|
Single currency 'to make Gulf more stronger'
Manama: 6 hours and 57 minutes ago   The GCC needs to accelerate its move towards a single currency which would make the whole region much stronger, said Standard Chartered Bank economist Marios Maratheftis.Once the states put in place a central bank and the necessary institutions a common currency could be up and running in a matter of weeks, he said. "People talk about the problem of convergence before setting up a single currency but that is not an issue here," he said. "With the exception of Kuwait all the GCC currencies are pegged to the dollar so you have in effect a single currency in place." "There was an apparent convergence problem about the inflation rates in Qatar and the UAE compared with Saudi Arabia, but when the credit crunch hit inflation in Saudi went up. Convergence will take care of itself." He said that what was necessary for a single currency, that was de-pegged from the dollar, was the development of a government bond market. "Bahrain leads the way in this but even here there is no real secondary market which is necessary so that you can then develop a commercial corporate bond market," he said. He added that with these institutions in place there was no reason why the GCC currency could not be free floating. "Government bonds, unlike in the US where they are backed by nothing, would be supported by oil wealth and strong reserves and that would make them attractive for global central banks to hold," he said. "They would be a hedge against fluctuating oil prices. I have been arguing against the peg for some time. It is time that the GCC set its own monetary policy and stopped importing policy from the US." He said that while the region was not immune it was better set to face the crisis. "I have been listening too long about de-coupling between the Western economies and the rest and, quite frankly, I have never believed one word of it. The credit crisis has shown that no one is immune to what happens in the West." "The current crisis is the result of a liquidity boom and I am surprised that anyone is surprised about what has happened," he said. "Every liquidity boom in the last 100 years, perhaps longer, has ended in a downturn. "This one has been caused by people in the US lending to Ninjas - people with no income, no jobs and no assets." He said that the real developing economies at present were the US and the UK. "Look at their economies. They have massive government debt, financial services that are in a mess and collapsing equity markets. That is what we expect from emerging economies. "I believe this downturn will last longer than most people think because you can't turn round nine years of spending money you have not got in three months. "You can't get away from the fact that with the US housing boom people were using their homes like ATM machines and drawing money out that saw a consumer boom. And then the bubble burst," he said. http://www.tradearabia.com/news/ECO_152626.html |
Wed 19 Nov 2008
Detroit Fail City: Poll Posted by alyx under bailout [4] Comments  We were hoping to see some begging on Capitol Hill last night, like when Hank Paulson dropped to his knees in front of Nancy Pelosi and was rewarded with 700 billion dollars. However, we saw no such thing out of Alan Mulally, Bob Nardelli and Rick Wagoner - nor did we see anything that resembled anything at all other than entitlement. As Jason just posted, they blamed the economy, the unions, sunspots, whatever - everyone but themselves. Caroline B just sent me this link that shows the heads of fail of the Medium 3 getting out of their private jets in DC * even. No, they can’t possibly bear to fly coach, or even first class - or, G*d forbid, DRIVE ONE OF THEIR OWN CARS to the Hill - it’s Gulfstream G4’s all the way, baby. (Apparently GM owns EIGHT of them.) Maybe $25 billion isn’t worth contrition any more, but we don’t want to believe that. Hopefully, one of these characters will get down on his knees and sob like a little girl before this is over. That brings me to a new POLL - whom do you think is capable? Alan Mulally, because he’s used to being the Ford family’s whipping boy? Bob Nardelli, whose pride is broken after being steeped in Home Depot fail? Or maybe Rick Wagoner simply because GM is in the most dire straits? * Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds Auto Industry Close to Bankruptcy But They Get Pricey Perk By BRIAN ROSS and JOSEPH RHEE November 19, 2008  262 comments The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy........ mit Video ---> http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallS...=6285739&page=1 Even as their companies fail, Ford and GM CEOs continue lavish lifestyles. na super - we are running out of cash :bad |
...es gibt einen :supi Artikel im Spiegel ---> DER BANKRAUB
ich kann ihn leider online nicht finden - falls jemand einen Link hat ---> merci :verbeug es sind 34 Seiten - ich habe ihn ausgedruckt bekommen - ist wirklich lesenswert :cool |
1 Anhang/Anhänge
:kotz
 bei DU gesehen - merci :) |
 . |
