tagged w/ Banking Crisis
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Pepe Escobar: World markets - and top economists - dismiss the Wall Street bailout.
World markets on the verge of panic continue to dismiss the Bush/Paulson Wall Street bailout plan - despite White House rhetoric and supposedly concerted action by the G-7, the group of leading industrialized economies. Top economists criticize the mechanics of the plan, which concentrates too much power on Secretary Paulson and his Goldman Sachs colleagues; warn of an incoming systemic crisis; and point out the taboo topics nobody is talking about: the US budget deficit and the US military budget.
Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil is the roving correspondent for Asia Times and an analyst for The Real News Network. He's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, based in London, Milan, Los Angeles, Paris, Singapore, and Bangkok. Since the late 1990s, he has specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central Asia, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has made frequent visits to Iran and is the author of Globalistan and also Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad During the Surge both published by Nimble Books in 2007.
Pepe Escobar: World markets - and top economists - dismiss the Wall Street bailout.... more
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As if oversight and screening were not needed during this tumultuous financial bailout, Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has no plans of scheduling hearings in the confirmation of Neel Kashkari - a former Goldman Sachs employee with only 6-years of experience under his belt. As if oversight and screening were not needed during this tumultuous financial... more
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Is this an option?
To world leaders: As citizens, we call for a global public "buy-in" to tackle the financial meltdown, instead of a "bailout" of reckless bankers. We urge you to agree on a bold public rescue package without further delay - taking stakes in the banks, fixing failings, and mobilising public investment to benefit the many not the few.
Read more and sign the petition at link.Is this an option?
To world leaders: As citizens, we call for a global public... more
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3oc
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3 years ago
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With all the fear and uncertainty there is hope and action right now.
There are organizations who intimately understand the issues and there are others that are still entrenched in some kind of ism. It's up to you to choose the world we will inhabit and bequeath to our descendants. Bring consciousness to your choices. Question everything.
Loose the fear through understanding and knowledge.
Connect with the one thing that binds us all together. Life. All life. All living things.
There is an awakening to how connected we all are; not just by living on the one planet, but by shared experiences and compassion that comes from adversity. People everywhere are realizing that real peace starts in the heart of every person and spreads from there. The same can be said for hatred, bigotry and fear.
It's up to each of us to choose a better way forward and spread the word.
With all the fear and uncertainty there is hope and action right now.
There are... more
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3oc
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3 years ago
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The USS Titanic is a proud ship. Lavishly appointed with an on-board swimming pool, gymnasium and squash court with first-class common rooms adorned by elaborate paneling and decorated with opulent furnishings and chandeliers. Her 29 boilers steam her blissfully over the worlds fiscal oceans. She was built by taxing the nations poor and has catered admirable for the moneyed for decades.
SOS, SOS. SOS
Titanic to Whitehouse. Help! We need money to save the ship.
Whitehouse to Titanic: How much do you need?
Titanic to Whitehouse: $700 billion.
Whitehouse to Titanic: Is that all?
Titanic to Whitehouse: It'll do for now.
Whitehouse to Titanic: OK – were on it.
Whitehouse to Media: Convince the public - Saving the Titanic's in their best interest.
Media to Whitehouse: Can do! Spin, Spin.
Media to Public: The Titanic is in trouble, if we let her sink, the nation will suffer.
Public to Whitehouse: Let her sink!
Whitehouse to Media: It's not working guys - we need another angle.
Media to Whitehouse: Hmm. Spin, Spin, Spin.
Media to Whitehouse: Offer them tax cuts – it's worked before.
Whitehouse to Media: That'll work – thanks. Tell them we'll give them $150 billion.
Media to Whitehouse: Isn't that their money anyway?
Whitehouse to Media: Yes but they don't know it.
Whitehouse to Titanic: We'll give you $550 billion, We're giving $150 billion to the public
Titanic to Whitehouse: Thank you. We'll get that back as they spend it.
Onward she sails until....
SOS, SOS, SOS
Titanic to Whitehouse: Help! We need more money....
