Augusta, Georgia. "Noon Hour. Workers in Enterprise Cotton Mill. The wheels are kept running through noon hour (which is only 40 minutes) so employees may be tempted to put in part of this time at machine if they wish
Ilargi: Was that just me, or did Google News fail all over for a while? As in, the while I needed........
Anywaydeedelydays, 6 more banks were closed, and Guaranty, Texas' no 2. bank, will likely -self announced- follow as early as this weekend, and be the biggest failure in 2009 at $14 billion. Which would bankrupt the FDIC. Lovely! So let's go for a more timeless take, shall we? I’m all for it. My buddy whom I never met at EconomicDisconnect asked me today for a song to contribute to his regular Friday upbeat helping. What popped into my head within 2 seconds, for no specific reason, there's after all a million songs out there that have something to say, was Springsteen's My Hometown.
I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He'd tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown
Written in the early 80's, in the recession then that seemed really heavy in Jersey and other places, a recession which will look like an exuberant Vegas top notch penthouse suite birthday bash compared to what’s around the Asbury corner. You'd have to go all the way back to Woody Guthrie or Leadbelly to find a song that better describes what lies ahead for America. Springsteen captured the coming decade almost 30 years before it happened, and I suggest you listen very closely, with your eyes closed, and see in your minds' eyes the images he evokes. That's what you'll be living.
Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown
The whole country that America once proudly was is breaking into ever smaller shattering pieces, while you're watching Wall Street numbers go up. Hey, say what you will about God, you can't claim her sense of irony ain't dead on. California will take many years just to appear normal, forget about recovery. The mayor of Detroit throws the towel, without acknowledging he does (as is the spirit of politics). The Motor City is broke, and there's nothing on the horizon that could possibly prevent complete and utter bankruptcy. Neither in Detroit nor anywhere else, that is.
They're down to praying for miracles now. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It‘s just that there's a million other towns, counties, states and countries praying for the same sort of preferential heavenly treatment. And even if one of them miraculously got what they prayed for, don't you think they'd likely be overrun by all the rest that didn't?
Tax revenues for all levels of government, all over the country, are plummeting at frightening and astonishing rates. It's over people, the experiment that is America has failed. In its present form, that is.
Open your eyes. Put your son in your lap, as in the Springsteen song, and drive through your town. To what extent are his interests best served by your belief in some opaque sort of change to believe in, by your blind running after green shoots that are always one inch beyond your receding horizons? Isn't it perhaps a better idea to put your kids' feet down on solid ground instead of some belief based soil?
What do you think? Or do you even think to begin with? Not to insult you, but if you actually do believe in Obama's green shoots, take it from me: you ain't thinking straight. And while you're at it, take this from me too: I don't care about what you do to yourself. It's that kid on your lap I'm worried about, who's apt to fall prey to your inability to face your own reality, your own frustrations and your own failed dreams.
Will you at least consider the option that it's over, and it will not ever come back? That you need to build your next set of dreams on a foundation of your own making, and not a media slash politics induced one? That for your kid to survive, you may need to come up with a plan of your own, instead of one hammered into your dainty little skull since kindergarten? Something of your own making, something your own hands built from scratch, and not what your plastic allows you to drag out of the strip mall. What happened on the way here? Do you have the answer if that kid of yours asks you that question?
So where are these sorts of initiatives like Little Steven's Sun City one, below, when will artists stand up against Obama and his Goldman Sachs cabal? Yeah, they won't, you're right. And that's a bitter shame. There was a time, after all, when there was the idea that the little people had a say in their own lives.
And if you don't get that, why not go for the depths of your soul, for the purest form of emotion and tragedy ever delivered by the most divine human voice that ever sang in our times. Whatever you do, whatever pulls your crank, make sure something can still touch your heart. If not, you've gone the way of the Norwegian blue.
U.S. Home Vacancies Hit 18.7 Million on Bank Seizures
More than 18.7 million homes stood empty in the U.S. during the second quarter as the steepest recession in 50 years sapped demand for real estate and banks seized properties from delinquent borrowers. The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, was little changed from 18.6 million a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The quarterly homeownership rate was 67.3 percent, seasonally adjusted.
More than 14 percent of homes were vacant in the period, the Census said. Home values dropped 33 percent since 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index, and the unemployment rate in June rose to the highest in almost 26 years. Tumbling home prices and rising job losses have thwarted government efforts to reverse the housing decline at the heart of the longest U.S. recession since the 1930s. “Job insecurity, together with declines in home values and tight credit, is likely to limit gains in consumer spending,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanketold the House of Representative’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on July 21.
The percentage of all U.S. homes empty and for sale, known as the vacancy rate, fell to 2.5 percent in the quarter. It hit a high of 2.9 percent in the first and fourth quarters of 2008, the Census Bureau said. The vacancy rate fell slightly as the number of homes on the market declined because they were sold or because their owners gave up trying to market them. The inventory of homes on the market averaged 3.8 million in each of 2009’s first six months, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Last year, the monthly average was 4.2 million. The vacancy rate was the lowest in the U.S. northeast region, at 2 percent, and the highest in the south, at 2.7 percent, according to the report.
There were 130.8 million homes in the U.S. in the second quarter, the Census Bureau said. In addition to the 1.9 million empty properties for sale, the report counted 4.4 million vacant homes for rent and 4.6 million seasonal properties that are only used for part of the year. Foreclosures are included in a part of the report that includes vacation homes intended for year-round use and homes that are unoccupied because they are under renovation or tied up in legal proceedings. There were 7.8 million such properties empty in the second quarter, up from 7.7 million a year earlier, the report said. Foreclosures could also be counted as vacant homes for sale or rent, or as owner-occupied properties if lenders have not yet evicted previous owners, the federal agency said.
Companies have shed about 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, cutting demand for homes and eroding the consumer spending that makes up about 70 percent of the world’s largest economy.
One in every eight U.S. households with a mortgage is now late on their payments or already in foreclosure, according to Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association. The U.S. delinquency rate rose to a seasonally adjusted 9.12 percent in the first quarter and the share of loans entering the foreclosure process rose to 1.37 percent, the bankers’ group said in a May 28 report. The total inventory of homes in foreclosure, old and new, was 3.85 percent. All three figures were the highest in records going back to 1972.
U.S. foreclosure filings -- notices of default, auction or bank seizure -- rose to a record in 2009’s first half, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data. More than 1.5 million properties, one in every 84 U.S. households, received a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said in a July 16 report. That was a 15 percent increase from a year earlier. U.S. banks in the first quarter held $29.7 billion of property acquired through foreclosure, including repossessed homes and condominium projects gone bust, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Washington. That’s almost double the $15.7 billion of property a year earlier.
Fannie & Freddie: The most expensive bailout
The first big government bailout of the financial crisis -- the takeover of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- is poised to be the most expensive and complicated to complete.
Since Congress essentially wrote a blank check to the Treasury Department in July 2008 to do what needed to be done to inject capital into the two firms, Fannie (FNM, Fortune 500) has received $34.2 billion of direct government support while Freddie has received $51.7 billion.
While that's lower than the $117.5 billion poured into insurer AIG by the Federal Reserve and the $200 billion given to the nation's largest banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, the current cost of the Fannie and Freddie bailouts dwarfs original estimates from a year ago When Congress was debating the bailout of Fannie and Freddie last July, the official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office was that a bailout would most likely cost taxpayers $25 billion, with only a 5% chance of the price tag reaching $100 billion between them.
In addition, both Fannie and Freddie are likely to need billions of dollars more after they report second quarter results in the coming weeks. Experts believe the cost will only continue to rise in the next year.
"We're assuming they each will cross the $100 billion mark fairly soon. They could be hitting the $200 billion barrier by the end of next year," said Bose George, mortgage analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment bank specializing in financial services firms. The direct government aid has helped keep the two troubled firms solvent. The amount of any additional aid will be determined by their ongoing losses and reserves for future losses on the trillions of dollars in mortgage loans they own or guarantee.
Fannie and Freddie were originally created to help ensure that financing for homes would be available and affordable to more consumers. The two firms buy mortgages from banks and other lenders and bundle them together into securities. They then either hold those securities or sell them to them to investors with a guarantee that they will be paid the money owed by homeowners. But as more homeowners continue to default on mortgages, the two firms will likely book additional losses well into next year.
Neither firm has given an estimate as to how high losses will reach. But the original limit of $100 billion in losses set in place when the government put Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship, essentially a form of bankruptcy, last September was quickly raised early this year to $200 billion each because of concerns about looming losses. In return for pumping taxpayer dollars into the two firms, Treasury received preferred stock, which is designed to give the government a healthy 10% to 12% dividend. But few expect that Fannie or Freddie will be able to pay that dividend, let alone return the money handed to the firms to cover their losses..
Even James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government body that has overseen the two firms since they were placed into conservatorship, said it will be a challenge for Fannie and Freddie to make their scheduled payments. "Obviously the 10% dividend is a high rate," he said, but added that this is probably below what private market investors would demand to own preferred shares in the two companies.
Lockhart also agrees with experts who believe that the government will eventually have to write down at least a portion of the money that has been sunk into Fannie and Freddie. He would not estimate how much, saying it will depend upon housing prices in the future. But Lockhart maintained that the loss of taxpayer money is worth it in the long run because Fannie and Freddie have continued to be vital parts of the housing market during the credit crunch.
"They really have been the backbone of the housing market throughout this period," he said. "The money spent, we can at least say has gone to a good cause -- keeping the housing market much more stable than it would have been [without the bailout]." And it's precisely for this reason that experts think the ultimate bailout cost will climb much higher. The money allocated for Fannie and Freddie is being used not to simply return the firms to profitability, but to try and fix the broader housing market's problems.
Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have used government control of Fannie and Freddie to implement various policies to try to address rising home foreclosures and falling prices. The firms are a key part of the Obama administration's efforts to refinance mortgages of at-risk home owners, in some cases making loans for up to 125% of the home's current market value. "The way to think of the cost is not as a loan," said Phillip Swagel, a professor at Georgetown's business school who was the assistant secretary for economic policy in the final months of the Bush administration. "It's really a way of spending taxpayer money for policy purposes."
In contrast, other companies receiving federal bailout dollars, such as automakers General Motors and Chrysler, money-losing banks and AIG, were given the charge by Treasury Department officials to stem their financial bleeding so they could eventually be returned to full ownership by the private markets. But unlike the rapid six week bankruptcy process at GM and Chrysler, the conservatorships at Fannie and Freddie won't be coming to a conclusion any time soon. Even as it laid out its plans to reform the nation's financial regulatory system last month, the Obama administration said it would not put forward a permanent plan to fix the mortgage finance firms until February 2010.
After that, it's uncertain how long it will take to get the necessary approval from Congress for any changes to the current structure of Fannie and Freddie. There is a case for maintaining the status quo since Congress and the Obama administration have been able to use the two firms to deal with broader problems in the housing market. What's clear is that there will continue to be a need for companies like Fannie and Freddie to keep mortgage costs relatively affordable by packaging loans into securities, placing a guarantee on them, and selling them to investors.
Some experts believe that this business can become very profitable again, especially if Fannie and Freddie maintain tight underwriting standards from now on. Fannie and Freddie "may own the securitization game for the next decade," said Jaret Seiberg, analyst with Concept Capital's Washington Research Group. "They'll have a duopoly, a smaller portfolio and a profitable business model."
But before any of that happens, taxpayers will likely take an even bigger hit on the Fannie and Freddie bailouts first.
Six More Banks Fail Bringing Year’s Total To 64
State regulators shut down 6 subsidiaries of the Security Bank Corporation based out of Macon, Georgia Friday, bringing the total number of banks to fail in the U.S. to 64 in 2009. 16 banks have failed so far in Georgia ; more than in any other single state. To protect the depositors, the FDIC said it entered into a purchase agreement with State Bank and Trust Company of Pinehurst, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of the six bank subsidiaries of Security Bank Corporation. State Bank and Trust Company received a $300 million capital infusion from a group of 26 investors, led by Joseph Evans, notes the FDIC.
The six banks had as of March 31, a total of 20 branches and $2.8 billion in combined assets. Total deposits were approximately $2.4 billion. Six of the banks involved in today’s transaction, which will reopen Saturday as branches of State Bank and Trust Company, are:
- Security Bank of Bibb County, Macon, GA, with $1.2 billion in total assets and $1 billion in deposits.
- Security Bank of Houston County, Perry, GA, with $383 million in assets and $320 million in deposits.
- Security Bank of Jones County, Gray, GA, with $453 million in assets and $387 million in deposits.
- Security Bank of Gwinnett County, Suwanee, GA, with $322 million in assets and $292 million in deposits.
- Security Bank of North Metro, Woodstock, GA, with $224 million in assets and $212 million in deposits.
- Security Bank of North Fulton, Alpharetta, GA, with $209 million in assets and $191 million in deposits.
The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $807 million.The last FDIC-insured institution to be closed in the state was First Piedmont Bank, Winder, on July 17, 2009.
Guaranty Financial, No.2 Texas bank, says may fail
Guaranty Financial Group Inc, the second-largest publicly traded bank in Texas, said it will probably fail after loan losses and writedowns left it "critically" short of capital. The bank, whose investors include Carl Icahn and Robert Rowling, is in talks with at least one investor group for a possible recapitalization, said a source familiar with the situation. The source requested anonymity because the talks are not public.
"The company believes that it is probable that it will not be able to continue as a going concern," Guaranty said in a regulatory filing. The Austin-based lender has about $16 billion of assets and more than 150 branches in Texas and California, according to its website. On that basis, if it were to fail, Guaranty would be the largest U.S. bank to collapse in 2009. Guaranty is about half the size of IndyMac Bancorp Inc, which failed last July.
Its largest investors include companies run by billionaire Carl Icahn and by Rowling, whose investment firm owns the Omni Hotels chain. In a regulatory filing late on Thursday, Guaranty said it has been unable to obtain new capital from shareholders, and believes it will be ineligible for help from U.S. regulators. Guaranty said it does not expect to raise enough capital to comply with an April cease-and-desist order from the federal Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). It said losses and writedowns have left it "critically undercapitalized," with negative capital ratios.
Guaranty also said it has agreed to an OTS demand for the appointment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp as a receiver or conservator. That appointment has not yet happened, but the OTS is exercising "a significant degree of control" over what had been functions of the board of directors, Guaranty said. The company has not filed official results since the third quarter of 2008. It has estimated it lost $444 million in all of 2008 and another $256 million in the first quarter of 2009.
