Shame-OUT: Republician Stubborness

IT's NOT time to sit and ARGUE

We're in a Financial Crisis as bad (I believe) as the "Great Depression" (or as I call it now, the Second Depression)...

We are no longer in:

* An election cycle
* A presidential Election
* A period of ""loyal opposition"*
* A time when we can use the 'same old' arguments for/against 'growth' or big government.

The time to argue is OVER. We as Americans have not lived through the times that were prevalent in the first depression of the 1930's.

We can pray, and be grateful, that the head of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, received his doctorate in studying the 'first (great) depression'.

If Bernanke had not studied the depression so much we would not be at 7.6 percent unemployment on 2/9/09, but we would already perhaps be at double that rate (15%).

I further my argument that now is not the time to play "partisan politics" (democratic or republican). I think that our new president is doing a spectacular job of attempting to be non-partisan, but am totally mystified at the reaction of the republican so called "loyal opposition" when they either say, "More tax cuts, or worse yet, "No more big spending".

Here's what I call the "real deal". (In my opinion), It's going to get much much worse. The economy will not be improving in the short term, or even within 18 months. It will (again in my opinion) get much, much worse.

* The Stock markets will not improve.
* The banks will need to start lending money to people and businesses, but won't until pushed.
* The jobless rate will continue to grow.
* The homeless rates (and foreclosure rate) will continue to skyrocket.

And my number one take-away from this situation:

It's going to require MASSIVE ** amounts of CA$H to pump into our country for us to get out of this second depression. It isn't pretty, it isn't documented (except if you carefully look into the way FDR got us out of the 'great' depression.)

And (as usual for me) *** I used the first depression, and took notes, and came up with a twelve point plan (that the current president has mostly agreed with) to get our country out of this mess.

---> nuff said for now<------

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* Loyal opposition? What happened to the Majority in Congress during the eight years of the 'failed presidency' of George W?

** Excuse the CAPS. I have been attempting to use less capitalized words (I see this as emPHASis), in my posts, but some are occasionally needed.

*** I have no problems admitting that my mind, while less "classically trained" (read: educated), functions faster, and better then some people with doctorates out there. Those with advanced training might disagree, and even violently disagree, but remember it's my blog, but I keep commenting totally open and anonymous comments ARE allowed.

I will be posting an example of this later today/tomorrow as a 'shout-out' to myself for correctly calling the "waterboarding is torture" debacle of three years ago...

---

Just a reminder: THIS IS MY blog. I am happy to suggest and receive criticism, or ideas.
I have been consistently saying many of these things for many years. (This blog has been going since 2006, and has over 600 posts...)

and I also ask that if you find me interesting (or perhaps even good entertainment...), you recommend my blog to someone...

Financial Crisis: The band plays on

...And the band plays on (Dance band on the Titanic)...


Was in a waiting room today, saw CNBC and they had wall to wall financial crisis.

BUT NOBODY is asking them the KEY critical QUESTION:

What about ALL the TRILLIONS of dollars in CONSUMER debt that was made into
'CDO' (collateralized debt obligations) or CDS (ccollateralized debt swaps)

and sold ALL over the world JUST like the Subprime Mortgages?

I've been YELLING and SCREAMING that "THE SKY IS FALLING!!!"

I keep telling people that we're going to get another 75 % of the iceberg that we're about to hit...


mark

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OK, you wanted a Political discussion: Here goes.

AND NOTE I SAY we;re going into a **D*E*P*R*E*S*S*I*O*N** !

The background I believe that:
* We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.
* It's going to be as BAD as the last one.
* The current failures only bring us 25% into the problem!!
* According to Robert Reich (former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton): The only number that he EVER saw, defining the
depression was that the unemployment rate hovered around 25%.
* We need a new deal.
* After 58 years of NO Health Care Reform (since 1950!) it will FINALLY be coming soon...
* We've managed to WASTE a FULL generation (from Zero to thirty) with decaying social, educational, and interpersonal skills.
* Our nation is no longer DOING (producing) anything.
SO, from these few premises, I have extrapolated a great deal of items to FIX our society...

But....
We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

Here's what I came up with:

We need to do the FOLLOWING to FIX our Society:
* Create A Living Wage
* Create a National Single payer Healthcare
* Create a National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
* Create a Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
* Implement Tax Reform on the ULTRA Rich
* Lobbying (Political Reform)
* Education
* Infrastructure (road /bridge/Systems repairs)
* Lack of Training/futures
* Truth and Reconcilliation Commission
* A new "Manhattan" project, focusing on Energy INDEPENDENCE

See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details.

This American Life: the financial Crisis:

Hey. This week's "This American Life", covers the financial crisis.


38 minutes into the show, they discuss the lack of regulation, and how it seems
that it never was done.

The CULPRIT is FORMER senator Phil Gramm. Now a financial industry consultant.

