got repost from last thread
For Friday discernment
Guys, massive synchronicity this morning on the way to drop my wife off to work...every radio station I switched to, had a drinking song on at around 8:15 this morning. Even the classical station...switched it on last and heard a few notes and the dj said 'also known as the drinking song'....couldn't believe it. Classic rock station, woke up this morning had a beer...mix station, drinking beer at noon on Tuesday, country...whiskey shots... so I don't know what is going to happen today, but I think the drinking has already started...
.......this is nuts.......we're on the hook till 2054 for the AIG CDS mess (at $200-billion)?
"The average weighted length of the European swaps protecting residential loans is more than 25 years, while the span tied to corporate loans is about 6 years, AIG said in a regulatory filing. Contracts covering corporate loans in the Netherlands extend almost 45 years, and the swaps on mortgages in Denmark, France and Germany mature in more than 30 years."
GE Capital. I agree with Brian. I've seen how they lend. They'll do 100% loans against durable GE manufactured medical equipment. When they say collateralized it doesn't mean what you think it means. The entirety of this conference call just flies in the face of everything I see with my lying eyes.
PBGC Moves to Protect Pensions at Nortel Networks Inc. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced it will take responsibility for the underfunded pension plan covering some 23,000 employees and retirees of Nashville-based Nortel Networks, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Nortel Networks Corp., an international telecommunications technology concern headquartered in Toronto and formerly a unit of Bell Canada...
The Nortel Networks Retirement Income Plan is 58 percent funded, with assets of $716 million to cover benefit liabilities of $1.23 billion, according to PBGC estimates. The agency expects to cover the entire $514 million shortfall.
42....it's THE number as you all know. Honestly they don't fail as they should so this is just an exercise is pure guesswork...just like the GE, BAC, and C #'s we got today
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A federal judge has dismissed the insider-trading case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against high-profile investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban, according to media reports Friday. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater granted Cuban's motion and gave the SEC 30 days to file an amended complaint, the Associated Press said. The SEC had filed suit against Cuban in November, alleging he sold shares of Internet company Mamma.com based on nonpublic information, thus sparing himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
ga gets rain from hurricanes too. we got a yellow off cape verde now.watching it. we got bands from fay and ike last year. but i really dont think its a good idea, imo it would be better to educate people about building on the coast etc, and didnt we do something like seeding clouds that didnt work out to well?
All I know is that a few years ago I read about a guy who wrote a program for creating virtual sunsets and sunrises...something about making these apps available for automated homes of the future so your tv wall screens can simulate nature. His point was that he preferred his virtual sun to the real thing, and thinks most people will too in the future....now what about weather as a whole...if mankind masters the technology to control weather...and we can make the earth a balmy 78 with slight wind and overnight lows of 65...you know Camelot:
It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear.
The climate must be perfect all the year.
A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it gives a person pause,
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws.
The snow may never slush upon the hillside.
By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.
Does that idea appeal to most people? It frightens me to the bone.
Yeah, I knew Bob Burpee, who was chief honcho cloud seeder.
It was very difficult to seed clouds because it was feared that the hurricane
center et al would be accused of steering hurricanes over land and causing
damage and an infinity of lawsuits. As I recall, the results were inconclusive.
For BFF poll, please just put your guesstimate in a new post; don't put "in reply too" because then I can't edit the list and have to repost it.
Thanks, CR Community.
Smells of extortion. This is not about public service when the out their selves above others. Everyone is bleeding and they to should carry the burden. Let the Nat guard take over.
LLiz: Click on the link just above your "Save" button (below the posting window).
Scroll down and you will see the list of virtual items. (Note that the invokes CSC, god rest his virtual soul.)
