for sdtfs:
Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli

CR:

Are you familiar with Blackadder . . .

OT, but this guy is totally off his rocker. I found this particular paragraph absolutely hilarious:

At the core, we have a problem of insufficient aggregate demand. The government is the only entity in a position to remedy that problem, because only the government can create new net financial assets via spending. There are any number of measures which would have an almost instantaneous impact in terms of improving aggregate incomes and demand. A national payroll tax holiday, revenue sharing with the states (so as to preclude additional cuts in state spending which offset the Federal fiscal stimulus) and a government as employer of last resort (an idea we plan to expand on further in a subsequent New Deal 2.0 posting) would all do the trick.

“President Obama, deficit terrorism is not the answer!” « naked capitalism

Is there a contest for who can out-PK PK?

from CRs post

"the Bank, with Williams’ active participation, filed materially inaccurate regulatory reports, made false statements to the Federal Reserve, has suffered additional loan losses, and has failed to comply with provisions of an outstanding Written Agreement designed to require that the Bank properly address its asset quality problems."

yeah? so whats different? like somebody can point to bankstas that are like alter boys?

the June 2009 loans referred to above, which were made to enable the borrowers to purchase certain low quality assets from the Bank

umm. Merril Lynch, among others, did this same thing. Loan out non-recourse to a hedge fund, to buy troubled assets off your own books, and then book the higher performing asset. i guess, the moral is don't use straw buyers.

Merrill’s Bitter Pill May Be a Sweet Deal for Lone Star - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

Certainly it is legal, but misdirecting trillions into maintaining asset price bubbles seems even more damaging than what Mr Williams has done.

Bernanke is the biggest bank robber of all time. Every other bank criminal is a petty thief in comparison.

Bernanke is stealing interest from tens of millions of bank depositors. It's a little different than emptying out the vault with a sawed off machine gun.

But not much.

lawyerliz wrote:

but I didn't know their names, liz says defensively.

no need to be defensive on a saturday night fireside chat... it's all good. just a little less for u tonight

It looks like an excellent overview of the industry written from a starting point of pretty much no information...all that and she doesn't address the whole issue of depletion/peak oil!
.
For anyone who wants to move beyond a state of energy illiteracy...

So, Williams found a Goldman Sachs Laddering blueprint, or a Bear Stearns Everquest offering sheet, or any other cdo squared deal...and decided to try it for himself...?

I say good for him! he was playing the 's game!

I guess the depositors with over 250k were defrauded, but hey, they
can sue Williams to get it back, and it still might be around. Are his
accounts and assets frozen?

Reading about peak oil, like reading how much the national
debt is, depresses me. And no, don't tell me the amount of
the National Debt, noooooooo.

energyecon wrote:

That's OK lliz, you are still QotW!

Would that be Queen of the World, or Quote of the Week (about Cantarell)?

Be consoled, patient, that when the money arrives at the zombie,
it becomes dead money, ahhhh, Zombie money, just like me writing
"I have one million dollars to spend" when I don't and I snippily tell
everybody that I won't loan any of it out becaue they don't deserve it.

Noooooooo, I didn't look, I didn't.

I hope they throw the book at him. What's the maximum sentence ? Twenty months in minimum security, 1 million in fines the bank has to pay, and stipulation that he only work as a banker outside of Florida?

Is he still here? Why don't these people run away?

I would run away.

You on some kind of twelve step program?

Peak oil and peak money ..... from Jesse's sidebar

The Archdruid Report: A Gesture from the Invisible Hand

Is there a 12-step program for Stockholm Syndrome?

C

BG - those waves he's surfing may not be made of water but capital

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

BG - those waves he's surfing may not be made of water but capital

Yeah ... that was occuring to me as i clicked save

Jackson Jambalaya
More mortgage fraud. Wish Tanta were here to clarify.

Oxtail wrote:

His strategy seems to be the exact opposite of what the government is encouraging right now.

When I hear things like this, I get my hopes up. Then I hear Geithner or Bernanke announce more measures to spend a trillion or two on "stabilizing" home prices, and I realize that actions speak louder than words.

their words aren't as owned as their policy actions, in other words? I guess that's what you get when you buy a politician...

