Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds."
I think the issue of "raising capital" will be the elephant in the room for more than just banks soon enough. On that same note, the ease with which these same banks have raised new money these last two weeks is worrisome. It shouldn't be that easy. I suspect like many things that seem too good to be true there are conditions that won't show up until too late.
Several top banks, including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., have had to assess top executives and directors "to assure that the leadership of the firm has sufficient expertise and ability to manage the risks presented by the current economic environment"
Remember when "vote of confidence" would have sufficed, instead of all of the CYA gibberish above?
hahahahaha .... the banks get to self-assess their own leadership's to determine if theyhave sufficient expertise and ability to manage the risks presented by the current economic environment" ...
Anybody want to guess how many banks determine that their boards or management aren't fully qualified.
It's like asking teens to judge their ability to outfox their parents: no one fails.
Hey liz, who would you suggest as a trustworthy lender? I'm so sick of trying to find a reputable mortgage broker and we are ready to do our refinance now (hubby has been back to work now for several months so we have all the necessary paperwork together).
Follow the adventures of Timmay as he stonewalls the Chinese thanks to a clever diversion of funds by Benny Haskel who's in charge of the Mouse-Clickateers
yes liz, i was just running the numbers on etrade (I have accounts with them) and I found that I could reduce my 30 year ARM to a 15 year fixed and still be paying less than I am now sigh.....I haven't contacted them because I figured they are shysters as well, I was just using their calculator...
I really love to study Proven Conspiracies, I find them fascinating. The biggest proven conspiracy I have uncovered so far is the one about the worlds wealthy elite, ruling the world and imposing their will through the monetary system.
Yeah I saw it liz. Yes, he does have a small checking account with Tyndall Federal CU...I think I'll check with them first and see what they have to offer. I also had a carloan with them that was paid off so that should help as well. At my wits end with shysters and scammers about now. I told you about the mortgage one company sent me to sign that listed the loan amount as 175K when I only owe 129K, didn't I? I'm still scratching my head trying to figure where that 45K was going because it explicitly said no cash out....LOL
MS, you are 100% right! I saw an article on the front page of yahoo over the weekend stating "traders are questioning the rally". That's when I knew they were starting the scare tactics. Oh well, I hope the shorts make some money on the ride down.
Kristina: like Diogenes, perhaps you could consider this: Diogenes: He is said to have lived in a large tub, rather than a house, and to have walked through the streets carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. (WIKI)
one of my trust fund friends told me that she would always be safe because she learned never to touch the corpus of the trust, just use the earnings. She has totally flummoxed now that the corpus is evaporating and there are no earnings.
"one of my trust fund friends told me that she would always be safe because she learned never to touch the corpus of the trust, just use the earnings. She has totally flummoxed now that the corpus is evaporating and there are no earnings."
Basel Too (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 6:55 am
the ease with which these same banks have raised new money these last two weeks is worrisome. It shouldn't be that easy.
Kickbacks paid by placement agents to the "guardians" of institutional holdings (e.g. pensions, endowments, OPM)
Funds like CalSTRS and CalPERS have been quietly liquidating into the rally to meet current obligations much higher than expected at the same time expected revenue streams have disappeared (bank dividends, real estate income, etc). This is compounded by State and municipalities balking at fully endowing these retirement funds. I just don't see where this much new money is coming from unless it is balance of payments money being washed through front men.
Brad Delong furthers his descent into absurdity and irrelevance:
That it is past time for you to seek from the Congress for authority to guarantee the debt of states that, in response to the current recession, (a) seek to conduct their own state-level fiscal expansions, and (b) devise plans and strategies for the long-term repayment of the debt the federal government guarantees that the Secretary of the Treasury certifies as prudent and sustainable.
That it is time for you to seek from the Congress an amended Budget Resolution: to include in this year's forthcoming Reconciliation process an additional $500 billion of federal aid to states, distributed per capita and conditioned on their maintaining effort at the provision of public services--on their not repeating the mistake of Herbert Hoover of cutting government employment and spending in a downturn. Fiscal Policy in the Second Half of 2009 - J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles
I was going to ask what time the bond auction is, but then I realized all I have to do is just watch for the markets to go vertical into kermit territory. After all, it will have to look convincing to the MSNBC-watchers that the "markets" have repudiated any thoughts of concern about the rally being illegitimate. Otherwise, someone might get the crazy idea that it is still physically possible for the markets to go down.
Talk about a hefty sum of money. You have to love the TARP fund, purchasing assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen its financial sector.
lawyerliz: yeah, but I was fascinated by veggies that I'd never seen before: baby rutabagas, garlic green shoots (like scallions), etc. Everything grows in Oregon!
Comrade Kristina,
You might want to check out Pentagon Federal Credit Union...membership is not as restricted as you might think...check out the link which lists mortgage rates, etc. I have CDs with them, and their rates have always been good.
Best of luck.
True, CalPERS and other large pf, as well as the SWFs, have been quite transparent about liquidating their financial holdings. my guess is that the capital raising has come at the expense of the firefighters and librarians from skokie, muskegan, and the rest of BFE.
If you plant a garlic clove in a pot and water it, green shoots will come out.
I have no prob with that part, but my cloves never multiply underground.
some of the veggies may have been merely picked early, and some are a
different variety. I grow baby pumpkins sometimes. The are edible, but I
grow them 'cause they are cute.
We had piles of baby pumpkins last year. My wife thinks they are cute also. This year it is baby gourds, if we have a garden. Weekend hail pounded it pretty good but still time to salvage most.
Comrade K,
if you don't work for the Pentagon, or the military, or the Red Cross or Homeland Security, you can still join if you make a 25 dollar donation to the Association of Military Famiies...that's what I did about 5 years ago...it's a one-time thing. Here's the membership criteria...
Good luck.
Over 8000 banks, and its hard to know if any of them can be trusted. Total failure of reporting, oversight/regulation and transparency.
"Banker" used to be among the titles most trusted. I'd bet it is down the list now with ambulance chasing lawyers, used car salesman, and tv evangelists.
"Banker" used to be among the titles most trusted. I'd bet it is down the list now with ambulance chasing lawyers, used car salesman, and tv evangelists."
No trust in the people that handle the money lends to no trust in the money and so on and so forth...
"bankers" are a necessary evil...always been that way. My opinion of them has never changed..it was only a matter of time that the rest of the world figured that out.
The word corporation is nowhere in the US Constitution. They corps were awarded 'personhood' by the Supreme Court (so they have rights, like the right to purchase the congress through free speech donations). One decision that changed our world and never approved by the people or their representatives.
Fair enough Rob Dawg... haven't thought about Japanese politics since the late '80s
when I was paid to try to make sense of their major banks annual reports, paid someone to translate every word,
but there accounting system allowed them to not report non-performing RE loans for a long time...
did anyone see Charlie Gas on CNBC talk about the Unemploy numbers? a sight to behold ...
I just happened to pop into my room and see something that stopped me in my tracks
Duke of Con Dao (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 7:41 am
Fair enough Rob Dawg... haven't thought about Japanese politics since the late '80s
when I was paid to try to make sense of their major banks annual reports, paid someone to translate every word,
but there accounting system allowed them to not report non-performing RE loans for a long time...
It appears history is rhyming. And now that we've "successfully" replicated their banking errors we have moved on to replicating MITI.
We're banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
Banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
We're banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
Banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
OT-
Met a friend up in Bodega bay this weekend. She has a electronic wholesale parts business. Up 25% on the year over last year, on projection to increase sales to over 1.2 million this year, small company 5-6 employees..no debt, little overhead, minority ran business with a lot of indian casino business, she's 1/2 cherokee.
She went to 9 banks to get a SBA loan to facillitate growth and all of them denied her but would work with her if they could have 3% stake on receivables? Does this make sense...I thought sba was opening the spigot to business's that are growing..
