Screw the Banks and Investment Firms

[can't sit still]

Summertime blues;
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-36-is-ava ... ic-crisis- in-summer-2009-The-cumulative-impact-of-three-rogue-waves_a3359.html
I can't seem to make it appear in a good form. You have to cut and paste.

[Ugly Dougly]

Leave it to a barbarian to spell it out.

"I read this book in a palsied fascination of horror.
I have never read a book that was at the same time so convincing and
so frightening." - Isaac Asimov

http://www.printandread.com/download/co ... gefree.pdf
http://www.robertovacca.com/inglese.html

[can't sit still]

Dougly, I got a paper copy of this book many years ago. Rather than being a "doomer", Roberto Vaca is a computer specialist. He bases his ideas on he breakdown of "super-systems" There is another book, 'The Collapse of Complex Societies" by Tainter. I just got a paper copy of that too. The common theme is the unmanageable complexity. While we have computers to manage details, we still have greedy power-mongers to set policy. The kind of people [corrupt] who are drawn to power are rarely competent at making balanced, educated decisions.
Since many of their decisions are made in the interest of aggrandizing and concentrating power, it often doesn't work out too well for the rest. Their innate greed seems to result in a parasitic relationship rather than a symbiotic one. Our current technological society seems to really magnify the evil that they do.
The maintenance of the power structure of the PTB requires a LOT of carbon energy. The U.S. Gov is the biggest user of energy in the world. It looks like the East is soon to bring that to a skidding halt. We have lots of oil in both Gull island and the Bakken field and California. We just don't have time to develop these resources.

Here's a few links for the curious. Some have already been posted.
You might have to copy and paste the first one. Dan

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-36-is-ava ... ic-crisis- in-summer-2009-The-cumulative-impact-of-three-rogue-waves_a3359.html

http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2009/06/dead-end.html

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/06/d ... ation.html

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08 ... 60209.html

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/new-hard ... apse-34202

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=13964

http://theburningplatform.com/maintenance.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=13969

[can't sit still]

Cowboy, I said that I was in the deflation camp. Here's an excellent article that appears to justify that rationale . http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/quant ... easing.php
Dan

[cowboyangel]

Yeah, thanks Dan, I read that. I'm just finishing Ellen's book, "web of Debt" I strongly recommend it to everyone. I'm up in the air about inflation/deflation.

[can't sit still]

The inflation / deflation is the raging argument now. We have to keep in mind that the crunch destroyed $ trillions in paper wealth. Some of that paper wealth was assigned to tangibles and some to instruments. I think that the wealth assigned to tangibles will recover before the wealth assigned to instruments. A house is a tangible but, not really utilitarian. Things like houses won't recover their assigned value as fast as things like farm tractors.
As we perceive ourselves to be poorer, we won't assign value to things that aren't utilitarian.
Helicopter Ben is trying to recreate the missing $ 14 trillion. He prints it up and tries to infuse it back into the economy. People lost wealth that they already owned but Ben infuses the money into the banks so that people can borrow the missing wealth.
Likewise, industry lost their capitalization. Ben will loan them new capital.

We hear lots of stories of people who find that they have to start all over with nothing. Same with companies. It's not going to work. When people find that they worked for nothing, they are NOT going to invest time or money in the system. Most people worked to build a nest egg. They can easily see that, that strategy is for suckers. The banks are trying to revive a system that was set up [by them] for suckers.

Globalization removed the wages from the system. Bankers removed the profit. Socialism will remove the incentive. I'm betting on deflation.

[ygmir]

a friend sent this to me:



An Easily Understandable Explanation of Derivative Markets:

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans)..

Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit.

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and
increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics
as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.
Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers.

