Hear a European discussion of the US market woes and the predictions for the future, including nationalization of the US banks within one year. This video ran rather jumpy-start-stoppy for me, but it was well worth taking the time to let it play.
Bottom line: buy only US treasuries, or buy a safe.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Doctors' Professional Opinions on the Wallstreet Bailout
Doctors registered opinions About the current financial disaster, Specifically in regard to the Government "Bail Out Package".
Opinions were as follows:
Allergists voted to scratch it, whereas
Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling, but
Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve!
Obstetricians said we were laboring under a misconception, but
Ophthalmologists flat out vetoed the bill as being short-sighted.
Pathologists yelled, 'Over my dead body!' and
Pediatricians rallied to chant, 'Oh, Grow up!'
Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while
Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons agreed to cut it up and wash their hands of it, yet
Internists thought it was a bitter pill we have to swallow.
Plastic Surgeons said, 'This puts a whole new face on things.'
Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but
Urologists said the it would not hold water.
Anesthesiologists noted that the whole idea was a gas, but
Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
Final opinion was voiced by a coalition of Proctologists
Who advised everyone to leave the financial fiasco
With the assholes in Washington who caused it.
Opinions were as follows:
Allergists voted to scratch it, whereas
Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling, but
Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve!
Obstetricians said we were laboring under a misconception, but
Ophthalmologists flat out vetoed the bill as being short-sighted.
Pathologists yelled, 'Over my dead body!' and
Pediatricians rallied to chant, 'Oh, Grow up!'
Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while
Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons agreed to cut it up and wash their hands of it, yet
Internists thought it was a bitter pill we have to swallow.
Plastic Surgeons said, 'This puts a whole new face on things.'
Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but
Urologists said the it would not hold water.
Anesthesiologists noted that the whole idea was a gas, but
Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
Final opinion was voiced by a coalition of Proctologists
Who advised everyone to leave the financial fiasco
With the assholes in Washington who caused it.
Regulators fired, disciplined for taking gifts from oil firms
Regulators fired, disciplined for taking gifts from oil firms
By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Two employees of the Interior Department have been fired and eight others disciplined in a scandal over the acceptance of meals, junkets, gifts and, in some cases, illicit sex and drugs from the oil companies that they regulated, a knowledgeable person said Friday.
Randall Luthi, the director of the department's Minerals Management Service, announced Friday that he'd meted out discipline ranging from a letter of reprimand to dismissal, but gave no details. All those disciplined worked in the controversial Royalties-in-Kind program, in which the government forgoes royalties on federal leases and instead takes a percentage of the pumped oil and gas for resale.
The actions came in response to a scathing September report in which Department Inspector General Earl Devaney described ``a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity'' in the RIK program and said 19 of its employees had taken gifts from oil and gas industry sources.
By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Two employees of the Interior Department have been fired and eight others disciplined in a scandal over the acceptance of meals, junkets, gifts and, in some cases, illicit sex and drugs from the oil companies that they regulated, a knowledgeable person said Friday.
Randall Luthi, the director of the department's Minerals Management Service, announced Friday that he'd meted out discipline ranging from a letter of reprimand to dismissal, but gave no details. All those disciplined worked in the controversial Royalties-in-Kind program, in which the government forgoes royalties on federal leases and instead takes a percentage of the pumped oil and gas for resale.
The actions came in response to a scathing September report in which Department Inspector General Earl Devaney described ``a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity'' in the RIK program and said 19 of its employees had taken gifts from oil and gas industry sources.
Wall Street insider speaks out, a MUST-WATCH video!
Excellent PBS video on this page that you really should watch.
What role did the credit rating agencies play in the current economic crisis? This week, a former managing director at Standard & Poor's speaks out on U.S. television for the first time about how he was pressured to compromise standards in a push for profits.
Frank Raiter reveals what was really going on behind closed doors at the credit rating agencies the public relies on to evaluate the safety of their investments.
"During this period, profit was primary; analytics were secondary," Raiter tells NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa.
In an Instant Message exchange, an S&P employee in the structured finance division writes: "It could be structured by cows and we would rate it."
Other worthwhile links too.
