Bank bashing is still the feel-good norm, along with demonizing big oil, big health care, let's see, 3/4s of our economic engine. Any wonder that the recovery is so tepid, lol?
America may be slowly transforming from a full-time to a part-time employed society, as the U.S. has lost 10.5M full-time jobs and added 2.8M part-time jobs in the past three years. What happens to a country when millions of its citizens lose the economic support of work - not to mention a habit that lends balance, structure and dignity to their lives? [View news story]
By taking control of health care, the government is encouraging this trend towards part time (or contract) employees.
The tax-cut deal is likely to deliver small benefits in return for very large costs, Paul Krugman worries. "The question... is whether a year of modestly better performance is worth $850B in additional debt, plus a significantly raised probability that those tax cuts for the rich will become permanent." Krugman says no. [View news story]
Well there are many costs included in this extension, but current tax code for the next two years will "cost" $544 billion. The bulk, $463 billion, is for the extension of cuts for families making less than $250,000, including two years of relief for 2010 and 2011 for the middle class from the Alternative Minimum Tax. The remaining $82 billion is attributable to the extension of cuts that apply to the highest income families. I don't consider these as costs, however. Congress had two years to legislate this code, and chose instead, to do nothing, but spend the money anyway. Now they have to give it back.
Dueling central bankers: In 2004, Alan Greenspan urged Americans into ARMs and brushed aside fears of rising debt levels. Today, BoC Governor Carney tells Canadians, "Low rates today do not ... mean low rates tomorrow," adding, "it is the responsibility of households to ensure in the future, they can service the debts they take on today.” [View news story]
Yeh, except the average person and the typical mortgage originator, really paid no attention to Greenspan. But when Congress pumped Fannie and Freddie to start buying up mortgages, wrap them into MBSs, and sell them to investors, and when Congress proclaimed these mortgages were "riskless", the financial sector took heed. They had to. If these government shadow institutions were buying junk, and leveraging more than 50 to 1, that why not private institutions? In fact, anyone raising an alarm over Fannie and Freddie was crucified. The smart ones who recognized the bubble, quietly invested against the housing bubble. They were later crucified as well, for making money off the crisis. The only group who never answered for their reckless actions was, you guessed it... Congress.
The big banks aided by the bailout are set to close out their second-most profitable year ever, after last year, thanks in part to derivatives. A NYTinvestigation lays out how a handful of banks are working with derivatives exchanges to protect their own profits. Meanwhile, a new poll says Americans overwhelmingly support banning big bonuses at bailed-out banks. [View news story]
Unfortunately, the largest non-creator of wealth is our government. And now that the electorate has discovered they can vote themselves entitlements from the public treasury, I fear, from this moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates promising the most benefits. This loosely translated from Alexis Tocqueville, who predicted what we face today, circa 1835:
If the flow of credit really is the lifeblood of our economy, the U.S. would have died in 2009 if policymakers hadn't taken the extraordinary measures they did, Barry Ritholtz writes. Bernanke & Co. deserve more respect for what they were - and are - up against. They are "heroes... for stabilizing the situation and pulling us back from the abyss." [View news story]
While I don't think Bernanke is a hero, the fact is, we all "got us into said abyss". Maybe the recover will accelerate in earnest, when we all stop playing the blame game, accept the what happened, and move on.
Democrats predict that the tax agreement will clear a crucial hurdle in the Senate today, with a margin they hope will add momentum to the deal in the House. A key lawmaker believes that some version will pass the House before the current session ends, but Speaker Pelosi walks a tax-cut tightrope, letting angry members vent frustration while also preserving the chances of passage. [View news story]
Agree, however, a claw back would be more appropriate, and these government workers would have to accept it. Unfortunately, the democrats have shown over and over again that they will continue to prop up and reward the public sector, at the expense of private employment. Shameful.
Democrats predict that the tax agreement will clear a crucial hurdle in the Senate today, with a margin they hope will add momentum to the deal in the House. A key lawmaker believes that some version will pass the House before the current session ends, but Speaker Pelosi walks a tax-cut tightrope, letting angry members vent frustration while also preserving the chances of passage. [View news story]
Meanwhile, the pork keeps growing. The ethanol subsidy, will cost us $10 a gallon and $14M per job:
It also followed former Vice President Al Gore's recent reversal of his long backing of corn ethanol. Declaring the subsidies bad policy, Gore admitted that his presidential ambitions had skewed his motivations and had made him feel a "certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa."
