AFL-CIO’s Finances Masked by Creative Accounting, Official Says
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. union organization, used “creative accounting” to disguise “a crippling cash-flow situation,” according to a report by a union leader.
Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the labor federation masked its financial difficulties heading into last year’s presidential election campaign. Net assets of the 11 million-member AFL-CIO declined to a negative $2.3 million as of June 30, 2008, from a $66 million surplus on July 1, 2000.
Nice to see that both labour and capital engage in accounting tricks
HA HA HA! Wonder what happens with the UAW in the owners seat at Fiat? The laughs keep coming! MOST UNIONS are EXTORTIONIST! Now UAW with a direct line to Obama!
Before long, banks will be allowed to buy their own assets on any day except Saturday and Sunday. FDIC will of course have the authority to waive restraints on a case by case basis.
"HA HA HA! Wonder what happens with the UAW in the owners seat at Fiat? The laughs keep coming! MOST UNIONS are EXTORTIONIST! Now UAW with a direct line to Obama!" '
I think there have been separate issues about whether banks can be buyers on other bank assets and I think that's an issue that we continue to look at.
Well, they'll try. Got enough regulatory savvy to recognize how they hide it, Ms. Bair?
Lucifer
I think that with some good planning, hard work, a bit of raw talent, time and luck that one day the artist of parody comic strip for a cell phone advertisement will be Canadian. Our hopes may not be big, but they're small
Why don't unions just buy a bad businesses and show us how it's done? Answer is obvious. I really wish Fiat was not in the picture and we could watch the UAW squirm with real responsibility. I can hear it now Getellfinger cracking the whip! Now get production up and forget the pay raise and be happy with a pay and benefit cut!
I'm sure many of you have watched this video which was one of the first to point out how PPIP could be scammed by the banks. If you go to the 7:00 minute mark, the guy says that there are numerous ways banks could set up special entities or funnel money through hedge funds to bid up the value of their assets. He thinks it would be impossible to prevent it from happening.
“Perhaps the chief issue facing global markets is the extent to which China will continue investing heavily in Treasury bills.”
We have deteriorated into a debtor status so that we are now dependent upon the kindness of strangers. That is not where the world’s leading power should find itself.
Paul Sarbanes
"Why don't unions just buy a bad businesses and show us how it's done? Answer is obvious. I really wish Fiat was not in the picture and we could watch the UAW squirm with real responsibility. I can hear it now Getellfinger cracking the whip! Now get production up and forget the pay raise and be happy with a pay and benefit cut!"
Ben dover get a grip and learn the lessens of nature: Play unfair and and you deserved to get squashed. Idly believe in fantasies of unending boom and watch your workers get overpaid as the company believed from the profit they WERE going to make. .
The union doesn't need to tell anybody how it is done. But when business fails, the idiots in the suits do all the blaming. Unions can be made and unmade. They can serve a purpose toward national stability as much as the businesses.
Business based societies fails. Free market internationalism would destroy the world. Matter of fact, Merchant Caste rule of the world was purposed as a line toward global domination during a little meeting in 1776. Oh yeah, the same year some colonies of England revolted. I wonder who gave them the funds for that?
Listen, I may be the only true conservative on this site, but don't insult my intelligence bud.
I seem to recall that recently the UAW VEBA (pension trust that will own the shares) said they would quickly sell their shares in Chysler. So much for UAW controlling anything. It would actually be a violation of fiduciary trust for the VEBA to hold Chrysler as their only asset. Remember all the Enron employees that held only Enron stock in their 401Ks, and lost everything?.
They have access, Obama bucks and if you go back a bit when KK wanted to buy Chrysler He insisted the UAW own part of it and they declined to participate. The three headed dog bought it but I saw where KK was going and it would have put them in the hot seat to perform. It would have been a very smart move on his part.
"He insisted the UAW own part of it and they declined to participate."
Skin in the game is always smart. What were the terms? Not sure I'd want a large minority equity stake in a public corp. owned by sharks or dogs from hell.
The only way the plan ever made sense was to overpay for the assets by a significant amount, and the only parties that can really use the subsidy to do so are the owners of the assets themselves. I simply see no reason why anyone else would take the subsidy to buy what are probably close to worthless assets. I don't support this plan in any form, but I can see what The Treasury is trying to do.
I don't remember the exact terms KK wanted but it caught my eye and made a win win for all in my opinion. They would have had to work together instead of against each other as they really have take both out from the infighting. To late now I think They all are going down for good anyway.
Yancey Ward (profile) wrote on Wed, 5/27/2009 - 9:55 pm reply Ignore user I am trying to get my head around the concept of a "smart move" connected in any manner with the idea of buying Chrysler.
A growing number of small and midsize institutions are coming under stress as the recession wears on, The New York Times’s Graham Bowley reported.
The findings underline the toll the credit crisis continues to take on America’s smaller banks, which are weighed down by souring commercial real estate loans and mounting losses.
