I found this article on the Daily Kos. I read this periodically and find the information quite interesting. I thought I would pass this one on...
Jim Cramer Uses CNBC to Manipulate Stocks
by TocqueDeville
Thu Mar 05, 2009 at 04:56:48 PM PDT
I've been waiting for a good time to bring this story to Daily Kos and, since it's CNBC day (or week hopefully), I figured now would be a good time.
By now, everyone should have heard about the ongoing war that CNBC is waging against the Obama administration and its plans revamp the economy. From it's constant anti-Obama propaganda and commentary to its shady PR stunt to manufacture a bogus uprising against Obama's mortgage plan, CNBC has been working overtime as a propaganda front against the Obama agenda.
And now, Jon Stewart has joined in for some good fun. But you haven't seen real fun until you've immersed yourself into the story of Deep Capture.
* TocqueDeville's diary :: ::
*
This rabbit hole involves the thugs surrounding Jim Cramer and some of the top financial "journalists" from the New York Times, WSJ, Fortune magazine and BusinessWeek, top hedge funds, the Mafia, and the DTCC. It also includes "blackmail, smear campaigns, espionage, fraud, harassment, extortion, bribery, rumor-mongering, sabotage, off-shore money laundering, political cronyism, frivolous lawsuits, witness tampering, biased financial research, false identities, bogus credit ratings, bribery, libelous blogs, bad science, forgery, wiretapping, counterfeiting, collusion, lying, cheating, threats and theft."
And if that wasn't fun enough, it may be the underlying story of what collapsed the entire, global banking system or at least served as the catalyst for the collapse.
Unfortunately, this story is so rich and multi-dimensional that I cannot possibly hope to do it justice here. So I will primarily focus on the financial media angle and, specifically, Jim Cramer and his thug cronies.
The story begins when a very highly respected journalist and business editor for the Columbia Journalism Review, Mark Mitchell, decides to look into allegations made by the CEO of Overstock.com, that some top hedge fund managers, in cahoots with a circle of financial analyst and reporters, had conspired to make a lot of money by betting short on companies and then systematically destroying those companies by spreading false negative information about them and employing other tactics such as flooding the market with "phantom shares" to drive down a stocks value.
To understand this you have to understand how short selling works. A short seller will borrow stock (say at $10) and then sell it immediately and pocket the money ($10). Then, when the company's stock value plummets ($1), they buy it at its deflated value and pocket the difference ($9). This is perfectly legal. But there's another variety that takes place because of a flaw in the system.
This is where a short seller sells stock that they haven't actually borrowed yet. There are loopholes that allow shorters to do this legally, but those loopholes have allowed the practice to be abused - which is illegal. Therefore, it is quite easy to fraudulently put on the open market shares of stock that do not, nor ever will, exist. These phantom shares do nothing but crash the value of a stock and therefore make legitimate short transactions highly profitable.
This is what Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne had discovered had been done to his company. Naked short selling combined with bogus financial analysis, lies and rumors propagated by CNBC reporters all served to trash his company's stock. So he decided to fight back. He gave a big conference call presentation to a bunch of corporate CEOs and broke the story. That's when Mark Mitchell comes in. (For the record, Byrne is a Republican. I don't much care for him. But this is completely irrelevant to this story.)
To the 500 Wall Street honchos who listened in to this conference call, Patrick said that a network of miscreants was using a variety of tactics – including naked short selling (phantom stock) – to destroy public companies for profit. He said this scheme had the potential to crash the financial markets, but that the SEC did nothing because the SEC had been compromised – or "captured" – by unsavory operators on Wall Street.
In January 2006, I [Mark Mitchell] was working as an editor for the Columbia Journalism Review, a well-respected ( if somewhat dowdy) magazine devoted to media criticism. Patrick had claimed that some prominent journalists were "corrupt" and were working with prominent hedge funds to cover up the naked short selling scandal, so I called to discuss.
Patrick picked up the phone and said: "Chasing this story will take you down a rabbit hole with no end." He said that the story had it all – diabolical billionaires, phantom stock, dishonest journalists, crooked lawyers, black box organizations on Wall Street, and a crime that could very well cause a meltdown of our financial system [This was in 2006].
Not only that, Patrick said, but "the Mafia is involved, too."
Well, Patrick seemed basically sane. I decided to write a story about the basically sane CEO who was fighting the media on an important financial issue while harboring some eccentric notions about the Mafia.
I figured it would take a week.
* * * * * * * *
Months later, my desk was buried under evidence of short seller miscreancy, I had done nothing but investigate this story since the day I first called Patrick, and I had just gone to a topless club to meet a self-professed mobster who told me all about a stockbroker who had peddled phantom shares for the Russian Mafia and the Genovese organized crime family.
Heh, it gets better. But, again, way too long to address here. So back to the media angle:. Here's Mitchell later on:
I have analyzed well over a thousand stories written by this clique of journalists. The vast majority of them were sourced from a small group of short-sellers who are also friends of Cramer. Other popular sources for this group of journalists include convicted felons, mobsters, dubious private investigators, crooked lawyers, hired stock bashers, and gun-toting goons - most of whom are tied to the Cramer constellation of short-sellers.
Some of the stories written by these reporters are accurate enough. But many are not. The journalists misconstrue data with seemingly purposeful intent. They exaggerate and obfuscate. They publish innuendo or merely repeat, Deus Optimus Maximus, the words of their hedge fund and criminal friends. A single negative story by one of these reporter-thugs can send a company’s stock tumbling by more than 50% — pure profit for their hedge fund sources, who of course sell the company short (often right before the articles are published). Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of the companies targeted by these journalists will also be the victims of phantom stock selling and other shenanigans. The journalists do not mention this in their stories, and in fact go out of their way to deny that phantom stock exists.
Anyone who says otherwise is subjected to a vicious media smear.
To fully appreciate the Jim Cramer angle a little journey to his past is in order. This is from Cramer himself:
"We had it down to a science in 1992: my wife would pick stocks that technically looked ready to go up, or she would keep track of merchandise to see what was down to tag ends. She would then generate a list of stocks that could move quickly on good news. Jeff would then go to work calling the companies to try to find anything good we could say about them. I would call the analysts to see I they were hearing anything. When we found a stock that looked ready technically to break out, or where the supply had been mopped up, and Jeff found something positive at the company, and I knew the analyst community didn’t know anything positive, we would load up with call options and common stock and then give the good news to our favorite analysts who liked the stock so they could go do their promotion. That would get the buzz going and we would then be able to liquidate the position into the buzz for a handsome profit." (Confessions of a Street Addict, page 61).
This is Cramer's big secret. He figured out early that the way to make money betting on stocks was to rig the game - control the news and you control a stock's value. Now he has his own TV show.
Nicholas Maier worked for Cramer until 1998. He quit and wrote a book about it called, Trading with the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer’s Wall Street (New York: HarperCollins, 2002). Here's an excerpt showing that Cramer was into naked short selling early on:
Jim turns toward his head trader. "Mark, sell ten thousand Bristol Myers."
"We never bought any Bristol Myers," Mark replies.
"We own the calls," Jim corrects Mark impatiently, aggravated by the delay.
"So sell it short?" Mark asks for clarification. Mark knows that according to the SEC rule book, selling stock you don’t already own (even if you do own the call options) must be marked and executed as a short sale.
"You are confusing me with someone who gives a shit. Just sell it! I said hit the fucking bid!" adds Jim, not interested in wasting time over petty semantics. Skirting the "plus tick" rule in this case won’t necessarily make us a lot of extra money, but in Jim’s eyes, the rule is still an unenforceable annoyance. "And don’t ever ask me that again!" (Trading With the Enemy, pages 70-71).
The story of Jim Cramer cannot be fully presented here. BUt here's an excerpt from Mitchell's book length expose that will get you into the ballpark:
Cramer, who is a sociopath, owns TheStreet.com with Marty Peretz, who is an aristocrat. Peretz is also the former editor of the New Republic magazine. He dabbles in high finance and Harvard professing, which has resulted in his entrusting a large portion of his family fortune to a close-knit group of hedge fund managers, several of whom were his students. For example, Cramer was his student. Then Cramer was destitute. He lived in a car with a loaded gun hidden under the seat. Eventually, though, Peretz gave Cramer some money to start a hedge fund, which Cramer managed with celebrated ruthlessness until he resolved to seek spiritual enlightenment as a TV news host.
Cramer had originally planned to run his hedge fund out of the offices of Ivan Boesky. Shortly before he was to move in, however, the feds busted Boesky for insider trading, making him one of the most famous criminals of the 1980s. (This is not necessarily to suggest that Boesky is the "Sith Lord" mentioned in Patrick’s "Miscreants Ball" presentation. Some people have wagered that Patrick was referring to Michael Milken, a business colleague of Boesky known as the "junk bond king," who also went to prison in the 1980s. Patrick has since modified the analogy, saying that the crime has multiple masterminds - "like Al Qaeda").
When Boesky went to prison, Cramer worked instead with hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt. The media portrays Steinhardt as a financial wizard, a deep thinker and an all-around swell guy. The truth is, he’s a thug who perfected the concept of trading on privileged information, and pounded it into the heads of his employees. "What’s your edge!?" he’d shout, pacing his trading room floor. "What’s your fucking edge!?" After one of Steinhardt’s tirades, a top employee (and the godfather to Steinhardt’s children) had a heart attack. It is said that Steinhardt showed no remorse.
Indeed, Steinhardt has one of the most fearsome reputations on Wall Street. Which is perhaps unsurprising given that Steinhardt’s father, Sol "Red" Steinhardt, was a mobster once described by a Manhattan district attorney as the biggest Mafia fence in America. Steinhardt Sr. worked for the Genovese organized crime family, with goons like Meyer Lansky and Vinnie "Blue Eyes" Alo, before he was sentenced to a number of years in Sing-Sing prison.
By Steinhardt Jr.’s own account, the principal partners in his first hedge fund were the Genovese Mafia, Ivan Boesky, Marty Peretz (the aristocrat who funded Cramer), and a man named Marc Rich. Rich is closely connected to Ronald Greenwald, described in the authoritative book Red Mafiya as the man who, along with the Genovese family, brought the Russian Mob to America.
In 1983, Rich was indicted for trading illegally with Iran while Islamic revolutionaries were holding the American embassy hostage in Tehran. Along with his associate, "Pinky" Green, he fled to Switzerland. In 2001, Steinhardt, a big-time operator in Democratic circles, convinced Bill Clinton to give Rich a scandalous presidential pardon, but Rich remains in Switzerland to avoid paying his tax bill.
In the early 1990s, Steinhardt shut down his hedge fund after he was implicated in a scheme to corner the U.S. treasuries market - a horrendous infraction with serious implications for the U.S. economy.
So this is a rough crowd. Says one Wall Street trader: "It was the day the bad guys came to town — when Steinhardt and his people arrived."
One of Steinhardt’s people is Jim Cramer. Another is Cramer’s wife, who was known as the "Trading Goddess" when she worked as Steinhardt’s head trader. Maria Bartiromo, a CNBC anchor known as the "Money Honey," is married to the top partner in Steinhardt’s newest hedge fund. (A former employee of Cramer’s hedge fund has written that Cramer often fed tips to the Money Honey, trading ahead of her stories, and it is rumored that she recruited him to CNBC.)
And then there is David Rocker, the short-selling hedge fund manager believed to be scheming, along with Cramer and Herb, with Gradient Analytics, the financial research shop under SEC investigation in 2006.
Cramer says he’s met Rocker only once - apparently while squeezing the grapefruit at some grocery store. But the truth is, Cramer knows Rocker well. Rocker is a former employee of Steinhardt’s hedge fund. He worked there at the same time as the Trading Goddess.
And, until recently, Rocker was the largest outside shareholder in Cramer’s website, TheStreet.com. Cramer sometimes quotes the hedge fund manager on his television show, and once interviewed him live. Rocker is also a regular writer for TheStreet.com, where he bashes stocks that Cramer subsequently also bashes in multiple stories on both the website and CNBC.
In February 2006, the SEC is investigating Gradient Analytics for disseminating false information about public companies. The agency has affidavits from former employees who say that Gradient’s "independent research" is produced by recent University of Arizona graduates who know little to nothing about finance and essentially take dictation from hedge fund managers, including David Rocker.