Rob Dawg,
This is OT, but as a resident of deficit-riddled NY, I watch Cali to see where we are going to end up. LA Times says the government unions are now sparring with the Dem leadership...which is a step in the right direction. I love this quote...
"The union leaders say they are appalled that Democratic leaders are talking openly now about decimating government programs without first making a stand for bigger, broader tax hikes that could substantially offset budget cuts.
"Democrats came to Sacramento to help people," said Marty Hittleman, president of the California Federation of Teachers. "I know they did not go there to destroy government."
So the union guys think adding more taxes to Cali will save them...madness. All that will be left is a black-market economy when they get through.
RD - your comment early in this thread about the Lib Dems in Japan saying they would if in power only fund USG in JPY is telling - they just might be to the point where they are willing to walk away from the US consumer market - or more accurately admitting the cost of manipulating the JPY vis a vis the USD costs more than the benefit from exports is worth.
Watch for that revelation in China and we will be seeing the dawn of a Brave New World.
On the federal contracting-side this is pretty standard. They'll give you a loan, usually 80% of what you ask, and take 3% of receivables. Usually you take these out as soon as you have a contract in hand. And even then, only a few banks and some boutique lendors will do this. Most don't care if you have been awarded a contract for 10million and need 250K to make the first 2 months for payroll. They only care about the last 2 years of revenue. If you're a new company, with little revenue, they'll ask for a secured loan against personal assets, and the interest rate will be high, and it'll be a short-term loan, to be paid back in one year.
It's a risky business and people get wiped out all the time.
there are several comments up thread by Rob Dawg, Michael Fridman and others who observe the absurdity of the money shell game thats being played
the fed via talf etc, the treasury with mlec type structures , congress with tarp ,all shooting money around to pull themselves and the financial services industry up by the boot straps
dont we all get it
these guys have reached the ultimate level of financial hallucination
money is what they say it is...and they create and distribute it at will to wom ever
BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE FREAKING OUT ABOUT M3...keep this in mind...
thru taxation and the same kinds of key strokes that created trillions of make believe money
the fed, congress and treasury can take those same sums back
Given that the banks' earnings rose so strongly last quarter with the benefit of the TARP funds in hand, I might reasonably expect their earnings to fall as they pay them back. Of course, I assume there's not a chance in hell this will happen (since the banks were really strong all along anyway).
At least some pampered poor take care of their families.
Not sure of trust babies!!
Our little fund meant basically that a car could be bought cash every 5 years, and vacations
could be taken every 2-3 years. Usually to Atlantic City--long before gambling. And once or 2ce
we went to exotic New York City.
....those banks sure are getting "gun-shy" about using FedGov money now - imagine THAT. There seem to be some supposed danger in repayment - Treasury doesn't seem to want repayment for more reasons than just additional danger of further bailouts - I don't get it.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- With empty pockets and maxed-out credit, California is debating whether it can continue honoring all parts of its social contract with the state's most vulnerable residents.
The state faces an unprecedented drop in tax revenue and a widening budget deficit amid the deepest recession in decades, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to propose cost-cutting steps that once seemed unthinkable.
At stake are programs for the poor, elderly and frail, placing millions of people in the nation's most populous state at risk of falling through a decades-old social safety net.
Ending the welfare-to-work program for mothers and their children would affect some 546,000 families, and health insurance could be eliminated for 1 million children from low-income families. Services for Alzheimer's patients, disabled and other frail recipients of in-home care also would be greatly reduced under the governor's latest budget proposal, leaving more than 400,000 people without such support.
Schwarzenegger acknowledges that his proposals will be painful.
"I know the consequences of those cuts are not just dollars. I see the faces behind those dollars. ... I see the Alzheimer's patients losing some of their in-home support services," he told lawmakers last week. "It's an awful feeling, but we have no choice."
Anecdote from West Hollywood, CA: I got up yesterday (Sunday) morning to find two people sleeping in chairs in my driveway. They hadn't been there when I came home at 1:00 a.m.. After rousting them out, the Sheriff's deputy told me they had recently arrived from back east.
Better weather when you're homeless, maybe. They looked to be in their 20s and the male's hair was still short and tidy. But they were lugging around these stupid chairs.
Obama admin. rips a page from the Bush/Paulson "no court in the land can challenge our decision" playbook:
The Obama Administration argued Monday that no court, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to hear a challenge by Indiana benefit plans to the role the U.S. Treasury played in the Chrysler rescue, including the use of “bailout” (TARP) funds.
I wonder how many Obamabots are getting screwed by BO in the Indiana pension fund? I would love to see the number on them when the courts by 4PM today decide to violate the takings clause of the Constitution violating their Constitutional rights. Who Should the pensioners start shooting first, taking matters into their own hands?
Before real estate died, I would always notice that the bk clients for the attys down
the hall were usually better dressed and were more likely to have professionally done
nails than my clients.
Nearby everybody has too much stuff. I've been making daily trips to Goodwill so I don't have to pay somebody to move stuff I haven't touched in three previous moves. It's painful parting with your 'treasures', but the upside is a surprising amount of emotional high at being nearly portable.
I always laugh hard when I drive from my downtown apt to the burbs and see 3 cars in the driveway and the garage jam packed with 'stuff'.
As one who has spent much of the last four decades on or near the front lines of Japan-US trade, I have always characterized the scenario of the Japanese refusing to lend us money (or refusing to lend it except in yen) as a "Blazing Saddles Gambit" -- remember the "Nobody move, or the [sheriff] gets it!" scene?
I wonder how many Obamabots are getting screwed by BO in the Indiana pension fund? I would love to see the number on them when the courts by 4PM today decide to violate the takings clause of the Constitution violating their Constitutional rights. Who Should the pensioners start shooting first, taking matters into their own hands?
Yeah, there was someone resting on cardboard boxes on Miracle
Mile in Coral Gables next to the Bookstore. When I came out she
was still there. Nobody chased her away.
Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds."
In other words, they think of us as a 3rd world country now. BTW this kind of foreign denominated debt is the kind of thing that you see prior to currency disasters and general looting of the public to pay off government debts.
Bad, bad news....
Basically the first step toward sovereign bankruptcy.
Obama admin. rips a page from the Bush/Paulson "no court in the land can challenge our decision" playbook:
The Obama Administration argued Monday that no court, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to hear a challenge by Indiana benefit plans to the role the U.S. Treasury played in the Chrysler rescue, including the use of “bailout” (TARP) funds.
Good to hear we've got that whole checks and balances thing behind us.
Just got off phone with mortgage company. Getting mod, they are dropping it by 3%, which saves me about 300 bucks a month, and staves off any arm resets, also defers June payment, no payment til July. The new payment will be almost the same but it will include taxes and insurance. It will give us more time to save up some down payment money and increase FICO scores...I suppose it is better than a sharp stick in the eye.
That's my thought, creditcriminalslovetarp. I actually piddled away an hour before deciding to call the Sheriff. There was that nagging "there but for the grace of God" feeling. A half mile away, there's a place where the homeless congregate to be fed from a catering truck owned by a nonprofit organization. I drive through there all the time. The numbers are increasing.
"Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds."
In other words, they think of us as a 3rd world country now. BTW this kind of foreign denominated debt is the kind of thing that you see prior to currency disasters and general looting of the public to pay off government debts.
Bad, bad news....
Basically the first step toward sovereign bankruptcy."
The Obama administration is ramping up its plans to stimulate the economy, rolling out new projects on Monday it says will save or create 600,000 jobs this summer.
And the Birth/Death model will make sure we get them.
Again, the other shell game is believing that a particular party represents more-than-not our specific interests, and that a particular individual that heads the party also represents more-than-not our interests.
Consumer-choice-driven social suicide is somehow better. It's just as much a fantasy to believe in "fiat" currencies to believe the system (the one where there were actual substantive choices) has not systemically already failed.
