Sometimes it pays to make a whole bunch of political contributions. Okay, not sometimes, most of the time. And the returns are great - for a million or two in contributions, you can get a billion or two back easy, sometimes 10 or 20 billion.
Man,rough and busy day for me.I decided to check my spam before coming here because there are always hundreds of beautiful women who want to meet me,and others assuring me of how easy it is to become rich.BUMMER.BK made easy,short sale scams,"Are YOU Facing Foreclosure".Geez,I can't even check out the Realtor babes on Craigslist now they got rid of erotic services ads...
Some day we'll see a lot more of this, but maybe not in this cycle, with the combined firepower of our entire government and financial system pushing prices back up.
patientrenter,
Um, where do you see evidence of "pushing prices back up"? Seems like at best they're simply slowing (and extending, and ultimately aggravating) their continued decline.
We need to liquidate 20-40% of excess capacity in the financial industry, so I hope CIT is liquidated. But it is interesting how they got thrown to the wolves instead of others. Is the choice of who gets sacrificed made based simply on financial and economic considerations, or is it mostly about who can most successfully buy off the power brokers in Congress and the Treasury and Fed and other regulatory bodies? I'll bet a quick call from Barney to Ben could get the job done, thumbs up or thumbs down, with no direct instructions required.
"Um, where do you see evidence of "pushing prices back up"? Seems like at best they're simply slowing (and extending, and ultimately aggravating) their continued decline."
-2+1 = -1
Prices going down does not mean the absence of very significant upward forces with a large impact. Price decreases would be much larger in many areas without government intervention.
Is the choice of who gets sacrificed made based simply on financial and economic considerations, or is it mostly about who can most successfully buy off the power brokers in Congress and the Treasury and Fed and other regulatory bodies?
Ah, the $64,000 (add as many zeros as required to account for inflation) question.
so I hope CIT is liquidated. But it is interesting how they got thrown to the wolves instead of others.
I think that the criteria is whether the firm provides financing to real businesses that produce real products or provides financing to firms that just shuffle financial paper among themselves.
CIT directly supports the real economy so it is low class and has to go.
So would it be true to think of CIT Group as a major bondholder of mid-small size businesses? If if they got a bailout we would be bailing out the bondholders of small-mid-sized compaines?
The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion rescue program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses, which officials say are essential to any economic recovery because they employ so many people, according to sources familiar with the plan.
Every CIT that goes down and has their business picked up by an existing competitor feeds a business that ultimately becomes TBTF. We're creating the next tier of companies that we can't afford to lose.
TJ, if a one-ton car is placed on me, I will push the car up. The car will win, and will go down, but I will push the car up. In other words, pushing is the application of a force. If a greater force pushes in the other direction, then the result is motion against the first force. Doesn't mean the first force isn't operating. It just means that a greater force is also operating. I don't know if you've got any physics, but the distinction between force and work is helpful.
YLSP: their book is loans to small and mid-size companies. Companies too small to be issuing bonds. They are too small to attract the interest of money center banks to make them loans or for investment banks to float a bond offering; but they are companies that create a lot of US jobs since they are too small to go off-shore in a big way.
Maybe CIT is just putting pressure on the government so that they can get some of that bailout money. It's the same tactic that GM and Chrysler used; hire a bankruptcy attorney and then go crying to Uncle Sugar for a backstop.
I expect our goobermint to continue to take actions that will astonish and appall even the most cynical among us.And I doubt that even the insane greedheads who seem to be profiting now will be happy with the results.
From their 10-k: Founded over a hundred years ago, CIT Group Inc., a Delaware corporation (“we,” “CIT” or the “Company”), is a bank holding company providing commercial financing and leasing products and management advisory services to clients in a wide variety of industries. CIT operates primarily in North America, with locations in Europe, Latin America, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. On December 22, 2008, the Company became a bank holding company (“BHC”) regulated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) under the U.S. Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (BHC Act).
As a bank holding company, we have bank and non-bank subsidiaries. CIT bank, with assets of $3.5 billion and deposits of $2.6 billion at December 31, 2008 is the Company’s primary bank subsidiary. CIT Bank, which is located in Salt Lake City Utah, amended its charter from an industrial bank to a fully chartered state bank in 2008. Additionally, CIT Bank, which had primarily funded consumer loans in conjunction with select vendor programs, shifted its focus to commercial lending in 2008. CIT Bank is subject to regulation and examination by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Non-bank subsidiaries, both in the U.S. and abroad, currently house the majority of the Company’s assets. As a bank holding company, we are prohibited from certain business activities including certain of our insurance services and our equity investment activities, and will have to exit these within a specified period.
We provide financing and leasing capital to our clients and their customers in over 30 industries and 50 countries. Our businesses focus on commercial clients with a particular emphasis on middle-market companies. We serve clients in a wide variety of industries including transportation, particularly aerospace and rail, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, healthcare, communications, media and entertainment and various service-related industries. We are also a leader in small business lending with our SBA preferred lender operations recognized as the nation’s #1 SBA Lender (based on 7(A) program volume) in each of the last nine years.
From FUBAR & WASS's link (Error - washingtonpost.com
.
"Aiding small businesses could be a gamble because they have a poorer record than large corporations when repaying loans; it would be the riskiest government investment so far under the bailout plan."
.
Did the bailouts of AIG & BearStearns produce timely returns?
TJ, in a traditional tug-of-war, when team A is winning, does that mean team B is pulling toward team A? After all, that's the direction team B is going.
More from 10-k: We previously offered student and mortgage loans to consumers. However, we ceased originating student loans in 2008 and are running off the remaining portfolio whereby the balance will be collected in accordance with the contractual terms. The portfolio consists of approximately 94% government guaranteed loans. We closed the mortgage origination platform in 2007 and sold the remaining assets and operations in 2008.
... At December 31, 2008, we had total assets of $80.4 billion including a $65.8 billion portfolio of owned loans and leased equipment. Common stockholders’ equity at December 31, 2008 was $5.1 billion.
... We have recently applied for the TLGP. Participation in this program would enable us to issue government-guaranteed debt, which would significantly enhance our liquidity runway and support business growth. The Company submitted its letter application to the FDIC on January 12, 2009, and believes it is eligible to issue up to $10 billion of guaranteed debt if approved by the FDIC. The program’s current expiration date is October 31, 2009. The request for participation in the TLGP program is currently pending with the FDIC.
