jai hanuman

Response to WSJ: Pope Not 'Left-Wing' About Globalization

actually the Pope made a lot of sense. Much more than our Nobel prize winning economists.

Economics is a sham anyway, to steal from the poor to give to the rich and powerful.

Economists almost never agree with another, and worse, they will write anything if you pay them well. Caveat emptor.

Why Economic Dogma Threatens Our Future Prosperity

more than the level of the taxes, it matters how efficiently they are spent.

hint: 6 figure pensions (tax free in NY state) to state employees before they are 55.

Some poor fellow is paying for those.

Public sector wages and pensions(especially at the State and local level) are out of control. The same profession can pay 5 - 6 times more as a state employee compared to the private sector. And _very_ generous lifelong pensions (pensions are unheard of in private sector now - 401ks are a joke).

That is a clear indication that democracy did not work as well as was claimed in the report card.

On Jul 11 06:14 PM Northstar10000 wrote:

> Only an idiot could possibly believe that we are taxing too little.
>
> For every dollar you give the gov they will spend a dollar twenty.
> Spending always out paces the revenue. Since spending has never gone
> down and taxes have always gone up we should be in utopia by now
> according to the idiot from the university cocoon.

Why Economic Dogma Threatens Our Future Prosperity

the wise old man said "You can't handle the truth".

And that is why we get fraudsters like Clinton, Greenspan, Summers, Rubin, and Bernanke. Because they tell us not the truth that is good for us and that we don't want to hear - but those sweet nothings that make us fuzzy and warm and lower our guard.

By speculating on real estate, countries do not become great. Great countries are destroyed that way.

By "cleaning up the after effects of bubbles" (as the Maestros said), the taxpayer becomes the chump and the fraudsters become rich.

Goldman Sachs: Thoughts on the Developing Stolen Trade Secrets Scandal

the DA wants a job at Goldman.

Then after a couple of years he'll resurface as the Attorney General of the US.

Then after a couple of years he'll be back at Goldman....

Then after a couple of years he'll be back in Washington....

Then after.... you get the idea.

'Demand Destruction' and Gasoline Prices

failure of leadership. leadership (Clinton et al) became pro-cyclical and self congratulatory, taking credit for things that just happened (eg the boom after the Soviet collapse).

Leadership failed to tax oil revenue and use the proceeds to create alternative(solar/wind... technologies.

'Demand Destruction' and Gasoline Prices

failure of leadership. leadership (Clinton et al) became pro-cyclical and self congratulatory, taking credit for things that just happened (eg the boom after the Soviet collapse).

Leadership failed to tax oil revenue and use the proceeds to create alternative(solar/wind... technologies.

America's Energy Policy: Coming to Terms with Reality

1. too much demand.

2. too much loose money.

3. growth is far more important politically than inflation. corollary - shortage of natural resources, first leading to dramatic price rises, then political disturbances, then wars over resources.

1 and 2 are related, btw.

America's Energy Policy: Coming to Terms with Reality

there are two main reasons for the oil/commodity explosion:

1. too much demand. resources are finite (yes, sorry to tell you that). now get used to it. stop wasting them and use them wisely. that means smaller cars and public transport, too.

2. too much one way leverage in the futures markets. the commodity markets have finally figured out that growth trumps inflation in the Fed's dual mandate. Since the Fed will pump growth under any circumstance, inflation is bound to rise. The easiest way to profit from that is hard assets. Hence the one way tickets in the futures markets.
Another way of looking at this is that the Fed will not take away the punch bowl. That job will now be done by the commodity traders.

3. Too much money around with not enough productive investment to chase (a quaint idea anyway in Greenspan/Bernanke Fed whose main mandate has moved on to supporting investment bank bonuses).

Fisking Ben Stein on Goldman's 'Wrongdoing'

The investment banks claim there is a "chinese glass wall" that prevents conflicts of interests.

On the other hand, the WSJ article praising Goldman's trading prowess clearly mentioned that the short positions in subprime were at the beckoning of the CFO, Viniar.

Surely, Viniar sees both sides of the wall and his decisions were crucial.

There IS a conflict of interest always at higher management in these companies. And it can only be eliminated by telling the banks either to have, or eat the cake.

It is about time this "chinese wall" fraud was stopped by the government.