Check this out:

Tim's Little Problem | zero hedge

while you are at zero hedge

read this comment by rasputin (hosted by RobotTrader)

essentially how fed will throw everything including the kitchen sink at deflation but to no avail

Head and Shoulders Shampoo | zero hedge

Basel Too

thanks

Thanks mock, hadn't caught that zh post!

Banker of the Year: Jerry Williams
President and CEO Orion Bancorp

Throw out the stereotype of boring, stuffed-shirt bankers. Many of today’s banking leaders and most of the next generation of bankers are innovators and entrepreneurs, regularly stepping outside of the conventional banking box. ...

But being Banker of the Year requires more than strong numbers. There is also an intangible quality to consider - reputation in the community, reputation among peers, respect as a leader and manager, ambition and drive, proven ability to design and meet significant institutional goals. The Review also considered the entrepreneurial spirit of each banker, strategy for the future and big-picture plan for getting there.

This year’s honorees possess those qualities. And their impact on the region has only just begun.

Yes, Jerry Williams is a confident guy. Why wouldn’t he be? ...

Williams eagerly boasts of his banking success. With nearly childlike glee, he happily shows off spreadsheets and computer programs that prove Orion is eating the competition at every turn. Also proud of his top-of-the-line BMW, private jet and handsome family, Williams is not modest. ...

Asked about his greatest challenge in the next 12 to 24 months, Williams replies: “We want to continue to bring in talent and grow and perform at the same level. We need to keep ahead of infrastructure. We are excited about next year because we are going through the $1 billion mark, which for an independent bank is big. As long as we can maintain growth and recruit good people, we can stay independent and private. There are no limits. I know guys who have been doing it with $10 billion and $14 billion banks.”

This is not satire. It's from the Gulf Coast Business Review, September 19, 2003:
Banker of the Year: Jerry Williams

America has an unending supply of "confident guys" like Jerry. If we don't make it harder for them to take in a few billion dollars of government guaranteed deposits and do with them as they choose, they're going to keep costing us a lot of money.

crcomment - have we gone meta? Oh good.

This is a comment by a handled member of the cr commentariat about a comment. [This is meta-comment 1].

C

The pronounced and sustained opposition between thoughts and actions can result in a schizoid split. shudder at the thought of a Fed governor or US president with MPD or a schizoaffective disorder.

Resistance,

what's to say we don't have one, now?

TALF...or TALF homeroom...
Term Asset-backed securities loan facility
The central bank makes loans in difficult times
-'...the possible increase to $1 trillion makes TALF potentially on of the Fed's largest programs.'
-'nonrecourse loans'
-'TALF is structured to minimize the Fed's risks.'
-TALF has been extended to June 30, 2010.'
-'Reviving securitization markets'
Economic Letter, August 2009
TALF: Jump-Starting the Securitization Markets - Economic Letter, August 2009 - FRB Dallas

ABS - asset backed securities
'When the housing bubble burst...investors shunned ABS...so the FED created TALF...to support new ABS issues...and thaw out securitization markets.'
TALF link above
~These programs are amazing in that it seems like more of the same 'hair of the dog' that bit the Economy...

Yawn...yeah I know these Fed programs are old news...but I doubt many people know how they work or why they exist...I don't really know how they work or why they exist except for hunches regarding...curing a hangover with more drugs and hard liquor...

Comment about that comment.

C

So it does. The fact that it was a local event clouded my comprehension. But that would still mean national average household income is approx. $72K?

merchants of fear wrote:

That hoocoodanode tile with Obama and others laughing is from a known disinfo site...

Linky?