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The White House agenda won't be impeded by the economy, said Larry Summers, a top advisor to President Obama on Friday. Many economists are worried about the mushrooming federal budget deficit and believe that more time should be spent reducing government spending over the medium term rather than launching new programs. But the White House will not be deterred, Summers said. "Yes, the President has an ambitious agenda. But it is an agenda comprised of measures that lay a foundation for future prosperity and for the confidence on which the current recovery depends," Summers said. The rebuilt economy must be more export-oriented and rely less on consumer spending. Summers said that economists worried about the outlook should focus on how much the economy has improved over the past six months
Hey Larry, you might want to wipe that S*it off your nose...
Blackhalo,
Sure, they just need to find that damn butterfly...
lol...they found it don't you know, thats why the weather is so weird this year...They locked it up in the warehouse where they keep the holy grail and ark of the covenant.
From the BLS release...
"Table B. States with statistically significant unemployment rate changes from May 2009 to June 2009, seasonally adjusted"
Table B didn't contain a single statistically significant reduction in the month-over-month UE rate. There were 12 statistically significant increases in state UE rates.
I hope to continue the streak and look forward to my hometown bank guaranty going the way of the dodo.
thanks for conducting the BFF poll - it has become a friday institution - kind of like fight night or hockey night for the canadians
fun stuff
we have a new el nino a modiki el nino which is the east pacific which is keeping atlantic hurricane at bay if it was in the central pacific then we might have another 2004.
"The rebuilt economy must be more export-oriented and rely less on consumer spending. Summers said that economists worried about the outlook should focus on how much the economy has improved over the past six months"
Except that now (and in several instances in the past) that NEW "export-oriented" economy consists of nothing more than printing it up and sending it out. See link below
Liz I grew up on science fiction and Dumas....had to give up the sci-fi... just too depressing. When I was a child, the future was wide open, now the walls are closing in...we don't watch tv either except for select kids pbs and the news, and broadcast NFL games in the fall. Much to my friend's dismay, we don't have cable (or a cellphone, ahh the horror)...anyway I grew up watching movies, we have a home theater and that is what we do, Fridays are movie night. No commercials and a big library of movies spanning the history of cinema. Just watched the Disney release of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh...I miss Patrick McGoohan. Tonight, because I still like Dumas, we are watching Three Musketeers (70s version with Oliver Reed)...
That is the the punch line from a Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert ask the PHB whether his fake optimism could be called perjury. The PHB replies "There is no law against optimism."
Yes, movie night is a family affair...well currently my 4 year old is dressed as a knight, but the 18month old (weighs as much as my 4 year old) donned the pirate garb and tackled the knight. Think the pirate is going to win this one.
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. posted a $4.28 billion profit, less than analysts estimated, as surging loan losses cut into a gain from selling control of the Smith Barney brokerage unit. Second-quarter earnings were 49 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.5 billion, or 55 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Citigroup said today in a statement. Excluding the Smith Barney gain of $6.7 billion, Citigroup had an operating loss of 62 cents a share. That compared with a 33-cent average loss estimate of 12 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy investor hit by losses and client redemptions in 2008, is raising money after his hedge funds gained as much as 79 percent this year, according to two people familiar with the matter. Pickens, 81, met with potential investors in New York over the past two weeks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. BP Capital LLC, his Dallas-based firm, is seeking to expand its Energy Equity Fund II, which invests in stocks and futures, and Energy Fund II, which trades futures only, they said. These are follow-on versions of funds that Pickens closed to new investors.
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. won’t see a return to “full” employment for another six years, helping to hold down inflation, according to former Federal Reserve Governor Laurence Meyer. “I think there’s going to be a long legacy of the financial crisis and the deep recession,” Meyer said in an interview today on Bloomberg Radio. Meyer, who served at the Fed from 1996 to 2002, is vice chairman of St. Louis-based Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.
Ye have little faith, Liz. No major earthquakes in Californias for some time now. Plus the budget thing is causing firefighters not to get their equipment. There is hope.