“The first quarter results are telling us that the banking industry still faces tremendous challenges, and that going forward, asset quality remains a major concern,” said Sheila C. Bair, the F.D.I.C. chairman.
C'mon! The banks shouldn't be allowed to buy at all. A grade 6 kid could figure out a collusion strategy whereby they merely jam up prices in another price fixing scheme. Where's the deterrence for this financial hackery. Where's the retribution for all the attempted financial gimmickry. Jesus Murphy.
"If private parties profit from their investment, as they expect to, the Treasury will also. At the same time, the Treasury will only suffer losses if the private investors do."
Of course, in nowhere near the same proportions. Yeah, 6th grade sounds about right.
Eras End - welcome - always nice to have another conservative around, not that we cant hold our own here... plenty of good debate, some overlap of positions too - I think you will like it the more you read... all the comment archives are available from the front page...
Yeah, Basel, I'm not looking to misrepresent or engage in a sham. My cousin was the unfortunate sucker who bought at the peak in '06, but he was no flipper or investor. His sin was bad timing. I have no qualms using any available legal leverage to have the lender share the haircut.
PHD, Magna Cum Laude, BFD he is wrong at least half of the time and hedges his statements also... See the CR comment archive from the afternoon of March 9th this year when he correctly predicts a rally through April, but in the next sentence says we could also go to 500...
mp, I went on a rant about a "public official" in Boise, Idaho. Enough said, I really need to not blog and state my opinions in Idaho. That's why I visit here; I don't think a lot of people from Idaho visit this blog because "it's different here."
"he correctly predicts a rally through April, but in the next sentence says we could also go to 500... "
A brilliant astrologer. I only watched CNBC for the first time about a year and a half ago. The first time I heard an analyst say with a straight face, "This is a bottom, but we could move further down..." I had no more fear about trading options with "pros" and their higher math.
FN, pretty much everything is a felony in Idaho and I know now not to piss off "public officials" (but yet they give this guy who was drunk driving and killed somebody 2 to 10, I got 1-5 for blogging). Lesson learned.
Last fall - I really wonder where we would be today if Lehman had not been cut loose.... I was pretty sure we were at the bottom last summer until that happened - and then - off the cliff.... Normally I am always buying, accumulating.... havent bought anything since last June - almost a year... Still wondering if we are going to see 600 or 400....
......pretty soon, norma, all of us will get tagged - freedom of speech is so 90's..........unfashionable rants will be tagged "hate crimes" in the near future.
Obama Administration contemplating creating a super-regulatory agency, and stripping powers from both the Federal Reserve and FDIC. Article reads exactly like any post-9/11 piece on the creation of DHS. Expect pissing contests to ensue.
I remember one or two posters expressing "faith" in Obama. Maybe I missed some thread.
Personally, I'm always happy to see a weak President, even a Democrat. I don't regret my vote for Nader over Gore, but some still curse him. Many of the parliamentary systems have a better set-up: a Prime Minister and a President, one to meet and greet and make beautiful speeches, the other to govern. Too much to expect of one mortal.
It's also funny that a 100 basis point move in the 10-year has about caused the bears' blogosphere to blow up. Understandable, though. Today was not a good day.
homedad, they hate me. I worked for a business lawyer from 2001 to 2003, and most of those businesses have failed, then I worked for bitch for 3 years doing prision litigation, you don't want to be in prision here, the guards are worse then the prisioners. So, that's why I took the parole thingy. I did not curse at anyone, did not hit anone and did not threaten anyone, I just blogged about how this town is doing, in my own opinon. I guess the State of Idaho didn't like that. Live and learn.
My old econ. prof (NYT regular) told a story a few weeks ago about a group of academics lobbying FDR for a New Deal reform. "You've got me", he said, "now go out and put pressure on me to propose it".
two more defined benefits plans taken over by the PBGC
Contech
Circuit City
Just read today that a private investor is trying to buy the casting operations/assets of Contech - he placed the only bid in excess of liquidation [and those are REALLY REALLY small].
But he's buying it sans workers, benefits & work rules of course.
dryfly (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Wed, 5/27/2009 - 9:05 pm
Just read today that a private investor is trying to buy the casting operations/assets of Contech - he placed the only bid in excess of liquidation [and those are REALLY REALLY small].
But he's buying it sans workers, benefits & work rules of course.
t's also funny that a 100 basis point move in the 10-year has about caused the bears' blogosphere to blow up. Understandable, though. Today was not a good day.
First off, I thought the 10 year has moved about 70 bp.
Secondly, glad to hear I can't screw the thread up.
"General Motors Corp., facing a potential bankruptcy filing, asked for an additional 300 million euros ($415 million) for its Opel unit, stalling talks with Fiat SpA and Magna International Inc., the German government said."
