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News Briefs 29-09-2008

There’s news in them thar hills:

Quote of the Day:

Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back.

Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England

  1. Whitley Strieber flameout (again)
    Whitley Strieber’s latest blog is a rambling mish-mosh of classic doomsaying (with an advertisement for his upcomming book squeezed in there too). It shows he has read the headlines and maybe even read some content of several news sites. For that I need to give him credit. But what is he doing giving timetables for upcomming events? He’s guessing and hoping for a hit that he can point to as showing he knows so much he can predict the future.

    “Then the trapped methane ran out, and the atmosphere was suddenly clear of it. Temperatures plummeted, and, as German scientists have recently discovered and Art Bell and I predicted in Superstorm, the climate went from warm to cold in a single season.”

    Sooooo Art Bell and Whitley Strieber are the holders of all information! We don’t even need scientists anymore. Well I guess we do in order to validate Whitley’s predictions….

    I don’t even know why I comment on this guy, he’s one of the people who just tries to stir up controversy to sell his crap. I just hate it that he has any voice within a community. All he does is confuse actual issues.

    I think, sadly, I’m just entertained at what comes out of his mouth and what he is willing to do/say in order to make a buck. It’s like watching a one man band try to play a Pink Floyd song. You know it will be bad, but you just want to see how bad.

  2. House defeats bailout bill
    I had to post something, the House just defeated the American bailout bill. It happened because the politicians on both sides didn’t want to anger their constituents by voting for something that their constituents did not like. So many democrats and republicans chose to take the “safe” route of not voting for the bill because they were afraid they would be voted out of office, that’s the entire reason.

    These same angered constituents who do not want the bailout are the same idiots who voted people into office that allowed the deregulation to occur that created the situation. Now again they are misunderstanding what is happening and they want to “protect themselves” by not using “their money” to fix the problem. They are too ignorant to realize that it was never really their money to begin with but they are not investigating the situation enough to realize this and only superficially understanding that it’s “their money” bailing out these companies.

    On the surface it’s true, and the golden parachutes being reported on are heinous no doubt. But to not understand the situation in it’s entirety and to put pressure on leaders to do the wrong thing is insane! And for our leaders to not try to explain to people why it has to be done, albeit a horrible situation that we should have never had to be in, is insane! It’s a cavalcade of insanity. (oooh great band name)

    It’s politics and it’s the human social condition in a nutshell. We’re in a negative feedback situation that requires correction and there are so many people involved who want it to stay the same. Arg. I suppose all I can do is watch the train wreck like the rest of us and hope there are some intelligent people who will sort things out correctly and not let the system fail so badly that everyone is impacted terribly. But right now it’s not looking good because even solving simple things seems like solving complex things.

    And possibly the worst cherry on the top of the disaster is that Whitley Strieber is going to be able to claim he was right all along. 😀

    1. Wrong…
      With all due respects, you are off your meds. The Democrats caused this entire situation by trying to use the financial institutions to further their social-engineering schemes. They forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lessen loan restrictions to minorities and lower-income borrowers who were never going to be able to repay the loans. By getting more and more folks into home ownership, the Dems could claim to be helping out the people. What they were doing was criminal.

      In 2004, the current President recognized the problems coming down the pike and asked Congress to establish an oversight committee to rein in Freddie and Fanny. To no one’s surprise, the idea was defeated, and that defeat was led by Dodd, Obama, Rangel, and all the others whose campaigns are based on racial division and socialist principles. They haven’t a clue how a free market works, but they have nearly driven this one off a cliff.

      The absolute worst thing that the government can do is to interfere with a free market economy. Any bailout will worsen the issue by placing an onerous debt onto the middle class’ shoulders. By not allowing markets to fail and rebuild, by having Uncle Sugar there to always bail them out, there will be no risk, and with no risk comes arrogance and complacency.

      Things may be tough for awhile. It happens. Times may well be hard, but that is a far better outcome than having the government play sugar daddy, and continue to enable bad decisions by the financial crew.

