Category Archives: It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!

Small business sidelined in slow recovery from recession

In every recession over the last three decades, it has been America’s small businesses — those Lilliputian companies with fewer than 100 employees — that stepped forward, began hiring and pulled the country out of the mire. Not this time. … Continue reading

Posted in A Growing List Of One Term Presidents, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, It Is Supposed to be a Republic!, Jacksonian Democracy, Our phony middle class, Small Business-Bedrock of America, Smaller Can Be Better, The Obama OMG magic factory | Leave a comment

How Carl Levin Got Goldman Sachs’s Goat

Interview by Paul Smalera, senior editorApril 30, 2010: 3:21 PM ET (Fortune) — At Tuesday’s epic Goldman Sachs hearing, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan led a public grilling of Wall Street not seen by a government panel since the Depression-investigating … Continue reading

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Greenspan helps create the problem and then explains it?

Washington’s Blog Greenspan’s big defense is that the financial crisis was caused by a “once-in-a-century” event. Forget about the fact that the “once-in-a-century event” couldn’t have happened if Greenspan’s Fed hadn’t: Turned its cheek and allowed massive fraud Acted as … Continue reading

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Sic transit America?

Flagging: a US sailor stands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington If a week is a long time in politics, a decade is starting to look like an age in geopolitics. Comparing the America that … Continue reading

Posted in A Growing List Of One Term Presidents, A State of Distress, A Time To Repent, AIG and all that....., Back to the basics, Collateral Damage, Coming Social Unrest, Commercial Real Estate Bust, Consumption Ran the Old Economy, Coup d'etat in America, Death of the Dollar, Deflation-Inflation-Stagflation, Devaluation, Dismal Science-Ignorant Scientists?, Even the Terminator Can't Help California, Federal Reserve-Discussion, Figures don't lie but Liars can figure, IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER AND MONEY, Integrity and Responsibility, Is The Market Rally Real?, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, It starts with a foundation, Monetary Policy - Discussion, Our phony middle class, Patience is a virtue...Delusion is a vice, Political Chaos, Politicians, Prostitutes and Pimps All Rhyme, Small Business-Bedrock of America, Sub-Prime anytime, TARP fruit loops, The Arrogance of Power, The Consequences of Greed, The Democrats Blew It Again, The End of American Capitalism As We Know It? - Discuss, The Financial Elite, The Global Economy, The Habits of Hedge Funds, The Importance of Strategic Planning, The Inherent Disorder of Empires, The Intrusion of UNLAWFUL Authority, The Judeo-Christian Political Coalition, The New American Socialism, The Sorry State Of American Manufacturing, The excellent adventures of Ben Bernanke, Time For A New Third Party, Truth In Charity, US Trade Imbalance, USA Is the New Japan, Unemployment Catastrophe, We Are All Cooked, We Are All Guilty, We Have Become Beggars To The World, “the Greenspan doctrine” | Leave a comment

Break for Companies in Bailout’s Fine Print

One of the federal government’s most opaque methods for bailing out the banking system allowed a handful of giant institutions to save up to $25 billion on their borrowing costs, a Congressional panel estimated on Friday. Seven companies received about … Continue reading

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Did “Smart Guys” Destroy Wall Street?

I think Calvin Trillin–or at least his bar-room companion–is really on to something here: “The financial system nearly collapsed,” he said, “because smart guys had started working on Wall Street.” … I reflected on my own college class, of roughly the same … Continue reading

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Perpetual War

Strategerizing: Military intellectuals envision a 50-year “Long War” against al Qaeda consisting of counterinsurgency operations spanning Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, the Philippines and beyond, Tom Hayden discusses in The Nation. “Comparing al Qaeda in AfPak to al … Continue reading

Posted in A State of Distress, Bilderbergers 1 USA 0, Coup d'etat in America, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Jacksonian Democracy | Leave a comment

Goldman’s Pre-emptive Influence

An Inside Look at How Goldman Sachs Lobbies the Senate, by Matt Taibbi: …Later on this week I have a story coming out in Rolling Stone that looks at the history of the Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers collapses. The … Continue reading

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Why can’t everyone see this???

The consumer retreats The world economy entered the current crisis in a badly lopsided condition, with the American consumer borrowing massively to buy products from Chinese and European manufacturers who happily socked away all their extra cash while producing more … Continue reading

Posted in Analysis & Commentary, Dismal Science-Ignorant Scientists?, IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER AND MONEY, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Let's Call What It Is - DEPRESSION | Leave a comment

Socialism in America

Socialism in America A great deal has been made in recent weeks about Ronald Reagan‘s critique of nationalized or socialized health care from 1961: We can go back a bit further, though, and take a look at an intriguing piece … Continue reading

Posted in A Growing List Of One Term Presidents, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, A State of Distress, A Time To Repent, Coup d'etat in America, Integrity and Responsibility, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Obama's Hypocrisy, Our phony middle class, Patience is a virtue...Delusion is a vice, Socialism | Leave a comment

“Increasingly, the determination of when to default is not guided by the moral question: Is this the right thing to do? It is guided by the pragmatic concern: Am I too far underwater on my mortgage?”