Chief Marketing Officer John Wessman said in a statement that Guaranty is still working with regulators, and believes it can avoid disruptions to customers. Guaranty's largest investors include Rowling's investment firm TRT Holdings Inc, which has a 19.9 percent stake according to a regulatory filing. A company run by Icahn has a 17 percent stake, Reuters data shows.
Icahn and Rowling did not immediately return calls for comment.
Guaranty began operations in 1988, according to its website. It was spun off in December 2007 by Temple-Inland Inc, a corrugated packaging and building products company.
The largest publicly traded bank based in Texas is Dallas-based Comerica Inc. Guaranty shares closed down 7 cents, or 32 percent, at 15 cents on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Their 52-week high is $6.75, set last September 18.
Detroit mayor: It's time for the city to face reality
Labor concessions, big cuts in services needed
Detroit is in danger of running out of cash if the city doesn’t take steps to eliminate a $20-million to $25-million budget shortfall before Oct. 1, Mayor Dave Bing told the Free Press on Thursday. After spending most of his first two months in office poring over Detroit’s financial books and organizational structure, Bing said the city is so deeply in the red that the following measures must be taken to avoid bankruptcy:
- The consolidation and elimination of some city departments.
- A reduction in nonessential city services.
- Concessions by city employees, including job losses in some cases.
- The hiring of an outside emergency collection agency to help recoup some of the debt owed to the city.
“We’ve got a cash-flow problem in the second quarter,” Bing said, referring to the autumn period of the city’s budget cycle. He told Free Press editors and reporters in an exclusive interview: “The city could actually run out of cash if we do nothing, and I’m not going to sit back and do nothing.” Bing said the city cannot afford to continue operating the way it has for generations, nor can it afford to keep all of its 13,000 employees.
Detroit's financial picture is grim, but Bing says a complete overhaul of city government by 2010 could help the city avoid the appointment of an emergency financial manager or the filing of municipal bankruptcy. Bing said Thursday there are no more creative moves to make -- those budgetary tricks were all tapped by previous administrations -- and the city is up against a wall financially. The only answer, he said, is to change how the city functions. The time frame is pressing -- Bing said the city could run out of money by the start of the second quarter, Oct. 1 -- if a $20-million to $25-million hole is not plugged.
"There's a reality that we all have to live with, and the reality of the City of Detroit is that we are broke and we are in a financial crisis," Bing told the Free Press on Thursday. To start, he said, these are his priorities:
- Bing said city workers must accept some concessions and end contract negotiations within the next 30 days. "Every day that we go forward without understanding what our labor costs are is a missed opportunity. ... There are financial consequences for the city," he said.
- Reach out to Lansing legislators for ideas and help in tackling the city's accumulated debt, especially as it relates to revenue sharing.
- Determine which city services can be cut or eliminated. Bing said he has some ideas, but he couldn't be more specific because of the ongoing labor negotiations. "There are going to be services we can't provide anymore -- we can't afford it," he said.
- Partner with the City Council to identify outstanding debts owed to the city and possibly hire an emergency collection agency to gather that cash quickly.
- Begin weeding out the 10% of city employees he estimates aren't producing as they should, while maintaining as many jobs as the city can afford.
- Study the suggestions from his crisis management turnaround team -- attorneys steeped in labor law, accountants and business and technology professionals who are scheduled to deliver their assessment by mid-August -- and implement changes where appropriate.
"The system has been broken, and it's not going to be easy to fix, but it can be fixed over time," Bing said. The mayor said this year's budget is padded with soft or unrealistic revenue, including money from plans to sell the rights to the profit generated by the city's parking system, lighting system and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. He said the short-term goal is to manage through the current deficit, while planning for the three to five years it will take to eliminate the city's debt.
John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207, which represents water and sewer employees, said Bing's plans to consolidate or eliminate city departments is "just a way to mess with the unions," and he's certain city residents won't tolerate having more city services cut. "It's not our role to give any more concessions -- we've heard the same crying for 30 years that they don't have money for us," Riehl said. "He needs to find another way to solve the budget problem."
Bing, who spoke with editors and writers at the Free Press, said he has been at a disadvantage since taking office in May because a budget already had been approved, and he didn't want to use the resources it would take to revamp it. The city's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. He said once he became immersed in the budget, his comfort zone wavered, and he recognized how much of it was based on pie-in-the-sky revenue. Bing said the overall deficit could balloon to $400 million -- he estimates it to be about $275 million to $300 million now -- if swift changes are not made. He also acknowledges that he won't be the most popular mayor to inhabit the 11th floor of City Hall, but he is working to improve the lives of Detroiters.
"There's no easy way to say this ... there are going to be a lot of unhappy people with the decisions I make," he said. Clyde Walker, a retired General Motors Co. worker who lives on the city's west side, said Bing deserves a chance to utilize his business background and map out a new beginning for Detroit. Past practice hasn't worked, he said, and voters spoke at the polls about their desire for a new approach. "He's only been in office two months -- those problems didn't build up overnight, and they won't go away overnight," said Walker, 68. "Everybody is going to have to take a cut. If you want a better city, everybody has to pitch in and do their share."
Bing said he views municipal bankruptcy -- Chapter 9 -- as a last option. Chapter 9 allows a financially distressed municipality protection from its creditors while it develops and negotiates a plan for adjusting its debts while being protected from a forced liquidation of assets. Often a muncipality can reduce the outstanding debt or interest rate by extending the term of a loan or refinancing debts. "Right now, I'm still pretty competitive," Bing said. "I don't want to get into this situation and fail. We're going to get the job done."
California Pension Fund Hopes Riskier Bets Will Restore Its Health
Big as California’s budget woes are today, so are the problems lurking in its biggest pension fund. The fund, known as Calpers, lost nearly $60 billion in the financial markets last year. Though it has more than enough money to make its payments to retirees for many years, it has a serious long-term shortfall. Meanwhile, local governments in the state are pleading poverty and saying they cannot make the contributions that would be needed to shore it up.
Those problems now rest largely on the slim shoulders of Joseph A. Dear, the fund’s new head of investments. He is not an investment seer by training, but he thinks he has the cure for what ails Calpers, or the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest in the nation with $180 billion in assets. Mr. Dear wants to embrace some potentially high-risk investments in hopes of higher returns. He aims to pour billions more into beaten-down private equity and hedge funds. Junk bonds and California real estate also ride high on his list. And then there are timber, commodities and infrastructure.
That’s right, he wants to load up on many of the very assets that have been responsible for the fund’s recent plunge. Calpers’s real estate portfolio has tumbled 35 percent, and its private equity holdings are down 31 percent. What is more, under Mr. Dear’s predecessor, Calpers had to sell stocks in a falling market last year to fulfill calls for cash from its private equity and real estate partnerships. That led to bigger losses in its stock portfolio. Mr. Dear remains a believer. Private investments, he asserts, will over the long haul outperform stocks by three percentage points a year, and that is necessary to keep Calpers on track to returning its goal of 7.75 percent annual returns.
“Three percent on a portfolio as large as ours makes a material difference,” he said. If he can inch Calpers’s investment performance up, many problems will disappear. If not, Calpers may end up in an even bigger financial squeeze than it is today. The scope of his task elicits sympathy from one of Calpers’s harshest critics, Marcia Fritz, a Sacramento lawyer and vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which has led a loud campaign over the rich benefits received by some Calpers retirees.
“Joe Dear has got a tough job,” Ms. Fritz said. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. There’s so much pressure. It’s horrible.” A somewhat unorthodox choice for the job, Mr. Dear sounds a little like Captain Kirk surveying the Starship Enterprise when he explains why he leaped at the opportunity earlier this year: “Calpers is the flagship command of the public pension fund world.” He was hired in large part for his management skills and political savvy — honed in Washington, where headed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Clinton years. He does not have an M.B.A. or any other advanced degree in finance. Harvard, Yale or Wharton is not on his résumé. Instead, his lone degree, in political economy, is from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.
Most recently, Mr. Dear headed the Washington State public pension fund, which gained a reputation as a daring investor under his oversight. It risked more of its portfolio — 25 percent — on private equity than any other public fund. The bet pushed the Washington State Investment Board, which now has $67 billion in assets, into the top 1 percent of its peer group in performance during the boom years, according to Wilshire Associates. But in the fiscal year that ended last month, the fund lost 27 percent of its value, or $18 billion.
Calpers has a lot riding on Mr. Dear’s effort to achieve above-market performance. The fund just posted a loss of 23 percent, the worst in its history. That leaves it 66 percent funded, the lowest level in two decades, meaning it has only $66 on hand for every $100 in benefits promised to 1.6 million California public employees and their families. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is on the Calpers board, has called the fund “unsustainable.” He has specifically criticized a decision by Calpers last month to give California municipalities a break on their required contributions. Rather than stepping up contribution rates to 5 percent to cover investment losses, Calpers set a maximum increase of 1.1 percent — saving municipalities hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr. Schwarzenegger called it a “pass the buck to our kids idea.” Calpers says municipalities, which pay 15 percent of their payroll — or about $11 billion a year — into the fund, needed the help.
Steering through the political cross currents would seem to be one of Mr. Dear’s strengths. “My career sort of culminates in this job, where this combination of investment and political management and organization management come together because that’s what Calpers needs,” he said in his expansive corner office decorated with a photo of himself and Bono. (Bono was a general partner in an equity fund in which the Washington State fund invested.)
“The fun part is the investment part,” Mr. Dear added, speaking in fast, yet measured tones. “The necessary part is the organization, the management and the work in the political environment. The common element in my career is that I’m extremely focused on improving the performance of the organizations I work for.” Mr. Dear, 57, is also chairman of the Council of Institutional Investors, a Washington nonprofit group that promotes shareholder activism — an effort close to the heart of the Calpers’s board and one reason he was hired.
“The board felt that we had extremely good depth on the investment staff,” said George Diehr, chairman of the board’s investment committee. “We were looking for someone to knock down silos and get various asset managers talking to each other. We felt Joe would have those skills. He’s well known in the public pension field, and he’s a strong advocate for corporate governance.” In the end, Mr. Dear, who will get $408,000 to $612,000 in salary and can qualify for a performance bonus of up to 75 percent of that salary, will be judged by portfolio returns.
Already, Calpers has raised its target for private equity and related investments by 40 percent to about 14 percent of the total portfolio. To cover any calls by private equity firms for additional money, the fund has also raised its target for cash on hand to 2 percent of assets. It is ratcheting back on public domestic stocks, which account for less than 25 percent of the portfolio, while another 25 percent of the portfolio is in international equities.
Critics say that Mr. Dear and Calpers — which has a staff of 200 investment professionals — are taking on too much risk. “Calpers is significantly underfunded, and they have decided that they will roll the dice,” said Edward A. H. Siedle, president of Benchmark Financial Services, which audits pension plans. “Is that appropriate if you have just lost 25 percent of your portfolio? These are high-risk, illiquid, unregistered products where there is tremendous valuation uncertainty. I would bet you any amount that five years from now, this plan will not have outperformed the market.”
Mr. Dear says he can improve performance in other ways as well. He has pressed the private equity and hedge funds in Calpers’s portfolio to reduce their fees, provide more transparency and segregate Calpers’s money from that of other investors. While not ready to announce any agreements, Mr. Dear said he was making “good progress.” Last week, he testified before Congress that private equity and hedge funds should register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and be subject to the agency’s oversight.
On the activist front, Calpers has voted against management in a number of recent proxy battles, including management of Bank of America. And Mr. Dear or his staff meet regularly with members of Congress and the Obama administration. Saying he spends a third of his time as investment chief, a third on board matters and a third on outside issues, Mr. Dear remains passionate that this is the moment when shareholders can prevail. As he sees it, “You have public awareness, outrage over the consequences of a failed regulatory system and an administration and Congress prepared to respond.”
UK GDP shrinks at fastest rate for 60 years
Britain’s economy contracted in the second quarter, marking a full year of decline sharper than any since the 1930s barring that of second world war and its aftermath. Economic output fell by 0.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to June, after a 2.4 per cent decline in the first quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics’ “flash” first estimate of gross domestic product on Friday. Although the economy is contracting at a much slower pace than earlier this year, the decline was far sharper than the average 0.3 per cent forecast by economists in a Thomson Reuters poll, and worse than even the most gloomy estimate in that survey.
The contraction, which is the fifth consecutive quarterly decline in UK output, prompted economists to speculate that the Bank of England may expand its bond buying programme of quantitative easing. “The provisional UK GDP figures for Q2 are shockingly bad and firmly dash any hopes that the UK had already pulled out of recession,” said Vicky Redwood, economist at Capital Economics. The latest official data seemed to cast doubt on the widely followed CIPS/Markit surveys of purchasing managers, which have been decidedly upbeat in recent months, Ms Redwood said.
Mike Saunders at Citigroup said that year-on-year the UK has just experienced the sharpest economic contraction in any year since the 1930s except for that seen during world war two and the wind down of the war economy.
Colin Ellis, economist at Daiwa Securities, noted that the economy has now shrunk by 5.7 per cent from peak to trough. “Ignoring the spike in GDP in the second quarter of 1979 that distorts the true peak in activity, this is the largest peak-to-trough fall since the current data series started in 1955,” Mr Ellis said. “But the bottom line was that today’s number is pretty dire, and a sharp wake-up call for anyone who had already been dreaming of recovery.”
Within broader GDP, the output of production industries declined by 0.7 per cent from their first quarter level, which itself was 5.1 per cent down on the last three months of 2008. Sterling fell by a cent against the dollar and euro following the release of the unexpectedly bad growth data. The weak data prompted economists on Friday to speculate that the Bank’s monetary policy committee would consider at its next meeting in August whether it should expand the quantitative easing programme of security purchases to the full £150bn allocated to it, and may even seek authorisation to expand purchases beyond that level.
Economists said that the main surprise in the data was the decline in services output, which fell by 0.6 per cent. The second quarter decline follows a 1.6 per cent drop in services output in the first quarter. Within that sector, business services and finance contributed most to the decline, falling 0.7 per cent, the ONS said. The drop in output in the service sector was underlined by the monthly index of services which was also released by the ONS on Friday. It showed output declined by 0.2 per cent in May compared to the previous month and by 1 per cent and in the three months to May, compared to the three months to April.
In the growth figures distribution, hotels and restaurants fell by 0.5 per cent after contracting by 1.5 per cent in the first quarter. Within that, wholesale and motor trades contributed most to the decline. Indeed, the weakness of the motor industry was reflected in new data out Friday morning from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showing that production of cars fell by 30.2 per cent from its year ago level. Production of commercial vehicles – a component of business investment – showed a much sharper contraction, with production down by 60.4 per cent in June.