China Passes Japan as Biggest U.S. Treasuries Holder (Update1)
By John Brinsley and Rebecca Christie Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- China surpassed Japan in September to become the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, as foreign investors sought the relative safety of government debt as stocks plunged 9.1 percent that month. Total net purchases of long-term equities, notes and bonds increased a net $66.2 billion in September from $21 billion the previous month, the Treasury said today in Washington. Including short-term securities such as stock swaps, foreigners bought a net $143.4 billion, compared with net buying of $21.4 billion the month before. China led all foreign official investors in September by posting a net increase in U.S. Treasuries for the sixth month in the past seven, bringing its total ownership close to $600 billion. Japan was a net seller of Treasuries for the fourth month in the past six....... full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...EM3Y&refer=home |
Iran not converting reserves to gold -paper
"It is not correct that Iran is transferring its reserves to to gold," Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini was quoted as saying by the business daily Poul. Presidential adviser Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi had been quoted on Saturday by the same newspaper as saying the reserves had been converted to avoid future problems. Central bank officials in the past said Iran was switching reserves into currencies other than the U.S. dollar because of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. They have also said the bank held some reserves in gold. But they have not usually given a breakdown. Before oil prices plunged by more than 60 percent from a peak of $147 a barrel in July, Iran made windfall gains from its crude exports and in April estimated its foreign exchange reserves at about $80 billion. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has been criticised for not saving more of the gains to prepare for tougher times, such as now, when crude prices have plunged below $55 a barrel. The International Monetary Fund said in August that if the price of Iranian crude fell to $75 a barrel, Iran would face a current account deficit in the medium term that would be tough to ride out due to Tehran's financial isolation. (Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8041701 :schwitz könnte gefährlich werden, wenn er zu sehr in der Ecke steht :rolleyes |
The Investment Deficit in America
Yesterday’s Achievements, Today’s Problems, Tomorrow’s Solutions By By Eric Lotke, Alex Carter, Brian Dockstader, Schuyler Beckwith and Molly Swartz Campaign for America's Future November 18th, 2008 Read full report >> America is falling apart. Falling apart, and falling behind. Previous generations of Americans built interstate highways and transcontinental railroads. Now we sit in traffic. Americans from an earlier era pioneered universal primary education and chartered great universities on public land. They enacted the G.I. bill to give the greatest generation the access to college that helped build our modern middle class. Nowadays American students toil in overcrowded classrooms with leaky roofs, while the cost of college soars out of reach. America grew up investing in its land and its people. Historically, we directed roughly 8 percent of our gross domestic product to long-range investments, and the investment paid off. Now we are down below 4 percent. Our post World War II infrastructure is starting to decay, and we aren’t replacing it. We are lamenting the loss of jobs rather than hiring people to renew and rebuild. Other countries are racing past. China spends 9 percent of its GDP on infrastructure investment and opens a new subway system every year. From physical infrastructure like roads and bridges to human capital from kindergarten to college, this report comprehensively examines our investment deficit. It documents yesterday’s achievements, today’s problems and tomorrow’s solutions. As this report is released, America’s economy is in a deep downturn, which is now spreading across the globe. A major recovery program is essential to lift this economy from what is likely to be the worst recession since the Great Depression. Direct public investment—in new energy and conservation, in modernizing our infrastructure, in education and training, and research and development—should be the centerpiece of any recovery plan. That is not only necessary to lift the economy in the short run; it is a vital down payment on the sustained public investment that we need to sustain a competitive and decent society in a global economy. The needs listed in this report provide a guidepost for both recovery and for long-term, sustainable growth. http://www.ourfuture.org/report/investment-deficit 01:40 Min. |
Wed 19 Nov 2008
