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    Reply to: Scientist Who Laid Ground Work for Nobel Prize Drives a Bus, Can't get a Job   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • This description of the Treasury purchase is not the sugar coated deal it was described by some. Poulson actually ordered the 9 largest banks to grant shares. The shares are fully participating preferred. The U.S. is an equity owner of the 9 largest bank.

    NY Times 10/16/2008

    "

    WASHINGTON — The chief executives of the nine largest banks in the United States trooped into a gilded conference room at the Treasury Department at 3 p.m. Monday. To their astonishment, they were each handed a one-page document that said they agreed to sell shares to the government, then TreasurSkip to next paragraph by Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said they must sign it before they left.

    The chairman of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, was receptive, saying he thought the deal looked pretty good once he ran the numbers through his head. The chairman of Wells Fargo, Richard M. Kovacevich, protested strongly that, unlike his New York rivals, his bank was not in trouble because of investments in exotic mortgages, and did not need a bailout, according to people briefed on the meeting.

    Did John Mitchell, Nixon's convicted Attorney General say"
    This country's going so far to the right you won't be able to recognize it." ?

    Reply to: $250 Billion for Banks, FDIC Unlimited insurance on Deposits - Latest "Plan"   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • The potential for "bad chips... going into ... military projects" is a very valid concern. There's an incredible amount of time and effort devoted to firewalling and security scanning systems in the DoD. However, these measures do not address the potential for built-in backdoors or other "stealth software" built into systems at the hardware level. Given the pace of the offshoring, some of us have wondered if it wouldn't be prudent for the government to randomly perform random security "teardowns" of computers, routers, etc.

    I note that it appears the Chinese are determined to control all aspects of their computer systems. At the OS level, they utilize "Red Flag" Linux... Meanwhile, HP, IBM, Sun and Microsoft, makers of commercial alternatives to Linux, have large offshore R&D centers. How much of their OS work is actually performed by Americans onshore is anyone's guess. (I'm told that most of Solaris OS development and support is now in India.)

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • There is no skills shortage. Manufacturing has lost over 5.5 million jobs now over the last decade. These people are of all skill sets semi to highly skilled. These folks simply do not vanish into thin air. Us workers are the best educated and most productive in the world, and we have some of the best universities in the world cranking out grads every year.

    I have point blank asked these whiney employers on other boards such as Industry Week's to define exaclty what skills are short - especially given all these un and underemployed mfg engineers and techs? they can never give a straight answer. And what skills are short that these folks can not be retrained for? no answers

    What it boils down to is that these employers want skilled workers, even though those skills may not even really be needed for the job, but they do not wish to pay accordingly nor do they want the reponsibility of retraining workers to do other tasks. Its all a big smokescreen

    Reply to: Scientist Who Laid Ground Work for Nobel Prize Drives a Bus, Can't get a Job   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • The crisis of the market was not only in a particular state or country. This is the problem fased by all over the country and many investors and companies are in a downfall. Day to the range of US dollar is decreasing and interests rates will be raised in future. Yes The Panic of 2008 is a turning point.

    =========================================================

    john

    Credit Card Debt

    Reply to: The Panic of 2008: a turning point   16 years 2 months ago
  • More evidence that the big business cries of "skills shortage" to Congress are a lie.

    Congress must commission an unbiased study on the number of unemployed or underemployed college graduates with a degree in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).

    Next, they should show the results of this survey to every young American who is considering the huge investment to obtain a college degree in one of these fields.

    Reply to: Scientist Who Laid Ground Work for Nobel Prize Drives a Bus, Can't get a Job   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • details

    The manufacturing spin off is called the Foundry Company, a temporary name. Foundry will be owned by AMD as well as a new company named the Advanced Technology Investment Company. ATIC will have the majority stake at 55.6 percent, with AMD owning the rest. ATIC, an entity formed by the Abu Dhabi government, has promised to contribute $2.1 billion immediately, $3.6-$6 billion more to build and/or upgrade chip plants. While Advanced Technology will be contributing the lions share of cash and also controls more than half the company, AMD said the two companies would share voting control equally.

    Mubadala Development Company, another Abu Dhabi-based investment company, will pay $314 million for 58 million shares, increasing its stake in the presplit company to 19.3 percent, up from 8 percent. It will also get warrants to buy an additional 30 million shares

    Everyone realizes that the Soverign Wealth Funds are now hunting for bargains, assets to buy in the U.S.?

    What is probably not realized is a major processor FAB can also be a security threat, but of course no one realizes that to this day on China, in spite of many documented cases of phony chips, bad chips, going into major military projects and the grave potential for sabotage, industrial espionage via engineering.

    (Those damn geeks)...they are so busy trying to labor arbitrage STEM professionals it's like the US is oblivious to the complexities of engineering or how critical technology can be utilized against the US on a multitude of fronts.

