Esol Esek

The Fed Backed Itself into a Corner

btw, I think its very positive that Harvard and Yale be shown up for what they are, trainers of patsies to the corporate elites, not actual colleges. GW Bush is a stain on Yale, no doubt about it. Obama and his economic advisors are proving Harvard is just as bent over to corporate rule. Its time for a university that cares about the country, progress and logic, and no, it ain't gonna be BYU.

The Fed Backed Itself into a Corner

ITs doubtful anyone would have been up to it. You get a nation and population with the kind of military and economic power that the US emerged with after WWII, and people are gonne blow it, just like a spoiled child blows it. It took almost no time to blow our military power in Vietnam, but our economic strength allowed us to blow it again for real in Iraq. IT's taken fifty years for us to blow our economic power, but we have, although we're a developed nation so we still have options. BUt the rot in leadership is unfortunately par for the course with empires, and with rotten leadership and a large class of mass-hysterical right-wingers, and elitist lefties, we're pretty much done. It would have been better for us to come crashing down with the debt, but of course the power structure couldn't allow the demise of itself, so now we're really done.


On Nov 22 06:41 AM thopaine wrote:

> The party's over and the hangover is enormous.
> Why would anyone give their money to these thieves on wall street?
>
> And it is at least ironic that the cradle of american liberty-Harvard
> U.- is a big part of the problem, churning out voracious blood suckers
> on an unarmed public, so as to increase the business school endowments
> and professor's pensions.
> I cry for my country.The children of the greatest generation were
> not up to the job.

The King Canute Economy: Governments' Futile Attempt to Stem the Tide

The 80s - 2007 is gonna look real good in the rear view mirror to Americans. We have thrown away every advantage we had. All those countries we used to look at, and say, glad we're not there, with slave jobs and high-priced imports, is where we're going to find ourselves, if we're not already there. Eventually, of course, the population will say why are we importing what we could be making ourselves. The sooner China stops getting a pass for slave labor, the sooner labor costs will rise there, and make hiring here more viable. EIther that or tarriffs from po'ed US voters.

The Global Oil Scam: 50 Times Bigger than Madoff

I was just thinking that the reason oil is high is because the players have been through rock bottom oil crises and they see no reason to repeat one. The world consumer got used to paying higher for oil, so they should keep on doing so as an unofficial tax to fund the oil exporters and keep them from completely detonating which would not be a good thing for them, or their investors. Maybe we're more beholden to Saudi, or Russia or Mexico. Who knows? Bottom line is there's no reason to stop a money vein if you dont have to.

Time for the U.S. Economy to Reindustrialize

It is true though that there are not anywhere near enough jobs on this planet for the insane amount of population we're staring at, nor is there the resources to sustain same populations and we're at the breaking point, good economy or not. The profit motive may be creative, but its also unsustainable in that if machines do all your labor then noone can buy anything. Turkey is forcing people to stop working at 50 so young people can have jobs. Look for more doomish govt scenarios like this in the future. The world is dunzo.

Time for the U.S. Economy to Reindustrialize

I'm a screaming liberal, but I have to laugh at the pie-in-the-sky notion that a collective-based economy will work better. I actually saw the Soviet economy in action and it was epic-ly inefficient, nearly dead in the water, full of thieves skimming off incoming raw materials to sell on the black market, and managed by bureaucrats who would rather avoid decisions that might make them responsible for anything.
Then again, it was egalitarian in that everyone was nearly poor, and had no official access to any consumer goods. Capitalism can work, just not crony capitalism. It's true though that laissez-faire is a disaster, although we don't really know because the govt played laissez-faire on the way up, and didn't let the thieves get murdered by their own decisions on the way down. Call that govt accomplice crony capitalism. There are countries we can emulate, though, like Switzerland and Taiwan, who have struck the right balance between free markets and regulation.

What Is Going to Get Gaming Software Development Booming Again?

I think there's still huge potential in this field, but in other directions, like exercise and education. The companies that produce this stuff need to open their minds outside of the current, well-tread paths. There are ways to make the current games more interesting as well. Plus the consoles got too expensive, and po'ed a lot of the lower income fans - PS3 in particular.

