Stacy Summary: I have heard stories from family in America and also read comments on loads of boards that the quality of ‘stuff’ at most shops in the US is total junk this year. Anyone else hearing (or seeing) the same?
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Most recent: 
@MEP – The sheeple being interviewed on CNN and who are saying, “I didn’t think much of the inconvenience due to security” are few.
The whole reason CNN is running that type of statement is in order to shape public opinion. None of my family, friends, or colleagues either find TSA’s gesticulations as protective of our collective security. TSA appears to pantomime security while the entire threat remains present overseas due to the lack of appropriate interventions during the Bush 43 Administration.
Now, under Obama 44 the same international criminal syndicates operate. The real test is whether or not Obama 44 will have any better success at reeling in Al Qeda’s terror.
But, the intent and purpose behind these “man-on-the-street” interviews is to locate one person to make this type of comment. Then, they can run the video and audio as part of other measures.
Yes, junk. What a difference a year makes. Same store, same departments, stuff went completely to junk. Leather looks like plastic. Cotton thin and weak, or you have to pay a fortune for what used to be normal cotton.
I want to know where the good cotton women’s underwear is now. Not this thong spandex crap. Do they have good cotton in the EU, or is it toast worldwide? Inquiring minds want to know.
What we get in the US now reminds me of what I have been seeing in Brazil for years. Quality goods cost a bloody fortune. I guess we are in the 2nd world now…
@ Stacy – Just another reason why I’ll never fly if I have anything to do with it. As things stand now, we keep seeing more and more problems with crashes and pilots flying over their destinations, which I’m sure has a lot to do with pilots being overworked due to decreasing pay.
CNN did some interviews w/ people at airports the other day and half of them were saying that they had no problem with the increased intrusions and delays, because it was a safety measure . . . just what the MIC and the surveillance industry wants to hear.
@ Stacy – relatively speaking, I’m too young to have noticed American-made products being junkified. But in recent years, I have noticed the quality of foreign-made products slipping. Two years ago, we went camping with a brand-new, higher-end Coleman tent (made in China) and after the first moderate rain, the seams on one side of the tent came apart, and everything on that side got soaked. Last year for Xmas one of my small gifts was one of those Mr. Coffee mug warmers–my fiance paid over $40 for the damned thing b/c he ordered it late online & paid extra for faster shipping. When I got it, the thing didn’t even work; the heating element was shot. And of course there is no accountability anymore (nobody would return my e-mails or calls), so it just went in the garbage can. We recently ordered a small Dell laptop that was advertised as just having a couple superficial scratches on it; when it came, it wouldn’t even boot into Windows. It’s still sitting in a box on the floor and we’ve been getting jerked around by Dell about a replacement for it for 3 weeks now. Of course, they already got their money so maybe they don’t care.
I’ve become quite the minimalist, so i like to buy more expensive products when I actually do consume–thinking that they’ll be higher quality and will last longer. But it seems that quality slips when products start being manufactured elsewhere. For example, I’ve always loved Doc Martens shoes & boots–they’re comfortable, nice looking, and I can wear them for a good 5-8 years. But they’re not made in Germany anymore; they’re made in China, and even though the price hasn’t changed much, their durability has.
When it comes to household appliances, I’ve noticed that things made in the 80s are still good as far as coming from a period where manufacturing was done with quality in mind. We have a Kitchen Aid dishwasher from the early 80s and a clothes dryer that is about as old that we will not replace b/c they work so well; everyone we know is constantly buying new dryers since they’re made so shoddily these days. My 82-year old grandmother still has a 60 year-old Philco refrigerator in her garage that still works very well, and every time there is a gathering at her house, people talk nostalgically about how once upon a time, things were built to last.
@Naomi:
I disagree about American quality goods. The goods I find defective are most often from Asia and a result of competing pricing. American goods can be found made by tradesmen and of excellent quality: the price is just higher.
Stacy,
That article is really spot on.
As Max has said many times America does not value the worker, does not value quality and expertise for the sake of the intrinsic value of what is manufactured. American business model is profit for the top by all means. And this is what we get in the end.
