Recent comments

  • Defazio's a fine Congressman but that doesn't mean I have to get behind everything he stamps. I was really looking forward to the Progressive Caucus' alternative. And was completely underwhelmed.

    The larger problem is the left is playing by the rules of a game that has been completely discredited. Instead of outlining a bold proposal that challenges fundamental capitalist assumptions, they offer a tepid package of accounting tricks and government reassurances proposed by a Reagan official.

    I understand the pragmatic considerations here -- it would've been unwise to load up a bailout plan with every item on the left's wish list. But this is the progressive caucus we're talking about here, not Dodd and Pelosi. Any package should've addressed the current meltdown AND contained the seeds of fundmental change. This proposal seeks to prop up -- at a smaller cost than the Paulson plan to be sure -- a dying system.

    Ironically, Paulson may now be to the left of the caucus, as he considers partial nationalization. If the caucus had proposed this, they'd look prescient right now.

    Let's stop reacting to the GOP/WallStreet/Pentagon and start leading. Create an agenda and push it mercilessly.

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • The reprieve before the Holocaust.

    What I find astounding generally on oil/commodities is the fluctuation. No way that equates with physical supply/demand
    with those levels of swings.

    We never did figure out where that physical supply was hiding (pirates off of Somalia?) on the last go around and all I know is while I saw this coming, I screwed up on my window trying to put my 2 cents (literally) on DUG in time to catch the ride. ;)

    Check out Jim Rogers video clip (and I really don't know who this is, I just found his commentary brazen and interesting) in the FMN.

    I'm finding this entire situation, the big picture becoming more and more despairing....it's like they are insisting on propping up an entire system that frankly should collapse and they plain start over. It seems all that is really going on, in spite of this new equity stakes for fictional cash plan....is they are going to dump all of this toxic bad debt onto citizens instead of these private financial institutions when the reality is ...people are plain tapped out. They can't get more debt because they are already overloaded on debt and all the focus is about seemingly is keeping the debt machine going instead of real goods, real production, real economic growth.

    If I was a manufacturing lobbyist, domestic...I think I would gather up my gang and go lobby Congress and try for a power grab away from the financial institutions to get some money for a production economy.

    These are my random thoughts at the moment but what I see going on is simply a delay.

    Reply to: The Consumer catches a Silver Lining   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Just not yet.

    The pattern in Latin American collapses from the 1980s was, (1) real estate collapses, (2) deflation, (3) increased inflation due to printing to get out of (2).

    Reply to: The Consumer catches a Silver Lining   16 years 3 weeks ago
  • You lost me. My understanding of sudden increases in the money supply cause inflation by in essence devaluing the dollar since an increase in supply with steady demand.

    Reply to: The Consumer catches a Silver Lining   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • we are far closer to "national socialism" right now than anything else - the unholy union of the corporation and the state aka fascism

    Or capitalistic socialism where profits are privatised but losses socialised

    Reply to: OPEC Doesn't Like Oil Prices - Surprise, Surprise   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Regional hi speed rail could very well compete favorably with air and auto travel.

    From what I understand the northeast corridor is profitable.

    When I was spending some time in the UK a few years ago the train was the way to get around - relaxing - you could sight see, read, do some work on the laptop, take a nap - all in one trip! and get there faster than drving.

    i frequently ride the trains when in the new york metro area and long island, when you figure gas and tolls and trime it is much more economical to get around

    Reply to: Watching GM Implode   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • The only things missing are viable mass transit and bossting the ailing US mfg sector - if you add that you have a winner

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • IF GM is having financial problems, and they are now that the rest of their markets are drying up, what good will Chrysler do them?

    Reply to: GM and Chrysler in merger negotiations   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Democracy Now has an interview with Mike Hudson, who was Dennis Kucinich's economic adviser. He is claiming there are $450 trillion in derivatives out there. That's the highest number I have ever heard.

    and he says this story is all over the EU press and not covered in the U.S.

    The day before Lehman went bankrupt, it basically looted all of its foreign offices. For instance, in England, it emptied out the English account of a few billion dollars, leaving the English employees only with the money they—the little cards they had to use in the vending machines. No salaries were paid. The London office was closed down immediately. And the next day, Lehman used the money that it took from London to pay its closest associates to redeem the derivative trades that it had done.

    Reply to: What is Behind the Curtain - Lehman CDS Auction Gives a Hint   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • wow

    Because Chrysler is in private equity so that to me implies
    it's more of joining Chrysler in a bust...

    Who are these Cerberus people for I fear very bad things from a private equity firm, although they have not scuttled Chrysler yet.

    I sure hope you cover this in depth for this is one wild turn of events!

    Reply to: GM and Chrysler in merger negotiations   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • I've been thinking the same thing but it will be delayed, but check out the Jim Rogers interview in the FMN. why I included it, plus he's so straight talkin'.

    Reply to: A New Bretton Woods   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Sure, money is being destroyed in very large quantities, and that means deflation. But the Federal Reserve and Treasury are expanding the monetary supply in unprecedented amounts, and that is inflationary.
    I'm still betting that we end up in a hyperinflationary world before this is over. I think the current rise in the dollar is a rush to liquidity, rather than a rush to safety.

    Reply to: A New Bretton Woods   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • No comprendo su opinas.

    ;)

    Ok, this is not socialism, this is corporatism. All of these terms are soo, so abused, poor babies!