......watch the whole thing unravel by Friday while Obama stumps for Reid here in Nevada, the DNC in LA and Geithner tries dealing with the Chinese again. It's a good thing Timmah doesn't play poker - he's got a face like an open book.
stupid question: is there a medical or, more likely, psychological term for Geithner's bowing-head-looking-through-eyebrows "technique"? i'm betting that there is cuz there's a named syndrome for almost everything.
i would google it, but i wouldn't even know where to begin...
From Basel's link in the comment to which I reply:
The new bank regulatory agency could prove controversial because it would consolidate the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision and strip supervisory powers from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Good proposal. The idea of letting bankers decide who they want to regulate them is a recipe for disaster (as history may well have shown).
But then:
Banks are overseen by a patchwork of state and federal regulators, and the Obama administration isn't expected to propose getting rid of the so-called dual banking system.
Instead, the new regulator would serve as a secondary set of eyes for the more than 5,000 state regulated banks and the primary regulator for the nationally chartered banks and thrifts. The objective is to streamline supervision of banks and make it harder for banks to game the system by shopping for the lightest form of oversight.
Possible bullshit if all they propose (or all Congress writes into the legislation) is nothing more than a new level of government regulators.
The regulators that failed need to lose their turf. Period. Transfer the responsibility to someone who can get the job done.
homedad, they hate me. I worked for a business lawyer from 2001 to 2003, and most of those businesses have failed, then I worked for bitch for 3 years doing prision litigation, you don't want to be in prision here, the guards are worse then the prisioners. So, that's why I took the parole thingy. I did not curse at anyone, did not hit anone and did not threaten anyone, I just blogged about how this town is doing, in my own opinon. I guess the State of Idaho didn't like that. Live and learn.
Since this thread is all about letters & alphabet soups... how about ACLU? Preferably an out-of-state branch not intimidated by those DXmnXd XdXhX ShXXp FXckXrs...
[pregnant pause]
I didn't really say that did I? I like to fly fish in the Bitterroots... I better go back and edit to camouflage it so they won't figure out what I really said.
i see the idea of a new super-regulatory as an Executive power grab. There are very good reasons for both the FRB and FDIC to be established as independent agencies with multiple directors. it's good that both Bair and Bernanke are in tension with Geithner, and vice versa; bad ideas get flushed out, instead of incubated in a bubble. For example, today Bair publicly popped the PPIP bidding trial balloon that the banks were trying to float over at OCC.
State chartered banks don't exactly pose systemic risk, with the possible exception of GS.
Sportsfan regulatory agencies have developed with intentionally overlapping authority as a crucial check on power and corruption. Consolidation is a red herring. Transparency is needed, along with reforms like not basing the agency's revenue on the volume they attract, as you point out. In general, the agencies need to reflect the fact that what is good for Wall Street is not necessarily good for the economy.
i see the idea of a new super-regulatory as an Executive power grab.
I didn't take that from the article and I have limited knowledge of the concept, though I've heard of it before now.
Parenthetically, one of my main concerns is that Obama release some of the executive powers claimed by the Cheney Administration . . . and he has been lukewarm on that concept to date . . . but I retain hope.
I agree that the FDIC and FRB should remain independent of the, meaning any, Administration.
Something has to be done, though, to compensate for the systemic regulatory failure of the previous Administration.
We can't allow Executives to say (as Ronnie famously did) that "Government is the Problem" and just cut off all forms of government regulation.
It's not possible to pick a Supreme Court Justice who has no political leaning or style of Constitutional interpretation, so Presidents don't even make the pretense anymore.
The independent, neutral bank czar without any special interests or economic philosophy is pure myth. Laissez-faire is a philosophy. Open democratic process is the best to be hoped for.
The late Princess Diana did the same...British newspapers reported on the "wounded fawn looking up" pose she adopted, though she was actually very tall and athletic. Worked very well as a form of non-verbal communication, in her case, to garner sympathetic support. Geithner's efforts just make him look like a weasel.
Best acronym snark ever.
Why? The banksters were not getting enough loot?
OT, apologies if already posted
AFL-CIO’s Finances Masked by Creative Accounting, Official Says - Bloomberg.com
AFL-CIO’s Finances Masked by Creative Accounting, Official Says
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. union organization, used “creative accounting” to disguise “a crippling cash-flow situation,” according to a report by a union leader.
Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the labor federation masked its financial difficulties heading into last year’s presidential election campaign. Net assets of the 11 million-member AFL-CIO declined to a negative $2.3 million as of June 30, 2008, from a $66 million surplus on July 1, 2000.
Nice to see that both labour and capital engage in accounting tricks
OMG UST WTF?
Well, they were copying the banksters..
//AFL-CIO’s Finances Masked by Creative Accounting, Official Says//
GLD FTW?
CAN HAZ BFF?
WTF?
back in the day, Cingular had this one commercial that spawned a parody comic strip which is ideally suited for this headline
http://www.iggdawg.com/pics/idk_my_bff_jill.jpg
PPIP H8TERZ! <3
kthxbai
CR - you make "if" sound like a very big word.
