Mr. Brown had it right.

--bh

Idiots...Do you expect anything more than what you are getting?

Has mp posted since his farewell at all? He had said he would still post now and then I thought?

"Has mp posted since his farewell at all? He had said he would still post now and then I thought?
Comrade Kristina"

Hey is too busy posting on Penthouse forum.

"Here are a couple of quotes that are making the rounds"

Spoken by those who have been consuming the rounds, njo doubt.

Nostrovia,

Mr. Brown's office issued a correction later (recession, not depression). Here is a short video:

But in the video it looks like he started to say "recession" and then corrected himself and said "depression".

He must have just been talking to his economic advisers and forgot that all the depression talk was supposed to stay behind closed doors.

She was thinking about the next stimulus plan.

Or is our economy making fundamental souunds? fool me once...

Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy that these are the people being counted on to guide the world economy out of the current morass? Think I might have stock up on shotgun shells on the way home tonight.

"Great job Brownie"

He's gone by May.....The English are a bit more astute in political protestation then the masses here. As long as the credit card works people don't give a shit. When "Ian" goes to the pub after a long day at the docks and see's his pounds not buying the same amount of Guiness....well that will be a huge problem.

Ciao
MS

Ju writes:
treasuries are on fire today
Ju | 02.04.09 - 12:49 pm |

30 year up almost 120 bps from its recent low.

I hope Jas is OK.

Jesse's Café Américain 

sums up the GS propoganda nicely...pay back TARP take from Fed. Total scumbags, everything out of these is too clever by half - except for Tiny Tim

Speaker Pelosi (who happens to be my congressperson) has been spending too much time around too many zeroes, that's all.

haha "too many zeros"..I saw on the CNN crawler yesterday that Zimbabwe decided to drop 12 zeros from their currency, problem solved!

Bush 'I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free market system'

Should read:

'I've abandoned free-market principles to save the Federal Reserve credit market monopoly.'

Of the bankers, by the bankers, for the bankers.

BAC has a new 52 week low now...under five bucks...

Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs."

Haven't we had an economic recovery package since October?

Maybe the correction ought to read:

Every month that we have an economic recovery package 500 thousand Americans lose their jobs."

Just the quote. I couldn't care less about partisan politics. Comity?
sexy derivative | 02.04.09 - 1:00 pm | #

No problem, just not here okay? 

BAC has a new 52 week low now...under five bucks...
\t Comrade Kristina | \t \t \tHomepage | \t02.04.09 - 1:02 pm | #

Only 5 more to go.  The giant sh¡t sammiches they are trying to digest (countrywide & Merrill) are just the obvious ones.  Had they hunkered down and stuck to their knitting they'd still be screwed. 

Man, mention one quote from Bush in a thread about "funny things politicians say" thread and get trounced on.

By the way, what the heck is wrong with Bank of America?

(said with a straight face)

Nemo, BofA is the spawn of Satan...that's what is wrong with them in a nutshell..

Here's a roundup of articles on the stimulus package, lots 'o links from the chattering classes:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/topic/?topic=obama_stimulus_package

Or we could spend the next 4 years discussing Obama "I never even accepted the principle of free markets." Let's give it a rest here shall we? There's only one CR and there are hundreds of political slugfest blogs where this stuff belongs.
Rob Dawg

Come on Rob. You freely and regularly make your "Leader O" cracks prophesying what Obama is going to do over the next 4 years. But when facts are stated on what we know Bush did over the last 8 years, you call foul. I know republicans think their rules only apply to others and not to them but that duplicitous belief system is old, tired and obviously failing.

"“They’re not comfortable with this value,”

Sounds eerily familiar....

Understatement of the century....including last.

Ciao
MS

Pelosi's was just a slip. What troubles me is that I think Brown's error was Freudian.

By the way - 1 currency sooner [yogi] writes:
Without accepting your numbers as true, let's start with the obvious: the majority doesn't need a special interest group.

True - majorities don't need them, but they sure get a lot of mileage out of them!

Today someone asked me what the government should do in response to this crisis. I responded with the following. Feedback appreciated!!!