One of these employees says that Herb conspired with Rocker to hold his negative stories (premised on Gradient’s false information) until Rocker could establish short positions. This is called front-running - a jailable offense. It is reasonable to suspect that Rocker had similar relationships with TheStreet.com (of which he has owned a substantial portion) and other media.
Not long before Cramer announced his SEC subpoenas, Rocker sold all of his shares in TheStreet.com. Cramer sold around $2 million of his own shares. If Cramer knew about the SEC investigation before he sold his shares, which was almost certainly the case, he was trading on insider information - another jailable offense.
But Cramer don’t know nothin’ about nothin’. And Herb thinks the SEC investigation is an outrage. So Herb and Cramer have commandeered CNBC. They are live on CNBC. Herb has jabbered something about a conspiracy - a conspiracy to get Herb.
And now Cramer is going to show us something.
He’s pulled out a big, red magic marker. Veins are popping, rope-like, from his bald cranium. And he’s snarling. Cramer is actually snarling while he uses the big red magic marker to scribble something on a piece of paper.
He holds the paper up to the camera.
It’s...it’s his government subpoena...Cramer has vandalized his government subpoena! On live TV... in big red letters...
It says, "BULL!"
Jim Cramer is a crook. Wall Street is full of crooks. The next time you see CNBC, keep that in mind. They are not reporting. They are trying to sell you something and, quite possibly, trying to manipulate the market.
Now, one last bit about how this all relates to the financial crisis. The SEC is investigating whether abusive and illegal naked short selling brought down Bear Stearnes and Lehman as well as many other companies.
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, 55, told the Senate Banking Committee yesterday the agency is investigating whether illegal trading contributed to the collapse of Bear Stearns in March and the 75 percent drop in the market value of Lehman Brothers this year. The probe focuses on traders who seek to profit by intentionally spreading false information about the New York- based firms.
In the Jon Stewart video, you can see Cramer talking up Bear Stearns. That doesn't sound like he or one of his hedge fund buddies going short. But remeber, naked short sellers will often try to pump a stock before they trash it to create a wider spread and, consequently, more profit.
But that said, there is some evidence Cramer changed his tune after that SEC subpoena. After mocking people who complained about naked short sellers, he eventually joined the call for reform. Always covering his ass.
Watch Bloomberg's report, which was inspired by the work of Deep Capture, on Naked Short Selling here.
This, the 265th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
What if Atlas Shrugged?
Atlas Telamon, "enduring Atlas". Zeus condemned Atlas, for he and his brother's sibling rivalry, in conjunction with the war between Titans and Olympians. The war that followed angered Zeus to the point of reprimanding Atlas to stand at the western edge of Gaia(the Earth), and hold up Ouranos(the Sky), on his shoulders due to his shenanigans.
In many more modern mythical mishaps of marketing and advertising we see Atlas carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, rather than the stars. If it were the world on his shoulders, what if Atlas shrugged...?
This is where the idea of one of the great novels of modern literature comes from. In the book by Ayn Rand called, Atlas Shrugged, Atlas is used as a metaphor for the people who produced the most in society, and therefore "hold up the world" in a metaphorical sense.
I am continually awed by how life imitates art. John Galt is the protagonist in the book which explores the idea of the working class to withhold their ideas or contributions of their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world.
Today we call this protectionism. The idea is the same. Only when the working people begin to understand that they hold the power, and not the rich, they can begin to see the essence of what life holds for all. Today's ills find America discussing buying America to cure the economy. Despite the fact that the world is the economy and not simply an American economy, or European economy, or a Chinese or Japanese economy.
The metaphor of producing the most, from the book Atlas Shrugged, is the key phrase there. The elitists of Wall Street have exemplified to the world that they actually produce NOTHING. They created NO value. Everything they do can be done on a grass roots level with today's modern technology.
When the Twin Towers were felled by Saudi extremists orchestrated by the elite rich of the world through...sorry, this is another topic for another day...Our sitting President (literally sitting and reading a childrens book, albeit upside down,) came out from behind the curtain and told America to go shopping.
We have seen our society become consumed with the idea that consuming, buying, spending is the means to happiness. We have spent centuries trying to teach others around the world the same philosophy. But is this "the way".
Irrational Exuberance, was the phrase to which former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan stated in a speech given at the American Enterprise Institute during the stock market boom of the 1990s. The phrase was interpreted by financial pundits as a typically cryptic warning that the market might be overvalued.
Irrational Exuberance is also the title of the best selling book by Yale economics professor, Robert Shiller, on the analysis of speculative bubbles in relation and special reference to the stock market and real estate.
We are entering into what Ayn Rand called "Obectivism". Her claims is that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest. This is the key phrase in today's society, rational self-interest. Today we come to grips with irrational self-interests and exuberance.
We are witnessing modern capitalism and its plagues and problems within its structure. We are seeing new paper being printed with the guarantee that it holds value, although is on a valueless based system. We are seeing that professed value become valueless overnight. We are seeing institutions fall, destroyed by their own misguided structures of governance and process. We are seeing our savings and our guarantees being thrown out and given back to those same institutions to which have failed us. We are being told to trust that they will do better this next time around.
This is a perfect moment in our history to come to terms with the fact that the system as we know it is broken, and some say does not work. Some say it is simply a matter of time and this is a sign that that time will come. Rather than bailout a failed system, we should recognize the opportunity that is in front of us. We are blessed with a moment in time to which we can change what is broken. Our society has run out of band-aids and it is time to throw out what does not work.
Perhaps it is time for Atlas to shrug. We all carry the weight of our own world on our shoulders. What if we all simply shrugged, and said, "Well, that doesn't work, let's just start over with a blank slate, but a decent outline."
We could all simply erase our debt, like the banks are doing. We could simply begin again with a new number, since the FICO score system is now failed and no longer can apply.
We have the opportunity to take pieces of what we have created over the past centuries of capitalism, merge it with some concepts of nationalism, and sister that with some principles and practices of socialism, all the while we attempt to make things equal for all as under the auspices of communism...
With so many isms out there, why do we have to stick with one?! I don't understand that...
So, like Atlas, I shrug.
This, the 260th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
In many more modern mythical mishaps of marketing and advertising we see Atlas carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, rather than the stars. If it were the world on his shoulders, what if Atlas shrugged...?
This is where the idea of one of the great novels of modern literature comes from. In the book by Ayn Rand called, Atlas Shrugged, Atlas is used as a metaphor for the people who produced the most in society, and therefore "hold up the world" in a metaphorical sense.
I am continually awed by how life imitates art. John Galt is the protagonist in the book which explores the idea of the working class to withhold their ideas or contributions of their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world.
Today we call this protectionism. The idea is the same. Only when the working people begin to understand that they hold the power, and not the rich, they can begin to see the essence of what life holds for all. Today's ills find America discussing buying America to cure the economy. Despite the fact that the world is the economy and not simply an American economy, or European economy, or a Chinese or Japanese economy.
The metaphor of producing the most, from the book Atlas Shrugged, is the key phrase there. The elitists of Wall Street have exemplified to the world that they actually produce NOTHING. They created NO value. Everything they do can be done on a grass roots level with today's modern technology.
When the Twin Towers were felled by Saudi extremists orchestrated by the elite rich of the world through...sorry, this is another topic for another day...Our sitting President (literally sitting and reading a childrens book, albeit upside down,) came out from behind the curtain and told America to go shopping.
We have seen our society become consumed with the idea that consuming, buying, spending is the means to happiness. We have spent centuries trying to teach others around the world the same philosophy. But is this "the way".
Irrational Exuberance, was the phrase to which former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan stated in a speech given at the American Enterprise Institute during the stock market boom of the 1990s. The phrase was interpreted by financial pundits as a typically cryptic warning that the market might be overvalued.
Irrational Exuberance is also the title of the best selling book by Yale economics professor, Robert Shiller, on the analysis of speculative bubbles in relation and special reference to the stock market and real estate.
We are entering into what Ayn Rand called "Obectivism". Her claims is that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest. This is the key phrase in today's society, rational self-interest. Today we come to grips with irrational self-interests and exuberance.
We are witnessing modern capitalism and its plagues and problems within its structure. We are seeing new paper being printed with the guarantee that it holds value, although is on a valueless based system. We are seeing that professed value become valueless overnight. We are seeing institutions fall, destroyed by their own misguided structures of governance and process. We are seeing our savings and our guarantees being thrown out and given back to those same institutions to which have failed us. We are being told to trust that they will do better this next time around.
This is a perfect moment in our history to come to terms with the fact that the system as we know it is broken, and some say does not work. Some say it is simply a matter of time and this is a sign that that time will come. Rather than bailout a failed system, we should recognize the opportunity that is in front of us. We are blessed with a moment in time to which we can change what is broken. Our society has run out of band-aids and it is time to throw out what does not work.
Perhaps it is time for Atlas to shrug. We all carry the weight of our own world on our shoulders. What if we all simply shrugged, and said, "Well, that doesn't work, let's just start over with a blank slate, but a decent outline."
We could all simply erase our debt, like the banks are doing. We could simply begin again with a new number, since the FICO score system is now failed and no longer can apply.
We have the opportunity to take pieces of what we have created over the past centuries of capitalism, merge it with some concepts of nationalism, and sister that with some principles and practices of socialism, all the while we attempt to make things equal for all as under the auspices of communism...
With so many isms out there, why do we have to stick with one?! I don't understand that...
So, like Atlas, I shrug.
This, the 260th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Where's the CON in confidence? You hide it well...
I guess Washington relies on the factoid that Americans have a very short attention span.
Based on the comment from Lila Rajiva, the other day, who is the co-author of one of my favorite books, "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets", and a must read (to which you can order from my book library spindle at the top) she mentioned that perhaps more writing needs to be done regarding the financiers who have swindled the world from its money. I do agree, do to the fact that most people have already forgotten what has really transpired in the past only four short months...You can find her blog on the right in the column titled "Other Blogs of Interest" to which I frequent and hers is called, Mind-Body Politic.
To recap;
Back in September, Bernanke and Paulson came to Washington and asked for a blank check with no strings attached so they could get the banks the $700B in order for the banks to begin to buy up the toxic assets...When Bush came forward and asked for the blank check-the public said,"not again with the blank check policy..." But basically the politicos gave in anyway after a few bullshit sessions to make things look good to their constituents since Nov. 4 was right around the corner...politics, right?!
Then the banks took the money and hoarded it. No one in Washington told them they actually had to DO something with OUR money we were giving to them-those who fucked it all up in the first place. Oh, some paid for some great parties and a few CEO's and such got some great golden parachutes albeit with different semantic wording in order to comply...but they still got their-I mean, OUR money...
Then the banks kept hoarding the money. They continue to blame it on the consumer confidence. Is this CON or CONfidence... Businesses failed, people went broke, people lost their homes, people lost their jobs, more people lost their homes...
Obama got elected and people began to see a new light to the world. People forgot about the shit...The banks kept hoarding the money...
But more businesses failed, more people went broke, more people lost their homes, more people lost their jobs, then more people lost their homes...
Well, Bernanke stated today, in a speech in London, that he thought that the banks should be given the rest of the $350B that Obama is asking for so that the banks could buy up the toxic assets.
I'm sorry, did I hear that again? I mean, did you stutter? I mean, do you mean it this time?
And I guess our Democratic Congress and Senate decided to get a set of balls when there is an incoming Democratic President. Where were the concerns and checks and balances for the Bush $350B(actually substantially more...)
I asked for the Democrats to get a set of balls, but perhaps they needed to have a damn backbone when we had the Bush criminals running the show...
Once again, you can't make this shit up!
Bernanke originally came in stating that our old friend Greenspan had failed at his job. By no oversight or foresight he seemed oblivious to the lending rates and bubble that was being created. Bernanke stated that Greenspan should have never brought down the rates as low as he did. Now, Bernanke has brought the rates to the lowest they have been since...I'm an American-I can't remember, oh that's a good thing for Bernanke...but I'll find out online...
Don't these people know that everything is recorded and secured for the rest of time through the internet, cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more...?
