Uno

News from California – more signs of recessionThe City of Oakland, California (approx pop 350,000) announced that it would be cutting all departments except fire and police by up to 10% due to revenue not meeting expectations. The shortfall of $50,000,000 is about 10% of the overall city budget. The police dept was already undermanned and not spending its allocated budget.Given that the biggest fall ($17,000,000) was in real estate transfer tax, you would think that somebody would have noticed the shortfall earlier. However, the chief city administrator (Deboarah Edgerly) had other things on her mind – she was just fired for tipping off her gang member nephew that a police raid was coming.Frankly, I don’t think her level of morality was much different than what we see at the highest levels of government or Wall Street – protect your own and the public be damned.Showing that this is more than a real estate decline, sales tax revenue was $8,000,000 below projections.

You are absolutely right. Any projections on peak unemployment rates and what industries/activities will help us and the rest of the world out of this mess?

Cramer says bera is over, so it must be! LOLOLOL

Nouriel, it is not a "W"!! You don’t find it curious that we had the lowest GDP deflator number in like a decade while inlation is running at 20 year highs???? You know as well as I that it would be political suicide to let the data show that the stimulous rescue package was a joke and a waiste of taxpayer $$’s becuase we still had a negative quarter. SO, lets rig the deflator and balme it on a "stitistical quirk"!!! WHEN ARE THESE PEOPLE GOING TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR FRAUD ON THE US TAXPAYER??????????

1:00 p.m. Paulson: Housing woes will last only months, not years

The employment number should be horrible just because of all the small business bankruptcy’s reported so far in 2008!http://bigpicture.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/21/98520080718_bankruptciessmallprod_a.jpg

Stocks staging another one of their miracuolous recoveries…must be Cramer…

Nouriel, you must make us a promise that if you do any TV interviews in coming days, you expose the GDP fraud for what it is! I have heard no mention of this GDP deflator issue by any analysts on TV today, not one word!

From the previous thread, posted by Guest, may I have the privilege of reposting a terrific message. The context is as follows:“There are many other mechanisms to achieve the "prepare paperwork and syndicate the initial subscription" of securities.”Guest says:Here is how they do it in China, by auction!Rather than have an IB sell – sell – sell the issue and reap a huge spread for their special access to the market, the way it’s done in Hong Kong and China is that subscriptions are taken from the general public, at a very low price that’s sure to sell. Everyone has to send cash or cash equivalent along with their order. The issue is typically 10 times oversubscribed! Then if it’s 10 times oversubscribed, in about 2 months everyone gets 1/10 of what they ordered of the new issue at the offered price, paying 1/10 of their money and getting 9/10 back. But the issuer keeps the interest (for the 2 months) on all the money that was deposited. The interest income compensates for the cheap price; the actual price in this example is offered price) * (1 + 10r/6): the 10 because it was 10 times oversubscribed, and r/6 is two months’ interest (at annual rate r) on that money.This way the market adjusts the oversubscription amount to balance the underpricing, and no IB salesforce or syndicate is needed (and none is paid =============Now, let that be an object lesson in the advantages of building an economy after one learns from the mistakes of others. On behalf of those of us that are thinking about how we’ll get capital to the small U.S.-based businesses which will be the engine of our economic recovery.. I say "Thank you, Guest! Please visit us early and often!"

Please, Nouriel, do expose the pervasive fraud that is CNBC reporting. The people need to know the truth, regardless of how painful, uncomfortable, and hard-to-swallow it may be. It pains me immensly to see Dennis Kneale super-glued to positive sentiment, despite the powerful headwinds blowing in from the ocean of financial hurricanes nigh ready to breach the dykes of Wall-street complacency, and unleash upon its shores, the economic storm-surge from hell. It irks me to see the arrogance and hand-waving of Don Luskin and Jerry Boyer, and this in light of the fact that those two have been proved time and again. Please put a sock in Larry Kudlows mouth, as I cannot bear his mantra of "non recession recession" much longer without voilently spewing up-chuck on my TV. These guys should all be fired, their networks cosed down, and the people who have been consistently correct on this unfolding financial crises, hired in their places. We need people who are forecasters, not nowcasters. I commend you Dr Roubini for your acute perception, and deep insight of the gathering storm. What seperates you between the rest( and a small minority like you) is that you do not rely on now, or coincident indicators to assess future prospects, rather you asess future prospects by extrapolating nowcasting into beneficial and useful forecasting. It’s only a dismal science for the nowcasters, but for those gifted with prescient, insightful, and penetrating economic analysis, it’s looking rather bright.

People that are 100K+ income earners with some substantial savings may wish to consider tax & quality-of-life arbitrage within the nation. Moving from the coasts or the pockets where cost of living is very high to smaller towns in the heartland will allow you to weather out the downturn. Consider this, if you are a six-figure income earner (1) progressive taxation cuts you harder as you pay multiples higher for same food, services, RE available elsewhere for pennies on the dollar (2) You compete with the herd to purchase, driving costs (3) Congestion–commuting, crowd crush, violence are all higher in metros (4) Metros more likely to have expansive gov’t and drawdown will excite them into sponsoring innovative means to increase their tax receipts. You WILL pay more just as you’re taking in less. Heartland areas were more fiscally prudential. (5) Necessity supply line less vulnerable to shocks in countryside. (6) Sometimes in an economic cycle doing NOTHING is better than exposing yourself to the significant downside risk of doing SOMETHING in a systemic crash. In turndowns, the HIGH value added service sector will shrink disproportionately more than in basics. Belt tightening will whack the high income earners much harder than necessity providers.Might consider sitting this inning out.

US stocks getting ready to bust to the upside!!!

@MaunderminWhat would be rating of CNBC if they report ugly truth to people? See, CNBC and the likes have strong bias/interest to show rosy pictures otherwise their advertising revenues would plummet. Networks are not in the business of reporting truth, they are in the business of making money.

To those who are hurting: I’ve been hurt too. When I say these "exciting" economic times, it doesn’t mean I can watch them just like a football game. But seriously, don’t drown in debt. Liquid assets can buy a lot in places where you could start over. Remember, this system will not help you, you have all choices but you have to think about and consider them.