You can guess the rest.The USS Titanic is a proud ship. Lavishly appointed with an on-board swimming pool,... more
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3oc
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3 years ago
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The bail-out boondoggle is based on an upside down view of the problem that puts the cart before the horse. The key to understanding the economic problem and solution is that the real estate market tanked, and that is why the loans are upside down, or not worth face value, not the other way around. Say in 2005 a house price was $250,000, and lots of folks rushed to get a $200,000 or $250,000 loan, because the rates were low, the economy, jobs, income was booming, lots of upward mobility, and prices were rising, as they always had in real estate, so it seemed like a good bet... then the FED got scared about inflation, so raised the rates ... every month for about a year and a half, until the real estate market screached to a halt, then hack politicians like Schumer started scapegoating and threatening lenders using a few examples of ignorant borrowers swindled by mortgage hucksters., a story as old as used car salesmen and crooked lawyers. But this go around. the banks became the bad-guys for lending money, especiially when wallstreet speculators wanted the casino to make good on thier lost bets, turning home mortgages from the safest investment in the world to toxic waste.... so what did Banks do? the Banks stopped lending. this is what caused the real estate market to really melt down, so the $250,000 house is now worth $100,000 and the homeowner/borrower is begging the bank to take it back, so they can buy the same house next door and cut thier mortgage payments in half, which they must do because thier jobs and incomes have also fallen. On top of all this other housing expenses - taxes, utlities, and homeowner insurance spiked over the same time frame, exactly when household incomes and wealth/equity were dropping. Home equity is the main form of household wealth, so america is now poorer, thus spending less, while burnded by higher housing and gas costs, with little disposible income left over, this is spiraling down demand, employment and incomes - this is the key to our sluggish economy.
The FED tried too little too late to get the banks to lend by giving them a really low discount rate, below 2%, but the banks instead borrow billions and speculate on wallstreet, just as other wallstreet invstors migrated out of mortgage back securities to driving up the price of commodities, like Oil futures, causing gas prices and inflation to rise.
The answer to this problem is very simple. Instead of bailing out Goldman Sacs executives, and thier kind, fund FHA to lend directly to homeowners at very low rates, similar to the 2% the banks already borrow at. This costs little, because the fed is already lending banks bazillions at these low rates, but the discount window 'tool' is futile if banks do not in turn lend as intended. We can eliminate the middle men and go directly to FHA mortgage loans and fix the problem. Allow homeowners to refi at the short sale value of thier home so they can keep thier home instead of buying the house next door. The effect will be to reduce the mortgage and housing costs of the middle class under the FHA umbrella. This will immediately restore household incomes, the housing market, home equity, wealth, and employment to the middle class..
The bail-out boondoggle is based on an upside down view of the problem that puts the... more
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We can only hope that the failure to pass the bailout bill is a result of a moral majority of representatives who truly understand the issues at hand and not simply another stalling tactic to re-introduce otherwise unsavory clauses.
The representatives of the people have a once in a lifetime opportunity to set things right by continuing to vote NO and we can only hope that this is where they are heading. If they get it right then the US could once again become the poster child of democratic reform that was once promised in the constitution and the world will want to follow. If they continue with these proposed bailouts they will continue to prop up the corrupt system they helped to empower that has caused all the hardships, crime, inflation and injustices not just in the US but in all the civilized world. The US is a victim of this corruption as much as it is the current supporter of it continuance.
If they vote to introduce any further bailouts then the status quo, that the world is suffering under, will continue until everything, all property, wealth, resources and the future of our children and the generations to come will be owned by the few at the expense of the many.
The introduction of any form of bailout will only create massive inflation as more money is injected into an already failing financial system further reducing the value of the dollar and creating ever increasing levels of inflation. This process will continue until the price of bread and milk will be beyond the means of all but the affluent ruling class and the rest of us will be reduced to serfdom, starvation and death. Even the United Nations has predicted that over 90% of the planet will be reduced to living on less than a dollar a day in less than a decade if the current inflationary trends are not halted.