Perhaps they don't care because they know that America has a very short attention span.
What was I saying again?...
Oh, yeah, I was talking about this guy who "made off" with all of our money...his name was Madoff! Anyway...
And we wonder where the CON is in consumer confidence...
This, the 237th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Based on the comment from Lila Rajiva, the other day, who is the co-author of one of my favorite books, "Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets", and a must read (to which you can order from my book library spindle at the top) she mentioned that perhaps more writing needs to be done regarding the financiers who have swindled the world from its money. I do agree, do to the fact that most people have already forgotten what has really transpired in the past only four short months...You can find her blog on the right in the column titled "Other Blogs of Interest" to which I frequent and hers is called, Mind-Body Politic.
To recap;
Back in September, Bernanke and Paulson came to Washington and asked for a blank check with no strings attached so they could get the banks the $700B in order for the banks to begin to buy up the toxic assets...When Bush came forward and asked for the blank check-the public said,"not again with the blank check policy..." But basically the politicos gave in anyway after a few bullshit sessions to make things look good to their constituents since Nov. 4 was right around the corner...politics, right?!
Then the banks took the money and hoarded it. No one in Washington told them they actually had to DO something with OUR money we were giving to them-those who fucked it all up in the first place. Oh, some paid for some great parties and a few CEO's and such got some great golden parachutes albeit with different semantic wording in order to comply...but they still got their-I mean, OUR money...
Then the banks kept hoarding the money. They continue to blame it on the consumer confidence. Is this CON or CONfidence... Businesses failed, people went broke, people lost their homes, people lost their jobs, more people lost their homes...
Obama got elected and people began to see a new light to the world. People forgot about the shit...The banks kept hoarding the money...
But more businesses failed, more people went broke, more people lost their homes, more people lost their jobs, then more people lost their homes...
Well, Bernanke stated today, in a speech in London, that he thought that the banks should be given the rest of the $350B that Obama is asking for so that the banks could buy up the toxic assets.
I'm sorry, did I hear that again? I mean, did you stutter? I mean, do you mean it this time?
And I guess our Democratic Congress and Senate decided to get a set of balls when there is an incoming Democratic President. Where were the concerns and checks and balances for the Bush $350B(actually substantially more...)
I asked for the Democrats to get a set of balls, but perhaps they needed to have a damn backbone when we had the Bush criminals running the show...
Once again, you can't make this shit up!
Bernanke originally came in stating that our old friend Greenspan had failed at his job. By no oversight or foresight he seemed oblivious to the lending rates and bubble that was being created. Bernanke stated that Greenspan should have never brought down the rates as low as he did. Now, Bernanke has brought the rates to the lowest they have been since...I'm an American-I can't remember, oh that's a good thing for Bernanke...but I'll find out online...
Don't these people know that everything is recorded and secured for the rest of time through the internet, cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more...?
Perhaps they don't care because they know that America has a very short attention span.
What was I saying again?...
Oh, yeah, I was talking about this guy who "made off" with all of our money...his name was Madoff! Anyway...
And we wonder where the CON is in consumer confidence...
This, the 237th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Friday, January 9, 2009
A Banter of Basic Economics
This text is from Don Stott, a gold and metals trader, who puts out a column on Tuesday and Thursday of each week on his website Colorado Gold.
January 8, 2009:
There are so many complications, economics wise and there shouldn’t be because as Ludwig von Mises once said, defining economics, “People Act.” It’s just that simple! Examples are everywhere. Toyota is closing its plants for 11 days, and how many employees does this affect? Let’s say 2,000, at $200 a day, for 11 days. The loss in payroll to workers is a total of $4,400,000. Toyota will save $4,400,000, and the laid off workers will buy $4,400,000 less food, cars, gasoline, or whatever they won’t buy, because they have fewer dollars to use.
Multiply this by millions of permanent layoffs, bankruptcies, shut downs, going out of businesses, chains closing for good, autos down the tubes, housing starts virtually zero, and sales almost the same, and what do you get? The Toyota effect, multiplied many times over. 2.5 Million jobs were lost in 2008.
You get millions out of a job, millions behind in their mortgage and credit card payments, millions with homes worth less than is owed on them, and the chain reaction follows. The more layoffs there are, the more store closings and bankruptcies there will be, and resultant layoffs and increasing of all of the above. In other words, thanks to the welfare state, which wasn’t in existence in the 1930’s depression, credit cards which weren’t in existence in the 1930’s depression, and un-backed dollars, which were backed in the 1930’s depression, and no money down home purchases and ARM mortgages, which weren’t possible in the 1930’s depression, the conditions currently extant can and probably will make this depression far more severe than the 1930’s depression. The facts say it will be far worse.
Unfortunately, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Take carburetors. For over 75 years, cars, trucks, planes, and everything powered with gasoline engines, used carburetors to mix air and gas to feed into the engine’s intake manifold. They worked well, but on occasion, they became ‘flooded,’ and the engine wouldn’t run. (Modern, fuel injected engines can’t be ‘flooded.’) Carburetors had two things on them which caused ‘flooding.’ (1) The accelerator pump, and (2) The choke. On cold mornings, often the choke, which restricts the flow of air, might make the mixture too rich, and cause the ‘flooding,’ or often in hot weather, too much gas pedal pumping would inject too much raw gas into the engine, ‘flooding’ it, and causing it not to run. Both things, which caused the ‘flooding,’ and engines not running, were TOO MUCH GAS.
The solution was to stop the flooding by depressing the accelerator all the way to the floor, and crank the engine till the excess gas was used up, or open the choke and wait for it to evaporate. Gasoline engine technology is not the point here. The point is this: What got us into this economic mess? TOO MUCH MONEY INSERTED INTO AN ECONOMY by the Federal Reserve. Just like the engine being flooded with too much gas, the solution is to cut off the gas.
The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan flooded America with easy money, easy mortgages, and easy credit. The result was bad credit, bad mortgages, and everything being over-priced. Pouring more gas into a flooded carburetor, guaranteed the problem would be made much worse. Cutting off the gas would be the solution. Pouring $2 trillion, and god only knows how much more into the economy, is like pouring gas into a flooded carburetor. It will only make matters worse. Obama says he has consulted 20 of America’s best, most respected economists, and they say pour more gas (printing press dollars) into the flooded carburetor (economy), and the engine of America will start. NUTS! I wish Obama had called me.
The same exact thing was tried in the 1930’s, with huge government spending, and it took WW II to get us out of the depression. We’re already in two wars, and I certainly wouldn’t want us in a third one.
How about this as a cure for the current depression?
(1) Get us OUT of both wars we’re now in, and bring home all the troops. Let ‘em solve their own problems over there. We’ve got huge ones here, and can no longer concern ourselves with theirs. This will save hundreds of billions a year, if not well over a trillion.
(2) Disband most federal bureaucracies, especially the Federal Reserve, and do it Quickly. The DOT, DOE, HUD — and the list is long — serve no useful purpose. The Department of Education educates no one, the Department of Transportation transports no one, etc. This will save hundreds of billions a year.
(3) Revert to the Constitution, which gives government no authorization to subsidize anything. This will put an end to all federal welfare, and save hundreds of billions a year.
(4) Get out of the UN, NATO, and any and all foreign entanglements, at a savings of more hundreds of billions, and get the UN out of America. Declare unconditional neutrality, and send no money or advice overseas at any time, or for any reason.
(5) Close our borders with Mexico, and see to it that they stay closed 100%. More savings.
(6) As illegals come up for police stops, free medical care, welfare, school enrollment etc., which are in the hundreds of thousands each year, instantly send them home.
(7) Renounce NAFTA, and all laws, which encourage, tax wise, the building of plants offshore, and resulting layoffs here. With the budget balanced, and no more Federal Reserve, recovery would be pretty quick.
Today, every single state is in terrible economic condition because of layoffs, bankruptcies, and low tax collections. They have to balance their budgets. The D.C. Gang doesn’t, and can print and print and print, which they are doing, and will continue to do with nary a smidgen of responsibility. We all pay for their lack of responsibility with every single dollar we own being reduced in purchasing power.
I can go on and on, but the point is this: The ones who harm us the most — other than the Congress who has gotten us into this with a hundred years of bad legislation — are bureaucrats, welfare recipients, and illegals, who would be out of work, and that’s great! Let D.C. turn itself into a ghost town, full of worthless, out of work ex-bureaucrats. Maybe they’d burn the place down and we could start over. Let the illegals go home by themselves, or by force when they are picked up. If states want to subsidize the poor, or illegal, they can, but not the federal government. All of these ideas would actually balance the budget, and make America strong again. None of these ideas have a Chinaman’s chance in hell of coming to pass. Not a single one. Obama will print up another trillion dollars in un-backed scrip, and we’ll have hyper-inflation, except in housing, because that has yet to reach bottom.
To fix a flooded engine, you cut off the gas. To fix an economy flooded with paper money, you cut off the paper money, not print trillions more! The economy is in such a sorry state, flooded with fake money, that the fed interest is close to zero. They’ll pay you NOTHING to store your scrip for you. Wise people have taken their scrip, and turned it into precious metals, which will always have value in any currency, or all by itself. An economy such as ours, which has been flooded with unbacked scrip, and ceased to run, as in a flooded engine, has to get itself out of the mess by ceasing the printing of scrip.
It will be very painful to millions of people who have not been acting wisely, or who have been depending on Uncle Sam for their sustenance. The pain of this depression is unimaginable today. We’re only at the very beginning of it. The only sensible way to get out of it, is to let it run its course, and at rock bottom, the economy will begin to rise like the Phoenix Bird.
If my ideas ever came into being, there would be wholesale riots by those cut off, and many millions would die. Wonderful! We are flooded with not only too much scrip, backed by nothing, but too much human trash, who have been flooded with handouts from the public treasury. Millions actually believe that government owes them a living, which is gross error, and extremely costly. They, like the scrip, are basically worthless, and they must be gotten rid of to make our economy healthy again. How to do it? I give up, or at least won’t write about it.
* * * * * * * * * *
My thoughts and recap:
There are some various ideas to which I can see and agree with his points, but I can't go with him all of the way. Perhaps because much of his rants are right winged, conservative, classist, with much hidden racism-or not so hidden. His ideas of the seperatist concept of hunker down is highly dangerous in such a flat and shrinking economic and social world.
The world is looking for a leader on a global scale, the likes to which this country has been since WWII. However, the Bush Administration has set the perception and confidence in this country, to the rest of the world, back many generations. Radical change in the opposite direction through positivity and unification are what people are yearning for. When the masses have opportunity, there are massive amounts of opportunity available to all. When opportunity is available only to a small populace, a small amount of reward is distributed. It's proportional relativism as to its result. The conservative concepts of trickle down economics has shown itself to not work.
In our world of a growing global market and expanding economic opportunity for the largest middle class expansion on a mass scale we should not put ourselves and the world in a position that hinders that, but we must embrace that with openness and new ideas. In the words of the republican icon Reagan, "Tear down the wall."
Although, the writer Don Stott, is a broker with metals to move, there is extreme instability in the metals arena as with anything else at this time. There is nearly nothing anyone can do right now until the financial sector begins to take risks again. Due to the fact that there seems to be a lull in anything as there is a new administration coming in, institutions are careful as to how and when they are going to make moves and in what direction as it seems the Obama administration will be making some changes.
Until that time, there is no where to hide. As a tactical maneuver it is a time to sit in the bunker and wait out some of the cross fire. We all know that this is a time where some profitable deals can be made, but, one must take heeded caution as to the entry and exit strategies.
This, the 236th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
January 8, 2009:
There are so many complications, economics wise and there shouldn’t be because as Ludwig von Mises once said, defining economics, “People Act.” It’s just that simple! Examples are everywhere. Toyota is closing its plants for 11 days, and how many employees does this affect? Let’s say 2,000, at $200 a day, for 11 days. The loss in payroll to workers is a total of $4,400,000. Toyota will save $4,400,000, and the laid off workers will buy $4,400,000 less food, cars, gasoline, or whatever they won’t buy, because they have fewer dollars to use.