I do not understand why everyone hates CNBC, especially Kudlow because he generally puts both sides out there, Cramer, god bless him, he gave RIMM quite a pop today, all the better for a short opportunity. I say the more lies the better, if you do your home work, profits are much easier to come by based on the psychological impact the lies produce which can be gamed. Anyone who loses money based on the lies deserves it, time over time the pundits, politicians and execs have been proven liars and everyone knows the markets are rigged through phony accounting gimmicks (which are relatively easy to discern if you follow the cash), front running and IB designations…….. Einstein said something to the effect that when you do something over and over and expect a result different than the one that consistently obtains, that is insanity. Embrace the lies, things will never change, but profit can be obtained.

Here comes Crammer again,..Buy the financials! Bottom is in! RaRaRa!! Um hmmm. I smell something foul,..They tell you to SELL when they are BUYing, and BUY when they are selling. I sense a great disturbance in the force..

This is 2 days in a row where the Dow is not being allowed to stay below 11,500…hmmmm, I wonder shy not….Hmmmmmmm.

WAWAWA, I’m very aware that telling the truth is not in the best interest of CNBC and the others. That doesn’t change the fact that the shenanigans and lies being inculcated into the minds of the innocent and naive should be tolerated, rather such bold-faced omissions, and ostensible obfuscation of what lies beneath the ‘Letter’ should be met with grand reproach and scrutiny. Toleration in the face of a long train of usurpations, only serves to empower tyrants and destroy the independence of an increasingly servile and deprived people."You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time" — Abraham lincoln

http://socializedlosses.blogspot.com/2008/07/resets-and-anti-correlation-to-oil.html

Say It. Just Say It!Everybody’s favorite analyst on CNBC talking about financials. All things we know so well: more write-down are coming, more capital to be raised, etc. But around 8:10 you get this:"Bartiromo: CAN LEHMAN SURVIVE THIS?Whitney: I — I THINK — I — I DON’T KNOW. I DON’T KNOW."http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=808357964&play=1 via http://dealbreaker.com/2008/07/say_it_just_say_it.php

@Anonymous:Right you are, you posted as "Anonymous" and not as "Guest". Interesting that you care enough about the distinction to point it out. Hmmm. What’s up with that?Say, are you here as one of them "thought instigators"?Jeez, never a dull moment around here

No hope through elections for the US:Obama and McCain Suck Up to the Bankershttp://www.alternet.org/election08/93318/I think that it’s time to just step back and let the lot of them hang themselves. A lynching is just around the corner…Mark

Guest wrote:". . . have to now spend approx. 200,000 that we saved for my sons college education…"The bottom tranch of the upper-middle-class will have to send their to children to state universities.

Deep Economic Analysishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOyXY5egVvk&feature=related

@ Mark,I know that you asked about Canada’s economy and how exposed it is to global slowdown. I am currently pursuing an MBA degree across the border (do not throw things at me people, it is not my fault). And I am seriously thinking about continuing my career in Canada. The overall business and economic environment is still holding for now, but I am not sure about the near future (relatively speaking).

On Bloomberg Video today “Cox Says SEC Short-Sale Rule Helped Curb Trading Abuses.”We are the “abusers”? They accuse us of what THEY do! Everything TPTBs do is to preserve their “system.” We’re up against a paid propaganda campaign – paid columnists, paid economists, paid consultants, paid news reporters, paid-off congressmen – they are paid what to say, what to write. (As for Cox, they probably don’t even have to pay him: once a congressman, they never want to go home to Podunk, they always want to stay near the trough.)I ask, does anyone think that Exxon, a company that made more than $1,500 per second in 2Q as I heard on radio, wouldn’t have a few bucks left over to pay somebody to put in a good word? Its profit 2Q of $11,680,000,000 was the largest quarterly profit for a US-based corporation in history (short of Wall Street’s “expectations” of course). Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, made $11.56 billion for the quarter, a 33 percent increase in second-quarter profit.Highway robbery?

Political dudes, all politicians are the same and can only be counted on to maximize their own self interests, the only differnce between Obamanation and McNasty is Obama is a smart dude and McNasty graduated 5th from the bottom and so far McNasty has personally benfited far more from special interest profits but give Obama time. Oh yeah and Obama will probably cause less death (which may be good or bad depending on your perspective). The only political dude who tells a remote version of the truth is my boy Ron Paul but sadly, most think he is nuts.

Fidel Castro wasn’t kidding when he said capitalism will eventually fail.

Looking on from Australia it seems that the US has the world’s dumbest investors. The rest of the world’s markets have generally taken a much bigger beating while the cause of the problem is still hovering around the -20% mark. Can only be another week before another big financial institution announces the next huge writedown to improve their share price. Admitting you stuffed up big time and writing off a few BILLION, then getting suckers to replace that with a capital raising that significantly dilutes existing shareholdings results in a share rally.In addition you even listen to the media commentators which is almost a dumb as listening to politicians.No doubt you are all waiting for the next president to print more money in February next year that will end the W and start another U. What will this be called ?

Re:Obama in the bankers’ pocketMy favorite candidate never gets nominated, but for awhile I was hopeful that Obama wasn’t so bad as an also ran. Had Clinton figured as the corporate sell out. I actually participated in my local and county caucus to support him. I still believe that he is the lesser evil since he seems intelligent, and as said above, seems likely to be the "less death" candidate.When I saw that Volcker had endorsed him that didn’t seem necessarily bad, since Volcker had raised interest rates to tame inflation. Then there was the "secret meeting" of Clinton and Obama allegedly at Bilderberg.http://wonkette.com/400268/hillary-baracks-very-special-bilderberg-date-nightPresto, Rubin who had been part of Clinton’s campaign now is in bed with Obama. Hate to buy into a "conspiracy theory" but is certainly seems plausible that when it became clear Clinton couldn’t be given the nomination without tearing up the Democratic party TPTB had a sit down with Obama and told him how it was going to be.http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080727/pl_bloomberg/abkpolapztx4

Obama isn’t all that book smart. He gives good speeches but seems only average in thinking on his feet. He was a B student in college, where he surely benefited from a racial preference in admission. Heck, anyone who could benefit from such a preference would do so, so I don’t blame him for it. Romney was the star student, not Obama.