... Though market interest rates (e.g., LIBOR) have declined over the past year, our funding costs have not fully benefited from the lower market interest rates, as the Company has not been able to access the unsecured debt markets. Our borrowing spreads over benchmark rates have increased significantly and we have experienced credit downgrades during the year. As described in Capitalization and in the Liquidity section of Risk Management , we largely withdrew from the unsecured corporate debt market beginning in the second half of 2007, and from the commercial paper market in the first quarter of 2008. During the period, we have relied more heavily on our bank credit facilities and secured financing sources with longer terms and higher rates.
A little, but when you say "pushing prices up" most people would expect to see prices actually going up.
Especially when you say "back up", we poor unenlightened plain English speakers get easily confused by physics-speak. Like that definition of work. You know, if a physicist sits around thinking,...is he actually doing "work".
"That depends on what your definition of "is" is." -- Bill Clinton
I thought it was a legitimate comment by the ex-prez. Although widely ridiculed, it's a legitimate attempt to get at the root of the question to him...
In Spanish, there are three words for "to be", and in some ways that allows for greater precision of expression.
The English verb "to be" encompasses a wide range of meanings; if the subject matter is important, asking someone to specify what they mean by "is" strikes me as very legitimate.
Looks like they provided $8B in financing to Boeing and Airbus suppliers? (And it was weighted more towards Airbus)
Their consumer line got crushed: In February 2008, a private pilot training school, whose students had outstanding loans totaling approximately $192 million at December 31, 2008, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Management has provided for estimated uncollectible amounts in the reserve for credit losses, and is advancing collection and work-out strategies with a goal to resolve this matter as expeditiously as possible. Loans to students at the top 5 institutions, based on outstanding exposure, represent approximately 50% of the private loan portfolio on an unpaid principal balance (UPB) basis at December 31, 2008. See Note 18 – Legal Proceedings for more information.
During the third quarter of 2007, legislation was passed with respect to the student lending business. Among other things, the legislation reduced the maximum interest rates that can be charged by lenders in connection with a variety of loan products, increased loan origination fees paid to the government by lenders, and reduced the lender guarantee percentage. The legislation went into effect for all new FFELP student loans with the first disbursements on or after October 1, 2007. The reduced guarantee percentage, from 97% to 95%, goes into effect for loans originated after October 1, 2012. As a result, management assessed the value of goodwill associated with our student lending business following the passage of this legislation, and in the fourth quarter of 2007, based on decreased market valuations and lower profit expectations for student lending businesses due to higher funding and credit costs, we wrote off the entire balance of goodwill and intangible assets, approximately $313 million. See Note 24 for additional information regarding goodwill and intangible assets.
That's it; I don't know shit about reading 10-k's, just was interesting to see where they were taking losses and the types of companies they are financing to...
I see that New York has solved its legislative crisis. A defector has re-defected and tilted the balance back so that one party (Democrats) has control again.
Regarding California budget cuts (last thread): reducing state spending by about $25B (which is about what seems necessary to bring the expenditures back inline with the revenues) could potentially cut state payrolls by some really large number (250,000 to 500,000?). Now multiply by about 5 for the same problem in the other states (CA being about 10% of the economy but also being about twice as bad off as the average state, at the moment) and you're talking a few more months' worth of 400,000+ job losses.
All the talk of a federal 2nd stimulus leaves me wondering which orifice they expect to extract the money from...
So was Rumsfeld's famous "Known unknowns" statement, but most people don't understand it and therefore consider it gibberish.
TJ - I totally agree.
I never cared much for Rumsfield, but I thought his "Known unknowns / unknown unknowns" statement was OK, except maybe belaboring the obvious. but NOOOO, the media latched onto it as crazy talk....
Apropos of the Rumsfeld quote, he only got 3 of the 4 boxes straight:
Known knowns: What you think you know, that's actually true.
Known unknowns: What you know that you don't know, and need to find out.
Unknown unknowns: The unexpected; things you don't know and you don't even know you don't know them.
What Rumsfeld glaringly missed, and indeed the whole Bush administration missed, were:
Unknown knowns: Things you think you know, but you actually don't. In one major case: ideological blindness.
Some wonderful "unknown knowns" from the last two years: "House prices always go up" "Asset allocation using Modern Portfolio Theory reduces risk"
... and so on.
We're in the middle of a very harsh education about the unknown knowns...
So was Rumsfeld's famous "Known unknowns" statement, but most people don't understand it and therefore consider it gibberish.
I had formulated a parallel idea after my experience starting my own business in Japan -- the things you don't know you don't know are the ones that get you. So, yeah.
There are also 4 stages of wisdom:
Baby: Doesn't know what he knows
Learner: Doesn't know what he doesn't know
Learned: Knows what he knows
Master: Knows what he doesn't know
Yeah, it's the things we know we don't know that are intriguing about the future of the economy, etc. We could probably fill a 1000-comment thread with unique predictions of the next big shoe to drop and still miss it entirely.
That's why I'm in awe of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem: To be able to prove that there are things that you don't know and can't know, and to define that class.
Frankfurt distinguishes bullshitting from lying, while the liar deliberately makes false claims, the bullshitter is simply uninterested in the truth. Bullshitters aim primarily to impress and persuade their audiences. While liars need to know the truth, the better to conceal it, the bullshitter, interested solely in advancing his own agenda, has no use for the truth. Following from this, Frankfurt claims that "bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."
Is the difference "whether the speaker has complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world"?
EDIT: F&W answered while I was off googling. oh well.
Prices going down does not mean the absence of very significant upward forces with a large impact. Price decreases would be much larger in many areas without government intervention."
You can piss into the wind all you want, but I would not recommend it.
FUBAR, not necessary to respond. I asked the question only because I heard and used the term in the military and never heard it again before visiting this board many years later . . . and, after all, it is in your name.
I see the difference in motivation and method. They both want to manipulate you. One at least recognizes that there is truth. The other just doesn't care and expects you not to care either. Not caring can be very corrosive.
I worked for a man who believed that there was no relationship between truth and honesty. His point was that an honest person could tell you something they believed to be true, but was in fact not true. He was a pathological liar. He lied even when it served no purpose. He lied even when his listeners knew what he was saying was not true. It was miserable to work for him, yet oddly entertaining. He could convince himself of the "truth" of what he was saying, as it came out of his mouth. Good salesman.
Reviewing my trades from 2008 as I'm trying to set up some type of system so that I only have to spend incremental time figuring out my taxes incurred while trading.
I bought USO @ damn near the top ($116!). Thankfully only 1 share as I was just dipping my toes into this stuff...
