Nouriel- when do you sleep???

On this tax day, almost as far away from election day as the calendar will permit, do the tea parties now underscore that there are two groups of Americans…those who earn the money and those who spend it? Consider the spenders in my home county, Santa Clara County, Californa.Would folks like to guess how much the District Attorney makes for Santa Clara County? Well, first we need to establish that there isn’t “a” district attorney, there are 236 district attorneys, ie. lawyers called “district attorneys” in the District Attorney’s office. (I have been unable to find THE District Attorney’s current salary and those under her in management, but I know they are $350,000 and up.)In 2007 calendar year, with more than 3,300 Santa Clara employees with total pay of over $100,000, these district attorneys, by descending groupings of 20 lawyers each (20 lawyers each!), were earning:Group 1 $195,268 to $248,020Group 2 $190,976 to $195,268Group 3 $185,970 to $190,529Group 4 $185,969 to $185,970Group 5 $185,969 to $185,969Group 6 $185,969 to $173,429Group 7 $159,669 to $170,949Group 8 $131,029 to $158,968Group 9 $116,019 to $130,950Group10$106,068 to $116,019Group11$100,225 to $101,354 (16 FTE instead of 20).Another example of top county earners in 2007, at the Valley Medical Center, took in from $392,163 to $439,561—all physicians.And unlike private sector employees, many without pensions, all these people retire at 70 percent or more of salary, with full medical benefits.http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/santaclaracountypay/?appSession=81661898599986&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=1&cpipage=1&CPISortType=&CPIorderBy=As for San Jose police officer salary and benefits, base pay has risen 49.19% from 2000-2001 to 2007-2008; health benefits have increased 59.59%; and average cost per FTE has risen from $91,248 to $153,648 or 68.39% over the period for 1368 employees.http://www.sanjoseca.gov/employeerelations/poa.aspCurrently, San Jose police officers are eligible to receive a pension of 90% of their salary after 30 years of service. Every year, the current amount of the pension is increased by 3% as a cost-of-living adjustment.In addition, San Jose police officers are eligible for lifetime retiree healthcare benefits that pays for 100% of the Kaiser premium for single or family coverage.http://www.retiredsjpoff.org/People usually talk their book when it comes to money. And this refers to those who work for and/or benefit from government spending, not just people investing for profits. Whether one supports increased taxing of incomes, usually comes down to whether one is a net benefactor or a net loser. Already, BLS figures show public sector salaries overshadow the private sector by more than 20 percent.http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t04.htmHow long can Americans afford their government?Michelle Obama was encouraging young people to go into government work during the campaign, according to Lee Rogers on radio today. Who does she think is going to pay for all these people?” he asks.Obama is so concerned where General Motors’ money is going; he’s so worried about a self-employed man taking home $250,000…but he’s not worried about where the billions to federal staff, or to universities is going, about the million dollar salaries to university presidents led by David Sargent of Suffolk University in Boston 2006-07, who received $2.8 million, or the $1.35 million to Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee in 2007-08. Only students and parents need worry that tuition at private schools increased an average 6.3 percent that school year and tuition at public universities rose 7.6 percent.Because Obama has never had a job, he respects people such as Larry Summers who gets paid a big salary just for writing or giving a speech, who moves back and forth between his chair at Harvard and his chair in the Oval Office. That’s the way both make their money. Neither produces a product and neither understands what it takes to produce a product. They respect government and university life but have no comprehension about the lives of the producers who are paying their bills.That’s why Melody Morgan reported this morning on KSFO San Francisco that there are 1500 scheduled tea parties this tax season in today’s America.

It’s much worse than this. Lets say the guy in your example owed $12,000 and his limit was $16,000 to begin with. The CC company could change his limit to $12,000, or even lower. Then he gets hammered with charges, and his credit gets ruined. In many cases they will do this without even telling them about it.And yes, they are really doing this to people. Just look at this woman’s story:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102863572&ft=1&f=1001

What a manifesto.

…from the ashes of economic turmoil will spring a new nation (or nations) of People who have finally awakened from their complacency. New governments will be forged, and the fields of economic ruin will be ripe for the planting and sprouting of new ideas from a new generation of visionary leaders (and criminal elite).

The addition of mine at the end is the problem – it never gets better – it’s just devolution in the midst of increasing chaos. Where’s the Darwin effect when you need it?

This happened to my wife – she paid off a card completely then had to get her car fixed. The cost was 1/5th of her old limit but was refused because of her new limit, of which she was mot informed. Moral of the story – DON’T pay off your cards!

Moral of the story is to stop using credit cards altogether – PAYGO.