As can be seen from the numerous posts and comments, here of current.com and all over the internet in favor of the bailout, there is very little understanding of the monetary system by the average person in the street. This is a direct result, not of ignorance, but of the misdirection and misinformation that the affluent elite and their media propaganda machine have implied.
The implication “that the monetary system is a complex beast that only the educated can understand” is ludicrous. That they and their kin should be left in control is asking us to leave the fox in charge of the hen house.
We need all governments, not just the US, to stop any and all bailout proposals and bring back an equitable monetary system, based on the gold standard, that benefits all and not just the few.
All governments, if they truly represent their people have to let these insolvent banking institutions fail as any bailout attempts will result in at least a decade of mass inflation, unemployment and more hardships than we are currently suffering. This is what happened in 1932 and will happen again if these bailouts gain traction.
Stop the bailouts now! Let them fail.
Letting these institutions fail will result in short term instability that we will survive.
Bailing them out will create long term suffering almost no one will recover from.
Don't let this situation continue.
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” - President Woodrow Wilson 1919.
More information:-
One of the best explanations of the FED, inflation, it's causes and possible cures can be read here:-
Taking Money Back by Murray N. Rothbard – http://mises.org/story/2882
Contact the reps who voted NO and thank them. Contact those who voted yes and convince them to change their minds and vote NO to any and all future bailouts.
Good luck to us all.
We can only hope that the failure to pass the bailout bill is a result of a moral... more
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3oc
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3 years ago
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"Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to pass. We are to be ruined now by the deluge of bank paper. It is cruel that such revolutions in private fortunes should be at the mercy of avaricious adventurers, who, instead of employing their capital, if any they have, in manufactures, commerce, and other useful pursuits, make it an instrument to burden all the interchanges of property with their swindling profits, profits which are the price of no useful industry of theirs."
-- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
The current proposal to bail out the failing financial institutions is just another step toward total control of the monetary system that is being funded by you the tax payer and orchestrated by the Government and the Federal Reserve (FED).
Most people assume the FED is an agency of the US Government and would be shocked to know the truth. The FED is a partnership between the Federal Government and a small cartel of privately owned banks. The same private banks that are now lining up to collect their piece of the 700 billion dollar bailout. This money, provided by the taxpayer, will be used to buy up the remaining competition to further consolidate the holdings of the banking cartel.
The end result of all this funding will be the total acquisition of wealth by the few at the expense of generations to come.
There is really only one upside to the crisis - people are starting to question what is really going on.
Some of the answers can be found in films like films like:-
"Freedom to Fascism", "Fiat Empire" and "The Money Masters".
Information is power so don't become the subject of this quote.
"What luck for rulers than men do not think" - Adolf Hitler."Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to... more
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3oc
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3 years ago
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The Guardian economic editor Larry Elliott on how an extraordinary week marks the end of an economic era.
Video courtesy of The Guardian.
The Guardian economic editor Larry Elliott on how an extraordinary week marks the end... more
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Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:
"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
Would the leadership of John McCain lead us to eventual bail out of the "health insurance companies".
The same individuals who have corrupted our health care system could get the same reward as the Corporate Crooks who pilfered our economy leading us into virtual bankruptcy? Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:... more
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Not that banks fail often, or that many of us store more than the federally insured amount in a bank, but it is good to know where to go for information about your financial institution!Not that banks fail often, or that many of us store more than the federally insured... more
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sajh
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3 years ago
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is one of those agencies with a low profile but essential role similar to plumbing or electricity — you don't notice it until the power's out or the basement's flooding.
These days, the FDIC's folks are busier with the financial equivalent of fixing burst water mains and dead power lines.
Seventy-five years after it was launched during the Great Depression, the bank regulator and insurer is facing its biggest challenge in decades. Many banks in Georgia and across the nation have been battered by the slumping economy and troubled loans to home builders, developers and homeowners.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is one of those agencies with a low profile but... more
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