Multiply this by millions of permanent layoffs, bankruptcies, shut downs, going out of businesses, chains closing for good, autos down the tubes, housing starts virtually zero, and sales almost the same, and what do you get? The Toyota effect, multiplied many times over. 2.5 Million jobs were lost in 2008.
You get millions out of a job, millions behind in their mortgage and credit card payments, millions with homes worth less than is owed on them, and the chain reaction follows. The more layoffs there are, the more store closings and bankruptcies there will be, and resultant layoffs and increasing of all of the above. In other words, thanks to the welfare state, which wasn’t in existence in the 1930’s depression, credit cards which weren’t in existence in the 1930’s depression, and un-backed dollars, which were backed in the 1930’s depression, and no money down home purchases and ARM mortgages, which weren’t possible in the 1930’s depression, the conditions currently extant can and probably will make this depression far more severe than the 1930’s depression. The facts say it will be far worse.
Unfortunately, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Take carburetors. For over 75 years, cars, trucks, planes, and everything powered with gasoline engines, used carburetors to mix air and gas to feed into the engine’s intake manifold. They worked well, but on occasion, they became ‘flooded,’ and the engine wouldn’t run. (Modern, fuel injected engines can’t be ‘flooded.’) Carburetors had two things on them which caused ‘flooding.’ (1) The accelerator pump, and (2) The choke. On cold mornings, often the choke, which restricts the flow of air, might make the mixture too rich, and cause the ‘flooding,’ or often in hot weather, too much gas pedal pumping would inject too much raw gas into the engine, ‘flooding’ it, and causing it not to run. Both things, which caused the ‘flooding,’ and engines not running, were TOO MUCH GAS.
The solution was to stop the flooding by depressing the accelerator all the way to the floor, and crank the engine till the excess gas was used up, or open the choke and wait for it to evaporate. Gasoline engine technology is not the point here. The point is this: What got us into this economic mess? TOO MUCH MONEY INSERTED INTO AN ECONOMY by the Federal Reserve. Just like the engine being flooded with too much gas, the solution is to cut off the gas.
The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan flooded America with easy money, easy mortgages, and easy credit. The result was bad credit, bad mortgages, and everything being over-priced. Pouring more gas into a flooded carburetor, guaranteed the problem would be made much worse. Cutting off the gas would be the solution. Pouring $2 trillion, and god only knows how much more into the economy, is like pouring gas into a flooded carburetor. It will only make matters worse. Obama says he has consulted 20 of America’s best, most respected economists, and they say pour more gas (printing press dollars) into the flooded carburetor (economy), and the engine of America will start. NUTS! I wish Obama had called me.
The same exact thing was tried in the 1930’s, with huge government spending, and it took WW II to get us out of the depression. We’re already in two wars, and I certainly wouldn’t want us in a third one.
How about this as a cure for the current depression?
(1) Get us OUT of both wars we’re now in, and bring home all the troops. Let ‘em solve their own problems over there. We’ve got huge ones here, and can no longer concern ourselves with theirs. This will save hundreds of billions a year, if not well over a trillion.
(2) Disband most federal bureaucracies, especially the Federal Reserve, and do it Quickly. The DOT, DOE, HUD — and the list is long — serve no useful purpose. The Department of Education educates no one, the Department of Transportation transports no one, etc. This will save hundreds of billions a year.
(3) Revert to the Constitution, which gives government no authorization to subsidize anything. This will put an end to all federal welfare, and save hundreds of billions a year.
(4) Get out of the UN, NATO, and any and all foreign entanglements, at a savings of more hundreds of billions, and get the UN out of America. Declare unconditional neutrality, and send no money or advice overseas at any time, or for any reason.
(5) Close our borders with Mexico, and see to it that they stay closed 100%. More savings.
(6) As illegals come up for police stops, free medical care, welfare, school enrollment etc., which are in the hundreds of thousands each year, instantly send them home.
(7) Renounce NAFTA, and all laws, which encourage, tax wise, the building of plants offshore, and resulting layoffs here. With the budget balanced, and no more Federal Reserve, recovery would be pretty quick.
Today, every single state is in terrible economic condition because of layoffs, bankruptcies, and low tax collections. They have to balance their budgets. The D.C. Gang doesn’t, and can print and print and print, which they are doing, and will continue to do with nary a smidgen of responsibility. We all pay for their lack of responsibility with every single dollar we own being reduced in purchasing power.
I can go on and on, but the point is this: The ones who harm us the most — other than the Congress who has gotten us into this with a hundred years of bad legislation — are bureaucrats, welfare recipients, and illegals, who would be out of work, and that’s great! Let D.C. turn itself into a ghost town, full of worthless, out of work ex-bureaucrats. Maybe they’d burn the place down and we could start over. Let the illegals go home by themselves, or by force when they are picked up. If states want to subsidize the poor, or illegal, they can, but not the federal government. All of these ideas would actually balance the budget, and make America strong again. None of these ideas have a Chinaman’s chance in hell of coming to pass. Not a single one. Obama will print up another trillion dollars in un-backed scrip, and we’ll have hyper-inflation, except in housing, because that has yet to reach bottom.
To fix a flooded engine, you cut off the gas. To fix an economy flooded with paper money, you cut off the paper money, not print trillions more! The economy is in such a sorry state, flooded with fake money, that the fed interest is close to zero. They’ll pay you NOTHING to store your scrip for you. Wise people have taken their scrip, and turned it into precious metals, which will always have value in any currency, or all by itself. An economy such as ours, which has been flooded with unbacked scrip, and ceased to run, as in a flooded engine, has to get itself out of the mess by ceasing the printing of scrip.
It will be very painful to millions of people who have not been acting wisely, or who have been depending on Uncle Sam for their sustenance. The pain of this depression is unimaginable today. We’re only at the very beginning of it. The only sensible way to get out of it, is to let it run its course, and at rock bottom, the economy will begin to rise like the Phoenix Bird.
If my ideas ever came into being, there would be wholesale riots by those cut off, and many millions would die. Wonderful! We are flooded with not only too much scrip, backed by nothing, but too much human trash, who have been flooded with handouts from the public treasury. Millions actually believe that government owes them a living, which is gross error, and extremely costly. They, like the scrip, are basically worthless, and they must be gotten rid of to make our economy healthy again. How to do it? I give up, or at least won’t write about it.
* * * * * * * * * *
My thoughts and recap:
There are some various ideas to which I can see and agree with his points, but I can't go with him all of the way. Perhaps because much of his rants are right winged, conservative, classist, with much hidden racism-or not so hidden. His ideas of the seperatist concept of hunker down is highly dangerous in such a flat and shrinking economic and social world.
The world is looking for a leader on a global scale, the likes to which this country has been since WWII. However, the Bush Administration has set the perception and confidence in this country, to the rest of the world, back many generations. Radical change in the opposite direction through positivity and unification are what people are yearning for. When the masses have opportunity, there are massive amounts of opportunity available to all. When opportunity is available only to a small populace, a small amount of reward is distributed. It's proportional relativism as to its result. The conservative concepts of trickle down economics has shown itself to not work.
In our world of a growing global market and expanding economic opportunity for the largest middle class expansion on a mass scale we should not put ourselves and the world in a position that hinders that, but we must embrace that with openness and new ideas. In the words of the republican icon Reagan, "Tear down the wall."
Although, the writer Don Stott, is a broker with metals to move, there is extreme instability in the metals arena as with anything else at this time. There is nearly nothing anyone can do right now until the financial sector begins to take risks again. Due to the fact that there seems to be a lull in anything as there is a new administration coming in, institutions are careful as to how and when they are going to make moves and in what direction as it seems the Obama administration will be making some changes.
Until that time, there is no where to hide. As a tactical maneuver it is a time to sit in the bunker and wait out some of the cross fire. We all know that this is a time where some profitable deals can be made, but, one must take heeded caution as to the entry and exit strategies.
This, the 236th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs
Friday, December 5, 2008
You Suck, sir!
In an age of the Internet, preserved news bits, and YouTube we still have a mindset in Washington that thinks the world revolves around them.
Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, McCain, and Palin are all in this crowd of leadership. Karl Rove is one as well. But, let's get to some points. Bernanke, as head of the Federal Reserve, he and Treasury Secretary Paulson were the primary architects that reported with Bush on the initial "no strings attached" $700 Billion bailout plan. Well, with Bush attached to that news everyone knew that was going to be a farce. Congress told them to come back with a real idea...
So, their idea was to buy up the toxic mortgages and package them in order to help alleviate the stress on homeowners that are balancing on foreclosure. Well, still with no oversight or strings firmly in place, Congress gave them the money they asked for. Then, immediately, Bernanke and Paulson decided to spend their allowance a bit differently than they had expressed by giving it to all of their white collared friends on Wall Street. Then, something happened on the way to the forum...NOTHING!
The economy got worse, way worse.
The story goes on, but we'll cut to the chase. Bernanke announced an idea yesterday. It seemed as if he thought it was a new idea...It seems to be a similar idea that I espoused to be the program a while ago. He said to bring down the mortgage pricing for those struggling. Bring it down to the 3 percent level for about 5 years or so, with the government helping out on some of the back end.
Wait, hasn't the government already helped out on the back end? I mean, they have given banks hundreds of BILLIONS?!!
Then he came out with a great idea! He thought another option would have the government purchase delinquent or at-risk mortgages in bulk and then refinance them into the "Hope for Homeowners" or another government program that insures home mortgages. Uh, didn't we hear this one before?
Then he called for more action from banks to help in this time of crisis.
Uh, Ya Think?!
How about mandating them to do something. Banks have been taking our future tax dollars and doing NOTHING!
This is insane!?
After his great speech, the Dow dropped over another 200 points. It opened this morning another 150 points lower.
Good job with helping. Let's see, we as a society it seems agree that most of the execs on Wall Street should lose their jobs for failure. Paulson should lose his job for failure, Bernanke isn't doing shit and should go, the heads of the big three could leave and things would be fore the better...oh, and that Bush guy should have been gone a long time ago. In fact, he should go to prison for all that he has done, but that is another story...
Bernanke stressed the importance of curbing the foreclosure mess because it is so inter-linked with the economy's health. "Weakness in the housing market has proved a serious drag on overall economic activity," he said. "Steps that stabilize the housing market will help stabilize the economy as well."
Uh, Ya THink!?
Back to the initial plan that I was touting about a month or so ago. That one plan backed by the now heavily refinanced financial industry, the Treasury would seek to lower the rate on a 30-year mortgages to 4.5 percent by purchasing mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's unclear exactly how much the plan would cost. It is possible that Paulson will ask Congress for the second $350 billion installment of the $700 billion financial bailout package to bankroll the effort. Maybe, if the first round of money went into this idea in the first place we wouldn't be needing the second round of money...
But, I said that every loan out there should be able to be refinance into the 4% rate. Some will and some are still in loans that might be fine for them and lower than this, so it would be their choice. It needs to be available for EVERYONE!
Then, Sheila Bair who heads the FDIC chimed in saying, "Getting mortgage rates down is positive, but it doesn't help people that currently have unaffordable mortgages because it doesn't help them refinance. Low interest rates help some consumers, but the ones that really need help and can't refinance are not helped."
Ah, helping everyone! What a great idea!
Paulson has been opposed to tapping the bailout pool to fund a mortgage-relief program championed by the Sheila Bair at the FDIC. The $24 billion FDIC plan would use some of the rescue money to help back refinanced mortgages that would lower monthly payments.
Let's see, Paulson or Bush aren't keen on giving the blue collar folks in Detroit any fund either. Bush...you know that guy. The man with the amazing disappearing act in times of trouble. When the towers were being blow to shit, he kept on reading a book to the children...upside down. I don't think that that specific book was printed upside down either...Now, with the worlds worst economic crisis since 1930's depression, he is working on his library and his public view of his term.
I can give him a hint...You Suck, sir!
This, the 213th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, McCain, and Palin are all in this crowd of leadership. Karl Rove is one as well. But, let's get to some points. Bernanke, as head of the Federal Reserve, he and Treasury Secretary Paulson were the primary architects that reported with Bush on the initial "no strings attached" $700 Billion bailout plan. Well, with Bush attached to that news everyone knew that was going to be a farce. Congress told them to come back with a real idea...