Well, talking about the “power” of institutional America, what makes it so GREAT, er, today, and its heroes:Tiny Tim: The conclusion clashes with Geithner’s January 22 statement to a Senate panel that “President Obama — backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists — believes that China is manipulating its currency.”http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axKYSNiJivbg&refer=home”What a weekend for American foreign policy! The United States Navy, backed up by warships from 20 other nations, knocked off three Somali guys crouching with rifles in a lifeboat tied by a rope to a U.S. destroyer.”http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22424.htmThe story doesn’t include the “pirates personal appearances (prior to their termination) of blinking on and off – due to all the toxic waste dumped on the shores by the G20 Nations under status quo institutional not-so-invisible-hands of “excellence”.”You can tell Somali Pyrates anywhere as they look like Neutron Stars”…. a source who wished to remain unnamed but embedded into the bowels of “leadership”, was overheard as whispering in the men’s toilet at a local brothel for gays.GS, C and all banks on the top of profitability? Green shoots everywhere? ‘Buy our equities – we are the gods…”We can control super-hyper-inflation when and if it comes by surgically mopping up???’ Pope Ben “Vee have our vays”.Unemployment (at 20%+) and acceleration in escalated hyper-drive mode.This is the status quo that Benanke and Geithner wish to maintain?Give it a rest.Ho hum

Barack Obama’s Adventures In Alternative Minimum TaxIn addition to getting a little AMT love on his $2.9 million in gross income last year mostly from Random House book publishers and Dystel and Goderich literary agents (p. 31), the more curious data is that president collected material dividends and interest from Northern Trust (from which he received $26.6k probably after Barney Frankhttp://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/04/barack-obama-owns-northern-trust-and-jp.html

I don’t think they can retroactively, so to speak, lower the limit on existing balances. Are you aware that they can and can then charge overage fees on those balances? It’s not an issue for me as I don’t run credit card balances, but I could see how it would catch many people short.

Concerning “Easing” I would like to post the following Gary Dorch excerpt.”Treasury Secretary Geithner announced a scheme to enable the banks to offload their toxic assets by subsidizing hedge-funds and private-equity firms to purchase them at inflated prices, using hundreds of billions of taxpayer money to cover any losses, and insure double-digit profits for the speculators.The masters of Wall Street erupted into great euphoria and jubilation over the death of FASB #157, and Geithner’s scheme to loot taxpayer funds and offload the toxic assets of the financial oligarchs, – creating illusions of new found wealth. Obama himself went a step further to reassure the Wall Street titans, by quietly killing a bill passed by the House of Representatives that would have taxed 90% of the bonuses of wealthy executives and traders at AIG and other bailed-out firms.By obscuring the accuracy of bank balance sheets, mixed with the Fed’s zero-percent interest rate policy, and the hallucinogenic “Quantitative Easing” drug, traders are taking collective leave of their senses, succumbing to delusions of ever-expanding wealth, and actively participating in the creation of new bubbles. And by definition, market bubbles can expand much farther than most traders can imagine.Nobody bothered to ask how Wells Fargo (WFC) could post a record $3-billion profit in the first quarter, at a time when one in eight US-homeowners with mortgages, are behind on their loan payments, or in the foreclosure process as job losses intensifies, and California home prices are 40% below their peak levels. Instead, operating under the illusions of “mark-to-myth” accounting, and the hallucinogenic “QE-drug,” administered by the Fed, hedge-fund traders accepted the WFC earnings report at face value, bidding its share price 30% higher.Former Fed chief “Easy” Al Greenspan and his prototype, Ben “Bubbles” Bernanke, hold the view that deliberate bubble-bursting is something between impossible and dangerous, and thus, is best avoided. The Fed is inherently opposed to hiking interest rates, to prevent bubbles from arising in the first place. Instead, the Fed allows stock market bubbles to inflate into the stratosphere, and patiently waits for the bubbles to burst under their own weight. Afterwards, the Fed moves to cushion the meltdown, by slashing interest rates and flooding the banking system with liquidity, – the infamous Bernanke / Greenspan Put.The Fed operates under the belief that wealth in an asset-based economy is created by massively inflating the money supply and pumping-up the value of financial or tangible assets. Today, the Fed has joined the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan in printing trillions of British pounds, yen, and US-dollars in part, under the radical “Quantitative Easing” framework, designed to monetize their respective government’s debt, which in part, is used to bail-out the financial aristocracy.Central bankers inflate bubbles in order to give households a fresh sense of wealth, encouraging them to borrow and spend more, and businesses to boost investments. The strategy is built around the massive expansion of the money supply. There are generally two types of bubbles, firstly, speculative excesses fueled by irresponsible bank lending. The second type of asset bubble is one in which bank lending plays a minor or no role at all, – usually related to the introduction of new technology or rapid industrialization that promises untold riches.”