The Captain Obvious Award Goes To Donald Kohn Posted by alyx under breaking news Subscribe to this feed  The Fed’s vice chair Donald Kohn appears to have gotten into the laughing gas, judging by the admissions he made this morning in front of the Cato Institute. A few gems rounded up off the wire by FT Alphaville: *DJ Fed Kohn: Doing Both Monetary Policy, Quantitative EasingChairman Kohn, we don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you hereby win the LOLFed Award For Admitting Everything Is Fail. Quantitative easing, stepping over the line (mark it zero) between monetary and fiscal policy, an economy in decline and a textbook trick that isn’t effective? 100% more honesty than we expect from the Fed, and for that we salute you. |
:rolleyes DOW BELOW 8000 :rolleyes
|
19 November 2008
Trading Note. Approaching our SP Futures Target of 810  We were looking for 810 to the downside and have been riding Index doubler shorts down since yesterday afternoon in our trading portfolios. We make changes to our investment portfolio only a few times each year.Now we are buying some long positions to offset those shorts since we approach a possible support area. (....ich sende ein Stossgebet gen Himmel :rolleyes) The longs are individual stocks, precious metal miners and oil producers with strong cashflows and/or dividends, and some of the long index funds. Please note that these longs are MORE than offset by the remaining short positions. This is a hedged play to take some short profits off the table without necessarily selling them. If we get a rally from here it will be relatively easy to reduce the three short positions. The longs are more diversified so obviously there are many more positions, but less in total dollar and leverage value. We are trading without margin. We'll have to see how we close and what happens as we approach 800 if we do. If we go lower tomorrow we can adjust the long-short balance in the portfolio to take advantage of the decline. Recall that we are in an option expiry week, and we have expiry in some of the commodity futures as well. We offer the occasional example of how we might be trading a market not for specific examples or 'calls' but rather to reflect the style and money management we are using to match the character of a particular market. This one needs a whip and chair. Use of uni-directional positions and leverage are particularly dangerous since even in a bear downtrend, there is room for enormous swings even intraday. Today did seem a little 'climactic' but it is too soon to tell. Have a pleasant evening. Posted by Jesse at 3:38 PM  :verbeug |
Geeesh! Limbo…how low can ya go….everybody do the Limbo.
Cant take it no more….back to doing some chores. Grrrrr..!! Best, Farmboy |
 :rolleyes |
A Sea of Unwanted Imports
 Jamie Rector for The New York TimesA lot at the Port of Long Beach may be used to park cars. More Photos > By MATT RICHTEL Published: November 18, 2008 LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times....... full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/b...ner=rss&emc=rss |
...ist von Montag - sogar diese sehr skeptischen Leute hatten eine Rallye erwartet/erhofft - aber grundsätzlich down :(
November 17, 2008 Commentary with John Grant & Tony Cherniawski  http://www.cyclesman.info/Articles.htm |
European Union to Unveil €130 Billion Stimulus Plan
 We can only hope that Europe follows the US model and gives the funds to a small group of bankers who, without independent oversight and accountability, can allocate the €130 Billion economic stimulus package to their industry friends and associates for executive pay and bonuses, dividends, and exclusive corporate resorts.Economic Times EU plans 130-billion-euro stimulus plan: Germany 20 Nov, 2008, 0359 hrs IST BERLIN: The European Commission is planning a 130-billion-euro (163-billion-dollar) economic stimulus programme, a spokeswoman for the German economy ministry said Wednesday. "That represents one percent of gross domestic product for each member state," she told AFP. "For Germany, that means 25 billion euros." German news weekly Der Spiegel reported earlier that the Commission would also set aside some of its own funds to arrive at the 130-billion-euro sum. The Commission is due to present proposals to grapple with the impact of the global financial crisis on November 26. Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said no decision had been taken on the stimulus package. "It is premature to talk about the size and specific orientation of the package because the preparatory work is still underway and there has not yet been a definitive political decision," Laitenberger told reporters.  German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm stressed that Berlin had just committed 32 billion euros over the next two years to its own economic jumpstart plan and expected that to figure in Brussels' calculations."It is unimaginable that our own programme would not be taken into account" by the EU Commission, he told the daily Financial Times Deutschland in an article to appear in its Thursday issue. Other member states have cried poverty amid calls for a continent-wide growth plan and the European Commission is likely to seek to redirect funds committed to other efforts to the new package. The 15-nation eurozone confirmed last week it had fallen into recession for the first time ever, with gross domestic product in the economies using the euro falling by 0.2 percent in the third quarter after a similar drop in the second quarter Posted by Jesse at 7:42 PM :verbeug |