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • Those sorry people of Countrywide got me in an 80 20 loan which means I will have to pay a balloon payment for 15 years costing 27000 dollars and still owe th original amount as I did in the beginning. I also pay 11 percent interest on both loans. They are pathetic and believe they should have to pay for everyones house. Their CEO only collected 361 million in the last 2 years. He should be hung in public

    Reply to: Settlement on CountryWide Predatory Loans - $8.6 Billion   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • I've been mulling what to write about and frankly I'm just stunned except it seems they are willing to do any damn thing to stop a market crash.....and....I'm reading horror stories on violence, murders - then suicide, even murders of one own pets.

    This roller coaster of a Russian Roulette gambling wheel called the stock market is assuredly causing those folks who really should have solid pensions instead of 401ks to have anxiety/major stress attacks.

    It's like they are putting the world on bi-polar disorder.

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • Actually, China does have a recent history of a fiat money paper meltdown, in the 1920s and 1930s as Chiang's regime continually debased the currency.

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
  • And the reason fractional reserve banking exists, has always been the wealth of the guy owning the debt.  Of course China wants to own our debt, how else are they going to get their hands on those interest payments that we'll be making long after we can no longer afford their latest cheap-labor plastic crap that breaks in two weeks?

    I'm not sure I totally agree with the conclusions of that video linked to above (some are pretty out there, like we should have an economic system based entirely on infrastructure paid for with fiat dollars) but the lessons of the premise itself are important enough that it is a DVD I'll be giving to the nephews for Christmas (it's about that 5-to-10-year-old comprehension level).

     

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • Is transparency. Same reason I'm for open meetings laws, blogging government employees, and open source voting machines.

    The current leveraging system, even with a 10:1 ratio, is dependent upon people believing a lie, that loans are created out of the money available for deposits (a 1:1 ratio of loans to deposits). Even a 1:1 ratio is troubling- since that means that there are *NO* deposits on hand to pay out, they've all been given out as loans. A 10:1 loan to deposit ratio means that 90% of the money a bank has given out, it didn't own TO give out in the first place; if you or I tried that it would be called counterfeiting and get us 10-30 in federal prison.

    The reason this fraud is a problem is the same reason we have a problem with H-1b visas: supply and demand. The more supply, the lower the price point for demand; but when you're talking about the money supply vs other goods, the more supply, the more money there is to exchange for the goods and the prices of those goods rise. Inflation. And when wages are held essentially steady (what job in the last 15 years has actually had COI inflation adjustment? None that I've held) in relation to that inflation, that means the middle class is poorer.

    You can no more escape the fact that inflated money supplies cause inflation than we can escape the fact that more foreign labor means domestic labor is worth less than it used to be.

    Finally, money as debt- if all of your money is part of this big credit bubble that just gets larger with every rescue of the economy- then what happens when the WORLD overleverages itself 10:1 with loans:PRODUCTION? Which is what has really happened here.

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • Lion's Gate and Oliver Stone claim they are making history with their movie "W" as it is the first movie made about a president of the United States while that president remains in office. This is a lie and they know it as Pink and Blue Film's " W The Movie" began shooting in 2005 and finished earlier this year.

    Our first trailer went up in 2006, our website in 2005 and a second trailer in 2007. When we contacted Lion's Gate, they refused to return our calls or inquiries but eventually they did change their film title , first to "W. the Movie" then to "W The Film".

    Oliver Stone's "W The Movie" is NOT the first ! RE: Pink and Blue Film's "W the Movie" !

    Pink and Blue Film's outrageous and very different indie film is facing an uphill battle now due to the deep pocketed Lion's Gate/Oliver Stone Film Film!

    2 years BEFORE Oliver Stone and Lion's Gate tackled the subject of George W. Bush, an indie film company, called Pink and Blue Films, was already tackling the subject and had the copyrighted name of "W the Movie".

    Sneak preview Pink and Blue Film's "W the Movie" Thursday, Oct 16, 7pm Indianapolis! at the Earth House Cafe, 237 N. East St.

    If you think Stone's 'W" is going to shock, you ain't seen nothing yet! Pink and Blue Film's "W the Movie"!

    "W"...Before the film, there was...the Movie!

    " See super villain George W. Bush as an invader from space, hell bent on ruling the earth with his party of No."

    " See George W. Bush in DRAG!"

    " See Barak fighting valiantly to defeat W's hand picked successor: Johnny McPain!"

    "See a possible future in store for us when Lady Ann Palin joins Johnny McPain in a 'bomb Iran' jam session".

    “See W and his henchman; Condo Lisa torture Saddam!”

    "See the vision W and his Republican party of No have for the apocalypse and You!"

    Pink and Blue Film's "W The Movie... for the freak in you!".

    Be cult hip, be there!

    http://www.wthemovie.com

    DJ Monkey's recent music video for the film, featuring scene of George W. Bush in drag!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_BCuw70AOs

    the Hotly debated first trailer on youtube:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0lz5ae4Bls

    The official trailer:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvGPT5WF6U

    Teaser: W and Rice torturing Saddam!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU6Pi1D85us

    'W the Movie' is a surreal satire on the presidency of George W Bush and contemporary American Culture, beginning with 2000 elections and ending with the 2008 campaign. Not only is the presidency of George W. Bush depicted, but also, the effects it has had on our and also featured is the upcoming elections with Obama and McCain and the circus-like atmosphere of media frenzy!

