tagged w/ Financial Meltdown
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A fast and funny spoof at George's expense.
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Before the financial crisis hit, John Paulson was just your run-of-the-mill hedge fund operator, worth millions of dollars. But when the market crashed, Paulson made billions. How he did it lies at the heart of a new book called The Greatest Trade Ever. The book's author, Gregory R. Zuckerman, offers his insight.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120183535Before the financial crisis hit, John Paulson was just your run-of-the-mill hedge fund... more
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Commissions are often created to defer tough decisions; to forge a consensus around a hard solution to a genuine problem; and, rarely, actually to delve into underlying facts. The Angelides commission (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/business/16inquiry.html?_r=1), officially chartered by Congress this summer as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, has the chance to be that third kind of commission, gathering the missing empirical data on fundamental questions that can guide future decision-making.
We already know an awful lot more about what happened last year than we did in 1932, when the legendary Pecora commission(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission) was created to investigate the Wall Street crash. We know the fundamental violations of sound banking practice and regulatory failures that brought us to the precipice. Yet there are still critical areas that would benefit from the commission's detailed analysis: four structural issues that have not yet received adequate attention and one particular transaction that is still highly ambiguous.Commissions are often created to defer tough decisions; to forge a consensus around a... more
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Just when you think those that run our country have experience to do a good job, to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare, along comes the status quo-which happens to be greed and money and power.
Nobody can overturn the money changers tables alone. Well Jesus did.
If we don't pay attention to the warnings and the warners....
October 20th, 2009 on Frontline is a chance to learn about how we got in this financial crisis. Just maybe then we can do something to avert it from happening again, if we can get experienced, conscious and conscience Americans to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare of our country.Just when you think those that run our country have experience to do a good job, to... more
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'Sachs of Gold' bank, Goldman Sachs was given 70 billion taxpayer dollars because of Paulson and Geithner and through legalized theft, made 3 billion dollars profit in three months interest free.
That's right. They borrowed tax payer money, made profit and didn't pay a dime in interest!
How do we Americans get the interest we are owed?
Demand clawbacks. Call your representative today (which will only help if they aren't already on the 'Sachs of Gold' payroll).'Sachs of Gold' bank, Goldman Sachs was given 70 billion taxpayer dollars because of... more
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An interesting article on the inherent morality of capitalism.
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DEBTORS REVOLT BEGINS NOW!
When Rome fell, the maximum rate charged for interest was 33%.
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Well, pretty pessimist but....
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A professor at the diplomatic academy of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. will break into six parts because of the nation's financial crisis.
"The dollar isn't secured by anything," Igor Panarin said in an interview transcribed by Russian newspaper Izvestia today. "The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche; this is a pyramid, which has to collapse."
Panarin said in the interview that the financial crisis will worsen, unemployment will rise and people will lose their savings -- factors that will cause the country's breakup.
"Dissatisfaction is growing, and it is only being held back at the moment by the elections, and the hope" that President- elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he said. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."Well, pretty pessimist but....
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A professor at the diplomatic... more
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Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.Just because a bunch of people use certain words to express themselves in fora(forums) doesn't mean that they're in some way foretelling the future,but...,but fact is that Cliff High was able to predict a number of specific and major events.Well, you'll be the judge of it! No wait, let time be the judge of it!Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.Just because a bunch of people use certain words to... more
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As if it wasn't bad enough that Bernie Madoff investors were handing over their money to a con artist to manage, it seems they were also putting their trust in a drug-addicted gun freak, too. When Bernie Madoff's right-hand man Frank DiPascali pleaded guilty earlier this week to charges he helped engineer the $65 billion scheme and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, the deal also guaranteed DiPascali that the feds wouldn't come after him for the "use of controlled substances prior to 1992" and "for possessing illegal firearms up until last Friday." Between this news and the revelation that Bernie had a 20-year affair that no one knew about, the made-for-TV Madoff movie is getting spicier by the day, isn't it?As if it wasn't bad enough that Bernie Madoff investors were handing over their money... more
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Pensioners battered a financial adviser with Zimmer frames before kidnapping and torturing him for losing 2million of their savings.
