Oh, that’s reassuring
Bob Morris @ 23:15 Category: Unfiled;
September 15, 2008
“No one has experience with failure on this scale. No one.”
Bob Morris @ 18:28 Category: Credit crisis;
The Telegraph UK has an extraordinary video Interview (and accompanying article) with British private equity banker John Moulton. He is amazingly frank and blunt about the current financial debacle.
It’s the worst crisis he’s seen in his “lengthy career.” The Fed will find out real soon now if refusing to prop up Lehman was a good idea. The LTCM bailout some years back was less than $4 billion. “That’s a rounding error in this stuff.”
Were the current problems fueled by greedy investment bankers? “That’s about 90% accurate, I’m afraid. People made a lot of money selling rusted heaps of cars called structured loans.”
Will the British government intervene? “Maybe, but I’m absolutely confident they haven’t got a clue either.”
“No one has experience with failure on this scale. No one.”
Bolivia at the abyss: A special report
Bob Morris @ 15:26 Category: Unfiled Tags: Bolivia;
(I’m taking the liberty of reprinting this lengthy report from the excellent Democracy Center in Bolivia reporting on the very real possibility of civil war there foisted by the right against the leftist government. Their servers are not responding now, probably because of so many hits (or a DOS attack), hence this reprint to get the word out. Links in the article are not included because they point back to their website)
The Democracy Center On-Line
Volume 82 - September 15, 2008
Dear Readers:
As you may know from news headlines, Bolivia is in the midst of a violent political crisis that has more than two dozen people dead in the last five days. This issue of our newsletter offers a summary of the crisis and what led to it. It also includes embedded links to more in-depth information that we have published previously. Please consider forwarding this to others you know are interested. To the people who have sent email asking if my family and I are safe — we are and will continue to be. Thank you for your concern.
One last note, we had hoped to dedicate this month’s newsletter to the upcoming U.S. tour for our new book on Bolivia, “Dignity and Defiance,” as well as the launch of our new “Voices from Latin America” project aimed at U.S. policy in Latin America. We’ll be back with those shortly.
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
Bolivia at the Abyss: A Special Report
At least twenty-five people are dead as the result of political violence. It is unclear if the nation will be able to steer clear of open civil war. The Bolivian and U.S. governments have taken turns kicking one another’s ambassadors out of the country. The Presidents of virtually every nation in South America are convening in an emergency summit in Chile on Monday morning, with one of them calling this moment the biggest threat to a democracy on the continent since the bloody coup that installed Augusto Pinochet in power there in 1973.
This is the state of things in Bolivia and in Latin America as I write.
Continue Reading »
Dow drops 504 points, 4.5%
Bob Morris @ 14:52 Category: Credit crisis;
Weren’t the financial zombies supposed to be dead and buried, with all the problems magically fixed? That’s what mainstream media told us for months. Everything is fine, just fine, just a few little speeds bumps that’s all. But then, whoa, two major investment banks vaporize in a weekend, while giant insurance company AIG screams for tens of billions in loans and Washington Mutual looks to be circling the drain. Oopsie.
Interesting, isn’t it, that financial blogs were first with news about the credit crisis, reporting on the then impeding crisis accurately and exhaustively long before mainstream media did. Many of them were mocked by mainstream media at first. But no one is laughing any more.
Take a bow, financial bloggers. Here’s some of the financial blogs I read. All are written by pros in their respective financial fields.
Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis.
Tim in Ohio couldn’t find gas all weekend
Bob Morris @ 12:30 Category: Unfiled Tags: gas shortages;
He’s running on empty too. Hurricane Ike not only prompted panic buying of gasoline, refineries in the Houston area are down at least until the power comes back.
And it’s not just in Ohio. The photo is of a gas station in North Carolina.
Romney calls out McCain. “False accusation was wrong & reprehensible”
Bob Morris @ 09:45 Category: Election 2008 Tags: McCain;
Spread the meme. Republicans are the party that wrecked America
Bob Morris @ 08:32 Category: Credit crisis Tags: McCain, Obama;
Jim Kunstler on the current financial crisis
So, to begin this process, and to clarify the situation, I urge readers of this blog to identify the Republican Party by its new brand-name: the party that wrecked America. At least, then, we can reinstate one cardinal value into the juddering structure of what we claim to believe: that actions have consequences, that you can’t just swindle and loot a society and walk away with the swag.
PS
The man most responsible for the financial services and banking deregulation that made today possible, fmr. Sen. Phil Gramm, is the man John McCain wants to put in charge of the whole economy.
It’s time to end the looting of this country by a tiny fanatical elite who use their extremist political philosophy to justify greed and plundering. Look, lots of them belong in prison. Once we get Obama, a centrist adult, in the White House then perhaps we can start to clean up the mess these thieves have left us. But none of that will happen with McCain in the White House as the thievery will simply continue.
Scoble on tech and the election
Bob Morris @ 05:46 Category: Unfiled;
Influential tech blogger Robert Scoble takes a break from tech to ask fellow Democrats to do everything they can to elect Obama. Scoble travels widely, talks with CEOs worldwide, and is appalled at the declining state of tech, infrastructure, and education in the U.S.
He details six solid reasons why high tech jobs are leaving America. Here’s a summary of his bullet points, but read the whole post.
- Our education system is crumbling
- Our taxation and infrastructure makes it difficult to get stuff done
- Our infrastructure is wacked and getting antiquated
- Our health care costs are soaring
- Our immigration policies drive the best and brightest away
- Our anti-science and anti-technology discourse and beliefs. Science needs to be the driver, not religion.
- An anti-technology and anti-science stance by those who fear government.
His final point is between now and election day that Democrats need to focus on building a strong economy (and to show how much of the current mess is directly due to the policies of Republican zealots.) That’s how we will beat McCain.
If we only aim for Palin’s knees we play into the Republican’s game and we’ll end up with more of the same for the next four years.
It’s all up to you now. Every post you make. Every conversation you have. They all add up to what will happen November 2.
So, my fellow Democrats, I hope you’ll join me in focusing totally on building a strong economy for the future for the next four weeks. That’s our only hope.
I agree. McCain and Palin would be a disaster on multiple levels. Obama must be elected. And I think he will be. Now, we all have work to do to make it happen.
Whew. California budget deadlock may be over
Bob Morris @ 00:45 Category: Unfiled;
This is great news. The three month old California budget deadlock may be resolved in the next several days. Let’s hope so. The new compromise includes no new taxes, no borrowing against other funds, and massive budget cuts. Which is probably about the best that can be expected. Yes, there will be pain. But the state will finally move forward again.