What role did the credit rating agencies play in the current economic crisis? This week, a former managing director at Standard & Poor's speaks out on U.S. television for the first time about how he was pressured to compromise standards in a push for profits.
Frank Raiter reveals what was really going on behind closed doors at the credit rating agencies the public relies on to evaluate the safety of their investments.
"During this period, profit was primary; analytics were secondary," Raiter tells NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa.
In an Instant Message exchange, an S&P employee in the structured finance division writes: "It could be structured by cows and we would rate it."
Other worthwhile links too.
The GM rescue plan: Why Congress wants an itemized plan from GM
Well, you see, it goes like this...they want to spend part of the money they get from Congress to build in Brazil!
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
By Russ Dallen
Latin American Herald Tribune staff
General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."
"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
By Russ Dallen
Latin American Herald Tribune staff
General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."
"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Into the Abyss we go......
Old "Cash'n'Carry" advises that things are looking up after Paulson changed the $700B bailout to a whole new venue.
Well, pardon me, but I personally think these liars are grasping at straws and are propping everything up as long as they can, and it'll probably go deep-six as soon as Obama comes in office.
Get ready for grim times and hard life, it's gonna get worse, MUCH MUCH worse!
Well, pardon me, but I personally think these liars are grasping at straws and are propping everything up as long as they can, and it'll probably go deep-six as soon as Obama comes in office.
Get ready for grim times and hard life, it's gonna get worse, MUCH MUCH worse!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
90-year-old living with 3 siblings' bodies
No, I am NOT kidding!
(story from the AP)
EVANSTON, Ill. - A 90-year-old woman well-liked by her neighbors apparently has been living in a house with the bodies of three siblings, one of whom may have been dead since the early 1980s, police say.
Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther says the bodies were found Friday in Evanston, a Chicago suburb, after authorities were called by a senior advocate.
(story from the AP)
EVANSTON, Ill. - A 90-year-old woman well-liked by her neighbors apparently has been living in a house with the bodies of three siblings, one of whom may have been dead since the early 1980s, police say.
Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther says the bodies were found Friday in Evanston, a Chicago suburb, after authorities were called by a senior advocate.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
A Post-Evangelical America
Newsweek has a good article, examining the exit poll data on the religiosity of Americans who voted.
The article states:
"If this week's exit polls tell us anything about religion, they remind us that there are tens of millions of voters in this country who believe in God, read their Scripture, pray, regularly attend a house of worship—and do not consider themselves born-again Christians."
---
If anything, this article points the way to a new trend in religiosity in America: People who say they are religious, but who don't follow the hard line of evangelical Christianity.
What does this mean for the Republican Party?
Well, it means they need to re-structure their base, frankly, because in all honesty, their base is shrinking.
Why would their base shrink? I believe it is the natural evolution of the age of our population: we have a new generation coming on, and these younger spiritualists do not see the church per se as the all-powerful source of their faith. They are independent believers who don't feel the need to kowtow to the church in order to be religious.
Armed with that premise, it's logical to believe that we have a whole new generation of Christians who are not going to follow the mantra of a party, just because some pastor somewhere tells them to do such-and-such.
My personal faith is exactly that way: I'm a Christian, but I think I have sense enough to read my own Bible and make my own judgments about what it means to me. And what it means to me is this: I cannot condone attacking a basically defenseless nation (aka Iraq) simply because I "think" they might attack us at some future time. I cannot condone torturing individuals, no matter what I think they may have done. I cannot condone allowing people to sit and suffer after a national disaster, oblivious to their pain. So I personally don't condone our current national policy of preemptive war. Because, you see, MY Bible does not tell me to do that. If I read it correctly, Jesus always was a pacifist, a man who advocated turning the other cheek, giving the coat and the cloak, and "do good to them who hate you." So frankly, preemptive war is totally against my beliefs, as is torturing anyone.
If there are substantial numbers of other people who share my beliefs, then this bodes poorly for the Republican Party if they don't get with the program.
My personal vision of what the Republican Party represents currently is this: we have the "old white rich guys", coupled with the "young redneck rural poor". And it's a strange combination indeed. It means that the poor and relatively uneducated are the only ones believing the horse-hockey that the rich white guys are telling them.
