| | | Page 1, 2, 3, 4 | Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied
| 601cbdb1
User ID: 475857
7/30/2008 3:59 AM | | Anonymous Coward
User ID: 475866
7/30/2008 4:42 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Once there was a guy named Nicolae Ceausescu.
One day, he was the Grand Dictator of Romania.
The next day, he and his wife were shot by a firing squad and thrown in a hole.
1989: Romania's 'first couple' executed
[ link to news.bbc.co.uk]
Things change.
All it takes is the will to change them.
AMEN |
| Winningjob
User ID: 385114
7/30/2008 4:52 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Not there. What did the link say? Nevermind, looks like spam.
Search For ANYONE In America..Its Free!
[link to www.peopleseekdirect.com] |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 357529
7/30/2008 5:48 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Have at it trolls-you are getting sleepy....watch the pretty colors.... Quoting: Omega
Dear Omega,
What a paradox! Congratulations.
Do you have any kind of issue with trolls? |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 413355
7/30/2008 7:03 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
The cure for a failed banking system is adequate capital and prudent oversight not threats to impartial critics of the system.
Even a sound bank can be brought down by a panicked run and or contagion.
Impartial?
9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash, that's impartial?
What some of these people are doing is exactly the same as yelling fire in a crowded theater.
And your realtime/4D job is Mr House?
And what pray tell is a sound bank, a data file at a radio station(probably has a longer life span), look i am not wanting to pick a fight with you, the closest i have seen to a good bank set up is/are the Bendigo bank system. Quoting: FHL(C)
No bank with fractional reserve lending can ever be sound. |
| D. SMith
User ID: 436409
7/30/2008 8:36 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
So much talk about economic collapse, not going to happen, Oh yes, individuals will loose money and others will gain, some banks will close and new ones will open, really in the big picture that is nothing new to a capitalistic economy. Things go up and down that is how fortunes are lost and made.
Now the erosion of our freedoms that should be our real concern, because as the fear dial gets turned up with scary stories of collapse, and impending doom, we allow our minds to get preoccupied while legislation passes that strengthens the hands of large corporations. Corporations, that each year gain more and more power, and are now corrupting and usurping the powers of our elected government. These corporations are writing the laws and force-feeding them to congress. These Corporations are building private security forces that look more like their own little private militaries, and all the time we loose our personal power and influence with the government we elected.
If we are to regain our respect, and our freedom as a people we must come to terms with the fact that no system is perfect, and no system should be without over sight and controls. We should not be allowing our government to bring about legislation designed to take power out of the hands of the people. Capitalism is not and should not be considered a ‘sacred cow’ it should be monitored and controlled so that it acts in the best interest of the people. The idea of a ‘free market’ was intended as a way for the ‘individual’ to prosper in a fair competitive system, it is not a ‘free market’ when it is controlled by large corporations that are given one advantage after another designed to keep them strong and in power and destroys or stifles real competition. |
| jlazarus
User ID: 348904
7/30/2008 8:41 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Bloggers are coming under fire in many ways. The City of Memphis is currently suing to determine the identity of an email address associated with a blog site that is critical of the Memphis Police Department. I started a thread about it a few days ago here:
[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. ~ Robert Heinlein |
| anonomous coward
User ID: 475811
7/30/2008 8:45 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
south america cental america europe australi have mega deficits so do the cities in al of those countries and cities in U.S. especia.lly, monority cities who will recieve millionof millions of Gov Block Grants as usual.5 million is the usual nblock grant givin to the intidled minority cities .several times year. to fund generous housing and food and medicaid programs and cild care programs .. |
| FHL(C)
User ID: 475941
7/30/2008 9:08 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FU&FW
THE CASE FOR HANGING ERRANT PUBLIC OFFICIALS
By: Devvy
July 28, 2008
© 2008 - NewsWithViews.com
Relax, Comrade Chertoff. The Case for Hanging Errant Public Officials is the title of a book by James Farrell who also wrote, The Judas Syndrome. The Case for Hanging Errant Public Officials was published in 1988, decades before a Nazi law called the 'The Patriot Act' was rammed down our throats. Today, only rich kids of famous people are allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights; see Indict Michael Reagan, Applaud Senator Karen Johnson. This talk radio gas bag got away with soliciting murder over the public airwaves because his father was Ronald Reagan. He was given a pass under "political hyperbole." Yours truly would already be in jail.
The title of Farrell's little book is what a lot of Americans are thinking today about the U.S. Congress and their state legislatures. After almost two decades in the trenches full time, few things shock me coming out of Washington, DC, but recently a comment from U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, [D-WA] caused me to think of Farrell's excellent little book. (Did I commit a thought crime?) What did this pusillanimous mush head say?
Why Democrats don't want to lower gas prices
Senator lets cat out of the bag on Bloomberg TV show
"July 22, 2008. In an interview with Bloomberg TV's "Money and Politics" last night, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., explained Democrats don't want to increase supplies of oil and gasoline because they want to wean Americans off of petroleum products."
This female who has NO legal right to sit in the U.S. Senate wants Americans to go without food to pay higher gas prices to "wean" us out of our cars. Yes, Americans are being forced to give up food, forgo dental appointments, necessary clothing for their children and health care premium payments to put gas in the tank. Our people are suffering the failed policies of Congress (both parties) for decades in a land rich in human and natural resources.
Now we understand why the Democrats stubbornly refuse to drill responsibly: these Gods from the bowels of Hell are going to force Americans into further financial distress in order to push their lunatic "green" agenda (drilling in ANWR will "kill the environment") and the big hoax known as global warming.
Let's not forget: The Republicans held power for 12 years and they did nothing about the energy problem that would only get worse. Now, these craven hucksters are blaming the Democrats to get votes in a election year. See how you're being played, America?
The Democrats, with the cooperation of Republicans like Juan McCain, want you to suffer. They want parents across this country to sacrifice healthy food for their children in favor of cheap, unhealthy food to fill those little bellies so they can buy gas to go to work. They want you immobile for "conservation" and on your knees begging these false gods to ease the pain at the pump. They revel in power, in making the common man grovel at their feet. While I am seldom at a loss for words, this disclosure, so brazen, so callous, literally took my breath away. Cranial damaged Cantwell and her coconspirators in Congress are playing with the lives of all Americans and it must stop.
Consider this as you fill up your tank and wonder where you're going to get the money to pay just the basic essentials of survival out of this week's shrinking cash flow. I caught this segment on Lou Dobbs, July 24, 2008:
"Well, Senator Jim DeMint is strongly opposed to the practice of passing critical legislation without public debate. Senator DeMint joins me tonight from Capitol Hill...
"This is called hot lining. You push the bills through without debate, but these cost the taxpayer $9 billion. It's outrageous, isn't it?
"Sen. Jim DeMint [R-SC]: Well, if Americans ever wonder why so much bad stuff comes out of Congress, this is one of the reasons. And the Democrat majority has taken this to a new level. 94 percent of the bills that have passed in this Congress have been by unanimous consent. And some of them were really big bills. And they've gotten to the point where they expect us to give consent to huge bills like the $50 billion foreign aid bill that passed last week...
"They did the same thing with this huge housing bailout. They wanted it unanimous consent without a vote. And so what Senator Reid, the Democrat leader, is doing now, is taking a number of these bills that Senator Coburn has been asking for an open debate on, and packaging them up and they're going to try to ram them through without debate....
Pilgrem: "Well, you know, we have some statistics on how many of these bills are going through. It's an enormous amount. Six percent were passed by a vote, but 94 percent passed without debate or vote, and they were -- 388 were introduced and passed on the same day, which certainly does not give you time to read a 500 to 800-page bill. Why is everything getting pushed to the end, getting slammed through? What's so dysfunctional about this Congress? It can't possibly continue like this."
