner's biggest problem is that he isn't adept at the level of spin and non-speak/double speak that the position requires. Greenspan was a master at that. Personally, I think these guys are intelligent enough to know what is happening and they appreciate the consequences of their actions. Consequently, I'm not willing to cut them a lot of slack.

As for who is behind it all James, your list of candidates makes sense. For me, the unbelievable increase in the Fed's balance sheet from January 2008 to January 2009 seems too much of a coincidence. Therefore, I would cross reference the top individuals in those organizations you mention with the owners of the Federal Reserve Banks. I believe that would generate an interesting list of suspects. In the words of Charles A. Lindbergh (not the aviator):

This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized....the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill.

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Bernanke has been saying "Our economy is sound", "Banks are well capitalized", "the 'subprime' crisis is contained", blah, blah, for two years. Either he is extremely incompetent or he is lying through his teeth. He should be fired for incompetence and investigated for corruption.

As part of the NY Fed, Geithner was part of the problem. I suspect he is just plain stupid. Fire him.

Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs when they were creating CDOs and minting money. He was the treasury secretary when Goldman and their buddies were bailed out, again and again, in multiple forms. He was treasury secretary when Goldman Sachs people were placed in major financial institutions and top roles in government. He should be investigated for his role in this mess and if found guilty should be thrown in jail for the remainder of his life and all of his wealth confiscated.

Then their is Shela Bair, Chris Cox, and number of other people. How did bank's balance sheets deteriorate to this level? These people were supposed to regulate the financial entities. To see what a good job they did, look at the settlement of Lehman's credit default swaps. Lehman had a 20-25% hole in their balalnce sheet, i.e. a quarter of their assets were marked to the tooth fairy. Same with WaMu, IndyMac, Countryslide, etc. The SEC, auditors, regulators, all were in on this. Its difficult for me to swallow that such balance sheet holes can develop in the presence of proper oversight.

There needs to be a "mother of all investigations" to root out corruption at the top.

If it weren't so sad it would be entertaining to watch these bought-and-paid-for Quislings posture as though they had any idea whatsoever of what to do fix this mess. Presupposing that the bank's so-called "toxic" assets have a value much greater than that which most knowledgable economists estimate, they persist in trying to resusitate a past that is clearly beyond recovery. The Rubin/Summers/Geithner/Paulson/Bernache axis, having so contributed to the emasculation of oversight in the 1990s, seems committed to a course that has both their personal vindication and the welfare of their political benefactors as its objective. Such can't be realized in the common sense environmment of nationalization.

A system that can produce an abuse on the scale realized by the bailout of AIG alone has lost its moral right to exist, but our looting by AIG's "public service" enablers is not simply an outrage, its a kind of war crime, one in which the battle lines have the political leadership and their contributor beneficiaries on one side and everyone else on the other. The time has come for a new constitution, one which prohibits both lobbying and public service by anyone currently holding office or their forebears going back four generations. All of this to follow the show trials to be held at the Rose Bowl, naturally.

in a war in which the political class is arrayed against the rest of us.