He was a pathological liar. He lied even when it served no purpose. He lied even when his listeners knew what he was saying was not true.
It seems so amazing that it should be fiction, but it isn't. I know him, I swear I do.
I've even used the term 'pathological liar' to discribe him because some of the things he has said were so bizarre and so easily disproven that no one in their right mind could believe they would be accepted as fact, yet he sticks to the same story.
Don't tell me there's more than one guy like this in the world?
Don't tell me there's more than one guy like this in the world?
Very smart, very educated, knows a lot of facts---but who knows what's going to come out when he opens his mouth? You never knew whether you'd walk in to meet Dr Jekyll, or Mr. Hyde, or Mrs. Butterworth. But always sooooo sincere.
I worked for a guy who seemed to have knowledge a thousand miles wide and 1 inch deep. Very sincere and totally sure of himself. Amazing how far those types get.
Judge your civilization by how you treat those in the beginning of life, the twilight of life and those that live in the shadows of life. Here's a photo essay of those in the shadows.
Scary to think as the economy contracts illegal migrants are going back from whence they came. Making room for our internal migrations...
one lies so poorly that only morons believe anything he says; he's in sales
one is willing to lie about anything and is very good at it; he was in finance until the SEC pulled his licence.
One is a chronic bullshitter who has a need to always be in a superior position; he's a serial businessman who gets suckered all the time by any Ralph Kramden scheme that comes down the pike
picosec (profile) wrote on Sat, 7/11/2009 - 1:53 am
Every CIT that goes down and has their business picked up by an existing competitor feeds a business that ultimately becomes TBTF. We're creating the next tier of companies that we can't afford to lose.
Disagree. We have gotten to the point that we will not see new "players" enter the game. Everyone that approaches them in size will be absorbed into them or forcibly broken up by the mechanism of the state. TBTF is too important to share, as if there are too many TBTF firms, some could be broken up / disbanded.
Not just speculating -- we got to see which major IBs were not big enough / connected enough -- if Bear-Stearns, Merrill and Lehman were not big enough, nobody else is going to be big enough. Oligarchies like ours don't get broader over time, only narrower until they collapse or spawn a successful despot.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), seeking to extricate itself from a federal bailout program, wants warrants held by the government to be sold at auction, after the Treasury Department demanded too high a price for the bank to buy them back. JPMorgan wants U.S. to auction its TARP warrants
| Reuters
Want some cheese to go with that whine, JP?
Mish has an amazing link up....the Detroit Public School system may have to declare bankruptcy...they can't raise revenues and bankruptcy may give them a chance to end the current contracts with teachers, administrators and vendors....
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), seeking to extricate itself from a federal bailout program, wants warrants held by the government to be sold at auction, after the Treasury Department demanded too high a price for the bank to buy them back."
Another way of saying this: JP Morgan made a bid to buy back the warrants and the Treasury made an offer. On the question of price, both sides are far apart. Morgan probably can pay the Treasury's price, but thinks the bank can negotiate a lower price.
Obviously, this is the FDIC's long weekend off. As all FedGov workers know, Independence Day is a paid holiday. They had to work, so they are apparently off THIS weekend instead. Surely there are still banks to close, accounts to audit, and winners to be selected.
Morning Home.......picked 71-lbs of armenian cukes yesterday - people sure don't know what to make of them. Strange looking things.
BSR,
What state do you live in?
71 lbs? Damn.
Good work!
July 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.
“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession,” Obama, who is traveling today in Ghana, said in his weekly Saturday radio and Web address. “It has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and business.”
Were it not for the stimulus program, the president said, “state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens of thousands of additional layoffs -- layoffs that would affect police officers, teachers, and firefighters.”
Ah the old police officers, teachers, firefighters meme...
Because we all know there isn't any other deadwood in government to be cut.
Oh Bummer.
CIT finances so many small to medium businesses this will have an affect....vendors will stop shipping immediately until this is cleared up and or the retailer finds another source for credit. In the meantime fall goods are starting to ship, or now won't ship. The retailer that depended on CIT is in trouble, to miss any business at this time could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
From YLSP's post upthread:
We are also a leader in small business lending with our SBA preferred lender operations recognized as the nation’s #1 SBA Lender (based on 7(A) program volume) in each of the last nine years.
You're right, whitehair.
Small/medium business is going to feel this pinch.
But why do we need anything other than Monolith Inc. retailers?
//snark off//
I used to never take photos back in the day of film, because of the disappointment factor, (take 27 photos-2 of em are ok, 25 are garbage) but along came a digital spider-which changed everything.
It appears to me that the only thing that separated professional photographers from a mere mortal way back when, was the ability to take a shitlode of photos of the same thing, and oftentimes i'm confronted with amazing possibilities of natural beauty in the wilderness, and my camera is always ready for action...
Apparently the government thinks CIT's competitors could pick up most or all of their business.
The administration can't really be this out of touch with reality, can they? JPMC and their ilk have been closing lines of credit to small business in the last couple years, loans that in many cases were originated by smaller banks that were swallowed up by larger ones. The big banks don't want this business and the small businesses don't want to deal with the TBTF banks. And thanks to the FDIC putting a moratorium on new banks, in an effort to prevent competition from crushing banks teetering on the precipice of insolvency, the number of alternatives keeps shrinking.
With this administration there's "too big to fail" and "too small to care about" - if you're small go on the dole where you belong.
the only thing that separated professional photographers from a mere mortal way back when, was the ability to take a shitlode of photos
That's the deal, all right.
I was thinking about photography last night.
A lot of digital derives its value by deconstructing local information monopolies.
In a sense, professional photographers had a monopoly based on expertise and locality.
July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Extremely fat swine flu sufferers may have a tendency to become severely ill, health officials in the U.S. and Europe said, after a report showed a “striking” prevalence of obesity among patients hospitalized in Michigan.
Nine of 10 patients with the pandemic flu strain admitted to an intensive care unit at Ann Arbor from late May to early June, were obese and seven were “extremely obese,” with a body mass index of at least 40, doctors said. Three of the 10 died and seven had no other known health problems.
Be sure to back up your digital photos regularly to an external HD.
I had a laptop stolen two months ago and lost about six months worth of pics (2000+ images).
So all of those business will just pick up the phone and 10 minutes later have a credit line equal or greater than what CIT provided?
Thank god the standards for lines of credit have loosened up over the past two years, or else a lot of small businesses would be in trouble.
Also it's a good thing that these business have been growing like crazy for the last 2 years. That will make it much easier for the bankers to approve billions in new lines of credit.