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc.’s trading partners may force the insurer to bear the risk of losses on corporate loans and mortgages for years beyond the company’s expectations, complicating U.S. efforts to stabilize the firm, analysts said. European banks including Societe Generale SA and BNP Paribas SA hold almost $200 billion in guarantees sold by New York-based AIG allowing the lenders to reduce the capital required for loss reserves. The firms may keep the contracts to hedge against declining assets rather than canceling them as AIG said it expects the banks to do, according to David Havens, managing director at investment bank Hexagon Securities LLC. “For counterparties to voluntarily terminate those contracts makes no sense,” Havens said in an interview. “There’s no question that asset values have soured on a global basis. With the faith and credit of the U.S. government backing those guarantees, why would they give that up?”
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The debate over whether the $787 billion stimulus package is sufficiently large or efficiently designed obscures a broader question, some economists say: Can any fiscal measure pull the economy out of the recession? With credit still crimped and the outlook for consumer demand gloomy due to rising unemployment and increased personal saving, no amount of government intervention will be able to stanch the hemorrhaging of jobs and quickly ease the U.S. out of its deepest recession in a half-century, they said.
'Harry' was repeatedly laid off in the intervening years, they are underwater on their house, retirements are shot.. 'Louise' could not make more money, but kept on spending..
In 1993, many middle-class whites who could identify with the characters (and were targeted by that ad) believed that they were special.. now they have started to appreciate reality..
Harry and Louise have changed their minds about health care reform. The fictional suburban couple featured in a series of national television spots sponsored by the health insurance industry in 1993 and 1994 stoked fears that helped doom a government-created health plan promoted by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton. “Having choices we don’t like is no choice at all,” the Louise character fretted to her husband in one spot set around a kitchen table stacked with medical bills. Now, the same actors are back in a new campaign, this time to support a government overhaul of the medical system promoted by a Democratic president, Barack Obama.
UNO!
Repost:
2nd BFF Poll (this can include CIT):
HomeGnome 5
Vonbek777 7
barbadkatte 6
Nervous Rex 1
gabyjan 6
Counterpointer 9
Chainsaw 5
Comrade Dazed and Amused 5
Plantagenet 3
YLSP 2
Mook 3
LawyerLiz 2
Dr. Munch 0
Comrade Kristina 2
pavel.chichikov 10
Eric 3
Black Star Ranch 4
Rob Dawg 4
GDD9000 8
Yogi 6.5
Uncle Ar 2
yagij 4
WoofusMaximus 4
MS 42
alybaba 5
Any other takers?
“Imagination at Work” --- enough said.
got
repost from last thread
For Friday discernment
Guys, massive synchronicity this morning on the way to drop my wife off to work...every radio station I switched to, had a drinking song on at around 8:15 this morning. Even the classical station...switched it on last and heard a few notes and the dj said 'also known as the drinking song'....couldn't believe it. Classic rock station, woke up this morning had a beer...mix station, drinking beer at noon on Tuesday, country...whiskey shots... so I don't know what is going to happen today, but I think the drinking has already started...
jo6pack is jo12pack heading for jo24pack
"Any other takers?"
.........I'm on the record for (4) for BFF..............
Just added you, BSR.
Thank you Brian (and CR, of course).
Wow, Bill Gates putting his money to work...
Bill Gates' Latest Venture: Stopping Hurricanes
Weather modification...no I'm not going to say it... Dave Matthews Proudest Monkey.....
GE Flight Control to Earth:
Our 30 day mortgage delinquency has liftoff!
.......this is nuts.......we're on the hook till 2054 for the AIG CDS mess (at $200-billion)?
"The average weighted length of the European swaps protecting residential loans is more than 25 years, while the span tied to corporate loans is about 6 years, AIG said in a regulatory filing. Contracts covering corporate loans in the Netherlands extend almost 45 years, and the swaps on mortgages in Denmark, France and Germany mature in more than 30 years."
AIG’s European Derivatives May Take Decades to Expire (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
I wonder what the "end game" with AIG consists of? The US being on the hook for another 45-years??