The actual "cost" of the two year tax "cut" extension is around $300B, the rest will, undoubtedly, be more of the above. And calling it an additional expenditure is another Washington game. The tax "cut" expiration was simply assumed by everyone from Congress to the OMB, without actually being legislated into law. So while (the Democratic controlled) Congress simply put the vote off for two years, they went ahead and spent the money anyway.
All hail the "stimulus", the mother of all slush funds!
After failing in earlier efforts to enter the New York City market, Wal-Mart (WMT) is in advanced talks with politically powerful construction unions over a deal to build stores with unionized workers. In a divide-and-conquer strategy for labor, Wal-Mart could use union laborers to build new stores here while still using non-union retail workers to staff them. [View news story]
It will be interesting to see how well the NYC construction unions fare against the building of the ground zero mosque. Those generally right wing hardhats may finally get a taste of the left's real power. Will the hard hats go with their gut, or cave to the left?
Please... Fact is GS arranged all these counterparty trading vehicles because the world's appetite for MBSs became insatiable. Originators could sell mortgages as fast as they could write them. And who lite the fuse on all this mortgage buying? Fannie and Freddie, as mandated by CONGRESS. Buy them, wrap them, and sell them to investors. It seems that those pesky fiduciary standards for origination was too high for the poor people, so Congress got around that by pumping Fannie and Freddie. No down payment, no problem. No job, no problem. No credit history, no problem. The rating agencies bought into this, after all Congress insisted that MBSs were "riskless". Bottom line, if the government shadow institutions of Fannie and Freddie were buying crap and leveraging to the moon, so was everyone else. there really wasn't much choice.
That is funny. But keep beating on the financial sector, that's even funnier. Kinda like self flagellation. Let's hold up the recovery some more... we're KNOT done hating the banks and blaming them for everything. GES the ongoing Obama diatribe has really paid off for all the naysayers, doomers and gloomers, ie, the boomers of our generation. This was all unjust before they came onto the scene, and now, they'll speak up, outraged, and it will get fixed. JST let them work their trading programs while they pontificate on SeekingAlpha, lol.
"When all is said and done," Gibbs said, members of the U.S. Congress will decide to sign on to the plan rather than face the wrath of voters whose taxes stand to go up in January if no action is taken.
Gibbs estimated that the cost of the plan is between mid-$700 billion to upper-$800 billion. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham)
What he means is:
"We were counting on this money all along, and spent it before it actually became revenue. Now, thanks to the stupid voters, the Republicans have crashed our party!"
A Bloomberg poll finds that most Americans across the political spectrum want the Fed reined in or abolished. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39% say it should be held more accountable, and 16% say it should be abolished; only 37% favor the status quo. [View news story]
Harry, the Fed, more than any other institution, deals directly with the chaos know as the world economy. It is a house of cards ever since Nixon floated the dollar. As such, no one can completely understand Fed actions, and their effect, including the Fed chairman, lol. I see treasuries are rallying as we speak, yey!!!! Maybe even a volume reversal in the TLT today. Wouldn't that be special?
A Bloomberg poll finds that most Americans across the political spectrum want the Fed reined in or abolished. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39% say it should be held more accountable, and 16% say it should be abolished; only 37% favor the status quo. [View news story]
Agree, Greenspan missed it completely, and now he has the balls to rationalize the whole mess, as something new, a flaw in the models:
A Bloomberg poll finds that most Americans across the political spectrum want the Fed reined in or abolished. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39% say it should be held more accountable, and 16% say it should be abolished; only 37% favor the status quo. [View news story]
I hate banks too, but need them to get healthy so I can fulfill my own, greedy ambitions, lol...
JPMorgan (JPM) is apparently cutting back its exposure to silver futures, a move sources say is meant to deflect criticism that the bank is manipulating the market. [View news story]
America may be slowly transforming from a full-time to a part-time employed society, as the U.S. has lost 10.5M full-time jobs and added 2.8M part-time jobs in the past three years. What happens to a country when millions of its citizens lose the economic support of work - not to mention a habit that lends balance, structure and dignity to their lives? [View news story]
The tax-cut deal is likely to deliver small benefits in return for very large costs, Paul Krugman worries. "The question... is whether a year of modestly better performance is worth $850B in additional debt, plus a significantly raised probability that those tax cuts for the rich will become permanent." Krugman says no. [View news story]
Dueling central bankers: In 2004, Alan Greenspan urged Americans into ARMs and brushed aside fears of rising debt levels. Today, BoC Governor Carney tells Canadians, "Low rates today do not ... mean low rates tomorrow," adding, "it is the responsibility of households to ensure in the future, they can service the debts they take on today.” [View news story]
The big banks aided by the bailout are set to close out their second-most profitable year ever, after last year, thanks in part to derivatives. A NYT investigation lays out how a handful of banks are working with derivatives exchanges to protect their own profits. Meanwhile, a new poll says Americans overwhelmingly support banning big bonuses at bailed-out banks. [View news story]
www.goodreads.com/auth...