DC,
Just opinion on the disinfo...what's misinfo to me might be good reporting to someone else...
The artist is Dees and his stuff is funny but there's a spin of course in political cartooning orpolitical staire and he supplies art to sites with a spin...
David Dees Illustration

The notions stimulus, response, reinforcement are relatively well defined with respect to the bar-pressing experiments and others similarly restricted. Before we can extend them to real-life behavior, however, certain difficulties must be faced. We must decide, first of all, whether any physical event to which the organism is capable of reacting is to be called a stimulus on a given occasion, or only one to which the organism in fact reacts; and correspondingly, we must decide whether any part of behavior is to be called a response, or only one connected with stimuli in lawful ways. Questions of this sort pose something of a dilemma for the experimental psychologist. If he accepts the broad definitions, characterizing any physical event impinging on the organism as a stimulus and any part of the organism's behavior as a response, he must conclude that behavior has not been demonstrated to be lawful. In the present state of our knowledge, we must attribute an overwhelming influence on actual behavior to ill-defined factors of attention, set, volition, and caprice. If we accept the narrower definitions, then behavior is lawful by definition (if it consists of responses); but this fact is of limited significance, since most of what the animal does will simply not be considered behavior. Hence, the psychologist either must admit that behavior is not lawful (or that he cannot at present show that it is -- not at all a damaging admission for a developing science), or must restrict his attention to those highly limited areas in which it is lawful (e.g., with adequate controls, bar-pressing in rats; lawfulness of the observed behavior provides, for Skinner, an implicit definition of a good experiment). chomsky.info/articles/1967----.htm

wait...you mean it's not an actual photo of Obama being sworn in with everybody laughing histaricly? With a banner promsing change?

shocked ...just shocked that i was duped

TJ
Jonathan
check

yeah RTs posts and pegs at ZH are fiery stuff

good nite

Bernanke is like a Viking warrior...
trying to headbutt his way through the entire opposing army until he gets to their King
/how's my poetry?

Monkey,
Yeah but this commentariet makes so much fun of the tinfoil types who take off-beat political satire seriously and develop conspiracy theories from this entertaining info-mation...all the teasing about tinfoil...where do you think it comes from...the tinfoil ideas that is?

sdtfs
I saw a word fight happening so I did a semi-random excerpt from a Chomsky article so that I could win the fight. Even if one understands the paragraph, it should still leave the reader confused. The content is irrelevant to a linguist

merchants of fear wrote:

all the teasing about tinfoil...where do you think it comes from...the tinfoil ideas that is?

It comes from the desire to have the events "make sense". It's far more comforting to think bad things are happening by design than to believe that despite all your precautions, quasi-random events can injure you. You may be able to fight an evil opponent, but you can't put up any defense to random chance.

This differs from the GSEs and Treasury buying underperforming assets from the banks at well above market value how?

btw Uribe of Colombia captured 4 Venezuelan military on a boat inside Colombia, and as a show of good faith he is loudly telling the whole world he will promptly return them to Venezuela. So he is conceding some domestic bonus points in the near term, to score more with the international view and slightly encourage Venezuela's domestic anti-Chavez crew. They're about do for a minor war aren't they?
Nobody ever backs down in those situations, they just better position themselves for a war and PR is an important part of that now. Why would Uribe give breathing space now after the last few years?
It would be an easy score for Obama to knock off Chavez, something Bush failed to do with that hilarious coup aired live on CNN, and Colombia is front of mind with the fresh FTA and a country that is intended to be a bulwark/model against Ecuador/Venezuela/Cuba/Bolivia/etc
besides, Colombia's military is already a big aid recipient and 10x bigger than its neighbors'

jimmie infamy wrote:

So it does. The fact that it was a local event clouded my comprehension. But that would still mean national average household income is approx. $72K?

72K for those purchasing a home,...not your average Joe living in an apartment. And since you're looking at something Yun put out, it doesn't necessarily mean even that. You may want to remember that: Figures don't lie, but liars do figures.

It's always perplexed me that Wilson Phillips' two biggest hits were Hold On and Release Me.

oh and the Venezuela stuff started flaring up shortly after whatever night it was that I mentioned a signaled 180° change on Afghanistan (post-Karzaigate, UK wasn't keen to renew. If Obama does anything less than 40k more troops to Afghanistan, it's because they calculated Brown is going to be turfed from office and his successor would not renew the commitment and that would definitely lead to the withdrawal of Germany, Italy, Netherlands)

mof-

Real data is everywhere, interpretation of the data is where disinformation is born. Agenda is important and varies by the presenter and behind them who paid for the research. How many times do you read a headline purporting new information of a product, situation or policy and after reading the study find the cherry picked quote is untrue/out of context or heavily slanted to promote a certain perspective?