[BFF 4, incl Corus and 1 CA bank]
GE Capital. I agree with Brian. I've seen how they lend. They'll do 100% loans against durable GE manufactured medical equipment. When they say collateralized it doesn't mean what you think it means. The entirety of this conference call just flies in the face of everything I see with my lying eyes.
vonberk777
no no no no that is not good, i dont like hurricanes but they have a purpose in the scheme of things.
I'll take the snowman count for BFF (8) danke
We have 1.7 billion dollars of non earnings in that book. And we have 3.3 million of reserves against it, 189% coverage.
Typo or Freudian slip?
6.5 again. One bank will be declared half un-dead. The Citi never dies or something...
Dawg, GDD and Yogi,
I added you all to the poll.
Thanks for participating.
this one's gonna leave a mark
PBGC Moves to Protect Pensions at Nortel Networks Inc.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced it will take responsibility for the underfunded pension plan covering some 23,000 employees and retirees of Nashville-based Nortel Networks, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Nortel Networks Corp., an international telecommunications technology concern headquartered in Toronto and formerly a unit of Bell Canada...
The Nortel Networks Retirement Income Plan is 58 percent funded, with assets of $716 million to cover benefit liabilities of $1.23 billion, according to PBGC estimates. The agency expects to cover the entire $514 million shortfall.
Isn't PBGC BK yet?
HomeGnome, but me down for 2 please.
Done.
Any other takers?
yagij 4
Energy comes in at the equator, more strongly than elsewhere.
The energy has to be moved to the north.
Hurricanes are part of the way the energy moves. Also, Fla, for one
historically gets a decent percentage of its rain that way.
Now, moving them along is a less destructive way is not a bad idea.
Nor is moving the energy in 2 little hurricanes rather than one big one.
I think this is hubris, anyway.
wonder how long I can post on this thread before the internet glitch gods toss me off?
Count me in on the poll.
Looking for 4 today.
I read part of that Gates thing, and will ask the hub, but it sounds like these guys
never heard of an order of magnitude.
The amount of energy involved in a hurricane is stupendous.
42....it's THE number as you all know. Honestly they don't fail as they should so this is just an exercise is pure guesswork...just like the GE, BAC, and C #'s we got today
Ciao
MS
Homegnome - 5 for me
done, done and done.
Ride the whirlwind!
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A federal judge has dismissed the insider-trading case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against high-profile investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban, according to media reports Friday. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater granted Cuban's motion and gave the SEC 30 days to file an amended complaint, the Associated Press said. The SEC had filed suit against Cuban in November, alleging he sold shares of Internet company Mamma.com based on nonpublic information, thus sparing himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
Someone the other day was worried that Intel was cooking the books?
Today I smell a nice roux or a rat or something.
CR,
There is no law against 'optimism'.
ga gets rain from hurricanes too. we got a yellow off cape verde now.watching it. we got bands from fay and ike last year. but i really dont think its a good idea, imo it would be better to educate people about building on the coast etc, and didnt we do something like seeding clouds that didnt work out to well?
Miami-Dade laying off, ummm about 1800; Brevard about 200.
Everybody getting 5% pay cuts in Dade. Lots of furloughs in Broward.
Miami police unions say they won't accept that/
I thought that gov't spending is supposed to be countercyclical.
One of those things that sounds logical and good and all, but isn't.
All I know is that a few years ago I read about a guy who wrote a program for creating virtual sunsets and sunrises...something about making these apps available for automated homes of the future so your tv wall screens can simulate nature. His point was that he preferred his virtual sun to the real thing, and thinks most people will too in the future....now what about weather as a whole...if mankind masters the technology to control weather...and we can make the earth a balmy 78 with slight wind and overnight lows of 65...you know Camelot:
It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear.
The climate must be perfect all the year.
A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it gives a person pause,
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws.
The snow may never slush upon the hillside.