[can't sit still]

GOV is betting the farm on a continuance of bond sales. Here are some numbers from Bill Bonner;

"The government chalked up a $189 billion budget deficit last month alone, another record and the eight straight monthly deficit. We suspect they'd love to take a break from force feeding the market notes and bonds, but they can't...the Treasury will have to auction $2 trillion in debt this year just to keep the lights on."
Keep in mind that GOV is paying out $ 2trillion this year in benefits.
"The weakening dollar and Fed activity aimed at dollar debasement have contributed to declining demand for U.S. Treasuries. With low fundamental investor demand for Treasury securities, the Fed increasingly will have to monetize U.S. Treasury borrowings"
""As non-demand-driven inflation and money growth begin to pick-up, so too should the velocity of money" It's just not going to happen. NOBODY is going to spend money
Many people are betting on inflation. It would require a wage-price spiral. Wages are dropping. If prices rise, people will just buy the necessities. There won't be an overall gain in commerce.
We march to the edge of a cliff. That cliff is represented by a failure in the sale of treasury bonds. Just like Weimar Germany, GOV has no choice.

"The U.S. government announced yesterday it will auction a record $104 billion in debt next week," writes Ian in today's issue of The 5.

"Despite obvious warning signs that the world has had its fill of American paper, the Treasury will forge ahead: $40 billion in 2-year's Tuesday, $37 billion in 5-year notes Wednesday and $27 billion in 7 year garbage on Thursday."
"While the private sector during the bubble years brought U.S. debts to a record 3.7 times the entire nation's output, now it's the public sector that does the borrowing. The Obama Administration is adding to the accumulated U.S. debt at a suicidal pace - four times faster than the record set just last year. And America's central bank hands the borrower a loaded pistol; it is adding bank reserves - which allow the money supply to expand geometrically - at a 4,500% rate. "
I still maintain that this money is not moving into my hands or Joe, the plumber's hands. GOV is trying mightily to infuse the money into the economy and create inflation. People are refusing to add on more debt so the $ trillions remain in the bank vaults as unborrowed reserves.
The banks are sitting on $ hundreds of trillions of bad loans and bad derivatives but, only <10> $ trillion of our money. They are sincerely hoping for hyperinflation to reduce their future debt load. With the present unemployment there won't be demand or high inflation. The incoming wave of Alt-A and Option-Arm loans is already defaulting at 20%. The banks don't have a prayer of surviving. Since the overall health of the banks is a big part of the perception of a healthy economy, the bond sales are tied to the fortunes of the banks.
The banks strive mightily for inflation but,ignore the producing economy. If GOV just sent $ 1 million to every person in the country, that would definitely fire up some inflation. BUT, the banks insisted that the money be LOANED, not given. Just as their greed got them into this, it won't let them exit.
The inflation that the banks hoped and tried to induce in the general economy is all concentrated in the banking industry and GOV. Pretty funny, if you ask me.
When the short-term treasury auctions start to fail, that will cause an exodus from investments in GOV. There is speculation that much of the treasuries are bought by Carribean banks that are controlled by the CIA. Who knows?

The FED is a bunch of Rothschilds and Warburgs, et al. They aren't risking their pot of gold because everything that they create out of thin air is monetized by the treasury. The Treasury isn't risking anything because the U.S. doesn't have any way to repay it's debt. Once investors figure out that THEY are left holding the bag, they may just exit.

"reparations - adjusted to today's money. But America's debts are far grander than those of Germany in 1923 - even relative to the size of the US economy. Where Germany owed a little over $1 trillion; America - if you include private debt, official government debt, off-budget obligations and internal commitments - owes 100 times as much. And the United States keeps borrowing more. In a single year - 2009 - it will borrow $1.3 trillion, again, just shy of the debt that sank the Weimar Republic. "
"Butch, what say we go to Bolivia?"

[cowboyangel]

Great story YGMIR


Wouldn't we all like to know the identity of the guy who "called in the loans"?

[cowboyangel]

..and Bill Bonner is a genius!
We know we're fucked eventually. It's a question of the boil-over point for our foreign creditors. My guess is in about a year? Wanna do a futures trade on that one?