ya’ll hear that, we’re all just a bunch of Flashing technogeeekss wusssiesshttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975867505519363.htmlExcerpt:-So who’s behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize. For a number of years, TECHNO GEEKS have been organizing “FLASH crowds”Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies — dubbed “tea parties” — to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org.ReutersA rally and march in protest of higher taxes in Santa Barbara, Calif., April 4.So who’s behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize. For a number of years, techno-geeks have been organizing “flash crowds” — groups of people, coordinated by text or cellphone, who converge on a particular location and then do something silly, like the pillow fights that popped up in 50 cities earlier this month. This is part of a general phenomenon dubbed “Smart Mobs” by Howard Rheingold, author of a book by the same title, in which modern communications and social-networking technologies allow quick coordination among large numbers of people who don’t know each other.

I love the idealists. I bet your a Gen X or Y ,Guest.Understand this; There are times when the best solution is get the hell out of Dodge- leaving the idealists to be cannon fodder.Idealists suffer one fatal flaw- attention span. They can’t do the distance. Which is why realists do the math and see that the prospects of success are rather dismal.Unless I missed something, a large chunk of the US elected Obama for change- well know you know what that means.I agree with this post on one point though- it will be a very quick transition into chaos, perhaps not overnight but within a few days.

Perhaps he is actually an amalgam of different, but similar people. There are, I hear, seven or eight of this guy roaming around – doppelgangers all. I think I saw one at the Jewel store the other night buying goat cheese rolled in smoked salmon. Not!

Yes … I see your point on cannon fodder. But it is not clear to me who the fodder is in this scenario. There are those who truly are the “masters” and then a large % who think themsleves to also be the masters – these self-deceptive types might be the fodder here and now.Have you ever wondered what the world would have been like post 1945 had all of those with backbone and resolve (idealists as you say it) that chose to remain in Europe fled to the Americas instead of resisting? No allied force combination could have succeeded in defeating the facism without the sturdy anchor of the “idealists.”

funny and right on the mark! All I can say about Buffoon Ben’s and Tiny Tim’s mad economic experiment is the more nitro they add to the beaker, the bigger the explosion when it finally gets knocked over.

After the dot-com rip off, came the home equity rip off, then the derivative rip off and, now, the bailout rip off. Coming toward America at 200 mph is the hyperinflation rip off. The grand finale will be the 401k rip off as the taxpayer-whipped economy plunges headlong over the cliff pulling the markets down with it — the wreak of the Warbuck Federal Reserve.

Is it me or is all the doom and gloom on this site for real? Seems lot of us are thinking and seeing thigns for what they are, which is bad, bad and bad in spite of mainstream press reporting and daily Obama news confreneces telling us things are better. the macro data says otherwise…. The lack of transparency everywhere says otherwise… I have noticed Obama is toning down all his things are getting better talk and there may be more pain coming… could it be its all part of the ploy to soft soap all of us over time or is it they are jsut ttrying to buy more time and hope for a mircale…I for one see things getting really bad and ugly by early summer if not sooner….

Great one via zerohedge:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ae73a390-29e6-11de-9e56-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fae73a390-29e6-11de-9e56-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fzerohedge.blogspot.com%2FNYSE chief cautious over March rallyBy Anuj Gangahar and Chrystia Freeland in New YorkPublished: April 15 2009 23:30 | Last updated: April 15 2009 23:30The March stock market rally that fuelled hopes of a broader economic recovery was deceptive because “real money” investors remained on the sidelines, according to the chief executive of NYSE Euronext, the world’s largest stock exchange.In rare comments about market movements, Duncan Niederauer said in an interview with the Financial Times that the rally was driven by short-term traders trying to take advantage of high volatility and not by large institutional or other long-term investors…I am sleeping very well this days:-)

the Trust is gone foreverBingo!! now that their magic tricks are exposed, do they think we are gullible enough to play to their tune again, There’s no turning back now..They opened the Pandora Box they themselves protect all this while

mm,i don’t think it’s you or just this site or justthe internet. it is the state/phase of the world.the state of mankind. i think it is justlife in all of its glory and otherwise..imagine an intelligent species of life thatsuddenly developed new sense organs and couldcomprehend someaspect of the world that had never been recognizedbefore in the history of all life..how would members of that species deal withthat, feel about that, think about that?what would they do with this “new” world..they might look at their past patterns andthe results of those and be horrified. or,perhaps they would recognize innate integrityand wisdom or some combination of horror andamazement.?.so i think, as always, the future is dependenton the choices and the vision that we bringto the task. it is ours to either neglect orto care for. our future, it could be considered as a child,our child and it needs to be protected from thatelement in the world that would destroy it…ps. it has happened before that a generation ofparents did not have the perception, integrityand vision of their children and the childrenwere put in that awkward position of having toparent their elders. social evolution?it is bad we say, or getting bad but it hasbeen horrible for many for many years. now weknow. that is a good thing, that we are nowlooking at the real system and what it means,how the connections render us responsible.someday that recognition and correspondingcommitment may lead to liberation?. maybe this summer?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)