Aussie
Here's where we were a year ago . . . with Dow 13,300. The Dow is now about 5,500 points lower. All things considered, at $745 Gold has performed pretty well, we're not that far off. And of course in most other currencies it is actually much higher. How many investments today could make the same claim? Probably none! Public knowledge of this is precisely what the banking cartel wants to avoid at all costs. |
20 November 2008
Alaweed bin Talal Increases Stake in Citi  Alwaleed Plans to Increase His Stake in Citigroup Back to 5%By Steve Dickson Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal plans to increase his stake in Citigroup Inc. to 5 percent after the U.S. bank lost almost a quarter of its value yesterday. ``Prince Alwaleed began buying Citi shares, as he strongly believes that they are dramatically undervalued,'' he said today in a statement. In addition to his princely duties, the multi-talented Alaweed is also the gossip columnist and rock critic for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano under the pen name Guido Sarducci. Posted by Jesse at 9:55 AM :verbeug...hmmmm :schwitz hilft der Citi trotzdem nicht in den Sattel :rolleyes Real-time: 5.12  1.28 (20.00%) 10:28am ET |
Thu 20 Nov 2008
GM To Receive Bailout Money Posted by Jason under all ur bankz , bailout Subscribe to this feed  :reiterHa ha, I am only half-telling the truth. GMAC, formerly GM’s financial services arm, is asking that we all refer to it as G-Diddy, a bank holding company and has become the nine-hundred and twelfth company to have done so in the past three months, give or take nine hundred. Either way, Ben’s hand has got to be tired of signing off on these applications. This move, of course, would make it eligible for sweet failout money that GM itself now has next to zero chance of receiving. GMAC is still 49% owned by GM. The remaining 51% belongs to a consortium of investors including Chrysler’s daddy Cerberus Capital and Citigroup, thus tying our beloved Bandit to yet another story of financial fail. However, once the BHC recategorization is approved, 100% of GMAC will be owned by you and me. You can have my share. No, I insist. |
Thu 20 Nov 2008
Iceland $20b Cheaper Than Automakers Posted by Jason under bailout , fail Subscribe to this feed  :coolFirst, I apologize for the obvious butchering of the Icelandic language. ’Failout’ isn’t a word that translates well to anything. I can only hope that including a picture of Miss Iceland makes up for it, and I trust alyx will forgive me my momentary objectifying of women, in the name of what passes for comedy in my posts. Anyway, if you’re Iceland, good news! Not only do your women look like this, but you’re not going bankrupt just yet, after all. For the bargain price of $4.6b, the IMF and a handful of European countries with funny alphabets are saving Iceland’s butt from the street corner with loans it will never repay. The idea isn’t to help the depositors who lost their shirts (because no one in the entire world cares about Meinn Stréti), but rather to recapitalize the banks and get them lending again. You can ask Hank how well that’s going to work out. Still, if you were looking to pick up Iceland for 70% off retail at an Off Fifth store, looks like you’ll just have to keep right on waiting. ...wenigstens für die Augen mal was Erfreuliches :supi |
|
Zitat:
|
better end the fed soon
-> Posted by GoldBalloon @ 12:17 pm on November 20, 2008 If the global crisis continues,
by the end of the year only two Banks will be operational:
The Blood Bank & The Sperm Bank
Then, these two banks will merge
and this giant will be called
‘The Bloody #%&@ing Bank’ |
...also doch den Spiegel kaufen - lohnt sich
 Titelgeschichte DER BANKRAUB |
1 Anhang/Anhänge
antigop (1000+ posts)
    Thu Nov-20-08 12:32 PMResponse to Original message 60. Michael Moore on the auto bailout (video)  Imo, Michael makes great points here. He sure is angry.......nun tut sich doch etwas Senators reach compromise on emergency auto loans: report By Sue Chang Last update: 12:38 p.m. EST Nov. 20, 2008  Comments: 104SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A bipartisan group of auto-state senators say they have reached a compromise to speed emergency loans to Detroit's Big Three car makers, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Republicans and Democrats plan to present the proposal at a mid-afternoon news conference Thursday but it was not clear whether the compromise plan could draw enough support to get through the Senate, the news agency said.  (104) - View Comments on this storyhttp://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={222C65B9-2832-47D6-8CEA-6FD7BA1CDAFB} ...der Markt reagiert(e) :rolleyes positiv - ob's hält :confused |
Is TARP Really a TRAP?