WASHINGTON — House Democrats will ask the wealthiest Americans to help pay for overhauling the health care system with a $550 billion income tax increase, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee said Friday.
Representative Charles B. Rangel will seek an income tax increase on the wealthy. The proposal calls for a surtax on individuals earning at least $280,000 in adjusted gross income and couples earning more than $350,000, said the chairman, Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York.
In yesterday's Times, there was the strangest sentence:
"Senators were also considering a plan to apply the Medicare payroll tax of 1.45 percent to non-wage income like dividends and capital gains. "
Since when did dividends and capital gains become "payroll?"
So, what this idea really is...either a 1.45% or 2.90% increase in the tax rate on dividends and capital gains rates. (2.90% would include the employer portion of Medicare.)
You would think the stock market would not like ideas like this very much.
Guess the stock market forgot to read the Times yesterday.
I think digital photos can also suffer from Broward's transaction cost ideas. After a while even one more photo, which has neglible marginal cost, just isn't worth looking at.
"You would think the stock market would not like ideas like this very much.
Guess the stock market forgot to read the Times yesterday."
Pardon my anthropomorphism, but I think the stock market doesn't like budget deficits. Bringing the federal budget back into balance is essential over the long term.
"not systemic risk" = toast
I've learned that.
$76 billions = "not systemic risk" = Not GS....
Sometimes it pays to make a whole bunch of political contributions. Okay, not sometimes, most of the time. And the returns are great - for a million or two in contributions, you can get a billion or two back easy, sometimes 10 or 20 billion.
Man,rough and busy day for me.I decided to check my spam before coming here because there are always hundreds of beautiful women who want to meet me,and others assuring me of how easy it is to become rich.BUMMER.BK made easy,short sale scams,"Are YOU Facing Foreclosure".Geez,I can't even check out the Realtor babes on Craigslist now they got rid of erotic services ads...
Skadden, Arps is not a trifle. Geithner will have to listen.
What will he do? What will he do?
"Apparently the government thinks CIT's competitors could pick up most or all of their business."
And yet another windfall for GS. What a surprise...
"Apparently the government thinks CIT's competitors could pick up most or all of their business."
Why yes, yes they could.
But they won't.
From last thread...
Some day we'll see a lot more of this, but maybe not in this cycle, with the combined firepower of our entire government and financial system pushing prices back up.
patientrenter,
Um, where do you see evidence of "pushing prices back up"? Seems like at best they're simply slowing (and extending, and ultimately aggravating) their continued decline.
We need to liquidate 20-40% of excess capacity in the financial industry, so I hope CIT is liquidated. But it is interesting how they got thrown to the wolves instead of others. Is the choice of who gets sacrificed made based simply on financial and economic considerations, or is it mostly about who can most successfully buy off the power brokers in Congress and the Treasury and Fed and other regulatory bodies? I'll bet a quick call from Barney to Ben could get the job done, thumbs up or thumbs down, with no direct instructions required.
"Um, where do you see evidence of "pushing prices back up"? Seems like at best they're simply slowing (and extending, and ultimately aggravating) their continued decline."
-2+1 = -1
Prices going down does not mean the absence of very significant upward forces with a large impact. Price decreases would be much larger in many areas without government intervention.
Is the choice of who gets sacrificed made based simply on financial and economic considerations, or is it mostly about who can most successfully buy off the power brokers in Congress and the Treasury and Fed and other regulatory bodies?
Ah, the $64,000 (add as many zeros as required to account for inflation) question.
patientrenter,
Sorry to split hairs, but the presence of resisting forces still doesn't qualify as "pushing prices back up". Just sayin.
so I hope CIT is liquidated. But it is interesting how they got thrown to the wolves instead of others.
I think that the criteria is whether the firm provides financing to real businesses that produce real products or provides financing to firms that just shuffle financial paper among themselves.
CIT directly supports the real economy so it is low class and has to go.
Now we see that at CIT they will no longer see what you see.
(recalling the old advertising slogan, "At CIT, we see what you see.")
CIT directly supports the real economy so it is low class and has to go.
Yeah, they don't qualify as a systemic risk as long as they have no ties to GS.
So would it be true to think of CIT Group as a major bondholder of mid-small size businesses? If if they got a bailout we would be bailing out the bondholders of small-mid-sized compaines?
CIT would appear to be the "Circuit City" of business lending. Not the "Best Buy".
CIT directly supports the real economy so it is low class and has to go.
I can't think of a better reason for Geithner to keep them alive.
This will bear watching.
The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion rescue program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses, which officials say are essential to any economic recovery because they employ so many people, according to sources familiar with the plan.
White House Eyes Bank Bailout Funds to Aid Small Businesses - washingtonpost.com
They better think faster and double the amount if we lose CIT and other firms that finance factorying.
Every CIT that goes down and has their business picked up by an existing competitor feeds a business that ultimately becomes TBTF. We're creating the next tier of companies that we can't afford to lose.
They better think faster . . . .
They better realize unemployment is about to be dumped on them.
No one really watches The History Channel anyway, do they?
TJ, if a one-ton car is placed on me, I will push the car up. The car will win, and will go down, but I will push the car up. In other words, pushing is the application of a force. If a greater force pushes in the other direction, then the result is motion against the first force. Doesn't mean the first force isn't operating. It just means that a greater force is also operating. I don't know if you've got any physics, but the distinction between force and work is helpful.
I misread that: AH CIT, we see what you see.
patientrenter, you've got a force stronger than gravity?
Are you keeping it a secret?
YLSP: their book is loans to small and mid-size companies. Companies too small to be issuing bonds. They are too small to attract the interest of money center banks to make them loans or for investment banks to float a bond offering; but they are companies that create a lot of US jobs since they are too small to go off-shore in a big way.
Maybe CIT is just putting pressure on the government so that they can get some of that bailout money. It's the same tactic that GM and Chrysler used; hire a bankruptcy attorney and then go crying to Uncle Sugar for a backstop.
I expect our goobermint to continue to take actions that will astonish and appall even the most cynical among us.And I doubt that even the insane greedheads who seem to be profiting now will be happy with the results.
Comrade, I don't know about tactics, but I do know that GM and Chrysler really did file bankruptcy.
Geithner better be listening
sportsfan, I don't control the Strong Force. But it does beat gravity at 10^-15 m.
I can't think of a better reason for Geithner to keep them alive.
This will bear watching.
Geither will let them die. They didn't go to the right school, send their kids to the right daycare center, or join the right clubs.