Again, the other shell game is believing that a particular party represents more-than-not our specific interests, and that a particular individual that heads the party also represents more-than-not our interests.
Consumer-choice-driven social suicide is somehow better. It's just as much a fantasy to believe in "fiat" currencies to believe the system (the one where there were actual substantive choices) has not systemically already failed.
--bh
I was just reading about the origins of this apocryphal quote. Whether or not it's genuine it does sum things up nicely:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. </i>
I've seen it quoted in form out of greek classical thinkers, probably apocryphal then as well. However Baudrillard has some nice zigers on demos:
"Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust."
and this one:
"Athenian democracy, much more advanced than our own, had reached the point where the vote was considered as payment for a service, after all other repressive solutions had been tried and found wanting in order to insure a quorum."
Michael (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 11:42 am
* reply
* Ignore user
I wonder how many Obamabots are getting screwed by BO in the Indiana pension fund? I would love to see the number on them when the courts by 4PM today decide to violate the takings clause of the Constitution violating their Constitutional rights. Who Should the pensioners start shooting first, taking matters into their own hands?
This lot has done a lot of crap - but unless you or the Indiana pension fund know of somebody prepared to purchase Chrysler's assets for more than $2Bn I don't believe there is a constitutional violation here. We can have an argument as to why we the taxpayers are sharing our ownership in GM and Chrysler with the Union Health fund. I think an argument could be made and I would have liked to have seen them make it and provide the data that trying to keep the union health care fund alive is ultimately cheaper for the tax payer in comparison to having all those retirees dumped into medicaire.
The issue in my opinion is not GM or Chrysler- but why the government thinks it can ran auto companies and not banks. In the NYT there is a report about Geithner being concerned about where he would find the managers to run the nationalized banks as the argument against nationalizing them?.
"Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust."
I do wonder though how viable dictatorship is now in a time of technology and communication infrastructure that changes too fast for anybody in positions of authority to really get a grasp on.
One day we'll all wake up and google will be running everything and the guys in Washington will keep on passing laws pretending they still make the rules.
razyv (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 9:11 am
The issue in my opinion is not GM or Chrysler- but why the government thinks it can ran auto companies and not banks. In the NYT there is a report about Geithner being concerned about where he would find the managers to run the nationalized banks as the argument against nationalizing them?.
Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are likely to be smiling today. Not because of the GM bankruptcy. It would definitely be un-Japanese to gloat.
They’re smiling because the U.S. government thinks all it has to do is follow the management guidance of the White House auto team, give GM lots of money, fire the CEO, get labor concessions, set fuel efficiency standards, urge the company to create hybrids, and competitiveness will be magically restored.
According to The New York Times, this miracle will be wrought by a 31-year-old; a very bright young man who has never set foot in an auto plant, has never run a manufacturing business, and is advising the already laughable “auto rescue team” about running a competitive auto company in a market where Toyota is already whipping their body parts!!!
I started to laugh because I thought this was part of the Jay Leno farewell skit. No one could make this up!
I don't understand why they are deferring a payment at all.
Jiminy christmas, it's a scam, Liz. I used to get that all the time. Skip a payment for Christmas, skip a payment for your birthday. They tack the charges onto the back-end, refinancing that one payment with 30 years of interest.
But usually what they tack on to the end is 10-30k, not just a few thou.
I actually think they may be (semi) good guys, trying to pound a square peg of
Kristina's non-defaultedness to the round hole of the Mtg Mod rules, that
require you to be in default in order to work with you. See Tanta's post some
threads down.
I think exactly that kind of bifurcation is quite possible. Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship.
The BLS talks about methodology. I'm not familiar enough with the various methodologies to tell whether it's got a higher BS quotient than the other numbers they publish. They do publish month-by-month numbers:
I do wonder though how viable dictatorship is now in a time of technology and communication
US is already a de facto fascist state.
Technology makes no difference, gunpowder does.
Any "island of freedom in the suburbs" is an illusion when the gov't holds the guns.
I think exactly that kind of bifurcation is quite possible. Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship.
Perhaps a dystopic fantasy.
--bh
The interesting question is whether at some point technology will allow the creation of "barriers" whether material or informational that allow nations to develop independently of physical territory.
lawyerliz, are you still seeing duplicate comments when you save? Has anyone else had the problem? I'm trying to duplicate this, but haven't yet succeeded on my test system, so any information about what you were doing when it happened would be helpful.
In particular, did you see a refresh of additional comments right when you saved? And did this happen when you created a new comment, a reply, or an edit of an existing one?
I hate to be a mooch, but can anyone here explain in terms I might understand, what this post on ZeroHedge means?
I guess some folks had some big bets on that the yield curve would steepen (yields for long bonds would rise more than for shorter term notes), and this just blew up as the yield curve flattened substantially as the 2 year yield shot up.
I guess you might do this by being long the 2 year and short the 10 year (but I'm just guessing).
The problem with the "government has all the guns" argument is that we made the "mistake" of using a volunteer army. Relatives and friends who serve would frag their commanding officer before firing on americans here.
US is already a de facto fascist state.
Technology makes no difference, gunpowder does.
Any "island of freedom in the suburbs" is an illusion when the gov't holds the guns.
I dunno, ever read about all the information warfare that went on in WWII?
ac (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 8:50 am
Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds." - RD
In other words, they think of us as a 3rd world country now. BTW this kind of foreign denominated debt is the kind of thing that you see prior to currency disasters and general looting of the public to pay off government debts.
Bad, bad news....
Basically the first step toward sovereign bankruptcy.
Remember this is also the long out of power liberal party looking to overtake the conservatives. Perspectives change when you sit in the big chair. This same leader went on to say he was comfortable with 50JPY=1USD. Yes, fifty. Obviously some of this is political theatre for domestic consumption. But the Japanese have already seen their economy take some monster hits so it will be difficult to threaten them with consequences that have already occurred. The same BBC article included a related visit to the shipping yards south of Toyko where there shipyard was dead. They also interviewed a restaurant owner across from an idled Toyota plant who had been there since 1938 who said this is the worst he's seen.
Dryfly is right, the export economies are not going with "the patch" they are planning "cold turkey."
"Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship."
Weren't Bernanke & Geithner's jobs for the last how many years supposed to be preventing a financial crisis like this from happening? Wasn't that what they were being paid to do? They undoubtedly were asleep at the wheel. Why not charge them with malfeasance in office? Think that would get anybody's attention?
blackhat (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 9:25 am
ac,
I think exactly that kind of bifurcation is quite possible. Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship.
Perhaps a dystopic fantasy. --bh
Honest, it is named after me: Cotean Dystopia. This from a 2007 Calculated risk discussion:
"As to the oft termed Cotean Nodaltopia aka Exurban Dystopia I think in an age of solar rooftops all those southern state sprawlburgs may have pulled the diamond from a pile of manure."
RockyR, the Chicomms have been rattling that particular saber for some time. It isn't credible. NO ONE wants Yuan as reserve currency. As bad as the dollar may be it isn't entirely decoupled from some sense of value. The Yuan is what the masters say it should be. Undervalued by 40% now yes but tthere's nothing to stop it from being equally overvalued on a central committee whim.
Liz, I am late this month because I had to pay 2200 dollars in property taxes before 5/29. I called to let them know I was going to be late and asked about any mods that I might qualify for. We ran our numbers for income and expenses and he said I qualify for the government program because of my reduced income (tips) and my husbands extended layoff (five months worth). They are only tacking the June payment onto the back end of the mortgage. My payment is only coming down about ten bucks but it will now include my taxes and insurance, which is about 300 bucks per month. I also don't have to sweat any resets for five years and even after the five years they can only raise it one percent every 12 months. I hope I will be refi'd out of it before the five years. I also made sure there was no prepayment penalty if I decide to refin out. It's something anyway and takes alot of pressure off of me...