So, their idea was to buy up the toxic mortgages and package them in order to help alleviate the stress on homeowners that are balancing on foreclosure. Well, still with no oversight or strings firmly in place, Congress gave them the money they asked for. Then, immediately, Bernanke and Paulson decided to spend their allowance a bit differently than they had expressed by giving it to all of their white collared friends on Wall Street. Then, something happened on the way to the forum...NOTHING!
The economy got worse, way worse.
The story goes on, but we'll cut to the chase. Bernanke announced an idea yesterday. It seemed as if he thought it was a new idea...It seems to be a similar idea that I espoused to be the program a while ago. He said to bring down the mortgage pricing for those struggling. Bring it down to the 3 percent level for about 5 years or so, with the government helping out on some of the back end.
Wait, hasn't the government already helped out on the back end? I mean, they have given banks hundreds of BILLIONS?!!
Then he came out with a great idea! He thought another option would have the government purchase delinquent or at-risk mortgages in bulk and then refinance them into the "Hope for Homeowners" or another government program that insures home mortgages. Uh, didn't we hear this one before?
Then he called for more action from banks to help in this time of crisis.
Uh, Ya Think?!
How about mandating them to do something. Banks have been taking our future tax dollars and doing NOTHING!
This is insane!?
After his great speech, the Dow dropped over another 200 points. It opened this morning another 150 points lower.
Good job with helping. Let's see, we as a society it seems agree that most of the execs on Wall Street should lose their jobs for failure. Paulson should lose his job for failure, Bernanke isn't doing shit and should go, the heads of the big three could leave and things would be fore the better...oh, and that Bush guy should have been gone a long time ago. In fact, he should go to prison for all that he has done, but that is another story...
Bernanke stressed the importance of curbing the foreclosure mess because it is so inter-linked with the economy's health. "Weakness in the housing market has proved a serious drag on overall economic activity," he said. "Steps that stabilize the housing market will help stabilize the economy as well."
Uh, Ya THink!?
Back to the initial plan that I was touting about a month or so ago. That one plan backed by the now heavily refinanced financial industry, the Treasury would seek to lower the rate on a 30-year mortgages to 4.5 percent by purchasing mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's unclear exactly how much the plan would cost. It is possible that Paulson will ask Congress for the second $350 billion installment of the $700 billion financial bailout package to bankroll the effort. Maybe, if the first round of money went into this idea in the first place we wouldn't be needing the second round of money...
But, I said that every loan out there should be able to be refinance into the 4% rate. Some will and some are still in loans that might be fine for them and lower than this, so it would be their choice. It needs to be available for EVERYONE!
Then, Sheila Bair who heads the FDIC chimed in saying, "Getting mortgage rates down is positive, but it doesn't help people that currently have unaffordable mortgages because it doesn't help them refinance. Low interest rates help some consumers, but the ones that really need help and can't refinance are not helped."
Ah, helping everyone! What a great idea!
Paulson has been opposed to tapping the bailout pool to fund a mortgage-relief program championed by the Sheila Bair at the FDIC. The $24 billion FDIC plan would use some of the rescue money to help back refinanced mortgages that would lower monthly payments.
Let's see, Paulson or Bush aren't keen on giving the blue collar folks in Detroit any fund either. Bush...you know that guy. The man with the amazing disappearing act in times of trouble. When the towers were being blow to shit, he kept on reading a book to the children...upside down. I don't think that that specific book was printed upside down either...Now, with the worlds worst economic crisis since 1930's depression, he is working on his library and his public view of his term.
I can give him a hint...You Suck, sir!
This, the 213th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Polished program of deceit
"Well, there you go again." That old famous line from the Repugnicant's favorite trickle down leader, Ronald Reagan. This time it needs to be said to them. I knew things would turn out this way. The lies to get their hands on a TRILLION dollars is mind boggling.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stated today that the bailout is working. I'm not sure what planet that he is on, but on this one nothing has changed except that the same banks that he has been partnered with during his career, and those that he has done business with in his career have received huge sums of money. Is any of that money "trickling" down to main street? NO! The banks are still in freeze mode with their funds. I would like to know from any readers, if you know of anyone who has received a new loan or refinance from this bailout...I'm waiting...I thought so. The banks have not loosened their funds a bit.
Bush and Paulson had stated previously to Congress and Senate that it would use the money to buy up bad debt. Now that they have the funds they have abandoned those plans and switched gears to simply continue to buy shares in banks to boost their funding. In other words, GIVE a failed institution money for doing a shit job. They gave out loans that they knew they would NOT be held accountable for due to the fact that they were packaged in such creative ways that it would take years to tear apart. Paulson is the same person who was on game that masterminded this kind of behavior in the first place through his previous positions. There were no measures in this bailout to these institutions that held them accountable as to how they would redistribute these funds. So, are they spending their money in the US...? Perhaps they are going to redistribute it into China as the dollar has done quite well there in the past few weeks with their economy going down the toilet...! Or perhaps they are filling their offshore accounts before they leave office...
This is exactly the socialistic "spreading of the wealth" that the Repugnicants touted throughout the campaign that Obama would be doing. Only it is a socialist program for the rich, how typical. Remember, when I said to mark my words that they will piss away the funds and none will be left when Obama gets into office...
How about helping out the now (and always) struggling car companies, like the deal that Lee Iacocca did in the 80's so that the thousands of people in Michigan's and other areas around the United States auto maker manufacturing companies can keep their jobs. Of course, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions adds, "Once we cross the divide from financial institutions to individual corporations, truly, where would you draw the line?" ...uh, let's see, aren't these financial institutions individual corporations? Or are they handing money out to the entire industry? This is unbelievable!
Why not give the car companies some assistance to help all of those people keep their jobs, by making the car companies build more fuel efficient and ecologically responsible cars for these funds. Have stop gap measures to make sure these things take place and hold them accountable. Oh, wait, this administration has no idea how to do that! Accountability? uuhh, isn't that the accounting dept.s' problem...Let's call the CFO and see if they know what that means, you know those guys at Arthur Anderson, we know them....Oh, yeah, Arthur, I loved that movie...
Instead of giving the banks hundreds of billions of dollars so that they can spend it where ever they choose, why not refinance the entire housing industry. Redefine ALL loans.
Here is an idea...Every loan could be reset at a new rate, for example let's say 3 or 4%. The loans would be through the government program of a seven year fixed. Seven years is enough to let people and the economy get things back together again. At that point, the borrower will reset to their previous loan and rate. This will make people rethink their purchase decisions and living decisions for the future with a deadline. Some will be able to be assisted with this, and some won't. For those that won't probably should not be in their situation to begin with. This will allow ample time for people to get out if it won't work for them. This would also allow ANY personal residence home owner the availability to get relief from the program and help put people into new homes again or keep their existing homes. This would assist the hard hit construction industry and construction supply industry immediately to help money flow. This would also help with the lending industry and getting some of those people back to work with refinances and home purchases again. This would free up people's lives and minds and move the economy forward. The government would be able to take an equity stake of the difference in each loan if the people were to sell within their loan timeline of seven years.
I know this is a thumbnail sketch, but it would make the economy move again immediately. What is going on now is Reaganomics all over again. That was a huge success for the rich but failed for the rest of the country.
Will history ever teach our government anything?! Oh, yes, it will teach them how much the lemmings will allow to be screwed and for how long, while the rich elitists rake it in...again...
By getting money into the people's hands, and not the corporations, will allow this economy to move immediately. Now, is the time, with prices of housing at near lows, and stocks at decade low marks for people to have the opportunity to take advantage of that. This will put money back into the corporations, as well, as the people. Simply giving banks the funds to redistribute this wealth, of which is the people's money to begin with, holds the commoner down. This is OUR money that is being pissed away to the rich! Doesn't anyone see this?!
Now, they are talking about giving the banks more money on the credit card lending, student loan, and car loan industry. This is another way of saying, "We will give the banks more money to lend out to the people so that they can get further into debt", vs helping the people get OUT of the deep debt that these institutions convinced them to get into in the first place! It is this debt that is creating the struggling economy as people keep getting into bigger holes to try to get out of the smaller one that they are in...
This is not a bailout, they are simply bailing more dirty debt onto the hole that they created for the consumer in a new and polished program of deceit to the consumer.
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stated today that the bailout is working. I'm not sure what planet that he is on, but on this one nothing has changed except that the same banks that he has been partnered with during his career, and those that he has done business with in his career have received huge sums of money. Is any of that money "trickling" down to main street? NO! The banks are still in freeze mode with their funds. I would like to know from any readers, if you know of anyone who has received a new loan or refinance from this bailout...I'm waiting...I thought so. The banks have not loosened their funds a bit.
Bush and Paulson had stated previously to Congress and Senate that it would use the money to buy up bad debt. Now that they have the funds they have abandoned those plans and switched gears to simply continue to buy shares in banks to boost their funding. In other words, GIVE a failed institution money for doing a shit job. They gave out loans that they knew they would NOT be held accountable for due to the fact that they were packaged in such creative ways that it would take years to tear apart. Paulson is the same person who was on game that masterminded this kind of behavior in the first place through his previous positions. There were no measures in this bailout to these institutions that held them accountable as to how they would redistribute these funds. So, are they spending their money in the US...? Perhaps they are going to redistribute it into China as the dollar has done quite well there in the past few weeks with their economy going down the toilet...! Or perhaps they are filling their offshore accounts before they leave office...
This is exactly the socialistic "spreading of the wealth" that the Repugnicants touted throughout the campaign that Obama would be doing. Only it is a socialist program for the rich, how typical. Remember, when I said to mark my words that they will piss away the funds and none will be left when Obama gets into office...
How about helping out the now (and always) struggling car companies, like the deal that Lee Iacocca did in the 80's so that the thousands of people in Michigan's and other areas around the United States auto maker manufacturing companies can keep their jobs. Of course, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions adds, "Once we cross the divide from financial institutions to individual corporations, truly, where would you draw the line?" ...uh, let's see, aren't these financial institutions individual corporations? Or are they handing money out to the entire industry? This is unbelievable!
Why not give the car companies some assistance to help all of those people keep their jobs, by making the car companies build more fuel efficient and ecologically responsible cars for these funds. Have stop gap measures to make sure these things take place and hold them accountable. Oh, wait, this administration has no idea how to do that! Accountability? uuhh, isn't that the accounting dept.s' problem...Let's call the CFO and see if they know what that means, you know those guys at Arthur Anderson, we know them....Oh, yeah, Arthur, I loved that movie...
Instead of giving the banks hundreds of billions of dollars so that they can spend it where ever they choose, why not refinance the entire housing industry. Redefine ALL loans.
Here is an idea...Every loan could be reset at a new rate, for example let's say 3 or 4%. The loans would be through the government program of a seven year fixed. Seven years is enough to let people and the economy get things back together again. At that point, the borrower will reset to their previous loan and rate. This will make people rethink their purchase decisions and living decisions for the future with a deadline. Some will be able to be assisted with this, and some won't. For those that won't probably should not be in their situation to begin with. This will allow ample time for people to get out if it won't work for them. This would also allow ANY personal residence home owner the availability to get relief from the program and help put people into new homes again or keep their existing homes. This would assist the hard hit construction industry and construction supply industry immediately to help money flow. This would also help with the lending industry and getting some of those people back to work with refinances and home purchases again. This would free up people's lives and minds and move the economy forward. The government would be able to take an equity stake of the difference in each loan if the people were to sell within their loan timeline of seven years.
I know this is a thumbnail sketch, but it would make the economy move again immediately. What is going on now is Reaganomics all over again. That was a huge success for the rich but failed for the rest of the country.
Will history ever teach our government anything?! Oh, yes, it will teach them how much the lemmings will allow to be screwed and for how long, while the rich elitists rake it in...again...
By getting money into the people's hands, and not the corporations, will allow this economy to move immediately. Now, is the time, with prices of housing at near lows, and stocks at decade low marks for people to have the opportunity to take advantage of that. This will put money back into the corporations, as well, as the people. Simply giving banks the funds to redistribute this wealth, of which is the people's money to begin with, holds the commoner down. This is OUR money that is being pissed away to the rich! Doesn't anyone see this?!
