ebworthen

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

I like it. How about "Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader". I bet the fifth graders on that show could do a better job than the "Talent" at AIG.

On Dec 07 11:29 AM Dialectical Materialist wrote:

> Maybe they should all just have to compete on a reality television
> show... something like "So you think you can justify your $100 million bonus." Maybe pushing them off the building could be what happens when they get voted off...

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

AIG Executives - give them their bonuses in large denomination bills in briefcases, then push them off the roof. The average taxpayer can scramble for the bills and sell the bloody one's on Ebay as souvenirs.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Timmy and Ben and the Boyz in Congress are playing the game; they will take Ron Paul's "Audit the Fed" bill and slice it, dice it, neuter it, then hold a press conference saying they are protecting the American people.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Barney Frank will be sure and use the bill to his advantage to give Congress more power over the FED, while pretending he is doing it "for the children" as the lobbyists stuff his pants with cash.

SSDD

Politicians and bureaucrats can sniff popular sentiment and have a legendary talent for organizing snipe hunts to distract the masses.

Let's hope Ron Paul's bill can pass unmolested; but don't hold your breath.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

"Mortgage apps rise"

Yes, and Fannie/Freddie and FHA are underwriting everything.

Pretty soon, the government will be backing most mortgages.

The employment picture had better improve quickly or the country will really, REALLY, be bankrupt.

Geithner - what a muppet, I doubt the Asians see him as anything more either. If they believe he cares about the dollar and our debt we might have a chance.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

No, this is about the arrogance of Wall Street and Washington, and the complete lack of consequences for immoral behavior.

No doubt there are good people who work at AIG - but they were not in charge.

AIG should not have been saved. NONE of them should have been saved.

As long as we reward failure and immoral behavior we by proxy punish the good people at AIG and the responsible individuals and investors who are the foundation of any society.

This kind of bull$hit gives capitalism and private investment a bad name and gives Marxists fuel for their fire.

Equivocation and moral relativism is the road to HELL and we need to get off that road NOW.


On Nov 11 10:50 AM axelrod608 wrote:

> Come on, commenters, lets get at least a little accuracy and objectivity
> in the AIG controversy. Almost all of AIG was well run by competent
> employees. AIG was gutted by ONE division that played fast and loose
> with highly leveraged derivatives that went south, all the way to
> financial Antarctica.
>
> MOST of AIG continued to be well run and still is. MOST of AIG has
> been continuously profitable. MOST AIG emplloyees are good, competent
> people.
>
> I know you're angry about the bailouts. I am too. But let's keep
> the comments accurate. And the part of the AIG bailout that makes
> me furious is that the ONLY reason our "leaders" bailed AIG out was
> that Goldman Sucks was counterparty to many of AIG's derivatives
> and would have taken huge losses if AIG failed. The AIG bailout was
> really a GS bailout.
>
> The underlying belief of our "leaders" is that what's good for GS
> is good for America. It was wrong when they said it about GM and
> it's wrong about GS too.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Big Picture:

The economy and the nation is an 85 year old with stomach cancer and a failing heart who insists that they are about to learn skydiving, go back to college, and write a novel.

AIG Steward to jump ship - really? Can I shove him off the plank?! Hey Benmosche! Can I help move you out of your office? Let's take the back staircase. Pay for talent!?!? Is greed and a complete lack of ethics a talent? Is gambling with other people's money they gave you for safekeeping a talent? If that is talent we should be hanging priests and teachers. @!*%#@!!@%^&^!!!!!!!!

Geithner got where he is by being a two-faced liar; telling people what they want to hear for his own gain - equivocating, mind-numbing doublespeak, the backbone of a jellyfish, and the heart of frozen corpse of a soul that went straight to Hell; just like our politicians and banking oligarchs.

In short, moral and ethical adults are not in charge; we are ruled by Nero's and Jezebel's.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Barclays accused of huge Lehman heist. In a recent court filing, Lehman's creditors claim Barclays (BCS) received Lehman securities valued at $50B for just $45B in cash, accusing the U.K. bank of the "largest theft in banking history."
======================...

LOL!!! No, no Lehman's creditors, the largest theft in banking history is clearly the FED actions during this crisis.

My children's grandchildren will not be able to pay off the Mr. T Trillions in debt they have given to Wall Street at 0% interest to redecorate branches (WaMu - Chase), acquire other banks, and pay for commercials on T.V. encouraging people to use their credit cards and go get in more debt.

What's $5 billion, honestly? That's pocket change of the bailouts and the GM and Chrysler takeover.

It is a penny in a wheelbarrow of 100's Timmy is pushing down Wall Street.

Main street gets potatoes and expired cheese from government storage, oh, and a tax bill to pay for it and GE smart grid and IBM medical databases and Carbon Credits for European investors.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

"EDF/Constellation deal at risk" - the French backstabbing us yet again. They probably don't like the competition either, since we are going the government ownership route.

I'm amazed at the lack of analysis behind the 3.5% GDP figure. See Karl Deniger's take on it here on SA; a lot the pop from CFC and FED stimulus. Trillions in yet to be earned or collected tax revenue market steroids is not real recovery.