Also, I asked about the "deferrment" of that payment and he said it is not a true deferrment per stipulations of the federal program, they also said it will not be reported to credit agencies as late and the mod won't affect my credit rating.
As one who has spent much of the last four decades on or near the front lines of Japan-US trade, I have always characterized the scenario of the Japanese refusing to lend us money (or refusing to lend it except in yen) as a "Blazing Saddles Gambit" -- remember the "Nobody move, or the [sheriff] gets it!" scene?
I agree fully except maybe now Japan has pulled the trigger - at least looking at the collapse in their exports recently.
That IMHO is the test as to whether they [and also the Chinese] keep wanting to lend to us... do they keep exporting or at least fall all over themselves to keep TRYING to export to us.
The day they no longer want to export to us is the day they stop buying USD assets including T's. The only reason they were doing it was to manipulate their currency exchange rate v. USD and remain competitive in spite of huge ongoing surpluses [our deficits]... once that is no longer a goal - watch out below.
What have Bernanke & Geithner been doing for the last 4-5 years? Wasn’t their job to prevent financial crises from happening? Isn’t that what we’ve been paying them to do? We don’t need a couple of highly paid, brain dead pseudo-intellectuals to call down to the Mint & tell them to start printing more free money for their stupid friends in banking who lost billions of OPM by making stupid investments with it. My 5 year old grandson will gladly call the Mint for free & tell them to start the printing presses. The easiest job (position) in the world is spending OPM. That’s why politicians hit up their fat cat friends for millions in contributions (payoffs) to get reelected. So they can spend OPM.
Of course Ben & Tim have to print all this free money for their friends in banking if they want to take advantage of the multimillion dollar banking/lobbying “positions” their friends in banking have waiting for them after they leave government.
Who cares about double digits unemployment as long as Goldman, Bank of Amerika, Google, Rimm, and Apple are making record profits. Employment is waaaay overrated. Who needs jobs as long as the stock market keeps going up? Lets just keep buying stocks. As long as the new world order can solidly thier power and the middle class dissolves, all will be well. yay I love jobless recoveries and 4 dollar gas.
Tarp Diem
Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds."
I think the issue of "raising capital" will be the elephant in the room for more than just banks soon enough. On that same note, the ease with which these same banks have raised new money these last two weeks is worrisome. It shouldn't be that easy. I suspect like many things that seem too good to be true there are conditions that won't show up until too late.
lagging from before... if you don't have a trust fund you'll never make it in the fashion mag trade...
if R. Mutt Dawg has me on his Ignore list why must I be subjected to whatever he writes?
Several top banks, including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., have had to assess top executives and directors "to assure that the leadership of the firm has sufficient expertise and ability to manage the risks presented by the current economic environment"
Remember when "vote of confidence" would have sufficed, instead of all of the CYA gibberish above?
Worrisome indeed RD, been my own master in business 40 years and this does not smell right.
Duke,
You know why I don't respond to you comments.
I don't see how Japan politics apply to you.
hahahahaha .... the banks get to self-assess their own leadership's to determine if theyhave sufficient expertise and ability to manage the risks presented by the current economic environment" ...
Anybody want to guess how many banks determine that their boards or management aren't fully qualified.
It's like asking teens to judge their ability to outfox their parents: no one fails.
thanks for the link to the NYT article. As someone who lived in a univ town, I have to say I'm glad to see this come about.
Repayment should come with a warning that the trough will now be permanently closed to these banks. Fool us once, .....
"Confused us say it is wise to keep dollar strong"
4, 15, 27, 33, 37, 41
(from Timmay's fortune cookie)
Repayment should come with a warning that the trough will now be permanently closed to these banks.
Bwahahahaahahahahahahaaa......
That will NEVER happen.
Repayment should come with a warning that the trough will now be permanently closed to these banks. Fool us once,
The people who control the trough were not fooled
Whoooo, what underling, is gonna tell the boss he's no good?
O isn't even able to tell them to hit the road, Jack.
and right on cue let's drop the market in front of one of the most important bond auctions (hype) we have had. Gotta scare money into them right?
Ciao
MS
Hey liz, who would you suggest as a trustworthy lender? I'm so sick of trying to find a reputable mortgage broker and we are ready to do our refinance now (hubby has been back to work now for several months so we have all the necessary paperwork together).
What is the difference of the Trust Babies and the twenty five year old pampered poor on welfare?
Leave it to Geithner
Follow the adventures of Timmay as he stonewalls the Chinese thanks to a clever diversion of funds by Benny Haskel who's in charge of the Mouse-Clickateers
Having past the Wiley Coyote moment of last October, should we not call this the Capt. Renault moment.
Umm, that the pampered poor are the same as an honest lobbyist, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny?
.... the pampered poor. That man needs to visit reality.
The TARP-free should also cut off their lifelines from the Fed. (paid interest on deposits at Fed, etc.).
"If you love someone set them free"
ahhhhh, the Police with Sting-er attached.
Kristina--you wanna work with somebody out of South Florida?
It's fha, right?
Normally, I tell people to go directly to a bank/credit union, and cut out the middleman. But I'm not sure of anything, anymore.
Hub belong to a credit union?
yes liz, i was just running the numbers on etrade (I have accounts with them) and I found that I could reduce my 30 year ARM to a 15 year fixed and still be paying less than I am now sigh.....I haven't contacted them because I figured they are shysters as well, I was just using their calculator...
I really love to study Proven Conspiracies, I find them fascinating. The biggest proven conspiracy I have uncovered so far is the one about the worlds wealthy elite, ruling the world and imposing their will through the monetary system.
the ease with which these same banks have raised new money these last two weeks is worrisome. It shouldn't be that easy.
Kickbacks paid by placement agents to the "guardians" of institutional holdings (e.g. pensions, endowments, OPM)
Kristina, do you see the double post?
Aside from it's reserve status, why is something that costs 10 cents to print valued at 1000x times production cost?
I speak of the highest denominated banknote.
JD: it is worth what Tim and Ben say it is, until it isn't.
Yeah I saw it liz. Yes, he does have a small checking account with Tyndall Federal CU...I think I'll check with them first and see what they have to offer. I also had a carloan with them that was paid off so that should help as well. At my wits end with shysters and scammers about now. I told you about the mortgage one company sent me to sign that listed the loan amount as 175K when I only owe 129K, didn't I? I'm still scratching my head trying to figure where that 45K was going because it explicitly said no cash out....LOL
MS, you are 100% right! I saw an article on the front page of yahoo over the weekend stating "traders are questioning the rally". That's when I knew they were starting the scare tactics. Oh well, I hope the shorts make some money on the ride down.
Mkt down, in spite of our eating out and spending some money yesterday.
We did our part!!
Kristina: like Diogenes, perhaps you could consider this: Diogenes: He is said to have lived in a large tub, rather than a house, and to have walked through the streets carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. (WIKI)
Go to the Credit Union and see how that works out.
one of my trust fund friends told me that she would always be safe because she learned never to touch the corpus of the trust, just use the earnings. She has totally flummoxed now that the corpus is evaporating and there are no earnings.
A good many of you shorts got your clocks cleaned in this absurd rally...
Knowing you were right in your assertions and getting punked by Wall*Street, has gotta hurt~
I bought a muffin and bearclaw at the farmer's market Sat. Does that count as consumer confidence?
(The baby carrots DID look delicious though).
"Corpus Crispy"
++++++++++++++
"one of my trust fund friends told me that she would always be safe because she learned never to touch the corpus of the trust, just use the earnings. She has totally flummoxed now that the corpus is evaporating and there are no earnings."
My mom made back about 20k of what she lost. I said sell and she
laughed. On thinking about it, I think this is no joke.
She was a trust funder in a very vary small way and was told by her mother
to never touch the capital. This worked for over a 100 years.