All the word clouds emitted by Obama and every other politician from both parties will not change what is really underneath. The politician class in this country is the only upward mobility in this country. The congress and the senate will not do what is right for the American people, because it would mean not getting the money for corporations who buy them and their campaigns for re election. That is what it’s all about….re election, gravey train health care, retirement, pay offs, lots of money……”business opportunities”
We are looking for a country to move to before this gets any worse and while our property is still valued at something even though it’s lost about 150k to 200k since 2006…..at least we bought low and are not underwater.
US House panel approves pro-Wall Street derivatives bill 19 October 2009, (WSWS) http://tinyurl.com/yfmahcb
Derivatives still pose huge risk, says BIS 13 September 2009 (Telegraph.co.uk) http://tinyurl.com/pjtwfv
Wall Street Defends one of its richest fiefdoms:$592 trillion Derivatives Market 31 August 2009 (Bloomberg) http://tinyurl.com/ngxkjd
Call Force Majeure on Derivatives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pob1-AB_csk
Force Majeure Derivatives http://tinyurl.com/kn6zl3
Bussy with “Great End of the Year 2009 Headlines Overview” just reached this article:
Insight: Re-regulation won’t curb worst excesses 26 May 2009 (The Financial Times) http://tinyurl.com/yasf5vg
It was already clear at that time that nothing serious would be done about the derivative situation quote: “Yet the recent reform proposals from Tim Geithner, US Treasury
secretary, surprised even bankers by opting for a much less draconian set of measures involving no more than a clearing house, a not very demanding measure of transparency, and a scale of capital charges that merely tries to steer business towards regulated exchanges.
Clearly, some very effective lobbying has been going on. For, as Christopher Whalen, a banking analyst, argues, in spite of the appearance of reform, the proposals leave the OTC market in the hands of large derivatives dealer banks. Terms like innovation, productivity and competitiveness are being heard again in Congress in connection with arguments that OTC derivatives manage risk, rather than create it. The same language can be heard in London, which handles a greater volume of derivatives business than Wall Street.
Then there is the case of the remarkably unstressful stress tests, which showed that US banks needed no more than $75bn of fresh equity. Yet the methodology in the stress test report is open to question. Lucien Bebchuk of Harvard University points out that the report’s estimate of $600bn aggregate losses takes into account losses arising from non-payment, but not discounts related to mark-to-market values.
This approach, adds Mr Bebchuk, overlooks a substantial amount of economic damage imposed on banks by the crisis because it fails to estimate the economic losses on troubled assets with post-2010 maturities. Here, then, is a case of old-fashioned regulatory forbearance, which encourages the survival of zombie banks in the same way that the Japanese authorities did during Japan’s lost decade.
Consider how quickly the suggestion the Glass-Steagall Act should be recalled was dismissed. Consensus seems to be building that Glass-Steagall’s firm dividing line between commercial and investment banking is inappropriate in a world where the banks’ large corporate clients still require the supposed benefits of securitisation.
Similarly, splitting the system between narrow banks investing depositors’ money in very low risk assets and broad banks investing uninsured deposits in higher risk assets appears to have little traction in the policy debate.”
The home catalogs are filled with what I call depression decor. Materials like cardboard, acrylic, and “distressed” or “antiqued” wood passed off as vogue. Cheap materials, high price. Clothes have been a problem for years–thin and poorly sown, but this year was a topper. Brands trying to sell premium goods touted as eco-friendly and made from recyclable materials. Actually the goods are made from low quality recycled yarns with short fibers that are usually reserved for cut-rate goods. Pathetic.
@Stacy
I have been disgusted with the lack of quality in all the products available. I’m especially sick of all the plastics. I’m trying to get all the plastic out of my house. It’s a tough one.
I am shopping estate sales for quality goods. One can get great tools, real linen towels etc. I was really disgusted when I was looking for lenin towels and there were none to be found in the stores. I bought some linen napkins from Pottery Barn and they are pitiful. Every time they go through the dryer I find tons of lint in the trap. They were made in China. I’m real pissed that I paid a premium price for crap. I’m sure they charged 10, 20 or 100 times the cost to produce. I’ll never buy them again.
you cannot be willfully ignorent you have unlearned something.