[ygmir]

Great story YGMIR


Wouldn't we all like to know the identity of the guy who "called in the loans"?

there's the 64 trillion dollar question...........

I've also heard that "they're" floating the idea of dis-allowing private gold/silver bullion ownership again.......

I wonder if it's true?

[cowboyangel]

I'm almost ready to believe anything I hear in that regard. Let's see, we have the Reagan created "Plunge Protection Team" and the secret group of investors called the "Pirates of the Caribbean" (Cayman Islands to be exact) buying up unsold treasuries with special issued currency for the purpose.
The number and the numbers of the secret, illicit deals are probably staggering. As we drive to the edge of the cliff. If only the right wing boneheads would jump on this instead of crying "socialism" at every turn in the bend.....there is socialism- for the well connected and elite ruling financial class. Socialism is just fine by them. Just fine.

[cowboyangel]

[youtube][/youtube]

[can't sit still]

let's not get all down and serious. GOV will figure out a way out of this;
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/u ... serves_for

[can't sit still]

Bill Bonner;
"The Fed - already the controller of money supply and interest rates - will be given 'authority and accountability for consolidated supervision and regulation of Tier 1 FHCs.' And what the hell is a Tier 1 FHC? Glad you asked...it's ANY company 'whose failure could pose a threat to financial stability due to their combination of size, leverage, and interconnectedness.' In simple terms, the Fed will become the master of all things 'too big to fail.'
SO, we have the FED that is buying all the long bonds,,, creating $ trillions for the banks,, and now, the FED is going to riding herd on any company that poses a threat to the financial system. OK, that all sounds "good" But wait; what is plan "B" when the treasury auctions fail? BTW, is the FED going to be stripping assets from the companies that it "regulates"?

"The FDIC (and maybe the Treasury) could have a third option for failing companies. Not content with just the 'big bailout' or 'let 'em fail' options, the plan proposes to allow federal regulators to overtake failed companies and sell their assets to investors, much like the FDIC already does with dead banks. "
This is all well and good. GOV is going to look after the banks.
What about the little guy?
"something like 3 million unemployed people are going to fall out of the safety net in the third quarter. With their families, that's about 10 million people who will sink suddenly into deep poverty," says GEAB a private research service headquartered in Paris."
Well,,, so much for the little guy.

[cowboyangel]

The deception can only work for a little while longer. The banks are screwed too. There will be rioting in the streets.

Regarding deception, here's a great one from Paul Craig Roberts:

The Waning Power of Truth

By Paul Craig Roberts

June 19, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- David Ray Griffin, the nemesis of the collection of disinformation known as the 9/11 Commission Report, has taken up the question of Osama Bin Laden, Dead or Alive?

On the basis of the available evidence, Griffin concludes that bin Laden died in December 2001, most likely of kidney failure. He has been kept alive in the media by US government PSYOPS as a useful bogyman to justify America’s illegal wars of aggression. The messages received from bin Laden since his death appear to be conveniently timed fabrications designed to advance US government purposes.

Osama bin Laden is likely to become a mythical person, like the Georgia Tech student, George P. Burdell, who will be sighted from time to time over a period that exceeds the length of a human life.

It was less than one year ago that Americans were subjected to PSYOPS disinformation from their government concerning the Russia-Georgia conflict over South Ossetia.

Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin incorporated South Ossetia, formerly a part of Russia, into his home province of Georgia. When the Soviet Union broke up, Georgia became independent and retained South Ossetia. Secession movements arose in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia. These secession movements were the reason European members of NATO rejected the US government’s attempt to make Georgia a NATO member in order to extend the US/NATO military presence on Russia’s borders in contravention of previous US government agreements with Russia.

To terminate the secession movement and, thereby, remove the barrier to Georgia becoming a NATO member, the US, with Israel’s help, trained and equipped the Georgian military and gave the American puppet ruler, installed in the aftermath of one of the US-orchestrated color revolutions, the green light to attack South Ossetia.

