Stacy Summary: Hopefully those record bankers’ bonuses will trickle down to us peasants soon and all will be well.
Headline updates:
- State raids on city coffers may bankrupt city (must read / Savers vs Speculators)
“We may have to declare bankruptcy – that’s how serious this is,” said City Administrator Troy Butzlaff. “This is something the system can’t endure. We just avoided bankruptcy by doing all the right things; by cutting back, by getting concessions from staff, by cutting $4.5 million over last year’s budget.”
As the new state budget bills approach a vote by the legislature, the city is urging residents to print and clip out “deficit dollars” posted on placentia.org, the city’s Web site, and send them to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in protest of plans to hijack what would amount to $2.5 million from local coffers.
In a release, city officials called the funds grab “stealing” and argued it was unconstitutional.
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…………and yet NO “Thing of beauty” for me!
Just how much bad news till the other CB’s say SOD IT, Kill the £!
Mike
Stacy – At least after Detroit goes bankrupt, they’ll be getting one of those awesome Boeing surveillance towers to uh, keep an eye on all of the Canadians trying to rush the border to take of advantage of . . . I don’t know what exactly . . . Detroit’s medical clinics?!
Bank refuses NZ man $80k loan, so he takes out his $190k of savings.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2667215/190-000-withdrawn-in-20-bills/
“WTO had revised its forecast for the contraction in world trade volume this year from 9% to 10%.”
FROM: World exports totaled $15.78 trillion in 2008: WTO
Not in Canada though !!?
http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2009/07/20/daily49.html
Why would anybody in NYC continue to serve these companies, or make payments to creditors on these terms? I mean, the easiest way to bring peace to the valley is to chop-off these thieves right hand, reclaim the assets, and provide them with a tin cup so they can continue panhandling further up Broadway.
Lyrics to Smoke And Mirrors :
The wolves wear the wool
Of the sheep the have fooled
And preach their code of conduct:
“You’ve gotta push that, push that product”
We’ll live in fear, for coats they may sheer
The fleecing of a fleeting flock
You may have my wool
You may have my locks
But my voice you have not
My voice you have not
We’re sitting ducks, with feathers plucked
You hide your fangs so cleverly dear
You sing your songs so prettily
I’ll never fall for the
Hook line and sinker
Your smoke and mirrors
I wont ever take the bait
I’ll never fall for those
Formats and figures
Your greedy fingers
Won’t ever get their hands on me
Hey boy, you best look out
“Ooh, we’ll have you.”
Pay mind to those greedy people climbers
They’re licking their lips at you
They’ll crush and they’ll claw
Their way to the top
Your legs are just ladders to them
Your head’s just another step man
On you like a rash
On you like a rash
I’ll never fall for the
Hook line and sinker
Your smoke and mirrors
I wont ever take the bait
I’ll never fall for those
Formats and figures
Your greedy fingers
Won’t ever get their hands on me
Even though you hide your fangs so cleverly dear
You sing you songs so prettily dear
Your most gentle call
Your most soothing song won’t lead this sheep astray
All these suits with big black lives
Can’t put me on the company’s dime
I won’t be bought
No I won’t be sold
All these greasy palms and greedy hands
All my supply all your demand
I’m not you whore
And I won’t be your Babylon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw0lFJ-1_-k&feature=related
Bit of a contradiction, ref’ economy out of danger:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ignatieff-pushes-more-stimulus/article1229628/
As to Detroit, I had the fun of working at Motor City Casino and the MGM Grand just before they opened, around ..?..1995? Although downtown seemed a bit beyond its prime, the city was functioning in a reasonably sustainable manner. The casino operators contention was that they would provide ample new revenue to offset the money the city was loosing to the Canadians.
Naturally, one could see the eventual outcome of our handiwork based on the situation in Helena Arkansas, which looses all its annual profits to Tunica, MS. The fact is ‘Gambling,’ including the ‘Lottery,’ is a sure-fire way to rob the poor. This meant that was the year to sell your house, and move on. If you did not sell, hopefully you joined a gang and made a bundle on crack. Outfits like GM and Chrysler were doomed, but who cared as long as the top brass could keep up their posh homes in Grosse Isle?