Walking Away When You Can Pay By Kelsey VanOverloop Homeowners are turning to the “strategic default” — walking away from a mortgage even when there are funds available to keep paying. “Increasingly, the determination of when to default is not … Continue reading

Posted in A Growing List Of One Term Presidents, A Saturday Break, A State of Distress, A Time To Repent, AIG and all that....., Back to the basics, Bank Failures, Collateral Damage, Coming Social Unrest, Commercial Real Estate Bust, Coup d'etat in America, Credit Card Debt, Creditors Caveat, Death of the Dollar, Deflation-Inflation-Stagflation, Deleveraging, Insolvency, Integrity and Responsibility, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Lending Crisis, Mortgages, Obama's Hypocrisy, Our phony middle class, Residential Market, Sub-Prime anytime, TARP fruit loops, The Arrogance of Power, The Democrats Blew It Again, Time For A New Third Party, Unemployment Catastrophe, We Are All Cooked | 1 Comment

JP Morgan Chase Triumphant

Jamie Dimon has won big.  JP Morgan Chase now stands alone, both in financial position and political clout – including special access to the White House and, as explained in today’s NYT, Rahm Emanuel’s likely attendance at his next board meeting tomorrow. … Continue reading

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Robert Rubin: Whiz Kid?

The death of Robert McNamara has confronted the architects of another massive national catastrophe with a challenge: Will they, like McNamara in his post-Vietnam agony, acknowledge their failings and confess the error of their ways? Will they come up with … Continue reading

Posted in It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, The Arrogance of Power, The Financial Elite, Truth In Charity, Unindicted Co-Conspiritors | Leave a comment

Our $17 Trillion Chinese Split Won’t Be Pretty

Returning from China last month, U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk had a bearish take on a high-level visit by American officials. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner claimed the U.S.’s biggest creditor voiced great confidence in its debt. Kirk, an Illinois Republican, came … Continue reading

Posted in A Growing List Of One Term Presidents, A State of Distress, China and the Treasuries - A Dependency Relationship, Coming Social Unrest, Death of the Dollar, Deflation-Inflation-Stagflation, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Let's Call What It Is - DEPRESSION, Market Strategies, Obama's Hypocrisy, Our phony middle class, TARP fruit loops, US Trade Imbalance, Watch The China Market, We Have Become Beggars To The World | Leave a comment

American Socialist State

President Obama’s visit to Moscow this week may turn out to be a very good thing. Forget all this jibber-jabber about nuclear disarmament. There is no better reminder than the former Soviet Union for how the fantasies of a few … Continue reading

Posted in Coup d'etat in America, History of Finance, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Libertarianism - the Debate, Our phony middle class, Political Chaos, The New American Socialism | Leave a comment

Raises For The Elite

John Mack of Morgan Stanley (MS) made sure that he had a large base salary for this year, even though his firm nearly fell apart last year. The management of Citigroup (C) also wants to do something for its “best” … Continue reading

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G8 signals the end of the financial crisis, but what caused it?

The weekend G8 communiqué, coming after four months of stabilisation in most financial markets, seemed to mark the official end of the financial crisis. If so, what lessons should be learnt for economic and financial policies in the months ahead? … Continue reading

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Citigroup Circling the Wagons

It’s starting to look like the spring awakening in bank stocks may not be enough to save the CEOs of America’s biggest troubled banks, Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit and Bank of America’s Ken Lewis. A top banking regulator is agitating for … Continue reading

Posted in AIG and all that....., Cash Flow, Insolvency, Integrity and Responsibility, Interest Rates, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Lending Crisis, No Bank Is Indispensable | Leave a comment

America’s real power struggle: super rich liberals vs. ordinary plutocrats

With the economy floundering, Wall Street in disgrace, and American capitalism facing its most serious ideological challenge in one, two, or three generations (you can take your pick), it’s a good moment to remember Lenin. While the bearded Bolshevik’s grasp … Continue reading

Posted in Coup d'etat in America, Integrity and Responsibility, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite! | Leave a comment

Feeling the Squeeze, Exclusive Country Clubs Get the Common Touch

Their standing dinner reservation at the country club is for 6:30 p.m., because at least that much never changes. Every Wednesday night, Charles and Mimi Cluss dress in pleated slacks and suit jackets and drive to the manicured playground where … Continue reading

Posted in A Saturday Break, Insolvency, Investment Portfolios, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Let's Call What It Is - DEPRESSION, Our phony middle class, The New American Socialism | Leave a comment

Is The Federal Reserve Overreaching?

A good article at Forbes:     http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/19/federal-reserve-ron-paul-fdic-sec-opinions-columnists-bernanke.html

Posted in History of Finance, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite!, Patience is a virtue...Delusion is a vice, TARP fruit loops, The End of American Capitalism As We Know It? - Discuss, The Financial Elite, The Joy of Being A Bank, The excellent adventures of Ben Bernanke | Leave a comment

Stress test haiku

Via the Seattle PI: The stress tests are done Surprise — many banks are fine Now, go buy that bridge H/T Corrente

Posted in Cash Flow, Coup d'etat in America, If I Only Knew It Was This Easy!, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite! | Leave a comment

Control Without Accountability

I’ve been unimpressed with this oft-quoted bit from Phillip Swagel’s insider account of the Paulson Treasury. Legal constraints were omnipresent throughout the crisis, since Treasury and other government agencies such as the Federal Reserve must operate within existing legal authorities. … Continue reading

Posted in AIG and all that....., Analysis & Commentary, It Is Nice To Be Part of the Elite! | Leave a comment