Recent comments

  • I used to think it started with the 1896 recovery from the 1873 panic, but now I realize something.

    The history of charging interest for loans is the history of trickle down economics.

    Interest is a tax on progress just as much as if the federal government slapped a 100% income tax with a $1,000,000 standard deduction. The only difference is in who profits from it.

    We all profit from taxes in the form of infrastructure. I'm no longer trusting of the idea that we all profit from a lack of usury laws.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • But I go further than that. You see, policy is just one side of the coin- fraudulent business practices such as short selling (selling what you do not own) and fractional reserve banking (loaning what you haven't been given to loan) seem to me to be equally large problems.

    And hiding behind all of that is the grand elephant of putting profits before human life, or as the Vatican puts it and has been warning about since the early 1800s, the Culture of Death, which affects a lot more than just abortion (which is only an easy target because an abortion will cost $400 to the insurer or patient, vs a live birth which can cost $4000).

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Science is politics. Unfortunately this happens daily. Either you are from an "in group" and receive favorable reviews, grants and publications or you are regarded as an outsider, interloper or one who must first "pay the price". Clearly douglas was on to something. His publication history with GFP goes back to the early 90s and he forsaw back then the tremendous potential of this protein. Douglas even saw that by altering tyrosine and/or serine residues, properties of the fluorescence could be modified to make this an even more effective tool as a fusion protein. The Nobel Prize Committee really dropped the ball this time. We need to call them on this for the prize is awarded by the very cronies who have won before and infect all of research with their bias. After 27 years of medical research at the University of Chicago I found myself an unemployed researcher. It took me over 1 year to find another job at much less salary and loss of retirement benefits from the U of C.

    Reply to: Scientist Who Laid Ground Work for Nobel Prize Drives a Bus, Can't get a Job   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • WaPo finally calls out the doers which led up to this financial disaster.

    I think everyone on this site, although we wish it weren't so, know the Rubins through Jason Furman is running the Obama campaign and just to be fair and balanced, McCain had Phil Graham as one of his economic advisers.

    Who thinks these guys need to be tarred, feathered and run out of town instead of dictating policy in yet another administration?

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • That I already wrote about but it's now confirmed, McCain Called Hillary on the economy...and if you notice Obama just took one of Hillary's policies too.

    Maybe this will cause a complete implosion of the Republican party, which to me can only be a good thing since they have had either completely corrupt policies, written for and by corporate lobbyists (Democrats too) or that insane supply side, trickle upon economic theories that all the way back to Reagan are proven to not work.

    Everybody thinks of Nixon as the evil doer but in truth, he had less "philosophy" and did try a host of polices that the obnoxious Republican party of today...they stick to their inane positions regardless of the results.

    There are a few sane ones who probably will survive...now if only the same thing could happen on the Democratic side...

    Though out the History of the US corruption has been a major problem. I wish once and for all we could clean up that town.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • neither is addressing that at all, the reality of 50:1, 12:1, 100:1 wage ratios, although if the United States defaults on it's debt or deflates the dollar so much, we might not have to worry about that soon.

    Labor economics and the realities thereof is just not statistically, historically discussed, both parties. A few brave souls of both parties on the fringe do talk about it but they are few and far between.

    Also, the U.S. was sold on trade claiming it would raise all boats, well the truth of the situation is it's basically poked holes in the middle class of the United States as well as other nations. Need to cover the global results of trade because there is some belief out there that somehow it raised other nations boats and in most cases it's the opposite and why those peoples protest in masse.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • "competitiveness" in my mind seems to be code for low wages

    who wants to spend years in college going deep in debt to have to compete with third world wages?

    no amount of higher productivity and education can compete with workers earning pennies on the dollar

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Obama said in the debate it's important to have a President who will enforce unfair trade agreements.

    Freudian slip?

    McCain of course ignored the reality that labor leaders in Columbia are routinely assassinated. Both of them never utter a word on China, which is where the United States has the worst deficit.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Phil Graham
    and if you search here (see upper right hand corner)
    on origins of subprime, derivatives you will find a very good blog post explaining the how they all got started.