Under mutual agreement, Russia and Georgia both provided peace-keeping troops in South Ossetia to prevent violence by secessionists. On the night of August 7-8, 2008, Georgian troops attacked South Ossetia, destroying a town and killing many Russian Ossetians and some Russian soldiers who were part of the peace-keeping force. Large numbers of South Ossetians fled across the border to Russia.

The US government, in its hubris, assumed that Russia would accept the ethnic cleansing of Russians from South Ossetia. Instead, Russian troops arrived and quickly destroyed the American trained and equipped Georgian army and could easily have taken control of Georgia, but refrained.

Defeated in its aim, the US government unleashed a PSYOPS disinformation war against the Russian government, claiming falsely that Russia had initiated the conflict by attacking Georgia. The US government’s blatant and transparent lies were force-fed to the American public by the US media.

British disinformation services cooperated with their American masters, but the rest of the world blew the whistle. The real facts emerged, and an American disinformation campaign experienced a rare failure.

Now ten months later, US “black opsâ€

[Oldguy]

What is the intent of your reiteration of all this misinformation? Do you really believe this crap? Do you expect us to believe you? Seriously.

[can't sit still]

Cowboy, that's a good article. What U.S. leaders prove first and foremost is that they never learn from history. The NEOCONS were especially adept at drinking their own Koolaide. If they wished hard enough for something,, it would come to fruition. History clearly warned against going in to Viet-Nam and Afghanistan.

Then, when the lessons of history weren't clear enough, they resorted to stupidity. They imagined that they could just prepare an invasion force for Ossetia and the FSB wouldn't catch on;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Se ... Federation
They committed themselves [and our soldiers] to a war with no exit strategy,,, and no hope of any kind of enduring success.
Maybe they hoped to secure complete control of asian oil. Possibly, they thought that; if they controlled all the oil, it wouldn't matter if they killed the dollar in the process.
GOV tried to micro-manage the war believing that their political rapacity would translate to battlefield prowess. More Koolaide. Their blunders were monumental. Disbanding the iraqui army quickly provided a couple million trained insurgents.

Using this same mindset of no exit strategy, they attempted to repair the economy that they had destroyed.
People may turn away in horror and truth-avoidance when they hear about questionable conclusions in the 9/11 report. These same people will start to pay attention when they learn that they have lost their accustomed style of living. They will get downright irate when they discover that their future has been stolen. When they learn that their savings have been stolen and given to the banks,,, and that the banks will loan it back to them,,, they will be downright hostile.

By giving all the money to the banks, GOV has formally declared; "screw the public"
When the bond sales falter and GOV defaults, they will formally declare; "screw the world" This is going to make a lot of people unhappy,,, especially the Japanese.
The East is studiously trying not to give us an excuse to use our carrier-battle groups.

The World is just innocently sitting back and watching us . destroy ourselves. I'm sure that they've already printed the 'sympathy cards"

Our constitution was specifically written to keep us out of foreign wars. The founding fathers had plenty of experience in the results of empire building. Our leaders have studiously avoided the lessons of history. WE pay the price.

Ike made it very clear what the danger was;
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. "
I think that "disastrous rise of misplaced power" pretty well covers the situation.
Dan

[Oldguy]

Don't believe this propaganda folks. We are still at war.

I suspect these conspiracy nuts are behaving like foreign agents giving aid and comfort to our enemies. Treason takes many forms, deception and lies are tools of psyops agents. I hope they are ignorant dilitants who simply do not realize the damage to moral they are creating. Opinion is not proof.

Look it up yourself, check sources. Ask a soldier if there is evil in the world.

We are not evil. We fight evil. Seriously.

Or else this an elaborate hoax thread like random thoughts...