People are willfully ignorant daily. Learning as a mark of experience is ignored in preference for ‘faith’, ‘hope’, and ‘trust’.
Excuse my spelling, Mother, as I often do yours. Predilection:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/predilection
Willful ignorance may indeed be a facet of an adult’s naive state, irregardless of my juxta-poetical license. One who has been hit upside the head by the G20 political system before and then ‘hopes’ for ‘change’ in Copenhagen would be, to my mind, a naive-lab-rat-type human: one invested in trying levers provided by the state for pleasure or gain.
Of course, causal associations are often inaccurate, but I have a pretty clear understanding in my own way of thinking concerning the aims of our political elite. I would consider myself naive at this point to conjure a hopeful heart in their supposed altruism: but one can count on rhetoric to mask intent always.
It is the refusal to realize rhetoric as operative that I consider true naivety. It is what makes snake-oil selling preachers hearts sing.
Mother: English words have meanings derived from usage. The Oxford English Dictionary is an aide to seeing how meanings of words change with use. One can’t pin a word to a board like a butterfly: one must be flexible with allowance. My use of the word naive is relative to this definition:
“Not previously subjected to experiments”…are we not animals?
sorry. i meant wilfully ignorant until you have unlearned something. spelling in my case.
@Snoot. yes naive is the beginning. you cannot be willfully ignorent you have unlearned something.
@Snoot
Not really..Willful ignorance is what I define as arrogance. Naive has another meaning http://www.thefreedictionary.com/naive
Yuo are doing your juxtapoetry again..by the way predilictions is not a word and I do not see being naive as a problem..
@Snoot. The human condition changes rapidly. wait a minute and it’s something new.
@Ya’ll. i enjoyed my coffee and stirred eggs in olive oil on rye with you now it’s out doors for other realities.
@ronron:
Yes, but the majority of ‘we the people’ seem bent on willingly delivering up human curiosity and agency in return for “happiness” and “safety” promised by the manacle-bearers.
1. We are born naive, what is wrong with it?
Mother,
I think you mean here we are born innocent. (mind you, Jung disagrees) Naive has the nuance of willful ignorance to blatant stimuli:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/naive
“4…not having previously been the subject of a scientific experiment, as an animal.”
If you are correct in your predilictions, then naivity is not a problem. The cure is to reform societal structure. I tend to a cynical bent: what society has cured the ills of man’s nature?
Fatalism is like farting in the room and saying the world stinks.
Milton’s greed doesn’t drive the system anymore. Fear does. As is evidenced in addictions. Anything to prevent the fingers of their own minds from grasping some semblance of thoughts of their reality. More TV, potato chips, booze, porn, video games, cigarettes, chat, any distraction. Fear, not greed, drives slaves.
@Snoot. they have wrists as well.
@Snoot
1. We are born naive, what is wrong with it? 2. Naive is a relative term, given by people that have lost faith to people they think have no influence. 3. As a consequence the naive can dominate, but then they usually stop thinking of themselves a naive.
@Y’all
Ha Ha… ol’ worzel with his thinkin head on and here comes aunt sally… for a nice cup o tea and a slice a cake… .I love … kids tv at xmas!!!
Well, I don’t know, ronron. Seems the ptb are working full-tilt-boogie on this very principal principle.
Please remove all clothes before embarking on the plane.
Next step flying stark naked. 10% rebate on seatsand no security check. A little bit inconvenient if in Canada. OK for Santo-Domingo, But I see quite a lot of problems for Montréal. No. Next step. They will ask you a chip implant to fly. Just at the base of neck with a bar code.
@Snoot. can they make the cuffs fast enough.
Everything out there is absolute poo. Just go online and do a quick search for “coffee maker” at Target, Walmart, Macys, Bed Bath Beyond – they all carry the exact same CRAP, and most of it is flimsy, overpriced, and is unacceptable replacements for the current coffee maker that I recently broke on accident.
I’ll stick with my FRENCH PRESS for now!
@MotherEarth:
Yes, but my greedy man will put your fists in cuffs according to your trusting nature.
@Snoot
Naive people have fists too..
