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Joseph L. Shaefer » Comments » BCS

  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested recycling leftover funds from the $700B TARP fund to create jobs and boost some salaries."

    And who decides which workers in which industries get a salary boost? The imperial (imperious) monarchy headed by the Queen Bee? Ah, yes, I can hear it now: "When I am Queen, *I* shall decide who gets the goodies and who has displeased me..."

    Here's an alternate plan: give the "leftover" money back to the people who provided it -- the taxpayers. There is no law that says just because it was collected or extorted for one purpose, The Monarchy now gets to dispense it to some other group or for some other purpose.

    And here's an even more radical thought: why not let the marketplace determine the value of goods, services and labor, while the Queen Bee hatches eggs or whatever it is Queen Bees do when they aren't devouring worker bees...
    Dec 04 10:46 am |Rating: +8 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "Iran provokes over nuclear plan... Ahmadinejad told a cabinet meeting Sunday of plans to build 10 more nuclear facilities for enriching uranium to provide nuclear fuel for energy."

    Let's see -- on 37 different occasions, the "international community" has told Kim Jong-il he'd better stop playing with nukes. And 37 times, they've done nothing but talk, wring their hands, and whimper that he was a bad boy.

    Is it any surprise that Ahmadinejad, with more money, more natural gas, more people, more terrain and, if possible, even more delusions, has taken notice of the international community's proclivity to talk big, carry a little twig, and ultimately do nothing?

    Is there left one nation with courage, leadership and foresight in each of these cases willing to put an end to this twaddle?
    Nov 30 10:33 am |Rating: +5 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "Treasury losing patience with mortgage servicers... 'Some of the firms ought to be embarrassed, and they will be,' Treasury's Michael Barr said in a recent interview."

    Well, isn't that special?

    12 months ago every worker, businessperson, citizen and foreign tourist on Main Street noticed that banks were taking OUR money and speculating with it rather than putting it back in the local community as loans and mortgages -- then repaying it as soon as they were told their bonuses and salaries would be capped.

    Having gotten free money to play with for a year, now Secretary Geithner has gone all petulant on them, is stamping his ineffectual little feet, and pouting that "he's gonna telllllllll" on them.

    Too late, sir. The rest of us knew their names months ago. Don't tell on them, tell them what you want them to do, then monitor that they are doing it. We gave them our money -- it's time we decide how it's used...
    Nov 30 10:26 am |Rating: +6 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "U.S. bank overseers were poor policemen. The inspectors general of the Federal Reserve and Treasury criticized both agencies for being too slow to prevent risky lending..."

    Kudos to the Office of the Inspector General for its blinding insight. Just one thought here -- next time, could they notice that BEFORE 26 books, 10,943 articles and 87,453,627 investors pointed it out to them??
    Nov 27 10:35 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "Shedding light on the dark pools... the SEC will reportedly today propose slashing the percent of daily volume in a company's shares that can be executed on the systems before quotes must be publicized to 0.25% from 5%...Trading executives warn sweeping rule changes could ultimately hurt the investors regulators are trying to empower."

    I first warned of the abuses inherent in dark pools three years ago. In one of my earliest articles on SA, I tried to expose these practices to the unwelcome (to Goldman, Citadel et al) glare of fresh sunlight. They are basically yet another way to make investors pay more for their trades by hiding the actual size of orders from the trading desks of banks that are playing Big Casino rather than making loans to businesses with the money we gave them.

    The fact that "Trading executives warn sweeping rule changes could ultimately hurt the investors regulators are trying to empower," should be proof enough that reining these gambling addicts in is a good thing. If the "trading executives" are against it it means it's bad for them, good for us.

    The enemy of my enemy is my friend...
    Oct 21 10:08 am |Rating: +9 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    "Large-loan bank losses triple...due to poor underwriting standards and the recession."

    Large loans come mostly from large banks. Large banks have forgotten what banking is all about. They now want to be Wall Street traders and Casino operators 'cause that's where the bonuses are. And they will always find new ways to lose money.

    My prescription for taxpayer support to banks: Give 'em more -- they lose more. Give 'em less -- they lose less. So give them nothing and let them compete in the real world like every other business must...
    Sep 25 16:04 pm |Rating: +4 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Russia under Putin (oops, "Medvedev") continues its lugubrious reversion to complete one-man autocracy. They've extorted another "settlement" from a bank that did no wrong, but realized they could never win so they settled.

    If it wasn't a money center bank over-reaching to discover a niche for its loans, you could almost feel sorry for Mellon, instead of see3ing it as one bully meeting n even bigger bully in the alleyway...
    Sep 16 14:02 pm |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • How Miscommunication Caused Lehman's Collapse [View article]
    I wish I could agree with your too-kind premise, Felix. It would give me far greater confidence in my government to believe that it was "miscommunication." That would allow for a benign view that someone dropped the ball or made a mistake, in which case we could all sagely conclude, as Mr. Paulson's upcoming memoir will no doubt intone, "To err is human."

    As an industry insider for many years, however, I have seen the arrogance, pomposity, hubris and imperiousness that characterizes so many of our little self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe. It is well-known that Hank Paulson, head of Goldman, and Dick Fuld, head of Lehman, despised each other.

    The story that may never be told is that it is quite possible that a personal feud sealed the demise of Fuld which meant the demise of Lehman which provided the trigger to cause untold hardship on millions of people, the loss of many jobs far beyond Wall Street, and the further indebtedness of an entire nation.

    Petty squabbles among those granted too much power for their touchy ego's ability to responsibly control have accounted for much "collateral damage" in history.
    Sep 04 10:36 am |Rating: +9 0 |Link to Comment
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