San Diego Millionaire's Blog

blind greed double speak Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sachs

2009-11-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Brian Griffiths, an International advicer to Goldman Sachs told a panel at St. Paul's Cathedral in London that inequality helps us all, saying, "We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all." Griffiths also used religion to justify his stance, saying, "The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest."

truly orwell logic at work or stalinist

Goldman's secret, exotic bets violated securities laws.

2009-11-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a massive overhaul of the nation's banks. "This is fraud and should be prosecuted."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/77791.html

Goldman's secret, exotic bets violated securities laws.

taxpayers as slaves to bank-run gambling casinos

2009-10-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

saddest moments in the USA=

Alexander Hamilton's proposal for a federal bank. Jefferson's greatest fear, Ratigan announced in comparison to our current economic crisis, was a "bank takeover of the government that would leave taxpayers as slaves to bank-run gambling casinos." Quoting Jefferson directly, Ratigan said, "the banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

Around Ratigan's neck hung a large padlock with TBTF written on it, signifying the government's complicity in the "too big to fail" doctrine. The popular (and controversial) finance blog Zero Hedge alleged on Thursday evening that the Obama administration is seeking to turn TBTF into official canonized law and the blog attempted to quantify the TBTF subsidies by the government.

GOLDMAN lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies

2009-10-29T00:45:00.001-07:00

Goldman Lobbies Senate, Says Full Transparency Sucks

ALTERNATIVE TRADING PLATFORMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON LIQUIDITY

The equity markets provide perhaps the best example of a highly evolved complex ecosystem, where care must be taken to preserve the benefits that have evolved from competition and innovation…
Crucially, liquidity is what helps to solve this mismatch problem. Market makers that see large volumes are best positioned to match differing size transactions. In traditional exchange trading, bids and offers are public, and this transparency helps buyers and sellers to achieve the best price.
For some market participants, however, the openness and transparency of the equity market actually mean they are unlikely to achieve the best price. The risk, particularly for large transactions such as those undertaken by pension funds or large mutual funds (where most small investors have most of their equity exposure), is that other market participants will use this transparency to undercut the intended transactions.
From a Goldman Sachs lobbying document (emphasis mine)
effective-reg-part-4.pdf (application/pdf Object).

This is from a lobbying document Goldman has been passing around the Senate on financial regulatory reform in general.

There is a lot of crazy stuff in this document, but the most notable is probably this passage, in which Goldman pooh-poohs the notion that complete transparency in markets creates accurate prices.

Instead, the bank argues that an over-the-counter market in which big traders like Goldman get to do deals in the shadows in “dark pools” without the retail investor having any knowledge of what the hell is going on is somehow better for everybody, that this somehow produces better prices. Of course the reality is that the two-tiered system creates one pool of fools whose every movement is visible to every animal on the Serengeti, and another pool of giant bloodthirsty carnivores who get to walk around invisible, picking off the dik-diks one by one.

Everyone I showed this to had the same reaction — “I can’t believe they said this out loud.”

One friend of mine put it this way: say Goldman buys a big block of stock from a pension fund in a dark pool. Now they have shares they want to get out of and flatten out their risk. So where do they sell? Well, a big chunk of it might go to the retail schmuck who has no idea what’s going on. He’s buying 1000 shares of whatever at $28, not knowing that Goldman has another 50,000 shares to go. Next thing you know, the schmuck’s shares are at $27.

Goldman salutes this process, noting the magic of so-called “non-displayed liquidity.” What the rest of us would describe as “hiding shit from the rabble,” Goldman calls “separating liquidity from information about the transaction.” You almost have to admire the sheer balls of this sort of propaganda:

Alternative trading platforms – so-called “dark pools” of liquidity – have evolved to address this problem. They work by separating liquidity from information about the transaction – the participants, lot sizes and transaction prices. Through the process of “non-displayed liquidity”, information does become available to both regulators and the public market – but not until the transaction is complete.

God bless this company. They’re never boring, that’s for sure. http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/10/27/goldman-lobbies-senate-says-full-transparency-sucks/

currency crisis this fall or next year

2009-10-25T22:17:00.001-07:00

Einhorn discusses the current fiscal crisis with his opinion of where things are going using examples from the past. He is fearful that a lot of the major currencies around the world are at risk of loosing values. Saying that trying to pick a currency to invest in is like trying to pick out his favorite dental procedure. And for this reason, he likes gold. It is highly recommended that you read the entire transcript of his speech to learn more. This speech is a wonderful example of saying more with fewer words. It is a quick read and you will learn something http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=72498

Obama must face up to the military

2009-10-23T17:13:00.001-07:00

Obama must face up to the military, Hersh said. "He's either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon." If he doesn't, according to Hersh, "this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency."

Joe Wilson's wife punished by God diagnosed with swine flu

2009-10-22T19:00:00.001-07:00

Joe Wilson's wife punished by God diagnosed with swine flu

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/22/joe-wilsons-wife-diagnosed-with-swine-flu/

Financial products there is no equivalent consumer protection for credit cards, for mortgages; there's nothing.

2009-10-22T18:57:00.001-07:00

Financial products, and they are products, just like toasters, are sold today with the most dangerous features embedded in them because that's what drives profitability. What's astonishing is that we let this happen. You can't buy a toaster in America that has a one in five chance of exploding. But you can buy a mortgage that has a one in five chance of exploding, and they don't even have to tell you about it... We have consumer protection for everything you touch, taste, smell, feel... But there is no equivalent for credit cards, for mortgages; there's nothing.

crisis and collapse by 2012

2009-10-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=47729BA0-933E-4299-92CC-EB41EEE671D2

read til end esp. the last 15 points

he battlefield:

Wall Street wealth now calls the shots in Congress, the White House
America's top 1% own more than 90% of America's wealth
The average worker's income has declined in three decades while CEO compensation exploded over ten times
The Fed is now the 'fourth branch of government' operating autonomously, secretly printing money at will
Since Goldman and Morgan became bank holding companies, all banks are back gambling with taxpayer bailout money plus retail customer deposits
Bill Gross warns of a "new normal" with slow growth, low earnings and stock prices
While the White House's chief economist retorts with hype of a recovery unimpeded by the "new normal"
Wall Street's high-frequency junkies make billions trading zombie stocks like AIG, FNMA, FMAC that have no fundamental value beyond a Treasury guarantee
401(k)s have lost 26.7% of their value in the past decade
Oil and energy costs will skyrocket
Foreign nations and sovereign funds have started dumping dollars, signaling the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency
In two years federal debt exploded from $11.2 to $23.7 trillion
New financial reforms will do little to prevent the next meltdown
The "forever war" between Western and Islamic fundamentalists will widen
As will environmental threats and unfunded entitlements

"America Capitalism" is a "Lost Soul" ... we've lost our moral compass ... the coming collapse is the end of an "inevitable" historical cycle stalking all great empires to their graves. Downsize your lifestyle expectations, trust no one, not even media.

Faber is uncertain about timing, we are not. There is a high probability of a crisis and collapse by 2012. The "Great Depression 2" is dead ahead. Unfortunately, there's absolutely nothing you can do to hide from this unfolding reality or prevent the rush of the historical imperative.

goldman buys up england

2009-10-21T17:55:00.001-07:00

The barefaced greed of bankers beggars belief

London estate agents say they cannot believe the wheelbarrows of dosh that are suddenly crashing through their doors. Savills says the number of buyers from the financial services sector has risen by 48 per cent in the third quarter of this year, purely in the expectation of yet another ginormous Christmas bonus.
A knuckle-cracking realtor in Knight Frank’s Kensington office says he has never seen anything like it: email after email from the boys and girls at Goldman Sachs. “We did our first Goldman’s deal in June,” he tells theFT, “and we are now doing five times as many for its employees as for any other bank.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6371140/The-barefaced-greed-of-bankers-and-their-bonuses-beggars-belief.html

William Ackman does the devils work how will he be rewarded

2009-10-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

- William Ackman said he bought shares of Corrections Corp. of America, giving his Pershing Square Capital Management LP hedge fund a 9.5 percent stake in the biggest U.S. operator of private prisons.

“We’re in with two feet,” Ackman said today at the Value Investing Congress in New York. “You’ve got a real estate company, in our opinion, with the government as a tenant. We think this is a business that has very significant growth. It’s going to do well in any economic environment, as long as people commit crimes and as long as we punish them.”

The 43-year-old investor said demand for private prisons will increase. Corrections Corp. shares are worth $40 to $54 a share, Ackman said.

Corrections Corp. shares climbed 5 percent to $25.67 in New York, the biggest advance since Aug. 6. Ackman said he paid more than $24.50 a share.

“This is one of the best real estate businesses in the world,” Ackman said. “The biggest risk to Corrections Corp. is that people stop committing crimes, and I think that’s a low probability event.”

Ackman is known for activist investing and has lobbied for changes at many companies including McDonald’s Corp., the world’s biggest restaurant chain, and Target Corp., the second- largest U.S. discount retailer, to boost their share prices. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a96APKKcMHgQ

Beijing HATES the Fed's printing trillions of fake dollars

2009-10-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

Telegraph in London reported it from the mouth of Cheng Siwei, a "top member of the Communist hierarchy."