@Dedo. your life can be simple if you learn the words no thanks. cook your own food, walk wherever you can etc.
Steve Keene in the press again:
Australians rack up record debt
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/27/2781111.htm
Australian households are in record levels of debt, and for the first time have surpassed American levels.
Reserve bank figures show household debt – the combination of personal and mortgage debt – is equivalent to Australia’s GDP.
That means every adult owes an average of $74,000.
Analysts warn that the financial crisis that rocked Main Street in America could well hit Australian families in 2010.
Economics Professor Steve Keen at the University of Western Sydney says it is a sign that families are under financial stress.
“We now have an enormous proportion of income that has to be devoted to paying back interest payments,” he said.
“Even if you leave aside the interest payment fact, if you want to reduce your debt now where it would have taken you on average for Australians back in 1990 it would have taken just a few months, now it would take them a year to get back down to the zero mark.”
However the Council of Social Service says there is already a debt crisis and it will only get worse unless the Federal Government steps in, with the numbers of new families asking charities for help set to increase next year.
The council’s director, Alison Peters, says the Government needs to boost its support.
“We think there needs to be more support given to organisations like local neighbourhood centre like the major charities to be able to assist those people who are really desperate for assistance,” he said.
“A number of our organisations have already reported to us and indeed to the Government that they are seeing not only new families coming forward seeking assistance but many families are coming back again and again for assistance because they really are struggling.”
@Dedo
I think greed is oversaturated desire. It no longer has an object, it has turned into a contentless drive just like panic and rage. Desire is the drive towards the object that evokes it. Money however does it without providing stabile guidance.
On top of that the psychological effect of the reduced significance of marginal increases in nominal values (1 is to 10 what 100 is to 1000). Psychologically 1 million is still less than 10 million, while in terms of experience the distinction makes no sense (although some high end hotels, restaurants and manufactures would like you to think differently).
Funny, these are old ideas of mine (1994) from then I studied cognitive psychology..
Of course a society can exist without greed.
MotherEarth:
My, I never knew you were naive.
@Mother,..I’m fully aware of the myriad of societal systems that “could” be utilized for the benefit of the whole.
And I agree with your basic premise,.although, as you’re aware, life’s more complex, than it was 200 yrs ago in a tiny Swiss village.
Dedo, his argument is a false alternative. He’s comparing two massive failed systems from the perspective that one is not a failure, the other is, and there are no other choices. His entire argument boils down to fatalism hidden beneath a mischaracterisation of the human condition. Which is his job. To sell the system with false intellectualism.
@Dedo
Friedman is simply describing the status quo and how people deal with it and asks ‘do you think it could be different ?’. Of course a society can exist without greed. Think about Swiss villages 200 years ago. Do you think these where constantly ravaged by corporations or driven by greed? Greed is what replaces the desire for comfort in a society where money has destroyed the availability of trust.
I could look out 29 windows at all the homeless i guess. can you look out more than 1 window at a time.
English version. Patti and I.
@Dedo. old clip of uncle milty. not sure if i should still want 9 cars and 10 bedroom house. it’s just me and patty and rosie the dog. what can you do with all that fucking stuff.
A little wake up call to all the altruists (socialists) out there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-o0kD9f6wo&feature=related
@Stacy .. very few new clothing items in past few years
Yes, I have to agree.
!
I , personally, never buy clothes unless I have to .. like a new contract job where I have to wear a suit ( which I hate ), but if the money is good enough, why not, it’s only 6 months usually ( I feel like a prostitute in a suit …. quite rightly
My wife – who buys only for the kids – has also mentioned that a Kids Jeans can cost 50/60 Euros at the “big name” stores .. just like certain Brand-name shoes .
Who it stupid enough to buy kids shoes for 100 Euros, I DO NOT KNOW !
I sometimes drag my wife to a “Trödelmarkt” ( so-called Junk market ), where we have bought fabulous quality for a VERY fair price .
A friend of mine that is often frequenting these Trödelmärkte often buys shoes for me for 1 Euro if he sees good quality , like the Dockers I’m earing right now ( just came back from the Forest ).