James Amburn, 56, was ambushed outside his home in Speyer, western Germany, bound with masking tape and bundled into a car boot.Pensioners battered a financial adviser with Zimmer frames before kidnapping and... more
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Castro Valley, Calif. -- "Boob play," "pics of kitty," "topless housecleaning" and "hypno role play." The list, scribbled in a lined yellow notebook, is followed by a double-underlined figure: $725.
It's 9 a.m. on a Friday and 30-year-old Marie is sitting on her couch clad in Donald Duck pajamas, munching on buttered toast and staring at her cellphone like she can will it to ring. If someone calls in response to the ad she posted this morning on Craigslist, she can add $75 to her projected income for the month.
Five months ago, before being laid off, Marie was bringing in $45,000 a year at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Now, she operates out of two offices: her living room and a regularly changing hotel room. Her uniform is different, too: Instead of conservative business attire, she dons a lace bra and booty-hugging capris. The former corporate supervisor has become a sex worker.
She's applied for every strait-laced office gig she can find -- regardless of hours, pay or whether her University of California degree makes her absurdly overqualified. She went from being a manager to fighting for personal assistant positions. But last month, after innumerable unanswered cover letters, overdue bills and a delay in her unemployment checks, she entered a world of code words and cash wads. It was baptism by -- bodily fluids: She peed on a guy in her own bed for $100. Since then, she's been paid more times than she can count, or cares to count, for sex, blow jobs, hand jobs and sensual massage.
Of course, Marie is far from the only woman pushed into the sex industry by these harsh economic times. Strip clubs, X-rated Web cam companies and escort managers across the country have reported an increase in job applications in the last several months -- ironically, at the same time that business is largely going down. The same phenomenon was seen after the dot-com bust, when out-of-work techies turned to everything from S/M dungeons to porn sets. Both booms saw a series of salacious news items about good girls gone bad, a narrative that is at least as old as the Bible -- but I wanted to know what was unique about this particular cultural moment.
Industry insiders like to say that they're seeing more "normal" people, girls "with good minds." Mike of A&M Studios, a producer of X-rated video chats, says: "A couple years ago, we'd have a lot of strippers or people who might be on meth -- a lot of shiftier people." He continues, "Now we're seeing performers who are more educated and used to working on a regular schedule. There's been a shift to a very different class of people." Much as his phrasing gives me chills, it isn't just a cliché that women with limited job opportunities often turn to sex work.
The difference in these dark days is that middle-class advantages, like a solid college education and professional work experience, don't offer the same level of protection that they once did from being pushed to make such a choice. Not to mention, it's easier now to make the decision because the Internet has bulldozed the barrier of entry into the sex industry. Just a few clicks away from Craigslist's job board is an array of immediate, cash-upfront adult gigs.
Last month, it looked like that might change: Craigslist announced it would replace its raunchy erotic services section with a costlier and human-monitored "adult" section to appease a threatening state attorney general -- but, so far, the only difference is that there are fewer ads and more euphemisms. Instead of hand jobs and BJs, women offer "sweet treats," "pleasure," "play" or, most popular of all, sensual or erotic "massage." Those looking to hire simply put out a call for a "personal assistant" or a "female teacher" under "adult gigs." Craigslist still allows "normal" girls like Marie to easily gauge the going rates, pick up the lingo and become plucky entrepreneurs, soCastro Valley, Calif. -- "Boob play," "pics of kitty," "topless housecleaning" and... more
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It's a terrible mistake to confuse the momentary solvency of the financial sector and the long-term health of our economy.
While we have addressed the credit collapse, we have not begun to tackle the far more daunting, and more significant, structural problems in the economy. Instead of focusing on the green shoots, let's examine the macro data that will determine our national prosperity in the next generation. These data are terrifying.