    Socialism and let's take some successful examples like Sweden, Finland, Canada, France an so on....

    should be bottom up and if it isn't it's something else...

    So, I don't think we're going left, more we're going down as they work and work to prop corporations up.

    Reply to: OPEC Doesn't Like Oil Prices - Surprise, Surprise   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • On a level of Finance as pretended by those idiots who pretend lead the big economies, there is peace. Today through Sunday they will create a document designed to pacify markets,as they pretend to understand them.

    It is not risky to presume that markets in the US will adjust to the level of third world nations, as their citizens have also been forced. Eventually when the US markets reach the level of the third world nations (where their oligicarchies have tended), markets may stabilize. Stabilization of US and 3rd World Markets is the point. Rationalization of US Wages, Housing Prices, US Currency, obliteration of US Sovereignty is equally the point(anyone disputing this should consider 'Partnership for Prosperuty of the Bush Administration in point).

    None of these subjects are polite conversation during the presidential, or congressional debates. The dialog concerning both economic and social policy becomes increasingly shrill, and class-polarized, as this site has predicted.

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Sorry, I should have quantified it. They are referring to the cross country from CA to Chicago trains, not the trains that take a few hours or are commuter trains (which are awesome and should be greatly expanded). The trips that keep getting subsidized are 2,4,6 day train trips.

    Yeah, I rode lots of trains in Europe, and made me realize just how screwed our public transport is in the US. So much easier to lay back and ride the train.

    Reply to: Watching GM Implode   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • ...long term restructuring of the economy. Read this:

    http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3941

    and get back to me.

    There are more than one set of tools to deal with the current short term crisis, that is not to belittle it, and one thing is certain sure...

    If BushCo and his enablers in the 'Democrat' Party say, 'This is what we need...this HAS to be done...' I will bet you ten to one whatever they are crying out for will not work and I will walk away a big winner.

    Anything, anything whatsoever Paulson, Pelosi, Bush, McSame or Obama has to say on this must be discounted at the market rate....

    ...which is 100%

    If you have not yet grasped the goals, techniques and frames of 'conservative' economists, the practitioners of 'Disaster Capitalism...' and the got damned 'Free Marketeers' you are beyond all help.

    Get a sixpack of beer and watch the ALCS. That knock at the door?

    That would be the Sheriff.

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Watch the death spiral of oil prices. Watch Russia loath to loan to Iceland, when foreign policy gains are at hand. Witness the doubling of estimated natural gas reserves in Appalachia, or the move to drill offshore. Or even the environmental heartlessness of drilling in ANWAR.

    GM, contrary to it's doomsayers will survive. Or GM will be made to survive in Socialist America of 2009). To turn the words of the former US Chief Attorney, John Mitchell on his head "This country is going so far to the left, that you won't be able to recognize it."

    Just look at the economy. FMMA/GNMA are nationalized, so is the banking sector. A surviving GM/Ford/Chrysler/Transplant Auto Sector is far better than 25% unemployment - where we are going in few months,not years.

    So you say you are not a Socialist. Show me how you survive?
    The difference between your buddy George Bush and Hugo Chavez of Venezuala (who nationalized banks and others) is that Chavez speaks good Spanish.

    Reply to: OPEC Doesn't Like Oil Prices - Surprise, Surprise   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Yes,you can make the trains work.I have ridden trains in Mexico and Central America better than AmTrak. Europe? Forget about it, no comparison.

    I live in a socialist state on the east coast of the united states where you can go anywhere without a car. Why is socialism looking better every day? Is it Bush, Bernanke? Poulson?

    My remaining healthcare comes from another east coast socialist state who mandates care after employment. What did you think I have a job?

    Bush is the ultimate communist. Why? Because all his policies, all his sucessors believe in state control of private enterprises.Show me an enterprise example of where I am wrong.

    Reply to: Watching GM Implode   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Rebuild America:

    The nation’s financial and economic crisis worsened Friday when battered stocks lost even more ground. The losing streak was extended to the eighth trading day in a row in what The Wall Street Journal called “a slow-motion crash.” Major exchanges in Europe and Asia also fell as attention turned to a crisis meeting of the Group of 7 finance ministers in Washington. At home in Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders told a nationally broadcast radio program, “We are in the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. People are frightened about their retirement savings." Sanders said he is working with others in Congress on a bold initiative to help the economy. He called it Rebuild America.

    Reminiscent of New Deal programs that lifted the American economy out of the depression, Rebuild America would be an aggressive effort to fix crumbing roads, bridges, highways, schools, water and sewer systems, develop alternative energy sources, extend unemployment benefits, and expand health care services. In Washington, work on the package was developing with an eye toward Congress considering it in November. “What I am trying to do now is work with others members of Congress to come up with a major Rebuild America program,” Sanders said.

    Now how's that?

    Reply to: Progressive Alternatives To The Current Economic System   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • We are facing deflation as Robini says.
    All focus on finance is in the wrong direction.
    We need to focus on production: the real economy
    and to hell with the Wall Street Bastards.

    To look at the problem objectively, finance economy is a parasitic superstructure on the real(productive) economy.
    The bigger finance becomes, the more mal-investment,surplus value, is created. Surplus Value is the bane of efficient capital. All capital is inefficient now.

    Reply to: A New Bretton Woods   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:

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