Basel Too (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 6:55 am
the ease with which these same banks have raised new money these last two weeks is worrisome. It shouldn't be that easy.
Kickbacks paid by placement agents to the "guardians" of institutional holdings (e.g. pensions, endowments, OPM)
Funds like CalSTRS and CalPERS have been quietly liquidating into the rally to meet current obligations much higher than expected at the same time expected revenue streams have disappeared (bank dividends, real estate income, etc). This is compounded by State and municipalities balking at fully endowing these retirement funds. I just don't see where this much new money is coming from unless it is balance of payments money being washed through front men.
Shoulda bought those carrots!!
Liz looks over shoulder. Was that too much funning?
Juvie==hahahahahahahAhahahahah
Brad Delong furthers his descent into absurdity and irrelevance:
That it is past time for you to seek from the Congress for authority to guarantee the debt of states that, in response to the current recession, (a) seek to conduct their own state-level fiscal expansions, and (b) devise plans and strategies for the long-term repayment of the debt the federal government guarantees that the Secretary of the Treasury certifies as prudent and sustainable.
That it is time for you to seek from the Congress an amended Budget Resolution: to include in this year's forthcoming Reconciliation process an additional $500 billion of federal aid to states, distributed per capita and conditioned on their maintaining effort at the provision of public services--on their not repeating the mistake of Herbert Hoover of cutting government employment and spending in a downturn.
Fiscal Policy in the Second Half of 2009 - J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles
I was going to ask what time the bond auction is, but then I realized all I have to do is just watch for the markets to go vertical into kermit territory. After all, it will have to look convincing to the MSNBC-watchers that the "markets" have repudiated any thoughts of concern about the rally being illegitimate. Otherwise, someone might get the crazy idea that it is still physically possible for the markets to go down.
Talk about a hefty sum of money. You have to love the TARP fund, purchasing assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen its financial sector.
Best regard,
Michael Fridman
The “MAN” Experience
JD-
Please elaborate on how that is any different than normal conditions?
thought so...
Ciao
MS
lawyerliz: yeah, but I was fascinated by veggies that I'd never seen before: baby rutabagas, garlic green shoots (like scallions), etc. Everything grows in Oregon!
Comrade Kristina,
You might want to check out Pentagon Federal Credit Union...membership is not as restricted as you might think...check out the link which lists mortgage rates, etc. I have CDs with them, and their rates have always been good.
Best of luck.
https://www.penfed.org/productsAndRates/mortgages/mortgageCenter.asp?cmpid=Email-Estmt-301-mortgage-200903&adcode=301
True, CalPERS and other large pf, as well as the SWFs, have been quite transparent about liquidating their financial holdings. my guess is that the capital raising has come at the expense of the firefighters and librarians from skokie, muskegan, and the rest of BFE.
swallow your anger - the dye has been cast
If you plant a garlic clove in a pot and water it, green shoots will come out.
I have no prob with that part, but my cloves never multiply underground.
some of the veggies may have been merely picked early, and some are a
different variety. I grow baby pumpkins sometimes. The are edible, but I
grow them 'cause they are cute.
And we are all colorful now!!
Saw what I thought was a homeless Trustifarian with a cardboard sign and on it was written:
"Equity Sought"
(or was he just an equity sot?)
We had piles of baby pumpkins last year. My wife thinks they are cute also. This year it is baby gourds, if we have a garden. Weekend hail pounded it pretty good but still time to salvage most.
Comrade K,
if you don't work for the Pentagon, or the military, or the Red Cross or Homeland Security, you can still join if you make a 25 dollar donation to the Association of Military Famiies...that's what I did about 5 years ago...it's a one-time thing. Here's the membership criteria...
Good luck.
https://www.penfed.org/howToJoin/overview.asp
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Which bank is the most insolvent of all?
Thanks fried, I 'll check it out. We belong to a Federal CU here in town so I am going to check with them first.
Over 8000 banks, and its hard to know if any of them can be trusted. Total failure of reporting, oversight/regulation and transparency.
"Banker" used to be among the titles most trusted. I'd bet it is down the list now with ambulance chasing lawyers, used car salesman, and tv evangelists.
"Banker" used to be among the titles most trusted. I'd bet it is down the list now with ambulance chasing lawyers, used car salesman, and tv evangelists."
No trust in the people that handle the money lends to no trust in the money and so on and so forth...
Please don't insult the ambulance chasers. At least they normally work on contingency
only.
"bankers" are a necessary evil...always been that way. My opinion of them has never changed..it was only a matter of time that the rest of the world figured that out.
Ciao
MS
Tort-sure lawyers have it coming...
The word corporation is nowhere in the US Constitution. They corps were awarded 'personhood' by the Supreme Court (so they have rights, like the right to purchase the congress through free speech donations). One decision that changed our world and never approved by the people or their representatives.
I've been involved with banking one way or t'other since 1972.
I have been underwhelmed with the level of competence shown, tho til recently, I
didn't know of overt untrustworthiness.
Actually, if was a pope who first called them a person without a soul.
Right on that part.
Fair enough Rob Dawg... haven't thought about Japanese politics since the late '80s
when I was paid to try to make sense of their major banks annual reports, paid someone to translate every word,
but there accounting system allowed them to not report non-performing RE loans for a long time...
did anyone see Charlie Gas on CNBC talk about the Unemploy numbers? a sight to behold ...
I just happened to pop into my room and see something that stopped me in my tracks
What is the difference of the Trust Babies and the twenty five year old pampered poor on welfare?
Oh, about a couple of thousand dollars a month...
Here in Left Toasted Appalachia on the tv news yesterday, they had a tale of woe from a town of 25,000 sporting a 29% unemployment rate
My Lithuanian friend in West V doesn't report much pain where she is near Morgantown/
Masontown.
Even if you are "pampered poor" learning to defeat the system to get your
benefits is a full time job.
Duke of Con Dao (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 7:41 am
Fair enough Rob Dawg... haven't thought about Japanese politics since the late '80s
when I was paid to try to make sense of their major banks annual reports, paid someone to translate every word,
but there accounting system allowed them to not report non-performing RE loans for a long time...
It appears history is rhyming. And now that we've "successfully" replicated their banking errors we have moved on to replicating MITI.
We're banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
Banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
We're banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
Banking Japanese
I think we're banking Japanese
I really think so
OT-
Met a friend up in Bodega bay this weekend. She has a electronic wholesale parts business. Up 25% on the year over last year, on projection to increase sales to over 1.2 million this year, small company 5-6 employees..no debt, little overhead, minority ran business with a lot of indian casino business, she's 1/2 cherokee.
She went to 9 banks to get a SBA loan to facillitate growth and all of them denied her but would work with her if they could have 3% stake on receivables? Does this make sense...I thought sba was opening the spigot to business's that are growing..
Both Trust babies and Pampered poor contribute nothing. The jealousy is very appearant. Both are a drag on all of us.
Rob Dawg,
This is OT, but as a resident of deficit-riddled NY, I watch Cali to see where we are going to end up. LA Times says the government unions are now sparring with the Dem leadership...which is a step in the right direction. I love this quote...
"The union leaders say they are appalled that Democratic leaders are talking openly now about decimating government programs without first making a stand for bigger, broader tax hikes that could substantially offset budget cuts.
"Democrats came to Sacramento to help people," said Marty Hittleman, president of the California Federation of Teachers. "I know they did not go there to destroy government."
So the union guys think adding more taxes to Cali will save them...madness. All that will be left is a black-market economy when they get through.
Deficit opens a rift with unions - Los Angeles Times
RD - your comment early in this thread about the Lib Dems in Japan saying they would if in power only fund USG in JPY is telling - they just might be to the point where they are willing to walk away from the US consumer market - or more accurately admitting the cost of manipulating the JPY vis a vis the USD costs more than the benefit from exports is worth.