Things the government should do:

1) Create a good bank. Above all else, the government must ensure that productive companies are able to secure financing and stop laying off employees. It is extraordinarily inefficient for the government to support companies by channeling money through the existing financial system. They will siphon off trillions to repair their damaged balance sheets, and the money isn’t going to get where it needs to go. This is politically a nightmare, but it must happen or this will turn into a greater depression.

2) Channel money into venture capital firms, with proven managers and investor matching. For any economic recovery to happen, we need new companies with new ideas, new business models, new jobs, and positive future yield. The government is grossly inefficient, corrupt, and wasteful. Therefore this any investment should be managed by people that know what they’re doing, and share in the up/downside.

3) Invest heavily/immediately in infrastructure and public works projects. We need productive outlets for unemployed people. We cannot afford to keep paying people for doing nothing.

4) Fix the healthcare system. This might mean nationalized healthcare immediately. This would have the same impact for companies as a tax cut, and it provides a social safety net for those that lose their jobs. Yes, this will screw over the health insurance companies. But they are a racket, profiting from those that are able to pay, while dumping those that cannot off onto Medicare and other government programs. Insurers, big pharma, and the lawyers can all go to hell, IMO.

5) Provide a solution to the massive debt burden of our population. Debt must be written down, and it should be done equitably. Those that were responsible should be rewarded. Maybe this means writing a large check to all taxpayers to help them write down debt. The moral hazard of rewarding those that were stupid/irresponsible with mortgage reductions is an abomination of capitalism. Debt must be written off equally for everyone.

6) Identify how the government is going to meet its unfunded liabilities. This means either inflation or default. The charade of constantly expanding the government balance sheet via debt and borrowing, while postponing the inevitable will end soon, one way or another. Better it happens in a controlled way than through a bond market collapse.

7) Expand taxation of the super-wealthy. This can be done via the Estate/Death tax, a tax on wealth & assets, or a requirement that a portion of investment profits are channeled back into our country (i.e. the VC idea). We cannot allow investors to profit from outsourcing jobs at the expense of our middle class. Our problem today comes from a massive concentration of wealth into the hands of a few, who have mismanaged that capital. This trend must be reversed.

8) Restore confidence in the system by putting those that committed crimes/fraud in jail.

9) Eliminate the CDS market, or in the least require a central clearinghouse with margin requirements

10) Companies that are “too large to fail” must be cut into smaller pieces so that they aren’t too large to fail anymore

11) Military spending must be reduced to help balance the budget. Jobs must be created elsewhere to offset the job losses, and they need to go somewhere that has a public benefit, rather than a complete waste of national resources.

12) Eliminate the corporatization of politics and the massive influence of lobbyists. They are a cancer that is destroying our political system. Politicians must represent the people, not the lobbyists/corporations.

13) Get rid of the Fed. There is no reason why our government must borrow money into existence. Our constitution gives congress the right to coin its currency – it was a terrible mistake to give that right to private bankers who profit by engineering asset bubbles.

14) Impose limits on leverage, reinstate Glass-Seagall, and completely overhaul our regulatory system.

High on the Hog!

Anonymous | 02.04.09 - 1:08 pm | #

YouTube
- Tad - High On The Hog Tad....old grunge classic from Seattle

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lE5APzEKsFY
Joanna | Homepage | 02.04.09 - 1:28 pm | #

in link form.

Something else we can agree upon.
Conservative Republicans Blow | Homepage | 02.04.09 - 1:27 pm | #

Yeah but look at the other responses.  See how most people cannot control themselves. 

In vino, or stupidity, veritas.

Nancy Pelosi is Tommy D'Alsandro's daughter.

My Maryland 50s mantra.

--
It is quite revealing which of my posts CR deletes and which ones he doesn't.

Jas

sexy derivative writes:
My wife and I sat down to watch the movie Maxed Out last night. In the middle, she stops the movie and gets online to check her cards. She says she's going to close them up and just use the joint debit card we have. Wife jokes aside, that was a positive unintended consequence.