      This is not a disaster. A real disaster will be if the US Government steps in with a huge welfare plan for the financial sector. It will mean the end of the free market system, and a real probability of the rise of European style socialism, if not worse, with the attendant collapse of societal morals and responsibilities.

      Never, ever, abrogate your freedom to a welfare state, no matter how tempting. One might have thought that the disasters of European markets and government, along with the old Soviet regime might have taught some folks about the dangers of government regulating the economy.

      Scr@w the bailout. I’d rather be left with pennies on the dollar and have to start over than see my children’s children live with the debt and servitude that such a monstrous act would bring upon them.

      Respects,
      Gwedd

      1. Hmm
        [quote]n 2004, the current President recognized the problems coming down the pike and asked Congress to establish an oversight committee to rein in Freddie and Fanny. [/quote]

        [quote]The absolute worst thing that the government can do is to interfere with a free market economy[/quote]

        So, what was the correct thing to do: To establish an oversight committee just as —supposedly— President Bush wanted, or to not interfere with the free market economy?

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

        1. Not Interfere…

          The point on Bush’s request was simply to point out that this is not some new problem just discovered, but a part of a larger one. I disagreed with the establishment of both Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac from the beginning, because of exactly the sorts of weasely stuff they got up to. I don’t want ANY government role IN the markets, only one of oversight to ensure a level playing field. However, once those institutions were created, it was incumbent upon those in Congress to ensure they were not pillaged as they were. Franklin Raines, the disgraced head of Fannie Mae is a chief contributor to the Obama campaign, and the amount of donations he directed to the junior Senator from Illinois is greater than all his other donations combined, except to Senator Chris Dodd.

          But I digress.

          Governments should not interfere in a free market economy, other than to ensure a level playing field. Businesses should be able to start up and prosper or fail on their own merits, not on some arbitrary government-set standard.

          This does not mean that governments have no part in the economy. The role of the government is to ensure a level playing field for all entrants, and the quick and decisive punishment for those who attempt to rig the market(s) or exert undue influence through scams and misleading actions.

          Freedom means not only the right to try, but to fail and try again. It doesn’t, and should never, attempt to guarantee success, only that everyone gets to try their hand at whatever it is they want to try.

          Those who can, will succeed. Those who cannot, will fail and shift strategies or disappear into some other field or endeavour.

          Respects,
          Gwedd

          1. Playing both sides?
            [quote]Franklin Raines, the disgraced head of Fannie Mae is a chief contributor to the Obama campaign, and the amount of donations he directed to the junior Senator from Illinois is greater than all his other donations combined, except to Senator Chris Dodd.[/quote]

            Wow! So Fannie Mae was laying for Obama, while Freddie Mac was rooting for McCain. I guess the Wall Street folks don’t want to leave any corners uncovered 😉

            I agree that the government should only serve to oversight that people are doing their jobs and serving their clients in the best possible way, otherwise you end up with unfair monopolies.

            I also don’t applaud this bail out scheme, but in the end it may be the lesser of two evils, since we’re still living on a system where banks are necessary, even though ideally governments should come to the rescue of the average citizens instead. A lot of commotion and rage happened here in Mexico when the government did the exact thing in 1996.

            Although, for me it’s incomprehensible that the politicians haven’t figured out a way to rescue the banks WITHOUT compromising the taxpayers: using the 2009 Defense budget instead (a budget that was approved in Congress a few weeks before this debacle).

            What’s the use of spending hundreds of billions of dollars, if you don’t have anything to defend anymore?

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

        2. Other Bailouts
          Picking up the thread and going in a different direction…

          Back a few years all Chinese banks were technically insolvent and the Chinese government was criticised by the world for once again injected billions of $ to prop them up.

          Well it seemed to have worked. China now is once again smiling all the way to the bank – so to speak.

          China didn’t hesitate getting out the cheque book to the tune of 42 Billion dollars for the Olympics. (How much did the US spend last time?)

          The Chinese want a their OWN space station instead of sharing one also they want to open up a Chinese restaurant on the moon (well, why else would they go there?) – no problem…get the cheque book.