All information is propaganda regardless of the source. Believing academics present the unvarnished truth is a stretch when viewed through the above lens. Examples would be tobacco studies for dozens of years showed no harm to the user contrary to real data that showed increased health problems in conjunction with smoking. The current great debate on climate change is another long running debate with many different factions weighing in on the subject. I believe climate change is caused by human actions but I can't discount evidence presented otherwise...until I see the academic report was sponsored by the coal industry. The data they present is scientifically based and peer reviewed but still wouldn't have came into being without funding from a biased source. Does that make their argument/evidence disingenuous? To me it does but that is my perspective through my own personally formed filter.

I read much of what you link but always try to find the agenda behind the source. It is always there, who you are decides if you find the conclusions irrefutable or outlandish. Academics have to publish and procure funding for their institutions. Who pays is always relevant to the outcome.

Concurrence (maxim upheld).

C

sdtfs,
When you look at govt. or the FED they are organizations with hierarchy, a chain of command...it's a process and sure sht happens but when you look at credit cycles, deflationary cycles, cycles of war you can see patterns...choices were made within the organizations to pursue certain policies and the sht happens repeatedly because the same policies were followed although historical economic/political research identifies some cause-and-effect variables...anyway the sh*t keeps happening in similar ways - massive credit expansion/credit contraction - so 'quasi-random' expanations for historical events might have very little evidence to support except for a strong belief...like a religious maybe...or faith that is the way something happens...randomly

Damn, awesome comment.

choices were made within the organizations to pursue certain policies and the sht happens

Summed up by WL Livingston: "The Purpose of a System is What It Does"

• A banking system that encouraged fraud, and created a destructive bubble
• A prison system that imprisons a population that enjoys weed
• A food industry that turns citizens into bloated addicts

We need a reset.

China rounds on U.S. rates as global economic risk
| Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ultra-low interest rates in the United States are fuelling speculation in overseas asset markets and threatening the global economic recovery, [Chinese banking regulator Liu Mingkang] said on Sunday.

bwahahaha, you break you buy!

Externalized Costs,
Agreed...research is funded...consider the source...The Fed paper about Talf was enthusiastic about reviving securitization (I thought that was interesting)...financial/currency crises studies look for causes of collapses...of course I don't see these econ papers say blaming the FED...many of these papers are done by the FED...but there is at least some useful info to glean from some economic research rather than say go to 'gold bug analysis' sites where maybe someone is trying to sell gold...product sales research of course are spun maybe to sell products...tobacco sales and earlier research was one of the great cover-ups or conspiracies to harm people...

All LiuMingkang needs to do is retract his blood probe tie from the USD and he's home free.
What an arrogant fool. Drop the link. Interest rates aren't the problem.

I'm so embarrassed. I turned on my ignore user list.

For emphasis.

C

Slumdog,
You lean towards the namecalling as do others on CR sometimes and it gets you on ignore lists maybe and kills discussions as can say agreeing with anything you say maybe...this site presents ideas as to why this mess is happening and the namecalling distracts from that IMO...this site has some good discussion...

sdtfs wrote:

So how does that work? Can we say bad stuff about you and you don't see it?

Sure but I'll still cry a little just knowing I'm not universally loved. No, it takes a really pathological confluence for me to resort to filtering.

All the crap that's happenin' in the conony is 'hoghuey'...agree with that...don't you think (commentariet) if something is happening that is taking money from people who don't want to lose their money and have worked hard to save their money...there would be an effort to spin this away from those most responsible for the 'wealth transfer'...

True EC..I have a spin...I don't think this Crash was an accident or 'quasi-random' and other Crashes in the past were probably NOT just accidental or a result of idiocy...that's my bias if you will...