Now, they are talking about giving the banks more money on the credit card lending, student loan, and car loan industry. This is another way of saying, "We will give the banks more money to lend out to the people so that they can get further into debt", vs helping the people get OUT of the deep debt that these institutions convinced them to get into in the first place! It is this debt that is creating the struggling economy as people keep getting into bigger holes to try to get out of the smaller one that they are in...
This is not a bailout, they are simply bailing more dirty debt onto the hole that they created for the consumer in a new and polished program of deceit to the consumer.
(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Margin calls...
Top down Reaganomics at its best when the markets are free from government intervention...?
Part V
(From Equity Private)
And then we get back to reality...
*
Part V
(From Equity Private)
And then we get back to reality...
*
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Fuhrer or Amerika continued...
I have had some great feedback on this video series. I am including Part III and Part IV for today. Enjoy the irony...
For Part I and Part II you can go HERE.
(From Equity Private)
Part III
Part IV
*
For Part I and Part II you can go HERE.
(From Equity Private)
Part III
Part IV
*
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Marc Andreessen with Brad DeLong
Marc Andreessen, born in Cedar Falls, Iowa and raised in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, is known as a entrepreneur(Netscape), an investor(Digg, Twittter, Netvibes), a startup coach, a blogger, and a multi-millionaire software engineer best known as co-author of Mosaic. I mentioned this in yesterdays entry that this was the first widely-used web browser. He became co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. He was the chair of Opsware, a software company he founded originally as Loudcloud, when it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard. He is also a co-founder of Ning, a company which provides a platform for social-networking websites. He is on the Board of Directors of Facebook, Open Media Network, and eBay. Andreessen is a frequent keynote speaker and guest at Silicon Valley conferences.
After receiving his Bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign he worked with the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where he became familiar with Tim Berners-Lee's open standards for the World Wide Web. Andreessen, and a full-time salaried co-worker Eric Bina, worked on creating a user-friendly browser with integrated graphics that would work on a wide range of computers. The resulting code was the Mosaic web browser.
After his graduation from the university in 1993, Andreessen moved to California to work at Enterprise Integration Technologies. Andreessen then met Jim Clark, the recently-departed founder of Silicon Graphics. Clark believed that the Mosaic browser had great commercial possibilities and suggested starting an Internet software company. Soon Mosaic Communications Corporation was in business in Mountain View, California, with Andreessen as co-founder and vice president of technology. The University of Illinois was unhappy with the company's use of the Mosaic name, so Mosaic Communications changed its name to Netscape Communications, and its flagship web browser was the Netscape Navigator.
In the year between the formation of the company and its IPO, Andreessen engaged in extensive public outreach on behalf of his vision of the web browser's potential, something he had in fact done continuously since making the decision to distribute Mosaic for free via the Internet. At the time Andreessen was 23 years old.
Netscape's IPO in 1995 propelled Andreessen into the public's imagination. Featured on the cover of Time and other publications, Andreessen became the poster-boy wunderkind of the Internet bubble generation: young, twenty-something, high-tech, ambitious, and worth millions (or billions) of dollars practically overnight.
Netscape's success attracted the attention of Microsoft, which recognized the web's potential and wanted to put itself at the forefront of the rising Internet revolution. Microsoft licensed the Mosaic source code from Spyglass, Inc., an offshoot of the (ironically!?)University of Illinois, and turned it into Internet Explorer. The resulting battle between the two companies became known as the Browser Wars.
Netscape was acquired in 1999 for $4.2 billion by AOL, which then made Andreessen its Chief Technology Officer.
However, he would soon leave to form Loudcloud, a services-based Web hosting company that underwent an IPO in 2001. Loudcloud sold its hosting business to EDS and changed its name to Opsware in 2003, where Andreessen served as chairman. Opsware was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in September 2007 for approximately $1.6 billion.
***
I am borrowing this discussion, originally written on Marc's blog on March 24, 2008, with Marc and Brad DeLong, the UC Berkeley econ professor, and non-conservative on trade and wages.
Brad DeLong on the highly controversial topic of how trade with lower-income countries like China affects, or does not affect, US wages:
Marc:
...To what extent are rich countries obligated to open their markets to poor countries when the consequence is falling wages for the poor in the rich--bearing in mind that the poor in the rich are often wealthier and have more opporunity than the rich in the poor? To what extent do rich countries do themselves well--serve their national interest--by opening their markets to poor countries even when the consequence is falling wages for the poor in the rich?
Brad:
...First, between 1950 and 1997 trade and wages weren't an issue: our foreign trading partners raised their own relative wage levels at least as fast as globalization enhanced their influence, and there was no net effect of trade on wages--no link from greater openness to the global economy to greater inequality here at home.
Second, at times between 1950 and 1997 trade and wages became a political issue as a way of distracting attention from true problems. The voters of Michigan in 1985 did not want to hear that the problems of Michigan's manufacturing industries were home-grown--in the fecklessness of management and in the Reagan administration's budget deficits that pushed up interest rates which pushed up the value of the dollar and made the goods they made uncompetitive on world markets. They wanted, instead, to hear that the Japanese were doing something clever and illegitimate [certainly a widespread assumption in Wisconsin when I was growing up in the 1980's -Marc].
Third: since 1997 or so the link between expanded imports and wage inequality has become real, as our imports now embody a much larger amount of factors competing with our own lesser-skilled than they used to. How large? I don't think we know. Paul Krugman [also a non-conservative -Marc] is now writing a paper for the Brookings Institution in which he essentially throws up his hands at the question. But there are two points worth noting: (a) the effects of trade on pre-tax wage inequality are much smaller than the effects over the past generation of changes in the tax system on after-tax income inequality; (b) the effects of trade on inequality of opportunity are much less than the effects of educational inequities on inequality of opportunity.
Fourth, to the extent that we in the United States begin thinking of trade restrictions as a way to fight inequality, we are setting ourselves up for extraordinary trouble late in this century--extraordinary damage to our long-run national security.
Think of it this way: Consider a world that contains one country that is a true superpower. It is preeminent--economically, technologically, politically, culturally, and militarily. But it lies at the east edge of a vast ocean. And across the ocean is another country--a country with more resources in the long-run, a country that looks likely to in the end supplant the current superpower. What should the superpower's long-run national security strategy be?
I think the answer is clear: if possible, the current superpower should embrace its possible successor. It should bind it as closely as possible with ties of blood, commerce, and culture--so that should the emerging superpower come to its full strength, it will to as great an extent possible share the world view of and regard itself as part of the same civilization as its predecessor: Romans to their Greeks.
In 1877, the rising superpower to the west across the ocean was the United States. The preeminent superpower was Britain. Today the preeminent superpower is the United States. The rising superpower to the west across the ocean is China. that was the rising superpower across the ocean to the west of the world's industrial and military leader. Today it is China.
Throughout the twentieth century it has been greatly to Britain's economic benefit that America has regarded it as a trading partner--a source of opportunities--rather than a politico-military-industrial competitor to be isolated and squashed. And in 1917 and again in 1941 it was to Britain's immeasurable benefit--its veruy soul was on the line--that America regarded it as a friend and an ally rather than as a competitor and an enemy. A world run by those whom de Gaulle called les Anglo-Saxons is a much more comfortable world for Britain than the other possibility--the world in which Europe were run by Adolf Hitler's Saxon-Saxons.
There is a good chance that China is now on the same path to world preeminence that America walked 130 years ago. Come 2047 and again in 2071 and in the years after 2075, America is going to need China. There is nothing more dangerous for America's future national security, nothing more destructive to America's future prosperity, than for Chinese schoolchildren to be taught in 2047 and 2071 and in the years after 2075 that America tried to keep the Chinese as poor as possible for as long as possible.
Marc:
While I am far less certain than Brad and a lot of other smart people that the United States is fated to lose its position of economic preeminence in this century, I certainly agree with Brad's strategy, and I am continually surprised and alarmed to run into many well-meaning people who believe the opposite strategy would be optimal.
After receiving his Bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign he worked with the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where he became familiar with Tim Berners-Lee's open standards for the World Wide Web. Andreessen, and a full-time salaried co-worker Eric Bina, worked on creating a user-friendly browser with integrated graphics that would work on a wide range of computers. The resulting code was the Mosaic web browser.
After his graduation from the university in 1993, Andreessen moved to California to work at Enterprise Integration Technologies. Andreessen then met Jim Clark, the recently-departed founder of Silicon Graphics. Clark believed that the Mosaic browser had great commercial possibilities and suggested starting an Internet software company. Soon Mosaic Communications Corporation was in business in Mountain View, California, with Andreessen as co-founder and vice president of technology. The University of Illinois was unhappy with the company's use of the Mosaic name, so Mosaic Communications changed its name to Netscape Communications, and its flagship web browser was the Netscape Navigator.
In the year between the formation of the company and its IPO, Andreessen engaged in extensive public outreach on behalf of his vision of the web browser's potential, something he had in fact done continuously since making the decision to distribute Mosaic for free via the Internet. At the time Andreessen was 23 years old.
Netscape's IPO in 1995 propelled Andreessen into the public's imagination. Featured on the cover of Time and other publications, Andreessen became the poster-boy wunderkind of the Internet bubble generation: young, twenty-something, high-tech, ambitious, and worth millions (or billions) of dollars practically overnight.
Netscape's success attracted the attention of Microsoft, which recognized the web's potential and wanted to put itself at the forefront of the rising Internet revolution. Microsoft licensed the Mosaic source code from Spyglass, Inc., an offshoot of the (ironically!?)University of Illinois, and turned it into Internet Explorer. The resulting battle between the two companies became known as the Browser Wars.
Netscape was acquired in 1999 for $4.2 billion by AOL, which then made Andreessen its Chief Technology Officer.
However, he would soon leave to form Loudcloud, a services-based Web hosting company that underwent an IPO in 2001. Loudcloud sold its hosting business to EDS and changed its name to Opsware in 2003, where Andreessen served as chairman. Opsware was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in September 2007 for approximately $1.6 billion.
***
I am borrowing this discussion, originally written on Marc's blog on March 24, 2008, with Marc and Brad DeLong, the UC Berkeley econ professor, and non-conservative on trade and wages.
Brad DeLong on the highly controversial topic of how trade with lower-income countries like China affects, or does not affect, US wages:
Marc:
...To what extent are rich countries obligated to open their markets to poor countries when the consequence is falling wages for the poor in the rich--bearing in mind that the poor in the rich are often wealthier and have more opporunity than the rich in the poor? To what extent do rich countries do themselves well--serve their national interest--by opening their markets to poor countries even when the consequence is falling wages for the poor in the rich?
Brad:
...First, between 1950 and 1997 trade and wages weren't an issue: our foreign trading partners raised their own relative wage levels at least as fast as globalization enhanced their influence, and there was no net effect of trade on wages--no link from greater openness to the global economy to greater inequality here at home.
Second, at times between 1950 and 1997 trade and wages became a political issue as a way of distracting attention from true problems. The voters of Michigan in 1985 did not want to hear that the problems of Michigan's manufacturing industries were home-grown--in the fecklessness of management and in the Reagan administration's budget deficits that pushed up interest rates which pushed up the value of the dollar and made the goods they made uncompetitive on world markets. They wanted, instead, to hear that the Japanese were doing something clever and illegitimate [certainly a widespread assumption in Wisconsin when I was growing up in the 1980's -Marc].
Third: since 1997 or so the link between expanded imports and wage inequality has become real, as our imports now embody a much larger amount of factors competing with our own lesser-skilled than they used to. How large? I don't think we know. Paul Krugman [also a non-conservative -Marc] is now writing a paper for the Brookings Institution in which he essentially throws up his hands at the question. But there are two points worth noting: (a) the effects of trade on pre-tax wage inequality are much smaller than the effects over the past generation of changes in the tax system on after-tax income inequality; (b) the effects of trade on inequality of opportunity are much less than the effects of educational inequities on inequality of opportunity.
Fourth, to the extent that we in the United States begin thinking of trade restrictions as a way to fight inequality, we are setting ourselves up for extraordinary trouble late in this century--extraordinary damage to our long-run national security.