$5 MILLION dollars for a museum in Poland. Up your bucket, Harry Reid. Art. 1, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution forbids stealing from the people's purse for this type of larceny. The people's purse is empty. For the past sixty years, these poltroons in Congress (both parties) have looted the public treasury and it's now over drawn $9.5 TRILLION dollars. The Democrats - with votes from Republicans, without a care in the world, are going to rob you to BORROW that $5 MILLION dollars to send to Poland for a museum. This is lunacy on the grandest scale.
$50 BILLION dollars in foreign welfare? Art. 1, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution forbids stealing from the people's purse to give one penny to ANY foreign country for humanitarian aid, to build weapons of mass destruction or fund some potentate's week long spending spree in London ($1.5 million US dollars), riding around in a limousine buying whores and champagne. That $50 BILLION dollars doesn't exist. Like the $5 million to Poland, these craven crooks in Congress will borrow the "money" from the central bank and the interest will turn the tab into $100 BILLION dollars. Is this what you voted for last November? Change? What change? The buzz is Democrats will take a couple dozen more seats from the Republicans in November. The people allegedly gave the Democrats control in November 2006 for "change." Look what we have almost two years down the road and now the people want to put more of these changelings into Congress? This is nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Taxation without representation. The colonials went to war over far less.
The Democrats have been looting this country since LBJ and his destructive, "Great Society." Not to be outdone, the Republicans took control in 1995 and outspent the Democrats during their reign of terror (1995-2006). The American people said they wanted change. In 2006, with the exception of changing 31 seats in House of Representatives, the people allegedly voted back the same incumbents, many of them leftovers from the phony "Republican Revolution" of 1994, many of them left over progessives and liberals who were ousted in 1994. Brought them all back for change!
How can you expect change when you put the same liars and crooks back in office? To vote against the "other side"? There is no logic in that justification because all you're doing is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Over the years I have written many columns about the sacking of this country. The unconstitutional mortgage bail out is another example of these rats in Congress violating the supreme law of the land to protect Wall Street and their big money donors. It will do NOTHING to stop the hemorrhaging except add more debt onto the backs of the we the people and our children. Tragically, a hundred million voters didn't get the message back in 2004:
Speeches Ignore Impending U.S. Debt Disaster by Carolyn Lochhead, September 12, 2004: "Laurence Kotlikoff, Economics Chairman at Boston University, who has written abundantly on this subject, offers up a shocking response on how to close a $51 trillion dollar fiscal gap: "To give you idea how big the problem is, you'd have to have an immediate and permanent 78 percent hike in the federal income tax." More than double the payroll tax, immediately and forever, from 15.3 percent of wages to nearly 32 percent; Raise income taxes by two thirds (roughly 78%), immediately and forever; Cut Social Security and Medicare benefits by 45 percent, immediately and forever;"
As I said in my column highlighting Ms. Lochhead's warning, "That's not the end of it: "...borrowing by Congress to fund their immoral and unconstitutional wars, UN dues, 18% of the IMFs budget, billions in corporate welfare, trillions in foreign "aid," all these social welfare programs and basic government functions continues to rack up debt at a rate of $1.69 BILLION dollars a day from an empty treasury." I wrote those words September 28, 2004. Now the daily rape is $2.27 BILLION dollars per day - borrowed from foreign governments and banks. What you have is a financial disaster coming that will drown every American whose last name isn't Rockefeller, Sensenbrenner, Kennedy, Feinstein, McCain, Bush, Clinton or Frist."
The big bang isn't even here yet. The federal take over of banks is increasing and there will be a blood letting of epic proportions. The people of Washington State are stuck with Maria Cantwell as she was allegedly re-elected in 2006. This foolish female will continue to hurt the people of Washington State with her insane agenda to "save the environment." Is anyone interested yet in challenging the fraudulent ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment so the states can get rid of lunatics like Cantwell and Reid [D-NV]?
I've been trying to get one state to do this for more than a decade. Hasn't the unlawfully seated U.S. Senate done enough to destroy this country where one state legislature will finally stand up and say NO MORE? Will one state legislature finally stand together to save their own state and citizens? It won't happen until YOU contact your incumbent in your legislature and tell them you will work to throw them out in November unless they promise to challenge the fraud of the Seventeenth Amendment. It must happen or the states will not exist as sovereign entities five years from now.
The frustration and anger is growing in this country, but we need to reach out to every American regardless of party. Forget those whose blind loyalty to their political party is so ingrained, they will die by the actions of their party. So be it. Great things in history have never been done by the majority, but by a core group of dedicated people. As the situation deteriorates, more Americans will begin asking questions and want to become part of the solution.
There are those who say voting won't change a thing. Well, there's voting and then there's voting. How many of you remember Linda Smith?
From the Hoover Institute: "Ten days before the primary in her congressional district in southwest Washington, the leading GOP candidate suddenly withdrew. Smith, a state legislator, was persuaded to run as a write-in candidate because she had organized a strong grass-roots base of more than 10,000 volunteers. Smith's volunteers hit the streets and got out the vote. She won the primary as the first successful write-in candidate in state history, and then won the general election with 51 percent of the vote." This great lioness went to battle. She sent out 150,000 mailings explaining to voters how to cast a write-in ballot. Linda won the hearts and minds of a large grass roots base and together, they won.
Can this be done in November at all levels of government? We know vote fraud is rampant; I've written dozens of detailed columns on it, just use a search engine. Every column provides links with proof our elections are being stolen from us by high technology with the assistance of rotten "Americans" who think it's okay to cheat their fellow Americans to further their agenda or candidate. Read your state constitution. If there is no candidate running for your state legislature or CON-gress who will uphold their oath of office - jackals like U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham - then find a qualified individual to run on a write in and get busy. If the Constitution Party couldn't get on the ballot in your state, get the candidate who wanted to run and run him/her as a write in if your constitution allows it and audit the vote the next day. That means a hand count. It's the only way.
Come on, folks, this isn't that difficult. Where there's a will, there's a way. Use local talk radio. Get out to the town hall meetings, the debates and push your write in candidate. Put a flyer on every doors step possible. On the ground effort brings success. Don't get trapped by this BS about "experience." We don't need any more of the kind of experience the U.S. Congress has shoved down our throats for the past sixty years. The same applies to the state legislatures, city council, county board of supervisors, mayors and sheriffs.
I will be on the road the next two weeks, so no new columns. I hope you will book mark this one and take the time to read the links provided below. Knowledge is power, but only applied knowledge will make the revolution effective. Time is an issue with everyone, I know. However, we are fighting right now - right now - for our very survival and anyone who thinks that's just blarney is in denial. We are living through history. Will you be part of it or a victim of it?
Important Information:
1 - The Complete Obama File
2 - Obama's communist ties
3 - The Real McCain
4 - McCain sold out our POW/MIAs
5 - Repackaged failed policies
6 - Who Threatens You Most: The President, Congress, Fed--Or Iran ?
7 - Pelosi & her Brassiere Brigade
1 - The hoax of global warming
2 - Empowering Americans for Energy Independence
3 - McCain's stupidty on ANWR
4 - Disproof of Global Warming Hype Published
5 - No Smoking Hot Spot
6 - Two Peer-Reviewed Scientific Papers Debunk CO2 Myth
7 - Doomed to a fatal delusion over climate change
1 - Congress ruined the finest health care system in the world
[link to www.newswithviews.com]
[link to freewordofgod.yuku.com] |
| FHL(C)
User ID: 475941
7/30/2008 9:12 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FU&FW
Government Goes Bankrupt (July 24, 2008)
[link to www.oftwominds.com]
One financial Armageddon is entirely, easily predictable: the bankruptcy of government in the U.S.A., at every level: Federal, State, County and City. The prediction follows from very simple mathematics: entitlements which grow at 8% a year cannot be supported by an economy which grows at 3% or less.