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • And why weren't they regulated? What's to stop them from just replacing the whole concept with yet another strange device nobody ever hears about until it blows up?

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • I've lost count by just how much "bail out" per temporary Dow Jones thrill ride has it cost? I figure we have $1 billion per Dow Jones point increase that lasts a day or two.

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Monday's historic ramp is now pretty much gone, and its only Wednesday. What sort of bailout will the government do next? And when do our foreign creditors decide that our fiscally irresponsible ways must end?

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Derivatives, SIVs, CDOS and CDSes have nothing to do with the fractional reserve banking system. Look in the search, I've spent and others have spent hours and hours explaining derivatives. They are an unregulated "bet" against default separate from leveraging.

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Folks, please post comments that are appropriate to the actual blog or forum post.

    Comments are threaded, which means they are hierarchical, one can track your comments with replies in your account.

    When you just post some comment "somewhere" that has nothing to do with the topic, the organization of the site turns into a mess.

    Help make it easier for others to follow by hitting the reply when replying and try to post your comment that is relative to the forum or blog post.

    All comments are attached to either a forum or blog post where comments on that particular post correspond to.

    So, when you just post a comment "somewhere" the conversation will eventually be lost because the comment isn't relevant to the actual topic presented in the original post.

    Reply to: On Posts   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • CT

    ok, I mean seriously. It's very easy to get into conspiracy theory thinking because global money supplies, international floating exchanges and financial systems are complex and difficult to understand.

    I notice this consistently, when concepts become abstract, difficult to comprehend, conspiracy theories come in, maybe they put some free video on Google, use images to explain which leave out a huge portion of the system or take a few facts to skew to paranoid conclusions...

    and distorting the actual history or global banking system.

    But, understand is the point of this site, not promote conspiracy theories.

    Again, the place to look is derivatives and how they are a 65 trillion dollar industry.

    Reply to: $250 Billion for Banks, FDIC Unlimited insurance on Deposits - Latest "Plan"   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • OR unless one is trying to distract from the idea that every piece of money in the system is just a counterfeit note, either paper or electronic, and that there are no assets at all behind it.

    Reply to: $250 Billion for Banks, FDIC Unlimited insurance on Deposits - Latest "Plan"   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Here's why.

    The derivatives, they're just a symptom of the real problem. The real problem is that the bankers and brokers are asking us to trust them again in the future- trust that their "little white lie" of traditional 10:1 fractional reserve banking won't grow again into the "big lie" of 40:1, 50:1, 200:1 (depending on whose numbers you believe) derivatives.

    I see no reason why, given the utter lack of change of people in charge, to believe that the predatory loans won't come back in another form, and that fractional reserve banking isn't just a fancy form of counterfeiting.

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • I did find it very strange that Wells Fargo was forced into this deal for they stayed completely out of subprime, have good earnings....beyond Wachovia it seems very strange to include them, unless one is creating some sort of cartel.

    Reply to: $250 Billion for Banks, FDIC Unlimited insurance on Deposits - Latest "Plan"   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Is simply not the problem causing this mess. It's derivatives. Now if you want to go off on a ponzi scheme, wrap your head around derivatives, which we have many good points about on EP. You must already realize that banks were leveraging 40:1, 50:1, not the traditional 10:1 that fractional reserve banking is based on.

    Then, on real estate, brokers only paid attention to the buy being able to pay the first 3 to 6 months of the loan because they would keep their fee. That why one had teaser rates, interest only loans and adjustable ARMs, they sold houses to people who could not afford them and did very little background checks. They also sold loans that were plain predatory, also to make the fees.

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • The problem is, in a capitalist system, we're told that profit=life itself. I'll agree that is an example of where we got screwed up- but EVERYBODY is screwed up on this, that's why we still have fractional reserve banking to begin with, because it's more profitable than full reserve banking.

    Reply to: The Bipolar Economy   16 years 3 weeks ago
    EPer:

Pages