Watch for that revelation in China and we will be seeing the dawn of a Brave New World.
creditcriminalslovetarp,
On the federal contracting-side this is pretty standard. They'll give you a loan, usually 80% of what you ask, and take 3% of receivables. Usually you take these out as soon as you have a contract in hand. And even then, only a few banks and some boutique lendors will do this. Most don't care if you have been awarded a contract for 10million and need 250K to make the first 2 months for payroll. They only care about the last 2 years of revenue. If you're a new company, with little revenue, they'll ask for a secured loan against personal assets, and the interest rate will be high, and it'll be a short-term loan, to be paid back in one year.
It's a risky business and people get wiped out all the time.
--bh
thanks blackhat...she was stumped...
Book tip:
A Year Without "Made In China" by Sara Bongiorni
A family orders a Chinese-takeout to go.
GM is now 1.03; where was that 99% dilution that obama promised
there are several comments up thread by Rob Dawg, Michael Fridman and others who observe the absurdity of the money shell game thats being played
the fed via talf etc, the treasury with mlec type structures , congress with tarp ,all shooting money around to pull themselves and the financial services industry up by the boot straps
dont we all get it
these guys have reached the ultimate level of financial hallucination
money is what they say it is...and they create and distribute it at will to wom ever
BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE FREAKING OUT ABOUT M3...keep this in mind...
thru taxation and the same kinds of key strokes that created trillions of make believe money
the fed, congress and treasury can take those same sums back
welcome to the world of alice in wonderland
Malice in Wonderland...
"....garlic green shoots (like scallions)"
.....they're great for flavoring stews, salads, anything else - just clip what you need and they keep growing.
Given that the banks' earnings rose so strongly last quarter with the benefit of the TARP funds in hand, I might reasonably expect their earnings to fall as they pay them back. Of course, I assume there's not a chance in hell this will happen (since the banks were really strong all along anyway).
At least some pampered poor take care of their families.
Not sure of trust babies!!
Our little fund meant basically that a car could be bought cash every 5 years, and vacations
could be taken every 2-3 years. Usually to Atlantic City--long before gambling. And once or 2ce
we went to exotic New York City.
Everybody always worked.
Banks strong like bullshit.
Failed Auction Rattles Sweden
Bank shares plunge on fears the Latvian currency is about to fall again.
Failed Auction Rattles Sweden - Forbes.com
Strong smelling anyway, Juvie.
Wouldn't ya love to be a fly on the wall of the Boys of Summers, Dem Bums?
I dunno, I think I like my terror one step removed, rather than right there in the
room with me.
What if wall*street held a 1% off sale and nobody came ? Volume: Shark Investing - Volume Charts
samurai bonds... international currency
remember in 87 when the japanese balked at buying us debt because of the ballooning us gov debt and trade deficit
as the stock market crashed and the system was poised to do just what it is doing today...they had a come to God moment
solutions must be incremental.. unless of course they want a further excursion into the realm beyond the edge of the charts and sea monsters
The rally is just tired and needs a break, according to MSN money.
....those banks sure are getting "gun-shy" about using FedGov money now - imagine THAT. There seem to be some supposed danger in repayment - Treasury doesn't seem to want repayment for more reasons than just additional danger of further bailouts - I don't get it.
Yup sure looks like a recovery to me...
Domestic Investment Plunges
St. Louis Fed: Series: GPDI, Gross Private Domestic Investment
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FM71j6-VkNE/Si0i1jQz7iI/AAAAAAAADHs/aZLHdAr-7dY/s1600-h/GPDI_Max_630_378.png
Methings that the only reason for doing this is so the biggies can get their
bonuses. Is there any other reason.
Calif. contemplating rewrite of social contract
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- With empty pockets and maxed-out credit, California is debating whether it can continue honoring all parts of its social contract with the state's most vulnerable residents.
The state faces an unprecedented drop in tax revenue and a widening budget deficit amid the deepest recession in decades, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to propose cost-cutting steps that once seemed unthinkable.
At stake are programs for the poor, elderly and frail, placing millions of people in the nation's most populous state at risk of falling through a decades-old social safety net.
Ending the welfare-to-work program for mothers and their children would affect some 546,000 families, and health insurance could be eliminated for 1 million children from low-income families. Services for Alzheimer's patients, disabled and other frail recipients of in-home care also would be greatly reduced under the governor's latest budget proposal, leaving more than 400,000 people without such support.
Schwarzenegger acknowledges that his proposals will be painful.
"I know the consequences of those cuts are not just dollars. I see the faces behind those dollars. ... I see the Alzheimer's patients losing some of their in-home support services," he told lawmakers last week. "It's an awful feeling, but we have no choice."
Yahoo! 404 - Page Not Found
But it could have fallen at an even faster rate--tho it's hard to see how.
The cliff dive doesn't even look like Wiley got a running start.
Anecdote from West Hollywood, CA: I got up yesterday (Sunday) morning to find two people sleeping in chairs in my driveway. They hadn't been there when I came home at 1:00 a.m.. After rousting them out, the Sheriff's deputy told me they had recently arrived from back east.
I wanna hear about sports stadia and the like being cancelled.
Why'd they go west? To get Cali's soon to be cut more generous welfare?
for liz:
Study shows Atlantic Yards NBA arena project could cost city big-time
"After rousting them out, the Sheriff's deputy told me they had recently arrived from back east."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
is this the "Summer Of Shove"?
Better weather when you're homeless, maybe. They looked to be in their 20s and the male's hair was still short and tidy. But they were lugging around these stupid chairs.
I think I read that before, Basel.
Cute model though.
the trust fund probably ran out.
I guess that traveling around when you have nothing else to do is less
despair-making than just sitting around.
Chairs==home.
When you feast your eyes upon the newly homeless, the first thing you see is they have too much stuff.
Obama admin. rips a page from the Bush/Paulson "no court in the land can challenge our decision" playbook:
The Obama Administration argued Monday that no court, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to hear a challenge by Indiana benefit plans to the role the U.S. Treasury played in the Chrysler rescue, including the use of “bailout” (TARP) funds.
Zero Hedge
I wonder how many Obamabots are getting screwed by BO in the Indiana pension fund? I would love to see the number on them when the courts by 4PM today decide to violate the takings clause of the Constitution violating their Constitutional rights. Who Should the pensioners start shooting first, taking matters into their own hands?
Before real estate died, I would always notice that the bk clients for the attys down
the hall were usually better dressed and were more likely to have professionally done
nails than my clients.
Feesible Malfeasance, no doubt.
Nearby everybody has too much stuff. I've been making daily trips to Goodwill so I don't have to pay somebody to move stuff I haven't touched in three previous moves. It's painful parting with your 'treasures', but the upside is a surprising amount of emotional high at being nearly portable.
I always laugh hard when I drive from my downtown apt to the burbs and see 3 cars in the driveway and the garage jam packed with 'stuff'.
As one who has spent much of the last four decades on or near the front lines of Japan-US trade, I have always characterized the scenario of the Japanese refusing to lend us money (or refusing to lend it except in yen) as a "Blazing Saddles Gambit" -- remember the "Nobody move, or the [sheriff] gets it!" scene?
I doubt if the Supremes have acquired an army since the last prez to say this.
Re: Homeless..
I hate to say it but were all a lot closer to being there...they are sprouting up everywhere in San Francisco..places I've never seen them....
I wonder how many Obamabots are getting screwed by BO in the Indiana pension fund? I would love to see the number on them when the courts by 4PM today decide to violate the takings clause of the Constitution violating their Constitutional rights. Who Should the pensioners start shooting first, taking matters into their own hands?
Yeah, there was someone resting on cardboard boxes on Miracle
Mile in Coral Gables next to the Bookstore. When I came out she
was still there. Nobody chased her away.
OT: Any bio experts out there?