This simple truth is already playing out. San Diego is just one example. Here is a report which lays out the basis of San Diego's impending bankruptcy: structural deficits. The same can be said of California, which managed to increase state spending by 44% over the past few years even as the economy which must support those expenditures grew a total of less than half that rate.
This will sober you up, folks: CITY ATTORNEY ANALYSIS: CITY OF SAN DIEGO STRUCTURAL BUDGET DEFICIT
These benefits consisted of three rounds of retroactive benefits without funding which cost taxpayers $451 million. In addition, pension officials gave away 8,000 years of pension credits to city employees for free, at a cost to taxpayers of $146 million.
Another major unfunded benefit was the Deferred Retirement Option Plan ("DROP"). It was supposed to be operated on a cost neutral basis. However, the City’s outside actuary put the cost to taxpayers at more than $200 million.
Facing a billion dollar and growing pension deficit, City officials have traded away road repair, water security, and fire prevention to pay employees more to retire than to work. The IBA described the problem as a structural deficit.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) described the problem similarly: the "City would have difficulty funding its future annual pension contributions unless it obtained new revenues, reduced pension benefits, or reduced City services."
Year after year, the City has opted to cut services.It has not raised revenues nor has it cut employee benefits. Pension officials, with the blessing of high level City officials, have continued to issue rosy predictions.
The IBA Report has brought a much needed dose of reality to the situation. In the report the IBA notes that since 2003 the City has had to annually implement budget reductions (cut departmental budgets) which translate into reductions in city services.
The City is caught in a structural deficit trap. Total contributions from the City and City employees to the pension increased from $81 million in 2000 to $236 million in 2007. Total contributions during this period were $1.42 billion. But over the same period $1.7 billion or $300 million more than contributions, poured out of the pension in benefits and costs. These costs and benefits increased from $127 million in 2000 to $315 million in 2007. On-going pension expenditures consistently exceed on-going pension contributions.
Astute reader R. provides additional insight on public pensions:
I read the latest article. Are You Part of an Elite, and Don't Know It? (July 22, 2008).
A friend told me the other day that a fireman is getting $10,000 a month in a pension. I hear this all the time. Another friend says her 92 year old uncle gets $8,500 a month from being a fireman and he retired 45 years ago.
What people do not realize is this. At today's interest rates on cash at 3% or so, You and I have to save up 3 million dollars to get $90,000 in income per year. We also risk the chance of losing our capital by a fund failure or bank failure and more.
These government pensions are better than winning a million dollar lottery. A million dollar lottery pays less than $50K a year, and stops after 20 years, with no health care.
These pensions are like being a multi millionaire, like having saved, put away, 3 million dollars of after tax money. And we know it would have taken many more millions in order to save 3 million after taxes.
These pensions make people millionaires, or as you said, Elite. But the pensioners never had to save it up. It is one thing to pay someone while they are working, but it is outrageous to pay them that much when they are not working. And they are allowed to work elsewhere, collect other pensions, and earn income from other investments, while the taxpayer continues to support them..
I have saved up quite a bit, and bought income producing assets, but have much further saving to go in order to retire with a decent income from my savings or estate.
When you understand investing and passive income, you realize that the goal in life is to create an estate that pays you income later in life. You live off the income the money or estate generates. You don't spend your savings / capital. Then you can pass income generating assets to your children, or whomever you choose. So as I said, these pensions are like having millions in an estate that is producing income. Something that I have scrimped and scraped and saved to achieve. I rent a house now that prices are falling, and shop at garage sales. I rarely buy liabilities that lose value. Boat, RV, toys, etc. I almost always buy used items. Pensioners live much better than me, and drive brand new cars, boats, RV's and other liabilities.
Even better for example, a woman who marries a male government pensioner, and maybe soon for a man, LOL, is that a woman can come along and marry the government pentioner, then take the equivalent of half the future pension in a divorce, and pay no taxes on it like most divorces, or she can inherit the pension on his death after doing no work at all. Taxpayers then support her for no work ever done. It is insane. The entire government has a spending problem, not an income problem. Yesterday, my accountant told me I owe some more in taxes.
The mainstream media blames "the housing slump" for government shortfalls--for example: States Slammed by Tax Shortfalls.
The problem isn't a tax shortfall, it's a structural deficit between outlandishly generous pensions and healthcare benefits and what the economy can support.
I have often reprinted this little chart to graphically illustrate what bankruptcy looks like. We all read these mind-numbing numbers--unfunded Medicare obligations, $43 trillion, and so on--and then move on to sports or celebrity gossip or the latest bread-and-circus political "news."
That structural deficit can only be resolved by complete bankruptcy of government at all levels. You can't fund $60 trillion with tax increases, or hope that some Oil Exporting Nation's sovereign investment fund will loan us $60 trillion (the Medicare shortfall alone is $43 trillion, but let's not forget all those other promises to pay pensions and healthcare made by Federal, local and state governments).
That Medicare expenses outstrip the growth of the underlying economy can be seen in this chart:
As I have documented elsewhere, Medicare costs continue to climb at a rate far above the growth rate of the U.S. economy, and there is virtually no evidence to support the fantasy that adjusting a few parameters of payments or services will do anything to change that.
Medicare now costs over $500 billion a year, larger than any expense except Social Security (which is supposedly self-funding via the FICA payroll taxes) and the defense budget (fighting two wars, global war on terror, etc.). The trends are inescapable: Medicare will soon surpass defense spending, and then keep right on going.
Will anyone accept a reduction in their "right" to entitlements? Heck no. Remember, "I earned this" and "it's my right" and "I paid my taxes, I deserve this." Ahem. Yeah, sure. Whatever.
There is no way to gracefully cut off entitlements, and politically it is impossible. That's why it's easy to predict bankruptcy is the only outcome: a point will have to be reached when the government simply can't tax or borrow enough money to meet its obligations.
At the Federal level, that will be reached when interest rates skyrocket and the interest on the Federal debt (National Debt) exceeds all expenses but Medicare. The interest is already pushing $300 billion--yes, half as large as the entire Social Security budget--and it takes little imagination to see it doubling and then tripling as money becomes dear globally and our non-U.S. friends who have purchased all our debt finally tire of supporting our free-spending ways.
After all, every dollar they waste, oops, I mean invest, in U.S. bonds and mortgages (debt) is a dollar not invested in their own nations' well-being. Eventually their own people will demand that the surplus be invested in their own nation rather than propping up The Empire of Debt, a.k.a. the U.S.
At the local and state level, bankruptcy will become inevitable as soon as revenues are dwarfed by expenditures and pension/benefit promises. The city of Vallejo has offered us the template which will be followed hundreds of times in the coming decade: recalcitrant public unions demand more taxes to cover the structural budget shortfalls and complain "the money's gotta be here somewhere," and after cutting services to the bone the city finally declares bankruptcy.
Look for this play to come to your town, city, county and state soon.
There will be plenty of half-measures and fantasy "solutions" along the way, of course; here in California, the latest installment is a drastic pay cut for some state workers: Governor plans to slash state workers' pay.
It's not politics, it's math. As I noted in Is the U.S. Alcoholic, or Merely Schizophrenic? (July 15, 2008), we as a nation are in deep, inpenetrable denial about our fiscal binges and addictions to "borrowing our way out of debt," i.e. "the hair of the dog that bit us."
Open a spreadsheet and enter two columns of data. Take $100 and calculate its growth over 20 years at 3%. Now calculate 8% growth for 20 years.
The economy and tax revenues rose 75% in 20 years to $175. The entitlements/pension /Medicare costs more than quadrupled to $431.
No spin, no politics, nothing fancy: that's how expenditures outrun revenues to the point that bankruptcy is the only possible endpoint. Call it whatever you want--"structural deficit" has a nice, clinical sound--but anyone claiming there won't be financial Armageddon should fire up his/her spreadsheet and do the math. There will be Armageddon, as sure as 2 + 2 = 4.