Counterpointer & EHP,
Do you think economic Crashes in the past were randon, 'quasi-random', accidental, or a result of political and economic leaders idiocy?
Just wondering what you think?

Rob Dawg,
Same question...just idiots, bad luck, or accident...why this Crash is happening?

SOPHISTICAL.

Truth condition (exemplar).

C

Random like weather. You can manage for seasons in general but you cannot turn winter into summer without destroying the climate. And therein lies the hubris of recent fiscal policies.

12:47 a.m. - 'confusing'

Catharsis.

Resolution.

C

Counterpointer wrote:

Resolution.

Well, I had hoped to see if C could get it up again after his 'resolution', but I need to get up tomorrow.

the following lyrics are from Lil' Wayne
(with some slight mods)

you tryin to close me but I will not answer

gold digger just wanna be my grave dancer

And REO slut wanna be my private chauffeur

To ride that boy toy like a roller coaster

Get on it and Get to it

Get on it and Get to it

REO Ho Yeah (Do u) G-digger Yeah (Do U)

Girl pop (Do me) Girl stop
....
....
must go - have a date tonight with the hottest of hotties, it also means her girl crew comes along on my tab - do the clubs, buy a bottle all for under a C Note [try and do that in NYC!] but I wake up tomorrow
feeling a bit like Julius Caesar, that or Ramon Navarro

Good news. I'll be back on Con Dao Island for a Dec 31st wedding. I'm doing a Napoleon Elba reversal. Back into the breach once more I go for the Duchess with all the panache of Raleigh Hey. that's why they call me the Duke

There's lots more about Jerry Williams including his political contributions, if you google "Jerry Williams Naples". He should have a fine second career in politics......sheesh.

The question is are we going to have a v, w, or l shaped recovery? I am betting on a W.

comrade Mike
I'm sure of Cage hooked up with Jim the Realtor they'd have a hit reality show on their hands..
Nicholas could play the bad realtor and Jim the good... imagine Cage scaring the crap out of prospects
and Jim giving them the velvet treatment... or Cage could threaten deadbeats to move out of their
REO prop.

might as well use this to figure out the why of whats happening now
Aviation Accident Law -Causes of Plane Crashes

.....Good morning........it looks like CR took some much deserved time off..........good for him......he surely had it coming.

LOL.......Well, sorry....I had to do my morning dishes, clean-up after a coffee maker mess, and separate cream for butter........Interesting article from Ron Holland:.....

"Short of the government mending its ways and learning to live within its means, there's only one way for it to defuse the ticking debt time bomb. The government still has the power to inflate most of the debt away -- in effect, a default in slow motion. But that's a tricky process to control and would risk pulling the U.S. into South American style price inflation -- 20%, 30% or more per year.........because of all the expensive mistakes the U.S. government has made and keeps making, it could turn out to be the least bad thing to happen......Our first priority should be to stop playing the enemy's game. Stop believing everything can be made right by America's closed, two-party system........ if you have any confidence in what the establishment politicians of either party promise, you should think again."

Ron Holland on Creeping US Authoritarianism, the Decline of the Dollar why Switzerland Remains the Destination of Choice for Concerned Investors

volker, I'll take a stab at it.

I see the hot money flowing into developing markets subject to malinvestment and probably a reversal. Building new manufacturing facilities for export-driven economies requires consumer demand in the first world.

I see Japan nearing an impasse in public debt/GDP ratio. After two decades of QE, they are at or nearing a point where QE produces no return, and where debt service spins out of control. [edit:] This can manifest itself with little or no warning. It hasn't received much attention, generally.

I see China, India, Russia and the other 'tigers' contributing to a melt-up of commodities and PMs. There is certainly an unplanned economic event gaining probability for either Russia or China, or both.

Regardless of which of these is first to occur, the others will be triggered - money flowing back out of the developing world, and a most inconvenient for US exports strengthening of the dollar. Strong dollar impacts equities and the bond markets. Treasuries become the only game in town. GDP dull as ditchwater.

China Banking Regulator: U.S. Policy Fueling Asset Speculation