C
EvilHenryPaulson,
You seem to comment on the US, but do you think that canada will still be around a decade from now- in a form similar to it's current form.
GM PoS GTFO AFL-CIO
Timbabwe, here we come!
U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says (Update2)
Bair/CR 2012
LOL, inflation isn't coming anytime soon.
who is faber? /snark
HA HA HA! Wonder what happens with the UAW in the owners seat at Fiat? The laughs keep coming! MOST UNIONS are EXTORTIONIST! Now UAW with a direct line to Obama!
"back in the day, Cingular had this one commercial that spawned a parody comic strip which is ideally suited for this headline"
lol, what is she "trying" to say?
Before long, banks will be allowed to buy their own assets on any day except Saturday and Sunday. FDIC will of course have the authority to waive restraints on a case by case basis.
The word Private should mean no bank can buy PPIP.
"HA HA HA! Wonder what happens with the UAW in the owners seat at Fiat? The laughs keep coming! MOST UNIONS are EXTORTIONIST! Now UAW with a direct line to Obama!" '
So is business and corporations. Sorry pal.
I think there have been separate issues about whether banks can be buyers on other bank assets and I think that's an issue that we continue to look at.
Well, they'll try. Got enough regulatory savvy to recognize how they hide it, Ms. Bair?
"No [banks] will not be able to bid on their own assets. I think there has been some confusion about that...."
Generated by Sheila Bair, who initially said they "would look into ways in which banks could retain an equity interest in the loans."
Can she really be so dense as to practically wink at obvious collusion?
Businesses fail and go away. How about unions? they go on to another business.
"You seem to comment on the US, but do you think that canada will still be around a decade from now- in a form similar to it's current form."
This should help answer that question:
Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries
Then again, maybe a few states like Washington and Maine might join the Great White North in a few years in an attempt to escape the sinking ship.
"Businesses fail and go away. How about unions? they go on to another business."
LOL wrong. Business fail and come back.....fail and come back. You can never keep a good merchant down. Go away? Please.
Businesses fail so as to bust the unions.
"Businesses fail so as to bust the unions"
lol, because they are failures as businesses and need to find somebody to blame.
CRVIX SPIKE.for EHP
Shor(t)rphans and Widows....they are in the phone book.
AFL-CIO R&R 24/7 AFAIK.
Do you really think Oliver Stone is a quack?
Lucifer
I think that with some good planning, hard work, a bit of raw talent, time and luck that one day the artist of parody comic strip for a cell phone advertisement will be Canadian. Our hopes may not be big, but they're small
Eras End,
Why don't unions just buy a bad businesses and show us how it's done? Answer is obvious. I really wish Fiat was not in the picture and we could watch the UAW squirm with real responsibility. I can hear it now Getellfinger cracking the whip! Now get production up and forget the pay raise and be happy with a pay and benefit cut!
EvilHenryPaulson,
I personally prefer my canucks inside operational incinerators... but I am content to watch them hang themselves.
I'm sure many of you have watched this video which was one of the first to point out how PPIP could be scammed by the banks. If you go to the 7:00 minute mark, the guy says that there are numerous ways banks could set up special entities or funnel money through hedge funds to bid up the value of their assets. He thinks it would be impossible to prevent it from happening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-arbfLTCtI
LOGINOUT4IGNOREzCHK
BRB
"Why don't unions just buy a bad businesses and show us how it's done? Answer is obvious."
Access to Ponzi finance.
Geithner Prepares to Meet With Chinese Leaders
- NY Times
“Perhaps the chief issue facing global markets is the extent to which China will continue investing heavily in Treasury bills.”
We have deteriorated into a debtor status so that we are now dependent upon the kindness of strangers. That is not where the world’s leading power should find itself.
Paul Sarbanes
"Why don't unions just buy a bad businesses and show us how it's done? Answer is obvious. I really wish Fiat was not in the picture and we could watch the UAW squirm with real responsibility. I can hear it now Getellfinger cracking the whip! Now get production up and forget the pay raise and be happy with a pay and benefit cut!"
Ben dover get a grip and learn the lessens of nature: Play unfair and and you deserved to get squashed. Idly believe in fantasies of unending boom and watch your workers get overpaid as the company believed from the profit they WERE going to make. .
The union doesn't need to tell anybody how it is done. But when business fails, the idiots in the suits do all the blaming. Unions can be made and unmade. They can serve a purpose toward national stability as much as the businesses.
Business based societies fails. Free market internationalism would destroy the world. Matter of fact, Merchant Caste rule of the world was purposed as a line toward global domination during a little meeting in 1776. Oh yeah, the same year some colonies of England revolted. I wonder who gave them the funds for that?
Listen, I may be the only true conservative on this site, but don't insult my intelligence bud.
