Chop Chop Chop
The Greeks are used to breaking things. It’s part of their custom. Smashing plates at parties, wedding receptions and tavernas, that is. The custom is said to have originated with ancient traveling potters breaking their own wares, inviting the locals to share in the fun and thereby maintaining a market for their products.
But the story also goes that the noise of the smashing of plates was meant to drive away evil spirits. That makes a lot more sense in modern terms: rioting Greeks (and others) breaking things to ward off the evils of the recession – pensions being reduced, benefits being cut, public spending being chopped, bankers continually being stuffed with free public money, etc. Read more…
Now that they have your money they will keep it
Your banker loves you. Especially since the latest accord of Basil III was sneaked into being by the BIS (Bank of International Settlements). The bankers agree to hold more capital in reserve, rising from the current 4% to 4.5% by 2013 and 6% by 2019, plus an emergency reserve of 2.5%, totaling some 8.5%. In short, it means that banks have 9 years (before the agreement comes into full effect – if it does) to capitalize on your money.
The banks will obviously use Basil III as an excuse NOT to lend while, at the same time, increasing their profits and – no guessing needed – bonus payouts. Basically, now that they have your money they will keep it. Read more…
The face of modern terrorism
Clean shaven, immaculately dressed, manicured, arrogant. Looking at the Goldman Sachs executives during the Senate hearing on mortgages one cannot help but realize that these are the faces of modern terrorism.
The grilling Senator Carl Levin’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations gave the seven bankers – including Lloyd Blankfein, the most hated man in the world – will not reverse the damage done, will not bring back the properties lost and lives destroyed. It only reminds one that not all terrorists are armed with guns. Read more…
Finally earth is hotting up
After a rather coolish season, earth is finally hotting up again. Nothing to do with the temperature. We’re talking about exciting human happenings. And therefor lots of names.
> Great American Le Mans Series racing: Patrón Highcroft Racing team David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud pipped the Aston Martin Racing team Harold Primat and Adrian Fernandez to the post by a breathtaking 0.353 seconds at Long Beach in a race that was run at a hot pace throughout.
> Spectacular Formula One racing: Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rossberg – frankly, all the drivers in the F1 circus performed well in the wet but wonderful Chinese Grand Prix. Read more…
When half empty is half empty
Glass half full or glass half empty is dependent on your perspective. So when the bankers shot off another volley of apologies while foreclosures and unemployment continue to wreak havoc the half empty looks, well, half empty. New York Times columnist Frank Rich explained it well when he quoted Alan Greenspan – “I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time” – adding, “If the captain of the Titanic followed the Greenspan model, he could claim he was on course at least 70 percent of the time too.”
The bankers reaction reminds one of a guy who rapes his daughter every day of the week, goes for therapy, and comes back claiming he is much better now because he stopped raping her on Mondays. Read more…
Brother, can you spare your brother a dime
Mexican Carlo Slim Helu ousted Bill Gates as the world’s richest man, according to the famous Forbes Rich List. There’s only half-a-billion between them, though: Slim is worth $53.5 billion and Gates $53 billion. But even that is a ton of money. Actually, more than a ton. If you stack one million $1 bills, it would be 361 ft (110m) high and weigh exactly 1 ton. So there is 500 tons of dollar bills difference between the world’s two richest men.
Now, if you’re bored, you can work out how high a pile of money Carlos Slim has. Or take the length of a dollar – 6.14 inches long (2.61 inches wide) – and see how far his money will go. Or lay it out side-by-side (a dollar is 15 square inches) and you’ll see that the money of one man covers the whole earth. Except that it doesn’t, of course. Because it’s mostly based on stock values and if that breaks – as often happens – he wouldn’t have enough money to cover his arse. In short, the value of a billionaire is in the eyes of the beholder, the latter being other billionaires. If they lose sight – as often happens – you lose everything (332 members of last year’s billionaires list lost out this year, most likely never to return). Read more…
Dr Doom’s new painting
When Greek astronomer Aristarchos explained in the 3rd century BC that earth revolves around the sun he was laughed at. When Peter Schiff warned in 2006 about an impending economic bust he was heckled on television by other economists. When Nouriel Roubini said in 2005 that speculation in the housing market would sink the economy he was labeled as “Dr Doom,” sharing the title with Marc Faber, who predicted the 1987 stock exchange crash and almost every other bear and bull market since. Today, at a presentation in Japan, Faber painted another picture of the economy, displayed excellently in The Times.
The Dr Dooms’ predictions: Roubini predicted in 2009 that the recession will last a few years; Faber predicts “a dirty war” and that the US will go bankrupt. Schiff has long predicted the eventual fall of the dollar. Read more…
The people’s bank
Banks borrow money from the public, create an insane amount of new money based upon multiples of the base money at an almost uncontrolled level, and then lend it back to the public at hugely increased rates. Money from nothing. Never made sense to me that almost all money is created by private banks without them having any security for it except other multiples of the base money, meaning they simply print more money in the form of creating more debt avenues.
What makes even less sense is that the public has voted for this (when they drew that little cross on the voting form). What is totally astounding is that the public will do so again on the next election day (in whichever country). The reason why they do so is simple: they never do due diligence on the party or person they vote for; it is a brain-numbing thought in this, the twenty-first century, when we are supposed to have more information available at our fingertips than ever before. For some reason, people seem simply not to believe or understand that almost all money in circulation is created by the banks for their own profit, no-one else’s. And that this is fake money. (The cash profits the bankers take are the real deposits made by the public and investors like pension funds.) If the created money was real money, based on actual value, the banks would not have needed bailing out. Read more…
Never mind the G8 the GR needs attention
The Baby Boomers pensions went down the drain, many of Generation-X have lost their jobs, and Generation-Y can’t find jobs. Think you have it tough? Pity Generation-R, the Recession Generation. GR will be paying off the debt that the G8 created by giving away the Baby Boomers pensions and the Gen-X savings while Gen-Y was away at war.
The thought of another lost generation makes one shudder. Lessons from previous recessions (and Japan) have taught us that the horrible effects of “lost” money could last for decades, longer even than the impact of war.
But of course, money can’t just disappear. The trillions of dollars traded on stock exchanges was just a giant ponzi scheme, that we know. The profits taken off the top were real money. We can get it back for our children’s sake. It must be somewhere. Switzerland?
Move Your Money
It’s a brilliant idea and quite a buzz. Move your money away from risky banks that do not benefit society in general anyhow. Put your money into your local credit union or community bank.
The call to “move your money” was made Arianna Huffington on her blog post and received an excellent response. It led to a whole movement and a web site called Move Your Money that provides a handy widget to easily find a good bank near you.