Posted by: Amy Barrett on November 19 The Treasury’s capital purchase program, the system for injecting capital into the nation’s banks, may look like a give away on the surface. But look a bit closer and there’s an interesting catch. TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), of course, went from being an asset purchase program to a capital investment program and therefore needs a new name. Under the Treasury program, the government will invest $250 billion in the nation’s banks. A Treasury spokesperson says $158 billion has already been committed with another $92 billion to go. The hope is that new capital will get banks lending again. And many small banks, major small business lenders, are lining up now. But here’s the rub: In section 5.3 of the agreement there is language that says if Congress wants to put new conditions or requirements on the banks, those new terms can be applied retroactively to banks who took the money. So in January if Congress wants to require banks that have received capital stop foreclosing on homes or up their lending activity, they can. The American Association of Bank Directors sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in early November asking that the government delete or modify the provision. David Baris, Executive Director of the AABD, says the Treasury has not responded to the letter. Bank consultant Bert Ely says that is going to give some bankers second thoughts. It is a blank check for Congress to put conditions on money that has already gone out. I think banks will go through the process, but the more they look at this they’ll decline it at the end.Now, the program is aimed at investing capital in healthy banks. If that's the case and they don't really need the money, it's hard to understand why a bank would agree to a deal that could change over night. Guess we'll see how many banks sign on the dotted line once they read the fine print. http://www.businessweek.com/smallbi...arp_really.html ....dieser Paulson scheint ziemlich unausgegorene Pläne durchzusetzen :rolleyes |
Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 08:40
AFP News Briefs List US seeks 300 billion dlrs from Gulf states: report The United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to 300 billion dollars to help it curb the global financial meltdown, Kuwait's daily Al-Seyassah reported Thursday. Quoting "highly informed" sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi Arabia for 120 billion dollars, the United Arab Emirates for 70 billion dollars, Qatar for 60 billion dollars and was seeking 40 billion dollars from Kuwait. Al-Seyassah said Washington sought the amount as "financial aid" to face the fallout of the financial crisis and help prevent its economy from sliding into a painful recession. The daily said the United States plans to use the funds to help the ailing automobile industry, banks and other companies suffering from the global financial turmoil. The four nations, all members of OPEC, produce together 14 million barrels of oil per day, around half of the cartel's production and about 17 percent of world supplies. The four states are estimated to have amassed close to 1.5 trillion dollars in surplus in the past six years due to high oil prices that rocketed above 147 dollars in July before sliding to just above 50 dollars. The daily also said that the United States has asked Kuwait to forgive its Iraqi debt estimated at around 16 billion dollars. http://www.france24.com/en/20081120...f-states-report ....damit die CEO's & co auch weiterhin fette Bonis kassieren können und im private jet die hohle Hand machen können :bad:mad |
2 Anhang/Anhänge
 ....wenn es sogar bis CNBC durchgedrungen ist, dass dieser Paulson eine Flasche ist - na dann gehört er wohl so schnell als möglich zum Teufel geschickt :gomad und für citi noch eine Ehrenrunde :rolleyes und ich bin weg morgen - bevor ich :schreck :winke |
Once In A Lifetime
winewdoc -> Posted by grin @ 16:16 pm on November 20, 2008 I found myself living in a shotgun shack wondering, How did I get here! |
1 Anhang/Anhänge
:wirr huiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :supi ich sollte wohl öfter wegbleiben ;):cool
|
Obama: 'Millions of jobs' in danger next year
President-elect outlines recovery plan, warns worst may be yet to come :( msnbc.com news services updated 3:40 p.m. ET Nov. 22, 2008 WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Saturday that he was crafting an aggressive, two-year stimulus plan to revive the troubled economy, warning that swift action was needed to prevent a deep slump and a spiral of falling prices. "If we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," Obama said in prepared remarks for the weekly Democratic radio and video address. "We now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further," he said........ full atory: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27854138 |