Bailout Alerts:
Astute reader Mary R.H. recommended this Vanity Fair article on the Bear Stearns collapse: and offered this comment:
See page 7 of the article, about 1/3rd down, where it says "At one point, Paulson had to sign a document confirming that, yes, in the event Bear defaulted on its securities, the American taxpayer would pay the tab." I absolutely froze when I read this. I had to reread it several times to let the full weight of that message sink in. We the common people who apparently have no rights left in this country and no say in legislated federal usury are going to pay for the ruling class to remain wealthy and in power. "A GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE"... I don't think so, not any more.
I would also suggest this absolute gutting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by Paul Gigot: The Fannie Mae Gang (Wall Street Journal)
[link to freewordofgod.yuku.com] |
| FHL(C)
User ID: 475941
7/30/2008 9:29 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Borrowing money against the citizens especially when they haven't given informed consent and will be the ones who pay, and on top of which, you(USA) are in debt already, what madness is this, and who is he actually appealing to and why?
FU&FW
We are citizens of the world, Sen. Obama told thousands of nonvoting Germans during his recent tour of the Middle East and Europe. And if the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) he has sponsored becomes law, which is almost certain if he wins in November, we're also going to be taxpayers of the world.
Speaking in Berlin, Obama said: "While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history."
What the 20th century really showed was a series of totalitarian threats — from fascism to Nazism to communism — defeated by the U.S. military. Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Tojo's Japan and the Soviet Union offered destinies we did not share.
Our destiny of peace and freedom through strength was not achieved by a transnationalist fantasy of buying the world a Coke and singing "Kumbaya."
Obama's Global Poverty Act offers us a global socialist destiny we do not want, one that challenges America's very sovereignty. The former "post-racial" candidate obviously intends to be a post-national president.
A statement from Obama's office says: "With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces. It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter and clean drinking water."
These are worthy goals, but note there's no mention of spreading democracy, expanding free trade, promoting entrepreneurial capitalism or ridding the world of despots who rule and ravage countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan.
Obama would give them all a fish without teaching them how to fish. Pledging to cut global poverty in half on the backs of U.S. taxpayers is a ridiculous and impossible goal.
His legislation refers to the "millennium development goal," a phrase from a declaration adopted by the United Nations Millennium Assembly in 2000 and supported by President Clinton.
It calls for the "eradication of poverty" in part through the "redistribution (of) wealth of land" and "a fair distribution of the earth's resources." In other words: American resources.
It's a mantra of liberals that the U.S. is only a small portion of the world's population yet consumes an unseemly portion of the planet's supposedly finite resources. Never mentioned is the fact that America's population, just 5% of the world's total, also produces a stunning 27% of the world's GDP — to the enormous benefit of other countries. Nonetheless, their solution is to siphon off the product of our free democracy and distribute it.
We already transfer too much national wealth to the United Nations and its busybody agencies. Obama's bill would force U.S. taxpayers to fork over 0.7% of our gross domestic product every year to fund a global war on poverty, spending well above the $16.3 billion in global poverty aid the U.S. already spends.
Over a 13-year period, from 2002, when the U.N.'s Financing for Development Conference was held, to the target year of 2015, when the U.S is expected to meet its part of the U.N. Millennium goals, we would be spending an additional $65 billion annually for a total of $845 billion.
During a time of economic uncertainty, the plan would cost every American taxpayer around $2,500.
If you're worried abut gasoline and heating oil prices now, think what they'll be like when the U.S. is subjected in an Obama administration to global energy consumption and production taxes. Obama's Global Poverty Act is the "international community's" foot in the door.
The U.N. Millennium declaration called for a "currency transfer tax," a "tax on the rental value of land and natural resources," a "royalty on worldwide fossil energy production — oil, natural gas, coal . . . fees for the commercial use of the oceans, fees for the airplane use of the skies, fees for the use of the electromagnetic spectrum, fees on foreign exchange transactions, and a tax on the carbon content of fuels."
Co-sponsors of S. 2433 include Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington, Dianne Feinstein of California, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey. GOP globalists supporting the bill include Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Indiana.
Lugar has worked with Obama to promote more aid to Russia to promote nuclear nonproliferation. Lugar also promotes the Law of the Sea treaty, which turns over the world's oceans to an International Seabed Authority that would charge us to drill offshore and have veto power over the movements and actions of the U.S. Navy.
Obama's agenda sounds like defeated 2004 Democratic candidate John Kerry's "global test" for U.S. foreign policy decisions where "you have to do it in a way that passes the test — that passes the global test — where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."
Obama has called on the U.S. to "lead by example" on global warming and probably would submit to a Kyoto-like agreement that would sock Americans with literally trillions of dollars in costs over the next half century for little or no benefit.
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times . . . and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama has said. "That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."
Oh, really? Who's to say we can't load up our SUV and head out in search of bacon double cheeseburgers at the mall? China? India? Bangladesh? The U.N.?
In an Obama White House, American sovereignty will become an endangered species. The Global Poverty Act is the first toe in the water of global socialism
[link to www.ibdeditorials.com]
[link to freewordofgod.yuku.com] |
| G. House
User ID: 475950
7/30/2008 9:34 AM
 | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
G. House "9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash" Quoting: Anonymous Coward 474822
What makes you think that, House? 
You can't be serious?
You're kidding right? |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 380553
7/30/2008 9:36 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FLH- If they trample the right of free speach over this blog thing-
That is tantamount to collusion to stealing money.
That makes that a CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT FRAUD.
I couldn't be happier. Quoting: Kanigo2
Amen. The more draconian they get, the more people will see that they've been full of crap the whole time.
I say bring it on. Let's see how long their den of lies can stand on its own. |
| G. House
User ID: 475950
7/30/2008 9:36 AM
| | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
The cure for a failed banking system is adequate capital and prudent oversight not threats to impartial critics of the system.
Even a sound bank can be brought down by a panicked run and or contagion.
Impartial?
9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash, that's impartial?
What some of these people are doing is exactly the same as yelling fire in a crowded theater.
And your realtime/4D job is Mr House?
And what pray tell is a sound bank, a data file at a radio station(probably has a longer life span), look i am not wanting to pick a fight with you, the closest i have seen to a good bank set up is/are the Bendigo bank system.
No bank with fractional reserve lending can ever be sound. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 413355
Merely your opinion and the fact that you have made this statement shows you are one of the 9 out of 10 wishing for destruction. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 380553
7/30/2008 9:39 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
G. House "9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash"
What makes you think that, House?
You can't be serious?
You're kidding right?
See my post below.
I think the number is wrong but there are a large number of people who want the "system" to crash.
Well, want the "system" to go away and be replaced with something that actually serves us instead of us serving it.
Too many people are seeing through the lies- wars against imaginary enemies, bailouts of fraudulent bankers and foreclosure for families and the rest of it. The politicians seems oblivious or bought off or both.
There's very little hope that the system will reform itself, though I would welcome such a change. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 380553
7/30/2008 9:44 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
The cure for a failed banking system is adequate capital and prudent oversight not threats to impartial critics of the system.
Even a sound bank can be brought down by a panicked run and or contagion.
Impartial?
9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash, that's impartial?
What some of these people are doing is exactly the same as yelling fire in a crowded theater.
And your realtime/4D job is Mr House?
And what pray tell is a sound bank, a data file at a radio station(probably has a longer life span), look i am not wanting to pick a fight with you, the closest i have seen to a good bank set up is/are the Bendigo bank system.
No bank with fractional reserve lending can ever be sound.
Merely your opinion and the fact that you have made this statement shows you are one of the 9 out of 10 wishing for destruction. Quoting: G. House
No, he's right. It's a simple matter of mathematics.
Once the banks get away from 100% reserves on demand deposits they are playing a confidence game.