    Some have called this a Rocky Horror does the White House!

    ' W The Movie' is an Alfred Eaker motion picture.

    Written and produced by Alfred Eaker

    Directed by Alfred Eaker and Ross St. Just

    A Pink and Blue Films production in association with Liberty or Death Productions and Asylum House Productions.

    Pink and Blue films is an Indiana based company.

    'W The Movie' was shot in Indiana and Ohio. It started shooting in summer of 2005, long before the Lions Gate/Stone film and finished with post production in summer 2008.

    'W The Movie' c. 2005-2008 pink and blue films, llc

    Reply to: W the movie preview   16 years 2 months ago
  • has talked about offshore outsourcing jobs. He wants to increase guest worker Visas, turn our university system into a glorified green card machine and do more bad trade agreements.

    Obama wants to do the same thing and is even worse, if that's possible, in displacing US workers with cheaper foreign labor...which we know of all countries pressuring the US in this area, it is India, who are completely focused on dominating the services industry, focus on professional services.

    I will give you that McCain did present a plan to give more R&D tax credits for jobs created in the United States, quite a while ago. It stood out to me as strange, wondering if some Progressive had sneaked something into his economic plans, which usually amount to giving even more tax cuts to the super rich.

    So, Tweedledum, Tweedledee.

    This site is officially non-partisan, with the hope all can focus on what really works and not get caught up in philosophies such as something being bad because it is socialist.

    Considering just how economically competitive socialist nations are...when it's all done right, the results do not match the rhetoric.

    Let's all stick to the real policy positions, real results on real people of those policies and get our heads out of the political fray.

    Reply to: Obama's Economic Advisers   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • In an ideal world, complete cooperation between different countries creates roads paved with gold, leading to a global utopia. But, historically, and in the real world, human nature and nationalism seem to return individual country's to a goal of self interest and national security. Rogue leaders and unexpected events, such as Putin and Georgia ... Iran, atomic bombs, terrorists and Israel ... Chavez's ambitions ... Al Quada ... Chinese expansion ... etc., always seem to upset the international apple cart of idealists. In addition, we should not take for granted our 200+ year experiment of freedom and capitalism, and be so willing to gamble it away for a socialistic notion which stifles the individual innovation and initiative which made this country great ... and a standard of living which makes everyone around the world want to live here! And, since many have decided to also make this a partisan political discourse, by assuring us that Obama, the messiah, has all the answers, allow me to respond to that as well. Obama has no experience, or credentials. When given the chance in the senate, Obama did nothing except to show up and vote present 160 times. Despite his flowery speeches, his track record reveals a focus on personal ambition, associations with anti-American racists and terrorists, massive flip flopping, questionable loyalty to political positions and long time friends, a desire for socialism, and forced redistribution of America's wealth. He casually promises everyone a chicken in every pot, even if it is the chicken that lays America's golden eggs. Economics 101 ... Every farmer knows that even if you get real hungry, you never eat the seed crop. One of the reasons McCain keeps going back to the issue of character is because although Obama makes great speeches, if his character and integrity are questionable, it doesn't matter how good his plans sound. Policies and promises from an ambitious politician who can't be trusted, are equivalent to building a utopian sky scrapper on a rotten foundation.
    P.S. Today Obama talked about more jobs, something McCain has been insisting on since day one ... except Obama wants to raise taxes to the very people who provide jobs, while McCain wants to cut taxes to businesses as a way to promote jobs

    Reply to: Obama's Economic Advisers   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • I know this is the "Ron Paul" issue as well as many on the left....

    but someone needs to write a sane analysis on fractional reserve banking because most of the arguments I find to be fairly way out there in reasoning as to why this is such a problem.

    I mean the reason this is a mess is due to the increased leveraging, not the 10:1 ratio it's supposed to be.

    Although the entire money as debt argument is interesting...I mean money is just an exchange medium, so I don't get the issue really, not in terms of a modern economy and keeping the system rolling, why they are so upset beyond the fact that the Fed is a private institution, not elected and so on.

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • That economists in general, are tied to the status quo. The entire question of whether we should have a money supply based on fractional reserve banking, gets censored due to this.

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • We are borrowing heavily from China, so clearly they enjoy debt ....of other nations.

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • I keep wondering in this financial crisis where is China? They are now a larger economy than most of Europe and magically they are not on the hook in all of this. Either is India!

    That is because, by and large, their fiat money system is not based on debt, the way ours is.  Unlike us, they don't have a 300 year history of making money out of thin air, so when the thin air bubble burst, they were left with large cash reserves in a variety of foreign monies, while their internal economy ran on money that was out of favor outside of their own countries.

    We could take a lesson from this, but we won't- because we like being slaves to big bankers.

    Reply to: Manufacturing Monday: Week of 10.13.08   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:
  • The favored ones.....news on Paulson meeting with these CEOs to finalize his comprehensive financial crisis plan.

    Something is needed to dig further into this but it sure seems a small select financial group are the ones targeted to be kept afloat. Nice to have friends in Washington.

    Reply to: When $700 Billion is Chump Change   16 years 2 months ago
    EPer:

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