They are low class and create jobs for people who don't matter.
you've got a force stronger than gravity?
Actually, they all are.
patientrenter, I don't control the Strong Force either. In fact the only thing I can control is myself.
FUBAR and WASS LLC, neither did I. I wear it as a badge of honor. It's why I don't matter either.
I don't know if you've got any physics, but the distinction between force and work is helpful.
A little, but when you say "pushing prices up" most people would expect to see prices actually going up.
"That depends on what your definition of "is" is." -- Bill Clinton
"Words mean exactly what I want them to mean—nothing more and nothing less." -- Humpty Dumpty
F&W LLC,
Got it. Thanks.
From their 10-k:
Founded over a hundred years ago, CIT Group Inc., a Delaware corporation (“we,” “CIT” or the “Company”), is a bank holding company providing commercial financing and leasing products and management advisory services to clients in a wide variety of industries. CIT operates primarily in North America, with locations in Europe, Latin America, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. On December 22, 2008, the Company became a bank holding company (“BHC”) regulated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) under the U.S. Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (BHC Act).
As a bank holding company, we have bank and non-bank subsidiaries. CIT bank, with assets of $3.5 billion and deposits of $2.6 billion at December 31, 2008 is the Company’s primary bank subsidiary. CIT Bank, which is located in Salt Lake City Utah, amended its charter from an industrial bank to a fully chartered state bank in 2008. Additionally, CIT Bank, which had primarily funded consumer loans in conjunction with select vendor programs, shifted its focus to commercial lending in 2008. CIT Bank is subject to regulation and examination by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Non-bank subsidiaries, both in the U.S. and abroad, currently house the majority of the Company’s assets. As a bank holding company, we are prohibited from certain business activities including certain of our insurance services and our equity investment activities, and will have to exit these within a specified period.
We provide financing and leasing capital to our clients and their customers in over 30 industries and 50 countries. Our businesses focus on commercial clients with a particular emphasis on middle-market companies. We serve clients in a wide variety of industries including transportation, particularly aerospace and rail, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, healthcare, communications, media and entertainment and various service-related industries. We are also a leader in small business lending with our SBA preferred lender operations recognized as the nation’s #1 SBA Lender (based on 7(A) program volume) in each of the last nine years.
"That depends on what your definition of "is" is." -- Bill Clinton
Have you ever been deposed?
I say that as someone who has taken more than a few depositions.
There is indeed a program at work. It's not computerized. It emerges from the human mind.
From FUBAR & WASS's link (Error - washingtonpost.com
.
"Aiding small businesses could be a gamble because they have a poorer record than large corporations when repaying loans; it would be the riskiest government investment so far under the bailout plan."
.
Did the bailouts of AIG & BearStearns produce timely returns?
When I see references to CAIOUs and the Federal debt, I can only picture a smiling monkey with a wrench banging away at a Daisycutter FAE bomb.
TJ, in a traditional tug-of-war, when team A is winning, does that mean team B is pulling toward team A? After all, that's the direction team B is going.
More from 10-k:
We previously offered student and mortgage loans to consumers. However, we ceased originating student loans in 2008 and are running off the remaining portfolio whereby the balance will be collected in accordance with the contractual terms. The portfolio consists of approximately 94% government guaranteed loans. We closed the mortgage origination platform in 2007 and sold the remaining assets and operations in 2008.
...
At December 31, 2008, we had total assets of $80.4 billion including a $65.8 billion portfolio of owned loans and leased equipment. Common stockholders’ equity at December 31, 2008 was $5.1 billion.
...
We have recently applied for the TLGP. Participation in this program would enable us to issue government-guaranteed debt, which would significantly enhance our liquidity runway and support business growth. The Company submitted its letter application to the FDIC on January 12, 2009, and believes it is eligible to issue up to $10 billion of guaranteed debt if approved by the FDIC. The program’s current expiration date is October 31, 2009. The request for participation in the TLGP program is currently pending with the FDIC.
...
Though market interest rates (e.g., LIBOR) have declined over the past year, our funding costs have not fully benefited from the lower market interest rates, as the Company has not been able to access the unsecured debt markets. Our borrowing spreads over benchmark rates have increased significantly and we have experienced credit downgrades during the year. As described in Capitalization and in the Liquidity section of Risk Management , we largely withdrew from the unsecured corporate debt market beginning in the second half of 2007, and from the commercial paper market in the first quarter of 2008. During the period, we have relied more heavily on our bank credit facilities and secured financing sources with longer terms and higher rates.
Have you ever been deposed?
Thankfully not. That is a an all-time classic quote, though. Whodathunk he would be so quotable for all the wrong reasons?
A little, but when you say "pushing prices up" most people would expect to see prices actually going up.
Especially when you say "back up", we poor unenlightened plain English speakers get easily confused by physics-speak. Like that definition of work. You know, if a physicist sits around thinking,...is he actually doing "work".
"That depends on what your definition of "is" is." -- Bill Clinton
I thought it was a legitimate comment by the ex-prez. Although widely ridiculed, it's a legitimate attempt to get at the root of the question to him...
In Spanish, there are three words for "to be", and in some ways that allows for greater precision of expression.
The English verb "to be" encompasses a wide range of meanings; if the subject matter is important, asking someone to specify what they mean by "is" strikes me as very legitimate.
I wonder how much of this is related to their acquisition of Citi Capital back in 2007.
That is an all-time classic quote, though.
I do agree. A statement that will live so long as the English language is spoken.
But guess why "they" want yes or no answers. It's because the question is loaded.
Looks like they provided $8B in financing to Boeing and Airbus suppliers? (And it was weighted more towards Airbus)
Their consumer line got crushed:
In February 2008, a private pilot training school, whose students had outstanding loans totaling approximately $192 million at December 31, 2008, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Management has provided for estimated uncollectible amounts in the reserve for credit losses, and is advancing collection and work-out strategies with a goal to resolve this matter as expeditiously as possible. Loans to students at the top 5 institutions, based on outstanding exposure, represent approximately 50% of the private loan portfolio on an unpaid principal balance (UPB) basis at December 31, 2008. See Note 18 – Legal Proceedings for more information.