@ Guest on 2008-07-31 13:09:23You make some very good points about rural living. Would that it were so. I have "people" who do live in rural America. They pay the same gasoline prices (in fact, more, since it costs more to ship up to those wide-open spaces) and the same grocery prices, whilst living on minimum wage. Shopping is limited to the local ubiquitous Wal Mart. And forget about getting decent health care. There is nowhere to hide. My heart goes out to all. But dear, dear Afa–"never join the enemy." Yes.

Read about the flood? Babel tower? Get to heaven? Get to high ground? Which to choose?

@Average Jane: “I have "people" who do live in rural America. They pay the same gasoline prices (in fact, more, since it costs more to ship up to those wide-open spaces) and the same grocery prices, whilst living on minimum wage.”Yes, I have a house in a small out-of-the-way “resort” town. It is a 100-year-old farmhouse under renovation. I just learned the carpenter doing the finish work is “earning” $12.00 an hour from his contractor employer after 13 years as a professional carpenter, lives in a trailer, is 52 years old – once a Navy Seal. He drives an old truck and is badly in need of dental care. He has nothing. I have seen young men already following down the same hopeless path, in this land of opportunity. This is a state where the federal government has destroyed its timber and fishing industries: America’s “forgotten country” –forgotten by its representatives who hobnob with Wall Street bankers, forgotten by the media as disposable constituencies…He is the Forgotten Man of William Graham Sumner’s essay that appeared in 1883:As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X or, in the better case, what A, B and C shall do for X… What I want to do is to look up C… I call him the Forgotten Man… He is the man who never is thought of. He is the victim of the reformer, social speculator and philanthropist, and I hope to show you before I get through that he deserves your notice both for his character and for the many burdens which are laid upon him…“It is C, the Forgotten Man, who is always called upon to stanch the politician’s bleeding heart by paying for his vicarious generosity.” (Hazlitt)

@Guest: “4) Metros more likely to have expansive gov’t and drawdown will excite them into sponsoring innovative means to increase their tax receipts. You WILL pay more just as you’re taking in less…”How right you are. I just had my business license fee increased, retroactively! – to pay for more police because the city is out of money.If you ever have time, I would like to have you expound on Point (6) — “Sometimes in an economic cycle doing NOTHING is better than exposing yourself to the significant downside risk of doing SOMETHING in a systemic crash. In turndowns, the HIGH value added service sector will shrink disproportionately more than in basics. Belt tightening will whack the high income earners much harder than necessity providers.”I understand why high cost service sectors suffer most in a turndown, but what does doing NOTHING entail? Are you talking about holding cash instead of investing anew in stocks or real estate, taking on a new job, relocating? It is hard to do nothing during turbulence when one’s money is losing value, but I can understand its dangers.

bwahahabwaahahahalook whos talking!!(ssssshhhhhh noo noo there’s nothing wrong bailing out F&F…just focus the sheeples attention on someone else)LOOOK AT THOSE KINKY CHAVEZ EYES, he’s the devil, such shamefull act nationalizing companies, SHAME ON CHAVEZ, come on guys lets say it together, SHAME ON CHAVEZ…http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a4C9n3kQr.5Q&refer=economyChavez Tightens Hold on Venezuela Economy With Nationalization By Matthew Walter and Daniel Cancel Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is set to tighten his government’s grip on the economy by taking over his first bank, the local unit of Spain’s Banco Santander SA. Plans to nationalize the country’s third-largest bank, announced yesterday, will give the state access to Banco de Venezuela SA Grupo Universal’s 285 offices and $9.46 billion in deposits. It follows nationalizations in the oil, steel, cement, electricity and telecommunications industries.

My guess is that Banco de Venezuela SA will be bankrupt within a year or two due to bad loans in the local real state market.There’s no difference between Chavez and US politicians other than the speed at which they can sell themselves to their masters in the banking cartel.

How does a duck duck? Just like a recession! You better duck too because it’s coming your way soon. lol

FUTURES MARKET EXPECTS HOUSING PRICES TO DROP BY 45% I think this number is likely correct. Now imagine the carnage this drop will produce on the economy and banks! http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/07/record-declines-in-case-shiller-home.html

The Labor Department said 51,000 non-farm jobs were eliminated in July, bringing losses for the year to 463,000. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the 75,000 jobs to be cut last month.well done!no recession in the usa.NFPR will be +50000 in Aug.Again, this is just a matter of money. The printing machine is ready…

Nouriel Roubini – this recession … leading to the most severe systemic financial and banking crisis since the Great Depression: not as severe as the Great Depression but second only to that episode.Did I miss something? I believe this is NR’s first re-positioning on the depth of the recession. He seems to say that it could be bery, bery close to the last Great Depression? Yes?

@ Guest "AfA, you are a poet; beautifully said. I am with you – all the way."@ AfA "Oh people, whither would you flee? The sea is behind you and the enemy is in front of you."This is a great quote, but one from a waxing, rather than a waning power. See Tariq ibn Ziyad (Taric the one-eyed), Arabic: طارق بن زياد‎, d. 720. Much later, the Nasrids were one of those many great fallen civilizations to which Roubini referred in a previous post.

Stocks going to rally green!

Oil now approaching $128 but hey, who gives a crap, certainly not US fraud markets!

Confiramtion the global growth story is coming to an abrupt end!Commodity investors were probably just as happy to see July end as equity investors were to see the end of June. During the month, the CRB Commodities Index recorded a decline of 10.0% which is the worst monthly decline since March 1980 (10.5%) and the second worst decline ever! Below we highlight a long term chart of the CRB commodity index since 1960 with each of the red dots indicating the only two monthly declines of 10% or more.

"Confiramtion the global growth story is coming to an abrupt end!"Gee, dont write out global growth story just yet. until uptrend in commodity rally is broken, global growth story is still intact.

As it was a global bubble, it is and will be a global bust. Write it down.