Fri 21 Nov 2008
The Geithner Group Posted by Jason under breaking news , hank paulson [5] Comments Subscribe to this feed  It looks like you won’t have ol’ Hank to kick around anymore. LOLFed’s brief hopes of Paulson being asked to stay on as Treasury Chief have been dashed upon the rocks, as word has leaked that NY Fed president Tim Geithner will be asked to assume the position, as well as many others over the next four years. Geithner has been involved with international banking throughout his career, and speaks Chinese, which will come in very handy when the Chinese government forecloses on America. On a personal note, I am pleased with the choice because even now, Geithner has displayed three times as many facial expressions on camera as Paulson, which is sure to make scribing childish comments onto his photographs far easier than it ever was with Hank. |
Sun 23 Nov 2008
Sunday Morning Round-Up Posted by alyx under links  A decent quantity of fail coming across the wires this morning. * E-Trade is reported to be desperate for TARP funds, and judging by the stock price, investors don’t expect them to get it. ETFC’s substantial subprime mortgage losses are killing them, even though their brokerage business seems to be functional. “Despite the reasonably healthy trends in the core brokerage franchise, we believe continued credit headwinds, a lack of earnings visibility and a limited capital cushion for common shareholders gives us no reason to become more constructive on E*Trade shares at current levels,” Credit Suisse analyst Howard Chen wrote to clients this week.Apparently in those E-Trade commercials where the baby throws up all over the place he’s not excited about a trade but instead thinking about ETFC’s capital base.  * Next, a cottage industry has developed in the business of burying your money in a hole in the ground: The day the Dow fell 777 points, David Latham, a 45-year-old Alabama cattle farmer and electrician, was busy doing errands. Driving his Chevy pickup into Montgomery, he dropped by the hardware store, then stopped into the bank, where he withdrew $8,000 from his CD account, all in 20s. Back home, he slipped the four inch-thick bundles into a Ziploc bag, popped them into a waterproof PVC tube and set out for a remote location on his 300-acre property, where he dug a deep hole with a post digger. And then he buried his money.Not into building your own money cylinders? Talk to Earl Snyder, who will sell you a Midnight Gardener ($19.95) to secure your cash. Looks like the name has been in use for the concept since 1998, when laying in cash, ammunition and MREs was all the rage in the name of Y2K.  Finally, this year all gift cards are going to come with a USE IMMEDIATELY caveat.* (+1 if you receive one for a gift and actually tell Mom “Just what I always wanted, an unsecured debt obligation at Circuit City!”) Just this year, consumers lost about $100 million in gift cards that they could not use when major retailers went out of business, Mr. Riley said.Shortcuts * The Gift Card Comes Wrapped in Growing Risk  Nati Harnik/Associated PressThis year, $59.9 billion will be spent on branded gift cards from retailers. Above, a supermarket in Omaha. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/b...2shortcuts.html Published: November 21, 2008 I FELT extremely prepared and clever last year when I rented the family’s ski equipment for the entire season at a discount place, avoiding the expense and hassle of renting at the slopes. Skip to next paragraph  Josh Reynolds/Associated PressConsumers lost about $60 million in Sharper Image gift cards when it liquidated. It all worked out well until I learned — just about when I was going to return the stuff — that the ski rental store was closing and that those who had received their skis after a certain date in November would not get their deposits back. We could keep the rental skis and boots, which was fine for me, but pretty useless for my sons, who would grow out of them by next season. Fortunately, I discovered that we met the deadline (just barely) and got our hundreds of dollars in deposits back. But that was when I truly understood the term “unsecured creditor.”....... |
22 November 2008