I think you hit the nail on the head. I watched the talking heads closely for a while during the fall and now I switch of to something without commercials; like old TCM movies from 30s and 40s. The media is reporting and getting advertising dollars as they try to fill us full of useless analysis. Why dont they leave the analysis to Nouriel and just report the news without adding their 2 cents worth of bull.Yes we on main street have our feet on the pulse. Ours and our freinds jobs are disappearing, sales are down but prices are up, business owners and managers are treating people badly as the labor pool grows. I think the sh*t will hit the fan when the banks get rowdy over the credit card losses. They will make a bad situation worse by increasing their current track of taking away credit and raising rates on good pay customers. People will tell the banks to stuff it and just withold payment. Then truly we will have a crash and ensuing chaos. The money of the world and the goverments are being re-arranged and lined up for a new world order, but they are mistaken. People can get by with a lot less than they think we can and we will probably so happy that we lose intrest in blogs and the internet.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/general-growth-properties-files-for-bankruptcy/?ref=global-homeGeneral Growth Properties, one of the largest mall operators in the nation, filed for bankruptcy early Thursday morning in one of the biggest commercial real estate collapses in United States history.

I’m so sick of hearing the term “green shoots”.

How about “green shoots over thin ice”?:-)

Banks Aren’t Yet in the ClearAnalysts see several reasons why the recent strong earnings reports by the likes of Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs may not be repeatedhttp://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_17/b4128019360698.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

Much better. If only someone on Bloomberg or cnbc would say that.

Forever is a long time.

“overall foreclosures could start to decrease this summer”perhaps they run out of homes to foreclose?

The green shoots are weeds growing through the rubble in the ruins of the global economyhttp://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/04/the-green-shoots-are-weeds-growing-through-the-rubble-in-the-ruins-of-the-global-economy/

via David Fry (ETF Digest)April 14, 2009Parking BillionsTaxing Grandma to Subsidize Goldman SachsBy Peter Morici”Monday afternoon, Goldman Sachs reported much larger than expected first quarter profits, and this comes on the heels of Wells Fargo’s strong earnings reported last week.No one should be surprised.The Federal Reserve has provided the banks with lots of cheap funds through its various emergency lending facilities and quantitative easing.The Federal Reserve has permitted the banks and financial houses to park vast sums of unmarketable paper on its books—securities made nearly worthless by the misjudgment and avarice of bankers. In return, the Fed has provided these scions of finance with fresh funds, cheaply, that they may lend at healthy rates on credit cards, auto loans and even mortgages.While the Fed cuts the banks slack, the bankers are busy turning the screws on their debtors by raising credit card rates and fees, and harassing distressed borrowers with all the zeal of the Roman army sacking Palestine.It takes good banking skills to borrow at three percent and lend at five and make a profit.It takes much less business acumen to borrow at two and lend at five and make a profit, and that is exactly what has happened. The extra fees are just gravy.Increasing the spread for banks is like subsidizing parts purchases for car companies. The folks at GM would look like wizards if the Fed had been similarly generous with them.This all comes at a cost to someone—America’s elderly.Many retirees depend on interest from certificates of deposit. Those rates are down dramatically, and as CDs expire retirees are compelled to reinvest their savings at lower rates and live on less. They can take comfort that their sacrifices are helping pay off Wall Streets losses from the lavish bonuses paid bankers. For example, the $70.3 million Goldman doled to CEO Lloyd Blankfein in 2007.The contrast between how the banks and car companies are treated is the product of political acumen, not financial skills, at Goldman Sachs and other banks. Feeding the campaign machines of both political parties and lavishing speaking fees on future White House economic advisors, these financial wizards have managed to purchase preferred treatment in our Capital.When times are good their troops feast like a conquering Roman army, and when they fail, Washington gives them welfare on the gold plates of emperors.Now the banks, led by Goldman, want to pay back their TARP funds and free themselves of federal restrictions on compensation. After all as private concerns, they argue what they pay will depend on what profits they can generate.Yet, the Fed’s lines of credit to banks, insurance companies and the like exceed $800 billion, and its monetary policy transfers income from retirees to the likes of Blankfein.Isn’t this a great country?Taxing Grandma to subsidize Goldman.Peter Morici is a professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland School, and the former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.”http://www.counterpunch.org/morici04142009.html