What the heck is going on here? What sort of carry-trade play is it? I see the IB borrowing in GBP as that is expected to fall, but are these guys betting on the collapse of the Euro or what?We still have a 2.25% base rate differential and 12 months euribor is above 5.3%."Goldman, JPMorgan Sell Bonds in Europe as U.S. Yields SoarBy Bryan Keogh and Shelley Smith – Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) — The biggest firms on Wall Street are turning to Europe for cheaper financing as bondholders demand the highest yields over government debt on record.Of the largest banks and brokers, only Bank of America Corp. sold bonds in dollars in July, raising $72.5 million, Bloomberg data show. That compares with the equivalent $5.1 billion issued in euros and pounds by firms led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America and Goldman Sachs Group Inc."http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3SILzapdoCw&refer=home

Do you have a Plan B for your life? We are building a community. A solution for peak oil, financial and economic meltdown, climate change and happiness. http://www.relocatenow.eu

1:47 p.m.[HMC] Honda U.S. sales down 1.6% in July to 138,744 vehicles 1:46 p.m.[GM] GM U.S. July light vehicle sales drop 26.1% to 233,340 units

did i wake up today younger and it is 1981

PROTOCOL OF ELDERS OF ZIONhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XrRyqses5U&feature=related

Bad News Friday right on time.FLORIDA’S 1ST PRIORITY BANK SEIZED BY FDIC; SUNTRUST TO ACQUIRE DEPOSITS

"Obama is a smart dude"???LOL, he is a freaking retard. he support more bailout. he support tax on oil industry and give to consumer. how is that gonna fix problem. he support tax and more government spending on social program -> more national deficit. he is no better than Bush or McCain. In fact, Bush, McCain, and Obabma are freaking retards. everyone vote for them are retards too. but America are left with no alternatives other than voting for these retards.

if anyone think we don’t need to pay for these bailouts, tax on oil industry and transfer money to clueless consumer, expanding social program which are proposed by Obama and democrats are retard. read my lips, we will pay by higher future tax or further debasing dollars and increasing inflation. anyone believe otherwise are retard.

CNBC’s own flip-floppin’ Jim "Grasso" Cramer will need a legal team bigger than OJ’s before this bear market comes to an end…and you can throw in CNBC-TV and more importantly, deep pocketed parent company GE as well…Spinning by Cramer’s liability disclosures on TV faster than an Evelyn Wood speed reading class will prove to be easy pickin’s for today’s savvy lawyers representing unsuspecting retail investing victims…especially in an evolving hostile bear market environment when "Wall Street TV" is taking center stage as the main object of public disgorgement. IMHO

One more Friday, one more failed bank: First Priority Bank, Bradenton, FL. Nothing really relevant, under $230 million in deposits and the FDIC cost is supposed to be only $72 million or a mere 25% of the total (!!).http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.htmlFirst National Bank of Nevada, Reno, NVFirst Heritage Bank, NA, Newport Beach, CAFirst Priority Bank, Bradenton, FLJudging from latest FDIC moves I’d guess they started to shut down banks in a kind of perverse order: "All banks starting with ‘First’ please proceed to seizure gate one, all banks starting with ‘Second’ please be prepared for the next round…"

Everybody favorite evil investment bank has just announced they are done setting up short positions. Somehow the U/W shaped recession meme is spreading."Goldman: "Second Half Slowdown Ahead"by CalculatedRisk. Goldman Sachs put out a research note late today lowering their projections for the second half. "[W]e are on the cusp of a renewed deceleration in growth."I think others will follow and the 2nd half recovery will be cancelled."http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/08/goldman-second-half-slowdown-ahead.htmlBTW: does it looks increasingly like Miss America picked one more top?

Very thin bloggin here right now.If anybody have problems, try firefox.There are a lot of messages in other blogs Intertnet Explorer make problems(ore maybe the NSA)

How to make a grown man cry…“Less Stringent Ethics” by Mish ShedlockAugust 2, 2008 –The one thing we do not need is the one thing we are most likely to get: Less Stringent Ethics.I touched on that subject in Not Practical To Tell The Truth, but what the hell, why not just come right out and promote it?It now seems we are. Inquiring minds may wish to consider Treasury adviser likely to get special status.Ken Wilson, the Goldman Sachs banker who is joining the US Treasury to help the country through the financial crisis, is expected to take a temporary post that will subject him to less stringent ethics rules than many other high-level officials.Mr Wilson was likely to be treated as a “special government employee”, making it unlikely he would have to sell assets or produce the detailed disclosure reports required of officials appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, legal experts said.Mr Wilson revealed his decision to leave Goldman and join the Treasury as a consultant and “trouble shooter” for Mr Paulson in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on July 22. The Treasury has declined to comment on Mr Wilson’s appointment or the scope and length of his assignment.According to the report, Mr Wilson received a personal telephone call from Mr Bush, who, calling him by the name he used when both attended Harvard Business School together, said: “Kenny, your country needs you.”The decision by the White to call on Mr Wilson reflects the pragmatic approach of Mr Paulson, whom Democratic lawmakers have credited with persuading Mr Bush to support a fiscal stimulus package and housing legislation that has been unpopular among some Republicans.Mr Wilson has made political contributions of $23,900 (€15,300, £12,000) in this election cycle, mostly to Democrats such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He made one donation to a Republican – $2,300 to John McCain in 2007. He had given $3,000 to Mr Bush and large donations to the Republican National Committee.Pragmatism DefinedPragmatism: The act of donating money to both political parties in hopes of securing a lucrative contract no matter who wins.http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Roubini and RGEMonitor travel to LewRockwell.com by way of Panama City.“Disaster: A Day in the Life” by Phil LucasAugust 2, 2008 — One day last week:10:00 a.m. – Comrade Hank "The Knife" Paulson: Housing woes will last months, not years. (RGEmonitor.com blog entry.)10:01 a.m. – Case Shiller index: Home prices continue acceleration downward, falling 15.8 percent in May from a year earlier, a record decline. Previous record set in April. Record before that set in March. It’s a trifecta.10:02 a.m. – Comrade Paulson: Economy is sound.10:03 a.m. – Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain: "Right now we believe that we are in a very comfortable spot in terms of our capital."10:04 a.m. – Merrill dumps bonds at 22 cents on the dollar, takes $5.7 billion write-down, to issue $8.5 billion in new stock as demand for suckers matches supply of one born every minute. Merrill hailed as heroes for coming clean. Still sitting on $43.7 billion of mortgage nitro. Short sellers send out call for blasting caps.10:05 a.m. – Federales announce market price-fixing scheme to save Daddy Warbucks and banks. Marines mobilized to gun down short sellers.10:06 a.m. – Capitano Lucas, locked and loaded, hiding under Alamo bed: Worldwide write-downs now past $400 billion. Chump change. At least $1.6 trillion to go. Buy gold.10:07 a.m. – Comrade George "Bolshevik" Bush: The economy is resilient.10:08 a.m. – White House: Comrade Bush starts signing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac bailout in smoke-filled room full of bankers. Resilient taxpayers put on hook for $5.3 trillion in toxic mortgage portfolios. Reckless lending rewarded. Home mortgage limit raised past $600,000, spurring resilience in Fannie/Freddie mortgage portfolios, as they will balloon like roadkill, turning $5.3 trillion problem into $10 trillion problem.10:09 a.m. – U.S. House of Ill Repute, between indictments, apologizes for slavery. Raises debt limit to $10.6 trillion, ensuring all citizens are enslaved to debt till hell freezes over. Low-income Americans of all races get special Tuskegee inflation treatment of hideous price rises.10:10 a.m. – Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University: We are privatizing profits and socializing losses. It is "socialism for Wall Street, the rich and the well connected."10:11 a.m. – Federales denounce Professor Roubini as enemy of the state. Marines sent in to effect arrest.10:12 a.m. – Capitano Lucas: More guns and groceries, please.10:13 a.m. – Comrade Ben Bernanke: Federal Reserve to extend loan program for gang of market manipulators: its primary Wall Street dealers. Resilient working stiffs on hook for trillions more.10:14 a.m. – State Department announces sale of Manhattan to Abu Dhabi, considers merger of Singapore and California.10:15 a.m. – Commerce Dept.: Economy grew 1.9 percent in second quarter. Credits tax stimulus checks.10:16 a.m. – White House: Deficit will explode to $482 billion next year. Blames tax stimulus checks.10:17 a.m. – Capitano Lucas: Resilient taxpayers on hook for $482 billion more. Get permit for Alamo bunker expansion.10:18 a.m. – Tampa strip club owner says more women willing to give pole dancing a try. Credits economy.10:19 a.m. – Wanted: The Alamo is now accepting applications for wenches. Lusty demeanor. Hands-on job. Will train. Ask for Dick or Pedro.10:20 a.m. – Comrade Barack Obama announces economic stimulus plan, proposes sending in Marines to loot oil companies and bribe American households with $1,000 checks. Thousands with pitchforks and torches chant, "Yes, we can!"10:21 a.m. – Comrade Obama announces energy plan. Centerpiece of platform: Drivers must put more air in tires. Thousands cheer and faint.10:22 a.m. – Comrade John McCain invades Panama. Sends in country star to whip up crowd before thousands nod off.10:23 a.m. – 51,000 lose jobs. Six-month body count now nears a half million.10:24 a.m. – Comrade Bush finishes signing bank/homeowner bailout plan. Centerpiece: A hotdog in every pot, one used bicycle and a 30-day supply of rice and beans. Sends tab to resilient American workers. Return mail: Address Unknown.10:25 a.m. –Phil Lucas is the executive editor of the Panama City News Herald.http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/lucas1.html