By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.
Does that idea appeal to most people? It frightens me to the bone.
My favorite Hurricane tracking site.
Stormpulse / Hurricanes, severe weather, tracking, mapping
@HomeGnome,
Please put me down for 3 on BFF.
Yeah, I knew Bob Burpee, who was chief honcho cloud seeder.
It was very difficult to seed clouds because it was feared that the hurricane
center et al would be accused of steering hurricanes over land and causing
damage and an infinity of lawsuits. As I recall, the results were inconclusive.
"Miami police unions say they won't accept that/"
Ha Ha Ha, Let them work and have the checks bounce, then they will get the idea there is no money.
2nd BFF Poll (this can include CIT):
HomeGnome 5
Vonbek777 7
barbadkatte 6
Nervous Rex 1
gabyjan 6
Counterpointer 9
Chainsaw 5
Comrade Dazed and Amused 5
Plantagenet 3
YLSP 2
Mook 3
LawyerLiz 2
Dr. Munch 0
Comrade Kristina 2
pavel.chichikov 10
Eric 3
Black Star Ranch 4
Rob Dawg 4
GDD9000 8
Yogi 6.5
Uncle Ar 2
yagij 4
WoofusMaximus 4
MS 42
alybaba 5
Comrade Coinz 3
Blackhalo 2
mock turtle 1
JP 4
Dickeylee 3
Hoopajoops LTD 0
Citizen Allen M 0
Tim waiting for 2012 3
pigpen 2
Any other takers?
Does the betting close at some point?
Well, the po-lice could get blue flu or go on strike.
"2nd BFF Poll (this can include CIT):"
2 one of which should be big.
For BFF poll, please just put your guesstimate in a new post; don't put "in reply too" because then I can't edit the list and have to repost it.
Thanks, CR Community.
Polling stops at Noon Today EST.
HomeGnome
i think many could, should fall, but the the the governmentstas will only take down one
in keeping with the happy days propaganda TPTB are trying to sell
so if its not too late please put me down for 1, uno
Any other takers?
4: CIT and Corus + 2 small guys from nowhere.
btw do the winners of the poll get a pony?
Smells of extortion. This is not about public service when the out their selves above others. Everyone is bleeding and they to should carry the burden. Let the Nat guard take over.
Done, done and done.
Winners are urged to contribute to the CR tip jar or chip in (if and when it returns)
Winners also receive a virtual
, 
or 
; depending on your preference.
Hey Home, put me down for 3 BF's tonite
Ken will make them an icon pony!!
Only they can use it. Glory forever on CR!!
How can you make the bong happen, or has that been pulled?
Guess not.
michigan unemployment 15.2%
15 other states 10+%
Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary
The national guard is outside the country, right?
"Weather modification...no I'm not going to say it... Dave Matthews Proudest Monkey..... "
Sure, they just need to find that damn butterfly...
LLiz: Click on the link just above your "Save" button (below the posting window).
invokes CSC, god rest his virtual soul.)
Scroll down and you will see the list of virtual items. (Note that the
Some are but many are here and rotate tours. Should be enough to cover a few cities if they walked.
Home gnome - put me down for 0 please.
Homegnome, call me in at none.
They still need to marshall more resources for the beercan and CIT.
GE say we made money- but we didn't chargeoff aggressively either.
Yum. Just got a call, have an interview for a new job next wednesday- folks are still job hopping, so off we go!
Someday this wars gonna end...
lobbiest ben dover(i am soo slow,i typted your name all together lol)
dont forget the homeland is home right up here in ga.
insert brigade after homeland.
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Fri, 7/17/2009 - 9:33 am
I read part of that Gates thing, and will ask the hub, but it sounds like these guys
never heard of an order of magnitude.
The amount of energy involved in a hurricane is stupendous.
Delusions of grandeur... we have all the money we could ever need and the best and brightest (TBB) on the job... what could possibly go wrong.