The Telegraph reports:

"Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee...said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed's recourse to "credit easing".

"We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again," he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.

"If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies," he said.

China's reserves are more than - $2 trillion, the world's largest.

"Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up. We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the markets," he added.

"The dollar is finished," says historian Niall Ferguson. The Chinese are dumping it, he says.

Ferguson speaks for the popular intelligentsia. His ideas reflect those of fund managers, hedge fund operators, bankers, politicians and speculators. They're all convinced that the dollar is doomed.

The Financial Times elaborates:

"The financial crisis vividly taught investors the importance of tail risk, a massive one-off event that can crush the value of portfolios. As the dust settles, fear of another 'tail' to sting portfolios is uppermost in the minds of many investors and money managers."

John Paulson, a presenter at the Grant's Fall Investment Conference and undoubtedly the richest man in the room. Portfolio magazine dubbed him "The Man Who Made Too Much" after he made $3.7 billion by betting against mortgage-backed securities (MBS). He is one of the greatest hedge fund managers ever.

Gold is his favorite today. As to why, Paulson presented a simple, but compelling case. First, the monetary base has exploded in a way we've never seen before. The monetary base is essentially the Federal Reserve Bank's currency and reserves. The Fed, by buying up securities in this crisis, has pumped a lot of money into the economy. Therefore, in the content of the exploding monetary base, gold seems relatively cheap. In other words, as the money supply rises, so does the price of gold, eventually. As a result, says Paulson, "gold has been a perfect hedge against inflation."

There is some slippage over time. The gold price can change faster or slower than the money supply. But when the market gets worried about inflation, the gold price usually changes much faster - as happened in the 1970s. In 1973 - to pick a typical year - inflation was 9% and gold rose 67%. That was a pattern common in the 1970s.

The potential for inflation this time around is greater than it was in the 1970s, given that the growth in the monetary base is so much greater than it was in the 1970s. Gold could do much better this time around, reaching "$3,000 or $4,000 or $5,000 per ounce" as Paulson said.

I keep thinking how future historians will look back at the present day and see clearly how this unfolded. They will see the litany of news items that pointed to the dollar losing its top perch: China and Brazil settling up trade in their own currencies. The Russians and others openly calling for a new monetary standard. Even mainstream outlets are discussing alternatives to a dollar-based standard, a province once solely occupied by cranks and gold bugs. Not a week goes by without these kinds of stories.

As for a replacement waiting in the wings, Grant offers up gold. Indeed, a kind of "de facto gold standard" seems to be taking shape. The SPDR Gold Trust, the largest gold-backed security in the world, is now the sixth largest holder of the metal in the world. Anybody with a brokerage account can easily buy gold today through the trust, which trades on the NYSE under the ticker GLD.

It's still early. Most people still own no or very little gold. As it becomes clearer what's happening, they will buy more gold, especially as it is now easy to do so.

The gold supply, too, is limited against the vast pool of dollars. As Paulson points out, global money supply is 72 times the value of gold. I'm betting that gap will narrow. It only has to narrow a smidgen and the gold price flies.

As Grant eloquently put it: "Gold is a speculation. But it is a speculation on a certainty: the debasement of the currency." Gold stocks, too, are a speculation. But they are a speculation on an inevitably higher gold price.

It's the risk "that the huge liquidity injections being made by central banks could spark a surge in either inflation and/or long-term interest rates beyond 2012," continues the FT.

"Inflation is the single biggest topic for discussion among our clients," says a private banker.

Chris Mayer, editor of Capital & Crisis, "I am a hard asset kind of guy. My idea of real wealth is one a king from biblical times would recognize - something akin to some camels and horses, a granary full of grain, a sackful of gold pieces, farmland and maybe a water well."

dailyreckoning.com

Break Up THE Banks NOW

2009-10-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

Mervyn King Speech: Break Up Banks

Posted: 21 Oct 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Mervyn King Speech Break Up Banks

http://www.scribd.com/doc/21406275/Mervyn-King-Speech-Break-Up-Banks

I am outraged the Fed exists at all. It is a useless organization that cannot see bubbles, that panders to banks, that supports inflationary policies

2009-10-20T23:28:00.001-07:00

I added a few more points to Where The Hell Is The Outrage? to take care of the above issues. Here they are:

I am outraged at a Fed that purports to be "inflation fighters" when the only source of inflation in the word are central bankers, and their fractional reserve lending policies.

I am outraged that Greenspan and Bernanke could not see a housing bubble that 1000 bloggers could see.

I am outraged at the selective memory of Bernanke when speaking to Congress about these problems.

I am outraged that Bernanke's one sided response to asset bubbles, letting them grow without end, then bailing out the financial institutions that cause them.

I am outraged the Fed exists at all. It is a useless organization that cannot see bubbles, that panders to banks, that supports inflationary policies that are tantamount to theft by fraud.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

get rid of them all of them== AIG (AIG.N: Quote), Fannie, Freddie, Bear Stearns, Citigroup (C.N: Quote) and probably a dozen of others

2009-10-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

get rid of them all of them== AIG (AIG.N: Quote), Fannie, Freddie, Bear Stearns, Citigroup (C.N: Quote) and probably a dozen of others

"The proper way to deal with too-big-to-fail or too-interconnected-to fail is to make sure that no institution is too big, interconnected to fail," he said.

The test, he said, should be that no institution is ever so individually important that if the U.S. were faced with its demise that the government would be forced to intervene.

"The real solution is to break up anything that fails that test," he said.

"The lesson of Lehman should not be that the government shouldn't have prevented their failure; the lesson of Lehman should be that Lehman should not have existed at a scale that would have allowed it to jeopardize the financial system," he said. "And the same logic applies to AIG (AIG.N: Quote), Fannie, Freddie, Bear Stearns, Citigroup (C.N: Quote) and probably a dozen of others." (Editing by Leslie Adler) http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=90996&sn=Detail

stop terrorism by "frisking grandma and taking away everyone's shampoo."

2009-10-20T20:37:00.001-07:00

Einhorn also said Geithner's regulatory reform plan was akin to efforts to stop terrorism by "frisking grandma and taking away everyone's shampoo." http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/einhorn_shorts_us_short_term_thinking_ELvmPoFbYRUfjkALPs8Y7H

notice that during bush fake "booms" the bonuses soar

2009-10-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

notice that during bush fake economic "booms" the bonuses soar

bonuses being paid out by bailed-out firms "deeply offensive."

White House might be crazy like a -- yes -- fox.

2009-10-20T16:27:00.001-07:00

White House might be crazy like a -- yes -- fox. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/10/obama_crazy_like_a_--_yes_--_f.html

health insurance executives violate all doctors Hippocratic Oath

2009-10-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is why doctors should not be allowed to share ANY ZERO NADA ZILCH medical information about a patient with an insurance company. It breaks the Hippocratic Oath to not disclose med info about a patient, a 2000 year history of doctors respecting patients privacy, the times it was broken, were also evil times, torture by doctors, poisonings in the kings court etc.

I am not a "dog." That's what health insurance executives called me because I have a disease. I'm also not a "trainwreck," another term they used for members like me.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily life, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

What I may see or hear in the course of treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

I am outraged that real people are suffering massively while the influence peddlers have stolen the country for their own personal benefit.

2009-10-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

I am outraged that real people are suffering massively while the influence peddlers have stolen the country for their own personal benefit. I am outraged at a political system that is totally unresponsive to the American people.

I am outraged by campaign contribution and lobbying processes that allows corporations to buy votes with donations.

I am outraged how legislators ignored the wishes of the people who clearly did not want these bailouts in the first place.

I am outraged that very little of this is in mainstream media. Why is this stuff not on the frontpage of every newspaper in the country or at least in the editorial pages?

I am outraged that the average US citizen is not aware of any of this, instead depending on CNBC, or "The View" for their interpretation of the world.

I am outraged how special interest groups have exercised their power to monopolize the economy for the benefit of themselves, US citizens be damned.

I am outraged that all these bailout programs are doing nothing to alleviate the massive consumer debt problems. Every program, virtually every program was designed to bailout lending institutions, not consumers.

I am outraged at fees charged by banks receiving bailouts.

I am outraged over government pension plans and government pay scales massively out of line with the private sector.

I am outraged that Congress and this administration thinks the solution to massive budget deficits are still higher budget deficits in excess of a trillion dollars.

I am outraged about indictments. Paulson Admitted Coercion to force a shotgun wedding between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch yet no indictments were handed out. Let the Criminal Indictments Begin: Paulson, Bernanke, Lewis.

I am outraged that US citizens are not concerned enough and not educated enough to demand change.

I am outraged that the two party system has failed. Neither party has delivered meaningful change on budgets, on taxes, on social security, on deficit spending, on the size of government, on military spending, or fighting needless wars.

I am outraged that the Obama Administration promised changed and did not deliver. "Yes We Can" was a lie. The reality is "It's Business As Usual, Only Worse, With Higher Deficits".

I am outraged there is not enough outrage over this.

I am outraged and not just about Goldman Sachs, but about a process that allows, even encourages political pandering, by time and time again rewarding leveraged riverboat gamblers and failed institutions and at taxpayer expense.

I am outraged that real people are suffering massively while the influence peddlers have stolen the country for their own personal benefit.