Robert Rubin's Role in the Bubble that Broke the World Is it premature to speak of the failure of Citigroup? No, the bank is finished. The only question is the nature of its demise. The Fed and FDIC may cut off a few of the more gangrenous pieces, stuff it full of paper, bolt on a prosthetic or two, perhaps apply enough cosmetics to give it some semblance of an afterlife, but the hard fact is the bank has collapsed, and would not open its doors again without extraordinary measures to maintain the appearance of existence. How did this happen? Although this article does not mention the chief architect, Sanford Weil and another member of the supporting cast Larry Summers, it does pay tribute to Robert Rubin who, with Alan Greenspan, helped to create one of the greatest financial bubbles in history. The New York Times Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk November 22, 2008 ...The bank’s downfall was years in the making and involved many in its hierarchy, particularly Mr. Prince and Robert E. Rubin, an influential director and senior adviser. Citigroup insiders and analysts say that Mr. Prince and Mr. Rubin played pivotal roles in the bank’s current woes, by drafting and blessing a strategy that involved taking greater trading risks to expand its business and reap higher profits. Mr. Prince and Mr. Rubin both declined to comment for this article. When he was Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Mr. Rubin helped loosen Depression-era banking regulations that made the creation of Citigroup possible by allowing banks to expand far beyond their traditional role as lenders and permitting them to profit from a variety of financial activities. During the same period he helped beat back tighter oversight of exotic financial products, a development he had previously said he was helpless to prevent. And since joining Citigroup in 1999 as a trusted adviser to the bank’s senior executives, Mr. Rubin, who is an economic adviser on the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama, has sat atop a bank that has been roiled by one financial miscue after another. Citigroup was ensnared in murky financial dealings with the defunct energy company Enron, which drew the attention of federal investigators; it was criticized by law enforcement officials for the role one of its prominent research analysts played during the telecom bubble several years ago; and it found itself in the middle of regulatory violations in Britain and Japan....As it built up that business, it used accounting maneuvers to move billions of dollars of the troubled assets off its books, freeing capital so the bank could grow even larger.... Does a Weakness in Banking Regulations Result in Economic Imbalances and Asset Bubbles? PBS Frontline: Mr. Weill Goes to Washington Time Magazine February 15, 1999  Posted by Jesse at 5:50 PM :verbeugRubin :rolleyes ob Obama so ein glückliches Händchen mit ihm gehabt hat :confused:rolleyes:mad |
21 November 2008
This Bear Market Is Already One for the Record Books Of the 26 major bear markets (declines of 15+%) since 1900, the current stock market correction currently ranks as the fourth largest in magnitude with only the market declines beginning in 1906, 1929, and 1937 being greater. It is still relatively short in duration as compared to the average bear market.  Graphic courtesy of Chartoftheday.com Posted by Jesse at 9:23 PM :verbeug...andere Rekorde wären mir lieber :rolleyes:o |
Where a baby girl is a mother's awful shame
Over the past 20 years in India, 10 million female babies have been aborted. The pressure to have sons is terrifying - mothers who bear daughters are beaten or cast aside by husbands and in-laws desperate to escape the financial burden of a girl's dowry. Now mothers are being urged to 'save the girl child' as the country tries to end decades of tragic abuse The birth of Rekha's second daughter should have been one of the happiest days of her life. Instead, she lay on the bed of her home on the outskirts of Delhi, the newborn child on the floor, screaming in terror as her mother-in-law poured paraffin over her. :gomad:gomad:gomad This was her punishment, the older woman said, preparing to strike a match: Rekha had failed again to deliver a son and it would be better for everyone if she were dead. Suddenly the door burst open and her neighbours rushed in, roused by the frantic screaming. They bundled Rekha and her daughter out of the house, never to return. In a country where boys remain prized and having a daughter is considered by many to be a curse, they were lucky. Many are not so fortunate. India has banned pre-natal scanning to determine the sex of a baby and made aborting a child as a result of such a scan punishable with five years in prison. Poster campaigns urge Indians to 'save the girl child'.... ......Her husband maintained that as a priest had told him he would only father one son, the girls could not be his. He demanded a DNA test. Dr Khurana gave birth to the girls, Guddu and Pari, two months prematurely on 11 August, 2005. She maintained that, when one of the girls was four months old, her mother-in-law tried to push the child down the stairs. Faced with open hostility from her husband and his family, she eventually left her husband in March. 'He threw me out of the house because he wants to remarry someone who can give him a son,' she said. She has filed a complaint, which is being investigated under India's Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. But she said she had struggled to have her allegations taken seriously. 'Even as an educated woman I am pushed around,' she said. 'But my daughters are now my biggest source of happiness, and I am proud that I have saved them.'...... full story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/200...23/india-gender :dumm:dumm:dumm man glaubt es nicht :gomad |