Think of it this way: Consider a world that contains one country that is a true superpower. It is preeminent--economically, technologically, politically, culturally, and militarily. But it lies at the east edge of a vast ocean. And across the ocean is another country--a country with more resources in the long-run, a country that looks likely to in the end supplant the current superpower. What should the superpower's long-run national security strategy be?
I think the answer is clear: if possible, the current superpower should embrace its possible successor. It should bind it as closely as possible with ties of blood, commerce, and culture--so that should the emerging superpower come to its full strength, it will to as great an extent possible share the world view of and regard itself as part of the same civilization as its predecessor: Romans to their Greeks.
In 1877, the rising superpower to the west across the ocean was the United States. The preeminent superpower was Britain. Today the preeminent superpower is the United States. The rising superpower to the west across the ocean is China. that was the rising superpower across the ocean to the west of the world's industrial and military leader. Today it is China.
Throughout the twentieth century it has been greatly to Britain's economic benefit that America has regarded it as a trading partner--a source of opportunities--rather than a politico-military-industrial competitor to be isolated and squashed. And in 1917 and again in 1941 it was to Britain's immeasurable benefit--its veruy soul was on the line--that America regarded it as a friend and an ally rather than as a competitor and an enemy. A world run by those whom de Gaulle called les Anglo-Saxons is a much more comfortable world for Britain than the other possibility--the world in which Europe were run by Adolf Hitler's Saxon-Saxons.
There is a good chance that China is now on the same path to world preeminence that America walked 130 years ago. Come 2047 and again in 2071 and in the years after 2075, America is going to need China. There is nothing more dangerous for America's future national security, nothing more destructive to America's future prosperity, than for Chinese schoolchildren to be taught in 2047 and 2071 and in the years after 2075 that America tried to keep the Chinese as poor as possible for as long as possible.
Marc:
While I am far less certain than Brad and a lot of other smart people that the United States is fated to lose its position of economic preeminence in this century, I certainly agree with Brad's strategy, and I am continually surprised and alarmed to run into many well-meaning people who believe the opposite strategy would be optimal.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Is it the Furher or Amerika?
I thought I would include this interlude into the next section of my study of the impact of CERN, Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Andreessen, and the Internet have on our society today and for the future.
(courtesy of Equity Private)
Part One:
Part Two:
I will have a few of these as interesting interludes in between my multi part entry. As I got this from Andreessen, I thought this would be interesting to look a bit into the mind of Marc. I will follow with more discussion tomorrow on the topic at hand. Keep tuned and thanks!
(courtesy of Equity Private)
Part One:
Part Two:
I will have a few of these as interesting interludes in between my multi part entry. As I got this from Andreessen, I thought this would be interesting to look a bit into the mind of Marc. I will follow with more discussion tomorrow on the topic at hand. Keep tuned and thanks!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Let's break this down to simple terms?!
The sad part of all of this economic breakdown is that due to the greed and power of those elite people in the top 1% club that have created this strategic mess (for not only the U.S. economy, but the global economy, and the huge profits for themselves) something still needs to be done. Uh, $700 Billion here, a few trillion there, and we won't raise taxes?!...where do these people come from?
I do applaud Pelosi for her persistence and insistence(at this point) in telling Bush that he must include in the bailout proposal issues that help the people of America and not simply the corporations. We will see how long that lasts before the Hill goes to recess.
I find it plausible to NOT have to raise taxes, but to simply state that there won't be taxes raised is unheard of in this situation. McCain also states that he will lower taxes. He states that he will cut defense spending?...I beg to differ and would state that this is simply another batch of lies coming from the senator trying anything to get into office. This military man will cut defense? I don't think so!
This whole current issue is simple really…uh-huh...it goes like this:
Paulson, Treasury Secretary, was discussing yesterday morning, on Meet the Press, that these actions are being done for the American people…uh-huh…So, Paulson, can you tell us how much is really going to be “needed” for this bailout? “Not at this time. We set a point of $700 Billion. We may not need that much, but it is also possible that we may end up asking for more!” He also stated that they are allowing foreign banks and corporations in on this in order to help this pass through more easily and expeditiously…In other words, the money that these rich crooks are stealing from the American tax payer will be able to be used to buy the REO’s off of the bank books by these same people’s offshore companies without taxation implications. Then, this will free up the necessary funds for the banking institutions to begin to lend again in order to help stimulate the economy, instead of them hoarding their money to make sure they can stay afloat, if nothing were to be done… Then, these offshore corporations, owned by the insider elite crooks, can then offer this real estate that they bought for pennies on the dollar away from the banks to the public at the now retail level. Despite the fact that the loans on this real estate is currently backed now by the socialist government programs called Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, that we the taxpayers own…is something we can call “Feddie”!! So, we are going to be buying back what we already own? Um… our loans, meaning the loans that the taxpayer is responsible for through the Freddie and Fannie bailout is also being sold back to the people again so that they can pay again?…So, what has been accomplished? In reality, nothing has changed, excepting the fact that the banks get to write off all of their losses and the people are stuck with their bad loans, again, and a huge tax burden. But, they can buy those same houses back with their money they aren’t getting from their jobs that they are losing. Oh, but the people will feel better now that they have been rescued by this brilliant scam and will begin to be more comfortable and spend and borrow again.
Simple, right?…uh-huh…
The brilliance of this Ponzi scheme is that there must be a solution to this problem regardless. It is a given at this point that there will be some big money makers through all of this, and that would be those who created this to begin with by deregulation of the finance industry.
But there must be something done in order to stimulate the economy as it has nearly come to a standstill in so many respects.
And, on top of this, if the American people don’t see through this scheme and vote for McCain, he will maintain Bush’s tax programs and actually reduce taxes for the rich (to help stimulate the economy)…uh-huh…
My god, truth is better than fiction!
I do applaud Pelosi for her persistence and insistence(at this point) in telling Bush that he must include in the bailout proposal issues that help the people of America and not simply the corporations. We will see how long that lasts before the Hill goes to recess.
I find it plausible to NOT have to raise taxes, but to simply state that there won't be taxes raised is unheard of in this situation. McCain also states that he will lower taxes. He states that he will cut defense spending?...I beg to differ and would state that this is simply another batch of lies coming from the senator trying anything to get into office. This military man will cut defense? I don't think so!
This whole current issue is simple really…uh-huh...it goes like this:
Paulson, Treasury Secretary, was discussing yesterday morning, on Meet the Press, that these actions are being done for the American people…uh-huh…So, Paulson, can you tell us how much is really going to be “needed” for this bailout? “Not at this time. We set a point of $700 Billion. We may not need that much, but it is also possible that we may end up asking for more!” He also stated that they are allowing foreign banks and corporations in on this in order to help this pass through more easily and expeditiously…In other words, the money that these rich crooks are stealing from the American tax payer will be able to be used to buy the REO’s off of the bank books by these same people’s offshore companies without taxation implications. Then, this will free up the necessary funds for the banking institutions to begin to lend again in order to help stimulate the economy, instead of them hoarding their money to make sure they can stay afloat, if nothing were to be done… Then, these offshore corporations, owned by the insider elite crooks, can then offer this real estate that they bought for pennies on the dollar away from the banks to the public at the now retail level. Despite the fact that the loans on this real estate is currently backed now by the socialist government programs called Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, that we the taxpayers own…is something we can call “Feddie”!! So, we are going to be buying back what we already own? Um… our loans, meaning the loans that the taxpayer is responsible for through the Freddie and Fannie bailout is also being sold back to the people again so that they can pay again?…So, what has been accomplished? In reality, nothing has changed, excepting the fact that the banks get to write off all of their losses and the people are stuck with their bad loans, again, and a huge tax burden. But, they can buy those same houses back with their money they aren’t getting from their jobs that they are losing. Oh, but the people will feel better now that they have been rescued by this brilliant scam and will begin to be more comfortable and spend and borrow again.
Simple, right?…uh-huh…
The brilliance of this Ponzi scheme is that there must be a solution to this problem regardless. It is a given at this point that there will be some big money makers through all of this, and that would be those who created this to begin with by deregulation of the finance industry.
But there must be something done in order to stimulate the economy as it has nearly come to a standstill in so many respects.
And, on top of this, if the American people don’t see through this scheme and vote for McCain, he will maintain Bush’s tax programs and actually reduce taxes for the rich (to help stimulate the economy)…uh-huh…
My god, truth is better than fiction!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Alexander Hamilton speaks about finance...
From the man who formed the capitalist system of government that we now use today tells us like it is...
"I do know a little something about banking and investment financing. So I would like to weigh in on this matter about the federal government rushing in to save the American people’s way of living as they have come to know it.
What your government and the pundits are telling you about how dire this situation is, is all lies.
It is a ploy by the rich to cover their bad financial judgments at the taxpayers expense. The only way they can pull it off is to scare the average American into thinking that if the government doesn’t bail out the multimillionaires and billionaires that the whole system will collapse. THAT IS NOT TRUE!
The true financial situation of the country is this. The super wealthy financiers have extended themselves too far by betting more money on a pot than they have to cover the bet. A modern analogy may be:
If you kept charging against a credit card because you could continue to make the minimum payments, you could continue to charge until you;
1. reached your credit limit
2. arranged to get the credit card company to increase your credit limit.
But, it the company raised the minimum or checked your financial behavior and subsequently lowered or stopped your credit limit, then you would have to start paying or go bankrupt.
That is what happened to the those rich company owners. They over reached their financial capability to meet the minimum payments on their debt. If this happened to you, the government would not step in and rescue you. So why are they doing it for these super rich people and how are they justifying it to you to get you to go along with the scam?
The why they are bailing out the super rich is simple. The super rich are them or their bosses. How are they justifying bailing them out now that’s the easy part for them. They scare the masses.
How? By telling them:
A the financial system will collapse if these companies are not bailed out; and
B. convince the average person he was also complicit in the cause of this debacle because he tried to purchase a mortgage that he knew that he couldn’t afford.
A. The first lie:
Lets examine what the average person has to risk losing:
1. His bank account.
2. His mutual fund or money market account;
3. His 401K or other retirement investment;
4. His ability to borrow money;
5.His employment because his employer can’t borrow money. That’s it folks. That’s all the risk the average person has in this pot.
At first glance it seems like it is what the scare propaganda is saying is correct the system will collapse if the government doesn’t bail out the super rich. But wait! There is another simpler solution to solving the average person’s loss in those five areas which were caused by the greed and unsound financial risks of the super rich. Later I will explain how they got away with doing it in the first place.
A. The truth:
1. The average person with a $100,000 on deposit has no risk of losing a penny. His money is insured by FDIC. If he has more, then he should have been more careful.
2. Mutual funds or money market accounts. - The federal government can step in and guarantee the protection of a reasonable amount of the average person’s investment in those areas up to $100,000. If he has more, he should have been more careful. He can always sue the Funds for mismanagement.
3. 401K’s and other individual retirement options. - They can be protected up to a certain amount without giving anything to the super rich who risked these people’s money recklessly.
4. Availability of money for borrowing. - The scare tactic that banks won’t lend money is just that. Banks will lend money, that’s their business. If they don’t, remember how these same crooks remind you that this is a capitalist system not a socialist one, then rest assured that a capitalist venture will arise whereby some new business will start lending money to fill the void. There is no need to rescue the fat cat who risked too much because of greed and now his band has to fold, that socialism. The same socialism that he cries when some politician proposes to give you universal health care. He is trying to convince you that socialism by government to help him is okay but not to help you.
5.Employment - Employment is always in danger. If the owner doesn’t manage his business properly, the employees will lose their jobs. Jobs will not be lost because the company can not get a loan. See 4. above.
B. The second lie:
The “experts” are dispatched to convince the average person that people who tried to buy a home that they couldn’t afford was a contributing cause to this debacle. Common sense should tell you that that is not true.
B. The truth:
It is the lending institution that determines whether the person they lend money is capable of repaying that loan. No one can just take out a loan or mortgage. He must qualify according to the rules set up and administered by the lender. If the lender is irresponsible when it comes to making loans, it is not the borrower’s fault. It does not matter how easy the government makes it for the lender to lend you money, if the lender lends money to a person or business that his do diligence should tell him that the borrower can not pay back, it is the LENDER's fault.
