US deficit
Posted by: r1b2 on: August 19, 2009
Here is a graphical representation of US deficit. Just think about it, ponder over it and ask where are we going with this. No need to say more.
The image is from the zerohedge blog.
Stand By Me video
Posted by: r1b2 on: June 28, 2009
We Are One is the message from Jon Bon Jovi and friends to Iran in this version of “Stand By Me” video. First couple lines are persian. I could understand ‘Dard e toh dard e mah” sentence. That means if you are hurt, it hurts me too or your pain is my pain. I am not persian.
If you like the video you can download the mp3 here.
WHERE IS MY VOTE? – video
Posted by: r1b2 on: June 17, 2009
Here is a fantastic creative video from an artist in Toronto on recent protests by people of Iran. Hope they get freedom/azadi.
The Big Lie : Stress Test Optimism Just Wall St. Propaganda Former Bank Regulator Says
Posted by: r1b2 on: May 8, 2009
How the Geithner plan “works”
Posted by: r1b2 on: March 31, 2009
Another related post of mine here about the plan.
Taxpayer dollars going down the drain
Posted by: r1b2 on: March 23, 2009
Just yesterday President Obama said the bank assets/derivatives are worthless. Today according to Geithner’s plan government is going to buy them with private investors with government buying about 95% of any assets that bank want to sell.
Here’s is an example from marketwatch.com
How the plan would work
The Treasury’s ambitious program would revolve around five steps:
1. A bank decides what pool of assets they would like to sell.
2. After determining that it would be willing to leverage the pool, the FDIC will conduct an auction. For instance, mortgages with $100 face value would be bought for $84.
3. Of the $84, the FDIC would provide guarantees for $72 of financing, leaving $12 of equity.
4. The Treasury would then provide 50% of the equity financing. In this example, Treasury would invest $6 and the private investor would contribute the other $6.
5. The private investor would manage the servicing of the asset pool using managers approved by the FDIC.
ABC news video about Geithner’s plan. Good questions by Diane Sawyer.
I liked Mish’s quote here.
Somehow, Geithner (and Obama by implication) believes that igniting a bidding war between hedge funds and private equity over a bag of cow manure will inspire confidence that there’s gold in the bag. Such insanity cannot possibly work, which means it won’t.
Here is the link to PAUL KRUGMAN’s column in NYtimes.
Spring is here!
Posted by: r1b2 on: March 21, 2009
- In: Uncategorized
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Spring flowers
CDS regulation? Dream on…..
Posted by: r1b2 on: March 19, 2009
Credit default swaps (CDS) are insurance against default of debt, which currently trade in unregulated, over-the-counter markets. It will start trading on Intercontinental Exchange’s platform. But it will be still remain unregulated and under control of the same 11 big players because the exchange got an exemption from SEC. May be SEC doesn’t want more work 
In October, Intercontinental Exchange(ICE) became the first regulated exchange to gain SEC’s approval to begin clearing CDS, beating out rivals like Chicago’s CME Group. ICE purchased The Clearing Corp.which was previously owned by 11 financial institutions that are the primary CDS traders. So the same players who controlled the CDS market are still dictating rules of the game. On top of that ICE got an exemption from regulations for CDS trading.
Fed believes SEC has the authority with respect to CDS. SEC which granted exemption says that its authority is “limited.” So neither the Fed nor the SEC is taking much responsibility for regulating CDS. The CME Group had created an index of CDS that proved to be unpopular with the existing CDS players.
Intercontinental Exchange wrote in its exemption request letter that regulations “would create a significant and burdensome dislocation of this market and, of greatest concern, would almost certainly present an extremely significant obstacle to the adoption of clearing for the CDS market”.
Allan Grody of Financial Intergroup Advisers, said the system is built upon controlling self-interests.
“They are trying to preserve some semblance of revenue stream,” he says, noting the 44-page exemption request from ICE focuses on the costs of clearing the CDS and not what it costs to do it right.
Taxpayers have poured $160B into AIG because of its massive CDS assets. And AIG is turning out to be a black hole for taxpayers money.
Bailout for a bank tied to a congresswoman
Posted by: r1b2 on: March 12, 2009
Representative Maxine Waters, a member of the House Financial Services Committee helped get bailout for a bank named OneUnited, which had ties to her husband. It is an outrage! Nobody cares for taxpayers. Not even our representatives in the congress.
Top banking regulators were taken aback late last year when a California congresswoman helped set up a meeting in which the chief executive of a bank with financial ties to her family asked them for up to $50 million in special bailout funds, Treasury officials said.
Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Water’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board of directors until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 in stock in the institution. Treasury officials said the session with nearly a dozen senior banking regulators had been intended to allow minority-owned banks and their trade association to discuss the losses they had incurred from the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Kevin Cohee, OneUnited’s chief executive, instead seized the opportunity to plead for special assistance for his bank, federal officials said.
The congresswoman did not disclose her ties to OneUnited to Treasury officials, who said they learned of them only later. While OneUnited did not get the $50 million it requested, the bank did become among the first minority-owned institutions to receive a cash infusion — $12 million — in December through the Treasury’s bank bailout effort TARP.
The aid surprised some bank analysts because the bailout was intended for healthy banks, and OneUnited was then considered to be in precarious condition. In addition, it had been harshly criticized by regulators in 2007 for failing to give a sufficient number of loans to lower income residents in Miami, while favoring wealthier customers there. And the F.D.I.C. sanctioned the institution in October 2008 for “unsafe or unsound banking practices,” including excessive compensation for Mr. Cohee. The bank had provided him with a 2008 Porsche SUV and maintained his $6.4 million beachfront compound in Santa Monica. Calif., with views of the Pacific and a spa and pool.
News link : Congresswoman, Tied to Bank, Helped Seek Funds
Jon Stewart mocking CNBC
Posted by: r1b2 on: March 12, 2009
- In: Finance| comedy
- Leave a Comment
The daily show takes on CNBC. Simply funny and brilliant.
Gita verses
- Chapter 3 Verses 4040. The senses, mind and intellect are said to be its seat; through these it deludes the embodied by veiling his wisdom.
- Chapter 3 Verses 3939. O Arjuna, wisdom is enveloped by this constant enemy of the wise in the form of desire, which is unappeasable as fire!
- Chapter 3 Verses 3838. As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, and as an embryo by the amnion, so is this enveloped by that.
- Chapter 3 Verses 37The Blessed Lord said: 37. It is desire, it is anger born of the quality of Rajas, all-sinful and all-devouring; know this as the foe here (in this world).
Mish Shedlock
- Different Kind of Real Estate Crash November 9, 2009
- Living Wages, Sheep, and Grocery Store Strikes November 8, 2009
- Financial Transaction Taxes Would Cause Stock Market Crash November 7, 2009
- Bloggers' Right to Free Speech and Use Anonymous Sources Questioned in New Hampshire Supreme Court November 6, 2009