But what has happened now is the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the lower-middle class to the govt (wall street). Even if there is 15 percent inflation in future, the debt is reduced in value for corporations and the like, but the normal person’s money is worth 15 percent less. This is a formula very workable for the govt because the average person doesn’t know this. So they might know whether the bail-outs made a profit or a loss, but they will never know what actually the govt did to transfer wealth to corporate America.

look at gold…theyre desperate

not that long at my age, maybe 30 years or so… if trust is to be restored they need to make the current PTB go away, terminate companies like GS, Citi, BOA, Merril…. GET rid of the ABC rating agencies, Get rid of FICO scoring, Reset the Stock exchanges (if they are even needed)and then Maybe, just maybe i/we might trust others to hold our money and property… So does anyone see any of that happening? if not you have naswered the question?

Been thinking about this for a few days? with all the forclosres happening, banks NOT wanting to or doing many Refi’s or adjustments and instead just taking back good properties and holding, im wondering if they are postioning themselves to tell the govt we are in charge and not you…American people will live where we tell them and pay what we tell them… Something is totally amiss with Housing and I do not think we know the end game yet?

Jaime Dimon is a prick not to be trusted… his joke to Obama handing him a 25B fake check was a message to Obama – dont F..k with us… if there is anyone who trusts Dimon rasie your hand…. He is arrogant and comes accross as a turd to me… He would steal from his own KIDS….I say do a Bank Run on JPM and out the prick in his place…

link below:http://thebarricadeblog.com/2009/04/11/the-top-10-signs-you-are-living-in-a-banana-republic-and-my-favorite-100-billion-omelet/8. The Treasury Department is a wholly owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs and the other Wall Street mega-firms that are too big (or too connected) to fail. No explanation needed here. This is obvious to even the dopiest of Americans which leads us to …7. The complicit failure of the national media to call out the Treasury Department’s clear conflicts of interest when it comes defrauding the Treasury at the expense of the US Taxpayer. Rachel Madow, Keith Olbermann, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Fox News, anyone? Is there anybody out there? Just nod if you can hear me. This is easy and it makes the KBR/Haliburton/Iraqi war connection look complicated by comparison. When KBR was a wholly owned subsidiary of Haliburton and Cheney was the former CEO of Haliburton, we were confused with the KBR/Haliburton relationship and Cheney’s ties (people had a hard time making that second jump, not sure how we were confused, but we were). This one is so simple even my almost two year old niece understands it: Sec. of Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs Hank Paulson has funneled billions to his old firm and his friends via DIRECT CHECKS and checks to AIG which is run by a former director of Goldman Sachs Edward Liddy. The money spent “bailing out” AIG will be shuffled over mostly to the CDS counterparites, GS et al. Liddy is only taking $1 of salary because he is such a public service saint. He has an acute financial stake in one of AIG’s counterparties—namely, his $3.2 million personal investment in Goldman Sachs stock. Mainstream Media, please call me and I will help you connect the dots…finance is not that complicated, just ask my adorable niece.1. The People Don’t Know and Don’t Care to Know. The American people are quite aware of Malawian Adoption Law, can cite the California statutes on artificial insemination, and know Octomom’s middle name, but can’t or won’t listen to one word about who controls their institutions, nor can they find William Black on any other media outlet other than the Web or Bill Moyers. We have the former Chief Fraud Investigator screaming SHAM, SWINDLE, HEIST and we just sit there glassy-eyed, wondering if the blind guy was given a fair shot on Idol. No hour slot on Larry King, no lead story on 60 minutes, not even 5 minutes on The Daily Show, which is arguably the best financial and investigative journalist show on television.My friends and dear readers, this is your representative republic. This is the product of your popular sovereignty. This is your AMERICA.