It only works if everyone is confident that they can get their money out when they want to.
The fact that the banks create money at a 10:1 leverage [$10 out for every dollar in reserves] mathematically guarantees inflation to cover the new money or depression when that money is destroyed through debt default.
Our current "crisis" is being driven by bankers and their customers who forgot that seemingly trivial matter and thought we could get something for nothing.
Attacking the messenger is not helpful, as Sheila Bair and the FDIC may find out soon. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310466
7/30/2008 9:47 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
create 'em faster than they can keep track....they are trying to hide the coming depression...help keep people in the know. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 475196
That's ridiculous. You can't hide a depression, nutbar. |
| huh?
User ID: 441596
7/30/2008 10:05 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
The cure for a failed banking system is adequate capital and prudent oversight not threats to impartial critics of the system.
Even a sound bank can be brought down by a panicked run and or contagion.
Impartial?
9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash, that's impartial?
What some of these people are doing is exactly the same as yelling fire in a crowded theater. Quoting: G. House
Hardly so. What "these people" see is the obvious bedlam of smoke and flames filling up the theatre. Got that, chap? Take another snooze. |
| Omega
User ID: 361102
7/30/2008 10:52 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
He's pissed as I caught him in his bullshit and lies on this thread here:
[ link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
As you can see, he falsely accused me of lying when as it is plain for all to see he seriously fucked up when I called him out on his bullshit, with the link. But I will post the text here lest his dishonest lying ass has gone back to page 2 of the thread in question and altered it:
You lying sack of shit, you absolutely misrepresented what I said, YOU lied.
I said that the reserve requirements were set by the board of presidents of the federal reserve, that the % of reserves had been lowered from 10% to 5% in the 90's and that there were blog rumors that it had been lowered to 108:1 but I was never able to confirm that despite spending considerable time looking for that info. It simply isn't posted by the federal reserve.
YOU, OMEGA, LIED. Deal with it liar.
Now why don't you pull your head out of the deep recesses of your anus and engage in econ discussion-debate so you can be schooled formally?
And you blocked my PM's because I nailed you. A blowhard with a prophet of doom complex, who eeks out his own validation and self esteem by living an internet lie.
You are the most thin skinned poster on the board, diametrically opposed to the persona you project. When you aren't skulking around trying to monitor my posting habits you are hiding behind the moniker AC.
Because you are in fact an anonymous coward.
Bring it on omega, lets talk econ.
You were too cowardly to enter the thread I started just to school you, so lets do it now. Bring your psychotic "prophet of doom" argument up here and now and lets brawl this out till you yell uncle. And you will. Trust me.
"Americans always do the right thing, after they have tried everything else" ~Winston Churchill
And THAT is what Omega will do. The right thing after he has tried every single wrong thing first.
But I have patience and i know he will come around. He has no choice.
Obviously you are insane or in extreme denial. So lets wrap this up once and for all, shall we???
On page two of this thread, direct link here:
[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
You state, and I quote directly:
"Fractional reserve banks are always leveraged by a minimum of 10-1, and recently around 108-1.
That's what we accept as normal. It's the "system" we exist in. It's the risk we expose our nation and our way of life to every single weekday so that banks can make profits off of our risk positions.
Bunko article."
End of quote.
Here I state:
[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
"Now, as I already informed you, the solutions I am working on are at the local level to prepare for the coming hard times. Assholes like you believe banks being leveraged 108 to 1, your own statement, is normal. Simply cracksmoke. It's not normal, hence the complete and utter spanking the banking sector has taken this past year."
Here, Loose Cannon Posts:
[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
"Assholes like you believe banks being leveraged 108 to 1, your own statement, is normal.
Quoting: Omega
"Well that is a bald faced lie and one that I have twice disabused your shrunken cranium of.
Why do you persist in bald face lies oMEGAtard?
In fact I never posted anything that in any way resembles your lie."
Who is the liar Loose Cannon? LMFAO. Busted Loose Cannon. Game over, you lose.
Now, again, we have been over this before, however I will state again for all on the board to see so my position is known, and my utter distain for kumbaya *we must work together to save the world* message idiots like you espouse.
If you think you can change the world and somehow compel the pigmen to give up their ponzi scheme control of fiat money you are perhaps the most disillusioned fuckwit I have ever run across on the internet. I gots bad news for you sunshine, they hold all the marbles and don't give a rats ass about you or your mouth.
I also find it absolutely hilarious you spout bullshit about saving the world when the government in Kalifornia, the state you reside, is essentially bankrupt and will technically be so next month unless Arnie pulls a stick save out his ass. How's that working out for ya??? Learn spanish yet? Did you effect change there??? Thought not.
Hey dumbass, did you effect change while the pigmen and our corrupt government just sold us down the river bailing out the GSE's on the fast track? Huh??? Well did ya punk???
Thought not.
Now, you call me out to debate on a thread you posted where you claim LUI is a visionary, yet I see no input from you on that thread except to call me out. I already told you I am well aware of his position as I read his stuff, however again he is long winded and certainly not the end all be all of solutions, nor summary of the exact position we are in.
You have trolled me, harassed me in PM's, got caught in a blatant lie, and are not in a teachable state of mind vis a vis our economic environment nor the current state of affairs. You attack anyone that preps for hard times, and write survivalists types off as deranged and insane. So be it. All's I have to do is continue on the path I am on, and if TSHTF you perish, while I still have a chance. If I am wrong I have stuff stocked away to use at my discretion, whist you still suck the tit of the socialist state you reside.
I got outta that state in 1991 after I wised up. If you had any common sense whatsoever you would too.
Now, I already stated I am involved locally in solutions, and stated the next big thing is localization, You conveniently ignored my position as it does not fit your deranged state of mind and fucks with your misconception of who I really am. Again, I am involved in the local farming co -op, have done volunteer work at the local political level, hang with people of like mind, and watch other locals back as they watch mine. Thats my solution, not some holier than thou save the world and "if you don't listen to me you are a fucktard" position you take on this board. You have in fact insulted the membership on this board on several occasions; what I hear some are not appreciative, lmao.
I will continue to send my message on this board to others and let the individual evaluate the information and arrive at their own conclusions. If you can't deal with that-fuck off.
You will continue to remain blocked via PM, as I consider your rants against me insane, and I don't deal with nor have the time for Kooks who demand attention.
Good luck with that, lol.
Handguns are a skill; shotguns an art; rifles a science.
_____________________________________
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner.
Disarmament is the precursor to Genocide.
Better to take action now rather than chances later. Your choice. |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 473691
7/30/2008 11:30 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FU&FW
Sitdown restaurants starting to close.
[link to www.nytimes.com]
Restaurant Chains Close as Diners Reduce Spending
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Several national restaurant chains were shuttered on Tuesday, possibly offering an early taste of what’s in store this year for businesses that depend on free-spending consumers whose budgets are now being squeezed.
The parent company of Bennigan’s, an Irish-themed bar and grill with about 200 sites across the country, filed for bankruptcy, a move that will put hundreds of employees out of work and leave many landlords with empty retail space during a painful time in the real estate market.
A sister brand, Steak & Ale, will also close. Franchise units of Bennigan’s will remain open for now, a spokeswoman, Leah Templeton, wrote in an e-mail message.
The restaurants are the latest casualties in the so-called casual dining sector, considered a cut above fast food. Soaring food costs and a surfeit of locations have hurt the companies’ bottom lines just as Americans are choosing to take more meals at home.
The closings are “something we’re going to see more of over the next 6 to 12 months,” said Amy Greene, a director at Avondale Partners who tracks the restaurant industry.
“The companies have been getting squeezed from all directions,” Ms. Greene said. “You have had minimum wage go up again, commodity prices continue to go up. We’re in a softening consumer market where the consumer is less willing to accept the price increases than they might have been in the past. The companies are having to eat the cost difference.”
