‘Sometimes I think, was it real?’ The American bailout nightmare |
“We had to project confidence, hold up the world,” Neel Kashkari recalls. “We couldn’t admit how scared we were, or how uncertain” |
The architect of America’s banking bailout has revealed for the first time the
chaos behind the scenes at the US Treasury during the creation of the
controversial $700 billion (£425 billion) Troubled Asset Relief Program
(Tarp).
|
Neel Kashkari, the 35-year-old banker picked by Hank Paulson, then Treasury
Secretary, to design the Tarp, described how one colleague screamed in panic
over the imploding financial system, while another almost died of heart
problems because he worked on the bailout rather than seeking medical
treatment.
|
I want this book on my Kindle and in English. The Man Who Predicted the Depression
|
Ludwig von Mises explained how government-induced credit expansions led to imbalances in the economy. |
Ludwig von Mises was snubbed by economists world-wide as he warned of a credit crisis in the 1920s. We ignore the great Austrian at our peril today. |
Mises’s ideas on business cycles were spelled out in his 1912 tome “Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel” (”The Theory of Money and Credit”). Not surprisingly few people noticed, as it was published only in German and wasn’t exactly a beach read at that. Read more at online.wsj.com |
Farmers Killing Cows Amid Low Milk Prices |
Farmers Seek To Reduce Supply |
| After burning through $1 million in savings and seeing no end to their losses, dairy farmers Jake and Lori Slegers figured they didn’t have much choice — they had to kill the cows. So one day last summer their sons tagged all 1,571 cows, loaded them onto trailers at their farm south of Fresno, Calif., and watched them rumble away to a slaughterhouse. Lori Slegers said her husband came into the house and broke down. “He said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do,” she said. “Luckily, my boys could do it.” Growing demand in developing nations drove up milk prices when times were good, and dairy farmers expanded their herds. But the global recession hurt exports and left farmers with too much milk on their hands. Milk processors cut the price they were willing to pay farmers, in many cases below what it cost to produce milk.Read more at www.thebostonchannel.com |
Wonder what the cost to maintain that job and then actually get ROI off of it in terms of economic growth translates too? NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The White House unveiled Thursday the first hard data on how many jobs the $787 billion recovery act has created. |
So far, 30,383 jobs have been created by companies that have gotten $2.2 billion worth of stimulus contracts directly from the federal government. That equates to $71,500 per job based on just the funds that have been distributed. |
These firms have been awarded a total of $16 billion. |
Stimulus-fueled job creation has become a very controversial issue. The White House has faced blistering attacks by Republicans, who contend that the recovery act has failed to live up to its promise to put Americans back to work. Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com |
How the hell do all these banks keep running out of money? Especially now the World bank. Are the gremlins coming in at night and taking it someplace? Something just doesn’t make sense. World Bank could ‘run out of money’ within 12 months |
The World Bank is close to ‘running out of money’, its president, Robert
Zoellick, has disclosed.
|
The Bank, whose job it is to support low-income countries, has had to hand out
so much cash in the wake of the financial crisis that it faces a shortfall
in what it can spare for new projects within 12 months.
|
“By the middle of next year we will face serious constraints,” said its
president Robert Zoellick, as he launched a major campaign to persuade rich
nations to pour more money into the Washington-based institution.
|
He conceded that such a task was likely to be extremely difficult, given the
difficulties facing countries in the wake of the developed world’s biggest
recession since the Second World War.
Read more at www.telegraph.co.uk |
Capitalism After the Crisis |
The economic crisis of the past year, centered as it has been in the financial sector that lies at the heart of American capitalism, is bound to leave some lasting marks. Financial regulation, the role of large banks, and the relationships between the government and key players in the market will never be the same. |
Are such changes now beginning? And if so, will they mark only a temporary reaction to an extreme economic downturn, or a deeper and more damaging shift in American attitudes? Some early indications are not encouraging. |
These attitudes are familiar to students of public opinion in much of the world. But they are quite unusual for the United States. Until recently, Americans stood out for their acceptance of basic market principles and even for their tolerance of some of the negative side effects markets produce, such as marked income inequality. Read more at nationalaffairs.com |
From the article this interesting question arises:
How could this happen when Washington has thrown trillions of dollars into the pot, including the famous $787 billion in stimulus spending that was supposed to yield $1.50 in growth for every dollar spent? The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think
|
The average length of unemployment is higher than it’s been since government began tracking the data in 1948. |
The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad. |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion. |
Hmmm. perhaps 2009 is not the time to go back to visit Russia? Things there sound not much better than anywhere else. Ex-PM warns of economic chaos, revolution in Russia |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia could face economic chaos and even revolution unless the government acts swiftly to reform and relax political restrictions, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said on Thursday. |
Kasyanov, who now leads an opposition party, told a seminar in Brussels that by the end of this year inflation could reach 15 percent, toxic loans could rise to 30 percent of all loans and unemployment could reach 10 million. |
The government may also have to seek help from the International Monetary Fund “in the near future,” he said. |
Kasyanov, leader ,of the People’s Democratic Union, predicted Russia’s reserves would be swiftly swallowed up financing an increasing budget deficit and the government would soon face problems financing military and police pensions. |
“It will happen in reality in a period of one year, but if the financial crisis races, it will be in a shorter period,” he told Liberal Democrat politicians in the European Parliament in a speech delivered in English. Read more at uk.reuters.com |
While the article seems to take a stab at the Obama administraton, I am taking a stab at all these people in the Wall Street financial industry. All of these finance guys are involved in the largest ponzi and control scheme in the history of modern society. Having heard Douglas Rushkoff speak at Web2Expo it all makes much more sense on how big government and corps try to control society. Currency is simply one instrument in the big ponzi scheme. I just ordered Rushkoff’s book “Life, Inc” which unravels this whole mess and offers some ways that we are normal citizens can win back control.
Financial industry paid millions to Obama aide |
WASHINGTON - Lawrence H. Summers, the top economic adviser to President Obama, earned more than $5 million last year from the hedge fund D. E. Shaw and collected $2.7 million in speaking fees from Wall Street companies that received government bailout money, the White House disclosed Friday in releasing financial information about top officials. |
Mr. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, wields important influence over Mr. Obama’s policy decisions for the troubled financial industry, including firms from which he recently received payments. |
Last year, he reported making 40 paid appearances, including a $135,000 speech to the investment firm Goldman Sachs, in addition to his earnings from the hedge fund, a sector the administration is trying to regulate. Read more at www.msnbc.msn.com |
|
‘Sometimes I think, was it real?’ The American bailout nightmare