The big banks are hardly the problem...
If the flow of credit really is the lifeblood of our economy, the U.S. would have died in 2009 if policymakers hadn't taken the extraordinary measures they did, Barry Ritholtz writes. Bernanke & Co. deserve more respect for what they were - and are - up against. They are "heroes... for stabilizing the situation and pulling us back from the abyss." [View news story]
Democrats predict that the tax agreement will clear a crucial hurdle in the Senate today, with a margin they hope will add momentum to the deal in the House. A key lawmaker believes that some version will pass the House before the current session ends, but Speaker Pelosi walks a tax-cut tightrope, letting angry members vent frustration while also preserving the chances of passage. [View news story]
Democrats predict that the tax agreement will clear a crucial hurdle in the Senate today, with a margin they hope will add momentum to the deal in the House. A key lawmaker believes that some version will pass the House before the current session ends, but Speaker Pelosi walks a tax-cut tightrope, letting angry members vent frustration while also preserving the chances of passage. [View news story]
www.investors.com/News...
It also followed former Vice President Al Gore's recent reversal of his long backing of corn ethanol. Declaring the subsidies bad policy, Gore admitted that his presidential ambitions had skewed his motivations and had made him feel a "certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa."
The actual "cost" of the two year tax "cut" extension is around $300B, the rest will, undoubtedly, be more of the above. And calling it an additional expenditure is another Washington game. The tax "cut" expiration was simply assumed by everyone from Congress to the OMB, without actually being legislated into law. So while (the Democratic controlled) Congress simply put the vote off for two years, they went ahead and spent the money anyway.
All hail the "stimulus", the mother of all slush funds!
After failing in earlier efforts to enter the New York City market, Wal-Mart (WMT) is in advanced talks with politically powerful construction unions over a deal to build stores with unionized workers. In a divide-and-conquer strategy for labor, Wal-Mart could use union laborers to build new stores here while still using non-union retail workers to staff them. [View news story]
Sergey Aleynikov - the ex-Goldman Sachs (GS) programmer who was charged with stealing Goldman's proprietary trading code when he left the firm for a high-speed trading company - is convicted. He faces up to 10 years in prison. (WSJ) [View news story]
Sergey Aleynikov - the ex-Goldman Sachs (GS) programmer who was charged with stealing Goldman's proprietary trading code when he left the firm for a high-speed trading company - is convicted. He faces up to 10 years in prison. (WSJ) [View news story]
It's a nonbinding vote (so far), but House Democrats have come together to reject the tax-cut deal as written - though nobody seems to think that's a deal-killer as legislators expect to slog toward some kind of compromise. [View news story]
"When all is said and done," Gibbs said, members of the U.S. Congress will decide to sign on to the plan rather than face the wrath of voters whose taxes stand to go up in January if no action is taken.
Gibbs estimated that the cost of the plan is between mid-$700 billion to upper-$800 billion. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham)
What he means is:
"We were counting on this money all along, and spent it before it actually became revenue. Now, thanks to the stupid voters, the Republicans have crashed our party!"
A Bloomberg poll finds that most Americans across the political spectrum want the Fed reined in or abolished. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39% say it should be held more accountable, and 16% say it should be abolished; only 37% favor the status quo. [View news story]
A Bloomberg poll finds that most Americans across the political spectrum want the Fed reined in or abolished. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39% say it should be held more accountable, and 16% say it should be abolished; only 37% favor the status quo. [View news story]
www.youtube.com/watch?...
Gotta LUV Waxman, et all
www.youtube.com/watch?...
A Bloomberg poll finds that most Americans across the political spectrum want the Fed reined in or abolished. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39% say it should be held more accountable, and 16% say it should be abolished; only 37% favor the status quo. [View news story]