@ Medic on 2008-08-02 09:59:00Oh, almost forgot: SWK

Kafka: "The U.S. already has one of the highest tax rates…"Also, the official tax rate is one thing, but taxes actually paid is something else, because of the huge numbers of loopholes for corporations and the super-rich.

@ Daltoni on 2008-08-02 11:30:04>Also, the official tax rate is one thing, but taxes actually paid is something else, because of the huge numbers of loopholes for corporations and the super-rich.True enough. One minor point of correction, though. Technically speaking, loopholes are unintended gaps in the statutes or regulations that allow a taxpayer to avoid tax liability. In point of fact, there are a lot less loopholes than intended substantive grounds used by wealthy individuals and large companies for deferring, reducing, or eliminating the payment of taxes they would otherwise be obligated to pay.SWK

“Good for the Blind and the Sighted” — Ron PaulStatement before the Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Domestic & International Monetary Policy, Hearing on Examining Issues Related to Tactilely Distinguishable Currency, July 30, 2008Mr. Chairman,We would not be here discussing this topic today if we had a truly free monetary system.It is well known that I am a proponent of sound, commodity-backed currency. Anyone who has ever felt the heft of a gold or silver coin, noticed the variation in size and design among different denominations of precious metal coins, or examined the different types of reeding, incusing, and other edge designs, recognizes that coins are far superior to paper bills in terms of their ability to be distinguishable solely by touch.Due to what many people deem the impracticality of carrying around coins, paper bills have over the course of time replaced coins in everyday commerce. However, a system of competing currencies would ensure that blind or near-blind citizens have access to currency. If we had a truly free market in currency, private currency producers could produce coins or bills that are tactilely distinguishable, with bills incorporating different sizes, shapes, raised geometric patterns, etc. It is not inconceivable to imagine that a privately issued currency incorporating such features and making itself available to all Americans might obtain a dominant position as a preferred currency.What prevents such a scenario from occurring is the US government’s attempts to maintain the monopoly of the dollar.Through a multifaceted legal barrier consisting of legal tender laws, anti-counterfeiting statutes worded to prevent the private issue of notes and coins, and punitive taxes on precious metals that would form the backing of a commodity-backed currency, the government has ensured that alternative currencies, such as the Liberty Dollar, have to face an often insurmountable legal hurdle. While nothing prevents many point-of-sale transactions today from being carried out in euros or pounds, legal tender laws ensure that Gresham’s law, that bad money drives out good, remains in effect.The recent court ruling against the Treasury Department has been advertised as having a potential cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It would be far more economical to eliminate the legal restrictions on private currencies and enable the market to find a solution to the problem of currency for the blind.Competitive private currencies would have the added benefit of keeping the US government honest by forcing the government to stop the limitless increase of money, which is inflation, thereby removing the government’s ability to run up large trade deficits, half trillion dollar budget deficits, and an enormous national debt.Allowing currency competition would aid in lifting burdens not only from the blind, but also from all American taxpayers.