I have bought many new tools like Chainsaws, Flex, Drills etc. via EBay or Trödelmärkte at a price 80% below the retail outlet’s price.
My last “hit” was a pair of brand-new Stihl “Chainsaw” boots for 50 GBP in the UK, they cost 200+ Euros here in Germany. The guy even delivered them personally free of charge to my mother’s house !
@Stacey. somebody’s gonna shit there pants about 59 minutes out.
@ronron … but there’s no room for all these fucking cars.
LOL !
If all the cars in Germany were parked all at once on all the Autobahns, they would have to be stacked 3 layers high.
Also I found it interesting that 66% of all private cars in Germany are LEASED !!!
I meant to say “I wonder if part of the motivation for the invasive security precautions is to isolate Americans from people who would otherwise travel there.”
The most powerful tool of an abuser is to isolate their victims. I wonder if part of the security is to isolate Americans from people who would otherwise travel there. Reminds me of Max’s take on the US media’s slant against the French.
here {cringe!}
Taoiseach rules out early probe into banking crisis
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/taoiseach-rules-out-early-probe-into-banking-crisis-1990135.html
…move along, nothing to see hear
@ Stacy – we used to have a Levi’s plant in Edmonton and I liked their jeans because they actually make some for scrawny people. Then they closed it claiming globalization pressures. The Levis I bought about 6 months ago were made in Bangladesh (I put off buying them but couldn’t find anything made locally so I caved). I noticed when I got them home that the right leg is twisted so the seam at the bottom is over about an inch and a half further than it should be. What did I do? Keep them of course! It’s such a pain to return stuff.
What really got me was my Northern Face coat though. I researched it carefully, it seemed good. And yet it has a seam along the top that loses a tremendous amount of heat. Luckily I figured out to put a scarf along from shoulder to shoulder and that works pretty good.
Shoes from the same purchase were the most expensive I’d ever bought by far and completely unwearable. I got a credit for the good cash I paid, and used that to buy three sweaters, two of which I haven’t even taken out of the bag after a month. Everything they had for sweaters was junk. Nothing that would last and was actually made with wool blends or would otherwise perform well. Nothing. And this was a big place for Sportswear. They’ve got pics of hikers on the wall, and no sweater with wool? Acrylic acrylic acrylic. All brand and no substance.
Thank God we have a farmer’s market. It’s the only thing I can get consistent value buying. Tomatoes that are red inside instead of white. Oh yeah, I used to buy Ritter Sport bars (German Chocolate) and they got disgusting about a year ago as well. Sometimes they tasted like coffee, other times waxy and soapy. Bernard Callebaut are still good, if you can afford about $1.25/chocolate.
Vic Chesnutt killed himself because he couldn’t afford kidney surgery: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/ri-p-vic-chesnutt-songwriter-another
And . . . it’s already here; anyone flying to US will be ‘frisked’ and will not be allowed to get out of seat for the last hour of flight or hold anything in their laps; what an effing hellhole: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-plane-travel-rules27-2009dec27,0,7505689.story
@Marc Authier. I remember when a coat check was 10 cents.
It’s not economy. It’s goldmanomy.
@ronron
Tout à fait. A Santa-Claus Al-CIA-aida christmas special. I heard rumors that Al-CIA-aida and Al-Mossad and Al-Nato, intend using also other orifices for planting bombs. The suggestion of checking systematically all orifices comes from a wacko in the the Sarkonnard collabo government; Monsieur Hortefeux.
I heard that the next step will be expoding dentures, exploding glass eyes, exploding stomachs, exploding mammal implants (poor Pamela Anderson), exploding burkas, exploding diaphragm, exploding blood, Might as well laught about your MADE FOR FOX TV special terrorist christnmas extravaganza freak show.
Just for the fun of it. Let’s be psycho. You add to the blood a certain chemical counpound and after 6 hours, the blood becomes an explosive, You could do the same thing with gastric secretion. One martini too much and you explode,
It would be more convenient to implant to everybody maybe a RDFI chip to monitor all bobily functions ? You never know.
@Mother Earth. All fiat currency’s are backed by gold, silver, oil, wheat etc. You will see what i mean shortly.
