Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Obama Plans Financial Triage for Bad Bank Troubled Assets / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
The Obama administration, led by Geithner, is proposing a triage of bad ideas for troubled assets. The Washington Post has the story in Bank Rescue Would Entail Triage for Troubled Assets . The Obama administration's emerging rescue plan for the banking system would amount to financial triage, with the Treasury Department playing the delicate role of deciding which of the trillions of dollars in troubled assets plaguing the economy to buy, guarantee or leave in the hands of banks, sources said.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
How to Create 4 Million Jobs in 90 Days / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Lost Jobs - At least 23 million Americans are either unemployed (they do not have any job) or under-employed (they are being paid for less than 35 hours per week). If unemployment increases to 10% of the workforce by the end of 2010, then 15,434,900 people will be unemployed. In this 2 year period, America will have lost more than 4.4 million additional jobs. America's Work Shortage Index (WSI) will increase from a total of 23,487,000 unemployed or under-employed persons at the end of 2008, to a Work Shortage Index of more than 21.9% by the end of 2010. Over 33.5 million Americans would be forced to sharply curtail their spending. Over 27% of all American households would be in financial trouble. (Reference 1)Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Republicans Put Party Before Interests of the Nation / Politics / US Politics
Every House Republican and 11 Democrats voted against President Barack Obama's $819 billion stimulus package. It still passed by a vote of 244 to 188. There are enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, but the obstructionist Republican minority, still nursing the wounds inflicted by the public in the November election, can block it by endless political manoeuvring and a filibuster.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
"Bad Bank"- How to Mitigate the Losses / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Under the "Bad Bank" scenario, the taxpayers will own these Troubled Assets which are comprised of "Toxic" mortgages.
In effect, the US government (taxpayers) will be bearing the loss on these “toxic” mortgages. The growing concern is that these losses will continue to materialize as defaults increase with the projected 8 million foreclosures expected over the next four years. It seems that the key to this crisis IS THE BORROWER!
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Saturday, January 31, 2009
Global Bankruptcy as World Leaders Succumb to Monetary Dementia / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
'If all the bank loans were paid up, no one would have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of currency or coin in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks for our money. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp upon the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible - but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and the defects remedied very soon.' - Robert H. Hemphill, Federal Reserve Bank of AtlantaRead full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 30, 2009
Banking Sector Groundhog Day Hits U.S. Treasury Bonds / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Mike Larson writes: Have you ever seen the fantastic Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day?”
Murray plays Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors who's forced to cover the annual February unveiling of Punxsutawney Phil.
He clearly isn't thrilled. And his bad attitude shines through in several hilarious episodes. Fate punishes Murray as a result, by forcing him to re-live Groundhog Day over and over again until he improves his attitude and can win the love of his co-worker, Rita.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Saving Equals Squandering of Capital / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
Do you put money away in the bank periodically? You're just wasting it, you know.
At least, that's the assertion of this mindless rant: Millionaire Slumdogs: the uber-rich need to put money back into the economy.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Market-Based "Bad" Bank Solution / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Robert D. (Bob) Laurent was the smartest person I have ever encountered. I had the privilege of learning from and working with him at the Chicago Fed. Bob had a knack for coming up with market-based solutions for all kinds of political-economic challenges. One example that comes to mind is at what value to assess residential real estate for tax purposes. Bob's recommendation was to let the owner of the real estate place the value on his property with the proviso that the taxing authority could purchase the property at the owner-decided value. This would deter owners from placing too low a value on their properties. Because rational property owners would have no desire to pay excessive taxes, they would not place too high a value on their properties.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 30, 2009
Financial Crisis Bad Bank "Deals of the Week" / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Inquiring minds are reading about "Deals of the Week" in Five Things You Need to Know: Banana Republic . Let's take a peek.1. Change Comes Hard
This morning I was rudely greeted by two bizarre news headlines; bizarre because they were written about roughly the same thing, yet presented two diametrically opposed thoughts.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Global Climate Change, Weather Warfare, Fossil Fuel Depletion And Hydrogen Energy / Politics / Climate Change
Research by Manfred Zysk, M.E.,
1. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
FOOD CRISIS IS GLOBAL WARMING'S BIGGEST THREAT
Seattle Times Jan. 9, 2009,by University of Washington & Stanford Scientists.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Why The Aggregator Bank Will Fail / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
The beauty of capitalism is that the system lets the weak perish and the strong thrive. This is the main reason why the system has worked so well since its inception. Wall Street is a cutthroat place - one of the few places in the civilized world where human beings allow pure unadulterated Darwinism to work. But how can a capitalist system function properly if we are propping up insolvent banks and rewarding those who made the wrong decisions? Many people like to associate nationalization with socialism, but I see it differently. Nationalizing banks is just controlled Darwinism. It's a way of exterminating the dead banks in the least harmful way.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
U.S. $2 Trillion Bank Nationalization Proposal from Geithner / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Barney Frank once again is leading the way in a mad rush to do something, even though his track record in such cases is a perfect zero. Please consider Lawmakers Weigh Bad-Bank Plan
Top U.S. House and Senate Democrats are taking a wait-and-see approach to the Obama administration's potential plan to create a "bad bank" to buy up toxic assets, though there remains a sense of urgency for policy makers to put something in place fast.