During the third quarter of 2007, legislation was passed with respect to the student lending business. Among other things, the legislation reduced the maximum interest rates that can be charged by lenders in connection with a variety of loan products, increased loan origination fees paid to the government by lenders, and reduced the lender guarantee percentage. The legislation went into effect for all new FFELP student loans with the first disbursements on or after October 1, 2007. The reduced guarantee percentage, from 97% to 95%, goes into effect for loans originated after October 1, 2012. As a result, management assessed the value of goodwill associated with our student lending business following the passage of this legislation, and in the fourth quarter of 2007, based on decreased market valuations and lower profit expectations for student lending businesses due to higher funding and credit costs, we wrote off the entire balance of goodwill and intangible assets, approximately $313 million. See Note 24 for additional information regarding goodwill and intangible assets.
That's it; I don't know shit about reading 10-k's, just was interesting to see where they were taking losses and the types of companies they are financing to...
squidward,
So was Rumsfeld's famous "Known unknowns" statement, but most people don't understand it and therefore consider it gibberish.
But guess why "they" want yes or no answers. It's because the question is loaded.
+1 Absolutely.
I see that New York has solved its legislative crisis. A defector has re-defected and tilted the balance back so that one party (Democrats) has control again.
Albany Impasse Ends as Defector Rejoins Caucus - NY Times
Regarding California budget cuts (last thread): reducing state spending by about $25B (which is about what seems necessary to bring the expenditures back inline with the revenues) could potentially cut state payrolls by some really large number (250,000 to 500,000?). Now multiply by about 5 for the same problem in the other states (CA being about 10% of the economy but also being about twice as bad off as the average state, at the moment) and you're talking a few more months' worth of 400,000+ job losses.
All the talk of a federal 2nd stimulus leaves me wondering which orifice they expect to extract the money from...
Yep. Both statements would have gotten more sympathy if they weren't uttered by weasels looking to semantics to bail them out.
So was Rumsfeld's famous "Known unknowns" statement, but most people don't understand it and therefore consider it gibberish.
TJ - I totally agree.
I never cared much for Rumsfield, but I thought his "Known unknowns / unknown unknowns" statement was OK, except maybe belaboring the obvious. but NOOOO, the media latched onto it as crazy talk....
squidward, you reveal my most inglorious failure, the failure to speak fluently in anything but English.
TJ, I understood Rumsfeld perfectly on that one, the known unknowns and so on.
(Rumsfeld wasn't an idiot; just mistaken about the concept of video wars.)
Apropos of the Rumsfeld quote, he only got 3 of the 4 boxes straight:
Known knowns: What you think you know, that's actually true.
Known unknowns: What you know that you don't know, and need to find out.
Unknown unknowns: The unexpected; things you don't know and you don't even know you don't know them.
What Rumsfeld glaringly missed, and indeed the whole Bush administration missed, were:
Unknown knowns: Things you think you know, but you actually don't. In one major case: ideological blindness.
Some wonderful "unknown knowns" from the last two years:
"House prices always go up"
"Asset allocation using Modern Portfolio Theory reduces risk"
... and so on.
We're in the middle of a very harsh education about the unknown knowns...
sdtfs,
Precisely! LOL!!!
So was Rumsfeld's famous "Known unknowns" statement, but most people don't understand it and therefore consider it gibberish.
I had formulated a parallel idea after my experience starting my own business in Japan -- the things you don't know you don't know are the ones that get you. So, yeah.
There are also 4 stages of wisdom:
Baby: Doesn't know what he knows
Learner: Doesn't know what he doesn't know
Learned: Knows what he knows
Master: Knows what he doesn't know
That was the smartest thing he ever said..
//So was Rumsfeld's famous "Known unknowns" statement, but most people don't understand it and therefore consider it gibberish.//
Yes..
//Master: Knows what he doesn't know//
"When you know a thing, admit that you know it; when you do not know a thing, admit that you do not know it. That is knowledge"
There are also 4 stages of wisdom:
Baby: Doesn't know what he knows
Learner: Doesn't know what he doesn't know
Learned: Knows what he knows
Master: Knows what he doesn't know
Salesman: Says he knows what he doesn't know
Wisdom / Troyski,
Yeah, it's the things we know we don't know that are intriguing about the future of the economy, etc. We could probably fill a 1000-comment thread with unique predictions of the next big shoe to drop and still miss it entirely.
When I first started in I.T. I earned a lot of respect by answering people's questions with "I don't know, but I'll find out".
That's why I'm in awe of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem: To be able to prove that there are things that you don't know and can't know, and to define that class.
We know there's another shoe!
We could probably fill a 1000-comment thread with unique predictions of the next big shoe to drop and still miss it entirely.
So, would those be known unknowns or unknown unknowns?
We know there's another shoe!
So, duck.
Let's talk about the difference between lies and bullshit, again.
FUBAR, I don't know the difference between lies and bullshit, but I have a question:
Did you ever serve in the military?
Just curious.
from Wiki:
Frankfurt distinguishes bullshitting from lying, while the liar deliberately makes false claims, the bullshitter is simply uninterested in the truth. Bullshitters aim primarily to impress and persuade their audiences. While liars need to know the truth, the better to conceal it, the bullshitter, interested solely in advancing his own agenda, has no use for the truth. Following from this, Frankfurt claims that "bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."
Rumsfeld was a bullshitter!!
FUBAR, oh, now I remember the difference . . . and a valid point it is.
But I still ask the question, especially because I place you in the Bay Area.
Is the difference "whether the speaker has complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world"?
EDIT: F&W answered while I was off googling. oh well.
"-2+1 = -1
Prices going down does not mean the absence of very significant upward forces with a large impact. Price decreases would be much larger in many areas without government intervention."
You can piss into the wind all you want, but I would not recommend it.
squidward, I think you've got the essence of it.
FUBAR, not necessary to respond. I asked the question only because I heard and used the term in the military and never heard it again before visiting this board many years later . . . and, after all, it is in your name.
I even had to ask one time what WASS meant.
Cinton was a bought and paid for liar. Anyone that bothered to research the Refco cattle straddles knew that. Just like Lindsey Graham.
I see the difference in motivation and method. They both want to manipulate you. One at least recognizes that there is truth. The other just doesn't care and expects you not to care either. Not caring can be very corrosive.
I worked for a man who believed that there was no relationship between truth and honesty. His point was that an honest person could tell you something they believed to be true, but was in fact not true. He was a pathological liar. He lied even when it served no purpose. He lied even when his listeners knew what he was saying was not true. It was miserable to work for him, yet oddly entertaining. He could convince himself of the "truth" of what he was saying, as it came out of his mouth. Good salesman.
The other just doesn't care and expects you not to care either.
Yes, I know him. He's a hoot.
Reviewing my trades from 2008 as I'm trying to set up some type of system so that I only have to spend incremental time figuring out my taxes incurred while trading.