          There is a lot to be said for totalitarian capitalist not communist governments like the Chinese government. (Communism is only a label now when applied to the Chinese government)

          Ok, what can we learn from this…

          Democratic governments do not seem to work, least not in the “laundry soap commercial style” the US seems to have. Why doesn’t it work? The people who vote for their elected officials wouldn’t have a clue of what is right or wrong with them and their policies. (Ironic how it seems there are unlimited funds to wage war and to continue it – for no return, but heaven forbid if any of that money is used for correcting economic disasters)

          Totalitarian capitalist governments like China seems to work. Ok, not everyone in China is driving a BMW…but give it time and the poor masses will be better off in the long run. Why does it work? Well the people who WOULD vote for their elected officials wouldn’t have a clue of what is right or wrong with them and their policies.

          Hmmmm

          Looking into the crystal ball I for one welcome the Chinese overlords…All Hail!

          Cheers

          1. Politicians
            American politicians have proven once more that they care abot one thing, and one thing only: themselves.

            Nobody is willing to do the right (albeit unpopular) thing because elections are coming.

            So maybe it’s not about totalitarian states functioning more smoothly than democracies; it’s about politicians having some spine… and male gonads too 🙂

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

      2. If you think [edited]
        If you think that the infinitesimally small amount of loans that came in as a result of removing the restrictions of minority loans to people who may have a harder time paying those loans back is what created this crisis you are out of your mind. Clearly you are listening to the demagogy bullcrap that the Republican leaders in our government spew. They specialize in ways of taking issues and making them sound evil to simple minded people and people that use headlines to form their opinions instead of investigating what someone has said.

        Definition:
        Half-truth — “making statements that are true only in a strict and relatively meaningless sense. For example, “the opposition have accused us of cutting foreign aid, but actually our government has increased foreign aid by 500 million dollars,” not mentioning that (adjusted for inflation) the allocated funds have in fact gone down.”

        Think about all the other things that deregulation has imposed on the economy. The company’s that ran wild with greed and allowed a small percentage of people to become rich at the expense of the majority of Americans was due to the deregulation that the Republicans added constantly to the laws of our government. They did this in many cases because of lobbiest friends and in many cases the scandals came out and people went to jail as a result of it. However the deregulation continued. Mccain has said it’s all about the Earmarks…..Uh huh.

        Even while Enron and other companies continued to clearly show moral and ethical breakdowns after showing constant abuse of the “regulations” that were left in place, the REPUBLICAN run congress left it alone and continued to remove restrictions feeding the same unbelievable pabulum to people like you who ate it up like it was pudding. But their friends and lobbyists were getting richer all the time. Do all the FACTUAL scandals sound familiar? No, it wasn’t adding an additional 1%-2% of bad loans into the system that caused this problem.

        Here’s another definition for you:
        Demonization — “identifying others as a mortal threat. Often this involves scapegoating — blaming others for one’s own problems. This is often advanced by using vague terms to identify the opposition group and then stereotyping that group. This allows the demagogue to exaggerate this group’s influence and ascribe any trait to them by identifying that trait in any individual in the group. This method can be aided by constructing a false dilemma that portrays opposition groups as having a value system that is the polar opposite of one’s own, as opposed to simply having different priorities. This method was incorporated by the Nazi regime to gain the general support of the public when it began to initiate its anti-Semitic policies.”

        1. Bad medicine
          This is obviously an incendiary topic, but before we’re start accusing people of taking this or that medication, I would like to ask you guys to show a minimum level of civility towards your fellow Grailer.

          Thank you.

          —–
          It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
          It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

          Red Pill Junkie

          1. Yep I read what I wrote and
            Yep I read what I wrote and instantly wished I either toned it down or hadn’t posted at all. 🙂 (it isn’t editable now)

            I shouldn’t have posted political schtuff anyhoo. Seriously sorry.

          2. With your permission
            With your permission I could edit your post. Say, take out the first line of the first paragraph, and the last paragraph?