That right there should tell the republicans something: that they are dependent on a base that is rapidly shrinking, because our country has a relatively small percentage of rich white guys and the numbers of the rural poor rednecks are shrinking.
Gee, the republicans might actually have to go mainstream in order to survive! Wouldn't THAT be interesting?
Read this article to see how the republicans have crapped in their own nest, and lost an election because of it.
The article states:
"If this week's exit polls tell us anything about religion, they remind us that there are tens of millions of voters in this country who believe in God, read their Scripture, pray, regularly attend a house of worship—and do not consider themselves born-again Christians."
---
If anything, this article points the way to a new trend in religiosity in America: People who say they are religious, but who don't follow the hard line of evangelical Christianity.
What does this mean for the Republican Party?
Well, it means they need to re-structure their base, frankly, because in all honesty, their base is shrinking.
Why would their base shrink? I believe it is the natural evolution of the age of our population: we have a new generation coming on, and these younger spiritualists do not see the church per se as the all-powerful source of their faith. They are independent believers who don't feel the need to kowtow to the church in order to be religious.
Armed with that premise, it's logical to believe that we have a whole new generation of Christians who are not going to follow the mantra of a party, just because some pastor somewhere tells them to do such-and-such.
My personal faith is exactly that way: I'm a Christian, but I think I have sense enough to read my own Bible and make my own judgments about what it means to me. And what it means to me is this: I cannot condone attacking a basically defenseless nation (aka Iraq) simply because I "think" they might attack us at some future time. I cannot condone torturing individuals, no matter what I think they may have done. I cannot condone allowing people to sit and suffer after a national disaster, oblivious to their pain. So I personally don't condone our current national policy of preemptive war. Because, you see, MY Bible does not tell me to do that. If I read it correctly, Jesus always was a pacifist, a man who advocated turning the other cheek, giving the coat and the cloak, and "do good to them who hate you." So frankly, preemptive war is totally against my beliefs, as is torturing anyone.
If there are substantial numbers of other people who share my beliefs, then this bodes poorly for the Republican Party if they don't get with the program.
My personal vision of what the Republican Party represents currently is this: we have the "old white rich guys", coupled with the "young redneck rural poor". And it's a strange combination indeed. It means that the poor and relatively uneducated are the only ones believing the horse-hockey that the rich white guys are telling them.
That right there should tell the republicans something: that they are dependent on a base that is rapidly shrinking, because our country has a relatively small percentage of rich white guys and the numbers of the rural poor rednecks are shrinking.
Gee, the republicans might actually have to go mainstream in order to survive! Wouldn't THAT be interesting?
Read this article to see how the republicans have crapped in their own nest, and lost an election because of it.
For all intents and purposes, conservatism--as a national movement--is completely and thoroughly dead. Barack Obama did not destroy it, however. It was George W. Bush and John McCain who destroyed conservatism in America.
Soon after G.W. Bush was elected, it quickly became obvious he was no conservative. On the contrary, George Bush has forever established himself as a Big-Government, warmongering, internationalist neocon. Making matters worse was the way Bush presented himself as a conservative Christian. In fact, Bush's portrayal of himself as a conservative Christian paved the way for the betrayal and ultimate destruction of conservatism (something I also predicted years ago). And the greatest tragedy of this deception is the way that Christian conservatives so thoroughly (and stupidly) swallowed the whole Bush/McCain neocon agenda.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Disgrace or crime?
The WSJ has an article stating that President Bush Has Been Treated Unfairly.
Well, allow me to hop up onto my soapbox and give my response:
I cannot respect a man who has poor English skills, a borderline education, and who lied my nation into a war on false pretenses.
A man who came to us at the last minute stating that our credit markets were frozen and then proceeded to rape the US taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars, conveniently just prior to his leaving office.
A man who read a dumb book on goats to a small child while buildings burned in New York in the single greatest act of terrorism ever committed on US soil.
A man who was oblivious for days to an entire major US city being under water and people starving and thirsting with no relief in horrible conditions and then who had the unmitigated gall to tell Brownie he'd done a "fine job".