British Economy Shrinks Much More Than Expected
The economy shrank more than twice as fast as expected in the second quarter of 2009 to register its biggest annual decline on record, dashing hopes of a speedy recovery from the worst recession in nearly 30 years. GDP fell 0.8 percent in the three months to June and by 5.6 percent lower on the year, the steepest yearly fall since similar records began in 1955, official data showed on Friday as Britain became the first major country to report Q2 data.
The annual decline was significantly worse than that forecast by the Bank of England in May. Its central forecast was for a year-on-year decline of 4.64 percent. "These are awful, awful numbers," said Ross Walker, UK economist at RBS Financial Markets. "It casts doubt on whether we will actually see growth in Q3." Many analysts had been confident of a return to growth later this year and sterling fell more than half a cent and gilt prices rose as investors bet the recovery could take longer and the Bank of England might add more stimulus to the economy.
"We would still tend to the view that the economy will expand in the second half of the year but these figures introduce some uncertainty to that outlook," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec. The UK economy has now shrunk for five consecutive quarters with a cumulative decline of 5.7 percent -- more than double the drop seen in the early 1990s recession and not far off the 6 percent contraction experienced in early 1980s.
Analysts said government forecasts of the economy shrinking by around 3.5 percent this year -- which would be the worst outturn since the Second World War -- were looking very optimistic, putting more pressure on strained public finances. "For this to now happen would require a remarkable bounce back in the second half of the year with growth of around 1.5 percent in each of the remaining two quarters," said Richard Snook, senior economist at the Centre of Economic and Business Research.
Treasury minister Liam Byrne said that at least the figures showed the pace of decline was easing -- GDP shrank by 2.4 percent in the first quarter -- and that he was "cautious but confident that growth will return towards the end of the year."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown desperately needs an economic turnaround before an election expected in May 2010 as his Labour Party is languishing in the polls. The opposition Conservatives won a parliamentary seat in eastern England from Labour on Friday, with their candidate securing a big majority. Analysts warned that even if the economy starts to grow again, it may be a while before it picks up any real momentum and hundreds of thousands jobs could still disappear as more and more companies struggle to make ends meet.
A breakdown of the figures showed business services and finances, a sector that has boomed for much of the last decade, accounted for more than a quarter of the Q2 GDP decline. "Recent hopes of recovery have run ahead of reality. With credit still severely restricted, consumers and businesses continuing to retrench and world trade yet to pick up, it is hard to see any grounds for sustained optimism," said Hetal Mehta, senior economic adviser to Ernst and Young.
The Bank of England has already cut interest rates to a record low of 0.5 percent and has pumped close to 125 billion pounds of new money into the economy in order to pull the country out of recession and get lending going again. Policymakers will now debate next month whether even more stimulus is needed. The jury remains out on whether the BoE will choose to expand the scope of its asset-buying programme of mostly gilts when the 125 billion pounds total is completed. "It is still likely to be a long hard slog to get the economy back on track. Accordingly, we think that that it is premature to conclude that the Bank's quantitative easing programme has already come to an end," said Vicky Redwood, UK economist at Capital Economics.
EU youths hit worst by lack of work
Europe’s youth are bearing the brunt of unemployment created by the economic crisis, according to official data on Thursday that highlighted the risk of the recession leaving a permanent scar on the continent’s younger generation. Joblessness in the European Union has been rising since early last year. But the unemployment rate among 15 to 24-year-olds has been increasing at “a much higher pace” than overall unemployment, according to a study by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.
The largest increases were in the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, which have been particularly badly hit by the global economic turmoil. But Spain still has the highest youth unemployment rate – with more than a third of the labour force aged 24 or under without work. The latest figures will alarm policymakers as European youth unemployment rates were high even before the economic crisis. They suggested improvements in labour market flexibility in the past decade were at the expense of newer entrants into the workplace – and that companies have reacted to the severe economic downturn by stopping recruitment and ending short-term contracts, rather than dismissing existing staff.
In a report this week, Germany’s DGB trade union association warned that job prospects for young workers, as well as for the oldest employees, would deteriorate further. “The number of training places has fallen during the crisis and those who have finished their education are being taken on less often,” it warned. Lengthening jobless queues “started with the periphery, people fresh out of university or with short-term contracts”. But the main bulk of the labour force is still OK,” said Gilles Moec, European economist at Deutsche Bank.
Such trends explained why consumer spending had remained relatively robust in continental Europe, Mr Moec argued. The risk was that persistent economic weakness would eventually result in large-scale job losses.\ EU youth unemployment as a share of the labour force rose 3.7 percentage points to 18.3 per cent between the first quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year, according to the Eurostat analysis. Over the same period, the total unemployment rate rose by just 1.5 percentage points. In the 16-country eurozone, the youth unemployment rate hit 18.4 per cent in the first quarter, the highest shortly after the launch of the euro in 1999. Youth unemployment was lowest in the Netherlands, at 6 per cent, but was also relatively modest in Germany at 10.5 per cent, little higher than the 10.2 per cent record a year earlier.
Geithner, Bernanke at odds on consumer protection
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke staked out opposing sides Friday in a turf war over who should protect Americans from shady mortgage lending, abusive credit card fees, payday loans and other high-cost or risky financial products. The White House wants to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee a vast range of financial products, stripping the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators of their current authority for policing them.
"I think it's very hard to look at that system and say that it did anything close to an adequate job of what it was designed to do," Geithner told the House Financial Services Committee. He cited the collapse of the housing and credit markets because of high-risk subprime mortgages made to borrowers who didn't understand and couldn't afford them. Bernanke, appearing before the same committee after Geithner, argued that the Fed should retain its consumer protection powers regarding consumer products. "Without extensively entering the debate," Bernanke said, Congress should be aware of "some of the benefits that would be lost through this change," including the Fed's consolidated resources for also ensuring the safety and soundness of banks.
Geithner brushed aside the Fed chairman's concerns as part of a typical Washington turf battle. "With great respect to the chairman and other supervisors who are reluctant to do this, they are doing what they should, which is defend the traditional prerogatives of their agencies," Geithner said. "I think frankly all arguments should be viewed through that prism." While that's understandable, Congress has to intervene, Geithner added. "Inherent in your job is to think about how to make those choices," he said.
Other regulators testifying with Bernanke said they, too, had concerns about the administration's plan. Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, suggested that the new agency be allowed to write rules that protect consumers, but that existing regulators be tasked with enforcing them. When asked by Rep. Carolyn Maloney whether such an arrangement would work, Geithner said no, because enforcement would remain uncoordinated across the government.
The House committee's chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd both support the plan to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. But the effort has slowed amid opposition from bankers and other financial industry leaders, as well as the regulators, Republicans and some Democrats. Frank has delayed a vote on the measure until after the August recess, but maintains he has the votes to pass it.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling and other Republicans on the panel said Friday they thought it was foolish to give unelected bureaucrats the authority to determine what financial products are fair.
"They will be empowered to decide which credit cards we can receive, which home mortgages we are permitted to possess, and even whether we can access an ATM machine," Hensarling said. House Republicans have offered an alternative that would strip the Fed of its regulatory role and abolish the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. In their place would be a single regulator for depository institutions, which would include an office focused on consumer protections. Unlike the administration's plan, the Republican-envisioned regulator would have no authority over nonbank institutions, such as mortgage brokers.
Obama's plan taps the Fed to be the regulator of huge, globally interconnected financial companies whose collapse could endanger the entire U.S. financial system and the broader economy. Bernanke said Friday that at a "very rough guess" about 25 companies would currently be deemed too big to fail under the Obama proposal. Virtually all of those firms are organized as bank holding companies, which means that they are subject to regulation by the Fed, Bernanke said. Given that, Bernanke said he doesn't envision the Fed's oversight extending to any "significant number of additional firms." Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are leery of giving the Fed additional powers, blaming what they say was its lack of regulatory oversight of banks and risky mortgages for leading to the current financial crisis.
We Now Have A Total Gangster Government
FDIC’s Bair Seeks Fund to Wind Down Finance Firms
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair urged U.S. lawmakers to impose fees on the nation’s largest financial firms to keep the government from having to prop up companies deemed too large to fail. Congress should create an industry-supported Financial Company Resolution Fund to provide working capital and cover unanticipated losses when government steps in to unwind a failed firm, Bair said today in testimony at the Senate Banking Committee.
The U.S. should impose “assessments on large or complex institutions that recognize their potential risks to the financial system,” Bair said. “This system also could provide an economic incentive for an institution not to grow too large.” Bair’s proposal is aimed at preventing the government from having to bail out or arrange an acquisition for a firm whose failure would disrupt the financial system. In the past two years, the U.S. has rescued, taken over or helped sell Bear Stearns Cos., Merrill Lynch & Co., American International Group Inc., IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Bair said the proposed reserve would be similar to the FDIC deposit insurance fund, which backs consumer accounts at U.S. banks that pay fees to support the fund. “In a properly functioning market economy there will be winners and losers, and when firms -- through their own mismanagement and excessive risk taking -- are no longer viable, they should fail,” Bair said. She urged creating a mechanism to wind down “large, systemically important financial firms” with no cost to taxpayers similar to the system in place at the FDIC for shutting failed commercial banks and thrifts.
“Without a new comprehensive resolution regime, we will be forced to repeat the costly, ad hoc responses of the last year,” Bair said. Bair joined Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo in discussing an Obama administration proposal to give the Federal Reserve authority over firms that pose a systemic risk to the economy. Schapiro said a council of agencies with the Treasury Department, the SEC and the FDIC should oversee “systemically important institutions.” Bair endorsed the idea. The council should “prevent the creation” of companies deemed too large to fail, rather than just regulating such companies, Schapiro said. It should have authority to identify firms it deems systemically risky, Schapiro said.
“Insufficient attention has been paid to the risks posed by institutions whose businesses are so large and diverse that they have become, for all intents and purposes, unmanageable,” Schapiro said. Tarullo said giving the Fed the authority “would be an incremental and natural extension” of the central bank’s current role. “I hope people are not expecting that anything that the Fed, the SEC, the FDIC or anybody else does is going to eliminate all potential for systemic risk,” Tarullo said. Senators Christopher Dodd and Richard Shelby, leaders of the banking panel, opposed giving the Fed new powers.
“The Fed hasn’t done a perfect job with the responsibilities it already has,” said Dodd, the chairman and a Connecticut Democrat. “This new authority could compromise the independence the Fed needs to carry out effective monetary policy.” Shelby, the panel’s leading Republican, said the power would make the Fed “a regulator giant of unprecedented size and scope,” and Congress “should consider every possible alternative to the Fed as the systemic-risk regulator.”
Geithner Calls for Financial-Rules Revamp to Be Passed This Year
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, hoping to refocus the public's attention and prod the scattered attention of Congress, on Friday called on lawmakers to complete a revamp of the financial regulatory system by the end of the year. But while Mr. Geithner claimed a national mandate to quickly make changes to an "outdated and ineffective" regulatory system, the vicious ongoing turf war between the regulators that will make up the new oversight structure made clear that policy makers face an uphill climb to enact substantive legislation this year.
Mr. Geithner, appearing before the House Financial Services Committee, said that there should be "no disagreement on the need to act" to address the myriad of problems laid bare by the financial crisis. Lax oversight of financial firms, weak and rarely enforced consumer protections, and firms considered "too big to fail" shouldn't be the norm, he said.
"We cannot afford a situation where we leave in place vulnerabilities that will sow the seeds for future crises," Mr. Geithner said in prepared remarks before the panel. The alphabet soup of federal financial regulators is generally in agreement with that position, as evidenced by strong statements Friday by the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in favor of the outlines of the Obama administration's plan.
But with significant power at stake and the regulatory kitty still to be officially divvied up, the various agencies testifying Friday aggressively staked out positions that would at turns expand on or erode the Obama administration's attempts to rein in what Mr. Geithner called the "dangers of market-driven excess." Even something as seemingly simple as the name of the agency that will oversee U.S. banks is up for debate.
"We see no reason for the government to incur the cost of changing the 146-year-old name of the agency as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency," OCC Director John Dugan said in his prepared remarks. The Obama administration's proposal calls for a merger of the OCC and the Office of Thrift Supervision, creating a new "National Bank Supervisor." But even such a merger should still be an open question, OTS Acting Director John Bowman said. "The OTS did not regulate the largest banks that failed; the OTS regulated the largest banks that were allowed to fail," Mr. Bowman said in his remarks.
The key division between the Obama administration and the federal regulators is over the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency with broad authority to write and enforce rules dealing with financial products used by consumers. Mr. Geithner and other top administration officials have made the agency a centerpiece of their regulatory agenda, but the regulators present Friday uniformly sought to limit the scope of the potential agency.
"Without extensively entering the debate on the relative merits of this proposal, I do think it important to point out some of the benefits that would be lost through this change," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in his testimony of the proposal to transfer rule-making authority away from the Fed to the new agency. The new consumer agency has already come under attack from business and financial lobbying groups, but Friday's testimony showed that regulators are also wary of the proposed changes.
Mr. Dugan said he has "serious concerns" about the agency because the administration's plan wouldn't allow the federal banking regulators to offer "meaningful input" into new consumer rules. "A stronger role for federal banking supervisors is needed in writing the rules in order to provide better protection for consumers...while ensuring safe and sound banking practices," Mr. Dugan said.
FDIC Chair Sheila Bair offered a different take, but also moved away from the administration's proposal. She said the proposed agency should have sole rule-writing authority for consumer financial products, but that federal banking regulators should be called on to examine and enforce those rules. That's a departure from the Obama administration's vision of an agency that both writes and enforces the rules for products such as mortgages and credit cards.
Those objections are unlikely to sit well with Mr. Geithner, who noted that one of the initial causes of the current crisis -- subprime mortgages -- were never dealt with by the same regulators now eager to defend their turf. "It took the federal banking agencies until June 2007 to reach final consensus on supervisory guidance imposing even general standards on subprime mortgages. By then it was too late," Mr. Geithner said.
One area regulators do agree on, and are sensitive to public opinion of, is institutions that are considered "too big to fail." Mr. Bernanke, whose agency would be given oversight authority over systemically important firms under the Obama proposal, said policy makers need to make sure shareholders and creditors don't believe they will be fully protected in the case an individual firm fails.
"It materially weakens the incentive of shareholders and creditors of the firm to restrain the firm's risk-taking," Mr. Bernanke said of firms that investors currently believe the government will bail out in an emergency. Ms. Bair, expressing a similar sentiment, said the "notion of too big to fail creates a vicious cycle that needs to be broken."