If you reduce your amount of available credit by closing accounts - I think it can negatively affect your credit score, as it tends to raise your ratio of total borrowing to total available credit [smaller denominator], which goes into your FICO. Yes, that is stupid, particularly since your wife is trying to be prudent. We didn't get where we are by being smart, did we?

I'm happy to be corrected, but I think that's right.

So you might do better not to cancel them, but instead just take them out of your wallet.

Not professional advice. Cthulhu's alternative solution is to devour creditors, by the way; YMMV.

I'm panicking.

Join me 'Bama.

Some real panic would be good for getting minds to focus on reality.

Long lines at banks waiting for their money.

Freeways closed

Non-Fed Reserve helicopters with no marking circling overhead

Empty supermarket shelves

People 'carrying' in plain view

Liquor shops and bars closed and guarded by police

Only CSPAN on TV

Internet disabled for everything but por

When does Timmay get to redecorate his office ? Clearly Hank's decorator's trimmings won't do.

Jim, that is NOT acceptable, the bars must stay open!

Jim, that is NOT acceptable, the bars must stay open!
Comrade Kristina

OK, how about bar exemption for your city?

"If you reduce your amount of available credit by closing accounts - I think it can negatively affect your credit score, as it tends to raise your ratio of total borrowing to total available credit [smaller denominator], which goes into your FICO." -

Margin Call of Cthulhu
.
It does, temporarily. But if you put the cards away, eventually the cc company will close the account, and that looks worse. (That's what my bank told be anyway.) You should look at all 3 of the cc trackers every year, they are fuckups. Notate and challenge everything fishy. After a year or two of prudence, your FICO should rise.
.
"Not professional advice. Cthulhu's alternative solution is to devour creditors, by the way; YMMV. ;)"
Margin Call of Cthulhu
.
I'm restraining myself from posting the Motorhead classic "Eat the Rich" again.

Is that a promise?
rent_to_own | 02.04.09 - 1:41 pm | #

I'm guessing he meant he's dropping you into the bozo filter.

Rob Dawg -- if nothing else, I raised my eyebrows when I saw that you were the one deciding to police "partisan attacks", as you certainly do not shy away from political comments, many of them critical of policies or politicans.

Where do you draw the line? Not that I'm going to adopt your system, I'm just curious how you think you're abiding by your own rules.

I find it amazing that no one seems to demand an estimate of job creation by month/year for each line item in the stimulus package.

WAWAWA - left you a link on the last thread

VC Ramen,
I could have retired years ago shorting clients and with other things I knew. Gotta sleep, though.

Allen C:

That was Christina Romer presentation on ARRP that CR posted on here about a month ago.

Can't understand how the estimates work when the Senate version is about 20% larger than the House version.

On my #2 from above.

OK, so VC isn't the correct answer. But my point is that we must encourage and provide funding for entrepreneurship. Funding has all but dried up for those looking to start/expand new businesses. We will not recover without this investment.

Timmy's gonna have to bail on that lovefest with Pelosi and get back on the switch here.

Basel Too - my thoughts exactly - lol

Dawg says some good stuff. I skip all political rants. If it bothers you, I suggest the same.

rent_to_own

instead of unloading on Rob Dawg, whos opinion i value even when we disagree

may i suggest you pick one opinion and dispute it, with cordiality, please

i think Rob Dawg has a legit point when people (like me) sometimes go off the deep end on political discussions like i did regarding mccain born in panama and obama born in kenya

on the other hand you have a point (which i share) about when is it political, and whats fair for one should be fair for all

long-short, lets not get put out with each other

its gonna be a long deep painful depression, and im off my meds

Depressed Whiner:

The reason for my comment is that the consensus of this board is that the US is already in a Depression. There are several on here that are preparing for Mad Max types of situations...

One way or another, this does not end well.

i second scone's suggestion that anecdotes be accompanied by a city, region or state.

This just says it all:

BAC Market Cap.= roughly $25b

If that is not obvious to what is really transpiring then it will never be.

You could buy it outright (gain control for as little as $12b) and there are no takers.....

I guess we do need rocket scientists afterall...