How are new and old fed lending facilities not acting as defacto printing presses?Variously impaired securities are being traded to Fed short-term for liquidity, read cash. Cash being used to plug holes in balance sheets and to refund depositor withdrawals. Remainder–"not well accounted for"–but suspected to be routed into equities where it props financials’ share prices and speculates into basic commodities (or whatever daily target FED/Treas Ma Fia directs). Since institutions are using vicariously the FED balance sheet and taxpayer money to prop, and since money institutions are using IB and commercial banks as subordinates to carry out their will; this is unceasingly exceeding the scope of their mandate. All their overreaching puts the US citizen incrementally more into bondage. Using prior loaned (but now misfigured securitized paper) assets for pawning at Fed Window, they are engaging yet again in speculative, inefficient enterprise to "save the system". Since this is another variant of the "borrow short, lend long–or invest medium" when and how will the Fed be made whole when their call for pawn redemption occurs? Answer, they won’t. They will roll, until better times, all this garbage debt.Also, the recapitalization circus seeking funds to buttress the bungled balance sheets of our big banks is exacerbating the credit crunch. All this funny money shift-about is not being directed to prudent investment. No IPO’s, no R&D underwriting, no expansion of cutting edge industries. Instead main street is getting cold-turkey cut-off of capital as Wall Street uses it to speculate, plug gaps, "print" more stock diluting existing shareholders, and to fund borrowing for hedge funds in order that they can "buy" their distressed debt (75% funded). Can you say Enron, subprime US financial system.All capital allocation is being used to douse fires, lending is to encourage the slowing of price declines in damaged securities, the FED is exceeding mandate to direct banking into speculation and effectively "printing" money by loaning against loans against loans. Main street receives very, very little as small and regional banks struggle to survive and seek local capital by increasingly higher interest offerings on new-issue debt. Mortgage underwriting has been nationalized with FRE, FNM and lending standards have become nearly prohibitive.This portends no ultimate equity or RE bottom. No profit making means of emerging back into a growth cycle is on the horizon. IT WILL GET MUCH WORSE, BEFORE IT GETS WORSE.

Written by Guest on 2008-08-02 13:13:14But haven’t M1 and M2 been contracting in the U.S. for the last several months? Perhaps it is just to a lag factor, but thus far, what the Fed has done doesn’t seem to be resulting in a net expansion of the money supply based on these metrics.SWK