Jim Rogers: How He’s Investing After the CrisisAs the global investor and adventurer offers lessons to his daughters in a new book, he still favors commodities and scorns diversificationBy David Bogoslaw | April 14, 2009(Veteran investor and world traveler Jim Rogers’ new book, A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing, will be published by Random House on Apr. 28. BusinessWeek investing reporter David Bogoslaw spoke by telephone with Rogers, who now lives in Singapore with his wife and two young daughters (ages five and one). Here’s what he had to say about investing, the financial crisis, and lessons learned.)Q: In your book, you advise people to thoroughly educate themselves about a subject before they ask for advice from reputed experts so that they can truly evaluate the worth of the advice. How practical is that for investors who aren’t professionals like yourself?The people you’re describing should not be investing at all, unless they invest in things they know a lot about. If you’re an auto mechanic, you’ll know much more about your field than anyone on Wall Street ever will. You’ll know when new products or processes are coming out. Those people can get extremely rich by just staying with what they know. It could be products that go into cars, like tire companies, or glass companies, rather than [only] auto companies. They shouldn’t try to compete with Warren Buffett.Q: So you reject the advice about diversified portfolios?Diversification is something that stock brokers came up with to protect themselves, so they wouldn’t get sued [for making bad investment choices for clients]. Henry Ford never diversified, Bill Gates didn’t diversify. The way to get rich is to put your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket very carefully. And make sure you have the right basket.You can go broke diversifying. Ask anyone who’s diversified in the last three years. They’ve lost money. Nonprofessionals are always jumping around, thinking they have to do something. If they have a big success, they think they need another one right away. That’s when hubris sets in at its worst. That’s when people really should go to the beach. It happens to me too.Q: You believe there is a need for more restrained spending and a higher savings/investing rate in the U.S.—closer to what you observed in China two decades ago. But economists warn that if everyone opts for higher savings at the same time, it will kill consumer spending completely and hamper economic recovery.You’ll never see America save one-third of its annual income [the way the Chinese once did]. Even Japan is down to a 15% savings rate. America should increase its savings rate. Thirty years ago, America was saving 9% or 10% of its income.The reason we’re having this crisis is everyone borrowed too much. The idea that you can solve a period of horrible borrowing and spending with more borrowing and spending is not going to work. We’ve had the worst credit excesses in world history, mainly in the U.S. You can’t end a problem like that with no pain. Somebody’s got to suffer.Q: You’ve been very vocal in criticizing the government policy responses to the financial crisis. Doesn’t the Lehman example show how much harm would have been done if the government had allowed other big financial institutions to fail?It would be better to let some of them fail now, rather than wait for six or eight of them to happen all at once. The system can recover from bankruptcies. After Lehman went down, the stock market didn’t really collapse right away. It happened a month later, but people started blaming it on Lehman in hindsight. We’ve got to have some pain. Even if AIG (AIG) and Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) and Lehman all went bankrupt, it cleans out the system.South Korea went through this in the late 1990s. They didn’t have anyone to bail them out, and they had to go through the pain. Sweden did it in the early 1990s, Mexico did it, Russia did it. The list goes on and on. Competent people take over the assets from incompetent people and rebuild from a solid base.Q: You’ve spoken a lot about the 21st century belonging to China and the investment opportunities there. As the Chinese middle class grows, do you expect a big change in Chinese savings habits as they become more able to afford consumer goods?Look at Japan’s and Korea’s extremely high savings rates. Those have come down as those countries have become more prosperous. China is developing [social] safety nets now. When you have safety nets, there’s less reason to have very high savings. That will happen in China as well.China is maybe one fifth the size of Europe’s economy. China can’t save the world, no matter what they do. They are investing in their own economy and have huge reserves and huge savings, The World Bank has predicted that in 2020, China will be the world’s largest economy. But the World Bank has never been right about anything. It could well happen in the next 10 or 20 years, but on a per capita basis probably not within my lifetime, unless the U.S. really collapses and China really booms.Q: Do you think the up cycle for commodities has farther to run?If history is any guide, we have further to go. The only sector of the world economy where the fundamentals are getting better is commodities. Farmers can’t get loans for fertilizers [which is constraining crop supply]. It takes 10 years to open a new mine. Stocks peaked in October 2007 and commodities kept going up until July 2008.If the world economy is going to revive, commodities are going to lead it back up. If the world economy is not going to revive, commodities are still the place to be—especially with governments printing so much money. Look at the 1970s. The world economy was in the tank, but commodities did very well. We have supply constraints. Oil production is declining.Q: How are you investing in commodities?I use my indexes [he created the Rogers International Commodity Index in 1998] because my lawyers won’t allow me to buy individual commodities because I’m always talking about them in public. Most of my indexed products use futures, Ultimately, you’ll be buying futures, even if you buy an ETF or ETN.Q: Your favorites are agricultural commodities?The prices historically are still very depressed, compared with most other commodities. I bought all commodities recently, but I probably bought more agriculture than anything else…channel.http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/apr2009/pi20090414_131044.htm?chan=top%2Bnews_top%2Bnews%2Bindex%2B-%2Btemp_investing

from previous post:”Lastly, I ask: Where are the religious leaders of our country in voicing opposition to the money changers and creditors? In debt too I suppose”. Their silence on this matter is mindboggling: they are always there asking for the people to give money to the church, but why aren’t they now asking our govt to give money back to the people instead of the the banks? Surely, they see first hand the terrible effects this economy has had on people. Why can’t they all unite and express this one great injustice? Their silence on this matter is deafening and truly shows where their true intentions lie: corruption is fine as long as my pockets are being filled!