Ciao
MS

BAC is getting smoked today...
crispy&cole | Homepage | 02.04.09 - 2:03 pm | #

It's only down 50 cents.  Geez, get a grip!  

Actually, I live in Tahiti, but I want to know what is happening outside of Paradise once in awhile while I am hanging on the beach.

Ken Lewis = Madoff??
crispy&cole | Homepage | 02.04.09 - 2:03 pm | #

CC - good to have you back.

And it's: FED = Madoff

Fixed it for ya.

I am posting from the only city that matters.

"Scotty, bail me out."

Startrak

"I'm still trying to figure out exactly where the best talent is "going to go" if they don't get bonuses."

Strip clubs and make shift bordellos.

and obama born in kenya

A-HA!!!!

You finally admit it!
.

VA, the state the believes, just changed the CC law to allow you to carry in places that serve alchol

Posted live from The Only City That Matters (TOCTM)

David Rosenberg's  paper explains why he thinks we are currently in a depression.

"backwoods land in N. Dakota?
OCDan"

Too cold there. I recommend Georgia.

OCDan,

"Did anyone notice the story that Buffet says it is time to buy?"

Perhaps he said:

It's time, too. Bye!

Nostrovia,

One World Government? You start talking about that around the Rapturites and they smile and get ready for the big airlift to begin.

sexy derivative - I went to the CR 7 step program and I failed...still addicted
crispy&cole | Homepage | 02.04.09 - 1:24 pm | #

Crispy, that's a twelve step program.  But don't do the other five steps, we love you here.  BTW- the longer I think about it, the more respectful I am that you took the effort to do the whistle-blowing.

"Did anyone notice the story that Buffet says it is time to buy?

What exactly?"

Prefered shares of blue chip companies yelding 7 to 10 % annualy. He forgot to mention that you & I won't be able to get those. Because let's face it,
Neither of us is WB.

The planet is in serious trouble. We need massive investment in a space program that starts to colonize our solar system.

That is never going to happen.

At least not in this civilization-collapse cycle.

You could not repress the world populace enough in order to deal with the socioeconomic consequences of throwing the entire world GDP at that sort of thing.

It would be easier to just kill off 3/4 of the world's population and continue to live large on Mother Earth.

Which is unfortunately probably what will happen.

Yves over at Naked Capitalism has given up too.

Dear God, let's just kiss the US economy goodbye. It may take a few years before the loyalists and permabulls throw in the towel, but the handwriting is on the wall. 

Hmm. Lyondell managed to get DIP financing after all:

Lyondell’s loan came with 13 percent interest and 7 percent in fees. Some of its lenders may end up getting 20 percent on their one-year investment in the loan, which matures Dec. 15, according to a report from Standard & Poor’s....

The largest participants in Lyondell’s loan were UBS AG, with $770 million; Apollo Management LP with $710 million; Cerberus Capital Management LP with $237.5 million; and ABN Amro Holding NV with $230 million. Silver Point Capital LP, Angelo Gordon & Co. and Appaloosa each contributed $200 million.

Why are the money center banks going to piddle with small consumer loans when they can get 13% interest and 7% fees for super priority DIP financing?

I will repeat myself, I prefer bondage.

s this view wrong?????

so the poster above, saying bonds are "on fire" doesnt mean its all good, rather, it means the bond house is burning down, right?
mock turtle | 02.04.09 - 2:13 pm | #

Yup, about summarizes it.

Broward Horne wrotes: (to mock turtle)
and obama born in kenya
A-HA!!!!
You finally admit it!

--

mock back to broward

on the advice of counsel i decline to answer

on account that mccain is a panamanian

(said in good natured jest)

good day BH!

Prefered shares of blue chip companies yelding 7 to 10 % annualy. He forgot to mention that you & I won't be able to get those. Because let's face it,
Neither of us is WB.
Comrade de Chaos | 02.04.09 - 2:14 pm | #

It's not that hard to find bonds yielding above 7%, in pretty decent companies. All I have is my ameritrade account, and I've found some decent offerings. Don't need to be WB to buy them. Also, don't buy into HOG bonds just cuz they yield 15%!