No, I don't respect him, I don't like him, and I'll be damned glad when he's gone. He's basically wrecked and impoverished my country, and killed thousands of innocents in a war based on lies, which in my mind are atrocities of the highest degree.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."
Well, allow me to hop up onto my soapbox and give my response:
I cannot respect a man who has poor English skills, a borderline education, and who lied my nation into a war on false pretenses.
A man who came to us at the last minute stating that our credit markets were frozen and then proceeded to rape the US taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars, conveniently just prior to his leaving office.
A man who read a dumb book on goats to a small child while buildings burned in New York in the single greatest act of terrorism ever committed on US soil.
A man who was oblivious for days to an entire major US city being under water and people starving and thirsting with no relief in horrible conditions and then who had the unmitigated gall to tell Brownie he'd done a "fine job".
No, I don't respect him, I don't like him, and I'll be damned glad when he's gone. He's basically wrecked and impoverished my country, and killed thousands of innocents in a war based on lies, which in my mind are atrocities of the highest degree.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish, and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama Signals a Change in America
I am proud to say that I have witnessed a hallmark in American history with the advent of our first black president.
But--and this is the more important part of this accomplishment--the real importance of this event signals a change in the way America thinks. We are now moving toward being ONE America, MORE united, MORE at peace with ourselves, MORE aligned as a people into ONE force that works together to make our country great again.
My eyes tear as I realize that in my lifetime I saw this monumental rift between us move toward oneness in a way that many thought would never happen.
For Obama represents far more than just a black president--he represents our recognition that we truly can be "one nation, under God, INDIVISIBLE, with liberty and justice for ALL."
I grew up, like many Americans, in a more or less racist family where there were good blacks and bad blacks, but they were all blacks.
But, over time, we have finally achieved what I have longed for my entire lifetime: a hallmark signal that we can finally start to put color behind us. That a good man is a good man, regardless of his color, nationality, religion or anything else.
It is with pride that I see my nation finally come to its senses and give acknowledgment that we can rise above our old petty grievances and hatred, and move forward into history as a united people.
And it is the young among us who fostered this change. The young who realized that we have dealt a heavy hand far too long to those who might look different. The young who saw and rejected a senseless sin of racial suppression that has unfairly shackled an entire segment of our population. The young, who understood that we are all people, all unique, all worthy of our status as productive and respectable humans, regardless of what we look like.
Obama has a hard job. It won't be easy. But he's bright, young, educated, and now he has the support of a nation behind him.
It's doable. We must all get ready for some hard times, but knowing that if we work together, all things truly are possible.
Hail to the new chief, who ushers in a new era for our nation!
But--and this is the more important part of this accomplishment--the real importance of this event signals a change in the way America thinks. We are now moving toward being ONE America, MORE united, MORE at peace with ourselves, MORE aligned as a people into ONE force that works together to make our country great again.
My eyes tear as I realize that in my lifetime I saw this monumental rift between us move toward oneness in a way that many thought would never happen.
For Obama represents far more than just a black president--he represents our recognition that we truly can be "one nation, under God, INDIVISIBLE, with liberty and justice for ALL."
I grew up, like many Americans, in a more or less racist family where there were good blacks and bad blacks, but they were all blacks.
But, over time, we have finally achieved what I have longed for my entire lifetime: a hallmark signal that we can finally start to put color behind us. That a good man is a good man, regardless of his color, nationality, religion or anything else.
It is with pride that I see my nation finally come to its senses and give acknowledgment that we can rise above our old petty grievances and hatred, and move forward into history as a united people.
And it is the young among us who fostered this change. The young who realized that we have dealt a heavy hand far too long to those who might look different. The young who saw and rejected a senseless sin of racial suppression that has unfairly shackled an entire segment of our population. The young, who understood that we are all people, all unique, all worthy of our status as productive and respectable humans, regardless of what we look like.
Obama has a hard job. It won't be easy. But he's bright, young, educated, and now he has the support of a nation behind him.
It's doable. We must all get ready for some hard times, but knowing that if we work together, all things truly are possible.
Hail to the new chief, who ushers in a new era for our nation!
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