While I am not ‘for union busting,’ the premise behind ALL Corporate lobby groups, most NGO ‘think tanks,’ and all new Federal policy, is to take local control away from the people. So, why do these fools up north keep holding on to Kennedy-era ideals?
“Bombing Detroit for practice,” (as mentioned in that blog) isn’t a bad concept as long as it could serve a higher purpose as a training camp for DHS training operations. The only other option is to sell it to Canada, who’s not buying in light of the revised push to form a NAU, and implement a roll-over to the AMERO on the heels of crashing the bankrupt Dollar.
Obviously, I didn’t personally take well to the training they offered in public school…
ATTENTION!! “RECESSION OVER FOR CANADA”
http://www.manufacturing.net/News-Central-Bank-Says-Canadian-Recession-Over-072409.aspx?menuid=36
@ Mike2Liverpool (are you the same as Mike/Liverpool?)
Your thing of beauty may come this Autumn. Did you read the article stating that the US has told all its embassies to purchase local currencies to last them a year, all EXCEPT pound sterling. I assume this means that the USD and sterling on gonna be scrapped or hugely devalued. That will surely bring you your thing of beauty and you may only have to wait a few more months.
What’s happening with this flu virus today? H1N1 now in 160 countries, has killed about 800 to date. (normal) Seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people globally in an average year so what are we talking about here?
Still they keep pushing this “high profit medicine industry” story, what they know what I don’t know I keep asking myself?
China’s pharmaceutical market primed to explode http://tinyurl.com/ly8xlz
Glaxo unmasked: drug firm to make £1bn from swine flu http://tinyurl.com/lklbfy
After Medarex buy, biotech investors ask who’s next http://tinyurl.com/lxjmjk
DER SPIEGEL ‘A Whole Industry Is Waiting For A Pandemic’ http://tinyurl.com/np6fvl
NYT piece on computerized trading http://tinyurl.com/lwh2wt
I’m getting ready to jump out of my basement window any moment now.
Sharon
Yes, one is my home pc the other my laptop
Massive devalue?
When we fell out of the ERM i think we lost 30% over 6 months……………rather than a “Controled crash” I suspect they do something rather sudden.
I also expect they try to force “Carbon Tax” on the rest of the World………..those whom say no will not be allowed to trade with US/UK………They try to rope in Euro-land but it might just escape.
Mike
@TS Gordon – thanks for that info re: the casinos having been sold as the economic miracle for the city
@Mike/Liverpool – thanks for clearing up that mystery
@bronxy – don’t do it
@veritas – yes someone posted that story on an earlier entry; it is one worth repeating though and i urge all to read it!
@Mep – the surveillance tower will be used to nickel and dime citizens of Detroit; now that they don’t have jobs and, presumably, therefore, incomes to tax; you have to find other ways to grab their money
All over the world governments are running huge fiscal deficits which will somehow have to be financed. At present this financing is provided by quantitative easing which is keeping a systemic rise in bond yields at bay.
However, sooner or later QE will come to an end – we may already have reached that point in the UK. Governments will then have to revert to more traditional means of financing their deficits by selling bonds. With so many players competing to sell their bonds, and with a limited number of investors, the market will be spoilt for choice. I could choose to buy a US bond, a UK bond, a European bond, whichever. My decision will be determined by the yield that I can obtain, and that yield will in turn be determined by how cheaply I can buy the bonds.
Expect to see falling bond prices and rising yields in the future, and since it is bond yields not bank rates that determine interest rates in the wider economy (if I can get 10% by lending money to the government, why should I give you a mortgage at 5%) we will see general interest rates rise which will sure put an end to any green shoots.
I have just read this report from Sprott Asset Management.
http://www.sprott.com/Docs/MarketsataGlance/June_2009.pdf
I would be interested to see a similar analysis of the UK position. Regrettably, it does become harder and harder to see how catastrophe can be avoided.
@Peter,…..there’s an echo in this cave,..this cave,.cave,.ave ve,…!
@ stacyherbert
It’s 30 cm to the ground from my basement window, so both me and my wallet will prob survive the jump, unlike the economy.
@ Dedo Sorry, I could not make the link work the first time I posted …. posted
@Peter,…Don’t do it again,.I hate reading things twice ; )
@Dedo & @Peter got rid of the repeat; good commentary from Sprott – as always
@Bronxy – 30 cm fall shouldn’t hurt too bad
The dollar looks like it has fallen out of the window a few times today
Gresham’s law (1519 – 1579), an English financier during the Tudor dynasty.