What's Good for Goldman is Bad for the Nation
by Bill Bonner
[..]Yesterday came more evidence that the depression is over. The Dow shot up 188 points. From a technical point of view, if you believe that kind of thing, it looks as though the rally has farther to go. We recall setting a target of Dow 10,000. Perhaps we will get there. Oil traded at $67 yesterday. Gold rose to $954 and bond yields on the 10-year T-note rose to 3.7%. All of this sounds vaguely inflationary...and vaguely bullish. Besides, Goldman stock is rising. And as we all know, what's good for Goldman is good for the country.
Wait...we're kidding...right?
Yes, we are kidding. What's good for Goldman is generally bad for the country. Goldman makes money by separating investors from their money. Nothing wrong with that; someone has to do it. But the big banks are most profitable when speculation is rampant and debt is growing. That is, when people are going further and further into debt...and speculating on rising asset prices. We know you don't really prosper by borrowing and gambling. But that doesn't make casinos unpopular, or lenders unlawful. Bankers, like undertakers, benefit from human frailty. At least, they benefit as long as the government bails them out. Otherwise, they fall victim to their own human frailty.
But this is a minority opinion. Most economists disagree with us. And there are so many of them...if all the economists who disagreed with us were laid end-to-end...it would be a good thing. They believe that the economy is stabilizing...and on its way back to normal. Trouble is, 'normal' ain't what it used to be.
Wall Street banks are making money, 'tis true. But they're not financing new businesses...or factories. They're not aiding the process of capital formation nor allocating capital in ways that will result in new jobs and new industries. Instead, they are refinancing old debts...and speculating on zombie assets. This will not increase the real wealth of the planet. Instead, money just changes pockets. Which, of course, raises an interesting question; where did all this money come from? If Goldman's pockets are fatter, whose are thinner? If the four biggest banks earned a combined $11 billion in the last quarter...who did they take the money from? Who's got that kind of money?
Meanwhile, we found out this week that the feds have wagered an amount equal to 170% of GDP in their attempt to bailout the world (more below). Part of that money was used to buy Wall Street out of the investments that they didn't want. Which ones were those? Well, the ones that didn't work out.
No wonder the banks are making money.
But while the banks are making billions, cometh another report from another sector - manufacturing. Caterpillar announced its results for the second quarter too. Profits were down 66%. In other words, while the banks were making money speculating with taxpayer's money, Caterpillar was trying to make things and selling them to customers. Caterpillar not only makes things; it makes things that help other companies make things. Things with motors...big things...things that make noise and give off exhaust...things you use to dig holes and move dirt...things you need if you're going to have a real economic recovery. Unfortunately for CAT, these things aren't selling.
So what does this tell us? Well...it suggests that there is no real economic recovery at all. The real economy is suffering...sinking...and shutting down.
The banks are not earning their money helping Caterpillar expand. They're making their money not because of a recovery, but because there isn't one. In other words, they're profiting from the financial stress of the early stages of a depression. There's a post-crash bounce...and the government is sending a lot of money their way. As for a real recovery - forget it. There's no evidence of it. Unemployment is getting worse. Housing is still going down. Profits are going down. Those aren't the things that presage a recovery...they herald a deeper, darker depression.
The depression darkens because people are not just being laid off - their jobs are disappearing. They do not get called back to work. Instead, they stay unemployed until they run out of unemployment benefits...and then the statisticians in Washington drop them off the unemployment rolls. Currently, the first batch of those people to reach the end of their benefits came this week. Last we looked, the Pennsylvania legislature was passing a law so they could continue drawing benefits for a few weeks more.
We've mentioned John Williams and his excellent service called Shadow Government Statistics. He looks at the numbers and figures out how they are twisted and tortured...and then figures out what they would be if they were treated properly. Currently, the unemployment rate nationwide officially is almost 10%. But if you computed the unemployment numbers the way they did back in the Great Depression, Williams says one in five people are out of work. In some places the figure is as high as one in four.
In other words, the unemployment numbers are already beginning to look like those of the Great Depression. But that's true of almost all the numbers. They've all got a '30s era look to them. And if you stopped water boarding them, they'd tell a similar story. Almost all the indicators are worse than any we've seen since WWII.
Unemployment, trade, defaults, foreclosures, bankruptcies, prices, manufacturing...you name it and you have to go back to the end of WWII to find similar numbers. Of course, at the end of the war, the wartime economy shut down. Millions of people who have been in uniform...or making tanks and airplanes...were suddenly out of work. Economists thought the economy would go right back into the Great Depression. Instead, it boomed.
Those soldiers and their families had savings. They had pent up demand - they hadn't bought a new car in 10 years...they were young...they got married...they had children...they needed baby cribs and houses. We remember going to look at one of the first major suburban developments as a child - Harundale - in Maryland, built by the Levitt Company. It was a horrible place, but you could buy a house for peanuts...on credit. And it set the pace for the suburban consumer credit expansion of the next half a century.
But what was normal for so many years is not normal any more. Now, consumers are paying off debt faster than any time since 1952. The government, however, is making up for them. Goldman may no longer be able to push more credit onto the public; but it can push one heckuva lot of debt onto the public sector. Wall Street firms helped households ruin themselves in the Bubble of 2003-2007. Now they're doing the same for the government, helping the feds raise money on a scale never seen before in human history.
As we said...no wonder they're making money. Too bad.
The Wall Street rally: Watch your wallets
by Robert Reich
The profits aren't real. Keep your eye on the real economy, where unemployment and underemployment keep rising
"Been Down So Long It Seems Like Up To Me," the precocious 1966 novel by the late Richard Farina, defined the late 1960s counterculture. The stock market rally that's pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average back above 9000 for the first time since early January could be given the same title, and it might well come to define the much-wished-for financial recovery.
What's pushing the stock market upward? Mainly, unexpectedly positive second-quarter corporate profits. But those profits aren't being powered by consumers who have suddenly found themselves with a lot more money in their pockets. The profits are coming from dramatic cost-cutting -- including, most notably, payroll cuts. If a firm cuts its costs enough, it can show a profit even if its sales are still in the basement.
The problem here is twofold. First, such profits can't be maintained. There's a limit to how much can be cut without a business eventually disappearing -- becoming, in effect, a balance sheet in space. Secondly, when businesses slash payrolls to show profits, consumers end up with even less money in their pockets to buy the things businesses produce. Even if they hold on to their jobs, they're likely to fear that they won't have the jobs for long, which causes them to retreat even further from the malls.
Most companies that have reported earnings so far have surpassed analyst's estimates, but that only means that earnings have been less bad than analysts had feared. According to the chief investment officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, if the companies that haven't yet reported earnings show the same pattern as the companies that have reported so far, overall corporate earnings will have dropped 25 percent over the past year. That may not be as much of a drop as analysts had expected, but it's still awful. Operating income for companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far has been almost 29 percent lower than last year, more than 80 percent lower than 2007, according to Standard and Poors. Ouch.
"Better-than-expected" is Wall Street's euphemism these days for "we're happier than we thought we'd be." But Wall Street is in the business of cheerleading, even when there's really nothing to cheer about. It wants investors to think positively, on the assumption that positive thinking can be a self-fulfilling prophesy: If investors begin putting more money into the market, then the market will automatically rise, leading more investors to put in more money -- until, that is, the rally ends because nothing has fundamentally changed in the real economy. Keep your eye on the real economy, where unemployment and underemployment keep rising. It's not as much fun as cheering and investing right now, but it's far safer.
Blankfein Deflects 'Backlash' by Paying Loans in Full
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may have gone from public enemy to model citizen in eight days. The most profitable firm on Wall Street paid 98 percent of fair market value to buy back warrants from the U.S. government this week, after BB&T Corp. and U.S. Bancorp paid less than 60 percent, according to University of Louisiana finance professor Linus Wilson. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has disagreed with the price set by the Treasury for the warrants, which the U.S. received when it bailed out the banks last year.
Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein’s decision to hand over the full amount sought by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reflects an effort by Goldman Sachs to defuse the public’s anger at firms that took taxpayer money, said Simon Johnson, a finance professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Goldman Sachs drew criticism from lawmakers last week when the New York-based bank set aside a record $11.4 billion for employee pay.
“They are beginning to realize that there is a broader backlash here,” Johnson said. “The Goldman precedent puts pressure on people to agree with the Treasury’s offer, and it puts pressure on the Treasury to make a reasonable offer” when setting the price for banks to redeem their warrants, he said. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said yesterday on Bloomberg Television that the amounts Goldman Sachs and other banks are funneling into employee pay are “unwise.” Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize- winning economist, faulted Blankfein’s firm in a July 17 column in the New York Times, saying the bank’s pay practices may spur employees to take risks.
Morgan Stanley, the biggest U.S. brokerage, and credit-card issuers American Express Co. and Capital One Financial Corp. are among the financial firms that have yet to buy back the government’s warrants, even after repurchasing preferred shares the Treasury acquired at the same time. Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, and Citigroup Inc., the third- biggest, have not returned any of the taxpayer’s funds.
“Once it was clear that there would be substantial public scrutiny, backed up by rigorous valuation analysis and a clear delineation of the policy choices, Goldman surely understood that there were no great deals left on the table,” Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which is monitoring the federal bailout, said in an e-mail. “The rest of the warrant repurchases will take place in the same sunshine- filled arena.” Morgan Stanley, American Express and Citigroup are based in New York. Capital One’s headquarters are in McLean, Virginia. Bank of America is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Goldman Sachs said July 22 that it agreed to Treasury’s request for $1.1 billion to repay warrants the government received when it injected $10 billion into Goldman Sachs last October.
That’s 98 percent of the warrants’ value, according to calculations by Wilson, the finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, using the Black-Scholes and Merton option pricing models. He estimates that BB&T, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp are paying less than 60 percent of their warrants’ value.
“We think the price we paid to redeem the warrants was both full and fair,” said Lucas van Praag, a Goldman Sachs spokesman. “We’re grateful to the government for the extraordinary steps taken to stabilize the financial system, and have always maintained it was appropriate that taxpayers should receive a significant return on their investment.” Blankfein’s warrant repayment “will certainly have an influence or an effect on the price going forward” said U.S. Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican. “Now we have another indication of where that market is.”
The warrants on New York-based JPMorgan, which has repaid $25 billion it received from the government, will be sold in a public auction after the bank said its offer was rejected by the Treasury earlier this month. Taking into account the dividends that Goldman Sachs paid on the government’s preferred shares, the Treasury earned an annualized 23 percent return on its funds, according to estimates from the bank and the Treasury. Garrett, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said the public and Congress will be more aware of the bank’s record compensation set-asides than the taxpayers’ return. He said neither should affect the firm’s reputation.
“This shouldn’t give them any positive points, and conversely what they’re doing with their salaries shouldn’t be negative points,” Garrett said. Lawmakers were concerned that banks may shortchange taxpayers after Old National Bancorp, in Evansville, Indiana, paid less than half of fair market value for its warrants in May, according to valuations by Wilson and Pluris Valuation Advisors LLC. “It seems like there is a little bit more realism on the valuation from both the buyer and the seller in this case, that people are coming a little bit closer together,” said Espen Robak, president of Pluris in New York. “That would seem to reduce the level of contention going forward.”
The Congressional Oversight Panel said July 10 that taxpayers should have recovered $10 million more from warrant sales with 11 banks. A Treasury official disputed the conclusion, saying the government has rejected as too low most proposals from the largest banks seeking to retire the warrants. “Treasury is committed to getting fair value for the taxpayers for these warrants,” Herb Allison, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability, said July 22 in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee’s subcommittee on investigations.
He said the Treasury has a “consistent and clear process” for valuing the warrants that applies to all banks. Johnson, the MIT professor, said the Treasury may continue to demand fair-value payment, rather than risk being accused of easing the cost for banks at taxpayers’ expense. “The Treasury shooting itself in the foot politically on this issue for basically small money doesn’t make sense,” Johnson said.
Ilargi: The Dow Jones story on CIT below evoked this great comment from Michael Panzner:
Another Crack Opening Up?
You see plenty of reports nowadays suggesting that financial Armageddon has been avoided. Meanwhile, "experts" in Washington and on Wall Street congratulate each other on their apparent success in preventing the crisis flood waters from breaching the financial system's levee walls. In reality, all they've really done is plugged some of the initial gaps with funny money-filled sandbags -- just as a raft of other holes are beginning to open up. That's the thing about bursting credit bubbles: every time you think you've turned back the tide, more red ink suddenly starts flowing through the cracks.
What's more, these bubbling breaches aren't necessarily seen by those in charge as the spearheads of deadly surges to come. In many respects, in fact, that describes the miscalculation that occurred with Lehman Brothers. Now, according to Dow Jones Newswires columnists Donna Childs and Sameer Bhatia, writing in CIT Poses Lehman-Like Risk," we may be poised to see it happen once again.
CIT Poses Lehman-Like Risk
The implications of the capital crisis of CIT Group Inc. fill 24-hour news coverage and yet credit default swaps are near record lows and the markets appear calm, a peculiar disconnect given the events that followed Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy. What gives? The century-old lender narrowly avoided a bankruptcy filing this week when it obtained $3 billion in loan commitments from its bondholders. Tuesday, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission laid out steps that it will take to avoid bankruptcy, though it warned that any misstep likely would lead to a Chapter 11 filing. Who has correctly gauged the risk CIT poses to institutions, markets and the economy - the media, the markets or the government?
The market judged Lehman a serious matter. In the days preceding Lehman's bankruptcy, credit default spreads spiked. The Markit iTraxx Europe Senior Financials Credit Default Swap Index spread rose from 94 on Sept. 12 last year to 147 three days later, the date Lehman filed bankruptcy. The index spread peaked on March 6 this year, reaching 199, but it has since retreated to 114. It appears anomalous that CDS spreads are near historic lows, despite a possible imminent collapse of an important commercial lender. So why haven't spreads moved significantly despite the media's scrutiny of CIT's crisis?
The likely reason is that markets clearly understood the systemic financial risk posed by Lehman's more than $350 billion counterparty exposure yet don't grasp the risks posed by CIT's exposure to the manufacturing, retail and commercial real estate sectors. This may also explain why the U.S. government bailed out American International Group Inc., an entity it deemed too connected to fail given the significant counterparty exposure to other financial institutions, and yet appears unfazed by the risks posed by CIT.
Such a view is shortsighted. CIT factors the accounts of some 1 million small businesses, by which process it purchases their accounts receivable. In some cases, it advances cash against those purchases; in other cases, particularly with many Chinese institutions, it doesn't. Should CIT default, small businesses that believed they were borrowing from CIT would become unsecured creditors of CIT. Many of those small businesses operate in the manufacturing, textile and garment industries. This appears to be a different type of risk exposure than that represented by Lehman or AIG yet it is nonetheless a real risk to the economy and by extension the global financial system.