Why is this stock (gnvc) trading 10 million shares with no news?
Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds."
In other words, they think of us as a 3rd world country now. BTW this kind of foreign denominated debt is the kind of thing that you see prior to currency disasters and general looting of the public to pay off government debts.
Bad, bad news....
Basically the first step toward sovereign bankruptcy.
I thought I saw Angelo Mozillo with a sign that said "Will loan for food", but it was just a homeless guy doing tan to 5 outside.
Obama admin. rips a page from the Bush/Paulson "no court in the land can challenge our decision" playbook:
The Obama Administration argued Monday that no court, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to hear a challenge by Indiana benefit plans to the role the U.S. Treasury played in the Chrysler rescue, including the use of “bailout” (TARP) funds.
Good to hear we've got that whole checks and balances thing behind us.
Ugly deplorable part of our history...
Just got off phone with mortgage company. Getting mod, they are dropping it by 3%, which saves me about 300 bucks a month, and staves off any arm resets, also defers June payment, no payment til July. The new payment will be almost the same but it will include taxes and insurance. It will give us more time to save up some down payment money and increase FICO scores...I suppose it is better than a sharp stick in the eye.
That's my thought, creditcriminalslovetarp. I actually piddled away an hour before deciding to call the Sheriff. There was that nagging "there but for the grace of God" feeling. A half mile away, there's a place where the homeless congregate to be fed from a catering truck owned by a nonprofit organization. I drive through there all the time. The numbers are increasing.
We don't need no steenking court reviews.....
mock turtle wrote:
thru taxation and the same kinds of key strokes that created trillions of make believe money
the fed, congress and treasury can take those same sums back
I don't have as much confidence that the genie can be put back in the bottle so easily. It will be interesting to watch.
"Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds."
In other words, they think of us as a 3rd world country now. BTW this kind of foreign denominated debt is the kind of thing that you see prior to currency disasters and general looting of the public to pay off government debts.
Bad, bad news....
Basically the first step toward sovereign bankruptcy."
The Builderbergs will make short work of the LDP.
See The Movie
YouTube - WATCHMEN Trailer - AMAZING!
The Obama administration is ramping up its plans to stimulate the economy, rolling out new projects on Monday it says will save or create 600,000 jobs this summer.
And the Birth/Death model will make sure we get them.
ac,
Again, the other shell game is believing that a particular party represents more-than-not our specific interests, and that a particular individual that heads the party also represents more-than-not our interests.
Consumer-choice-driven social suicide is somehow better. It's just as much a fantasy to believe in "fiat" currencies to believe the system (the one where there were actual substantive choices) has not systemically already failed.
--bh
If only Belushi hadn't gone one toke over the line and left us, he could do "Samurai Bond Salesman"
only 600k jobs from $787B in stimulus?
600k additional census takers ?
Forbes - Pink Slips
Layoff Tracker:
Layoff Tracker - Forbes.com
This lying BO shit is getting so old.
ac,
Again, the other shell game is believing that a particular party represents more-than-not our specific interests, and that a particular individual that heads the party also represents more-than-not our interests.
Consumer-choice-driven social suicide is somehow better. It's just as much a fantasy to believe in "fiat" currencies to believe the system (the one where there were actual substantive choices) has not systemically already failed.
--bh
I was just reading about the origins of this apocryphal quote. Whether or not it's genuine it does sum things up nicely:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. </i>
I think the issue of "raising capital" will be the elephant in the room for more than just banks soon enough
Like I said a couple of years ago, bonds will be the real blowout, not banks.
I had hoped that things would work out differently but there's a difference between "hope" and "expect".
It seems obvious where this is headed.
When do Chrysler and GM pay back their TARP funds?
To be accurate, isn't it really just the Birth model? When was the last time the B/D model actually subtracted jobs from the calculation?
"When was the last time the B/D model actually subtracted jobs from the calculation?'
January.
ac,
I've seen it quoted in form out of greek classical thinkers, probably apocryphal then as well. However Baudrillard has some nice zigers on demos:
"Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust."
and this one:
"Athenian democracy, much more advanced than our own, had reached the point where the vote was considered as payment for a service, after all other repressive solutions had been tried and found wanting in order to insure a quorum."
--bh
Michael (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 11:42 am
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I wonder how many Obamabots are getting screwed by BO in the Indiana pension fund? I would love to see the number on them when the courts by 4PM today decide to violate the takings clause of the Constitution violating their Constitutional rights. Who Should the pensioners start shooting first, taking matters into their own hands?
This lot has done a lot of crap - but unless you or the Indiana pension fund know of somebody prepared to purchase Chrysler's assets for more than $2Bn I don't believe there is a constitutional violation here. We can have an argument as to why we the taxpayers are sharing our ownership in GM and Chrysler with the Union Health fund. I think an argument could be made and I would have liked to have seen them make it and provide the data that trying to keep the union health care fund alive is ultimately cheaper for the tax payer in comparison to having all those retirees dumped into medicaire.
The issue in my opinion is not GM or Chrysler- but why the government thinks it can ran auto companies and not banks. In the NYT there is a report about Geithner being concerned about where he would find the managers to run the nationalized banks as the argument against nationalizing them?.
NateTG,
Really? I didn't know that. How many did it subtract? Also, is there a published formula for the B/D model, or do they keep it proprietary?
Kristina--watch out that deferred payment may get added on to your principal balance. And you will pay interest on it.
How long does the reduction last? Permanently or 5 years.
All in all, not bad at all. Momma liz sez use the extra $300 to pay down the principal.
I don't understand why they are deferring a payment at all.
Unless it is to pretend you are behind, so you can be pounded into
the Mod rules?
"Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust."
I do wonder though how viable dictatorship is now in a time of technology and communication infrastructure that changes too fast for anybody in positions of authority to really get a grasp on.
One day we'll all wake up and google will be running everything and the guys in Washington will keep on passing laws pretending they still make the rules.
razyv (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 9:11 am
The issue in my opinion is not GM or Chrysler- but why the government thinks it can ran auto companies and not banks. In the NYT there is a report about Geithner being concerned about where he would find the managers to run the nationalized banks as the argument against nationalizing them?.
This is much better than NYT
A Better Solution for GM
A Better Solution for GM - KM Edge: Where the best in Knowledge Management come together
Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are likely to be smiling today. Not because of the GM bankruptcy. It would definitely be un-Japanese to gloat.
They’re smiling because the U.S. government thinks all it has to do is follow the management guidance of the White House auto team, give GM lots of money, fire the CEO, get labor concessions, set fuel efficiency standards, urge the company to create hybrids, and competitiveness will be magically restored.
According to The New York Times, this miracle will be wrought by a 31-year-old; a very bright young man who has never set foot in an auto plant, has never run a manufacturing business, and is advising the already laughable “auto rescue team” about running a competitive auto company in a market where Toyota is already whipping their body parts!!!
I started to laugh because I thought this was part of the Jay Leno farewell skit. No one could make this up!
Creepy music. . .
. . . .google is already running everything.
I don't understand why they are deferring a payment at all.
Jiminy christmas, it's a scam, Liz. I used to get that all the time. Skip a payment for Christmas, skip a payment for your birthday. They tack the charges onto the back-end, refinancing that one payment with 30 years of interest.
Yeah, yeah, I know that.
But usually what they tack on to the end is 10-30k, not just a few thou.
I actually think they may be (semi) good guys, trying to pound a square peg of
Kristina's non-defaultedness to the round hole of the Mtg Mod rules, that
require you to be in default in order to work with you. See Tanta's post some
threads down.
ac,
I think exactly that kind of bifurcation is quite possible. Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship.
Perhaps a dystopic fantasy.
--bh
Bailout Confetti Bomb Resulting in Higher Mortgage Rates
The article requested is no longer available.