KITCOThe Con In Central Bankers’ Confidence By Darryl Robert SchoonJul 30 2008 9:26AMwww.drschoon.comRising gold prices are a cold sore on the lip of central bankers. In the world of paper money, it’s a clear sign something’s not rightCentral bankers are the keepers of the keys to the kingdom. The kingdom, however, is on the edge of bankruptcy and in danger as never before. Comparisons are now being made to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The comparisons, however, are just that.In some ways, the situation is similar. In many ways, it is not. In a very fundamental way, the conditions are much worse. The systemic strains on the global financial system are today much more profound than even during the Great Depression.The Great Depression of the 1930s was unique in the history of capital markets built on debt-based money, sic capitalism. Until the creation of the Federal Reserve System, the US economy had been a savings-based, not debt-based, economy. The difference between the two, although rarely understood, is profoundThe price paid for credit-based expansion is debt. Increasing the debt-based money supply increases the amount of debt; and, over the naturally limited life of a debt-based economy, the constantly increasing and compounding levels of debt will grow until the economy collapses.Compounding debt, the wellspring of bankers’ profits, will eventually destroy the economy on which it lives. The time it takes to do so is dependent on the strength and productivity of the underlying economy.No economy, however, no matter how strong initially, can out run the constantly compounding debt of credit-based money—not even the United States.THE GREAT DEPRESSION, VERSION 1.0In 1913, the Federal Reserve System began feeding debt-based money into the previously savings-based US economy; and in just ten years, the newly available cheap credit poured into the stock market and drove shares prices to historic highs. In 1929, the stock market collapsed and the Great Depression began in 1933, only thirty years after the Federal Reserve Act was approved. It was the vast amounts of cheap credit from the Federal Reserve that fueled the meteoric rise of the stock market bubble in the 1920s, a bubble so large its collapse plunged the US and the world into the first Great Depression in the 1930s; and, now, today, the same is again about to happen. The amount of debt that will soon come crashing down will make the Great Depression seem exactly as it is, a prelude to something much larger and much more dangerous—a possible hyperinflationary deflationary collapse that will soon dwarf the merely deflationary collapse of the 1930s.This time around, the Federal Reserve and its government enablers, sic co-conspirators, have created far more leveraged debt than existed during the historic 1920s stock market bubble. The housing bubble of 2002-2006, created in the wake of the 2000 dot.com bubble (remember that?) is the biggest bubble in history and again we will relearn the lesson that the more that goes up, the more will come down.THE GREAT DEPRESSION, VERSION 2.0Modern economics is a shell game, a 300 year old confidence game designed to hide the fact that bankers’ credit replaced real money, credit created out of thin air by private bankers and public government that leaves compounding debt, and ultimately economic destruction, in its wake.Recently, because of the increasing collusion between bankers and government, the line between private banking and public government is gone. They are now one and the same—only the union hasn’t been publicly announced because of anticipated opposition to the now consummated marriage.Central bankers are modern day confidence men who have so embedded themselves into the fabric of everyday commerce that people are convinced they need credit in order to survive; like Elvis Presley in his final days believed he needed prescription pills to live. Just as Dr. "Nick", Elvis Presley’s pill doctor, is responsible for killing Elvis with his over-prescription of drugs, Dr. Bernanke, the current US credit provider, and his predecessor Dr. Greenspan will be remembered for their fatal over-prescribing of central bank credit to the US and world economy. Too much of a good thing is and has always been in the end, a bad thing. THE ILLUSORY SAFETY OF DENIALAmericans often tell themselves that safeguards are in place that will prevent another Great Depression; and, as we are now on the edge of another such collapse, it would do us well to take another look at those "safeguards" to see how safe we actually are—or aren’t.The daisy chain of debt defaults set in motion by the collapse of the 1920s bubble caused 15,000 banks to fail between 1929 and 1933. So in 1933, the US government responded by passing the Glass-Steagall Act to prevent another such collapse.Unfortunately, the Glass-Steagall Act was designed to deal not with the cause (debt-based Federal Reserve bank notes fueling excessive speculation) but with the results (bank failures and loss of savings). Nonetheless, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 is the reassurance Americans believe will insure that "it won’t happen again".Glass-Steagall prohibited investment banks from again acting as commercial banks. No longer could investment banks (which make speculative bets) own commercial banks (which accept savings deposits from customers) and thereby risk the savings of depositors.But in 1999 Glass-Steagall was repealed. Wikipedia’s recounting of the repeal, is well-worth the read:On November 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. One of the effects of the repeal was to allow commercial and investment banks to consolidate. Some economists have criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.[6][7]…One reason banks are losing money is the repeal nine years ago of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking after excessive risk- taking contributed to the Great Depression…The repeal enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities.…Citigroup played a major part in the repeal. Then called Citicorp, the company merged with Travelers Insurance company the year before utilizing loopholes in Glass-Steagall the allowed for temporary exemptions.…the "finance, insurance and real estate industries together are regularly the largest campaign contributors and biggest spenders on lobbying of all business sectors [in 1999]. They laid out more than $200 million for lobbying in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics…" These industries succeeded in their two decades long effort to repeal the act. In 1999, investment banks, insurance companies, and real estate companies together gave $200 million to US politicians in order to repeal the act specifically designed to prevent another Great Depression; and, now the idea that investment bankers such as US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson fresh from Goldman Sachs will save America’s economy is absurd—for Paulson and his cohorts are not in Washington DC to save America, they are there to profit and save themselves.The $200 million lobbying effort by investment bankers, real estate and insurance companies to repeal Glass-Steagall prevailed but their task is not yet over. Investment bankers via the privately owned Federal Reserve System are now about to complete their control over the entire US financial system.The following is excerpted from Silver, Gold, & The L
ast American Hero, JFK. Written March 2008, it was true then, it is true today and unfortunately will be true tomorrow.. FED ASKS FOR OVERSIGHT OF ALL FINANCIAL MARKETSoversight n 1: synonym, overlooking, as in government oversightPlan Would Expand Fed’s Power To Intervene In Financial CrisisMarch 29, 2008WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Federal Reserve would have the power to regulate virtually the entire financial industry under a Treasury Department proposal to be announced Monday.The proposal is part of a sweeping overhaul of the government’s regulatory structure that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will propose in a speech Monday, said Treasury Department spokeswoman Michele Davis."I am not suggesting that more regulation is the answer, or even that more effective regulation can prevent the periods of financial market stress that seem to occur every five to 10 years," Paulson will say, according to a text of the speech obtained by The Associated Press.According to Brookly McLaughlin, another department spokeswoman, Paulson will propose these changes:Give the Federal Reserve authority to look at the financial status of any institution that could affect market stability; Merge the Securities and Exchange Commission with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Give stock exchanges more room for self-regulation; Consolidate bank supervision into one regulator. One of the most dramatic changes would extend the powers of the Federal Reserve — designed to regulate the commercial banking industry — to oversight of virtually the entire financial industry.THE FOX IS IN THE HENHOUSEAfter the recent collapse of Bear Stearns, the Fed announced that US funds will now be made available to international investment banks. Previous to this announcement, any loaning of US funds to investment banks was prohibited.On March 28th, the first day the funds were available, the Fed loaned the banks $75 billion dollars. These investment banks, called primary-dealers, are the inner circle of the Fed’s funding mechanism.That these primary-dealers are in need of US support is an indication of the rapidly disintegrating state of their balance sheets—and the lengths the Fed will go to protect their fellow bankers in the private sector with public money…The bailout of the richest investment banks in the world by US taxpayers is tantamount to a kidnap victim being forced to defray their kidnappers’ expenses. Someday, however, these bail-outs by the Fed will come to an end, but that end will not be pretty—for the end of central banking will be both unprecedented and brutal.Central banks and investment banks are two sides of the same coin; and, now that the coin has been debased and recast with subprime securities and other suspect forms of debt; investment banks and their enablers, the central banks, are as vulnerable as those they once exploited.Their increased vulnerability will soon be triggered by any number of events, e.g. bank insolvencies, collapsing currencies, slowing economies, money-market failures, counter-party derivative defaults etc., each one powerful enough to bring down a faltering house of cards built on a foundation of rapidly shifting sand.You need not remember the above predictions. You will remember them soon enough when they occur. Private bankers have controlled the US economy since 1913. Their success has led to our present problems. Their failures will lead to our future problems.But the bankers’ work is not yet complete, there are still a few coins on the floor they inadvertently missed and their greed will cause them to bend over to pick them up. Perhaps then they will be vulnerable to the people’s will—which brings us to another subject, the peoples’ will.THE LAST BUBBLESometimes the patrons of strip bars—influenced by alcohol and their own delusions—believe the dancers truly desire them. While at the time it is a pleasant thought (for the patrons), it is not true and does not last, at least not long after the last bill has been stuffed into the stripper’s G-string.Self-delusion, however, is not confined to strip clubs although it regularly rises and is paid for there. Self-delusion is far more common than commonly thought as the more widespread the delusion, the less the delusion is apparent to the deluded.America is unique in many ways but in some ways it is representative of other nations and other people. After all, its national character was forged by the many different nationalities that comprise it; and, in that way, it is both unique and reflective of humanity as a whole.It appears to Americans as well as to others that through democracy, the peoples’ will determines the nation’s destiny. However, this is no more true than the delusion that strippers lust for whom they dance.Delusions, whether private as in the confines of a strip club or collective in the case of nations, are just that, delusions. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 is a case in point. Since 1933, Glass-Steagall has given Americans some measure of protection. Since 1999, however, such feelings of protection have been delusional.The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed Glass-Steagall (note: Gramm, Leach, and Bliley were all Republicans) was passed along party lines in the Senate (Republicans for, Democrats against); but it was passed in the House of Representatives with both Republican and Democrat support, and was signed into law by a Democrat, President Bill Clinton.FREE ELECTIONS MEAN NOTHING WHEN POLITICIANS ARE FREELY BOUGHT AND SOLDThe passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was either an example of the "hands-across the aisle" sentiment that sometimes causes both parties to join in supporting a common cause; or, it was an example of the far more common "greased-palms of politicians selling out the public good for private gain" syndrome lubricated by $200 million in lobbyists money.Glass-Steagall was designed to protect America from another Great Depression, a time where one in four had been out of work, where 60 % of banks had failed, and where bread lines were as common as family misery. But in 1999 Glass-Steagall was repealed by those elected to represent the peoples’ will. The subversion of democracy did not happen overnight or by chance. It was built into the process itself. Alexis deToqueville in his seminal work, Democracy In America written in the 1830s, believed that America’s version of democracy suffered from a fatal flaw, a flaw that derived from the American character itself.DeToqueville observed that Americans had two conflicting desires: (1) The desire to be free, and (2) the desire to be led. It is America’s second desire that has now led to the undoing of the first.Irrespective of America’s truly revolutionary Declaration of Independence and extraordinary Constitution, America today has become a debased mockery of the founding fathers’ original dream and the manifestation of DeToqueville’s dire predictions; and, this November, Americans will again go to the polls to choose “their masters”.This is what DeToqueville said of the process:It is in vain to summon a people, who have been rendered so dependent on the central power to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity.In 2008, America is now the world’s number one jailor. Its prisons hold 25 % of the world’s entire prison population and a 2002 Department of Justice ruling allowed Americans to torture prisoners as long as the torturer “in good faith” did not believe permanent harm would result (torture being defined by the US Department of
“Justice” as only those "extreme acts" that cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure). This is stark evidence of the devolution of the “rule of law” that has occurred in the United States of America in recent years. Perhaps America has not yet fallen below the level of humanity as DeToqueville predicted. As some might and will argue, it all depends on who sets the bar. Just recently, in June 2008 the US Congress passed a bill submitted by President Bush that allows the US government to spy on Americans and to indemnify those that already have done so, i.e.AT&T and Verizon. Both presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama voted for the bill.IF YOU ASPIRE TO THE SEAT OF POWER YOU MUST FIRST DROP YOUR DRAWERSI am not saying Americans or others should not vote in elections; but, if they do, they should be cognizant of what they expect will be accomplished. Most Americans still hope their votes once every two or four years will correct the direction this once great nation has taken. They will not.Those candidates who actually challenge the corrupt system which now masquerades as a representative democracy have been marginalized. Ron Paul on the right and Dennis Kucinich on the left represent the best of the two opposing political polarities. Ron Paul’s bills to abolish the Federal Reserve System and Dennis Kucinich’s bills to impeach President Bush and Vice-President Cheney for crimes against the nation should be heard and subjected to meaningful debate. Neither will occur. Real democracy has now been silenced in our now unreal world.HOPE IS ON THE HORIZONDelusions die hard. But like the patrons in strip clubs, only when the money is gone, does reality return and so in 2008, America may now be on the verge of a reawakening. With gas above $4 a gallon, its credit cards tapped, home foreclosures rising and its telephones increasingly called by bill collectors from India, Americans, like the patrons in the strip club, are realizing their wallets are now empty—the money’s now gone, America’s last bubble may be about to pop. THE LAST FORUMS FOR LIBERTYI want to extend my deep thanks and gratitude to the sites that publish these writings and the writings of others, writings that draw attention to the crisis that now threatens the US and indeed the world. It is no coincidence that the gold and silver focused websites have become the last forums for liberty.The loss of our freedoms has been accomplished by the collusion of two powerful forces, private bankers and public government. Both those forces, however, are counterfeit. Bankers no more represent real money than governments today represent those they govern; and the power of both derives from the false money that has fueled the ambitions of each.When bankers and government first colluded in England in 1694, they replaced gold and silver with government counterfeit coupons and the world has not been the same since. It is little wonder that over the years, bankers have become more and more wealthy, governments have become more and more powerful, and we, the citizenry, have become more and more impoverished and indebted to bankers and enslaved to government.It was on the internet, on gold and silver focused websites where I first encountered the writings of others who knew well before I of the dangers unseen by those who could not then see. Because of them and because of the websites that posted their writings, I have gained some understanding and insight into the critical issues that now confront us.Professor Antal E. Fekete, see (www.professorfekete.com), was one of those writers. When I first read his articles, I didn’t understand the value of a gold standard which the professor adamantly espoused.I didn’t understand that the true value of a gold standard—apart from valuing gold and silver as real money—lay in its natural bounds on the powers of government, bounds against which governments attempt to override.Mao Zedong once proclaimed that political power comes out of the barrel of a gun. While that may be true, it is only partially true; for here in the West, since 1694, political power has increasingly come from the issuance of debt-based fiat money from central banks, money that can corrupt all who benefit from its false issuance e.g. politicians, academics, regulators, corporate officers, the military, etc.Buckminster Fuller was fond of calling our planet, Spaceship Earth. It’s a good name but it might do us well to note that, of late, our Spaceship Earth has become a bit wobbly. The icecap on the North Pole has now melted, geophysical calamities are on the rise, gold and silver have been replaced by pieces of paper, and those who purport to speak in defense of justice, liberty and democracy are lying through their teeth.Welcome to 2008. 2009 comes next. 2010 comes after that.Darryl Robert Schoon