I seem to recall that recently the UAW VEBA (pension trust that will own the shares) said they would quickly sell their shares in Chysler. So much for UAW controlling anything. It would actually be a violation of fiduciary trust for the VEBA to hold Chrysler as their only asset. Remember all the Enron employees that held only Enron stock in their 401Ks, and lost everything?.
They have access, Obama bucks and if you go back a bit when KK wanted to buy Chrysler He insisted the UAW own part of it and they declined to participate. The three headed dog bought it but I saw where KK was going and it would have put them in the hot seat to perform. It would have been a very smart move on his part.
RIP
UST = USG IOU = DOA
FDIC GIGO, WASS!
C
"He insisted the UAW own part of it and they declined to participate."
Skin in the game is always smart. What were the terms? Not sure I'd want a large minority equity stake in a public corp. owned by sharks or dogs from hell.
MBS/TNX SNAFU = FRN | LPR
CR,
The plan doesn't make any logical sense unless the banks can both be buyers and sellers.
Anyone else have the impression Geithner and crew were hoping for a distraction so they could quietly go PP--?
"The plan doesn't make any logical sense unless the banks can both be buyers and sellers."
Which makes no logical sense to anyone who does not endorse Ponzi fraud.
¿Qué pasó?
¿Dónde que "el punto" vienen?
¡Qué broma esta HTML es!
Yogi,
The only way the plan ever made sense was to overpay for the assets by a significant amount, and the only parties that can really use the subsidy to do so are the owners of the assets themselves. I simply see no reason why anyone else would take the subsidy to buy what are probably close to worthless assets. I don't support this plan in any form, but I can see what The Treasury is trying to do.
I don't remember the exact terms KK wanted but it caught my eye and made a win win for all in my opinion. They would have had to work together instead of against each other as they really have take both out from the infighting. To late now I think They all are going down for good anyway.
I am trying to get my head around the concept of a "smart move" connected in any manner with the idea of buying Chrysler.
EHP --
Our hopes may not be big, but they're small
-- +1
(snarkily tautological)
Yancey Ward (profile) wrote on Wed, 5/27/2009 - 9:55 pm reply Ignore user I am trying to get my head around the concept of a "smart move" connected in any manner with the idea of buying Chrysler.
CR's a regular comedy zone tonight!
A musical interlude
YouTube - Tenor Saw - Ring The Alarm
Ring The Alarm....
Edited for correct link
A growing number of small and midsize institutions are coming under stress as the recession wears on, The New York Times’s Graham Bowley reported.
The findings underline the toll the credit crisis continues to take on America’s smaller banks, which are weighed down by souring commercial real estate loans and mounting losses.
“The first quarter results are telling us that the banking industry still faces tremendous challenges, and that going forward, asset quality remains a major concern,” said Sheila C. Bair, the F.D.I.C. chairman.
night all.
Norka, last thread:
"Historically, banks have made their money by borrowing short, lending long, and pocketing the spread."
But bankers have made their money by booking a fat cash bonus on the future value of the spread, whether it is real or illusory.
Banks borrow short and lend long AND wide, leveraging profit and arbitraging taxpayer insurance.
C'mon! The banks shouldn't be allowed to buy at all. A grade 6 kid could figure out a collusion strategy whereby they merely jam up prices in another price fixing scheme. Where's the deterrence for this financial hackery. Where's the retribution for all the attempted financial gimmickry. Jesus Murphy.
Lobbyist, looks loke the Dailykos folks are out today.
Yancey: it would clearly be misuse of Treasury funds, and Geithner should resign, whether or not he ever got an envelope full of cash. Maybe Bair too.
misuse of Treasury funds
Is there anything else these days?
FDIC Website:(orig. Geithner I think)
"If private parties profit from their investment, as they expect to, the Treasury will also. At the same time, the Treasury will only suffer losses if the private investors do."
Of course, in nowhere near the same proportions. Yeah, 6th grade sounds about right.
from last thread:
I believe is that inter-family debt has highest precedence in bankruptcy.
it's true that "domestic obligations" have the highest priority (along with trustee expenses), but the term doesn't mean what you think it means.
Conjure remains extremely bearish on all long-dated bonds.
Conjure says, "Have a nice day."
Conjure says, "Have a nice day."
... and a lost decade.
To those watching the bond market...continued discussion...Lets now chat about the old opportunity of issuing 100 year bonds.
two more defined benefits plans taken over by the PBGC
Contech
Circuit City
Why does this thread remind me of Fox in Socks? My head hurts.
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/Fox-In-Socks.txt
"... and a lost decade."
Yeah, he could've said that, but he thinks those are negative waves.
Conjure is not a nattering nabob of negativism.
He's a bear. For now.
Lets now chat about the old opportunity of issuing 100 year bonds.
Fine, but my response is dependent upon how pissed I am at the kids for that particular moment.
After last week, I'm gonna buy a bando-riddled crack McMansion with a Jumbo 100 year note.
Funniest thread in a long time!!!