I think the junk stems from money laundering. It puts pressure on businesses to sell brand instead of product, and to push margins to extremes that make providing quality impossible. They’re more concerned with managing the production and maintenance of favorable perceptions than quality products. Of course, companies that don’t launder illicit money, still have to compete with those that do… It’s a race to the bottom.
Maybe we should cheer the death of the derivatives overhaul, because that means an implosion is still possible. I read US families are saving more, which is so sad imho, because their money will lose value and its a response to an artificial situation. Banks are fraudulent institutions. The get the respect of someone that invests his hard earned money to promote economy, but in reality they have grabbed all they can an have pushed as much people into debt based on an insane privilege called fractional banking. It is deeply depressing, because this fraud drives the planet to the brink. Fiat money creation should be outlawed.
@Daniel S – same here! I have only bought a very few new clothing items in past few years and then only out of absolute necessity; it was about five or six years ago I began to notice all sorts of stuff, including the top ‘quality’ brands, starting to become really shoddy . . . and falling apart after one or two washes . . . my ten year old stuff is still holding together . . .
It’s to the point where I don’t want to buy anything any longer (am in Canada). It seems nearly every time I spend money I get screwed, despite being careful.
Our household owns the following defective items, many unusable, few returned.
Fan, lamp, another lamp, bicycle, replacement bicycle tires, exercise bike, two weight benches, heavy bag, mattress, winter coat, pants, shoes that would literally injure your feet, buggy dvd player, pots that corroded badly, monitor, etc. I’ve nearly lived like an ascetic, so that’s a lot of stuff to have problems with.
It’s to the point where I’m so tired of fighting for my money that we don’t even call our landlord about problems with our suite, and when furnace cleaners we hired did a crappy job, we didn’t bother calling the better business bureau. Apparently others don’t either because those bums have a good rating.
@Phil/Germany. goodmorning. you could be right about the fuel thing, but there’s no room for all these fucking cars.
Where is billo when you need him.
@Mike/Liverpool .. Good Morning …. forgot my manners !
On Peak Oil again ..
Lindsey Williams reckons there’s enough oil in Alaska ( Prudhoe Bay ) to last the US another 50 years, and enough Gas there for the next 200 years.
+ The amount Russian Gas is AFAIK gigantic.
Just suppose cars all convert to Gas, leaving the precious Oil for the Petrochemical Industry ( Plastics, etc. etc. ); would there then be a crisis the size of Armagheddon I wonder ?
The trouble is, with so much propaganda out there, you rally don’t know who t believe.
Me?
I believe that Peak Oil is probably real, but do not believe that society will crash in the way it is often reported.
Would someone please tell me to shut up.
that being said. American’s spread the canadian garbage on there land. They bring the Chinese garbage inside and let there kids play with it.
funny not. everyday 24/7 Toronto’s garbage is trucked to Detroit.The USA can take garbage cheaper than anyone else. Now that’s sound economics.
@Mike/Liverpool. goodmorning to you. inflation has been with us as long as i can remember but as long as wages and house prices kept rising it was bearable. no more ATM house and dead wages is reality now. inflation starts tomorrow.
@Mike/Liverpool … when ?
Doesn’t the UK announce it’s new budget in April ?
Maybe that will be the critical – and last – day , before reality drops ?
Morning Phil/Stacy/Ron
I think the BIG question is when are we to see the effects………..Eg High inflation?
Mike
@Sergio … Read this:
… There’s also another effect to this, which almost always goes unnoticed: it results in an upwards transfer of income from debtor classes (consumers and productive businesses) to banks and investors. This has several deleterious effects; first off, productive businesses which actually have to make things or provide useful services to get more income become unattractive investments compared to banks and financial institutions, which are able to simply create money from nothing. It becomes a situation in which good “money” (productive capital) is being driven out by bad (unproductive money creation)….
http://dailyelitist.com/2009/01/12/the-deflation-vs-hyperinflation-debate-credit-money-vs-cash/
Thanks for that link … recommend everyone reads the small article !
Short and concise !