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

  3. SpaceX
    Huge congrats to Elon Musk & his team. The absence of coverage of this historic event is astounding. Seems everyone is so focused on watching the market plummet to the ground, they can’t be bothered to look up to the skies.

    But what they fail to see is that, if America is to keep its leading role in the world, it will be for entrepeneurs like Musk, who knows the big fortunes of the future will be made in space.

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

  4. Nothing to be sorry for…
    I have spent a great deal of my life in entertainment. Theatre, Film, TV, etc. I have a very thick skin, and i rarely take anything personally.

    If anything i wrote offended, then please accept my apologies. I will endeavour to see that it doesn’t occur again. 🙂

    Yes, this is a very touchy subject for me, and for many others. The current debate in the US is whether the country will plunge further into socialism, or draw back towards the original intent of the Constitution. Hard to say how it will all play out.

    In all seriousness, however, I suspect that the markets will do just fine in the long run. The 778 points lost today are the largest total points ever lost, but they are NOT the largest percentage of shares lost. The Black Friday crash was some 20% in one day, whereas today’s losses were around 9%.

    By way of context, I remember well when the market sailed past 5000 shares and headed towards 6K and all the attendant excitement that that posed. Now it’s dropped from 11,600+ to 10,800 or so. Still and all that’s a substantial gain over the past several years for long term investment, which is how the game is to be played, anyway.

    Regardless, the sun will come up tomorrow, the water will still run, the mail will be delivered, and the electricity will still be on. I suspect the same talking heads on TV will still be spewing the same rubbish.

    There will be a new issue of TDG… and I saw earlier that a new series on Vampyres will be coming out. Yummy 🙂

    Now THAT’S something to look forward to!

    Respects,
    Gwedd

      1. Were it so simple
        What is the economically active population in the US? 80 million? less?

        Ans from that extract those who don’t pay taxes. So let’s say 70 million.

        So now it’s $10,000 instead of $2300.

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

        1. more numbers
          Why so few? I’m not sure what “economically active” means.

          The number of taxpayers is somewhere around 138 million according to wikipedia. Again I don’t know what exactly “taxpayers” means here. Presumably not consumption taxes, since that’s pretty much everyone who spends any money.

          So would economically active be everyone who spends any money, as in is over 12 years old or so? The over 15 population is about 80% (CIA), so we are looking at about 240 million over 15. If you count those, it would make it somewhere around $3000 or so.

          But anyway, that’s the ballpark, a few thousand. I have seen numbers of hundreds of thousands of dollars per person mentioned in other places.

          GDP for the US is a bit more than $13000 billion, so the 700 would be 5.4% of that.

          What I see in general, both on the side of pro-bailout and contra-bailout, is panic, which won’t help. In either case, the world is not coming to an end, and neither is the world economy.

          —-
          It is not how fast you go
          it is when you get there.

          1. Well…
            [quote]So would economically active be everyone who spends any money, as in is over 12 years old or so?[/quote]

            Economically active is everyone who has a steady job & pay income taxes accordingly. It wouldn’t be much fair to charge a 15-year-old with a couple of thousands, wouldn’t it? Wait a minute… that’s exactly what they want to do! 🙂

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          2. old folks
            I’m not sure about that definition, the part about the steady job. Many retired people are economically active, and pay income tax. There are a lot of retired people with a lot of money. Many 15 and 16 year old kids do have jobs. And many 13 year old kids spend tons of money (they make the decision, not their parents), so they pay consumption taxes, import duties and such.

            Also I would include stay-at-home spouses, who don’t pay income tax, but spend serious amounts of money. These people don’t have jobs, but they invest, and pay many other taxes. The federal government takes in lots of money from sources other than income tax, and not just from US residents.

            But you are correct, the people who get stuck with the bill are not identical to the ones who are paying taxes now. Right now, nobody is paying for this, the money would have to be borrowed. Which is sort of amusing – the credit markets are not working, so to fix that let’s borrow a lot of money 🙂

            —-
            It is not how fast you go
            it is when you get there.

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