I bought USO @ damn near the top ($116!). Thankfully only 1 share as I was just dipping my toes into this stuff...
He lied even when it served no purpose.
It served a purpose.
It kept him in practice.
He was a pathological liar. He lied even when it served no purpose. He lied even when his listeners knew what he was saying was not true.
It seems so amazing that it should be fiction, but it isn't. I know him, I swear I do.
I've even used the term 'pathological liar' to discribe him because some of the things he has said were so bizarre and so easily disproven that no one in their right mind could believe they would be accepted as fact, yet he sticks to the same story.
Don't tell me there's more than one guy like this in the world?
Fubar +1
I have to admit, I quit paying attention after Clinton,
I don't know what the fuck Bush was except he wasn't a conservative.
Don't tell me there's more than one guy like this in the world?
Very smart, very educated, knows a lot of facts---but who knows what's going to come out when he opens his mouth? You never knew whether you'd walk in to meet Dr Jekyll, or Mr. Hyde, or Mrs. Butterworth. But always sooooo sincere.
sdtfs, boy, do I know that guy. Helluva salesman. Works it, too, all the time. No shame, either.
It's late, so nytol to the faithful. Have a good weekend.
I worked for a guy who seemed to have knowledge a thousand miles wide and 1 inch deep. Very sincere and totally sure of himself. Amazing how far those types get.
Don't tell me there's more than one guy like this in the world?
Yup, many of them, usually in software sales.
they promise you the earth, the moon, and the skies.
If you're lucky, they'll dump a load of dirt in your driveway.
Judge your civilization by how you treat those in the beginning of life, the twilight of life and those that live in the shadows of life. Here's a photo essay of those in the shadows.
Scary to think as the economy contracts illegal migrants are going back from whence they came. Making room for our internal migrations...
100Eyes: Photography Magazine and Photo Workshops for Emerging and Professional Photographers
Hi Dawg; hope you enjoyed the concert...
"Don't tell me there's more than one guy like this in the world?"
535 others.
OT
That Rumsfeld is an asshole should be a known known.
ON T
There's still a small pile of TARP money sitting there. Start your engines...
I know three people who fit that type:
one lies so poorly that only morons believe anything he says; he's in sales
one is willing to lie about anything and is very good at it; he was in finance until the SEC pulled his licence.
One is a chronic bullshitter who has a need to always be in a superior position; he's a serial businessman who gets suckered all the time by any Ralph Kramden scheme that comes down the pike
Is Paul Krugman sitting down? Apparently, Obama rejects second stimulus.
Be assured that Obama "rejecting" something has nothing to do with either his true intentions, or what eventually happens.
squidward
got the banks the tarp(the first one) didnt get us anything except promises maybe and gave congress a scare (?)
lies have some truth. in the words of brenda lee johnson(howard) "if we didnt lie to each other how would we get to the truth?"
picosec (profile) wrote on Sat, 7/11/2009 - 1:53 am
Every CIT that goes down and has their business picked up by an existing competitor feeds a business that ultimately becomes TBTF. We're creating the next tier of companies that we can't afford to lose.
Disagree. We have gotten to the point that we will not see new "players" enter the game. Everyone that approaches them in size will be absorbed into them or forcibly broken up by the mechanism of the state. TBTF is too important to share, as if there are too many TBTF firms, some could be broken up / disbanded.
Not just speculating -- we got to see which major IBs were not big enough / connected enough -- if Bear-Stearns, Merrill and Lehman were not big enough, nobody else is going to be big enough. Oligarchies like ours don't get broader over time, only narrower until they collapse or spawn a successful despot.
rb (profile) wrote on Sat, 7/11/2009 - 6:53 am
Is Paul Krugman sitting down? Apparently, Obama rejects second stimulus.
Hu's your daddy?
lying liars lie because they breathe. they fascinate me.
BFF Poll Winners!
Speed Racer and PigPen with one each.
Congratulations!
i got fingerhut fingerhut has citi. might be very interesting. domino effect and all that.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), seeking to extricate itself from a federal bailout program, wants warrants held by the government to be sold at auction, after the Treasury Department demanded too high a price for the bank to buy them back.
JPMorgan wants U.S. to auction its TARP warrants
| Reuters
Want some cheese to go with that whine, JP?
Mish has an amazing link up....the Detroit Public School system may have to declare bankruptcy...they can't raise revenues and bankruptcy may give them a chance to end the current contracts with teachers, administrators and vendors....
freep.com | | Detroit Free Press
Thanks for the link, fried.
Confessions Of A Bailout Ceo Wife - Executives - Portfolio.com
Confessions of a TARP Wife
They think this was CIT CEO's wife in this article.
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), seeking to extricate itself from a federal bailout program, wants warrants held by the government to be sold at auction, after the Treasury Department demanded too high a price for the bank to buy them back."
Another way of saying this: JP Morgan made a bid to buy back the warrants and the Treasury made an offer. On the question of price, both sides are far apart. Morgan probably can pay the Treasury's price, but thinks the bank can negotiate a lower price.
I feel a long snarkilicious weekend coming on:
Bloomie quotes Shiller on loss of animal spirits...
Lost ‘Animal Spirits’ Worsen Economy, Roubini Says (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
Or maybe the new spirit is neither bull nor bear, but the sloth?
And, desperate for green shootery, article on trading results for JPM and GS based on bid/ask only:
- Bloomberg.com
Err, that would be net or gross of the high-freq front-running? What did HAL ask itself on the trades?
C
OMG!
Having to eat at a less expensive restaurant; having to fly commerical; recycling.
Dear lord, what will they be subjected to next?
The horror, the horror!
Obviously, this is the FDIC's long weekend off. As all FedGov workers know, Independence Day is a paid holiday. They had to work, so they are apparently off THIS weekend instead. Surely there are still banks to close, accounts to audit, and winners to be selected.
Morning Home.......picked 71-lbs of armenian cukes yesterday - people sure don't know what to make of them. Strange looking things.
BSR,
What state do you live in?
71 lbs? Damn.
Good work!
July 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.
“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession,” Obama, who is traveling today in Ghana, said in his weekly Saturday radio and Web address. “It has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and business.”
Were it not for the stimulus program, the president said, “state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens of thousands of additional layoffs -- layoffs that would affect police officers, teachers, and firefighters.”
Ah the old police officers, teachers, firefighters meme...
Because we all know there isn't any other deadwood in government to be cut.
Oh Bummer.