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Branch of the Bavarian Illuminati, “ Bones” in the Money Pit / Politics / New World Order
“ Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”—JFK.
Our consumer society didn't just happen, it was planned. Not in 1910, or 1954, but in the year 1832, the year William Huntington Russell and fellow classmate Alphonso Taft at Yale University founded the Skull and Bones society, a branch of the Bavarian Illuminati. According to most of the available biographical data on its early members, the money required to sustain the secret order's campus affairs and its broader role in placing its members into key positions of influence upon their graduation from Yale was derived from the opium trade in the Far East.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Economic Stimulus for Who? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Obama's Strategic Divergence: The Wars Against the Taliban and Al Qaeda / Politics / Al-Qeeda
Washington's attention is now zeroing in on Afghanistan. There is talk of doubling U.S. forces there, and preparations are being made for another supply line into Afghanistan — this one running through the former Soviet Union — as an alternative or a supplement to the current Pakistani route. To free up more resources for Afghanistan , the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq probably will be accelerated. And there is discussion about whether the Karzai government serves the purposes of the war in Afghanistan. In short, U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign promise to focus on Afghanistan seems to be taking shape.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Jim Dandy to the Rescue of the U.S. Economy / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
More than fifty years ago, LaVern Baker & The Gliders, brought Jim Dandy into the fray to lasso runaway horses, dry the tears in little girls' eyes, and to save special mermaids from the hooks of villainous fishermen. (Black Oak Arkansas' rendition on You Tube will help you understand what your parents and grandparents survived.) Go, Jim Dandy! Go, Jim Dandy!Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Financial Crisis Hits Obama Presidency as Republicans Plan to Oppose $825 Billion Stimulus / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
William Patalon III writes: President Barack Obama's $825 billion stimulus plan heads to the floor of the House of Representatives this week, with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, saying many in his party will vote against the package unless significant changes are made.
“Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of this package and all of the spending in this package, we don't think it's going to work,” Rep. Boehner said yesterday (Sunday) on NBC-TV 's “Meet the Press.” “And so if it's the plan that I see today, put me down in the ‘No' column.”
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Why Politicians are Suckers for Protectionism / Politics / Government Intervention
Well, we managed to get through the weekend without any more banks being nationalised, or brave new stimulus packages from the Government being announced.
Perhaps the reaction to last week's put them off. Share prices in the banking sector were demolished, while sterling did a nose-dive from an already weak position.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama Announces "New Rules" To Address Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
As part of his rescue plan, Obama Signals Tough Restrictions on Banks in Rescue Package .
President Barack Obama signaled that he would toughen restrictions on and oversight of banks as part of a fresh plan to aid the battered industry.Obama blasted the banks yesterday over reports that they've spent money renovating offices after receiving billions of dollars from the government and vowed they would be held accountable for any aid they receive in the future.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dem Bones is Connected To De Debt Bone / Politics / Fiat Currency
It is an understatement to say we are experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis along with our world-wide environmental crisis. Neither crisis needs an Austrian economist to explain it. We live in a consumer society and consumers “use things up.” In recent history, this useless, toxic “stuff” comes from China, and this sad state of affairs is so simple to understand that even a child can follow. Just watch the, “Story of Stuff,” a web-based documentary about the dark underside of consumption.Read full article... Read full article...