"Junk bond rally becomes self-fulfilling...The growing cash flow enables shaky companies to head off default - adding more fuel to the rally." - OOOOPS! Bubble part deux. I'll bet they're investing in life insurance default swaps and FED backed banks; if there is another crash any losses will be made up with taxpayer money at 0% - again.

"Private Sector Must Lead the Way - Geithner" - yeah...right. Just like the enabler telling the addict "This is the last time, you have to do it on your own next time. I won't do this again...now here...take this $5,000 and go do the right thing." uh-huh. What a circus that was to watch Barney Frank's soliloquoy about how Congress has always been doing the right thing and that they will protect the taxpayer. Then Geithner, the tax cheat, saying the FED needed more authority to protect the taxpayer. It was only missing an organ grinder, some peanuts, and clowns (wait, I think the clowns were there).

Ultimately, Who Benefits from Too-Big-To-Fail

The farther money has to travel the less efficient and prudent is it's usage.

Look at Governments and taxes; the more centralized the dole, the more pieces are taken along the path from city to state to federal and back again. Everyone takes their cut along the circuitous path the moeny travels.

If I give $1 to a local charity or church most of it goes to those in need. If I mail a check across the country, they will likely spend .50 cents of my $1 sending out mailings and running the mail room.

The bigger the bank, the farther the money travels and the more is siphoned off or speculated with.

Remember the town in Norway that lost almost everything to CDS's.

And then their losses and the malfeasance of the financials was covered by debt on the back of the U.S. taxpayer.

That is 100% inefficiency from the standpoint of a taxpayer, but 125% efficiency on the side of the "too-big-to-fail" banks.

Brilliant.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Ask yourself, ask your GUT, do you believe this is a real recovery?

Do you really believe that the things that caused our situtaion, and the means taken to address it, will REALLY create a recovery long term - in the markets and the economy?

Not do you want to believe, not do you want to think positive, not do you hope, not do you think...but does your GUT tell you that the corruption and greed and theft and immoral cesspool of groupthink tulip-mania money grubbing will REALLY have a good outcome?

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Don't do it.

Go back and look at DOW 1930-1932.

They want you to buy in now before the next dip to cover their bets or make more money off of you.

Why would they throw trillions into the system and defraud the taxpayer? So they could make it look as though "they did their best" to "save everyone".

If you're going to blow your cash, go to Vegas and have some fun. Blackjacks are the best odds if you know how to play, and the girls worth your time are $600 or more. If it were me I'd buy some gold and stay home with a good friend but it's your choice.


On Oct 15 07:32 AM gmwright wrote:

> Seems like mostly good news for the Bulls today. GS crushing earnings
> but importantly IMO a strong FICC profit. Also good news for the
> Bulls that there is still $3.5T on the sidelines waiting to continue
> to drive this rally. I have about 50 % cash right now since I have
> been expecting a significant correction since mid-July but everyday
> it becomes more and more difficult to sit on that money. The bulls
> are starting to win me over.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The real horror of this malfeasance will come when the inner city and poorer suburban populations can no longer be placated with fast food, beer, lottery tickets, and sports teams.

Enough of the average person sleeping two to three generations or families to a house and a lot of the young men out of work will lead to trouble fast in the streets.

I thought that would happen this Summer, but I didn't calculate that two trillion would be used to prop up the banks and a cotton candy stock market; nor that there would be a media blitz of near propogandistic proportions ignoring the problems and trumpeting hopium. But, I never saw Obama getting the Nobel either ;-)

If I were one of the Wall Street Pimps (i.e. - Timothy and his friends) I'd have an escape plan ready to get out of Dodge ahead of the mobs or the furious individual citizen seeking retribution.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

U.K. Selling government services - this is our future.

Govenrments with the power of taxation and increasingly property ownership (KELO vs. U.S. Supreme Court) selling it to corporations.

Banking and Corporate oligarchy in collusion with Governments that are supposed to represent individuals.

We are coming full circle; the monarchy and the Lords and Merchant class oppresing the peasantry has become Governments and Corporatocracies owning the income and property of individuals in exchange for a visit to the doctor and a loaf of bread.

Analyzing Larry Summers

A four page executive summary tells you that they are piling B.S. on top of a big pile of B.S.

Blame the previous administration...yeah right.

Bush and Paulson were wrong to bail out the banks and AIG.

If you do something immoral to cover immorality you still have a steaming crock of B.S.

You can intellectualize it, rationalize it, equivocate over it, chant some economic mumbo-jumbo, and you still have a steaming pile of B.S.

To tax the average citizen to cover the bad bets of hedge funds and banks and insurance companies and politicians taking campaign contributions and lobbying money and bribes, etc., etc. is immoral and the payment is a noose on a rope from the nearest tree or lamppost or traffic signal.

You can't cure immoral over-leveraging and outright theft from the average citizen with more over-leveraging and theft.

We have been kicking the moral can down the road for decades, and when it comes to a stop and can be kicked no more the comeuppance will be a historic event.

Sad...but an immutable truth of the history of humanity.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Gold sets new record high.

Dollar down, Australia raising rates.

Preliminary earninngs dissapoint.

Insider selling increasing, deficits ballooning.

Markets rallying (?).