This absolves the average person from any responsibility for this debacle. It is the sole responsibility of the rich trying to get richer. If they had succeeded they would be arguing that the government shouldn’t be penalizing them for taking risks and being successful.
So having taken those risk and FAILED, why should the government suddenly turn socialist and pay off their losses.
I promised to tell you how they got away with all their risky investments using the public’s money.
First let me say that one of the chief purposes of government is to protect the people from foreign threat and domestic threat.
Under protection from domestic threat comes the requirement of government to protect the public for company, institution, and corporate abuses. This is done by the government setting common sense regulations in the form of laws that protect the public from actions that would recklessly endanger the public’s money when it is being managed by private businesses for profit.
I see you have talked about some of the characters that participated in the dismantling the common sense regulations that were originally set up to protect the public. Unfortunately America is bet by a bunch of savvy crooks who are adept at convincing the average greedy person that he too can become rich if government DEREGULATES businesses and allow them to deal with the public competition will protect the public. This disingenuous piece of logic is proposed on the bases that the people are sophisticated or knowledgeable enough about finances to protect themselves and their investments from the crooks.
The second thing these republicans have done is to go behind the public’s back and restrict the enforcement of even the minimal laws set forth by the government to regulate these industries. Like I have heard before. If there is no police the crooks will run amok. Some businesses were caught short because they believed that the government was policing the regulations that were in place.
The crooks knew that the government was not policing any regulations because they are the super rich who got the government to prevent the police from enforcing the regulations. Now the government is being used to reward those crooks with taxpayers money.
AH
...and this link to a great relative article:
by Raymond J Learsy for The Huffington Post
"I do know a little something about banking and investment financing. So I would like to weigh in on this matter about the federal government rushing in to save the American people’s way of living as they have come to know it.
What your government and the pundits are telling you about how dire this situation is, is all lies.
It is a ploy by the rich to cover their bad financial judgments at the taxpayers expense. The only way they can pull it off is to scare the average American into thinking that if the government doesn’t bail out the multimillionaires and billionaires that the whole system will collapse. THAT IS NOT TRUE!
The true financial situation of the country is this. The super wealthy financiers have extended themselves too far by betting more money on a pot than they have to cover the bet. A modern analogy may be:
If you kept charging against a credit card because you could continue to make the minimum payments, you could continue to charge until you;
1. reached your credit limit
2. arranged to get the credit card company to increase your credit limit.
But, it the company raised the minimum or checked your financial behavior and subsequently lowered or stopped your credit limit, then you would have to start paying or go bankrupt.
That is what happened to the those rich company owners. They over reached their financial capability to meet the minimum payments on their debt. If this happened to you, the government would not step in and rescue you. So why are they doing it for these super rich people and how are they justifying it to you to get you to go along with the scam?
The why they are bailing out the super rich is simple. The super rich are them or their bosses. How are they justifying bailing them out now that’s the easy part for them. They scare the masses.
How? By telling them:
A the financial system will collapse if these companies are not bailed out; and
B. convince the average person he was also complicit in the cause of this debacle because he tried to purchase a mortgage that he knew that he couldn’t afford.
A. The first lie:
Lets examine what the average person has to risk losing:
1. His bank account.
2. His mutual fund or money market account;
3. His 401K or other retirement investment;
4. His ability to borrow money;
5.His employment because his employer can’t borrow money. That’s it folks. That’s all the risk the average person has in this pot.
At first glance it seems like it is what the scare propaganda is saying is correct the system will collapse if the government doesn’t bail out the super rich. But wait! There is another simpler solution to solving the average person’s loss in those five areas which were caused by the greed and unsound financial risks of the super rich. Later I will explain how they got away with doing it in the first place.
A. The truth:
1. The average person with a $100,000 on deposit has no risk of losing a penny. His money is insured by FDIC. If he has more, then he should have been more careful.
2. Mutual funds or money market accounts. - The federal government can step in and guarantee the protection of a reasonable amount of the average person’s investment in those areas up to $100,000. If he has more, he should have been more careful. He can always sue the Funds for mismanagement.
3. 401K’s and other individual retirement options. - They can be protected up to a certain amount without giving anything to the super rich who risked these people’s money recklessly.
4. Availability of money for borrowing. - The scare tactic that banks won’t lend money is just that. Banks will lend money, that’s their business. If they don’t, remember how these same crooks remind you that this is a capitalist system not a socialist one, then rest assured that a capitalist venture will arise whereby some new business will start lending money to fill the void. There is no need to rescue the fat cat who risked too much because of greed and now his band has to fold, that socialism. The same socialism that he cries when some politician proposes to give you universal health care. He is trying to convince you that socialism by government to help him is okay but not to help you.
5.Employment - Employment is always in danger. If the owner doesn’t manage his business properly, the employees will lose their jobs. Jobs will not be lost because the company can not get a loan. See 4. above.
B. The second lie:
The “experts” are dispatched to convince the average person that people who tried to buy a home that they couldn’t afford was a contributing cause to this debacle. Common sense should tell you that that is not true.
B. The truth:
It is the lending institution that determines whether the person they lend money is capable of repaying that loan. No one can just take out a loan or mortgage. He must qualify according to the rules set up and administered by the lender. If the lender is irresponsible when it comes to making loans, it is not the borrower’s fault. It does not matter how easy the government makes it for the lender to lend you money, if the lender lends money to a person or business that his do diligence should tell him that the borrower can not pay back, it is the LENDER's fault.
This absolves the average person from any responsibility for this debacle. It is the sole responsibility of the rich trying to get richer. If they had succeeded they would be arguing that the government shouldn’t be penalizing them for taking risks and being successful.
So having taken those risk and FAILED, why should the government suddenly turn socialist and pay off their losses.
I promised to tell you how they got away with all their risky investments using the public’s money.
First let me say that one of the chief purposes of government is to protect the people from foreign threat and domestic threat.
Under protection from domestic threat comes the requirement of government to protect the public for company, institution, and corporate abuses. This is done by the government setting common sense regulations in the form of laws that protect the public from actions that would recklessly endanger the public’s money when it is being managed by private businesses for profit.
I see you have talked about some of the characters that participated in the dismantling the common sense regulations that were originally set up to protect the public. Unfortunately America is bet by a bunch of savvy crooks who are adept at convincing the average greedy person that he too can become rich if government DEREGULATES businesses and allow them to deal with the public competition will protect the public. This disingenuous piece of logic is proposed on the bases that the people are sophisticated or knowledgeable enough about finances to protect themselves and their investments from the crooks.
The second thing these republicans have done is to go behind the public’s back and restrict the enforcement of even the minimal laws set forth by the government to regulate these industries. Like I have heard before. If there is no police the crooks will run amok. Some businesses were caught short because they believed that the government was policing the regulations that were in place.
The crooks knew that the government was not policing any regulations because they are the super rich who got the government to prevent the police from enforcing the regulations. Now the government is being used to reward those crooks with taxpayers money.
AH
...and this link to a great relative article:
by Raymond J Learsy for The Huffington Post
Saturday, July 5, 2008
busy, but with thought...
I have been so busy lately that I have neglected my readers, and I apologize for this!
I have been thinking though as to the "brilliant" means in which our current administration has been working to help stave off the future actions of radical Muslim terrorists throughout the world, that do not like our freedoms and capitalistic way of life.
I have wondered if President Bush actually knows what the hell is really going on in the world and have come to realize this man is brilliant! I now understand his process and can possibly come to a place to which I can see why...
If the global radical terrorist community has issues with all of the freedoms that we have here in the United States and Europe, I think that Bush has taken great efforts and huge steps in removing so many of those freedoms. In doing so he has begun to help bring our differing societies to a more closely related way of life!
Also, by ruining our global economy through ignorance and greed he has helped bring our differing societies more close economically. By refusing for so many years to do anything to help the "little man" he has greatly created the chasm that exists today thus helping bring our global economy to ruins and bringing us back closer to the stone age to which the radicals seem to want to reside within.
Amazing....!
I have been thinking though as to the "brilliant" means in which our current administration has been working to help stave off the future actions of radical Muslim terrorists throughout the world, that do not like our freedoms and capitalistic way of life.
I have wondered if President Bush actually knows what the hell is really going on in the world and have come to realize this man is brilliant! I now understand his process and can possibly come to a place to which I can see why...
If the global radical terrorist community has issues with all of the freedoms that we have here in the United States and Europe, I think that Bush has taken great efforts and huge steps in removing so many of those freedoms. In doing so he has begun to help bring our differing societies to a more closely related way of life!
Also, by ruining our global economy through ignorance and greed he has helped bring our differing societies more close economically. By refusing for so many years to do anything to help the "little man" he has greatly created the chasm that exists today thus helping bring our global economy to ruins and bringing us back closer to the stone age to which the radicals seem to want to reside within.
Amazing....!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Sometimes a little regulation can go a long way...
Is this a chance for "The Man" or the powers that be to get a little farther in the global quest of big government. The most recent proposed overhaul of the financial industry since the Great Depression was announced recently by Secretary Paulson. If outlines the expansion of the Fed's ability to examine any financial institution posing risk to economic stability. Although with all of this it doesn't yet even come close to deal with the unregulated investments that most 'experts' don't fully understand. There has been much call for needed additional oversight in the fast growing deregulated financial business in which the new products these financial institutions have developed are more and more difficult to understand as to their true risk balance in relation to the economy.
I'm all for finding a way in to the system to help out all of the mortgage holders, but it seems all of the solutions coming to the table are not associated with the little guy. In the meantime, the average Joe and Joann, are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and with the new bankruptcy laws this makes things even harder for the Joneses to find their own solutions as they wait for the government to make decisions.
Oh, right, some people will receive their $600-$1,200 refund check. This isn't really a refund, but an advance from taxes to be paid by the children and grand children's generation. This could get tacked up there with defense spending on the war.
I'm all for finding a way in to the system to help out all of the mortgage holders, but it seems all of the solutions coming to the table are not associated with the little guy. In the meantime, the average Joe and Joann, are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and with the new bankruptcy laws this makes things even harder for the Joneses to find their own solutions as they wait for the government to make decisions.
Oh, right, some people will receive their $600-$1,200 refund check. This isn't really a refund, but an advance from taxes to be paid by the children and grand children's generation. This could get tacked up there with defense spending on the war.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
8 more months to go...
It looks as though Bush has finally gone grocery shopping or something. With today's economic outlook by saying that there is trouble in the economy...Perhaps he is trying to open up dialogue with McCain regarding money and economics. As McCain has admitted that he doesn't know much about economics...Since Bush knows only how to spend it it might be time that he becomes aware that there even something called a budget. Perhaps it was an unknown to him all of this time. Maybe he thought that didn't pertain to him. Based on his history of putting companies into the ground, perhaps for his Presidential legacy he is thinking that it might not be the best idea to run the United States into bankruptcy. Perhaps he has decided to wake up and think of the future for once. He has two daughters who one day might feel the implications of his legacy. Maybe everything they touch will turn to shit too, and they might need to know how to work within a budget...I doubt that.
But most do have a budget, and they are getting smaller and smaller.
It's funny though. In other countries people make themselves known by going out and voicing their irritation to the system they have. With the changes in our civil liberties if we do that here in the U.S. anymore we will be called terrorist sympathizers and disappear or be put in Gtmo...Maybe that is why our people roll over and play dead anymore. It is for the fear of telling the truth and losing your life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Happiness is losing in this country anymore, along with liberty. Life is still around, but with our medical system going to shit we may find that that is going down as well.
There is a lot of work to do in this country to get things moving in the right direction. I feel we still have the capability to do the changes necessary for our country and the world.
8 more months to go...
But most do have a budget, and they are getting smaller and smaller.
It's funny though. In other countries people make themselves known by going out and voicing their irritation to the system they have. With the changes in our civil liberties if we do that here in the U.S. anymore we will be called terrorist sympathizers and disappear or be put in Gtmo...Maybe that is why our people roll over and play dead anymore. It is for the fear of telling the truth and losing your life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Happiness is losing in this country anymore, along with liberty. Life is still around, but with our medical system going to shit we may find that that is going down as well.
There is a lot of work to do in this country to get things moving in the right direction. I feel we still have the capability to do the changes necessary for our country and the world.
8 more months to go...
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