I was just reading that online at our local paper’s site. They own the mall here. Can’t say as how I’m too surprised.

more idiotic babbling from the conspiracy theorists.. remember when back in 1999 they were predicting the end of the world because of the Year 2000 computer glitch?what a joke..i hope more morons like this leave this country.. if you think living in South America is some sort of a Panacea, you are dreaming..

So Jaime- who is telling the truth? You say you are lending every time you go on TV? Is the Post and others wrong? GS must be getting nervous with thier Henchman Dimon speaking the way he does…….Lending By Bailout Recipients Falls AgainNumber of Loans Down in February Despite U.S. AidTwelve of the 21 banks said they made a smaller volume of loans in February. The largest decline was posted by J.P. Morgan Chase, a company widely viewed as among the healthiest large banks, which sharply reduced its lending to businesses. The company said in its filing that the drop was a consequence of the nation’s economic problems, in part because of reduced demand from businesses and in part because it was charging higher interest rates to reflect increased risks.Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, two former investment houses recently chartered as banks, also reduced their business lending by substantial amounts.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041503369.html

Don’t believe a word of this post. These “tea parties” were well-funded, publicized and orchestrated from on high. This post by Anonymous is just part of their scheme. Look who’s behind these rallies in your community. Check out the speakers and the sponsors.If they are ever going to pay for their wars and bailouts, there has to be a concomitant decrease in social spending. They are coming after our standard of living and those of our children. You can take that to the bank (no pun intended).

Among some other comments by William Black:”Geithner has a record of being a failure at every step of his career.”Calls the stress test a sham, a farce.http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=William%20Black%20Wary%20of%20Bank%20Results%20Since%20New%20Accounting&clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/v1x9bOhL_HN8.asf

According to Methinks: “The rich pay most of the taxes because they take most of the wealth that society produces.” Says Methinks, “If ten of us make $50,000 and lewrockwell.com. makes $50 million, who will pay the most taxes? Which tax bill would you take?”Dear Methinks,The fallacy here is in identifying taxpayers as wealthy. This fallacy is bringing on a threat to the voluntary system of producers paying the tax that supports the nonproducers. It’s always been the case that someone can point to a Rockefeller as the problem and get the masses to agree. But the resulting movement then swings the tax down to crush the working family. And, by the way, the Rockefellers end up paying no tax.The socialist credo depends on the theory that all of wealth in existence belongs to everybody equally. And it always plays on the “wealthy” as its straw man. The reason socialism doesn’t work is that work is hard and without benefit it produces resentment, and nonproduction eventually becomes so attractive that the ranks of nonproducers overcome the ranks of the producers.Never forget that the money in existence is available to the lazy, as well as to the unfortunate, largely from the taxes paid by wage earners of $80,000 or more (the “rich”) and that if those funds weren’t available to these nonproducers, we’d be scraping many of them off the streets with a spatula.Here is how socialism fails–as related to a true classroom case I heard about last week:The professor suggested, as an example of motivation, that all grades handed out henceforth to students would be the same grade, i.e., derived from a pool of all the test scores.After the first examination, the grade handed out to each student was a “B”; the people who studied hard obviously complaining about their drop in score, and the people who didn’t study obviously very happy with the result.After the second exam, the class each received an average of “D”, occurring obviously because fewer students were working at studying.After the third examination, the average grade handed out was an “F”.To quote the professor, “That’s socialism.”

Saw this coming for a while. Several of the REITs are way over leveraged, and when they start having some big maturities, there will be more problems.

When healthy banks (through the FDIC) and the taxpayer are asked to pay for the bad banks, what kind of inverse socialism is that?

With all these conflicting headlines and opinions from respectable it’s so hard to know what’s what.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a6hgHyLBy0VUExcerpts:Federated’s Tice Says S&P 500 Is Poised to Plunge 62%The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 28 percent rise since March 9 is a “sucker’s rally,” and the overvalued measure may plunge 62 percent as earnings continue to shrink, according to David Tice of Federated Investors Inc.The S&P 500’s five-week advance, the steepest since the 1930s, according to S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt, may carry the index 16 percent higher to 1,000 points before faltering, Tice said.“Stocks are overpriced in terms of earnings,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We are closing down factories and retailers and businesses all over the place. How in the world are earnings going to stabilize? We just don’t see it.”The Federated Prudent Bear Fund that Tice founded returned 27 percent last year as the S&P 500 plunged 38 percent, the most since 1937.Tice said the benchmark index for U.S. stocks may end the year at 500, representing a 42 percent slide from today’s close of 865.30. It may eventually fall to 325, he said.“I’ve never been more confident that this market will fall back to at least book value,” Tice said.