Start with the job front. Long term, nothing is more fundamental than good jobs to creating the middle-class wealth that must drive the economy. The creation of true middle-class jobs was the great success of our economy from 1950s through the mid-1990s. Consider the job data, in aggregate and by sector, from the past decade. (All data are from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.)It's a terrible mistake to confuse the momentary solvency of the financial sector and... more
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"This bill is the most important legislation for financial institutions in the last 50 years. It provides a long-term solution for troubled thrift institutions. ... All in all, I think we hit the jackpot." So declared Ronald Reagan in 1982, as he signed the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act."This bill is the most important legislation for financial institutions in the last 50... more
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U.S. "problem" banks climbed 21 percent to the highest total in 15 years in the first quarter, and provisions set aside for loan losses weighed on industry earnings, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.U.S. "problem" banks climbed 21 percent to the highest total in 15 years in the first... more
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This event will be moderated by Michael Wilson, Business Editor of Sky News
Paul Mason talks about the ongoing financial crisis that has brough the global economy to the brink of depression. Gordon Brown hailed the result of deregulation as the ‘golden age’ of banking in the UK. Mason will give insights into how deregulation is at the heart of the collapse of the banking system in September and October 2008 and how it led to expanded subprime mortgage lending, an uncontrollable derivatives market, and the lethal fusion of banking and insurance.
In his latest book Financial Meltdown and the end of the Age of Greed Mason goes on a journey from the trading floors of the New York and London stock exchange, to the meeting rooms of HBOS and Lehman Brothers and the minds of senior government officials. Meltdown explores the roots of the US and UK’s financial hubris, documenting the real-world causes and consequences, from the Ford factory, to Wall Street to the City of London.
Paul Mason is the economics editor of BBC's Newsnight.This event will be moderated by Michael Wilson, Business Editor of Sky News
Paul... more
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The acting head of Freddie Mac, David Kellerman, has committed suicide.
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Blog based on Thomas E. Woods Meltdown. This post covers the sub-prime and prime loans, adjustable rate mortgages, speculation, the rating agengies and the FED's distortion of the market.Blog based on Thomas E. Woods Meltdown. This post covers the sub-prime and prime... more
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This is the most cogent, balanced, unbiased summary of the root causes and history of the "meltdown" I've seen yet.
If you're not done blaming one side or the other or one key player or another, this probably won't change your mind, but if you read the entire article, you'll get a very good view of who the players really were, what they really did, and why both they AND the MSM are still not 'fessing up about it. Why should they, if they can get you to believe that the guilty parties aren't "really" guilty....
Anatomy of a Breakdown
Concerted government policy helped trigger the financial meltdown—and will almost certainly extend it.
Michael Flynn | January 2009 Print Edition
Intro...
"It was not an absence of federal intervention that produced the Great Financial Panic of 2008. Contrary to the assertions of those clamoring for new regulations (see "Is Deregulation to Blame?," page 36), the liquidity shortage and credit freeze that triggered Washington's biggest intrusion into the economy since Richard Nixon's wage and price controls were caused by bad government policy and worse crisis management. "
excerpt:
"The Roots of the Crisis
Throughout the 1990s and the early years of this century, both major political parties became intoxicated with the idea of promoting "affordable" housing. By the time the crisis blew up, Congress was mandating that roughly 50 percent of the mortgages issued by Fannie and Freddie go to households making below their area's median income.
Many conservative commentators have blamed the housing mess on the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which essentially required banks to increase lending in low-income areas. While the CRA was a bad law, its role in recent events has been overblown. After all, it was on the books for decades before the bubble began. The law's worst legacy is the permanent network of "affordable housing" advocates that sprang up after it passed. These groups, which were intended to facilitate lending in poor areas, continually called for increased activity by banks and additional government support for affordable housing initiatives. The CRA also helped create a climate in which lending to low-income households was a key metric and condition regulators used in approving bank mergers. "
read the rest at the link and have an open mind. you'll find your eyes widening, too!
+afThis is the most cogent, balanced, unbiased summary of the root causes and history of... more
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added this
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7 months ago
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Teams cut payrolls for their active rosters and disabled lists by $47 million from opening day in 2008 to the first day of this season, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. That comes out to a drop of 1.7 percent.Teams cut payrolls for their active rosters and disabled lists by $47 million from... more
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