Trips to the mall or the local tavern — the casual outings that provide much of the business for midtier retailers — are falling by the wayside, analysts said, as gas prices reach record highs and Americans tighten their household budgets.
“Even folks for whom $3 gas is not necessarily a budget issue appear to be changing their behavior,” said Bryan C. Elliott, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates.
Another hurdle facing these restaurants is their copycat nature. Though Bennigan’s modeled itself as an Irish pub, its menu had Black Angus steaks, Southwestern-style appetizers and tempura shrimp, items that would not be unfamiliar to patrons of, say, T.G.I. Friday’s or Ruby Tuesday.
“All these bar and grill concepts are very, very similar,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a restaurant industry consulting group. “They have the same kind of menu, décor, appeal,” which makes it more difficult to establish brand loyalty among customers.
The restaurant chains are owned by the Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group, a unit of a business conglomerate owned by the billionaire John Kluge.
The Ponderosa and Bonanza restaurants, which operate under another entity, Metromedia Steakhouses, were not covered in the bankruptcy.
The pain has already spread to other corners of the retail sector. On Tuesday, Mervyn’s, a midtier department store chain owned by a group of private equity firms, also filed for bankruptcy. The retailer, most of whose 176 stores were in California, had struggled for years, and the filing was widely expected this week.
Mervyn’s filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, allowing it to remain in business while it reorganizes. This month, Steve & Barry’s, a fashion retailer that started an ambitious expansion plan in recent years, also sought bankruptcy protection after finding itself in a credit squeeze after defaulting on a loan.
Other mall mainstays, like Linens ’n Things and Sharper Image, have also fallen victim to the economic pain, and retailers like Ann Taylor have said they will close hundreds of local stores.
The closings, especially of popular outlets that expanded quickly in the last few years, will leave commercial property owners in a tight spot, analysts said.
“It’s not going to be easy to replace a tenant at this time, given the status of the industry,” Mr. Goldin, of Technomic, said. “It’s much trickier when you have to retrofit the whole place to fit in another kind of retailer.”
And Ms. Greene, of Avondale Partners, said that financing was also starting to dry up for ailing restaurant chains. “Banks have become less willing to lend to restaurants and franchisees,” she said. “The business fundamentals just do not support it right now.”
"I live in a town where people come from all over the state to do dinner and a movie on Friday and Saturday. We have the widest Main Street in the state and a lot of restaurants that aren't chain restaurants, and they are suffering.
I go to happy hour at the local Mexican place for the free taco bar and a beer on Friday, but last Friday they decided to not put out the taco bar 20 minutes after happy hour started because they have to throw away the remnant food. Instead, the manager offered to make me a couple tacos at no charge rather than to put the taco bar out.
Two years ago I couldn't find a parking spot on Friday or Saturday night. Now it's like a ghost town." |
| FHL(C)
User ID: 473691
7/30/2008 12:35 PM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FU&FW
[ link to www.counterpunch.org]
An article in the San Francisco Business Times said that the FDIC is worried about the reporting on Internet blogs. They'd rather keep the information about the troubles in the banking system out of the news. Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., summed it up like this after the run on Indymac:
"The blogs were a bit out of control. We're very mindful of the media coverage and blogs in controlling misinformation. All I can say is were going to continue to stay on top of it. The misinformation that came out over the weekend fed a lot of depositors' fears."
Is that a threat? The cure for a failed banking system is adequate capital and prudent oversight not threats to impartial critics of the system. That's balderdash. Commissar Blair apparently believes that bloggers should be treated the same way as journalists in Iraq, who, if they veer ever so slightly from the Pentagon's "the surge is a great triumph" script, find themselves on the smoky end of an M-16 at some unmarked checkpoint outside Baquba.
just a reminder of what is in high officials mental constructs
for the sheeple with temerity
[link to freewordofgod.yuku.com] |
| FHL(C)
User ID: 473691
7/30/2008 12:47 PM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FU&FW
*
* Ethical Economics
How Wall Street Wrecked Your Retirement
Howl
By Nicholas von Hoffman
Our disfunctional financial system hit a new low last week when Citigroup, the hopeless wreck of Wall Street, announced it had lost $2.5 billion in the past three months--a cheer went up, and so did the Dow. Only $2.5 billion; people were afraid the losses would be much higher. Happy days are here again.
Nicholas von Hoffman: The Fed scrambles for solutions to the mortgage meltdown--but saving prudent homeowners also involves bailing out a huge number of wealthy speculators. What good is that?
There are no happy days for the millions of Americans who have been trying to put away some money for their retirement in tax-sheltered entities like IRAs, Roth Accounts and 401(k)s. For them, the market's downward slope has been harrowing and frightening. When will the steady erosion of their savings end? And when it does, what will be left of their future financial security?
Many of the millions suffering through these worrisome months didn't buy a house they could not afford, didn't speculate on their homes, didn't let greedy impulses lead them to the edge of foreclosure or bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the excesses of their neighbors and the criminal folly of American finance is destroying their plans for retirement. It is dragging down much of the value of their homes, on which they have never missed a payment, homes on which they were counting on selling at retirement to help finance their last years in comfort.
For years, the privatization propagandists have been telling people that when the time comes, Social Security will not be there for them. Now many are learning that it's their private savings that may not be there. They are discovering they have been forced into a system in which other people have, in effect, been allowed to gamble with their retirement savings and have lost it.
The way the private, you're-on-your-own retirement system was supposed to work had individuals, during their younger, working years, investing in stock through tax-sheltered accounts. Almost nobody who is not breaking the law can choose among individual stocks and make money, so future retirees have been encouraged to buy mutual funds run by professional managers, who are supposed to be able to pick the winners.
Most of them aren't much better at doing that than are their customers, but in a rising market, a chicken pecking at stock tables can pick winners. In boom times, it doesn't matter that the future retiree must choose among thousands of mutual funds, many of which carry ruinously high fees. The damage to people's savings goes unnoticed until the market begins to go down.
Even as the market falls, future retirees are told not to panic, to keep their money where it is, because in the long run the value of their accounts will go up and they will have many a happy sunset year traveling the globe and showering their grandchildren with presents.
As the retirement date comes near, they are advised to begin selling stocks and buying fixed-income securities--as bonds are sometimes called--because these pay the interest they earn on a fixed schedule, providing a regular income.
For this to work, stock prices must be high when the holdings are sold and the bonds purchased must pay high rates of interest. But what happens when the stock market is in a nosedive and interest rates are half of the inflation rate, as is the case right now? Panic and worry, no golden years of travel, no presents for the grandchildren. The energy that was to be expended on leisure activities is spent instead trying to figure out how to make ends meet.
The bright spot is Social Security. That check does come with the regularity of the calendar, whether the market is up or down, whether interest rates be high or low and if, as is the case now, the Greenspan-Bush inflation is destroying family budgets. Social Security adjusts for the rising prices.
But Social Security is too narrow a ledge to stand on through the years between retirement and death. It was designed as the base on which other retirement savings were to be built.
Those savings--the house and the tax-sheltered retirement accounts--are shriveling up and blowing away. The persons for whom Americans' savings have been a reliable source of income are the brokers, the lawyers, the account administrators, the whole tribe of Wall Street fee farmers. They get other people's retirement money regardless of the direction the market may be moving in.
You can't call it a broken system because it was a bad one from the start. It is failing, just as its critics said it would. And what lies ahead for those whose retirement savings are gone may be a very unpleasant old age.
* Related
* Also By
*
Radio Nation with Laura Flanders
U.S. Economy
Radio Nation : Naomi Klein asks if the economy is at risk, or if it's really capitalism? Plus, Annabelle Gurwitch and the celebrating the death of the GOP.
*
The Suicide Solution
U.S. Economy
Barbara Ehrenreich: Believe it or not, suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to dealing with debt.
