Pat C

What if U.S. Social Fabric Tears?

JeffDB, the "free market" mantra is getting stale and stinky. They aren't effecient and they certainly aren't "free".

What if U.S. Social Fabric Tears?

This a brave and thoughtful article, thank you we need more of them. Like Hurricane Katrina, this "Great Recession" is exposing an under belly of America that many of us would prefer not to see. It certainly has made me look hard and long and I don't like what I see. Greed and its complement; Moral Hazard has infected our society and it is working it's way from the top down to the all important middle. All societies have the elite and the poor. What has distinguishes us here in America is our middle class and it has been a beacon for other societies around the world.

What is unique about today compared to previous economic downturns is communication capability. Up to now Americans' have respected our rule of law and, quite frankly, I am astounded that there has not been much, much more social disorder. I am personally ready for a revolution, but, like others, I am not going to start one. It will be interesting to see if or when we hit a tipping point.

Why Won't Obama Just Create the Jobs?

What the government can do is designate jobs and industries that cannot be outsourced. Everyone should be either working or training for the next job. For training to be successful individuals need to be sure they are not wasting their time. We need to get our heads out of the sand on this issue. Individuals feel powerless after a period of time and they begin to feel hopeless. Nationally we need to determine what we want for our Country for the future (ie. alternative energy) and encourage businesses to make the investments in the people to do it and our education system needs to get on-board. Unemployment compensation is a nice thing but people want jobs.

What if World Governments Had Washed Their Hands of the Financial Crisis?

Bondholder's of the banks should have taken losses before general taxpayers. Much of the problem is due to the expanded debt market. If all banks, and other businesses for that matter, would have used equity financing this would not have happened. Our obsession with return on equity, economic value added etc. etc. allowed number crunching to take precedence over sound business practices.

Friday's Jobs Report: Unemployment Bumps 10%?

I sincerely hope the recent elections are more about voters not voting for incumbents than some ideological baloney promoted by these national political parties. I have thought about it quite a bit and the only way we can hope to get intelligent rational decisions from our representatives is to simply not vote for ANY incumbent regardless of their political party and be sure that MSM and others know why.

A Sit Down with Treasury Officials (Part I)

Great job, keep it up. Mainstream media just doesn't get it or doesn't take the time to get it. The administration needs to hear it from informed bloggers. Looking forward to Part II.

ADP Sees 203,000 Jobs Lost: Recovery Still Only in First Gear

Looks to me like we are still in "reverse", if we can get to "neutral" it would be great and "first gear" a miracle.

How Long Can Public Pensions Continue?

This is a very serious issue that should be addressed as soon as possible. We can't expect normal taxpayers that have no such retirement benefit to pay for this.

Could the Fed Really Drain $1 Trillion in Reserves by Next March?

Below is a statement from the Fed on their 3rd quarter results. I presume these are the same as the:"Fed’s $1.25 trillion Agency MBS buyback program" you mention above. Would someone please tell me the terms of these, does the seller of these Agency MBS Securities HAVE TO BUY THEM BACK (not mentioned by the Fed)? Under what terms? Is the taxpayer going to get nailed for any loss on the final leg of the transaction?

Quote from Fed:
The third major category of assets on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet is holdings of high-quality, marketable securities--specifically, Treasury securities, agency debt, and agency-backed MBS. As shown by slide 4, these holdings currently total about $1.6 trillion, or about 75 percent of Federal Reserve assets. By way of comparison, slide 4 also shows that, prior to the crisis, the Federal Reserve held $791 billion in securities, which was about 90 percent of its assets, and that all of these securities were Treasury obligations.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM +1.1%) is paying more than $700M to settle SEC charges that the bank made unlawful payments to friends of public officials to win Alabama muni bond business.

Isn't bribery a criminal offense? When are we going to get serious about this crap. I hope the Judge turns it down.

Have We Reached the End of the Private Sector Economy?

You analysis is right on. No one to blame, that's just the way it is. I'm way beyond gradual systemic change. We need a honest democratic revolution.

Despite Inflation, The Social Fabric Remains Intact

Joesph L. S..., I am a Vietnam veteran and also served in Berlin when it was occupied. Quite frankly, I feel like a fool. Patriotism, courage and fortitude is for the sucker sheeple this current crises has shown that clearly. Our political leaders and the business elite could care less. Yep I just typed this - I'm really pissed off.

On Financial Bloggers Meeting with Treasury Department

Please keep the blogging up if it is getting you an audince in Washington. Maybe you can get in front of the congress - everyone else is.

The Mother of All Asset Price Bubbles

Very well written, I have read several articles on the impact of the zero (negative) interest rates, QE and carry trade. This is th most understandable so far. Author should consider publishing it mainstream. I'm still confused on how the Fed is going to get rid of the trillion or so $$'s of questionable investments (they say rock solid investments??) on their books to rein in liquidity. Wouldn't they be intentionally reducing the value of the $$ of questionable investments on their books? Or has the Fed. (WE!!) become the "bad bank"?

It's not a weak dollar that's driving up crude prices - it's higher oil prices that are driving the dollar down, sending metals and softs soaring, Jeffrey Currie, head of commodity research at Goldman Sachs, says: "Oil represents 40-50% of the U.S. current account deficit, so a higher oil price represents an outflow of dollars that pushes the currency lower."

So a nice vicious cycle right?