The failure of Lehman precipitated a seizure in the credit markets from which the world has not yet recovered. The failure of CIT will likely precipitate similar seizures in both trade finance and commercial real estate markets. The attendant consequences will inevitably come back to haunt the larger financial institutions with exposure to these sensitive sectors. The business news media correctly report that CIT has a 1% share of market for loans to U.S. small and mid-size businesses. Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported a pertinent fact: CIT services roughly 300,000 retailers and 1,900 manufacturers and importers, representing as much as $40 billion in receivables. The CIT story is complex, mid-chapter and sometimes hard to read but it can't be ignored by the government, markets and financial institutions.
Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds
It is the hot new thing on Wall Street, a way for a handful of traders to master the stock market, peek at investors’ orders and, critics say, even subtly manipulate share prices. It is called high-frequency trading — and it is suddenly one of the most talked-about and mysterious forces in the markets. Powerful computers, some housed right next to the machines that drive marketplaces like the New York Stock Exchange, enable high-frequency traders to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense.
These systems are so fast they can outsmart or outrun other investors, humans and computers alike. And after growing in the shadows for years, they are generating lots of talk. Nearly everyone on Wall Street is wondering how hedge funds and large banks like Goldman Sachs are making so much money so soon after the financial system nearly collapsed. High-frequency trading is one answer.
And when a former Goldman Sachs programmer was accused this month of stealing secret computer codes — software that a federal prosecutor said could “manipulate markets in unfair ways” — it only added to the mystery. Goldman acknowledges that it profits from high-frequency trading, but disputes that it has an unfair advantage. Yet high-frequency specialists clearly have an edge over typical traders, let alone ordinary investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission says it is examining certain aspects of the strategy.
“This is where all the money is getting made,” said William H. Donaldson, former chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange and today an adviser to a big hedge fund. “If an individual investor doesn’t have the means to keep up, they’re at a huge disadvantage.” For most of Wall Street’s history, stock trading was fairly straightforward: buyers and sellers gathered on exchange floors and dickered until they struck a deal. Then, in 1998, the Securities and Exchange Commission authorized electronic exchanges to compete with marketplaces like the New York Stock Exchange. The intent was to open markets to anyone with a desktop computer and a fresh idea.
But as new marketplaces have emerged, PCs have been unable to compete with Wall Street’s computers. Powerful algorithms — “algos,” in industry parlance — execute millions of orders a second and scan dozens of public and private marketplaces simultaneously. They can spot trends before other investors can blink, changing orders and strategies within milliseconds. High-frequency traders often confound other investors by issuing and then canceling orders almost simultaneously. Loopholes in market rules give high-speed investors an early glance at how others are trading. And their computers can essentially bully slower investors into giving up profits — and then disappear before anyone even knows they were there.
High-frequency traders also benefit from competition among the various exchanges, which pay small fees that are often collected by the biggest and most active traders — typically a quarter of a cent per share to whoever arrives first. Those small payments, spread over millions of shares, help high-speed investors profit simply by trading enormous numbers of shares, even if they buy or sell at a modest loss. “It’s become a technological arms race, and what separates winners and losers is how fast they can move,” said Joseph M. Mecane of NYSE Euronext, which operates the New York Stock Exchange. “Markets need liquidity, and high-frequency traders provide opportunities for other investors to buy and sell.”
The rise of high-frequency trading helps explain why activity on the nation’s stock exchanges has exploded. Average daily volume has soared by 164 percent since 2005, according to data from NYSE. Although precise figures are elusive, stock exchanges say that a handful of high-frequency traders now account for a more than half of all trades. To understand this high-speed world, consider what happened when slow-moving traders went up against high-frequency robots earlier this month, and ended up handing spoils to lightning-fast computers.
It was July 15, and Intel, the computer chip giant, had reporting robust earnings the night before. Some investors, smelling opportunity, set out to buy shares in the semiconductor company Broadcom. (Their activities were described by an investor at a major Wall Street firm who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his job.) The slower traders faced a quandary: If they sought to buy a large number of shares at once, they would tip their hand and risk driving up Broadcom’s price. So, as is often the case on Wall Street, they divided their orders into dozens of small batches, hoping to cover their tracks. One second after the market opened, shares of Broadcom started changing hands at $26.20.
The slower traders began issuing buy orders. But rather than being shown to all potential sellers at the same time, some of those orders were most likely routed to a collection of high-frequency traders for just 30 milliseconds — 0.03 seconds — in what are known as flash orders. While markets are supposed to ensure transparency by showing orders to everyone simultaneously, a loophole in regulations allows marketplaces like Nasdaq to show traders some orders ahead of everyone else in exchange for a fee.
In less than half a second, high-frequency traders gained a valuable insight: the hunger for Broadcom was growing. Their computers began buying up Broadcom shares and then reselling them to the slower investors at higher prices. The overall price of Broadcom began to rise. Soon, thousands of orders began flooding the markets as high-frequency software went into high gear.
Automatic programs began issuing and canceling tiny orders within milliseconds to determine how much the slower traders were willing to pay. The high-frequency computers quickly determined that some investors’ upper limit was $26.40. The price shot to $26.39, and high-frequency programs began offering to sell hundreds of thousands of shares.
The result is that the slower-moving investors paid $1.4 million for about 56,000 shares, or $7,800 more than if they had been able to move as quickly as the high-frequency traders. Multiply such trades across thousands of stocks a day, and the profits are substantial. High-frequency traders generated about $21 billion in profits last year, the Tabb Group, a research firm, estimates.
“You want to encourage innovation, and you want to reward companies that have invested in technology and ideas that make the markets more efficient,” said Andrew M. Brooks, head of United States equity trading at T. Rowe Price, a mutual fund and investment company that often competes with and uses high-frequency techniques. “But we’re moving toward a two-tiered marketplace of the high-frequency arbitrage guys, and everyone else. People want to know they have a legitimate shot at getting a fair deal. Otherwise, the markets lose their integrity.”
Lack of ambition leaves Europe in the slow lane
Debates about the future of Europe have an unreal quality about them these days. Eurosceptics – most noisily in Britain but also elsewhere – still live the old nightmare of a united states of Europe. Yet on the other side of the barricades, the pro-Europeans could scarcely be said to be celebrating. They are more likely to lament the European Union’s palpable failure to claim a say in global affairs. Were I to count myself among the sceptics, I would have claimed victory some time ago in the imagined great struggle between sovereign nation state and Brussels-led behemoth. The integrationist impulse that led to the creation of a single market and a European currency has long since dissipated.
If ever there was a moment when it might have been feared the nations of Europe were being subsumed into a federal superstate it passed a decade and more ago. Any residual doubts on that score should have been dispelled by the robustly nationalistic responses of Berlin, Paris and London to the international financial meltdown. The once legendary Franco-German motor is in serious disrepair, too feeble to drive a Union now enlarged to 27 states. Grandiose talk of Europe’s emergence as a superpower alongside the US and China has been lost to its weak economic performance and even weaker political leadership. The rest of the world looks on with scorn (Beijing and Moscow) and disappointment (Barack Obama’s administration in Washington).
As a member of the pro-European camp I find myself torn between standing up for the significant successes of the European enterprise and lamenting all the missed opportunities. Half the time the cup is half-full; the other, half-empty. Among audiences friendly to the less than startling idea that it makes eminent sense for Europe to pool its capabilities if it wants to remain visible in the fast-turning kaleidoscope of global power, I tend to accentuate the negative. Europe has become the greater Switzerland of the 21st century: comfortable, complacent and unwilling to venture abroad.
Among the sceptics who conveniently gloss over the first half of the 20th century in their quest to reclaim 19th century concepts of indivisible sovereignty, I point to the Union’s many successes. They are not hard to find. Post-second world war peace and prosperity apart, the entrenchment of democracy in post-communist central and eastern Europe stands out as a truly momentous achievement. That said, it is easy to lapse into depression about the continent’s introspection. The world is witnessing as big a geopolitical upheaval as any in the past century. Power is shifting from west to east. The international institutions and rules upon which Europe relies for security and prosperity are under strain. And Europe looks set to absent itself from the debate.
This pessimistic case has been made eloquently by Charles Grant, the director of the London-based Centre for European Reform. Mr Grant, the CER’s founder and director, is nothing if not a convinced European. But the title of a recent essay speaks to his present mood: “Is Europe doomed to fail as a power?” A decade or so ago, the EU might have been counted alongside the US, China, India, Russia and, perhaps, one or two others as a shaper of a new international order. Now, when he talks to Chinese, Russian or Indian policymakers, Mr Grant finds their views on European influence “withering”.
The Union may still have pretensions, but it is seen as “divided, slow-moving and badly organised”. Mr Obama had great hopes of Europe as a partner in his efforts to recast the west’s relationship with the rest of the world. But the US president is learning fast about the Union’s reluctance to act as one in foreign policy and defence. The stakes here are considerable. It has become a cliché to say that we are moving rapidly into a multi-polar world in which the west will have a diminishing capacity to determine events. In such an environment, the middle-sized powers of Europe have more to lose than anyone else by any breakdown of the rules-based system. Even for the continent’s biggest nations going it alone is simply not an option.
But as Mr Grant notes, European governments are much more concerned to hold on to the totems of power – a gross over-allocation of seats in the various global institutions – than to help design the architecture of a new order. One obvious danger is that the US and China will bypass Europe by creating a G2. You can already see that happening on climate change. All those European seats in the Group of Eight, the International Monetary Fund and such like would then be devalued currency. Behind this lies the bigger threat that the emerging multi-polar order will be based on power rather than law.
Mr Grant acknowledges there is another side to the story. Europe still has substantial “soft power” – rooted in its considerable economic strength, values and political stability. If it has failed to frame common policies towards, say, China or India, it makes a substantial, often overlooked, contribution to safeguarding peace and stability around the world. Robert Cooper, the EU’s director general for external affairs, makes this case well in a critique that, with admirable fairness, Mr Grant has published alongside his own essay. For all that it is often inefficient and sometimes infuriating, today’s EU is a huge advance on what went before. Those who dispute this might consider the dismal failure of the Europe of the 1990s in response to the break-up of Yugoslavia.
Mr Cooper points also to the common mistake of judging Europe against unrealistic expectations. The EU was never going to emerge as a single state, so it should not be measured against the US or China. In Mr Cooper’s words: “The ambition of the EU cannot often be much greater than the sum of the ambitions of its member states, and they are not always ambitious.” But there, I think, lies the problem. I cannot think of a moment in recent history when it has been more important for Europeans to demonstrate their ambitions for the world. Comfortable though it may seem now, Europe will discover that a future in the slow lane promises anything but an easy ride.
How the budget hole developed
Conventional commentators have been horrified by the British government’s estimate of public sector net borrowing of 12.4 per cent of gross domestic product for this financial year. Even if you believe that the deficit will decline to 5.5 per cent by 2013-14 this will not prevent the public sector net debt from climbing to reach 76 per cent of GDP by that year, according to official projections. Never mind that the debt ratio was far higher not only after and between the two world wars, but in the supposedly virtuous mid-Victorian period. Never mind the historian Lord Macaulay’s mockery of the debt obsession. This is clearly far from what the Labour government intended when it came to office in 1997 full of talk of “prudence for a purpose”.
How has this deterioration occurred? There are two deeply unconvincing explanations. There is the opposition Conservative accusation that Gordon Brown took leave of his senses and suddenly went on an ideologically driven spending spree. Then there is the opposite plea that the British leader was virtuously delivering “Labour investment” as opposed to “Tory tax cuts” when he ran into an international financial storm. By far the best analysis I have seen is in a paper by Giles Wilkes – A Balancing Act: Fair Solutions to a Modern Debt Crisis. It is published by Centre Forum, a Liberal Democrat-leaning think-tank, but the analysis is non-partisan. It has so far attracted attention because of its proposals for a flat rate to supplement council tax on high-value residences and for imposing capital gains tax on primary residences.
But the most valuable part of Mr Wilkes’s paper is his explanation of the rising national debt. He starts from the Treasury estimate for 2012-13 and dissects its composition. Only 4 per cent is due to increases in spending induced by the present recession, mostly due to automatic increases in benefits. Some 9 per cent is attributed to bank rescues and another 9 per cent to over-reliance on volatile bubble revenues derived from the financial markets. A sizeable but not overwhelming proportion – 16 per cent – is attributed to the government’s “failure to fix the structural deficit”, due to an overestimate of the UK’s growth potential. A greater proportion, 25 per cent, is due to revenue losses from the recession including the “temporary” cut in value added tax. This leaves 37 per cent – roughly £30bn ($49.5bn, €35bn) – which would have been there anyway and would probably have represented genuine public investment. The culpable items seem to me the structural deficit and the over-reliance on bubble revenues.
Almost alone among analysts, Mr Wilkes endorses Margaret Thatcher’s tight fiscal policies of the 1980s that were made necessary by “high real interest rates, soaring inflation and a bloated public sector”. But he asserts that a repetition of these would be a serious mistake when “interest rates are at rock bottom, inflation is threatening to turn negative and the state no longer controls swathes of nationalised industry”. He is extremely clear that dealing with the deficit must wait for definite signs that the recession is over and should be carefully paced so as not to undermine recovery. His most interesting suggestion is that 40 per cent or more of the national debt should be put on an indexed basis. This strategy should do more than anything else to reassure market fears of a return to inflationary finance, as it would make a high rate of inflation extremely expensive for the government.
But let me explain in my own words why I am more relaxed about debts and deficits than some other commentators. First, there is no regular and predictable business cycle, just an irregular movement of activity into which clever people can read patterns with hindsight. In the 1930s it was once claimed that the difference between Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes was that what the former saw as a boom the latter saw as a slump; and in the coming years it is all too likely that some economists will be diagnosing the return of inflation while others will still be talking of lingering depression. The US New Deal recovery was turned into a mini-depression in 1937-38 because of premature action to tighten money and balance the US budget. There is now more danger of economic stimuli across the world being reversed too soon than of their being continued too long.
There is a more profound point. Writing in the 1930s, Keynes believed that world economies faced not a temporary recession but “secular stagnation” because the urge to save exceeded perceived investment opportunities; and the two were only brought into balance by depressed output and employment. In this situation there is a strong case for long-term “dissaving” by the state to offset private saving. In that case measures to stabilise national budgets would have to be put on the back burner. There is no certainty in such matters. But thinking of the vast savings of China and the oil producers it would be foolish to rule out the recurrence of such stagnation.
95 comments:
Another great post!
I have no idea how you can tie all these elements together, but the flow and the message gets across in a way that makes things feel "right".