That Money Isn’t Leaving the Vault
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON Published: November 21, 2008 SO goes the old saw about bankers: they loan you an umbrella when the sun is shining, only to ask for it back when it rains...... ......A commercial real estate borrower in Texas who owns properties financed by GE Capital said his lender was tightening the screws — despite the fact that all of his loans were current and his properties robust. He said GE Capital had told him that when his loan comes due, there will be no negotiation; either it must be paid off in full or foreclosure proceedings will begin........ .....“The banks that have taken the taxpayer’s money ought to be part of the solution, but they are acting like war profiteers,” :mad Mr. Rowe said. “If I were in charge, I would haul them all down to Gitmo, put them in a room and say, ‘You have used the taxpayer’s money to pervert our objectives. It is morally wrong and we are not going to stand for it.’ full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/b...r=1&partner=rss |
END THE FED DEMONSTRATION
Posted on November 23, 2008 by emsnews  Across the planet, labor unrest is rising. The managers of most countries are most anxious to restart the Old World Order economic system. Indeed, most people on the planet want to get that old system restarted. But it won’t happen. Instead, we continue down the typical road of a top, global empire going bankrupt while desperately hanging onto power via military suppression of populist uprisings coupled with wild spending based on credit. CLICK HERE LARGE PRINT EDITION:END THE FED DEMONSTRATION .....langsam muss man gespannt sein wer denn dieses "yes we can" sind oder sein werden :gruebel hoffentlich nicht WallstreetMafia bleibt WallstreetMafia :rolleyes |
|
    :rolleyes:confused Virtual Robert Rubin constellation taking shape on Obama team... November 24, 2008 Political Memo Rubinomics Recalculated By JACKIE CALMES WASHINGTON — It is testament to former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s star power among many Democrats that as President-elect Barack Obama fills out his economic team, a virtual Rubin constellation is taking shape. The president-elect’s choices for his top economic advisers — Timothy F. Geithner as Treasury secretary, Lawrence H. Summers as senior White House economics adviser and Peter R. Orszag as budget director — are past protégés of Mr. Rubin, who held two of those jobs under President Bill Clinton. Even the headhunters for Mr. Obama have Rubin ties: Michael Froman, Mr. Rubin’s chief of staff in the Treasury Department who followed him to Citigroup, and James P. Rubin, Mr. Rubin’s son. All three advisers — whom Mr. Obama will officially name on Monday and Tuesday — have been followers of the economic formula that came to be called Rubinomics: balanced budgets, free trade and financial deregulation, a combination that was credited with fueling the prosperity of the 1990s. But times have changed since then. On Wall Street, Mr. Rubin is facing questions about his role as director of Citigroup given the bank’s current woes. And in Washington, he and his acolytes are calling for a new formulation to address the global economic crisis that Mr. Obama will inherit — and rejecting or setting aside, for now, some of their old orthodoxies. Instead of deregulation, Mr. Obama has sworn to usher in a period of re-regulation, to avoid the freewheeling risks that Citigroup and the rest of the financial industry undertook after Mr. Rubin, with Mr. Summers, helped tear down the regulatory walls between banks, brokerages and insurance companies, and freed them to trade in unregulated and little-understood derivatives worth trillions of dollars. Mr. Geithner spent his first years as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York seeking ways to at least monitor those markets better........ full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/u...agewanted=print Rubin :rolleyes:rolleyes:rolleyes |
| Aktuelle Uhrzeit 17:31 |
Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2023, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