I love hubris!
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The White House agenda won't be impeded by the economy, said Larry Summers, a top advisor to President Obama on Friday. Many economists are worried about the mushrooming federal budget deficit and believe that more time should be spent reducing government spending over the medium term rather than launching new programs. But the White House will not be deterred, Summers said. "Yes, the President has an ambitious agenda. But it is an agenda comprised of measures that lay a foundation for future prosperity and for the confidence on which the current recovery depends," Summers said. The rebuilt economy must be more export-oriented and rely less on consumer spending. Summers said that economists worried about the outlook should focus on how much the economy has improved over the past six months
Hey Larry, you might want to wipe that S*it off your nose...
There is also back up of Sheriffs departments and state police as well.
I think the effect of 'Roast Beef' is beginning to wear off on Krugman.
Joy of Sachs
HomeGnome
Put me down for three. Sometime this year we will need a separate one for sovereign governments.
Future prosperity doesn't do us a lot of good if we never reach that future.
Added all of you recent participants to the poll...
we export trillions in treasuries each year...
Blackhalo,
Sure, they just need to find that damn butterfly...
lol...they found it don't you know, thats why the weather is so weird this year...They locked it up in the warehouse where they keep the holy grail and ark of the covenant.
Bah, our future is a thing of the past.
Oh, and Nevada 12% racing up the charts, trying to catch Michigan. (It's not easy, but somebody has to at least try.)
B2,
From the BLS release...
"Table B. States with statistically significant unemployment rate changes from May 2009 to June 2009, seasonally adjusted"
Table B didn't contain a single statistically significant reduction in the month-over-month UE rate. There were 12 statistically significant increases in state UE rates.
HomeGnome, please put me down for two bank failures.
Yours truly,
Pigpen
aka - the initial winner of BFF
See warehouse 13 on, I think SyFy.
Gosh, Fla is over 10%, but well under lots of others.
A Simon Green novel has a vignette about an auction in the
Nightside of THE butterfly, which is being held in stasis.
No doubt this jobs report will cause the mkt to fly to the moon.
Yep, you and Speed Racer were the winners of the first BFF poll.
I hope to continue the streak and look forward to my hometown bank guaranty going the way of the dodo.
thanks for conducting the BFF poll - it has become a friday institution - kind of like fight night or hockey night for the canadians
fun stuff
Lawyerliz, I was going to welcome you to the 10% club, but then I realized you were already at 10.2% in May. Dont get comfy, 11% is on the way.
we have a new el nino a modiki el nino which is the east pacific which is keeping atlantic hurricane at bay if it was in the central pacific then we might have another 2004.
MODOKI, get it straight, MODOKI
Yep, el ninos suppress Atlantic activity.
No hurricane to eliminate housing units.
"The rebuilt economy must be more export-oriented and rely less on consumer spending. Summers said that economists worried about the outlook should focus on how much the economy has improved over the past six months"
Except that now (and in several instances in the past) that NEW "export-oriented" economy consists of nothing more than printing it up and sending it out. See link below
AIG’s European Derivatives May Take Decades to Expire (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
Ciao
MS
Im sorry, Senor Verano....but the economy has hardly improved. Unless you are measuring el derivativo segundo.
MS bloomberg article is wrong AIG is up today.
The economy has improved?
ahhh, he lives in another universe, that must be it.
Which reminds me. I tried to make a comment about the
mysterious organic non-oil goo, which is unknown and
hairy. . .
We are truly doomed, this is the alien who was supposed
to buy all the houses.
Or perhaps conjure is bigger than we thought.
OT
by way of zero hedge, i ran into an interview with
janet tavakoli...never heard of her before yesterday
very intelligent and cogent attack on the bankstas and spot on description of how we got to the edge of the precipice
YouTube - Q&A: Janet Tavakoli
btw, she "was" an obama supporter but judges that he has been captured by the oligarchs
an hour long interview...play it loud while cooking dinner maybe? or what ever
Mercantilism does not work in a post-industrial economy... trying to go back to the old ways is an even bigger disaster.