I lost my hometown in an earthquake in 83, the corrupt business man mayor made out like the bandit that he was, a lot of businessmen went BK including my in-laws, the people fortunately got out with their live and the town was patched up and rebuilt over the next 22 years before I left in 05 with the help of several state prisons it grew, but so did everything else that comes with that kind of growth. I couldn't go back to my hometown even if I wanted too it was destroyed years ago but it has helped me see this disaster coming back in 2004 and prepare so maybe there is a reason for everything. One never really knows does one?
delurking to say very beautiful post Ilargi.
So touching, I find I have nothing to say.
This pasage:
"What do you think? Or do you even think to begin with? Not to insult you, but if you actually do believe in Obama's green shoots, take it from me: you ain't thinking straight. And while you're at it, take this from me too: I don't care about what you do to yourself. It's that kid on your lap I'm worried about, who's apt to fall prey to your inability to face your own reality, your own frustrations and your own failed dreams."
that section holds so many truths that I would love to add to, but, alas, the hour is late. For my esteemed buuddy whom I know, but do not;
I salute you. A fine piece of writing.
Norwegian Blue indeed!
Right on!
og, did you see the "blue beer" reference I made? If so, how is it!?
getyourselfconnected said...
og, did you see the "blue beer" reference I made? If so, how is it!?
You mean the LaBatts Blue? It's fine like always :-)
Lots of great, dark Springsteen songs about the lost American dream.
Instead of ‘My Hometown’
It could be ‘The River’ which ends:
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true
Or is it something worse
Well, phuck IIargi ... this may be your best. Love the mix of religion, music and economics.
That video, Maria Callas, was pretty sobering. I will play that for a long time. Still stuck in my head is Five Years, by Bowie. But, can't compare generations ... not fair.
Great intro.
Curse you, I&S, for posting so much good stuff so fast! I can't keep up.
I want to absorb as many of the pieces you compile as I can, because my "bargaining" is that if I know as much as I can about the magnitude of the shitstorm that's coming, maybe I won't get so filthy. But I can hardly wade through 100+ posts about Scepticus before there's a new edition up.
I have a life and a wife, goddamit! And even though she appreciates the info I glean from here (she's a bit of a doomer too, and watching the Springsteen clip brought tears to her eyes) she gets jealous when I'm spending too much time in front of the glowing tube-god.
Two irreverent thoughts, submitted for your amusement:
Scepticus was not an American. I&S get criticised by trolls for not glomming "the unique American character" because they're not from there. (I'm one, just in exile, so I can philosophise.) I say that actually applies to Scep.
He isn't a Yank, but he had the belief that the American powers-that-be were somehow interested in saving the system so that average Americanos could continue living with some semblance of comfort. Hah!
To paraphrase what Kanye West said about Chimperor Bush in the wake of Katrina, "The bankmaggots don't CARE about American people." They're merely food sources for TPTB. (Thank you, Greenpa, for the link that introduced me to the concept of "kleptoparasitism.") Anybody who thinks that pie-in-the-sky "negative interest rates" might be imposed to help American people is unclear on the concept of how the United States now works. Unworthy of the bandwidth. Besides, Johnny One-notes who won't stop singing the same tune get tiresome.
For those who speculate why Ilargi is why he is, may I offer this theory? It's because he's Dutch!
I've been to Holland a number of times, although it was mainly for the thrill of sitting outside at a coffeeshop table smoking hashish and NOT being arrested. I've dealt with Dutchmen there, and as patients in hospitals where Ive worked. My impression is that they're smart but dour people.
The Netherlands are a wet, cold country. Puts a damper on the spirit. They know that their country could be swallowed by the sea with the next big storm. And other people are always invading them -- Germans, French, Spanish (why didn't you stick to your New World colonies, you bastards?!?), Vikings, Romans... Is it any wonder why Dutchmen get narky with annoying interlopers?
My impression of Dutch people is that they realise they're smarter than most foreign people they encounter, but they're too polite to rub it in your face unless you REALLY annoy them. Hope this doesn't rise to that level...
Albeit the post brought tears to my eyes, it's truly wonderful.
Posting is well done!
I especially like the link
"kickthemallout.com"
It was a refreshing link that i have just but on fav's. and am soon to join up on.
just saw a video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6-4wPVwNEM
gangster poltics!
which reiterated my disgust with career politicians.
kick the bums out.
Perhaps the last miracle, but definitely the biggest one bestowed upon the USA was when the colonists defeated the English army. That was divine intervention and out of that came the Bill of Rights penned by Thomas Jefferson.
Everyone talks about the Constitution. Rarely is the Bill of Rights mentioned when in fact it is that document where the rights of American citizens are contained.
Bill of Rights is of the Divine.
Central Banks are of evil.
There's an assault on the Bill of Rights. There have been dark forces undermining the "American Experiment" since day one. In 1913 there was a great victory for the dark force when the Fed was "born" with blessings from "the government of the people for the people".
>Bill of Rights is of the Divine.
Didn't do much good for the Native Americans, though, did it.
Stoneleigh
In the comments section of Renewable power? Not in your lifetime, you said that your home solar panels are not grid-tied.
Is your system more like a RAPS system with batteries etc that also use the grid to keep them charged during the night? You said you weren't an engineer, but I'd be interested in how you've got your solar setup configured.
I'm just about to embark down this track (live in the country) and trying to decide which way I go and your setup sounds like a hybrid which is what I was thinking of building.
Thanks.
MarkB :-)
I have been lurking for a few days...life has been "interesting"with my employment...Today,the city of Portland,Oregon laid off 40[!!]building inspectors.More to follow.This is for a city with a budget of like 900 million.The word is unless you have a minimum of 8 years in the dept....your gone.
Our company is tied to construction,and the model of providing technical services to various .gov entities
Its dead folks.I expect[hope]for a month or 3 then back to the unemployment.Having already been their,it will hurt,but not so much as it did before.I don't see my job lasting.. as when the summer work ends...this fall could be real real grim.I have no trouble with the "fill in the blanks"our gentle hosts provide.I am seeing it every day.
I am of the opinion that removal of "septic"or whatever his handle was,was overdue.As has been mentioned,this is not a democracy,its more like a private party that strangers are welcome at,until they become boors,or trolls.
As this place is where I get a lot of my worldview information,I don't have time to try and digest obsessively divergent views...at 55,I am fairly set in my ways ,and views,and see no compelling reason to change them.
Our gentle hosts are kind enough to provide the equivalent of a top-of-the-line research dept with a daily front row seat at the nearly obscene feeding frenzy of the elites on the corpse of a once great nation.
If your not into it ,split.
I have not the time to spare
to read your dreck,As I got
with the program a long,long
time ago.I am so busy trying
desperately to do all I can to
prepare for this coming
nightmare I DON"T HAVE TIME for
Fools,trolls,or contras..Take it
eleswhere
This place is a resource,as well as a place to speak of things most of those "unaware ones" would laugh at,or suggest you check your meds..I dont need it.
Tomorrow I have a "grandfather"task that I am thinking hard about...
When I was 8 I was judged as above the age of accountability[which was 7,according to the pastor,whom my grandfather trusted in such things]He believed that this was the age a boy should learn how to shoot.As I Have mentioned before,my most beloved grandfather was a child of the pioneers in Clearwater,Idaho.He grew up less than 30 years after the Indian wars had decimated the local population...and was terrified of native Americans as a child.
They bought me a Daisy BB gun,a "Red Ryder"model
4 years later I was walking through the woods with a 30/40 krag,[heaviest rifle I have ever toted]being taught what the bed of a deer looks like under a tree...and the difference between deer and elk scat...and all the other good "wood wisdom" a grandfather teaches his grandson
{break for a few minutes for a few quiet tears for a man I still miss}
Downstairs in my living room,there is a daisy,Red Ryder bb gun
And tomorrow,there is a 9 year old boy coming to see his cranky old grandfather.Hes bright,and irrepressibly cheerful,as well as careful and thoughtful[his mother,my stepdaughter,has decided its time]
Before he is allowed a single shot,he must name every part on the gun,recite every safety measure I can remember,and in the sternest voice I can muster,be told if he ever misuses his gun around my place .....
My darkest fear,is that in a few years,it wont be squirrel and deer..... he will need to know combat handgunning .Gunfighting.
We have a few of those in my "family"...retired police officers,Iraq/Afgan War vets.I have the basics,and a fair hand.
..But I don't know how dark it will be..soon
Or what skill level he may need.But I know it starts tommorow
Its a grandfather thing...
snuffy
Snuffy
"{break for a few minutes for a few quiet tears for a man I still miss}"
Gone, Gonna Rise Again / Michael Johnathon
http://tinyurl.com/ngc459
I'm the same age as you are, my oldest grandson is 7, my job is to teach my grandson to garden as his father has already taught him how to shoot with a rifle, a bow, and how to fish. Like you said Its a grandfather thing...
This one goes well with today's theme
Manhattan Vacancies
Ilargi,
Thank you for the lovely, sobering gift of a post. I listened to the Maria Callas clip with the sunrise over vast prairie. At this point we live in the best of times and I'll be grateful for today. Ah- there is the sun coming over the horizon- a bit further south today.
Stoneleigh- I'll second MarkB's request for a sketch of your solar set up. I'm looking at a system and the incentives (MN state and federal) are good for grid connected systems (get a $24,000 system for $8,000 after tax credits and state rebates). But I've paused to consider that there may be other things to consider long term.
I read TAE everyday and have done for nearly a year. I've not posted before.
While I consider all TAE offerrings important to my daily education and future welfare, there have been a number of standouts.
Today's is one of those, Ilargi.
I'm not a US citizen, but your perspective resonates mightily. As it is based on reported facts that support a clear vision.
Valuable work Ilargi and a valuable piece. Thank You.
This story was unknown to me, and saddened me considerably. The point here, is that this kind of tension between human groups is universal. And waiting for any lapse in central law to break out.
It does not bode well.
Zanzibar
If the Evony ads on this site and Mish's are any indication, the next bubble will be made of silicone
Today's post was especially poignant; it hit just the right chord (much too faceted to call it a note).
I really enjoyed Robert Reich's column. It was succinct and gives a very good picture of what's really going on. It's definitely one to forward to my friends. BTW Ilargi, the link points back to The Automatic Earth.
High-frequency trading ought to be called hyper-churning. It mixes a lot of air into the system, turning it into something gigantic, frothy and tasty, but too unstable to last or withstand any shocks. And it has been set up to benefit special customers at the expense of everyone else (kind of like Ticketmaster and the way you lose out to brokers and ticket scalpers).
My suggestion for music: "Don't Give Up", by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (Kate's a goddess):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiCRZLr9oRw
Keep up the great work!
Purpmaro
This seems to me to strike the nail at the head...
"What do you think? Or do you even think to begin with? Not to insult you, but if you actually do believe in Obama's green shoots, take it from me: you ain't thinking straight. And while you're at it, take this from me too: I don't care about what you do to yourself. It's that kid on your lap I'm worried about, who's apt to fall prey to your inability to face your own reality, your own frustrations and your own failed dreams."
I sent the link to my daughter, who always liked Springer and who works and struggles to make ends meet.
Ilargi, a big thanks for today's well done and poignant reminder. Even though we in this TAE choir are already quite aware, hopefully the word will spread from good sources like this.
Rep Bachmann sadly is bat shit crazy. The distilled essence of wingnuttery. It's a problem when such people deliver part of your message. Rep. Bachmann would surely hear Illargi's voice and deem him a communist or terrorist sympathizer and put him on the first boat to Old Europe if she had half a chance or worse.
Ron Paul the most reliable politician messenger of alt economics that we might often agree with has long standing and intimate connections with the semi organized racist nativist right wing. It's a problem.
Virtually the only political opposition to the Fed for 50 years was the John Birch Society. With friends like that every Fed basher over the same period could reliably be discounted ignored.
All of which suggests to me that when and if the political break comes it's going to be dominated the most viral sort of America Firsters and it isn't going to be pretty.
Rapier - I pretty much agree. It is interesting to me that corporate bigshots have been making political deals on the golf course for years (quietly) and that was just the system working... but let local small business folks call their rep and get a short-term result and... Oh hell! It's gangster nation!
Of course car dealerships are going to diminish further, but that is not the point.
Who is Bachman speaking for? I ask!
Stoneleigh,
I'll "third" MarkB's and Leona's request for more PV details.
A local company with 30 years experience is just completing my 5KW battery backup PV system installation - crew of four 20-somethings, very knowledgable, professional and meticulous. Cost is $40K, substantially lower than I had originally thought. It is grid-connected, arranged with the utility before you posted your non-grid comments.
Can you elaborate on your concerns about the utility forcing us to contribute to the grid?
I'm also interested in your thoughts about the complexity of PV systems during the coming complexity collapse. Might you be somewhat biased by your job in RE?
Ilargi,
Great intro once again! I love your passion and empathy ... This is why I'm here every day.
Paz!
A rare vintage post today, and comments to match! A welcome Saturday morning blessing!
Coy- "Who is Bachman speaking for? I ask!"
In part, her district, which re-elected her this time around. Ew.
MN is a fascinating place, with fascists like Bachman elected along with lefties like Sen. Franken.
There may be extensive reasons why our state bird is the loon.
------------------------
Simultaneously, however- it's worth noting that our biggest state legislature scandal several years ago was when a prominent Representatives teenage son got ahold of his House phone card, and used it to run up a couple thousand in long distance bills.
Horrors.
And, at a big green meeting this spring, one of the attending State Reps, a little Santa Claus of a man, was handing out DVDs of "A Crash Course" to anyone who would take one.
My own Federal Rep is so clean he squeaks.
It may be easier, and more entertaining, to deal with loons than with weasels.
ElG, Farmerrod, Ed_Gorey, Greenpa, rapier, Stoneleigh, others,
I've been following your ETF posts and considering "gambling" a bit of cash, which is probably stupid since I know nothing about ETFs (or anything else for that matter!).
Someone commented to the effect that there are probably "herds" waiting to short sucker-rallied equity markets in the near future. How might that affect the risk involved?
Might ProShares algorithms fail to produce decent results under the stress of heavy buying? Might the heavy volume precipitate a swift bankruptcy of ProShares?
Might a non-leveraged ETF be a more conservative option? (1x-inverse instead of 2x) Are there such ETFs?
On the one hand, shorting broad markets soon seems almost like a "no-brainer" to this TAE follower. On the other, it feels like the Kobayashi Maru scenario!