New thread

Section 8 U.S. Constitution:The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; …To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.First, the inception of the Federal Income Tax coincided with the creation of the extra-Contitutional (implied powers) authority granted to the Fed to “coin our money and regulate the value thereof..” I did not say the Constitution did not provide for taxation authority, but the point is that creation of a tax to pay debt is within the Constitution, the Constution is violated when congress allows a debt to be created with interest for extending the priviledge of coining our money…and then taxes us to pay the interest on debt created by that priviledge. Per the Yahoo paper: “The Court argued with the doctrine of implied powers, stating that to be ‘necessary and proper’ the Bank needed only to be useful in helping the government meet its responsibilities in maintaining the public credit and regulating the money supply.” As we now know, and Andrew Jackson so heroically acted upon to abolish that very same Second National Bank that was upheld 9-0 by the Supreme Court in the early ninteenth century, is ‘The Bank’ today has not been so helpful in helping government meet its responsibilities (it has created excessive responsibilities) and has (not) maintained the public credit and (not) regulating the money supply. Because the Federal Reserve has violated the implied powers congress was granted in the Constitution. And further as an agent of Congress, albeit a private corporation, which establishes it as an extra-Constitutional entity (i.e. not the U.S. Mint) the Federal Reserve deems itself as not answerable to Congress and has recently refused Freedom of Information Act reguests by private citizens. I would say, that a stricter letter of the law interpretation is needed to reign in such negligence created by the implied spirit of the law. It more than ironic to state the the Fed has ‘taken liberties’ with the agency relationship granted to it by the Congress under Congress’s ‘implied’ powers. The income tax merely was created to collect the interest payments from the citizens giving Congress’s ‘special agent’ private profits from compound interest in this case. Libertarian, conservative, or liberal makes no difference to me. In fact don’t let them divide us to conquer us. Fight..demand a full audit of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Bank is no longer “necessary and proper”! It is a trust that should be busted!

I’m sorry, but I believe your position is without merit and riddled with errors, among them:>…the Constution is violated when congress allows a debt to be created with interest for extending the priviledge of coining our money…and then taxes us to pay the interest on debt created by that privilege.You have cited no authority for this proposition. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution provides, inter alia (in the part covered by your elipses), that Congress shall have the power “[t]o borrow money on the credit of the United States.” The Congress clearly has the power to create debts, then, and I see no basis in the text of the Constitution for arguing that Congress has its hands tied in the way you suggest.>As we now know, and Andrew Jackson so heroically acted upon to abolish that very same Second National Bank that was upheld 9-0 by the Supreme Court in the early ninteenth century, is ‘The Bank’ today has not been so helpful in helping government meet its responsibilities (it has created excessive responsibilities) and has (not) maintained the public credit and (not) regulating the money supply.First, there was nothing “heroic” about Jackson’s actions in abolishing the Second National Bank. Indeed, it was foolhardy. After vetoing the 1932 renewal of the Bank’s Charter passed by the Congress, the pig-headed Jackson proceeded to withdraw money from the Bank and invest it elsewhere (for which he initially was censured by the Senate), including other banks (which at that time customarily issued notes not backed by reserves of gold and silver or anything else — they were certainly not issued on the full faith and credit of the United States). This led to huge state debts and nasty inflation, so in response, Jackson stupidly started requiring that purchasers of U.S. land pay in gold or silver coins, which drove up demand for gold and silver coins. Because the banks did not have reserves, or adequate reserves, to exchange for their worthless notes, the banks collapsed, directly leading to the Panic of 1837, and a terrible economic depression. Most importantly, his actions in abolishing the Bank had no effect on the unanimous finding of the constitutionality of the Bank by the Supreme Court. The Bank WAS constitutional, even if Jackson later undertook steps leading to its demise.>…the Federal Reserve deems itself as not answerable to Congress and has recently refused Freedom of Information Act reguests by private citizens.The Federal Reserve is not directly answerable to Congress, but this is how Congress wanted it. The idea was that the Fed should be private with Congressional oversight, not control, so that important economic decisions would not be politicized (I will not dispute at this juncture whether this has been an entirely effective arrangement). As for the Freedom of Information Act, it only applied (again, by Congressional design) to public bodies, not to private or quasi-private entities such as the Fed, so the Fed is under no obligation to respond to a citizen’s demand for information on this basis.I return to my earlier point: if you think the way things now are are not as they should be, then you need to convince enough of your fellow citizens and legislators so that changes can be made to accomplish what you believe should be the case. As there is nothing in the Constitution that requires a central bank, or federal income tax, or fiat money, statutory changes alone could accomplish your objectives.SWK