Where the hell is the outrage?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Goldman hybrid hedge fund and bookie casino

2009-10-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

Is Goldman really such an indispensable financial intermediary? One look at the firm’s revenue breakdown shows that it’s more casino than anything else, and some of the markets it makes still put the economy in danger.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSgc/Stn5aeX2A6I/AAAAAAAAHIw/h_A5pn67Ei4/s1600-h/goldmans+revenue.png

Goldman, in other words, generates most of its revenue trading its own money and earning vigorish on customer transactions. It’s a hybrid hedge fund and bookie, with an investment bank and asset management business thrown in for good measure.

fox news are felonous vilians in many cases

2009-10-18T17:55:00.001-07:00

Investigators are examining the possibility of other conspirators, "including the possibility that even some of the media outlets may have had some knowledge about this," Alderden said.

Documents show that a media outlet has agreed to pay money to the Heenes with regards to the balloon incident, Alderden said. He didn't name the media outlet, but said it was a show that blurs "the line between entertainment and news." It wasn't clear whether the deal was signed before or after the alleged hoax, or whether that media outlet was a possible conspirator. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091018/ap_on_re_us/us_balloon_boy

American people have a right to be frustrated and angry

2009-10-18T10:18:00.001-07:00

Wall Street.

Asked about bonuses at bailed-out Citigroup, Emanuel responded, "I think the American people have a right to be frustrated and angry." He added that the banks have a responsibility not to fight regulatory reforms because of the taxpayer money they took.

"They have a responsibility to come to the table and understand that taking -- that the risks that they took took the economy to a place, it was near a depression, which we hadn't seen since the '30s. They have a responsibility to be part of the solution, not part of being the obstacle ... which is what the president is facing both on health care and the financial system," Emanuel said. "He's fighting the very special interests that have vested interests in keeping the status quo and their friends up on Capitol Hill, that have actually been their advocates of keeping the status quo." However, he did not say what specifically the president would do.

Goldman is great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money

2009-10-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

Goldman is this century’s octopus — almost literally so. The most-quoted sentence in financial journalism this year, by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, describes the company as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/opinion/18rich.html

Goldman is great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money

end of the road for the consumer credit economy

2009-10-16T19:22:00.001-07:00

It's the end of the road for the consumer credit economy.Consumers did their best. They borrowed as much as they could. They spent like there was no tomorrow.

dailyreckoning.com

Condos on which they made deposits of up to $1,000 a square foot in 2006 are now selling for $100

2009-10-16T16:27:00.001-07:00

Condos on which they made deposits of up to $1,000 a square foot in 2006 are now selling for $125 to $350 a foot,

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aY.tf4kEIyPk

demand the return of those investment gains made with America's money

2009-10-16T15:34:00.001-07:00

demand the return of those investment gains made with America's money - it was stolen from us and we can get it back. Demand Claw Backs - and not from the future but from the past - That is where our money is.

We must have an exchange for all credit derivatives -- the current version is riddled with that let banks avoid transparency by mobbing offshore and prohibiting government regulators from being able to force the use of the exchange by the banks.

Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC

2009-10-16T14:28:00.001-07:00

Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC Goldman, Sachs, and, SEC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx5P4cw8sbs

world is dominated by financier interests, which are essentially parasitical in character

2009-10-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

"The problem is, the world is dominated by financier interests, which are essentially parasitical in character. Our industries, our agriculture, our infrastructure is decaying, worldwide — especially in the Americas, especially in North America, and especially in Western Europe. " LR

finance was 2% of economy 40 years ago when america was great, now it is 40% and america is hollowed out.

14 Trillion expansion in the Fed's balance sheet, the $1+ trillion in various stimulus programs, and monetary printing to the tune of $1 trillion as w

2009-10-14T23:13:00.001-07:00

Another clear sign of mistrust is the overwhelming support for Ron Paul's Audit The Fed Legislation, now with 301 co-sponsors per RonPaul.Com. Once again, a few years ago, people thought Paul's idea was loony.

What Did We Get For The Trillions Of Dollars Spent?

Sadly, for all the 14 Trillion expansion in the Fed's balance sheet, the $1+ trillion in various stimulus programs, and monetary printing to the tune of $1 trillion as well, the economy has nothing to show for it other than a stock market rally.

The wealthy have been bailed out, while the middle class and poor are stuck without a job in underwater mortgages, hoping for scraps of mortgage payment reductions when many would be better off walking away. Meanwhile boomers are headed into retirement, underfunded and scared half to death.

I have been exchanging emails with John Mauldin on the growing list of problems as well as possible solutions

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

gold because it's the anti-dollar.

2009-10-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

"They're just looking ahead to when all that money the feds put in the system finally shows up in inflation. If you believe there's a real recovery you might think it is coming soon..." said one analyst.

"They're worried about a crash of the dollar...they're just buying gold because it's the anti-dollar..." said another.

"Maybe the Chinese are switching their reserves to gold...just like they said they would. And maybe instead of buying at below $1,000 they're buying quietly below $1,100..." offered another.

"Gold is being re-monetized," says MoneyWeek editor Simone Wapler. "All the world's paper monies are losing value - and credibility. There's a race to the bottom as they try to devalue their currencies."

All countries are fighting for market share. In a price-sensitive world, they increase exports by cutting prices. And the fastest - sometimes, the only - way to do that is by devaluing the currency. But when one nation devalues - say, by printing extra money - other nations must devalue too in order to stay competitive.

What can they all devalue against?

"Gold is rediscovering its old role," says Simone. "Once again, it is the way we preserve wealth and keep track of what things are worth."

Your editor had his say too.

"Most people are buying gold only because gold is going up. Maybe they realize that the world's financial system is in a period of crisis. They see the central banks are being derelict in their duty. Instead of protecting the value of their paper money the bankers are intentionally undermining it. They figure that if the central banks aren't doing their jobs - that is, if they aren't maintaining a reserve of real money - they'll have to do it themselves. Each person now needs to be his own central bank, with his own reserve of real wealth - gold.

[You can be your own central bank too...but hurry - gold is reaching to the moon. Get in while the price is relatively low. See how here.]

"Or maybe investors don't see that all. Maybe they just see the price going up and they want to hitch a ride. What else can they buy that has been going up for the last 10 years? Gold is up $150 - about 17% - in the last 6 months. It's up 27% in the last year. It's up 300% since 1999."

Gold is in a bull market. How far it will go and how long it takes it to get where it is going, no one knows. No one knows, either, how many scrapes and setbacks it will suffer before it finally reaches its destination.

But it is a bull market. And you don't ask questions in a bull market. You get on board and ride it to the end.

www.dailyreckoning.com

Finally the stupid neo con war monger mongrel austistical autocratic George Will

2009-10-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Finally the stupid neo con war monger mongrel austistical autocratic George Will has one good idea in his entire life. But why did he not have the same g.d. idea when bush was in power, no no no, he used the war to gain political advantage for the repubs

and he is only now calling for obama to pull out because he is a sick demented cynical old man with a genetically warped idea of life and conservativism, he is only now calling for obama to pull out so he can hurt obama and say see see see he is soft on war and hurt the democrts in next 5 elections

he is sick but right, but obama cannot because bush was such a sick war monger than even reasonable decisions are impossible while fox news and Will stir up the populace to want blood...

George Will called for the U.S. to pull out of Afghanistan and "do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units."

banks to speculate with taxpayer money

2009-10-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

"unless the government and people like you that lobby to the exemptions that allow banks to [speculate with taxpayer money] get out of the way, we will never have fair play again in this country and we'll have job creation by virtue of taxpayer theft, which is ultimately destructive, and I would argue, treasonous to this country."

"I don't believe that federal money ought to be used for any speculation," said Donohue,

How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws

2009-10-13T00:14:00.001-07:00

How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance's Five Fatal Flaws Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; Sr. regulator during S&L debacle What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: To supply capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector's current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

honest look at the cruel evil that allowed wall street and bailouts to get trillions and tens of millions of american families to suffer

2009-10-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Life after the bubble: From American dream to American nightmare

an honest look at the cruel evil that allowed wall street and bailouts to get trillions and tens of millions of american families to suffer

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/life-after-the-bubble-from-american-dream-to-american-nightmare/

Pakistan as the central front, it will be proof positive that Al Qaeda has consolidated its hold on Somalia and Yemen

2009-10-11T21:40:00.001-07:00

hawks insisted that Iraq was “the central front in the war on terror” when the central front was Afghanistan, so they insist that Afghanistan is the central front now that it has migrated to Pakistan. When the day comes for them to anoint Pakistan as the central front, it will be proof positive that Al Qaeda has consolidated its hold on Somalia and Yemen. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11rich.html

Where is Oprah's voice on the suffering of American blacks who do not have insurance?

2009-10-11T15:06:00.001-07:00

Where is Oprah's voice on the suffering of American blacks who do not have insurance?

Too busy eating?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouree63N_2s&feature=player_embedded

urbanites of a vaguely Left-wing bent. That is, they feel they should be Left-wing

2009-10-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Why do politicians - including sadly, the Tories this week - fawn over Bono, a smug hypocritical, whining, tax dodging Irish mountebank?

Bono is a prime example of baby-boomer good vibes - of feel-good politics tarted up with celebrity endorsement.