//The rebuilt economy must be more export-oriented and rely less on consumer spending.//
Yeah, the Chinese could spend their treasury money buying something
from us. . . . But what?
Liz I grew up on science fiction and Dumas....had to give up the sci-fi... just too depressing. When I was a child, the future was wide open, now the walls are closing in...we don't watch tv either except for select kids pbs and the news, and broadcast NFL games in the fall. Much to my friend's dismay, we don't have cable (or a cellphone, ahh the horror)...anyway I grew up watching movies, we have a home theater and that is what we do, Fridays are movie night. No commercials and a big library of movies spanning the history of cinema. Just watched the Disney release of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh...I miss Patrick McGoohan. Tonight, because I still like Dumas, we are watching Three Musketeers (70s version with Oliver Reed)...
gdd9000
i have got it straight m o d i k i modiki
you may google modiki
Lucifer (profile) wrote on Fri, 7/17/2009 - 7:39 am
CR,
There is no law against 'optimism'.
The Law of unintended consequences.
The Law of buttered bread.
Murphy's Law.
Gotta love the Lord of Darkness pushing his favorite sins of hubris and pride.
If GM is Government Motors, what will GE become?
government electric
generally extinct
You and your boys? should dress up as Musketeers.
Rob Dawg,
That is the the punch line from a Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert ask the PHB whether his fake optimism could be called perjury. The PHB replies "There is no law against optimism."
A huge taxpayer burden/ liability?
I haven't sold my ge stock--only 100 shares anyway.
Let me see. Let me go all contrarian.
Let me contemplate what could drag us out of this mess. And
start off a virtuous cycle. . . .
This is very humorous, if you have the time:
- NY Times
Any other takers?
(2) Corus or CIT + 1
I may be thinking for quite a while.
Yes, movie night is a family affair...well currently my 4 year old is dressed as a knight, but the 18month old (weighs as much as my 4 year old) donned the pirate garb and tackled the knight. Think the pirate is going to win this one.
My daily question:
No fear on the streets in Cali?
Home gnome - put me down for 0 please.
You expect us to be sober tonight, or drink without a BFF to cheer?
Blasphemer!
FFDIC has not gone back to his (or her) old employer. I think the personnel shortage will limit it to one big one. Uno.
"If GM is Government Motors, what will GE become? "
GE Capital, as they sell off preforming assets, to meet or beat numbers, until that is all that is left.
tim-
I don't write 'em...... The swaps that are financed by AIG (excuse me....you and me) is what's important..
Ciao
MS
Now we can choose between
and 
Look, if I say it's Modoki, it's Modoki (2+2=5)
GE, Government Evicted.
A miracle?
//Let me contemplate what could drag us out of this mess.//
gdd9000
nope
I will let the others tackle this..
Citigroup Posts $4.28 Billion Profit on Smith Barney (Update1)
Citigroup Posts $4.28 Billion Profit on Smith Barney (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
By Bradley Keoun
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. posted a $4.28 billion profit, less than analysts estimated, as surging loan losses cut into a gain from selling control of the Smith Barney brokerage unit. Second-quarter earnings were 49 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.5 billion, or 55 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Citigroup said today in a statement. Excluding the Smith Barney gain of $6.7 billion, Citigroup had an operating loss of 62 cents a share. That compared with a 33-cent average loss estimate of 12 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Manipulation or Fraud?
Pickens Said to Seek Investors for Hedge Funds After 79% Gain
Pickens Said to Seek Investors for Hedge Funds After 79% Gain - Bloomberg.com
By Saijel Kishan
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy investor hit by losses and client redemptions in 2008, is raising money after his hedge funds gained as much as 79 percent this year, according to two people familiar with the matter. Pickens, 81, met with potential investors in New York over the past two weeks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. BP Capital LLC, his Dallas-based firm, is seeking to expand its Energy Equity Fund II, which invests in stocks and futures, and Energy Fund II, which trades futures only, they said. These are follow-on versions of funds that Pickens closed to new investors.
