http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/242629/Elizabeth-Warren-Americans-Aren't-Here-to-Serve-the-Banks-They're-Here-to-Serve-Us?tickers=SKF,XLF,FAS,C,JPM,WFC,GS
Bailout monitor Elizabeth Warren says the U.S. government "shows strong improvement" from the early days of TARP, when $350 billion was "shoveled into financial institutions" with a "no strings attached" and an attitude of "take my money, please."
The chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel was fairly complimentary of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, certainly in comparison to his predecessor in three key areas: transparency, accountability and clarity of purpose for various programs.
But "we started in the basement", she says, in terms of both the government's handling of the bailouts and the public's confidence in how taxpayer money was being spent. The Harvard law professor gives the government an “incomplete” for its handling of the bailouts, up from an early failing grade.
"It's better than it was but I'm still wanting more," Warren says, suggesting a fundamental issue remains unresolved: "Is this all about ‘we've got to fix problem at the top [and] boost high-end financial institutions' or about 117 million American households who really are in trouble?"
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Economic casualties pile into tent cities
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-04-new-homeless_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
The economic homeless, How strange that they think this is such a new idea.
Now that its in mass they notice.
The economic homeless, How strange that they think this is such a new idea.
Now that its in mass they notice.
More than one in five homeowners underwater: Zillow
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/More-than-one-in-five-rb-15145010.html?.v=6
Those green shoots Ben sees must be the weeds growing in the vacant yards across America.
Those green shoots Ben sees must be the weeds growing in the vacant yards across America.
The reality of what's real
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/...541/from/yahoo
I always like the truth in a nutshell
As more and more traders and investors view the recent rally through the eyes of technicals, we are closing in on the completion of the bear trap. Human beings are inductive: they see things and their preexisting views are reinforced by them. Rising prices beget rising prices until facts finally exact their toll. People assume others know what they're doing.
I came out of the airport terminal to grab a cab one night. The line was two hours long. The last person in line assumed the person in front of them knew what they were doing and resigned their fate with the rest. I decided to take a five minute walk to the next terminal, where I grabbed a cab immediately.
If people really did hard analysis on the current environment they would take a much different view. The Fed's balance sheet is not only irreparably massive, it is a mess with credit risk. When you hear people saying credit is improving, it can clearly be shown that the only areas of improvement are where the Fed has stepped in and become the market. The Fed has reduced transparency, not increased it.
Take any category where credit has improved and you will see that the Fed has taken and retains massive positions: Bank Credit Reserves increased over last year by $1.3 trillion, Agency Securities $70 billion, Mortgage Backed Securities $356 billion, Term Credit (LIBOR, the real headliner) $456 billion, Commercial Paper $238 billion (this market has shrunk dramatically so the Fed is basically the whole market),
I always like the truth in a nutshell
As more and more traders and investors view the recent rally through the eyes of technicals, we are closing in on the completion of the bear trap. Human beings are inductive: they see things and their preexisting views are reinforced by them. Rising prices beget rising prices until facts finally exact their toll. People assume others know what they're doing.
I came out of the airport terminal to grab a cab one night. The line was two hours long. The last person in line assumed the person in front of them knew what they were doing and resigned their fate with the rest. I decided to take a five minute walk to the next terminal, where I grabbed a cab immediately.
If people really did hard analysis on the current environment they would take a much different view. The Fed's balance sheet is not only irreparably massive, it is a mess with credit risk. When you hear people saying credit is improving, it can clearly be shown that the only areas of improvement are where the Fed has stepped in and become the market. The Fed has reduced transparency, not increased it.
Take any category where credit has improved and you will see that the Fed has taken and retains massive positions: Bank Credit Reserves increased over last year by $1.3 trillion, Agency Securities $70 billion, Mortgage Backed Securities $356 billion, Term Credit (LIBOR, the real headliner) $456 billion, Commercial Paper $238 billion (this market has shrunk dramatically so the Fed is basically the whole market),
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
California Professor Probed After Sending E-Mail Comparing Israelis to Nazis
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518824,00.html
The right to question and compare is being stripped from your rights.
Since when did it become against the law to think, whether it's differently or not?
If Martin Luther King were alive on this day of January 19, 2009, there is no doubt that he would be condemning the Israeli aggression against Gaza along with the U.S. military and political support for Israeli war crimes, or that he would be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinians," the 50-year-old Robinson wrote in his e-mail.
"I am forwarding some horrific, parallel images of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians."
Dozens of photographs followed, depicting Holocaust victims in Nazi Germany and nearly identical images from the Israeli attack on Gaza. Robinson included a note that "Gaza is Israel's Warsaw."
But Robinson's supporters, including prominent professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky, say the university's probe is improper and is an attempt to silence criticism of Israel.
"Unfortunately, there has been a wave of similar efforts to undermine academic freedom throughout the country in recent years," Chomsky wrote in a letter to Yang. "I hope and trust that the university will take a clear and strong stand in favor of principles that are central to free inquiry and expression, particularly so in a distinguished institution of higher learning such as this one."
The right to question and compare is being stripped from your rights.
Since when did it become against the law to think, whether it's differently or not?
If Martin Luther King were alive on this day of January 19, 2009, there is no doubt that he would be condemning the Israeli aggression against Gaza along with the U.S. military and political support for Israeli war crimes, or that he would be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinians," the 50-year-old Robinson wrote in his e-mail.
"I am forwarding some horrific, parallel images of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians."
Dozens of photographs followed, depicting Holocaust victims in Nazi Germany and nearly identical images from the Israeli attack on Gaza. Robinson included a note that "Gaza is Israel's Warsaw."
But Robinson's supporters, including prominent professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky, say the university's probe is improper and is an attempt to silence criticism of Israel.
"Unfortunately, there has been a wave of similar efforts to undermine academic freedom throughout the country in recent years," Chomsky wrote in a letter to Yang. "I hope and trust that the university will take a clear and strong stand in favor of principles that are central to free inquiry and expression, particularly so in a distinguished institution of higher learning such as this one."
Socialized medicine
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/04/obama-endorses-government-mandated.html
Have you really thought about what socialized medicine really means?
Are you ready for your loved ones to be denied?
Have you really thought about what socialized medicine really means?
Are you ready for your loved ones to be denied?
Condoleezza Rice forced to defend Bush-era interrogation tactics to children
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-children.html
I just love her last statement, don't worry about what's out there.
Perhaps it is more fitting to actually worry about what leaders like her and Bush and Cheney have done to our constitutional rights, because everything she described you can be subject to also, under the Patriot Act.
I just love her last statement, don't worry about what's out there.
Perhaps it is more fitting to actually worry about what leaders like her and Bush and Cheney have done to our constitutional rights, because everything she described you can be subject to also, under the Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act and you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9zGhYSIAP8&feature=player_embedded
How safe are you under the Patriot Act, and just how many Constitutional rights
do you no longer have?
How safe are you under the Patriot Act, and just how many Constitutional rights
do you no longer have?
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