Is this a time for financial conservatism? ;-)
I am considering buying a farm to one day provide for myself, but I don't know if the market is still too high. Does anyone here have a time frame (2014-2015?) of when would be the ideal time (price-wise) to buy? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
edantonino@hotmail.com
Since we have a Springsteen theme today:
I happened to take a day trip to Atlantic City, NJ yesterday. No, I don’t gamble; I drop by periodically because it's so weirdly fascinating, an urban planning Bizarro World.
The latest scheme to revive the place involves outlet stores, block after block of retailing along Michigan Avenue from the shore front to the Convention Center. They’ve got everything: The Gap, Fossil, Dress Barn, Nautica, Liz Claiborne, Timberland, Bass Shoes - and that's just a sample.
Meanwhile another gigantic new casino/hotel is being built on the north end of the boardwalk. But the city is pockmarked with vacant buildings and empty lots; many of these are a block from the casinos. The old post office and the Masonic Hall are among the abandoned structures.
Yet there are still some poor but viable neighborhoods, particularly towards the south end. And there will always be the beach and the ocean, and maybe the rail line connecting it to the rest of the world will survive.
It's an interesting slice of the American Dream to watch, in any case.
"I had debts that no honest man could pay, so I withdrew what I had from the Central Trust, and I bought us two tickets on that Coast City bus."
earthquake in 83
http://tinyurl.com/me6wrx
These are images of my home town when it died, it taught me a great deal for which I'm grateful about what is important and what's not, what's a want and a need, about the importance of family and friends and having them close to you, about helping others about coming together to share resources, about corruption and incompetence in government, about a force more powerful the man, about the importance of preparedness, about wolves in sheep's clothing, about how even when the assert has been destroyed the bank still wants it's money, about how the insurance you have purchased may not pay off, about arson and fraud, about homelessness and housing bubbles, about total loss of everything but ones life, about the five stages of grief on reflection the list seems endless.......... Now place yourself as a 25 year old mowing the lawn with your 2 kids playing in the front yard at 5:00 on a sunny afternoon in May, your wife is at work, and in few minutes your home town would be gone and nothing would ever be the same ...........
There is still time to prepare for this disater, the quake has hit and the tide from the tusnami has gone out...........
Taizai and Farmerod (from yesterday)
Yeah, I had read that seeking Alpha article when it came out. I wonder if the claimed lack of ability to follow the index by -2x is balanced to both the positive and negative. The SA article doesn't say. If it is statistically balanced in both the minus and plus direction against the index, it may be worth taking the chance of inaccuracy for the extra leverage. The SA article is quite clear that the analysis is only of the leverage short ETF's, and they imply that the -1X short ETF's don't have this problem. I hope to study this in detail before I take a position, which will not be for over a month.
Gunhilltrain
And of course, Atlantic City was the basis for the classic Monopoly game. If one played Monopoly as a child, a visit there is even stranger with these odd associations, such as being wiped out by landing on the Boardwalk with four hotels. I never managed to find Go on a visit and avoided the Jail.
Greenpa -
"MN is a fascinating place, with fascists like Bachman elected along with lefties like Sen. Franken."
Well... at least that provides some balance! ;-)
Actually I have been to MN a couple of times and know you have an abundance of fine folks there. I suspect though, like among my fellow hoosiers, there is going to be many, many rude awakenings soon.
Bryan McNett - re: Bill of Rights is of the Divine.
"Didn't do much good for the Native Americans, though, did it."
No indeed it didn't, however that's is largely because the B.O.R. was not followed, rather something called manifest destiny, which was of course a facade and total nonsense.
Hey, I don't believe that any system is totally secure
Springsteen? Bob Dylan never could beat him for that downhome 100% guaranteed pure corn syrup, could he?
- tremulous teardrop-
So the city of Detroit is going to hire some out of town collection gunslingers to twist the arms of its unemployed citizenry. We might as well be watching Jack Palance donning a black pair of diabolical gloves right before he guns down a foolish and innocent man on some muddy Jackson Hole street at the base of the Grand Tetons.
Meanwhile, the virulent roots of Wall Street are sinking even deeper into the soils of America. And no courageous and defiant Alan Ladd’s or Van Heflin’s are anywhere to be found( not yet elected, anyway) on the political landscape uprooting a stubborn and pervasive corruption.
Shane rode out of the town he saved and into the sunset accompanied by the yells of revere and worship from an idolizing Brandon De Wilde. The greatest Western cinema production ever, I do declare.
As the sun sets in America 2009, do we even hear the voices of the children?
Aesthete
PS to a letter written to a close (progressive, optimistic) friend in southern Mexico
My friends here thought I was freaken crazy depressed a couple of years ago when I started talking about the severity of the financial tsunami I saw coming. My movie group even considered chipping in to buy me a year's supply of Prozac :-) Now they are coming to me for advice. However, most people who are not themselves unemployed are somewhat anxious about developments, but very few of them have a clue what this will mean globally. They think it is just a bad spot which will be gone next year. The government-gollum complex is promoting this view while they set up to transfer the little remaining wealth that the American "middle class" has to their coffers. Which are the private pension funds and 401-k's. We are then entering a neo-feudal society - financial aristocracy and pissant proles scrambling to survive.
I hate to tell you this, but Obama was and is just a bagman meat puppet for the investment bankers, and a far more effective one than McInsane would have ever been. I am pleased that I did not send his campaign a penny though I gave Kucinich and Nader a couple of Franklins during the primaries.
This will be done this fall by promoting this green shoots, happy days are here again bullshit, and once the lemmings have doubled down on stocks trying to recoup their losses, Gollum Sucks will pull the rug out from under them. By the end of this winter, things will be very bad. That is why I am leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. There are more guns than people there, and the people will be pissed at losing everything to the bankers. However, since they won't be able to shoot the bankers, they will settle for shooting each other.
el g,
Do you think the green shooters will be able to find ammo?
And does your friend in MX really call it the government-gollum complex? I thought that was your terminology ;-)
About the ads:
I'm sure by now most of you know that they vary per viewer/location/surfing behavior. On today's post I get this one all the time at the bottom of the page, a golden opportunity to invest in Honduras prime beachfront property. How can you not love that kind of stuff?
I have been following Karl's anguish... how the computers are skimming their trades/transactions ...I get weird humor from it. However, it is tempered by the fact that the poor uneducated savers are getting it doubly ... from the traders and from the computers.
The traders do not like how the shoe fits.
Human nature ... "not in my back yard"
jal
@DIYer
"And does your friend in MX really call it the government-gollum complex? I thought that was your terminology ;-)
It is. She doesn't call it that yet, but I am hoping to spread the word. Nice touch, eh? I like the alliteration.
Soon to be followed by the government-gollum gulag.
Ilargi,
Actually, I like the inflated women. I bet if I click on it, they will send me more :-)
Thats what I am worried about old bird.
It was pointed out in a meeting I attended of the local emergency response professionals [when I was still butting my head with the locals brick wall bureaucrats]That in Clackamas county Oregon,If you want a gun or 8...you have it.I was still pointing out how severe a petro-emergency could whack all systems when It occurred to me the whole system was rigged[designed] to act as if there would always be "Islands of sanity"and places where supplies and personnel from outside could be sent in.
As Katrina pointed out,this may not always be the case...for one reason or another.
At some point O-man ,the slug,will be exposed for all to see.If it is true,as I suspect old bird, that you are correct,There will be blue hell to pay.The dems may be facing their own destruction,as happened to the repug.....My concern is that so much of the population will turn from politics in disgust that the fringe will get another shot at bringing their own version of hell 2.0 to a city near you.
This was a wonderful post.In my heart,I think when you lose the musicians,you lose the heart of a culture.When we start to see songs protesting the actions of this administration..their destruction is not far away.
And its close.
Max Baucus[sp?]and the rest who are negotiating the very lives of the American people with the soulless ,completely evil entities who have attached themselves as parasites to the healthcare system deserve a special place in hell.One of the most effective political tools that has been used lately is to bring victims of the insurance companies ,by the hundreds to tell their stories to the public on film.If nothing eles..it will make the dislocation of these theives easyer for the next one.
snuffy
el gallinazo:
Oh, yes, I played Monopoly as a kid.
The irony of Atlantic City is that a real game of Monopoly has been played there for the last thirty years. (And Baltic Avenue is still not the place to be.) But in the end, in this real-life game, all the players may be going bankrupt.
Bukko, from Australia: "We", Spanish bastards didn't GO to Holland or more exactly to the Lowland Countries, they came to us. The Spanish Emperor Carlos I inherited them from his father Phillip the Handsome and in those times, the 1500's, rulers had this funny aristocratic turn of mind they thought of lands and people as possessions, very much like one can think of livestock in an Hacienda.
When we say WE, we always lie, and English with its defective personal pronouns like "You" builds in its speakers a sweeping viewpoint where they think that everything is the same everywhere, and that in any country they think with one head, and always done so.
In any case the Dutch national anthem says, in translation:
"William of Nassau, scion
Of a Dutch and ancient line,
Dedicate undying
Faith to this land of mine.
A prince I am, undaunted,
Of Orange, ever free,
To the king of Spain I've granted
A lifelong loyalty."
A light adventure fiction set on those times could be "The Sun over Breda", by Arturo Perez Reverte.
European history is long and complicated. Rest assured, no Spaniard bothers to blame the Dutch for their intervention in the Spanish War of Succession, end of the 1600, etc. The Dutch could have stayed home, but it is all water under the canals.
And at the very least we didn't bomb the Dutch to smithereens in 1943, 1944, 1945 like other countries I know.
Tosca! Gadzooks.
I truly do not understand the desire to go out for a night of theater- to get really depressed. Really not my idea of entertainment or escape.
Fledermaus, for me!
"Open your eyes":
did you consider that there may be people who open their eyes in the morning, fire up the computer, look at their company's internal numbers (confidential)and conclude that things are not too bad, like sales approximately like last year? Details of course confidential, as it's an internal web site... Then they open their eyes a bit more and talk to their in-laws,and the numbers over there are also not too bad considering the circumstances? If you have direct conflicting evidence, Doom suddenly sounds much less probable. Of course I'll wait until January before going into stocks, just in case the Fall stock market collapse does materialize.
Abandoned USDollar & Paradigm Shift
A 1:48
Yeah, that's why the top management of the S&P 500 are selling off their personal stock in their own companies into the suckers' rally by an 8 to 1 ratio. Please buy and hold those stocks now. You deserve the fruits of your well crafted thinking.
anon 1:48
Now that you're eyes are open... just keep reading. Here and elsewhere.
All views, all news, all types of information and perceptions.
If you do and have an open (and healthy) mind, I rather doubt you will be buying stocks in January or any time soon.
sincerely posted!
More Mexican correspondence today:
My friend, who holds a Ph.D. in archeology from Heidelberg (sans saber scar) replies:
What's up with this email??!!?! I don't even understand half of it....Mr. xxxxxx
To which I follow up:
Sorry for writing this, Fraulein R. However, don't mistake the fact that you do not know how to interpret it to mean that it is irrational or logically inconsistent. The truth is that you really don't want to know. It would probably be better to let events unfold over the next months and years, and you can then be appropriately surprised by them.
But since you asked, in summary, I am saying:
1) That we will see another stock market crash this fall, probably toward the end of October.
2) Gollum Sucks is my terminology for the investment bank, Goldman-Sachs. They have basically taken over the US government. As Dick Durbin, senior Senator from Illinois and Democratic whip in a moment of candor said last week, "The banks own the place," meaning the Congress and executive branches.
3) Gollum Sucks will short the market prior to the crash, much of which they are orchestrating. This will result in a massive wealth transfer of the American middle class to their accounts, and wiping out the public pension funds and 401-k retirement funds. If you want more details about shorting a market, check it out in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_(finance)
4) The net result of this is that it will result in a few hundred thousand extremely wealthy individuals and 300 million impoverished ones in the United States, whom one will be able to refer to as neo-peasants or pissants. This will result in a lot of angry violence and TPTB (the powers that be) will use that to impose a military dictatorship backed up by USNORTHCOM (once again Wiki) and an overtly fascist government that will be quite racist against Latinos and people of African decent. The concentration camps in the southwest have already been constructed by KBR. Obama will probably not serve out his term.
This is not meant to mean that Obama is a "good guy." He was bought and paid for by the investment bankers from the very beginning. They wanted to find a charismatic moderate "progressive" to buy them enough time to hoodwink the US public until they were done looting the treasury like a banana republic. McCain would have generated counter forces more quickly. The details of how this is accomplished is spelled out in Naomi Klein's recent but already classic work, The Shock Doctrine. It's just that Obama will be more useful as a hate object once he has fulfilled his rear guard stalling action.
Though you certainly have the intellectual capacity to understand all this in at least as much detail as I do, it runs counter to your temperament, so better to let me feed you the briefest details in the hopes of avoiding you personally foundering on the shoals.
Here's a lovely tidbit for anyone who doubts the ultimate purpose of US Northern Command:
Bush Considered Sending Troops to WNY
I find it ridiculous to think that TPTB seriously considered the use of US military units to make six arrests that the FBI could and did handle.
Then again, as we were infamously told, the Constitution is just some, "....goddamn piece of paper..."
Bachmann is only about 50 years late; Ayn Rand called the government a bunch of gangsters in the late 50's and early 60's.
No wonder so many men wanted Callas...
Perry
thethirdcoast
Thanks for that little tidbit. Better than two week old liver.
ogardener,
As a lifelong but now near past miscreant of the first order, where you say:
You mean the LaBatts Blue? It's fine like always :-)
I beg you to move over to the small-brewery side and life, there is nothing but heartache and headache with those large chemical plants like LaBatts.
Ask ilargi I am sure on this we will agree that cash is king in avoiding the 'morning after' collapse.
-mudlark-
Third coast,that was the most interesting little bit of information I have seen in a long time....we are soooo much closer to the end then folks know...
snuffy
Here is the original NY Times link to the proposed
USNORTHCOM raid:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/us/
25detain.html?_r=1&ref=us
Illargi --
Thank you for this beautiful post.
I have nieces and nephews to worry about -- I am afraid that the parents are resistant to changing anything about their lives right now. It makes me very sad to think how unprepared they are and how shocked they will be. If I lived nearby I would teach the children some gardening skills. Yes, I can send books, but I'm not sure that will work. What to do?
Eliza
Thank you Stoneleigh for the physical currency explanation (and I too would like to know about your solar panels).
So, assuming GS are setting us all up for another stock market crash in the fall, where they win and we lose, what's their plan for afterwards? If they've got all the money then we're going to have to come up with systems that don't rely on money, and then their wealth suddenly turns to dust. What are they going to buy with it, once the factories are closed and the housing is abandoned and derelict? Money stops working when it's all in the same place.
Do they have a corporate plan for what to do next, or is this just a lot of individuals each trying to put together enough to buy a retirement homestead in the Seychelles?