Fiat-Opel-Chrysler = FOC('d)
Eras End - welcome - always nice to have another conservative around, not that we cant hold our own here... plenty of good debate, some overlap of positions too - I think you will like it the more you read... all the comment archives are available from the front page...
Re: lost decade, Idaho is going to put me on parole for five years for blogging in the local paper, so I have something to look forward to ...
Yeah, Basel, I'm not looking to misrepresent or engage in a sham. My cousin was the unfortunate sucker who bought at the peak in '06, but he was no flipper or investor. His sin was bad timing. I have no qualms using any available legal leverage to have the lender share the haircut.
So, Norma, what did you blog about?
Roe v. Wade? Waterboarding? Freedom of... Speech?
If you didnt already know about Marc Faber...
Marc Faber - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PHD, Magna Cum Laude, BFD he is wrong at least half of the time and hedges his statements also... See the CR comment archive from the afternoon of March 9th this year when he correctly predicts a rally through April, but in the next sentence says we could also go to 500...
Nattering Nabob of Negativism?
Somehow, this little clip is a nice metaphor for the MSM/CNBC crew vs the CR crowd.
Charlie, come with us Charlie!
When I first started reading this thread, I was wondering if we could have a whole complete thread with only acronyms and no full words...
TG + LS + BB = USA$$ SOL
GDTRFB
mp, I went on a rant about a "public official" in Boise, Idaho. Enough said, I really need to not blog and state my opinions in Idaho. That's why I visit here; I don't think a lot of people from Idaho visit this blog because "it's different here."
"he correctly predicts a rally through April, but in the next sentence says we could also go to 500... "
A brilliant astrologer. I only watched CNBC for the first time about a year and a half ago. The first time I heard an analyst say with a straight face, "This is a bottom, but we could move further down..." I had no more fear about trading options with "pros" and their higher math.
Conjure is not a nattering nabob of negativism.
Yeah but I thought Conjure was old enough to recognize a "Prague Spring" when he saw one.
Dr Munch:
Shouldn't it be "GDTFRB"?
Did this rant about an Idaho official involve sexual acts with potatoes or bodily harm?
Pesky thing, this whole captured in digital form for eternity.
Somehow, this little clip is a nice metaphor for the MSM/CNBC crew vs the CR crowd.
Charlie, come with us Charlie!
homedad, if I didn't already know, that video is a sure sign you have teenagers in the house... mine went thru this about 6 months back.
Conjure says, "Prague Spring? It's been a while since I've heard that one."
"Of course, Paris Summer doesn't mean what it used to either."
Norma, actual malice?
Broke middle child in on the whole rainbow colored, skittle crapping unicorn meme.
He likes it.
Outsider:
Ah - yup. But talked with middle about not confusing real optimism with some pollyannish crap and the whole unicorn schtick came up.
Charlie as a teaching tool.
homedad,I did say that this "public offical" was a boy toy for the prosectors in Ada County. That's a good thing, right.?
Rob Dawg says to Conjure; "We'll always have Paris."
And that's a felony in Idaho? I'd have thought it was a wobbler.
Norma - well at least there were no large farm animals ala Neil Horsley....
News Hounds: Bizarre Sex Habits of The Extreme Right-Wing
Norma:
Apparently not in Idaho.
Are you serious or just yanking chains?
If serious, wow.
any doubt remaining amongst Obama supporters whose side he is on?
FN, pretty much everything is a felony in Idaho and I know now not to piss off "public officials" (but yet they give this guy who was drunk driving and killed somebody 2 to 10, I got 1-5 for blogging). Lesson learned.
Naw, he's a good politician. Once he's paid for, he stays paid for.
You really have to admire that in a guy. Plus, he's nobody's boy toy.
crazyv (profile) wrote on Wed, 5/27/2009 - 8:02 pm
any doubt remaining amongst Obama supporters whose side he is on?
First, find a supporter. And a reminder to the crowd about the crap I took last November for calling the present situation "prematurely."
in a way, it's kind of fitting since Harvard started the arms race that drove facility costs and professor salaries through the stratosphere...
Drew Gilpin Faust and the Incredible Shrinking Harvard - Boston Magazine
Was there any reason to believe he wasn't, in fact? You couldn't claim metaphor?
Last fall - I really wonder where we would be today if Lehman had not been cut loose.... I was pretty sure we were at the bottom last summer until that happened - and then - off the cliff.... Normally I am always buying, accumulating.... havent bought anything since last June - almost a year... Still wondering if we are going to see 600 or 400....
Love that heading.
The Dow goes to zero. But then they reshuffle. New endowment. It's a neat trick.
......pretty soon, norma, all of us will get tagged - freedom of speech is so 90's..........unfashionable rants will be tagged "hate crimes" in the near future.
One can't say, "The Secretary of the Treasury is the bankers' boy toy?"