He slipped a paragraph into an appropriations bill which TOTALLY deregulated
all credit markets, and SPECIFICALLY FORBID EVERY state from regulating them too!

He now works for the financial industry.
minute 41 of the program discusses regulating the Credit Default Swap market.

This was UNDONE in 1998, congress was asked to regulate this market, but Senator Gramm slipped this provision into a bill IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!
in the year 2000.

NOTE the SAME Phil Gramm that USED to be an presidential advisor to JOHN MCCain
before he said, "there's no financial crisis, and we're a nation of Whiners."



Minute 52: the Stock injection Plan:

Instead of this PAULSON plan, the fed would just buy shares in the banks...

The STOCK INJECTION plan was INCLUDED in the House and SENATE bill..

(halujah...) THIS is an OPTION...


the stock injection plan would essentially buy shares in a bank, and be able to do with the company just what they did with AIG.

(throw out the bums, give them cash, and you own the company!)

cheers...
Highly recommende
Here's a link audio should be up on monday 10/6 http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/365.mp3
right click, to save on your desktop, and simply listen to it.


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
OK, you wanted a Political discussion: Here goes.

The background I believe that:
* We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.
* It's going to be as BAD as the last one.
* The current failures only bring us 25% into the problem!!
* According to Robert Reich (former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton): The only number that he EVER saw, defining the
depression was that the unemployment rate hovered around 25%.
* We need a new deal.
* After 58 years of NO Health Care Reform (since 1950!) it will FINALLY be coming soon...
* We've managed to WASTE a FULL generation (from Zero to thirty) with decaying social, educational, and interpersonal skills.
* Our nation is no longer DOING (producing) anything.
SO, from these few premises, I have extrapolated a great deal of items to FIX our society...

But....
We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

Here's what I came up with:

We need to do the FOLLOWING to FIX our Society:
* Create A Living Wage
* Create a National Single payer Healthcare
* Create a National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
* Create a Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
* Implement Tax Reform on the ULTRA Rich
* Lobbying (Political Reform)
* Education
* Infrastructure (road /bridge/Systems repairs)
* Lack of Training/futures
* Truth and Reconcilliation Commission
* A new "Manhattan" project, focusing on Energy INDEPENDENCE

See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details.

Prediction: Wachovia Next, within two weeks

Lehman Brothers
Bear Sterns
Merill Lynch Bank Of America
Washington Mutual
AIG insurance

Are we done yet? HELL NO!

Wachovia is NEXT. I predict by October 10th (next Friday)
It will be either closed by the Office of thrift Supervision, or Totally acquired:

Citicorp and Wells Fargo are currently circling their wagons.

I say Wells Fargo has more of a chance.

Cheers,
And remember it's NOT even 25% into the crisis.

UNTIL the banks and the FEDS acknowledge that consumer DEBT CDO's are gonna
tank too, we will all be Bullshitting EVERYTHING....


cheers
...ps... written 9-28 10:30Pm (in case they're bought while I'm sleeping!!)

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
OK, you wanted a Political discussion: Here goes.

The background I believe that:
* We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.
* It's going to be as BAD as the last one.
* The current failures only bring us 25% into the problem!!
* According to Robert Reich (former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton): The only number that he EVER saw, defining the
depression was that the unemployment rate hovered around 25%.
* We need a new deal.
* After 58 years of NO Health Care Reform (since 1950!) it will FINALLY be coming soon...
* We've managed to WASTE a FULL generation (from Zero to thirty) with decaying social, educational, and interpersonal skills.
* Our nation is no longer DOING (producing) anything.
SO, from these few premises, I have extrapolated a great deal of items to FIX our society...

But....
We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

Here's what I came up with:

We need to do the FOLLOWING to FIX our Society:
* Create A Living Wage
* Create a National Single payer Healthcare
* Create a National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
* Create a Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
* Implement Tax Reform on the ULTRA Rich
* Lobbying (Political Reform)
* Education
* Infrastructure (road /bridge/Systems repairs)
* Lack of Training/futures
* Truth and Reconcilliation Commission
* A new "Manhattan" project, focusing on Energy INDEPENDENCE

See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details.

I told you SO Department

BYE BYE WaMu

With Apologies to (Charles Strouse Music / Lyrics by Lee Adams)

Bye-Bye WaMu
I'm gonna miss you so;
Bye Bye WaMu,
Why'd you have to go?
No more sunshine,
It's followed you away;
I'll cry WaMu,
I'll miss the way you smile,
As tho' it's just for me;
And each and ev'ry night,
I'll write you faithfully!
Bye Bye WaMu,
It's awful hard to bear;
Bye Bye WaMu
Think I'll always wonder,
Guess I'll always be scared,
Guess I'll never even care.

Shout-Out: Goodbye Lehman Brothers, Goodbye US.Economy

Now, I'm not a rich person. (Even though I do know that a childhood friend is a multi-billionaire, I've never called him in adult-hood, for fear of being a "leech")

I was astounded to notice that I missed the headline when I went to bed last night saying, Bank of America bought MERRILL LYNCH.

