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The Great Shift: China Rising, U.S. Falling

It only takes a generation and a half to go from the golden age to the dreggs. Our problem is too many old people, drug addicts and underachievers -- too many "individuals" pursuing their "lifestyle" instead of forging social links and investing in the next generation. Oh, well, the wheel of fortune turns round and evolution determines the future.

The financial sector's five fatal flaws have created a monster that is draining the lifeblood of the real economy, professor William Black says: "The focus on finance carries a grave risk. Remember, the sole purpose of finance is to aid the real economy. Our ultimate focus needs to be on the real economy, which creates goods and services, our jobs, and our incomes."

Our financial infrastructure acted like a sewer pipe into our drinking water. It pumped in fraudulently underwritten and fraudulently rated securities. It amplified their toxicity with leverage and credit default swaps which allowed the venom to reach its endpoints--the taxpayers, pension funds and other assorted suckers.Those who were supposed to detect the contamination, instead cooperated with those who produced and transported it throughout the economy. Goldman Sachs and their government Quislings were largely responsible.

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Urges SEC, CFTC to Probe Goldman Trading

Goldman Sachs is like the Knights Templar, a powerful parasitic trans governmental conspiracy, that is sucking the economic life out of Europe, North America, and most of civilized Asia. Perhaps they will meet the same fate; can't be too soon for me.

Why I'm Long General Electric

I bought about five hundred shares of GE 18 months ago based on their past reputation and watched my investment shrivel by 60%. I am unsophisticated and didn't realize I was buying a company that had been transformed from an industrial into a poorly run loan company. I believed Jeff when he said he wouldn't cut the dividend. Boy, am I a sap. Looks like all the free cash flow is being sucked up by Warren Buffet. tough luck for us income investors. I agree 100% with your opinion that GE has politicized MSNBC and NBC. I used to watch MSNBC but after a few months of Kudlow, Vampirella, The Chicago gangster, et al; I swtched to Bloomberg.

Microsoft: Whistling in the Dark

The internet was very unstable until windows XP. This was not Microsoft's fault. The existing technology needed to become better. However, in my opinion, if Steve B doesn't make a commercial success of Windows 7, we stockholders will call for his resignation and/or dump the stock. Steve has inherited a company that could make a lot of money, and he hasn't performed for the stockholders.

Defending Cramer's 'Madness'

Cramer is a trader, not a long term investor. He's market savvy and has a track record to stand on. He explicitly tells his audience to do their own homework. He tells them how to do it. He then gives his opinions and backs is stock picks up with an argument. What's wrong with that? His main blind spot is Goldman Sachs and General Electric, but that's understandable given his history and relationships to these entities.

Some of Goldman Sachs' (GS) largest shareholders are peeved about the $717K-average bonuses the bank's staff are to get this year, and want the bank to disperse more earnings to investors, sources say. Despite record net income, analysts expect Goldman's 2009 earnings per share to be 22% lower than in 2007. A spokesman for the bank pointed out that, since going public in 1999, the company has generated a total return of 159%, while shares have more than doubled YTD.

My opinion is that GS went public in the first place just so the partners would have fools to pay their fines and legal defense bills, and create a corporate invisible shield against individual accountability.

Big Losses Are Hidden on China's Bank Balance Sheets

"And with $2 trillion in foreign currency reserves available to inject as new capital, China could easily foot the bill without even blinking (it wouldn’t even have to sell off its reserve holdings of U.S. Treasuries, just transfer a portion to the AMCs, and thence to the banks as repayment)."

Didn't you sort of dispel investor fears and answer your own concern about solvency right in the middle of your article?

Meredith Whitney: 'I Haven't Been This Bearish in a Year'

companies with real products, strong franchises, large capitalization, and self-financing should weather the storm and gain market share. Me too companies, one trick pony, low market caps with precarious financing should blow up

Bailed-out banksters complain (vaguely) that restricting bonuses causes their talent to flee, but Bloomberg nails down where they're going: Nomura and Barclays. Derek Thompson feels some sympathy for the poor devils - after all, a talent exodus will hurt taxpayer-owned institutions - but figures a solution may be to make the bailed-out firms back into retail banks where the brain drain is less likely.

"Talent" moves from the US to some other location. BFD, its not like these guys are patriots working to build our society. They're just larder rats; so it doesn't matter where they nest.

Cramer Does It Again with CIT Call

"I wrote that on the fly late last night after a long day watching football and having a few brews with the family ."

Okay then "fun" article in that spirit and context.

FDIC head Sheila Bair warns community banks are struggling to compete against their too-big-to-fail rivals. "Too big to fail has become worse," she said, "it's become explicit when it was implicit before." Bair contends government guarantees create competitive disparities between large and small banks, because "everybody knows small institutions can fail," making it more expensive for them to raise capital and secure funding.

Psssst! Sheila, we need to have a little talk. Just keep quiet and close the small banks on the weekend. You're not their advocate, you're our hatchetwoman. Please do not call attention to the big bulge that we've swept under the rug. We're trying to clean this mess up.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today: "We have been forced to do just extraordinary things and, frankly, offensive things to help save the economy ... I am completely confident that none of those decisions ... had anything to do with the specific interest of any individual firm, much less Goldman Sachs (GS)."

Let's see in a real life version of "Weekend at Bernie's" the dead AIG was dragged around until Goldman Sachs was paid off, dollar for dollar, on their credit default swaps, with our tax money, while congress was deliberately kept in the dark, about where the money was going.

That's just one of the many things Geithner seems to have forgotten.

Why Goldman Sachs Isn't Evil

A fitting building motto for the GS "Bastille" in NYC would be, "Never Have so Few Stolen so Much from so Many".

Goldman Code Theft Bombshell

Remember when the FBI recruited Whitey Bolger to infiltrate and inform on the Mafia under the theory it takes a crook to catch a crook? Well now the administration has enlisted Goldman Sachs to help uncover "terrorist" finances under the same theory. I think it will be just as successful. GS is a lot like John Law, the 17th century rogue who destroyed the French monarchy that had embraced his Ponzi schemes. Obama, you are just hugging Iago. You will suffer the same fate, unless you arrest these GS criminals.