Born in 1960, he is a pin-up for late fortysomething, early fiftysomething urbanites of a vaguely Left-wing bent.

That is, they feel they should be Left-wing, though they may not live out their principles in their spending habits. It is a very Islington state of mind.

Bono, for instance, is fantastically extravagant. He is an enthusiastic buyer of stocks and shares - he owns a hefty chunk of the New York money magazine, Forbes.

He travels the world in a bubble of executive-jet comfort, spending a fortune on his little treats and fancies and racking up tens of thousands of air miles.

Here is a man worth hundreds of millions who has a villa in the South of France, an Italian palazzo looking over the briny near Dublin and a multi-million-pound penthouse in Manhattan.

And yet Bono's message to the Tory conference, as ever, was a homily about the poor and neglected of Africa.

7 sick stupid uncreative Neanderthal UnZen pathological idiots

2009-10-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

7 sick stupid uncreative Neanderthal UnZen pathological idiots

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obama-nobel-prize-reactio_n_315690.html?slidenumber=7#slide_image

cannot do that with tanks and troops. You are pursuing a criminal, not an army

2009-10-09T22:23:00.001-07:00

the 2nd day of the ninth year of what is quickly becoming your War in Afghanistan is not lost on anyone. You are truly at a crossroads now. You can listen to the generals and expand the war (only to result in a far-too-predictable defeat) or you can declare Bush's Wars over, and bring all the troops home. Now. That's what a true man of peace would do.

There is nothing wrong with you doing what the last guy failed to do -- capture the man or men responsible for the mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11. But you cannot do that with tanks and troops. You are pursuing a criminal, not an army. You do not use a stick of dynamite to get rid of a mouse.

Edward Gibbon Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764,

2009-10-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

"It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind."

- Edward Gibbon

mortgage industry no relationships, skewed incentives, incompetent regulation, and greed run amok.

2009-10-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

Joe's absence reflects the two major intellectual trends of our (business) time: a view of strategy as competition (think "sustainable competitive advantage") and a view of business as optimizing systems (think business process re-engineering and outsourcing). The competitive view literally redefined suppliers and customers as sub-categories of competitors—we learned to compete with our customers. The process view replaced markets with organizations—we now outsource human resources in the name of efficiency (and, tellingly, speak of employees as "human capital").

Harvard Business School was a leader in the New Strategy thinking, and a significant participant in Business Process movement. This view of business is less about commerce, more about competition; less about managers, more about management; less about relationships, more about systems and processes. In this worldview, "business ethics" is an oxymoron; not because of bad behavior, but because ethics can't even exist apart from some notion of a "relationship" to something or someone else. Subordinating everything to shareholder value is, literally, anti-ethical.

One example is the mortgage industry. It was completely redesigned since the 1980s along good HBS guidelines—to maximize efficiency, lower costs, and increase liquidity. Collateral damage: no relationships, skewed incentives, incompetent regulation, and greed run amok.

Meanwhile, the world is moving in precisely the opposite direction. The salient fact of business nowadays is that it's all connected. In a connected world, a focus on competitive relationships is no longer useful. What we need is connectivity, trust, and collaboration. And it starts with the way we think. Which means Harvard and other business schools have a huge obligation to correct their teachings.

HBS needs to teach less competitive differentiation and more collaborative value-adding; less how to win supply chain negotiations and more how everyone gains by operating as collaborators; less about transactions, more about relationships; less about winning individually, and more about jointly succeeding. http://michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/wall-street-run-amok-why-harvards-blame

U.S. financial system still "vulnerable" to the murky world of privately negotiated derivatives.

2009-10-07T20:42:00.001-07:00

U.S. financial system still "vulnerable" to the murky world of privately negotiated derivatives.

Why Advertisers Cant Add

2009-10-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Also add that the majority of ad/marketing people are dumb and dumber.

http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/10/reason_2354817.html

Reason #2,354,817 Why Advertisers Cant Add

Posted: 06 Oct 2009 08:53 PM PDT

A new Citi report makes clear why many mainstream advertisers badly need to be disintermediated or bankrupted or beaten or something. Consider the following three points:

21% of people’s time is spent online
Brand and message recall online were 43% and 33%, while offline they were 15% and 11%
Average ROI of an online campaign was 153%, with average sales lift of 32%, up 18% and 14% from offline respectively

And then consider this:

Advertisers allocated less than 10% of total ad spend to online

Did you get that? Advertisers underallocate badly to online based on time spent with the media, a situation made more embarrassing by the underperformance of offline versus online. Yeesh.

Granted, these are squishy numbers, as are all things in marketing (hence the high expense budgets and all the time spent golfing), but assuming they are even in the ballpark advertisers have some ‘splainin’ to do.

These companies create phony foreign headquarters in a file folder or a mailbox to escape taxes and then use other people's taxes to turn a profit

2009-10-07T10:34:00.001-07:00

"These companies create phony foreign headquarters in a file folder or a mailbox to escape taxes and then use other people's taxes to turn a profit," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said at the time.

Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that considered the spending bill with the proposed limit on the ban, said Tuesday that she didn't think the new language would make it easy for companies to circumvent the law and escape taxation.

"That's not how I interpret it," she told The Hill when asked about concerns over the new language. "I do support the ban."

inconsistent, to have central planning for money in a free market system

2009-10-07T02:49:00.000-07:00

The Daily Reckoning Australia

London, England - Melbourne, Australia

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

----------------------------------

From Dan Denning in St. Kilda:

--So this is what happens when you don't have a free market for money. A committee of men and women whose interests may be more aligned with the banks than yours get to set the price of money and make a hash of everyone's careful long-term planning. How is it theoretically consistent, as my friend Gary North asks, to have central planning for money in a free market system?

--Uncertainty...chaos...bad decision making. This is what makes individual planning so hard in a world with fiat money. The supply of money (and thus the value) is always changing. Economic decisions that made sense with interest rates at one level make a lot less sense with interest rates at a different level. Mis-calculations are made. Good investments go bad.

--Will the Reserve Bank's decision to raise interest rates for the first time in 19 months expose people who didn't plan for it? Of course it will. The housing sector is where we'll find out. And you already know what we think, don't you?

--We think the Federal government behaved shamefully by suckering first home buyers in with free cash when interest rates were historically low. Now that rates have begun moving up, the most marginal buyers will begin feeling the pinch. And what will happen to house prices?

--As far as stocks go, there might be an even bigger rates-related story playing out. The RBA becomes the first G-20 central bank to lift rates. Whether it's stupid or prescient no one knows. But we have to consider the possibility that it could ignite a reversal of the trend in global bond yields. Yields on government and corporate debt could be headed higher now.

--Mind you we don't think the Fed will be raising short-term rates in America any time soon. It would crush what little chance there is for a recovery in U.S. housing. But on the longer end of the yield curve (the part the Fed does not control), investors might begin sending interest rates up and bond prices down. Relatively speaking, this makes stocks a lot more attractive.

--Maybe that's why stocks in New York rallied over night. And maybe that's why Aussie stocks were up after yesterday's announcement and are up again this morning. It could also be that investors are buying the "recovery has begun" story, which would be goofy but possible. But for whatever reason, stocks are suddenly looking a lot more compelling than bonds.

--But let us not forget gold. And how could we? It's so shiny. Gold hit an all time high of $1,040 yesterday. It won't make a new high in inflation-adjusted terms until it clears US$2,000. But the question on everyone's mind is whether gold is going to make higher highs from here...or corrects.

--The case for the correction is simple. Check out the chart below. It's the commitment of traders report from the New York futures market. You can see from the figures at the bottom that both the number and the percentage of large speculators who are bullish is at record levels. That alone would dictate some short-term trading caution.

Click to enlarge

--What's more, the emergence of the gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) has put a huge portion of the gold market in a very small number of hands. If the ETFs sell...who will they sell to? Or more succinctly, a lot of the gold demand is coming from a few institutions. If other institutions (central banks and sovereign wealth funds) don't pick up the slack, there will be more sellers than buyers and prices will fall.

--But not so fast says the world of geopolitics. Gold could go much higher if the world's entire monetary order (or disorder) shifts away from the U.S. dollar. And that's just what the Independent's Robert Fisk wrote yesterday in anarticle that set the internet all a-twitter. He called it, "The demise of the dollar."

--Fisk wrote that, "Gulf Arabs are planning -- along with China, Russia, Japan and France -- to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar...The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold."

--Well then, that changes everything. In this role, gold becomes a hedge against devaluation in the U.S. dollar. It's not so much a hedge against inflation (a systematic increase in the supply of dollars printed to hold up the U.S. banking sector and finance a grasping Federal government) as it is a move to protect assets against a sudden dollar collapse.

--Granted, in the ho hum developed Western world we live in, currencies simply don't suddenly collapse. They erode over time. And one fine day you find your purchasing power is not what it used to be.

--But in emerging markets, basket case economies with massive fiscal imbalances do have sudden currency crises. FT writer and economist Willem Buiter calls them "sudden stops." And then, if you're an American or a Brit, he makes the somewhat terrifying point that these two developed economies have all the characteristics of an emerging market basket case economy.