I’ve been raving to everyone I meet about the increasing proportion of “sawdust” in NZ breads, even supposedly “premium” brands like Vogels — and also the amount of oats in cereals and museli… i.e. invisible inflation… but people think I’m an absolute lunatic for bringing it up. These fuckers can kiss my ass when the starving Indonesian zombie hordes surge southward… my doors will be welded shut and my front yard full of claymores and pits of shit-smeared punji-sticks.
@maxkeiser.com
Cheers to All Y’all.
Blondie – Sunday Girl (french vocal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX0GPHy2nYo
http://tinyurl.com/ykl9nkc (mp3)
@mike. gold is still flatlining. @Irelands favourite song, US fenders are rubbernecks. good enough for you though.
us
North sea running dry:-
http://www.offshore247.com/news/art.aspx?Id=15640
Mike
@Stacey. true but sad. i’m staying in canada. you realize the latest terror was made for TV.
@Danny. make a point with a shitty guitar. i like good ones. buy american even if it is shit.
@ronron
Now that you say it, I would always insist on American made guitars anytime I would buy one…
Thanks a lot Bernays…
@Dedo/Rory McIIroy
I’m lookin at my copy of Hitler/Wall St right now; truly shocking stuff especially the IG Farben part with the documents n all. definately worth a look
@Mother – re: Abu Dhabi fall out . . . we predicted this would happen; why it is happening in Abu Dhabi, however, where there is a trillion dollars in the sovereign wealth fund . . . shame
@ronron – lots of stuff about the Nigerian on the flight to Detroit story; if past is prologue, all you men are going to have a bit of a more intimate search if you want to board an airplane . . .
the first 3 articles at wwwwhatreallyhappened.com are interesting today. but not so funny.
@Staceyhebert. in the eighty’s Japan started manufacturing Fender guitars. they were finer than what fender USA were making at the time. cheaper and better. i still have one today.
Abu Dhabi fallout http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8431095.stm
@maxkeiser.com
er… stacy… Kids… Toys… er… JUNK… I sometimes worry about whether you are getting out enough!!!
@Alister,..Thanks for the heads up regarding Sutton,.I’ve heard his interview years ago, just downloaded one of his books for an afternoons read:
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/119639.pdf
@Manufaturing Junk
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Ideally, companies exist to provide products and services to people. If the products and services are good, the companies prosper; if they aren’t, the companies fail. That’s risky, so American companies inverted this model. They fed the public the notion, which has rarely been questioned, that a company’s responsibility is solely the financial welfare of its stockholders. Products and services are no longer the goal of business; they are merely means to profit. That reducing quality leads to greater profits quickly became evident. One fewer olive in each jar, one flimsy part in a complex device, one inefficient procedure in a manufacturing process, built-in obsolescence, built-in short product life-cycles, engineered high failure rates. The American quality standard became, “Junk”! For more examples, see my paper, America on the Dulling Edge.
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So when the American power elite speak of a rebounding economy, they are whistling Dixie in the Yukon. There is no economy left to rebound. It has been dismantled and exported. The ultimate cause of America’s collapse is the entrenched, rigid, faulty ideologies that our nation’s leaders have adopted. These ideologies placed America on the road to ruin. Foreign policies, especially wars paid for by borrowing, have increased the speed of travel on this road. And as incomes decrease, so do our freedoms. Future historians will someday ask, who lost America? The answer will be the American business community, its economists, and its politicians who have adopted rigid ideologies. That answer will serve as America’s epitaph.
Nice find … Thx.
Eurosceptic Robert Oulds on the Bruges Group, British Global Alternatives, and the End of the EU
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We put “fiscal discipline” in quotes because while it is true that the euro-zone demands or is supposed to demand a certain level of economic rationality from its associated countries, the reality is that Europe is mostly a hopeless case when it comes to government spending, taxation, inflation, etc. In another generation, the European fiscal climate will probably be nearly as bad as Russia’s (its USSR-version) before she imploded.
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http://www.thedailybell.com/689/Robert-Oulds-Bruges-Group-End-the-EU.html
Interesting chat about the European Culture … from PLATO to NATO.
etc.
My guess is: Think speculation vehicle. Speculation kills quality..