The concept of 'full' employment might have to be changed
Meyer Sees No Return to ‘Full’ Employment Until 2015 (Update1)
Meyer Sees No Return to ‘Full’ Employment Until 2015 (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
By Vincent Del Giudice
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. won’t see a return to “full” employment for another six years, helping to hold down inflation, according to former Federal Reserve Governor Laurence Meyer. “I think there’s going to be a long legacy of the financial crisis and the deep recession,” Meyer said in an interview today on Bloomberg Radio. Meyer, who served at the Fed from 1996 to 2002, is vice chairman of St. Louis-based Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.
"Yep, el ninos suppress Atlantic activity.
No hurricane to eliminate housing units."
Ye have little faith, Liz. No major earthquakes in Californias for some time now. Plus the budget thing is causing firefighters not to get their equipment. There is hope.
More of the same?
AIG’s European Derivatives May Take Decades to Expire (Update1)
AIG’s European Derivatives May Take Decades to Expire (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
By Hugh Son and James Sterngold
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc.’s trading partners may force the insurer to bear the risk of losses on corporate loans and mortgages for years beyond the company’s expectations, complicating U.S. efforts to stabilize the firm, analysts said. European banks including Societe Generale SA and BNP Paribas SA hold almost $200 billion in guarantees sold by New York-based AIG allowing the lenders to reduce the capital required for loss reserves. The firms may keep the contracts to hedge against declining assets rather than canceling them as AIG said it expects the banks to do, according to David Havens, managing director at investment bank Hexagon Securities LLC. “For counterparties to voluntarily terminate those contracts makes no sense,” Havens said in an interview. “There’s no question that asset values have soured on a global basis. With the faith and credit of the U.S. government backing those guarantees, why would they give that up?”
Manhattan CRE= big
?
Manhattan Storefronts Hit Highest Vacancies Since ‘01 (Update1)
Manhattan Storefronts Hit Highest Vacancies Since ‘01 (Update3) - Bloomberg.com
By Oshrat Carmiel and Alex Kowalski
Why did it not work? was it just the multiplier effect? or were the control, implementation and result 'models' out of date?
Obama Stimulus Fails to Reboot Economy as No Multiplier Effect
Obama’s Stimulus Plan Slow to Trickle Through Economy (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
By Matthew Benjamin and Alison Sider
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The debate over whether the $787 billion stimulus package is sufficiently large or efficiently designed obscures a broader question, some economists say: Can any fiscal measure pull the economy out of the recession? With credit still crimped and the outlook for consumer demand gloomy due to rising unemployment and increased personal saving, no amount of government intervention will be able to stanch the hemorrhaging of jobs and quickly ease the U.S. out of its deepest recession in a half-century, they said.
'Harry' was repeatedly laid off in the intervening years, they are underwater on their house, retirements are shot.. 'Louise' could not make more money, but kept on spending..
In 1993, many middle-class whites who could identify with the characters (and were targeted by that ad) believed that they were special.. now they have started to appreciate reality..
Harry and Louise Return, With a New Message
Harry and Louise Return, With a New Message - CNBC
By: Natasha Singer
Harry and Louise have changed their minds about health care reform. The fictional suburban couple featured in a series of national television spots sponsored by the health insurance industry in 1993 and 1994 stoked fears that helped doom a government-created health plan promoted by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton. “Having choices we don’t like is no choice at all,” the Louise character fretted to her husband in one spot set around a kitchen table stacked with medical bills. Now, the same actors are back in a new campaign, this time to support a government overhaul of the medical system promoted by a Democratic president, Barack Obama.
Thanks Basel
...these PBGC blowups are going to cost the US taxpayer as much as the bank failures in the long run.