______________________________________
From Wikipedia:
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberate attempt to dupe, deceive or trick an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when the hoaxster knows it is not; or that something is true, when it is false. In an instance of a hoax, an object, or event, is not what it appears to be, or what it is claimed to be - for example, "snake oil," which was sold by 19th century traveling salesman in the United States as a cure-all. A hoax differs from a magic show in that the audience is unaware of being deceived - whereas in watching a magician perform a magical act, the audience expects to be tricked.

It is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context (see Dihydrogen monoxide hoax). Unlike a fraud or con (which is usually aimed at a single victim and are made for illicit financial or material gain), a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke, to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social change by making people aware of something. Many hoaxes are motivated by a desire to satirize or educate by exposing the credulity of the public and the media or the absurdity of the target. For instance, the hoaxes of James Randi poke fun at believers in the paranormal and alternative medicine. The many hoaxes of Alan Abel and Joey Skaggs satirize people's willingness to believe the media. Political hoaxes are sometimes motivated by the desire to ridicule or besmirch opposing politicians or political institutions, often before elections. Journalistic scandals overlap with hoaxes to some extent.

Some governments have been known to perpetrate hoaxes to assist them with unpopular aims such as going to war (e.g., the Ems Telegram, or the Dodgy Dossier). In fact, there is often a mixture of outright hoax, and suppression and management of information to give the desired impression. In wartime, rumours abound; some may be deliberate hoaxes.

The word hoax is said to have come from the common magic incantation hocus pocus. "Hocus pocus", in turn, is commonly believed to be a distortion of "hoc est corpus" ("this is the body") from the Latin Mass.

[cowboyangel]

You're funny Old Guy. And how many blue pills have you swallowed lately? And I ain't talkin about viagra...ask Neo

[Oldguy]

Aha! It is a hoax. Very funny. I knew burners could not be that stupid. You had me going. I almost believed you guys thought all that conspiracy stuff was real. And my pills are yellow, thank you very much...

Ps. That white van parked around the corner from you is not a surveillance vehicle, repeat, it is NOT a surveillance vehicle.

[can't sit still]

Cowboy, Here's an article by Gary North;
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north722.html
What do you think of his conclusions?
"The Federal Reserve can re-ignite monetary inflation at any time by charging banks a fee to keep excess reserves with the FED.

Anyone who predicts an inevitable price deflation does not understand that the present scenario is the product of legitimately terrified bankers and the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors. At any time, the FED can get all of the banks' money lent. But the FED knows that this will double the money supply within weeks. This will create mass price inflation. "

It seems to me that the guy is way out of touch and deluded. Essentially, he says that if banks offer loans, everyone will come running through the door to snap them up. He also says that unemployment is no problem. The guy is so focused on " flow of funds" that he ignores the deficit. He ignores the P / E. He ignores the complete loss of discretionary spending. He's so boneheaded that he automatically equates availability of credit with availability of demand. for that credit. Americans are demonstrating some new-found prudence. He assumes that maxed-out, unemployed consumers are going to jump right back into a debt cesspool. Corporate bonds have a higher default rate now than at any time in the great depression. I guess he figures that corporations are all going to sign on the dotted line,,,, with no prospects of returning product demand.
This guy supposedly represents the "intelligentsia" of American investors. What an ignorant fraud.
Dan

[cowboyangel]

Thanks for that one Dan. I have to re-read it. Just what does a financial collapse look like? There was great deflation during the last depression and Roosevelt devalued the dollar, I forgot now by how much, but even that didn't work. The fractional reserve lending of the banks and then banks themselves have to be taken out of the picture. Anybody with balls will nationalize them when the collapse hits, but Obama ain't showing too much balls up to this point. America has changed almost 180 degrees since the last depression. There is little tolerance for scarcity and denial of services and this fucking country is armed to the teeth. It could get ugly.

I think we may see the rise of viable, decentralized community currency movements across the land. I sure hope so.

I'll get back to you on this one. Climbed a mountain today and I'm beat.