"what is difference between dollar, Treasury bond or note"they are all denominated in dollar. creating them out of thin-air is no different creating dollar out of thin-air. still no money supply expansion? you guys are retards.

@ Kafka: "Taxes Taxes Taxes, it is all BS, the top 1% pay 40% of income taxes and the top 10% pay 70% of the income taxes"Yes that’s a scary number especially when you assume that the big differential between paid taxes translates into a big differential in income. The Low 90% is paying 30% of taxes!! It is probably due to the low income they make rather than due to the relatively low tax rate. So maybe, as you said, it is not a matter of tax rates as it is a matter of income differential and income distribution.

@"sam" or "Darryl Robert Schoon":You’re exactly right, they are international investment banks. Their presence in NYC doesn’t make them American any more than the French Embassy there makes it American. Their employees, even in NYC, are a United Nations, which they prefer. They vigorously protest any idea that they are American, so we should not be fooled to think that they are.OK now, why is "our" Fed bailing out international investment banks? (Heh, because those banks own it? But it’s still an embarrassing question to ask

Natural bounds on the powers of government?–they know none, short of the general uprising of the masses or imminent demise. All gov’t arises in hopes of achieving an Utopia but end in the overthrow of a police state and archipeligo of concentrated prisons. The USA has ripened in its iniquity. It has shown all the tendencies of evil prognosticated in all religious literature. It has become a law unto itself–full of hypocracy, vagary, caprice and torture. It must be remade within, or suffer its fall as its governed seize ultimate power once again. But the voyage between will be borne with blood. The darkness will weigh down even the mightiest souls.