They were SUPPOSED to buy Lehman Brothers.

The SKY is falling. The Sky is Falling.

I did say we were in for a DEPRESSION, DIDN'T I???

I did SAY the "mortgage" crisis was ONLY the TIP of the ICEBERG, DIDN't I?

Stock tip:

By the way, if you own WAMU stock, sell it at whatever loss that you can, or BETTER YET, SELL SHORT.

I'd say that it will be acquired this week, or closed/brokered by the FEDS.

GOODBYE and good Riddance. I liked them a few years ago when they chose to make a stand and open their ATM network for FREE to all users,
ANd then they undid themselves and reversed their position.

No way, WAMU... GOODBYE.

Back to Chicken Little:

I did say.. (I need to research through my almost 600 posts in the past three years...)

* THAT we are headed for a HUGE DEPRESSION when our economic system TANKS.

* THat we're gonna have unemployment that we can't even IMAGINE today.
* That it's gonna take A NEW deal (again) to get the country OUT of this.

See the lovely post UNDER the bar... There is an 11 point program that will GET US OUT of this (and I've been telling people this for almost 2 years now... but I have zero readership!!!so what good does it do??)



+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
OK, you wanted a Political discussion: Here goes.

The background I believe that:
* We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.
* It's going to be as BAD as the last one.
* According to Robert Reich (former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton): The only number that he EVER saw, defining the
depression was that the unemployment rate hovered around 25%.
* We need a new deal.
* After 58 years of NO Health Care Reform (since 1950!) it will FINALLY be coming soon...
* We've managed to WASTE a FULL generation (from Zero to thirty) with decaying social, educational, and interpersonal skills.
* Our nation is no longer DOING (producing) anything.
SO, from these few premises, I have extrapolated a great deal of items to FIX our society...

But....
We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

Here's what I came up with:

We need to do the FOLLOWING to FIX our Society:
1 Create A Living Wage
2 Create a National Single payer Healthcare
3 Create a National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
4 Create a Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
5 Implement Tax Reform on the ULTRA Rich
6 Lobbying (Political Reform)
7 Education
8 Infrastructure (road /bridge/Systems repairs)
9 Lack of Training/futures
10 Truth and Reconcilliation Commission
11 A new "Manhattan" project, focusing on Energy INDEPENDENCE

See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details.

Shame-OUT: fix the executive-normal pay G A P!!!

AP Reports that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Earned Roughly $30 Million in Salary Last Year

this is despicable. We need to fix this. we need to start taxing the HIGHEST paid 10,000 people in this company... a Straight 40% tax on ALL income (and dividends, and NO SPECIAL capital gains allowances)!!!
see my other blog below...

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
OK, you wanted a Political discussion: Here goes.

The background I believe that:
* We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.
* It's going to be as BAD as the last one.
* According to Robert Reich (former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton): The only number that he EVER saw, defining the
depression was that the unemployment rate hovered around 25%.
* We need a new deal.
* After 58 years of NO Health Care Reform (since 1950!) it will FINALLY be coming soon...
* We've managed to WASTE a FULL generation (from Zero to thirty) with decaying social, educational, and interpersonal skills.
* Our nation is no longer DOING (producing) anything.
SO, from these few premises, I have extrapolated a great deal of items to FIX our society...

But....
We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

Here's what I came up with:

We need to do the FOLLOWING to FIX our Society:
* Create A Living Wage
* Create a National Single payer Healthcare
* Create a National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
* Create a Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
* Implement Tax Reform on the ULTRA Rich
* Lobbying (Political Reform)
* Education
* Infrastructure (road /bridge/Systems repairs)
* Lack of Training/futures
* Truth and Reconcilliation Commission
* A new "Manhattan" project, focusing on Energy INDEPENDENCE

See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details.

News: Economy: Freddy Mac/Fannie Mae woes

(sorry: cross-posted to both blogs! We're getting close to the EDGE of *D*e*p*r*e*s*s*i*o*n* )

hey( WHO's counting? Let's say the fed did NOTHING. Then these semi-public companies would no lolnger be able to sell their bonds.

The bonds they sell are Mortgages, that are (get this)... Packaged together, not sub-prime, but are pooled into big (think million dollar) pieces.

Gee... Sounds similar to the previous (Sub-prime Mortgage ) bonds that lost all their value.

or similar to what I think will be the next crisis: the crisis based on the CREDIT card balances that have ALSO been aggregated into major league bonds.

Arguh.
=================================
(In case you haven't seen this, I believe the CURRENT recession will become a BAD DEPRESSION (Just like the 1930's!)
We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.

We need a new deal.

We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

We need to FIX:
* A Living Wage
* National Single payer Healthcare
* National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
* Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
* Tax Reform
* Lobbying (Political Reform)
* Education
* Infrastructure
* Lack of Training/futures


See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details on rebuilding society.