CIT finances so many small to medium businesses this will have an affect....vendors will stop shipping immediately until this is cleared up and or the retailer finds another source for credit. In the meantime fall goods are starting to ship, or now won't ship. The retailer that depended on CIT is in trouble, to miss any business at this time could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
From YLSP's post upthread:
We are also a leader in small business lending with our SBA preferred lender operations recognized as the nation’s #1 SBA Lender (based on 7(A) program volume) in each of the last nine years.
You're right, whitehair.
Small/medium business is going to feel this pinch.
But why do we need anything other than Monolith Inc. retailers?
//snark off//
I wonder what role physical fitness (or lack of) will play in our brave new world dawning upon us?
Our reliance upon cars has rendered oh so many of us useless without them...
Why can't CIT issue IOUs?
Plod with the Herd, Bovine America!
Juv, I was wondering if you take/ post pics of your jaunts?
Obama translation: We're not Ghana yet, but dammit Timmay and I are trying...
C
I was wondering if you take/ post pics of your jaunts?
I thought you were married, HD.
What would the kids think?
Counterpointer, I need more SNARK!
Counterpointer, I need more SNARK!
Hey, we run a clean club here, son.
Get your dope somewhere else.
Isn't it about time for your pool lessons, boward?
LOL........So NV, HomeG - 60 mi west of Vegas. (Where Vegas' brothels are)
71lbs. of cukes is impressive though.
I guess you have acreage...
Maybe you could donate some to the brothels?
or trade...
.......the ObamaLove on NPR was what woke me up this morning..........BHO in Ghana..........what a lovefest
More snark Scottie!
Cap'n, the dilithium zero-point snark module is already redlining! You cannae change the laws of snarkics!
Just do it Scottie, the dial goes to 11 ... on my mark ... ENGAGE!
C
Hmmmmm........bedroom cukes to brothels.......Nah....I'm pretty sure the Mrs would nix it.....
HG,
I used to never take photos back in the day of film, because of the disappointment factor, (take 27 photos-2 of em are ok, 25 are garbage) but along came a digital spider-which changed everything.
It appears to me that the only thing that separated professional photographers from a mere mortal way back when, was the ability to take a shitlode of photos of the same thing, and oftentimes i'm confronted with amazing possibilities of natural beauty in the wilderness, and my camera is always ready for action...
Perhaps i'll post a few images sometime.
I guess you have acreage............just 5-acres of sand.
Apparently the government thinks CIT's competitors could pick up most or all of their business.
The administration can't really be this out of touch with reality, can they? JPMC and their ilk have been closing lines of credit to small business in the last couple years, loans that in many cases were originated by smaller banks that were swallowed up by larger ones. The big banks don't want this business and the small businesses don't want to deal with the TBTF banks. And thanks to the FDIC putting a moratorium on new banks, in an effort to prevent competition from crushing banks teetering on the precipice of insolvency, the number of alternatives keeps shrinking.
With this administration there's "too big to fail" and "too small to care about" - if you're small go on the dole where you belong.
Isn't it about time for your pool lessons, boward?
Man, you really are snarked out.
It's dawn, man, everything is closed.
CR is my inferior substitute.
"....but along came a digital spider-which changed everything.
isn't THAT the truth. digital has made it an affordable hobby for most.
I don't know how I did it this morning, but Mrs. Gnome is mowing the lawn...
I'd better go check the cars for damage!
Juv, I'd love to see some pics of the high sierras.
BSR, are you running drip irrigation/ mulch or what?
Broward, I had a double helping of Snark this morning.
the only thing that separated professional photographers from a mere mortal way back when, was the ability to take a shitlode of photos
That's the deal, all right.
I was thinking about photography last night.
A lot of digital derives its value by deconstructing local information monopolies.
In a sense, professional photographers had a monopoly based on expertise and locality.
Beware Bovine America!
July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Extremely fat swine flu sufferers may have a tendency to become severely ill, health officials in the U.S. and Europe said, after a report showed a “striking” prevalence of obesity among patients hospitalized in Michigan.
Nine of 10 patients with the pandemic flu strain admitted to an intensive care unit at Ann Arbor from late May to early June, were obese and seven were “extremely obese,” with a body mass index of at least 40, doctors said. Three of the 10 died and seven had no other known health problems.
Be sure to back up your digital photos regularly to an external HD.
I had a laptop stolen two months ago and lost about six months worth of pics (2000+ images).
lost about six months worth of pics (2000+ images).
Ahhh, so that was your jaunties I saw on MySpace.
Nope.
No MyFace or SpaceBook for me.
So all of those business will just pick up the phone and 10 minutes later have a credit line equal or greater than what CIT provided?
Thank god the standards for lines of credit have loosened up over the past two years, or else a lot of small businesses would be in trouble.
Also it's a good thing that these business have been growing like crazy for the last 2 years. That will make it much easier for the bankers to approve billions in new lines of credit.
Whewww.. Disaster averted.. Bye Bye CIT... Nice knowing ya!
Bigger tax hits on the wealthiest Americans begin...
Leaders in House Seek to Tax Rich for Health Plan
Leaders in House Seek to Tax Rich For Health Plan - NY Times
WASHINGTON — House Democrats will ask the wealthiest Americans to help pay for overhauling the health care system with a $550 billion income tax increase, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee said Friday.
Representative Charles B. Rangel will seek an income tax increase on the wealthy. The proposal calls for a surtax on individuals earning at least $280,000 in adjusted gross income and couples earning more than $350,000, said the chairman, Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York.
In yesterday's Times, there was the strangest sentence:
"Senators were also considering a plan to apply the Medicare payroll tax of 1.45 percent to non-wage income like dividends and capital gains. "
Since when did dividends and capital gains become "payroll?"
So, what this idea really is...either a 1.45% or 2.90% increase in the tax rate on dividends and capital gains rates. (2.90% would include the employer portion of Medicare.)
You would think the stock market would not like ideas like this very much.
Guess the stock market forgot to read the Times yesterday.
I think digital photos can also suffer from Broward's transaction cost ideas. After a while even one more photo, which has neglible marginal cost, just isn't worth looking at.
Yeah, the porn industry is suffering so badly...
"You would think the stock market would not like ideas like this very much.
Guess the stock market forgot to read the Times yesterday."
Pardon my anthropomorphism, but I think the stock market doesn't like budget deficits. Bringing the federal budget back into balance is essential over the long term.
"In a sense, professional photographers had a monopoly based on expertise and locality."
And access to a darkroom/processing.