Obama Administration contemplating creating a super-regulatory agency, and stripping powers from both the Federal Reserve and FDIC. Article reads exactly like any post-9/11 piece on the creation of DHS. Expect pissing contests to ensue.
Single-Regulator Plan for Banks Now Close - WSJ.com
"And a reminder to the crowd about the crap I took last November for calling the present situation "prematurely." "
Surely you recognize that truth is not necessarily a defense to criticism of prejudgment.
Well, YOU can, yogi, because you're spe-shull.
My first choice Kucinich is justifying my support.
Would the mavericks have turned everything around by now?
Nice find, Basel. Who will be the systemic risk czar?
yogi - NOBODY could have turned everything around. No. Body.
Basel Too
thanks for the correction, I was thinking of more than just alimony or child support
I remember one or two posters expressing "faith" in Obama. Maybe I missed some thread.
Personally, I'm always happy to see a weak President, even a Democrat. I don't regret my vote for Nader over Gore, but some still curse him. Many of the parliamentary systems have a better set-up: a Prime Minister and a President, one to meet and greet and make beautiful speeches, the other to govern. Too much to expect of one mortal.
This might... MIGHT... be the worst thread ever.
It's also funny that a 100 basis point move in the 10-year has about caused the bears' blogosphere to blow up. Understandable, though. Today was not a good day.
Having a czar is systemic risk.
homedad, they hate me. I worked for a business lawyer from 2001 to 2003, and most of those businesses have failed, then I worked for bitch for 3 years doing prision litigation, you don't want to be in prision here, the guards are worse then the prisioners. So, that's why I took the parole thingy. I did not curse at anyone, did not hit anone and did not threaten anyone, I just blogged about how this town is doing, in my own opinon. I guess the State of Idaho didn't like that. Live and learn.
two more defined benefits plans taken over by the PBGC
Welcome to Pension Failure Wednesday.
We could have had a weak President but instead we went for change that wasn't.
NOBODY could have turned everything around. No. Body.
You go girl!
Conjure says, "Have a nice day."
... and a lost decade. Wink
+1
That made wading through the pseudo Freeper-Kos BS above worth it.
We're apparently not torturing as much.
My old econ. prof (NYT regular) told a story a few weeks ago about a group of academics lobbying FDR for a New Deal reform. "You've got me", he said, "now go out and put pressure on me to propose it".
One voice: Geithner must go. Obama will react.
"NOBODY could have turned everything around"
......not this late in the game, no. Nor should "they" have.
two more defined benefits plans taken over by the PBGC
Contech
Circuit City
Just read today that a private investor is trying to buy the casting operations/assets of Contech - he placed the only bid in excess of liquidation [and those are REALLY REALLY small].
But he's buying it sans workers, benefits & work rules of course.
OT: Big banks are DEFINITELY out of the woods, according to our friend Dick Bove.
Big US Banks ‘Definitely Out of the Woods’: Bove - CNBC
Apparently, our friends at cnbc do not ditch anybody, no matter how bad the call. Remember Bove's calls on Lehman? Hahahahahahaha.
dryfly (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Wed, 5/27/2009 - 9:05 pm
Just read today that a private investor is trying to buy the casting operations/assets of Contech - he placed the only bid in excess of liquidation [and those are REALLY REALLY small].
But he's buying it sans workers, benefits & work rules of course.
Neutron Bankruptcy.
Oh boy... every time Bove recommends banks the system suffers a stroke. Got FAZ?
This might... MIGHT... be the worst thread ever.
t's also funny that a 100 basis point move in the 10-year has about caused the bears' blogosphere to blow up. Understandable, though. Today was not a good day.
First off, I thought the 10 year has moved about 70 bp.
Secondly, glad to hear I can't screw the thread up.
Finally, I love ending with a preposition.
Even Bloomberg.com all but called Geithner the big banks boy toy:
Wall Street Derivatives Proposals Adopted in Treasury Overhaul - Bloomberg.com
Got FAZ?
Not at the moment. But that was exactly my reaction.
Finally, I love ending with a preposition.
I believe you meant: A preposition is something I love ending with.
"General Motors Corp., facing a potential bankruptcy filing, asked for an additional 300 million euros ($415 million) for its Opel unit, stalling talks with Fiat SpA and Magna International Inc., the German government said."
......watch the whole thing unravel by Friday while Obama stumps for Reid here in Nevada, the DNC in LA and Geithner tries dealing with the Chinese again. It's a good thing Timmah doesn't play poker - he's got a face like an open book.
"also funny that a 100 basis point move in the 10-year has about caused the bears' blogosphere to blow up."
Uh, record curve ball. Ben's silence was deafening.
Across the Curve appears to be calling for a bottom in 10YT. Maybe this carnage will end soon?
stupid question: is there a medical or, more likely, psychological term for Geithner's bowing-head-looking-through-eyebrows "technique"? i'm betting that there is cuz there's a named syndrome for almost everything.
i would google it, but i wouldn't even know where to begin...