About the ads. HA! Adblocker and Ghostery for Firefox work. Through in Trackmenot for you google permanent record obfuscation and you too can whistle past the data miners.
Caith,There probably are individual conspiracies by various groups to seize whatever power they can...but you need to look at the elites more like a school of piranha,than an army/organization...though there is organization..."there can be only one"is the tenets that exist in that mindset... Whatever needs to be done to secure profit short term is the name of the game...get yours,and get out is the credo.
snuffy
Snuffy -
Are you in the Portland area or Eugene? We have been pondering a possible move there (from the Seattle area). Wondering if the income tax would be offset by cheaper cost of living...
Eliza
Native Americans referred to the Willamette River Valley (Portland area) as the 'Valley of Death'.
Why move there?
It was recently rated as the most depressing city in the US. Most suicides, highest unemployment, worst weather.
At least give yourself a chance when the shit hits the fan.
Outside Portland.Lots of nice hideouts.Low cost living out of the metro areas
There is no industry outside of some small amounts of resource extraction[logging],some software ect,and the university,in Eugene.Nice town if you have money,hard living otherwise as each year,some students try and stay.Makes for a very eclectic mix......sometimes refered to the people republic of Eugene
snuffy
MR Anonimouse probably lives in se Portland...
snuffy
Snuffy-
I prefer to stay high and dry, not low and wet.
Chief Joseph said...
I prefer to stay high and dry, not low and wet.
----
It's to bad that most of the best farmland is below 50 ft.
Yes, as a long term option, above flood lines is best.
jal
Are they getting ready for martial law?
"DHS plans massive, five-day 'terrorism prevention' exercise"
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/24/dhs-plans-five-day-multi-national-terrorism-prevention-exercise/
Excerpt:
"Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the United States and abroad are preparing to go on high alert as part of a massive terrorism prevention exercise — the first of its kind here.
Beginning Monday, security officials at all levels in the United States and four other countries will scramble into action in the wake of a fictional terrorist attack somewhere outside the United States.
The scenario envisions the receipt of intelligence that a follow-up attack is planned inside the United States, forcing agencies inside and out of the country to test their coordination, intelligence and terror prevention skills.
The National Level Exercise 2009 “will be the first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a statement..."
Jal: "Yes, as a long term option, above flood lines is best."
Get used to it: THERE IS NO SHORT TERM.
In my world. I once stated baldly to an audience of professors and heavy greenies, "When you hear someone say: "Sure, it's not a final solution, but there are great short term benefits." - THOSE PEOPLE SHOULD BE KILLED IMMEDIATELY.
I paused. They laughed. As intended. But I was quite serious. "Short term benefit" always means long term unworkable. Which means you've been investing resources (which are not infinite for anyone) in a dead end.
Why would you invest time and energy in something you know you're going to have to re-do at some point?
This, I think, is a really good thing for doomers of all persuasions to think long and hard on.
Why would you invest time and energy in something you know you're going to have to re-do at some point?
Because you are poor.
Chief: "Because you are poor."
Sigh. You have me there. Actually, I'm personally familiar.
Yesterday someone was commenting they now expected to live in "abject poverty" for the rest of time. I didn't respond (no time). But I will now.
Some years ago I was a little startled to learn that a close friend and subordinate in the foundation I was CEOing was telling people I lived in "abject poverty." Which means, tiny house, outside plumbing, no refrigerator. Etc.
I responded, loudly, and still do, that there is nothing whatever "abject" about my poverty. On the contrary, I live in "flamboyant poverty". Which means, of course, it's a choice I make, not a condition thrust upon me.
Even when you're in the "thrust upon" kind- it's worth seeking, at least, to make your choices good; in the long term.
When you can. And you're right; I have done some things for the short term- because it was all I could do.
Thanks, Snuffy. A field trip is in order.
Eliza
I-
Your writing is only surpassed by your ability to select music. Too often the songs here make me cry. Keep them coming just the same. Thank you.
As for the lap child, the mature child offers as big a challenge when trying to figure out how to prepare for what lies ahead.
@ El G.
Great letters! Funny as always. I'm always trying to figure out new ways to gently describe our predicament to friends/family. I never manage to get more than a few sentences past the word "collapse." The population has been conditioned to reject apocalyptic prophecy. Gloomy Gus is easy to parody:
The End is Nigh
@ DIYer
Just a fan. If I were the real deal, I'd be a bit moldy at this point.
Greenpa said: ... I live in "flamboyant poverty". Which means, of course, it's a choice I make, not a condition thrust upon me.
On a similar vein, Baba Ram Das (Richard Alpert) used to tell a story about the difference between starving and fasting that was along the line of, not telling a person who's money has run out half way through the month the same thing you might tell a person fifteen days into a 30 day fast day fast. "Good going you only have 15 days to go"
-mudlark-
That is sort of neat I repeated 'day fast' above. It might have something to do with thinking ahead to what one is saying next while holding the end of what was said.
or of course it could be alzheimers setting in:(
-mudlark-
I'm poor and not much of it is a choice for reasons that mostly have to do with geography and disability.
But 50% of the neighbors are far worse off and 50% {on my block} are doing very well. But they aren't millionaires. So I feel good despite the poverty.
Miraculously, I have a very direct line to much of the incoming higher level capital that the wealthy spread around here, but they don't live on my block. So, poverty existeth not in a vacuum.
There's all kinds of flavors, relativities and subjectivities.
This week's poverty is actually rather dire for me, but by the end of the month I'll probably extract a few rabbits from the local economic hat and skate once more.
I've lived by my wits for over 35
years. Over time it becomes unremarkable.
re: above the flood line
Keep in mind that those dikes, dams, flood controls, etc. that make those wonderful farms productive will not be sustainable when and if those structures cannot be maintained or rebuilt.
i love the fact that I do not have black flies and mosquitoes in an urban area.
It's not so good near the river and marsh land.
Nope! ... I do not miss "fly dope" and "netting"
Remember the conversation about the building of the Riddeau canal near Ottawa, Canada.
Yep! It is pretty far north and they had malaria problems.
jal
Ed Gorey
When I taught science at this alternative school, we had a very good lead English teacher. She would tell the kids, "The first thing you ask yourself when writing an essay, is who is your audience.?" Well, I never quite learned that lesson. My friend in Mexico replied, "Don't send me anymore of your rants. It just stresses me." OTOH, she is moving her somewhat moderate assets into short term treasuries and stuffing cash in a mattress, so not all effort was lost. She just doesn't want to deal with the underlying political ramifications. Maybe, being primarily raised in Germany (she just turned 50), a world gone cruelly mad is a reality to her - more so than to a Usaco.
Had a great West Indian roti last night with a group of people only distantly connected with my regular group. They are intelligent professionals. A pharmacist, an established business graphic designer, a licensed surveyor. I basically just listened to the conversation. I can button my lip when I wish. They just don't have a freaken clue vis-a-vis the tsunami. And I am leaving St. John because I regard it as a particularly piss poor place to weather the apocalypse. Since it is such a reality to me, the scene struck me as almost eerie.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ogardener,
As a lifelong but now near past miscreant of the first order, where you say:
You mean the LaBatts Blue? It's fine like always :-)
I beg you to move over to the small-brewery side and life, there is nothing but heartache and headache with those large chemical plants like LaBatts.
I thank you for your concern and recommendations. I like to have a bottle of LaBatts every now and then because I like the taste of it. I do patronize the micro breweries as well but owe no loyalty to any particular brewer nor do I invest in any brew makers. I've been in cash since before Bear-Stearns went belly up.
"Ask ilargi I am sure on this we will agree that cash is king in avoiding the 'morning after' collapse."
-mudlark-
Thanks again for your concern and recommendations.
ogardener
The reason I disagree with the goldbugs is the confiscation which we all should know is coming.
The reason I disagree with "Cash is King" is the question of whether you'll get shot for what you have...
Guns will be king, and will determine all ownership, once TSHTF.
Greenpa, "There is no short term".
Yes and no. Cambridge isn't secure against serious sea level rise, but I'm not expecting it to be abandoned in my lifetime. It's a fair way inland. The child may have to move on eventually. But if I don't get us through the next decade she doesn't get that option, and beyond decades there's too much uncertainty to optimise well.
I'm hoping for a period of stability between economic, social, political and climate collapse and the Antarctic meltwater arriving, in which we can regroup. Fortunately the equator is conveniently in the way...
Ahimsa: Right now, I'd be putting a real chance at unrest in Cali at about September 1's scheduled checks, when the cuts start hitting home.
snuffy: I don't think it's going to be the fringe to bring Hell 2.0 -- 3.0, maybe (or 2.1), but 2.0 is going to come from those whom (including at least one person very close to me) has nothing left to lose.
Take one's life, and then their last real chance at sanity, and something bad is going to happen real damned soon.
I truly, as I have said, believe I am a dead man -- sooner than later... If the Governator does what I think he's going to do with that line-item, kiss it all goodbye in California by about Sept. 1.
@Caith
"So, assuming GS are setting us all up for another stock market crash in the fall, where they win and we lose, what's their plan for afterwards? If they've got all the money then we're going to have to come up with systems that don't rely on money, and then their wealth suddenly turns to dust."
These are very good questions and I really don't have the answers, despite thinking about it quite a bit. In a way it's part of my "evil project." Which is trying to fathom why so many humans commit acts of great superfluous cruelty and evil. I still find it mysterious.
As to why we have entered this financial meltdown, there are (at least) two schools of thought. One is the basic pirana theory which Snuffy just voiced. The other is that it was planned by a Masters of the Universe cabal. I have no doubt that this cabal exists and that David Rockefeller, who is still vaguely alive, has probably been its executive director. He has all but stated so publicly.
If you read William Engdalh's "The Seeds of Destruction," you will discover that these masters of the economic heights are very sick puppies (in the conventional psychiatric sense).
I guess the questions really are, how much influence did they really have; are things turning out the way they planned; and why precipitate a global depression?
The MOTU have made it clear that their over all goals where to do away with national sovereignty and have our benevolent bankers set up a new world order. These people would then become Plato's philosopher kings, ruling justly over us pissants.
Doing away with even the pretenses of a democratic government would enable the plan. The moneyed interests will be able to buy up the rest of the world as things get cheaper and cheaper, and they are the only ones holding money. If money eventually collapses, they will still have all the "stuff" (as the late George Carlin so aptly put it).
But if Our St. Stoneleigh, Lady of the Immaculate Economic Conception is correct, and she most probably is, then this ongoing financial collapse will mark the beginning of the end of globalization. And our beloved MOTU's have miscalculated a la the sorcerer's apprentice.
As the collapse progresses, the MOTU will retreat to fortified Green Zones protected by mercenaries who will originally be units of the national armed forces. Some may retreat to places like your mentioned Seychelles, though over time they may lose their five star rating as repairs to the sophisticated machinery and electronics become more difficult.
Some may venture out of the Green Zone with groups of mercenaries and establish feudal manors. There will be no shortage of starving peasants. We may yet see the Duchy of Toledo and the Barony of Secaucus.
In the end, I think that the MOTU have vastly miscalculated. Even with peak everything, if they had behaved with a modicum of civilized social democratic standards, they could probably have maintained higher standards of luxury for a longer period of time than it will turn out.
Of course there is no thrill for these people beyond absolute control over the masses and its constituent individuals. This control marks the dark heart of human evil.
Starcade
Stating the obvious, we are all dead people in the end. It's just a matter of when and how.
I recently made a foray into guerrilla gardening. Near our house is a park and a school and between them is a gentle slope with a 50 by 100 foot swath of blackberries. With my daughters' help we hacked a circular path in the blackberries and planted 4 dwarf pear trees.
We go there every few days to water the trees and keep the blackberries at bay. The fact that it is technically illegal enhances the experience. I just got back from it and the trees look great. The blackberries will soon be on and maybe we will learn how to make jam.
So far no one has discovered our 'garden', though I have shown a few friends. I plan to add a dozen more trees in the fall. Its been a lot of fun, especially since we live in the 'Valley of Death'.
Most excellent intro!
Thank you, Ilargi.
el gal said:
"These are very good questions and I really don't have the answers, despite thinking about it quite a bit. In a way it's part of my "evil project." Which is trying to fathom why so many humans commit acts of great superfluous cruelty and evil. I still find it mysterious."
It's sociopathic behaviour, no? Survival of the fittest sociopaths. I think you paint that very well in the rest of your post.
Parrot Owner
dark_matter --
Well done! Hmm, there is a wild hillside near a local school here...
Eliza
"Whatever you do, whatever pulls your crank, make sure something can still touch your heart. If not, you've gone the way of the Norwegian blue."
I believe the Norwegian blue reference is to the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch.
It's not dead, it's just pining for the Fiords.
I wanted to close this thread with my most sincere appreciation for Ilargi's post. Somehow, someway he is able to put into words the things that really matter in a visceral sense. All my best.
Guns will be king, and will determine all ownership, once TSHTF.
No no, Starcade a gun is dandy but a KNIFE is more handy. Anyway I don't think you are the kind of person that likes guns or knives, and, to state what is more than obvious to me is that if there is no place in this world for you and your friend unarmed, it is a shabby place full of bullies and self important frauds, not worth the candle.
-mudlark-
Caith @ 4:03
This is an excellent question, one I have always pondered and have never seen raised in my readings and conversations - what is the endgame for the elites if they are successful? Related to that is what are they doing with all this money? Once you have 17 estates, 112 vehicles, 4 yachts, a helicopter and jet, "x" tons of gold and precious metals, etc., then what? Some have so much money that it couldn't be burned as fast as it is earned....er, stolen.
I'm afraid that question has now been answered. They are sociopaths - addicted to power and greed. But how do they ensure their elite status once they have collapsed the system, and hence their access to the finished goods and services that they have become accustomed to?
The answer is they create a new system. A return to feudal times or such, with a few chosen henchmen to provide for them, at any expense to humanity as necessary, in return for security and a place at the table in a new world order.
The problem is (as mentioned) that once they have attained what they thought was their goal, then the infighting will begin, because they still have that lust for greed and power running through their veins. They have conquered the sheeple, so now they must fight amongst themselves in a power struggle at the very top. And this also comes atva time when the world experiences peak oil, peak energy, peak resources, peak everything. They will realize that the problem is too many humans vying for those precious resources, and that those "excess" humans must be removed.
They will be somewhat successful in culling the herd, but cannot attain ultimate success in that regard due to the sheer numbers and what history teaches us.
Bottom line, their plan is as ultimately doomed as the fractional reserve debt based pyramid ponzi on which of is established, but not without many dire consequences for many individuals and institutions along the way.
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