Comments on: Headlines, Headlines, Headlines – 04 April 2009

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:50:25 +0000

“If people find themselves enslaved by debt, it’s their own fault.”
That’s fair enough, but I think Max’s point is that we’re all now enslaved by that debt, whether we took it on or not – except for the oligarchs who can put their winnings in a nice tax-free offshore account. Even those who never borrowed in our lives will be paying through job losses, temporary/part-time/casual work, low pay and higher taxes. We’ll all be slaves to this for a long time.

By: Mary Helburn

Mary Helburn — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:40:43 +0000

This PBS interview is a very in depth, but relatively simple explanation of who did what to bring down the world economy. It is a must view for everyone. It is a no-holes-barred account, not as colorful as Max, but it says it all. Paulson and Geitner need to be indicted. In a normal world they would already be on trial, but since they are calling the shots, they have escaped it so far... Max was absolutely spot on when he said Paulson's head should be rolling down the capital steps. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html

By: Mep

Mep — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:47:35 +0000

A couple articles:

- on pensions: State pension funds want to buy toxic assets: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53323S20090404

- on the “liberal media” threatening to close down the Boston Globe if the union doesn’t agree to concessions: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53303820090404

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:30:50 +0000

I want to say firstly, I like Max’s take on things overall, but I think you’re getting carried away with this assertion that it’s now a global battle between economic slaves and oligarchs.

If people find themselves enslaved by debt, it’s their own fault. The only sad thing is that the powers that be are choosing or being duped into helping the “big” people instead of the “little” people.

Also, in regards to his statement about the government helping or bailing out the oligarchs and not the peasants, Max needs to get his story straight. Does he want the government to intervene in the economy or not?

If he does then he shouldn’t condemn the government in the U.S. for taking steps to effectively put the auto-makers into bankruptcy and threatening the workers’ pension funds. If the government hadn’t intervened and let the auto-makers, like the banks, go bankrupt, then the pensions would still be in jeopardy.

The demise of the auto-industry was just a matter of time, the current economic crisis merely expedited what should’ve taken place anyway. Those workers, if they had any sense would’ve realized by now that their jobs, and thus their pensions, have been on the verge of extinction for a long time. People have to be aware of what’s going on around them and take responsibility for their lives and not hope or assume that their union or the precious government is going to be the one to save their sorry asses.

The only person who can truly look out for one’s own interests is the person one sees in the mirror each day.

My biggest question in all of this is, how come crooks that ran Enron, Worldcom and the like can be led off in handcuffs and sent to prison, but the people who ran rupshod over the system like those at AIG, Citigroup, as well as the regulators and the rating agencies aren’t getting the same treatment, or otherwise being held account for what’s happened?

Anyway, I still like you Max. anymore stories about sadistic french bakery bitches are always appreciated

Ben

By: Emiliyan

Emiliyan — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:30:23 +0000

Very good analysis of expected US budget deficit: Widening Deficits

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:06:50 +0000

S&M,

Thanks for the CalPers info. I’m a CalPers member so that impacts me. I just linked the Bloomberg article to my simple webpage:

http://toxiccalpers.org

By: Matt Smyth

Matt Smyth — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:10:03 +0000

I just wanted to point out that alex jones does more harm then good with his antics. Exposing real scandal is important but messing it up with conspiracy just turns people off. alex jones thinks that the fed owns Russia and Putin is just a puppet. Im just sayin….

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:15:37 +0000

Not related to today’s stories, but to the “bear market rally” on Wall St. the last few days:

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch have been caught by bloggers at ZeroHedge fraudulently pumping a stock yesterday. The company benefitting from Merrill’s hype (Kimco) then turned around and paid off BofA a $700 million loan, helping to clear their books.

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/04/wall-street-back-to-its-criminal-ways.html

In the film “Rigged Markets” Max mentions over a dozen techniques banksters use to defraud market participants. Max, does this qualify as “Pump and Dump” or something else?

By: StephenLV

StephenLV — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:40:03 +0000

The Schiff article is good, nice to see him broadening his perspective. Maybe he can then move onto the petrodollar etc, help him figure out why the Dollar is not collapsing like it would otherwise.

Mark to Market is why the meltdown has become a near total collapse of the Global Financial Structure. It is brilliant in concept and in destructive power. Like the War on Terror and the desire for “security”, similar MTM uses the good intentions of the masses using naive calls for “transparency” and uses this as the force to gut assets.

MTM has cost Americans alone half their wealth (so far). It has gutted our Stock Markets, Real Estate, Small Businesses and State and Local Governments. Similar stupid procedures created the Bubbles which they then popped with MTM. It is a planned implosion, gutting of the American State to force balance and a One World Government run by a handful of International Bankers.

By: Mep

Mep — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:33:16 +0000

Manoj,

Did you catch Nassim Taleb on Geithner’s banking plan, the G-20, and the mark-to-market change?

Good stuff: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7DbIc6WLhmU&refer=us

By: Manoj

Manoj — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:51:52 +0000

You should have linked Peter Schiff’s commentary on “Mark to market ” accounting and the rule changes there .A very well written nice article .Let’s play pretend http://safehaven.com/article-13000.htm

By: Don

Don — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:28:30 +0000

Max, Stacy. Stacy and Max. I love you guys! Max you sound down in the dumps on tweet #9. Hang in there brother. You have been doing the right thing for ALL! They only try to shut down the truth tellers who present a threat to their lies. Don’t worry Max, have faith that their game can not go on forever. Even the worst of times must come to an end, and everything that lives will come to an end as well. The question that this provokes then, is: How shall we chose live until that fateful day? You are living by your conscience and that is all a man can do, you are doing the “rite” thing by helping others to know the truth.

Thank you. Don

By: Nordbo

Nordbo — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:18:24 +0000

I just found an honest financial system, beside the dominating fraudulent one, in my own country. I hadn´t heard of it before:

“A report about Swedish interest-free bank JAK”, part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2pj109Cr8&feature=related

By: StephenLV

StephenLV — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:28:17 +0000

Bill Moyers on the Oil owned PBS interviewing a guy who worked hard to elect Henry Kissinger’s boy. Yep now that is the ingredients for the truth.

Did either of these people mention Soros or the Rothchilds?