*
Attack of the Global Pirate Bankers
Banks & Banking
James S. Henry: For decades, the world's largest banks have been helping wealthy Americans steal billions in unpaid taxes. What are we going to do about it?
*
Kai Wright Explains the Subprime Swindle
U.S. Economy
VideoNation : Nation magazine contributor Kai Wright discusses his July 14 article about the mortgage crisis and its effect on the black middle class.
*
The Subprime Swindle
U.S. Economy
Kai Wright: How the mortgage industry stole black America's hard-won wealth.
*
A Subprime Bailout Subscribe
White-Collar Crime
Congress bails out the banks, but needs to do far more for homeowners devastated by the subprime crisis.
» More
*
How Wall Street Wrecked Your Retirement
Ethical Economics
Nicholas von Hoffman: The architects of America's disfunctional financial system allowed Wall Street gamble with our retirement savings--and now they appear to have lost it.
*
Portrait of a Panic
Banks & Banking
Nicholas von Hoffman: America is shaken by images of panicked customers lined up to withdraw money from the failed IndyMac Bank.
*
Talking Points for an Energy Crisis
Environment
Nicholas von Hoffman: Now that rising gas prices and plummeting sales of gas hog vehicles has gotten everyone's attention, let's talk about a long-term plan.
*
Oil Change
Environment
Nicholas von Hoffman: Forget change you can believe in and start dealing with the changes coming at you as fast as the price of fuel makes its way skyward.
*
Bernanke's Big Bet
Banks & Banking
Nicholas von Hoffman: The Fed Chief believes if he pumps enough money into the economy, he can stop the slide of house prices and thus stave off financial disaster. How's he doing? So far, not so good.
*
A Devil's Dictionary of Finance
U.S. Economy
Nicholas von Hoffman: An irreverent lexicon of terms that paved the way to the subprime mortgage meltdown.
*
Federal Reserve Freakout
U.S. Economy
[link to www.thenation.com]
[link to freewordofgod.yuku.com] |
| FHL(C)
User ID: 473691
7/30/2008 12:50 PM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
FU&FW
US billion-dollar bankruptcies highest since 2003
* Reuters
* , Tuesday July 29 2008
By Emily Chasan
NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - Billion-dollar bankruptcies are at their highest in five years only half way through 2008, according to bankruptcy filing tracker BankruptcyData.com.
A total of seven U.S. companies with more than a billion dollars in assets have filed for bankruptcy protection so far this year, it said.
Fremont General Corp, which was one of the largest U.S. providers of subprime mortgages before regulators ordered it to stop making the loans, was the largest filing of the year with $13 billion in pre-petition assets, BankruptcyData.com said. Fremont filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, after arranging to sell bank branches and deposits to CapitalSource Inc.
SemGroup LP, the energy trader which filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors last week, was the second-largest bankruptcy filing of the year with $6 billion in pre-petition assets.
"We seem to be in the midst of a 'perfect storm' leading to more bankruptcies: high levels of debt, high energy and raw materials costs and weakness in the U.S. economy," George Putnam, III of New Generation Research, which publishes BankruptcyData.com said in a statement.
He forecast bankruptcies could peak as early as the middle of 2009 or continue rising well into 2010.
The recent spike in billion-dollar bankruptcies, comes only about half way through 2008 and is well above the previous levels. In 2007 only one company listed more than $1 billion in pre-petition assets, New Century Financial Corp. In 2006, auto parts maker Dana Corp had the largest filing, listing $9 billion in pre-petition assets.
The last year in the previous bankruptcy wave was 2003, when there were 15 billion-dollar bankruptcies filed. The number of billion-dollar bankruptcies peaked in 2001 when there were 25, according to BankruptcyData.com.
But the bankruptcies are not yet as large as the filings in the last wave of corporate bankruptcies. The Enron Corp and Conseco Inc bankruptcy filings in 2001 and 2002 each topped $60 billion. WorldCom still holds the record with its $103.9 billion bankruptcy filing in 2002, according to BankruptcyData.com. (Editing by Andre Grenon)
Business
Latest news on guardian.co.uk
* Adv
[link to freewordofgod.yuku.com] |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 373123
7/30/2008 1:03 PM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Once there was a guy named Nicolae Ceausescu.
One day, he was the Grand Dictator of Romania.
The next day, he and his wife were shot by a firing squad and thrown in a hole.
1989: Romania's 'first couple' executed
[ link to news.bbc.co.uk]
Things change.
All it takes is the will to change them.
I see. Tell me, how's Romania doing now? Any better?
You forgot to mention the day the dictators were executed: Christmas Eve. |
| loosecannon
User ID: 476358
7/30/2008 11:18 PM
 | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
This whole economy could collapse. But it isn't likely soon and history suports that in bold, red, large font.
Stock up on food, that's great. But do what you can to avoid a worldwide economic collapse. Because your life may depend on it.
Nobody said the economy would crash overnight, but we are at the boiling point and it is just a matter of time...one year...2 years? Deflation? Hyperinflation? Even the financial advisors on the web don't know for sure, but they are preparing for either event.
What do you propose that people should "to avoid a worldwide economic collapse"? We don't run the banks, don't make Congressional decisions, and the Federal Reserve hasn't asked for our advice seeing that they believe they are the "experts". We are sitting ducks. The selection of candidates for President isn't exactly going to help this situation, only make it worse.
There is so much secrecy in government that we must become reponsible for our individual welfare. If everybody did that, we'd be just fine.
. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 475829
There is so much that you CAN DO That it should be mostly obvious.
The financial advisers on the web are as much the problem as the solution. Many are gold bugs blogging to self enrich if gold prices rise. Many more are like Omega in it for internet glamor while delivering nothing of value but hysteria. Fear sells, Doom sells. But it does nothing to solve the real problems.
THE most important thing to do is to distill the singular most important message of the times and distribute it. It is that simple.
If the single most pressing issue of the times is that speculators are forcing a "speculation tax" upon every loaf of bread, pound of tofu and gallon of petro fuel in the world then focus on it and drill it home with thoughtful talking points developed from online discussion.
If the most pressing issue of our times is the threat that we COULD evolve into a runaway contraction, then spread that message across boards like wildfire.
The world does listen if a small group makes a message stick. In fact it's the only thing that ever has really made for change from a grassroots level. Small groups rallying behind essential and well crafted public messaging to effect reforms.
Our nation was founded that way. Slavery was abolished that way. Nixon impeached that way, women gained the right to vote that way.
Do it, don't ask me what to do.
Meanwhile the message that banks are failing is not a hugely important message. Unless it's your bank.
Nor is the doom scenario conciousness very helpful to the world at large. |
| loosecannon
User ID: 476358
7/30/2008 11:25 PM
| | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
The cure for a failed banking system is adequate capital and prudent oversight not threats to impartial critics of the system.
Even a sound bank can be brought down by a panicked run and or contagion.
Impartial?
9 out of 10 GLPer's WANT the system to crash, that's impartial?
What some of these people are doing is exactly the same as yelling fire in a crowded theater. Quoting: Quoting: FHL(C)
I just noticed this. Yes. This is spot on.
Wanting the system to crash is counterproductive and a mental disorder of some kind.
It's like wanting to see death, destruction, famine, apocalypse. It is just plain wrong thinking.
We should be rallying to save what we want and hold dear while shedding that which ails us. |
| loosecannon
User ID: 476358
7/30/2008 11:31 PM
| | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
He's pissed as I caught him in his bullshit and lies on this thread here:
[ link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
As you can see, he falsely accused me of lying when as it is plain for all to see he seriously fucked up when I called him out on his bullshit, with the link. But I will post the text here lest his dishonest lying ass has gone back to page 2 of the thread in question and altered it:
You lying sack of shit, you absolutely misrepresented what I said, YOU lied.