“Bad money drives out good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_Law
As a Canadian, so wonderful this morning knowing the recession is over.
Whew!
I was starting to get really worried, you know with all the job losses and our manufacturing down the shiter.
Now where’s my blue pill, no red pill , no blue..ah the hell with it, where’s my doobie.
This guy can sure talk the numbers, very sober view on the economy:
http://watch.bnn.ca/clip196705#clip196705
“The United States, which runs the NATO-led force, has about 59,000 troops in Afghanistan — nearly double the number a year ago — and thousands more are on the way. There are about 32,000 other international troops in the country.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/23/obama-victory-necessarily-goal-afghanistan/
NATO is not a lame duck. It is a NATO led effort in Afghanistan: this is not an
“American War.”
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_8189.htm
“NATO’s main role in Afghanistan is to assist the Afghan Government in exercising and extending its authority and influence across the country, paving the way for reconstruction and effective governance. It does this predominately through its UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force.
Since NATO took command of ISAF in 2003, the Alliance has gradually expanded the reach of its mission, originally limited to Kabul, to cover Afghanistan’s whole territory. The number of ISAF troops has grown accordingly from the initial 5,000 to around 50.000 troops coming from 42 countries, including all 28 NATO members.”
Quarky Obama message to Americans: We are fighting a shadowy enemy…Al Queda. No where is AlQueda mentioned on the NATO site: Obama is lying.
“ISAF was created in accordance with the Bonn Conference in December 2001. Afghan opposition leaders attending the conference began the process of reconstructing their country by setting up a new government structure, namely the Afghan Transitional Authority. The concept of a UN-mandated international force to assist the newly established Afghan Transitional Authority was also launched at this occasion to create a secure environment in and around Kabul and support the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
These agreements paved the way for the creation of a three-way partnership between the Afghan Transitional Authority, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and ISAF.”
More about ISAF:
http://www.nato.int/ISAF/
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33627.pdf
This is the peace the UN is bringing to the world: war.
Maybe the biggest damage isn’t the penny skim in the high velocity trading although this is very proftable too. But they also manipulate the longer rallies like is visible in the very volatile oil prices.
I has been admitted by many people, who could know, to cause oilprices to sweep more fiercely up and down than strictly nessasary according to the real market situation.
Strange thing about this is that everybody recognizes this negative effect of this kinda trading, making oil much more expensive than it should be but nothing is discussed or done to change the unnessasary evil?
And indeed is this only just one little puzzle from these savagely spreading Goldman Sachs plunder actions.
Booking your losses as profit just because, you say so and trading them “virtually” between your crony Brotherhoods in so-called, special vehicles” to buy very bad stuff nobodies wonnna buy is an old trick from the book but won’t work.
Geithner and his corrupted friends don’ t try to sell you the empty back ones no, the wonna rubbit in by keeping the moneystreams from taxpayers to cronies as staedy as possible meaning that they are not only going to trying to sell 12 trillion treasuries over1-year period but they wonderfully are going to sell them! Why otherwise the crony vehicles who act suposely as “independent” buyers.
These Wallstreet boys are real magicians cause in a wink of an eye they can make seemingly worthless junk into blinking Triple A shineabouts, that’s what I call “real Magic”.
Stacy- Yes. And it’s fitting that 2 of the biggest Israeli players in the construction of the “Apartheid Wall” in Israel will be getting in on those Boeing contracts and surveillance projects.
“Disarming illegally armed groups (DIAG)ISAF is collecting illegal weapons, ordnance and ammunitions from armed groups and individual persons. Weapons are then catalogued and safely destroyed so they no longer represent a threat to the local population, Afghan National Security Forces or ISAF personnel.”
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_8189.htm
Disarming illegally armed groups! Doesn’t this mean disarming all the citizens? What a mess this is to be: there will be a lot of deaths.
@Frances,…..so what you’re implying is,. this world domination thing going on, espoused by the tin hat brigade,..is real ? : (
Permanent TSB to raise interest rate (Irish Bank)
Public spits on bank’s employees
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0724/permanenttsb.html
@Snoot Lets not forget Afganistan borders Iran..