--Buiter writes that, "The only element of a classical emerging market crisis that is missing from the US and UK experiences since August 2007 is the 'sudden stop' - the cessation of capital inflows to both the private and public sectors. . . . But that should not be taken for granted, even for the US with its extra protection layer from the status of the US dollar as the world's leading reserve currency. A large fiscal stimulus from a government without fiscal credibility could be the trigger for a 'sudden stop'."

--One important aspect of these "sudden stops" is that they are almost never events you would choose to participate in. But you have to anyway, or monetary events overtake your investment portfolio. This is why these episodes in monetary history are so chaotic. And it's why-if we're entering one of those episodes now (or at least the most unstable period of it as we move from one reserve currency to a basket of currencies)-the price swings in asset markets are going to be impressively volatile.

--All that said, the move up in the Aussie cash rate has sent the Aussie dollar higher. Thus, the Aussie gold price went down overnight, not up. It could be that in the short term, the migration of global capital flows out of the USD favours Aussie equities more than gold (from an Australian perspective).

--So about that 5,000 on the All Ordinaries....Does it now look a lot more likely given the events of the last 24 hours? Or are we on the cusp of a significant correction to the rally of the last six months? More on that tomorrow from the trading nebula.

--And by the way, has there ever been a better time to figure out what gold is really all about? These are serious and far reaching issues. It's high time for a serious and far-reaching discussion of them. If that sort of thing interests you, make sure you read about the upcoming gold conference in Canberra early next month.

things Bernanke did were very bad, but he is in sharp contrast to Geithner who has been wrong about everything in his career

2009-10-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

things Bernanke did were very bad, but he is in sharp contrast to Geithner who has been wrong about everything in his career

a demonstration of what is wrong with the Federal Reserve banks if the head of the unit doesn't think he's a regulator. He's a disaster."

Rio Brazil annual rainfall patterns

2009-10-05T00:00:00.001-07:00

Rio Brazil annual rainfall patterns

Which month is best to go

Which month has the lowest rainfall

Which month is driest

Driest months in brazil

Dry season in brazil

Belem

Fortaleza Rainfall (average mm)

Fortaleza ge minimum temperature.

Recife ainfall (average mm)

Recife, Brazil shows the years average weather condition readings covering rain, average maximum daily temperature and average minimum temperature.

Salvador Rainfall (average mm)

Rio rainfall

Floripa Rainfall (average mm)

Belo horiz Rainfall (average mm)

Panatal Rainfall (average mm)

Sao paulo Rainfall (average mm)

Blessed Are the Wealthy are amassing more and more loot -- and they do their best to pay little or no income tax (last year Goldman Sachs' tax rate

2009-10-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning ...a note from Michael Moore

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Friends,

I'd like to have a word with those of you who call yourselves Christians (Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Bill Maherists, etc. can read along, too, as much of what I have to say, I'm sure, can be applied to your own spiritual/ethical values).

In my new film I speak for the first time in one of my movies about my own spiritual beliefs. I have always believed that one's religious leanings are deeply personal and should be kept private. After all, we've heard enough yammerin' in the past three decades about how one should "behave," and I have to say I'm pretty burned out on pieties and platitudes considering we are a violent nation who invades other countries and punishes our own for having the audacity to fall on hard times.

I'm also against any proselytizing; I certainly don't want you to join anything I belong to. Also, as a Catholic, I have much to say about the Church as an institution, but I'll leave that for another day (or movie).

Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and corrupt members of Congress exposed in "Capitalism: A Love Story," I pose a simple question in the movie: "Is capitalism a sin?" I go on to ask, "Would Jesus be a capitalist?" Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1% to have more financial wealth than the 95% under them combined?

I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what's left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother's and sister's keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you'd have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.

I guess that's bad news for us Americans. Here's how we define "Blessed Are the Poor": We now have the highest unemployment rate since 1983. There's a foreclosure filing once every 7.5 seconds. 14,000 people every day lose their health insurance.

At the same time, Wall Street bankers ("Blessed Are the Wealthy"?) are amassing more and more loot -- and they do their best to pay little or no income tax (last year Goldman Sachs' tax rate was a mere 1%). Would Jesus approve of this? If not, why do we let such an evil system continue? It doesn't seem you can call yourself a Capitalist AND a Christian -- because you cannot love your money AND love your neighbor when you are denying your neighbor the ability to see a doctor just so you can have a better bottom line. That's called "immoral" -- and you are committing a sin when you benefit at the expense of others.

When you are in church this morning, please think about this. I am asking you to allow your "better angels" to come forward. And if you are among the millions of Americans who are struggling to make it from week to week, please know that I promise to do what I can to stop this evil -- and I hope you'll join me in not giving up until everyone has a seat at the table.

Thanks for listening. I'm off to Mass in a few hours. I'll be sure to ask the priest if he thinks J.C. deals in derivatives or credit default swaps. I mean, after all, he must've been good at math. How else did he divide up two loaves of bread and five pieces of fish equally amongst 5,000 people? Either he was the first socialist or his disciples were really bad at packing lunch. Or both.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

None of the structural problems regarding consumer debt, excess capacity, or malinvestments have been addressed.

2009-10-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

None of the structural problems regarding consumer debt, excess capacity, or malinvestments have been addressed. Instead the government's solution is to pile on more debt and bail out failed institutions at taxpayer expense. One cannot cure a debt problem by going further in debt. It's as simple as that.

"Price is what you pay," Buffett explained, "Value is what you get." Our recent financial system, Tavakoli asserts, has paid high prices for little value. Brett Steenbarger has a review in Featured Book Look: Dear Mr. Buffett by Janet Tavakoli

Janet Tavakoli for President

2009-10-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

Janet Tavakoli on Max Keiser’s Show

Finally someone says the truth clearly

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/janet-tavakoli-on-max-keisers-show/

full blown credit collapse/housing bust/bank failure cycle.

2009-10-04T17:29:00.001-07:00

this wasn’t your run of the mill manufacturing recession; it was a full blown credit collapse/housing bust/bank failure cycle. Comparisons to earlier manufacturing recessions will yield parallels that are utterly inappropriate . . .

Source:
Downright Scary
ALAN ABELSON
Barron’s October 5, 2009
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB125452481422260689.html

Brazil unsafe to host games, crime and terror issues

2009-10-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Did anyone even think about the fact that Brazil has the most porous borders especially at the triple frontier with Uruguay in the South. How are they going to protect the worlds young athletes from the giant threat of AL quada terrorism, it is impossible in a crime filled city and country Brazil where a small amount of money can buy police.

I have grave concerns and worries of problems

Please send the CIA and FBI immediately to fix all their borders.

Brazil also has an angry Arab population who might help bad elements from middle east Afghanistan or Pakistan

I love Brazil but is it really safe, is Rio really truly safe when there are millions in favellas all around the city, hundreds of meters from the venues?

derivatives are 600 trillion ten times the GDP of world

2009-10-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

derivatives are 600 trillion ten times the GDP of world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYizzdHAXM&feature=player_embedded#

Rio 2016`s plans for an unforgettable Olympic and Paralympic Games. See the details of our proposal for celebrations that unite the power of sport wit

2009-10-02T17:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.rio2016.org.br/en/Rio2016/

Discover Rio 2016`s plans for an unforgettable Olympic and Paralympic Games. See the details of our proposal for celebrations that unite the power of sport with the unique spirit of Rio de Janeiro.

More information

http://www.rio2016.org.br/sumarioexecutivo/default_en.asp

The city is officially mentioned for the first time when, in January 1502, the second Portuguese exploratory expedition, commanded by Gaspar Lemos, arrived at the bay, which the navigator assumed to be the mouth of a river, therefore calling the region Rio de Janeiro (River of January).

In 1530, the Portuguese court sent an expedition to colonize the area, rather than continuing to use it only as a stop-over on their maritime adventures. The French, however, had had a presence in Rio de Janeiro and its surroundings since the beginning of the century and were willing to fight for control of the region. In 1560, after a series of unsuccessful attempts, the Portuguese expelled the French.

The Portuguese city grew up around São Januário Hill, later known as Castle Hill, and then Praça Quinze, a square which is still the heart of Rio.

The city developed due to its natural vocation as a port. At the same time that gold was discovered in Minas Gerais State, at the end of the seventeenth century, the governor of Brazil was made viceroy. Salvador was the colonial capital, but the growing importance of the port of Rio ensured the transfer of the seat of power to the south, to the city that would become, and still is, the intellectual and cultural center of the country.

In 1808, the Portuguese royal family came to Rio de Janeiro, as a refuge from the threat of Napoleon’s invasion. In this period the city developed considerably, with the establishment of new activities and construction of large buildings. When the royal family returned to Portugal and after the independence of Brazil in 1822, the gold mines had been exhausted and given way to a different source of wealth: coffee.

The city continued to grow through the nineteenth century, initially northward, to São Cristóvão and Tijuca, and then towards the South Zone, through Glória, Flamengo and Botafogo. However, in 1889, the abolition of slavery and poor harvests interrupted progress. This period of social and political unrest led to the Proclamation of the Republic. Despite this, Rio, then called the Federal District, remained the political center and capital of the country.

The beginning of the twentieth century saw the creation of wide streets and imposing buildings, mostly in the French fin-de-siècle style. Rio de Janeiro maintained its position until the inauguration of Brasília as capital of the republic in 1960. Capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, the city remains the social and cultural center of the country.