I said that the reserve requirements were set by the board of presidents of the federal reserve, that the % of reserves had been lowered from 10% to 5% in the 90's and that there were blog rumors that it had been lowered to 108:1 but I was never able to confirm that despite spending considerable time looking for that info. It simply isn't posted by the federal reserve.
YOU, OMEGA, LIED. Deal with it liar.
Now why don't you pull your head out of the deep recesses of your anus and engage in econ discussion-debate so you can be schooled formally?
And you blocked my PM's because I nailed you. A blowhard with a prophet of doom complex, who eeks out his own validation and self esteem by living an internet lie.
You are the most thin skinned poster on the board, diametrically opposed to the persona you project. When you aren't skulking around trying to monitor my posting habits you are hiding behind the moniker AC.
Because you are in fact an anonymous coward.
Bring it on omega, lets talk econ.
You were too cowardly to enter the thread I started just to school you, so lets do it now. Bring your psychotic "prophet of doom" argument up here and now and lets brawl this out till you yell uncle. And you will. Trust me.
"Americans always do the right thing, after they have tried everything else" ~Winston Churchill
And THAT is what Omega will do. The right thing after he has tried every single wrong thing first.
But I have patience and i know he will come around. He has no choice.
Obviously you are insane or in extreme denial. So lets wrap this up once and for all, shall we???
On page two of this thread, direct link here:
[ link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
You state, and I quote directly:
"Fractional reserve banks are always leveraged by a minimum of 10-1, and recently around 108-1.
That's what we accept as normal. It's the "system" we exist in. It's the risk we expose our nation and our way of life to every single weekday so that banks can make profits off of our risk positions.
Bunko article."
End of quote.
Here I state:
[ link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
"Now, as I already informed you, the solutions I am working on are at the local level to prepare for the coming hard times. Assholes like you believe banks being leveraged 108 to 1, your own statement, is normal. Simply cracksmoke. It's not normal, hence the complete and utter spanking the banking sector has taken this past year."
Here, Loose Cannon Posts:
[ link to www.godlikeproductions.com]
"Assholes like you believe banks being leveraged 108 to 1, your own statement, is normal.
Quoting: Omega
"Well that is a bald faced lie and one that I have twice disabused your shrunken cranium of.
Why do you persist in bald face lies oMEGAtard?
In fact I never posted anything that in any way resembles your lie."
Who is the liar Loose Cannon? LMFAO. Busted Loose Cannon. Game over, you lose.
Now, again, we have been over this before, however I will state again for all on the board to see so my position is known, and my utter distain for kumbaya *we must work together to save the world* message idiots like you espouse.
If you think you can change the world and somehow compel the pigmen to give up their ponzi scheme control of fiat money you are perhaps the most disillusioned fuckwit I have ever run across on the internet. I gots bad news for you sunshine, they hold all the marbles and don't give a rats ass about you or your mouth.
I also find it absolutely hilarious you spout bullshit about saving the world when the government in Kalifornia, the state you reside, is essentially bankrupt and will technically be so next month unless Arnie pulls a stick save out his ass. How's that working out for ya??? Learn spanish yet? Did you effect change there??? Thought not.
Hey dumbass, did you effect change while the pigmen and our corrupt government just sold us down the river bailing out the GSE's on the fast track? Huh??? Well did ya punk???
Thought not.
Now, you call me out to debate on a thread you posted where you claim LUI is a visionary, yet I see no input from you on that thread except to call me out. I already told you I am well aware of his position as I read his stuff, however again he is long winded and certainly not the end all be all of solutions, nor summary of the exact position we are in.
You have trolled me, harassed me in PM's, got caught in a blatant lie, and are not in a teachable state of mind vis a vis our economic environment nor the current state of affairs. You attack anyone that preps for hard times, and write survivalists types off as deranged and insane. So be it. All's I have to do is continue on the path I am on, and if TSHTF you perish, while I still have a chance. If I am wrong I have stuff stocked away to use at my discretion, whist you still suck the tit of the socialist state you reside.
I got outta that state in 1991 after I wised up. If you had any common sense whatsoever you would too.
Now, I already stated I am involved locally in solutions, and stated the next big thing is localization, You conveniently ignored my position as it does not fit your deranged state of mind and fucks with your misconception of who I really am. Again, I am involved in the local farming co -op, have done volunteer work at the local political level, hang with people of like mind, and watch other locals back as they watch mine. Thats my solution, not some holier than thou save the world and "if you don't listen to me you are a fucktard" position you take on this board. You have in fact insulted the membership on this board on several occasions; what I hear some are not appreciative, lmao.
I will continue to send my message on this board to others and let the individual evaluate the information and arrive at their own conclusions. If you can't deal with that-fuck off.
You will continue to remain blocked via PM, as I consider your rants against me insane, and I don't deal with nor have the time for Kooks who demand attention.
Good luck with that, lol.
Not gonna waste my time reading your idiotic , moronic, simplistic posts, OMEGATARD.
But you got the quotes straight enough and sure as shit you lied.
How bout that.
If and when you grow up, grow some nuts and a second brain cell let me know. Meanwhile you still keep running from substanntive discussion just to play some twisted game of "gotcha" that always makes you out to be a liar and a loser.
You should try the substantive. It will be far less embarrasing than the asshole blowhard idiot you usually paly. |
| RememberThis 
Oh Shit!
User ID: 476171
7/30/2008 11:40 PM
 | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
Hey Trinity and Mods, are there contingency plans for the years of information and valuable data(as opposed to run of the mill) here at GLP to be available under whatever circumstances or conditions?
Thats actually a good question, are there backups to this forum so possible critical information is not lost???
Have at it trolls-you are getting sleepy....watch the pretty colors....
:tripblaze: Quoting: Omega
Would you PLEASE quit posting that crazy ass picture LOL youre makin me dizzy Jk lolo
"Got myself a one way ticket, goin' the wrong way". ~Bon Scott~
"21 gun Salute, Kills 21 People" ~George Carlin~
~Beer: Helping white men dance since 1856~ |
| Anonymous Coward
User ID: 476382
7/31/2008 12:12 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
If the single most pressing issue of the times is that speculators are forcing a "speculation tax" upon every loaf of bread, pound of tofu and gallon of petro fuel in the world then focus on it and drill it home with thoughtful talking points developed from online discussion.
If the most pressing issue of our times is the threat that we COULD evolve into a runaway contraction, then spread that message across boards like wildfire. Quoting: loosecannon
If you aren't a paid shill , you should seek compensation,
don't you get it, contractions as you call them are par for the course for the big international bankers, check history.
And you your single line of argument, is so simplistic it is sad, and your counterpoints are circles within circles, and lastly you call others names, but you are just as guilty of hubris. |
| Omega
User ID: 363643
7/31/2008 12:42 AM | | Re: Get ready, US financial blogs, threads , sites to be policed/policied | Quote |
If the single most pressing issue of the times is that speculators are forcing a "speculation tax" upon every loaf of bread, pound of tofu and gallon of petro fuel in the world then focus on it and drill it home with thoughtful talking points developed from online discussion.
If the most pressing issue of our times is the threat that we COULD evolve into a runaway contraction, then spread that message across boards like wildfire.
If you aren't a paid shill , you should seek compensation,
don't you get it, contractions as you call them are par for the course for the big international bankers, check history.
And you your single line of argument, is so simplistic it is sad, and your counterpoints are circles within circles, and lastly you call others names, but you are just as guilty of hubris. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 476382
Loose Cannon is an idiot, liar, troll, and a stalker. He thinks he knows something and has kumbaya solutions to save the world and demands attention or he'll throw a tantrum.
Ignore the fool.....
Handguns are a skill; shotguns an art; rifles a science.
_____________________________________
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner.
Disarmament is the precursor to Genocide.
Better to take action now rather than chances later. Your choice. |
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