I'm starting to discount the drama noise in the blogosphere. I suspect there's an attempt to grab eyeballs and increase personal revenues. I mean, who reads this stuff when it's not a crisis? Some of these guys are making hay while the sun shines, it seems to me.

MS

thanks, was wunderin if i had it backwards

ps did you see discussion a nite or two ago between dryfly and C&C i believe (may have wrong posters)

one of the two had confidential insight the chinese are balking at further purchases of us treasuries

NorkaWest / thanx for the re

I have to note, despite differing with him materially, I like Rob Dawg.

I do not like rent_to_own or Werner.

anon writes
@Rob Dawg- I support Rob Dawg staying and sharing his viewpoint. The rabid response to him is an overreaction. He doesn't represent all that is wrong in America

There was no "rabid" response. He was just called out for his conflicting statements.

Pelosi is as dumb as an ox (and not much more attractive), but I should cut her some slack on this one- after the last year, it really is hard to keep track of your number magnitudes.

NorkaWest / thanx for the re
mock turtle | 02.04.09 - 2:26 pm | #

Here is a link for bond benchmark prices and yields.

Bloomberg.com:
Government Bonds

(likes obama but concerned will bend to wall street..democrats, COWARDLY LOSERS
Osama bin Paulson | 02.04.09 - 2:26 pm | )

im usually dem, usually, not always

but have to admit i agree with you...wonderin if obama is strong enuf to stand up to wall street

hey osama bin paulson,

im old and have noticed thru several cycles

that when the repubs win, they win, and the media says "dems must support (example) reagans policies etc)

but when the dems win, media says "must have bipartisan support... govern from the center!!!

go figure, must be liberal media bias

I haven't caught up with all threads so my apologies if this has already been posted.

This is bold statement:

... Karthik Ramanathan, the Treasury's acting assistant secretary for financial markets, said the gross issuance of Treasurys may reach $6.5 trillion this fiscal year. He expressed confidence that Treasury could finance any increase in funding needs....

This is a depression. And this good-bank, bad-bank thing is kind of laughable. Good banks are only created by discipline. A bank is good if, over time, it can lend money and get a return on the money.

Yep.

Credit comes from responsible, constructive, mutually beneficial behavior. Nothing else.

There is nothing the government can do to forcibly create credit.

In fact force is almost its exact opposite.

We might have to find this out the hard way as our government increasingly attempts to replace cooperation with forcible redistribution of assets.

Our economy functions because of the efficiency that comes from the financial manifestation of cooperation - credit.

Attempting to replace credit with government force and coercion is like trying to replace the oil in your engine with sand.

Been working too much this week - did Conjure's clock hit midnight? Which thread - thank you.

"gross issuance of Treasurys may reach $6.5 trillion this fiscal year"

What? Oh, wait, it's a quote from the acting assistant Secretary, it has no credibility.

Wow.
.

"If you simply throw all the bad assets into a bad bank, you haven't solved the problem: the relative trustworthiness of various debtors and the relative ability of creditors to discern who is a good credit risk and who is not.
Joe Strummer | 02.04.09 - 2:27 pm | #

i couldn agree more

i wrote a polite but hard nosed email to the people who i worked for (and with), on the obama campaign, and said prez obamas good bank bad bank proposal is crazy

obama has made some, is making some mistakes...the key is can he adjust, learn, move left move right etc

some think they know already tha he is a sucess or a failure

ill withold my judgeement for about 6 months

anon(Unrated) writes:
Undoubtedly. We all are going to die. Be good to think mankind will continue.

IMO -- the Great Silence is because the inside world is infinite, the outside world endless, empty and expensive to move through.

Why would you want to get away from Earth and attenuate & lag your band?

Everyone blacks out to save energy and gather ambient radiation. Everyone clumps because clumping provides wider, faster bands.

Outer space is for robots and hermits.

I'm not religious but I do believe something exists after the cells die.

I don't find myself feeling too religious these days, so I tell myself things like: Well, I was dead back in 1900 and that really wasn't so bad.