Source: Riotur

businessman in Los Angeles had kwashiorkor (the kind of malnutrition that famine-stricken African children get

2009-10-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

--- more and more i see the plagues and ravages of the 3rd world, the uncivilized world, the jungle, entering the USA and taking over and killing people. and lowering our quality of life, i think we are opening america to devolve backwards toward a time tens of thousands of years ago. also the violence and meanness of the jungle, the cruelty and anti civilization.

Two years ago, I took care of a businessman in Los Angeles. He had Crohn's disease, and his health and nutrition had been getting worse for over a year. He was seeing doctors at one of our private hospitals, but he lost his insurance, so he couldn't see his doctors anymore. Buying private insurance was impossible - no amount of money could have convinced an insurance company to cover him. He tried the county hospital ER, but the wait was 24 hours. He thought maybe he could manage.

A few months later, when he could barely walk from his bed to the door, he tried the ER again. By then, he had kwashiorkor (the kind of malnutrition that famine-stricken African children get) as a complication of his gut disorder. Every organ system was failing. I remember that even in the hospital, he tried to keep up his work via his Blackberry. We tried to help him, but he rapidly deteriorated and died just six days after admission.

I was devastated and talked to many colleagues about what I could have done differently to save my patient. He should have been living his life and being a productive member of society today, but he's dead. We could have saved him if he had been able to come for care sooner -- instead of being deterred by his lack of insurance. Ultimately, I recognize that he died because the system failed him. In our great country, that is unacceptable.

http://my.barackobama.com/write

House prices have plenty further to fall.

2009-09-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Keep dreaming, says David Levy, of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center. House prices have plenty further to fall. http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/09/no-way-has-housing-bottomed-says-david-levy/

Many of the ancient ‘wonders of the world’ are apparently on the same latitude.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

A key idea in the current Mayan 2012 end-of-the-world meme is that December 21st, 2012 coincides with the end of the Precession of the Equinox, a 26,000 galactic cycle.

Gore Vidal: ‘We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US’

2009-09-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Gore Vidal: ‘We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US’ http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6854221.ece

American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

2009-09-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

By Kristina Shevory 08.24.09

We're gluttons for infographics, and a team at Kansas State just served up a feast: maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust). Christian clergy, likely noting the Bible Belt's status as Wrath Central, question the "science." Valid point—or maybe it's just the pride talking.

Greed
Average income compared with number of people living below the poverty line.

Envy
Total thefts (robbery, burglary, larceny, and grand theft auto) per capita.

Wrath
Number of violent crimes (murder, assault, and rape) per capita.

Sloth
Expenditures on art, entertainment, and recreation compared with employment.

Gluttony
Number of fast-food restaurants per capita.

Lust
Number of STD cases reported per capita.

Pride
Aggregate of the other six offenses—because pride is the root of all sin.

Kansas State University Geography/ http://www.wired.com/culture/education/magazine/17-09/st_sinmaps

Wall Street’s Digital Underground A few of the more prominent financial bloggers.

2009-09-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

http://nymag.com/guides/money/2009/59457/index6.html

Wall Street’s Digital Underground
A few of the more prominent financial bloggers.

Even glamour publisher Conde Nast is forced to make cutbacks. It has told employees that they may not spend more than $1,000 a night when they are tra

2009-09-29T15:03:00.001-07:00

Even glamour publisher Conde Nast is forced to make cutbacks. It has told employees that they may not spend more than $1,000 a night when they are traveling. dailyreckoning.com

You mean you can't build a lasting recovery on debt and shell-game finance?

2009-09-28T14:04:00.001-07:00

You mean you can't build a lasting recovery on debt and shell-game finance?

dailyreckoning.com

obama making same mistakes as bush

2009-09-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

obama making same mistakes as bush because obama has the same stupid advisors as bush

same wall street insiders

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-peter-schiff-us-stock-rally-and-dollar-doomed-gold-going-to-5000-2009-9

Dollar Doomed, Gold Going To $5,000

2009-09-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Dollar Doomed, Gold Going To $5,000 http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-peter-schiff-us-stock-rally-and-dollar-doomed-gold-going-to-5000-2009-9

renminbi could "double or triple" when it's depegged from the dollar.

2009-09-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

renminbi could "double or triple" when it's depegged from the dollar. http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-peter-schiff-us-stock-rally-and-dollar-doomed-gold-going-to-5000-2009-9

George W. Bush combined worse monetary, tax and spending policies in our nations history

2009-09-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

George W. Bush combined worse monetary, tax and spending policies in our nations history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj8rMwdQf6k

home prices will fall 50, 60, 70 80 percent

2009-09-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

home prices will fall 50, 60, 70 80 percent from top http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj8rMwdQf6k

Combine protein, fat, and carbohydrates in every meal. Never eat carbohydrates alone.

2009-09-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

Dietary Recommendations to Help Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

The first step in preventing heart disease is to eat a healthy diet. Increase your consumption of whole foods rich in phytonutrients, plant molecules that give your body the nutrients it needs. Here are some practical tips:

1. To avoid the blood sugar imbalances that increase your risk for heart disease, eat protein with every meal, even at breakfast. This will help you to avoid sudden increases in your blood sugar.

2. Use lean animal protein like fish, turkey, chicken, lean cuts of lamb, and even vegetable protein such as nuts, beans, and tofu.

3. Combine protein, fat, and carbohydrates in every meal. Never eat carbohydrates alone.

4. For the same reasons, avoid white flour and sugar.

5. Eat high-fiber foods, ideally at least 50 grams per day. Beans, whole grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruit all contain beneficial fiber.

6. Avoid all processed junk food, including sodas, juices, and diet drinks, which impact sugar and lipid metabolism. Liquid sugar calories are the biggest contributors to obesity and diabetes and heart disease.

7. Increase omega-3 fatty acids by eating cold-water wild salmon, sardines, herring, flaxseeds, and even seaweed.

8. Reduce saturated fat and use more grass-fed or organic beef or animal products, which contain less saturated fat.

9. Eliminate all hydrogenated fat, which is found in margarine, shortening, and processed oils, as well as many baked goods and processed foods.

10. Instead use healthy oils, such as olive (especially extra virgin olive oil), cold pressed sesame, and other nut oils.

11. Avoid or reduce alcohol, which can increase triglycerides and fat in the liver and create blood sugar imbalances.

12. Don't allow yourself to get hungry. Graze -- don't gorge -- by eating every three to four hours to keep your insulin and blood sugar normal.

13. Try not to eat three hours before bed.

14. Have a good protein breakfast every day. You can start with a protein shake or may use eggs. Some suppliers offer omega-3 eggs, which are ideal.

15. Include flaxseeds by using two to four tablespoons of ground flaxseeds every day in your food. This can lower cholesterol by 18 percent. Flax is tasty in shakes or sprinkled on salads or whole grain cereal.

16. Drink green tea, which can help lower cholesterol.

17. Use soy foods such as soymilk, edamame, soy nuts, tempeh, and tofu, which can help lower cholesterol by 10 percent.

18. Eat at least eight to ten servings of colorful fruits and vegetables a day, which contain disease fighting vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatorymolecules. (vi)

Supplements Can Help Reduce Your Risk

Supplements are important. Along with a healthy diet and exercise program, they can dramatically affect your risk of cardiovascular disease. Combining these together can have the greatest impact on your cholesterol.

Here are the supplements I have found most useful in my practice to lower cholesterol and even prevent and reverse heart disease:

1. Everyone must take a good multivitamin and mineral, as well as a purified fish oil supplement that contains 1000 to 2000 grams a day of EPA/DHA. More may be necessary for those with low HDL and high triglycerides. (vii)

2. Red rice yeast (two 600-mg capsules twice a day), which is another powerful cholesterol-lowering herbal formula. (viii)

3. Plant sterols (beta-sitosterol and others) can help lower cholesterol. Take 2 grams a day.

4. Try policosanol (10 mg to 20 mg twice a day), which is from sugarcane wax and can help lower cholesterol. (ix)

5. A soy protein isolate shake can be helpful in lowering cholesterol by about 10 percent.

6. Fiber supplements such as WellbetX PGX (Konjac fiber or gluccomanan) -- 4 before each meal with a glass of water -- can both lower cholesterol and balance blood sugar metabolism. (x)

Never before has a major central bank reacted so recklessly

2009-09-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

What's ahead? We don't know. Neither does anyone else. There is no precedent. Never before has a major central bank reacted so recklessly to a market correction. Never before has the monetary based exploded so violently. Never before have so many people with so many bills to pay had to face such a downturn.

But amid all the confusion, uncertainty and noise...your editor is calmly, cheerfully and confidently awaiting a depression. Yes, dear reader, we don't know what markets will do. But when we look at the shadows...we have a strong hunch that we are entering a depression...and that we won't get out of it soon. dailyreckoning.com

JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley together hold 80% of the country’s derivatives risk, and96% of the expo

2009-09-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley together hold 80% of the country’s derivatives risk, and96% of the exposure to credit derivatives.