The Next Major Crisis Brewing

Theme to Rocky playing in background - "Getting Scared Now"

Beware the Current Bull Market in Derivatives

socialism is gonna look real good pretty soon, when the mob shows up with torches demanding dead bankers, dead broadcasters and dead politicians

Lessons from a Market 'En Fuego'

I read a lot of predictions online the last few years and saw this explosion coming, although when it came, it shocked me into complacency. The old maxim, buy the dip, made me want to buy last fall, but it seemed the end might be upon us. Now it seems clear it wasn't. Still, I keep remembering that before this debacle started, everyone kept saying we'd get through the mortgage crisis without it impacting the larger picture. That turned out to be false. Now, we're basically in exactly the same position except that about half of the mortgage crisis has been worked through, and the govt is there to backstop any failure. Maybe that's enough to postpone this crisis for the years needed to finally absorb the losses. That's a big maybe. The demographic factor of the boomers, both in spending and real estate liquidation, however, is a wrench in the works, along with the CRE blowup you can see coming just by walking through any city, even one doing ok, like Seattle. Add to these factors leaders who believe they can game the system in any way. Maybe they can, but eventually something's going to go very wrong.

S&P / Case-Shiller Home Price Numbers

I dont know about other markets, but Seattle is highly seasonal. People want to move here in the summer, and then move out in the winter when the lead closet arrives for six months. Plus, dont ignore the 8k incentive. Plus, every average person I know keeps telling me what a great time to buy it is. Its ridiculous. Between unemployment, CRE, bad accounting, and at least a 50% chance of another ugly fall in stocks which will scare people for good, it seems a given home prices are going down further. Just in the last month or so, I'm seeing banks selling decent houses in cheaper areas for 150k, which was unheard of in Seattle two years ago.
Meanwhile, high-end RE just sits and cries its heart out. The pain has just begun. Boomers, the biggest beneficiaries of the RE boom, are just beginning to crap their pants, and hoping against hope. When reality strikes, they will trample each other at the exits.

China Wants More Talk About the U.S. Dollar

US tech companies (Cisco) need to be forced by the govt to stop selling big brother gear to this country of endangered species poachers and rhino horn viagra users...maybe then the people will have a chance against the world's largest dictatorship..

Recovery Efforts Pay Off: Too Bad It Won't Last

yeah it's all obama's fault. He's been in office for six months, and he's more responsible than the previous thirty years of nonsense. Has nothing to do with the self-serving white country-club males that preceded him and still occupy Congress in yokel la-la land....this kind of suburban rural delusion/small-mindedness is what is the real problem for America going into the future, because its easier to get violent than to change your spots and see logic. Funny how the rural South is still America's biggest drag on political progress. Also funny though how it was northern urban Wall-Streeters who engineered this entire debacle. Either side of this coin is a loser. Both of these populations and their influence need to be shoved aside for this country to go forward any longer.

Dont blame the european socialists either. They've got health care and a safety net, unlike America, where families shatter and you die (also a highly inefficient strain on public resources). This was all the creation of me-first white frat-boy empire-saluting couch-soldier idiots, and their snickering puppet-masters, who couldn't stand any sort of regulation or reason because it interfered with their entitled arrogance and easy cash flow.

America's problem is not just economic, but mental and political. Despite a detonation as obvious as the Soviet Union's, the US capitalist empire si still trying to balance with a leg of its stool knocked out. And look at Russia if you think being taught a lesson results in sense - it doesnt - it just results in a clampdown by the elites, like in China. The comedown of America will continue til at least half of these rotting elements of the past are expunged.

Please, Not Another Stimulus

so whidbey, what is it that the 'earners' really do? live off the rents of their inherited apt buildings? or are they at the govt trough of military waste like your entire island? Cut the military 50%, invest 20% of that money into energy independence and education, and this country will flourish and the oil markets will collapse down to $20 a barrel again.

Laissez-faire and libertarianism is as dead as Keynes, and dont forget it. public salaries pale in comparison to the trillions stolen by business school frat boys. But dont worry, shotguns will come out on the left as well as the right, and then the people will say why are we shooting at each other, lets got for the elites in their enclaves...

7 Reasons Why the Loonie Will Trounce the Dollar

your theory is fine as long as this recession doesnt double dip globally, sending commodities back into the basement...

plenty of analysts, both famous and not, think this recession is far from over, and considering how much is riding on it being over, it could still collapse into full out depression. We're still in early innings...if we're not, you're probably right, but if we're still in a deflationary environment, the loonie will be a bad place to be...