The BLS talks about methodology. I'm not familiar enough with the various methodologies to tell whether it's got a higher BS quotient than the other numbers they publish. They do publish month-by-month numbers:
Fake Jobs
I do wonder though how viable dictatorship is now in a time of technology and communication
US is already a de facto fascist state.
Technology makes no difference, gunpowder does.
Any "island of freedom in the suburbs" is an illusion when the gov't holds the guns.
illusion ? more like childhood fantasy.
ac,
I think exactly that kind of bifurcation is quite possible. Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship.
Perhaps a dystopic fantasy.
--bh
The interesting question is whether at some point technology will allow the creation of "barriers" whether material or informational that allow nations to develop independently of physical territory.
I hate to be a mooch, but can anyone here explain in terms I might understand, what this post on ZeroHedge means?
Zero Hedge: The Levered Steepener Trade Blow Up In Full Visual Glory
lawyerliz, are you still seeing duplicate comments when you save? Has anyone else had the problem? I'm trying to duplicate this, but haven't yet succeeded on my test system, so any information about what you were doing when it happened would be helpful.
In particular, did you see a refresh of additional comments right when you saved? And did this happen when you created a new comment, a reply, or an edit of an existing one?
I hate to be a mooch, but can anyone here explain in terms I might understand, what this post on ZeroHedge means?
I guess some folks had some big bets on that the yield curve would steepen (yields for long bonds would rise more than for shorter term notes), and this just blew up as the yield curve flattened substantially as the 2 year yield shot up.
I guess you might do this by being long the 2 year and short the 10 year (but I'm just guessing).
ac,
I think the answer is yes.
Broward,
The problem with the "government has all the guns" argument is that we made the "mistake" of using a volunteer army. Relatives and friends who serve would frag their commanding officer before firing on americans here.
go ask them. They'll tell you.
--bh
US is already a de facto fascist state.
Technology makes no difference, gunpowder does.
Any "island of freedom in the suburbs" is an illusion when the gov't holds the guns.
I dunno, ever read about all the information warfare that went on in WWII?
Thank you, AC.
Yield curve flattening by short bond yields shooting north does not sound particularly good.
ac (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 8:50 am
Listening to BBC on the way home from Disneyland last night they were interviewing the LDP (liberal) party head in Japan who are expecting an electoral victory later this year. He stated flat out the the new government would insist that US debt be denominated in JPY. He called them "Samurai Bonds." - RD
In other words, they think of us as a 3rd world country now. BTW this kind of foreign denominated debt is the kind of thing that you see prior to currency disasters and general looting of the public to pay off government debts.
Bad, bad news....
Basically the first step toward sovereign bankruptcy.
Remember this is also the long out of power liberal party looking to overtake the conservatives. Perspectives change when you sit in the big chair. This same leader went on to say he was comfortable with 50JPY=1USD. Yes, fifty. Obviously some of this is political theatre for domestic consumption. But the Japanese have already seen their economy take some monster hits so it will be difficult to threaten them with consequences that have already occurred. The same BBC article included a related visit to the shipping yards south of Toyko where there shipyard was dead. They also interviewed a restaurant owner across from an idled Toyota plant who had been there since 1938 who said this is the worst he's seen.
Dryfly is right, the export economies are not going with "the patch" they are planning "cold turkey."
"Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship."
Why the implied future tense?
Dawg, I'm sure you saw that one of China's top bankers came out with a similar declaration about Yuan today as well.
Weren't Bernanke & Geithner's jobs for the last how many years supposed to be preventing a financial crisis like this from happening? Wasn't that what they were being paid to do? They undoubtedly were asleep at the wheel. Why not charge them with malfeasance in office? Think that would get anybody's attention?
blackhat (profile) wrote on Mon, 6/8/2009 - 9:25 am
ac,
I think exactly that kind of bifurcation is quite possible. Wait until some clever coprorations figure out that gated suburbs can also offer aditional "services", like freedom, security, and other benefits of citizenship.
Perhaps a dystopic fantasy. --bh
Honest, it is named after me: Cotean Dystopia. This from a 2007 Calculated risk discussion:
"As to the oft termed Cotean Nodaltopia aka Exurban Dystopia I think in an age of solar rooftops all those southern state sprawlburgs may have pulled the diamond from a pile of manure."
RockyR, the Chicomms have been rattling that particular saber for some time. It isn't credible. NO ONE wants Yuan as reserve currency. As bad as the dollar may be it isn't entirely decoupled from some sense of value. The Yuan is what the masters say it should be. Undervalued by 40% now yes but tthere's nothing to stop it from being equally overvalued on a central committee whim.
double post sorry
Liz, I am late this month because I had to pay 2200 dollars in property taxes before 5/29. I called to let them know I was going to be late and asked about any mods that I might qualify for. We ran our numbers for income and expenses and he said I qualify for the government program because of my reduced income (tips) and my husbands extended layoff (five months worth). They are only tacking the June payment onto the back end of the mortgage. My payment is only coming down about ten bucks but it will now include my taxes and insurance, which is about 300 bucks per month. I also don't have to sweat any resets for five years and even after the five years they can only raise it one percent every 12 months. I hope I will be refi'd out of it before the five years. I also made sure there was no prepayment penalty if I decide to refin out. It's something anyway and takes alot of pressure off of me...
Right. Tim & Ben are a couple of morons.
Also, I asked about the "deferrment" of that payment and he said it is not a true deferrment per stipulations of the federal program, they also said it will not be reported to credit agencies as late and the mod won't affect my credit rating.
Oh yeah, I also get a thousand dollars per year if I'm a good kid and make all my payments on time, I can use it to pay down principle.
Wait until some clever coprorations,...
pulled the diamond from a pile of manure
I see scatology is still alive and well.
As one who has spent much of the last four decades on or near the front lines of Japan-US trade, I have always characterized the scenario of the Japanese refusing to lend us money (or refusing to lend it except in yen) as a "Blazing Saddles Gambit" -- remember the "Nobody move, or the [sheriff] gets it!" scene?
I agree fully except maybe now Japan has pulled the trigger - at least looking at the collapse in their exports recently.
That IMHO is the test as to whether they [and also the Chinese] keep wanting to lend to us... do they keep exporting or at least fall all over themselves to keep TRYING to export to us.
The day they no longer want to export to us is the day they stop buying USD assets including T's. The only reason they were doing it was to manipulate their currency exchange rate v. USD and remain competitive in spite of huge ongoing surpluses [our deficits]... once that is no longer a goal - watch out below.
Lib Dems in Japan saying they would if in power only fund USG in JPY is telling -
<
p>My conclusion is that anti-Americanism in Japan wins votes. Would be very surprised if LDP actually does anything the US opposes.
Thanks for the information. Very interesting.
What have Bernanke & Geithner been doing for the last 4-5 years? Wasn’t their job to prevent financial crises from happening? Isn’t that what we’ve been paying them to do? We don’t need a couple of highly paid, brain dead pseudo-intellectuals to call down to the Mint & tell them to start printing more free money for their stupid friends in banking who lost billions of OPM by making stupid investments with it. My 5 year old grandson will gladly call the Mint for free & tell them to start the printing presses. The easiest job (position) in the world is spending OPM. That’s why politicians hit up their fat cat friends for millions in contributions (payoffs) to get reelected. So they can spend OPM.
Of course Ben & Tim have to print all this free money for their friends in banking if they want to take advantage of the multimillion dollar banking/lobbying “positions” their friends in banking have waiting for them after they leave government.
Who cares about double digits unemployment as long as Goldman, Bank of Amerika, Google, Rimm, and Apple are making record profits. Employment is waaaay overrated. Who needs jobs as long as the stock market keeps going up? Lets just keep buying stocks. As long as the new world order can solidly thier power and the middle class dissolves, all will be well. yay I love jobless recoveries and 4 dollar gas.
good read, folks interesting finance articles