[can't sit still]

Y'all have heard of MOOP. Now we have to suffer MOPE.
"You see, the MOPErs are primarily Yalees from one fraternity that control Wall Street which has captured Washington, installing their school of economics of which Greenspan is a major practitioner. When you MOPE you produce nothing but paper bubbles, not sustainable economic gains. You must recall his speeches on market perceptions creating economic occurrences."
http://jsmineset.com/2009/07/07/a-lesso ... -and-spin/
"Super Sovereign Currency Basket Index" This is a term that you will hear of often in the future. The U.S. screwed the pooch as far as the reserve currency goes. The World is getting together to push out the dollar. They want a basket that includes a bunch of currencies. It would also be smart to include some commodities too maybe gold.
The World can't make any money if there is too much volatility in the accepted means of trade.
The World is aware that we are going into a very bad depression. The banks won't loan because [mostly] they can't establish the value of anything. The World is aware that we won't exit a depression if there isn't some kind of stability in currencies. There won't be much manufacturing if producers can't expect a profit,,,, due to unhinged currencies. The U.S. broke that hinge and the World is tired of our shit. The World needs stable credit and currency or producers won't produce.
The poor are going to start tearing things apart and the World knows that it better get a move on. The G20 is moving. The Sino-Soviet block is moving. The G8 has their thumb up their asses. What a bunch of morons.

[RingO'Fire]

There's a great article by Matt Tiabbi in this month's Rolling Stone:

The Great American Bubble Machine:
How Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression

Here's the link: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/st ... le_machine

[cowboyangel]

Hi Ring! Will check it out.

[cowboyangel]

... a good thread deserves to be bumped up....

[can't sit still]

Cowboy, this whole banking thing is runaway. The banks are OK,,, to a point. Goldman Sachs and their ilk are the criminals. All the money that should be supporting the general economy has been sucked into a black hole. Evidently, the plan was to crash the economy and buy up assets for pennies. It is not going to work !!!
No asset has an intrinsic value. The only value that can be assigned to anything must be related to it's utilitarian value. A bond only has a value if it can be used to purchase a factory. A factory only has value if it can produce a widget. A widget only has value if it can be used for something productive.
The system is paralyzed because there is no productivity at any level. You can't vaporize $ 14 trillion in household wealth and expect the consuming economy to just march right along. 34 million on food stamps and people are expected to consume irresponsibly???
<650> jobs lost every month and people are expected to throw their money around just like before???
Goldman can buy up all the assets that it wants [with our money]. As long as we have no money, these assets will sit idle, depreciate and incur taxes. The latest figures indicate that the US will have 70 % inflation in another year. That should work wonders for a stagnated economy with no jobs. As investors see that sales just aren't going to recover, they will dump instruments in favor of cash. 70 % inflation should effectively terminate the discretionary spending of most everyone.

The banks are culpable to a point. The big investment banks who "invented" derivatives are criminal. But, since they control D.C. , they get rewarded.
Dan
BUMP

[cowboyangel]

All true Dan and the criminal capitulation to big wealth in California today ought to send a loud and clear message to the people of our state: " you don't matter", neither do your schools, your children, your off shore ocean environment, and your poor. The state today said "fuck you" to these groups. The mantra of not raising taxes, prevailed in the screwed straw man TV debate culture. Closing corporate tax loop holes in prop 13 and raising taxes for our bloated oil giants were never on the radar screen as once more, wealth and the putrid class who run things in California and Washington, prevailed. Our mouthpiece Teutonic dumb shit of a governor, succeeded in proving his worth as the terminator of the people.
If curses could work, dump them on mass upon the lives of this rotten, gangrene souled ruling class.

Wake up people. Organize, form new democratic unions and go the fuck on general strike.

[Ugly Dougly]

Whelp, Dow's around 8900 today. I still predict it to hit 9000 by the end of the year.

Then, of course, the world will end.