GS trading desk will find a way to buy and sell the very security 100X the same day if they can nick the taxpayer on every trade.
It's a visual pun. His head isn't screwed on right.
"Uh, record curve ball. Ben's silence was deafening"
Probably means he knows something we don't...
From Basel's link in the comment to which I reply:
The new bank regulatory agency could prove controversial because it would consolidate the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision and strip supervisory powers from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Good proposal. The idea of letting bankers decide who they want to regulate them is a recipe for disaster (as history may well have shown).
But then:
Banks are overseen by a patchwork of state and federal regulators, and the Obama administration isn't expected to propose getting rid of the so-called dual banking system.
Instead, the new regulator would serve as a secondary set of eyes for the more than 5,000 state regulated banks and the primary regulator for the nationally chartered banks and thrifts. The objective is to streamline supervision of banks and make it harder for banks to game the system by shopping for the lightest form of oversight.
Possible bullshit if all they propose (or all Congress writes into the legislation) is nothing more than a new level of government regulators.
The regulators that failed need to lose their turf. Period. Transfer the responsibility to someone who can get the job done.
homedad, they hate me. I worked for a business lawyer from 2001 to 2003, and most of those businesses have failed, then I worked for bitch for 3 years doing prision litigation, you don't want to be in prision here, the guards are worse then the prisioners. So, that's why I took the parole thingy. I did not curse at anyone, did not hit anone and did not threaten anyone, I just blogged about how this town is doing, in my own opinon. I guess the State of Idaho didn't like that. Live and learn.
Since this thread is all about letters & alphabet soups... how about ACLU? Preferably an out-of-state branch not intimidated by those DXmnXd XdXhX ShXXp FXckXrs...
[pregnant pause]
I didn't really say that did I? I like to fly fish in the Bitterroots... I better go back and edit to camouflage it so they won't figure out what I really said.
Good night and good luck.
YouTube - Good Night, And Good Luck
@1230am Eastern, the dollar is up, futures are green... given that data, yields will likely retreat tomorrow.
Good night.
sportsfan:
i see the idea of a new super-regulatory as an Executive power grab. There are very good reasons for both the FRB and FDIC to be established as independent agencies with multiple directors. it's good that both Bair and Bernanke are in tension with Geithner, and vice versa; bad ideas get flushed out, instead of incubated in a bubble. For example, today Bair publicly popped the PPIP bidding trial balloon that the banks were trying to float over at OCC.
State chartered banks don't exactly pose systemic risk, with the possible exception of GS.
Sportsfan regulatory agencies have developed with intentionally overlapping authority as a crucial check on power and corruption. Consolidation is a red herring. Transparency is needed, along with reforms like not basing the agency's revenue on the volume they attract, as you point out. In general, the agencies need to reflect the fact that what is good for Wall Street is not necessarily good for the economy.
I better go back and edit to camouflage it so they won't figure out what I really said.
dryfly, with all due respect, you do that and we're all screwed forever.
Once they silence us, or more likely, cause us to self-censor ourselves, opposing voices may never rise again.
I know you're just joshing, because I know you're not afraid to speak your mind.
Norma is in a tough place and you're wise to suggest that she seek out-of-state ACLU support.
Without the First Amendment, we're no better than ______________________.
Norma is in a tough place and you're wise to suggest that she seek out-of-state ACLU support.
Yes - the ACLU part was serious - the 'buy a vowel' part wasn't.
i see the idea of a new super-regulatory as an Executive power grab.
I didn't take that from the article and I have limited knowledge of the concept, though I've heard of it before now.
Parenthetically, one of my main concerns is that Obama release some of the executive powers claimed by the Cheney Administration . . . and he has been lukewarm on that concept to date . . . but I retain hope.
I agree that the FDIC and FRB should remain independent of the, meaning any, Administration.
Something has to be done, though, to compensate for the systemic regulatory failure of the previous Administration.
We can't allow Executives to say (as Ronnie famously did) that "Government is the Problem" and just cut off all forms of government regulation.
It's not possible to pick a Supreme Court Justice who has no political leaning or style of Constitutional interpretation, so Presidents don't even make the pretense anymore.
The independent, neutral bank czar without any special interests or economic philosophy is pure myth. Laissez-faire is a philosophy. Open democratic process is the best to be hoped for.
sportsfan,
Consolidating bank regulation is a great idea... if you're a lobbyist. One stop shopping!!!
Geithner's bowing-head-looking-through-eyebrows "technique"?
The late Princess Diana did the same...British newspapers reported on the "wounded fawn looking up" pose she adopted, though she was actually very tall and athletic. Worked very well as a form of non-verbal communication, in her case, to garner sympathetic support. Geithner's efforts just make him look like a weasel.
Geithner's efforts just make him look like a weasel.
Redact the words "look like" and you're spot on.
But if banks who need government bailouts are barred from buying these "assets," who will be left to buy them?