@Dedo:
We should have a tin-hat construction contest. I loved the tin-hat-lady’s bowler hat design.
I’m trying to be light, but I feel so heavy. So many nice young people to turn into killers of innocent people over in Afghanistan: all for corporate gain. bullocks. All lies here: the schools, media, government agents. No wonder so many American soldiers are committing suicide: it’s the only way out. We are cursed here.
This is interesting and hilarious. Just from the snippets you can get a glimpse of the same tricks and events and problems going back past Queen Elisabeth the first including devaluation
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&tbo=p&num=100&tbs=tl%3A1&q=circulation+money&btnG=Search&meta=
or devaluation 30% 40% profits to pay for the countries debts etc etc
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&tbo=p&num=100&tbs=tl%3A1&q=devaluation+money&btnG=Search&meta=
@MotherEarth:
I apologize to you Europeans for the dumb and crazed Americans who support this war. I am truly ashamed.
I wonder where Iran was mentioned in Brezinski’s chessboard?
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/14/banks-us-citizens-markets-equity-banks.html
Looks like Americans aren’t welcome at foreign banks now.
@frances snoot – trust me, europe has their fair share of deranged warmongering loonies
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/article6725468.ece
Here are some quotes that are apt to the times we find ourselves in (I’ve missed out the obvious Wahington/Jefferson ones):-
” Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” – Mark Twain
” What luck for rulers that men do not think”
- Adolf Hitler
“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” – Henry Kissinger
“All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
–John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson
“Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
~ Albert Einstein
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury,
with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
ALEXANDER TYLER
“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.
During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
ALEXANDER TYLER
“If ever again our nation stumbles upon unfunded paper, it shall surely be like death to our body politic. This country will crash.” (George Washington)
“War is the terrorism of the rich… Terrorism is the war of the poor”.
Peter Ustinov
Something nice about the NZ $190k withdrawal story that isn’t mentioned in the article is the fractional reserve aspect. That bank saw their pool of lendable money reduced by a significant multiple of $190k.
A still smoldering France surrenders to the French.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/suburbs-in-flames-after-military-exercise/story-e6frev00-1225753863171
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aonUhvIKGtz4
Sharon: great quotes!!!
@Stacy (from article)
“The onus is on those of us who believe that we are right to be in Afghanistan constantly to re-explain why.”,,,”But we have to do it. And we have to keep explaining why.”
I thought the British had advanced from their ethnocentric sun always rises state? Who is WE?
Mr. Aaronovitch…hmmm. wonder if he is associated with the UN?:
“I would define a moment of double respect as being when, say, the Pope addresses both Houses of Congress, or – as happened again last week – when that great institution the BBC quotes an expert from that even greater institution, the United Nation…”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/
article3746592.ece
Talk about sucking up. Makes my gag reflex ready.
“I believe in the UN, but we all must stop regarding it as though it was some kind of moral arbiter, doing right in a world of wrong. Because, unfortunately, the term “UN expert” means neither good nor expert. It can mean warped and stupid.”
WAR IS WARPED AND STUPID. WAR IS WARPED AND STUPID. WAR IS WARPED AND STUPID. (AD INFINITUM)
(Aaronovitch reminds me of Pritchy-Pants…Ambrose Evans-Pritchard..wearing tight shoes as well.)
The problem is there are too many We’s without any pronoun antecedents…always a problem I might add.
@frances snoot
Hven’t red the Chesbook yet but gotta quote from Brezinski where he mentions Iran indirectly cause it’s in the area.
Quote: TRANSCRIPT; Zbigniew Brzezinski Chatham House Speech November 2008 Part 4
“The growing risk that America will become military and politically bucked down in a vast area of the world ranging from East of Suez, does that phrase sound familiar to some of you?
From East of Suez to West of India, from east of Suez to west of India.” http://tinyurl.com/nya7df
@Youri:
Brilliant, as usual.
@Youri:
Rudyard Kipling
Ship me somewhere east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, Where there ar’n't no Ten Commandments an’ a man can raise a thirst.
Perhaps Brezinzki was floating off this quote, seeing as he was addressing a British audience. Kipling was born in India, so he was west of India (British subject in India).
Interesting take on the Grand Chessboard:
http://www.oilempire.us/zbig.html