Even though JP, B of A, Goldman and Citi are separate corporations, they are so interlinked and intertwined through their derivatives holdings http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/07/96-of-credit-derivative-risk-held-by-5.html

BE full of LOVE and Peace Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude

2009-09-26T01:20:00.001-07:00

BE full of LOVE and Peace! Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The love , and of our neighbour for thier's sake, is patient toward, all men. It, suffers all the weakness, ignorance, errors, and infirmities of the children ; all the malice and wickedness of the children of the world: and all this, not only for a time, but to the end. And in every step toward overcoming evil with good, it is kind, soft, mild, benign. It inspires the sufferer at once with the most amiable sweetness, and the most fervent and tender affection. Love acteth not rashly - Does not hastily condemn any one; never passes a severe sentence on a slight or sudden view of things. Nor does it ever act or behave in a violent, headstrong, or precipitate manner. Is not puffed up - Yea, humbles the soul to the dust.

Love makes allowances for the falls of others, and is ready to put on them a charitable construction. Love, so far from devising evil against another, excuses "the evil" which another inflicts on her ; doth not meditate upon evil inflicted by another; and in doubtful cases, takes the more charitable view [Grotius].Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

Love is always patient; love is always kind; love is never envious or arrogant with pride. Nor is she conceited,

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love isn't jealous. It doesn't sing its own praises. It isn't arrogant.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity braggs not itself, is not puffed up,Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,Love is never tired of waiting; love is kind; love has no envy; love has no high opinion of itself, love has no pride;

Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;

Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous of others; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up,

Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited.

Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud,

total collapse will come collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of lar

2009-09-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society."

Keep in mind this is coming from a man who writes something called "The Gloom Boom & Doom Report." But Faber's analysis, however macabre, is widely followed. He upheld his prediction in an interview with Yahoo's Tech Ticker, arguing that, with the government's stimulus package, "the problems haven't been solved, but they've been postponed."

Faber added that he has a "high confidence prediction" that "total collapse will come."

julian-robertson-us-may-face-armageddon

2009-09-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/09/julian-robertson-us-may-face-armageddon.html

George W. Bush "horrible"

Tax cuts a huge mistake

the disease of monetarist oligarchism

2009-09-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

a general economic breakdown-crisis which presently grips the world in its entirety. is a pandemic disease of the world's economy at this moment: it is the disease of monetarist oligarchism

the unleashing of the general monetary-financial breakdown-crisis which emerged under, and, largely by the reign of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and also President George W. Bush, Jr., has now steered U.S. affairs to the place that an actual, general monetary-financial-economic breakdown-crisis of both the U.S. economy and the monetary-financial markets of the entire world, has been in full-steam progress, thus now bringing the world as a whole to the present point of entry into a presently onrushing, total breakdown of all of the economies of the world, http://www.larouchepac.com/node/11845

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp and Bank of China president of the banks are paid $230,000 per year

2009-09-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

China,

three of the world's four biggest banks,

leaders of those banks -

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp and Bank of China

the president of the banks are paid $230,000 per year

Reuters

growth

2009-09-24T23:17:00.001-07:00

growth

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/09/elephant-in-room.html

Worldwide Inflation,” Says Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at The Financial Times

2009-09-24T16:55:00.001-07:00

"Worldwide Inflation,” Says says Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at The Financial Times

I endorse Peter Schiff for Senate.

2009-09-23T23:21:00.001-07:00

I endorse Peter Schiff for Senate.

What Robert Reich described but did not say was "fascism".

2009-09-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

What Robert Reich described but did not say was [we are living in] "fascism" [in the USA now].

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/why-the-dow-is-hitting-10_b_294682.html

economy undergoing a “credit crunch”, and not also one suffering from a serious debt overhang

2009-09-23T03:08:00.001-07:00

economy undergoing a “credit crunch”, and not also one suffering from a serious debt overhang that only a direct reduction in debt can tackle. That is our actual problem, and while a stimulus will work for a while, the drag from debt-deleveraging is still present. The economy will therefore lapse back into recession soon after the stimulus is removed.

http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/09/19/it’s-hard-being-a-bear-part-five-rescued/

US dollars equals Colombia Peso 1,558,668.12

2009-09-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

$799.00 US dollars equals:

Canada Dollar 853.57
European Union Euro 540.60
Mexico Peso 10,641.61
United Kingdom Pound 489.01
Argentine Peso 3,072.84
Australia Dollar 919.77
Brazil Real 1,451.31
Chile New Peso 435,056.24
China Yuan Renminbi 5,456.33
Colombia Peso 1,558,668.12
Denmark Krone 4,023.21
Guatemala Quetzal 6,626.89
Honduran Lempiras 15,096.24
Hong Kong Dollar 6,192.10
Iceland Krona 98,564.78
India Rupee 38,487.81
Israel New Shekel 2,979.49
Japan Yen 72,736.30
Korea (South) Won 963,434.86
Malaysia Ringgit 2,774.66
New Zealand Dollar 1,122.98
Norway Kroner 4,664.25
Pakistan Rupee 48,469.79
Panama Balboa 799.00
Peru New Sol 2,309.34
Philippines Peso 37,968.93
Singapore Dollar 1,131.15
South Africa Rand 5,944.58
Sri Lanka Rupee 91,728.26
Sweden Krona 5,471.18
Switzerland Franc 817.86
Taiwan New Dollar 25,833.54
Thailand Baht 26,943.15
Venezuela Bolivar 1,715.61

September 22, 2009
The currency converter is designed to translate the US dollar price

Ten Big Companies That Are Veering Toward Bankruptcy

2009-09-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ten Big Companies That Are Veering Toward Bankruptcy

Posted Sep 18, 2009 12:21pm EDT by Vincent Fernando and Joe Weisenthal in Investing, Media, Products and Trends, Recession
Related: AMD, LVS, S, M, GT, MYL, HTZ

From The Business Insider, Sept. 18, 2009:

Despite a few green shoots in the economy and a rocketing stock market, many large companies are still struggling to avoid bankruptcy.

A new report by Audit Integrity identifies some high-profile names "that have the highest probability of declaring bankruptcy among publicly traded firms."

Which companies appear the worst off? We took the list and removed any company with a market cap under $3 billion. We then ranked the remaining names by a simple measure of the market's perceived bankruptcy risk - Market Cap (MC) divided by Enterprise Value (EV). The less MC vs. EV, the less residual shareholders' value (above what debt holders can claim) the market is pricing-in for the company. Thus a lower MC/EV means the market thinks the company is more likely to go bankrupt.

1. Hertz

When you have tons of debt financing your fleet of cars, falling rental demand really hurts.

While the company raised new capital in May for some breathing room, Fitch and Moody’s actually cut their ratings for the company in July.

Ignoring the downgrade, shares kept rallying and are now at over five times the March $2 low. Best of luck.

Market Cap (MC)/Enterprise Value (EV) = 32%

2. Textron

What a tough time to be selling business jets.

Textron wrote down $2.3 billion its backlog this year after it canceled a new jet design, and demand for its other aircraft-related offerings has plummeted.

Shareholders may be heartened by the company’s ability to push back some debt maturities lately, but deteriorating credit quality at the company’s leasing arm makes the outlook uncertain at best.

MC/EV=39%

3. Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel is bleeding customers, and could lose as many as 4.4 million net post-paid subscribers this year.

This is a huge problem when you have large amounts of maturing debt over the next few years.

A recent Deutsche Telekom acquisition rumor offered some hope, but that appears to have faded. Facing a difficult road ahead on its own, the company better keep its lawyers on speed-dial.

MC/EV=41%

4. Macy's

Does anyone even shop at department stores anymore?

Same store sales will likely keep falling at Macy’s right through 2009. With $2.4 billion of maturing debt over the next five years, the company is trying to cut costs, and has already reduced its dividend.

Hopefully the US consumer will bounce back soon, and actually want to shop at Macy's.

MC/EV=47%

5. Mylan

In a classic case of management empire building, Mylan overpaid big time when it bought Merck’s generic business back in 2007 and is now stuck with $5 billion of long-term debt as a result.

From 2007 – 2008, the company lost over $1.3 billion very much due to goodwill write-downs.

While the company could earn $300 million this year, they’ll have to earn far more than that in the future to make their debt manageable.

MC/EV=51%

6. Goodyear

Demand for Goodyear tires has sunk, and the company is saddled with massive debt and pension obligations.

It doesn’t help that The United Steelworkers union prevents the company from proper cost control by forcing factories to stay open.

Shareholders have to wonder how much value will be left of the company after bondholders and the union members have their way.

MC/EV=53%

7. CBS

Weak advertising and falling license fees have sent CBS's earnings off a cliff in 2009.

If they remain depressed for too long, the company could have trouble refinancing $3.2 billion of debt coming due over the next five years.

It will really come down to whether or not CBS’s earnings collapse is merely cyclical, or the result of structural trend whereby traditional TV is dying.

As a business blog, we can't help but feel partly guilty here.

MC/EV=55%

8. Advanced Micro Devices

When will AMD actually make money again? The question is becoming more important by the day since it carries over $5 billion in long-term debt.

After losing almost $3 billion from 2007 – 2008, analysts expect the company to lose more money in 2009 and 2010.

While the shares rallied from their February $2 low, they still appear stuck in a long-term down trend from $40 highs way back in 2006.

MC/EV=55%

9. Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands over-expanded and over-levered in the last few years and now has over $10 billion in debt to deal with.

Despite jumping 13 times from their March low, Las Vegas Sands shares still face an uphill battle.

Conditions in Las Vegas are horrible, Asian expansion isn’t enough, and if this lasts too long then LVS will end up in bankruptcy court looking like it bit off more than it can chew.

MC/EV=60%

10. Interpublic Group

As one of the largest advertising and marketing companies in the world, IPG was slammed by the global recession.

As the company’s CEO said during recent second quarter results, the downturn “is proving steeper and more lasting than expected”.

Revenues have fallen double digits and the company’s exposure to General Motors as its largest client hasn’t helped.

MC/EV=80%

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/336235/Ten-Big-Companies-That-Are-Veering-Toward-Bankruptcy?tickers=AMD,LVS,S,M,GT,MYL,HTZ

Capitalism has encouraged us to fight each other

2009-09-22T15:35:00.001-07:00

'm old enough to remember a time where you did go to the neighbor's house to get some flour...the doors were unlocked. There was a sense of sharing and community. And now, it's all, dog eat dog. Capitalism has encouraged us to fight each other, to scramble for the crumbs that are left on the table, for the few jobs that are there." http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/michael-moore-capitalism-love-story/Story?id=8638789&page=2

pensions robbed from them, their jobs stolen from them

2009-09-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

I believe this is a crime scene. I believe that millions of Americans have had their pensions robbed from them, their jobs stolen from them," Moore said. "People in the top floors of these buildings, they know what they've done to the average American. And they know that the possibility exists as that … there could be a severe backlash to all of this -- that the peasants may revolt http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/michael-moore-capitalism-love-story/Story?id=8638789&page=2

Anti-Jesus." "Anti-American." "Anti-democracy Anti-Christian

2009-09-22T15:32:00.001-07:00

Anti-Jesus." "Anti-American." "Anti-democracy
Anti-Christian Capitalism
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/michael-moore-capitalism-love-story/story?id=8638789

Presidents Bush and President Reagan give those rich people and corporate CEOs more money, and it will eventually trickle down to the rest. Read mo

2009-09-22T14:35:00.001-07:00

Presidents Bush and President Reagan: give those rich people and corporate CEOs more money, and it will eventually trickle down to the rest.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/the-lagging-indicator_b_294728.html

servicer? Investor? Trustee? Original lender?

2009-09-22T14:05:00.001-07:00

the servicer? Investor? Trustee? Original lender? -- the paperwork has also become difficult to track.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whos-got-the-mortgage-pro_n_294169.html

last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan

2009-09-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

"The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan," she said, "that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th. So our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists.

"It's that simple," she declared, "if you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/condoleezza-rice-if-you-w_n_294755.html

what we have right now is not capitalism

2009-09-21T12:29:00.001-07:00

"in the film, Michael describes capitalism as evil. I disagree. I don't think capitalism is evil. I think what we have right now is not capitalism.
In capitalism as envisioned by its leading lights, including Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall, you need a moral foundation in order for free markets to work. And when a company fails, it fails. It doesn't get bailed out using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. What we have right now is Corporatism. It's welfare for the rich. It's the government picking winners and losers. It's Wall Street having their taxpayer-funded cake and eating it too. It's socialized losses and privatized gains."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/barack-obama-must-see-mic_b_293407.html

We’ll then be directed to trade in our “old” dollars for the “new dollars” at a much lower par value

2009-09-16T16:22:00.003-07:00

the Federal Reserve has actually already printed the “new dollar” which will be used if and when the existing dollar becomes unsustainable. We’ll then be directed to trade in our “old” dollars for the “new dollars” at a much lower par value – just like what happened in Germany and France after WWII. However, GOLD will be pegged to international currencies, not just the dollar, so that will hold its value.

Federal Reserve has actually already printed the “new dollar”

2009-09-16T16:22:00.001-07:00

currency crisis or a semi-crisis this fall or next year

2009-09-16T16:21:00.001-07:00

"I would expect there to be a currency crisis or a semi-crisis this fall or next year. It's crony capitalism, Bernanke and Greenspan have brought crony capitalism to America … but that's not going to solve the world's problems," Rogers added.

There are still "gigantic amounts of horrible, horrible debt that hasn't been dealt with" in Central Europe, while hopes that China will pull the world out of recession are overblown, according to Rogers. http://www.cnbc.com/id/32837500

tensions and potential flashpoints trade and capital imbalances to excessive credit and an unsafe banking system

2009-09-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

" the world economy [in 2008] had come to resemble Europe before the First World War. It was awash with tensions and potential flashpoints, from burgeoning trade and capital imbalances to excessive credit and an unsafe banking system. To believe disaster could have been averted is to ignore the lessons of history, which are that an extreme excess of credit will always result in a massive misallocation of capital, and therefore an eventual recession as the bad debt is worked out of the system. We continue to live in countries with massive trade deficits, massaged with all kinds of economic devices including the printing presses and vast client states on the government payroll or concealed as out of work - and nothing is addressing that at all. Stocks in businesses effortlessly undercut from far cheaper centres of production will not recover to fatten up anorexic pension pots.

There is another bubble forming. Short selling only recently targeted banks, and made some people billions - creating nothing of value for themselves and destroying businesses. The smart money is still playing games. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/6175067/How-the-collapse-of-Lehman-Brothers-averted-a-second-depression.html

14 Bubbles?

2009-09-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/09/can-you-name-these-bubbles/

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/14-bubbles-090909.JPG

List of bubbles:
1. Tulip Mania
2. South Sea /Mississippi Company Bubbles
3. Railway Mania
4. Florida Speculative Building Mania
5. Roaring 1920s/1929
6. Poseidon Bubble
7. Gold
8. Japanese Asset Bubble
9. Dot Com/Tech/Telecoms
10. Global Real Estate/Credit Bubble
11. China/Shanghai Index Stock Bubble
12. Commodity Bubble
13. Oil Bubble
14. Leverage/Derivative/Financial Bubble

primary GDP boosting activities of America are war

2009-09-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

"It is not free market capitalism, it is an industrial policy, it is a policy of the government wanting to get into every nook and cranny of the business sector, because the people who are in politics and in business want the cheapest possible access to money that is possible, they don't want to compete, so the easiest way to not compete is to do biz with government because the govt has the ability to raise taxes to confiscate wealth, to wage wars, so it is not a coincidences that the primary GDP boosting activities of America are war, which are services that war councils that are on the boards of these banks in wash, and cheap consumerism, and consuming foreign made goods, slave made goods from other countries, and in the us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-UUBTASHHU&eurl=http://maxkeiser.com/&feature=player_embedded#t=323

there is going to be a currency revaluation across the globe

dollar could devalue 50% and prices on all products in usa would rise 50% to 100% to 200

People are pulling money out of us"

maxkeiser.com

the easy-money system that financed the boom era from the 1980s until a year ago is smashed.

2009-09-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

"the easy-money system that financed the boom era from the 1980s until a year ago is smashed." http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/75016.html

"It means much less risk-taking, at least for a number of years to come — a decade or two. That will be evident in less credit and more costly credit. If you are a household or a business, it will cost you more, and it will be more difficult to get that credit."

insipid and mean and illogical that even our darkest criminal minds wouldn't be equal to dreaming it up on purpose.

2009-09-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

"Let's start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world. It's become a black leprosy eating away at the American experiment — a bureaucracy so insipid and mean and illogical that even our darkest criminal minds wouldn't be equal to dreaming it up on purpose.

The system doesn't work for anyone. It cheats patients and leaves them to die, denies insurance to 47 million Americans, forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims, and systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation. Even as a mechanism for delivering bonuses to insurance-company fat cats, it's a miserable failure: Greedy insurance bosses who spent a generation denying preventive care to patients now see their profits sapped by millions of customers who enter the system only when they're sick with incurably expensive illnesses.

The cost of all of this to society, in illness and death and lost productivity and a soaring federal deficit and plain old anxiety and anger, is incalculable — and that's the good news. The bad news is our failed health care system won't get fixed, because it exists entirely within the confines of yet another failed system: the political entity known as the United States of America.

Just as we have a medical system that is not really designed to care for the sick, we have a government that is not equipped to fix actual crises. What our government is good at is something else entirely: effecting the appearance of action, while leaving the actual reform behind in a diabolical labyrinth of ingenious legislative maneuvers.

Over the course of this summer, those two failed systems have collided in a spectacular crossroads moment in American history." http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29988909/sick_and_wrong/

oil flame burning next to Babylon

2009-09-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

"Even oil's much-touted 150th anniversary is a myth. You can read about an oil flame burning next to Babylon in the Old Testament. This was oil flaring from Kirkuk, which later became the first super-giant oilfield found in the Middle East in the late 1920s." http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/09/04/oil_spin?page=0,0

the dollar will fall hard

2009-09-08T09:44:00.000-07:00

"If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies," he said.
China's reserves are more than – $2 trillion, the world's largest.
"Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up. We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the markets," http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6146957/China-alarmed-by-US-money-printing.html

virus may cause some prostate cancers

2009-09-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

virus the development of some prostate cancers.
link XMRV (Xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus) to human cancers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8241835.stm

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_en-USUS294US306&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=XMRV+how+humans+are+infected