Autumn is obviously arriving. Some leaves already turn to color. Time for reflection.
Some of the oldest, biggest and largest investment banks in the US basically collapsed. The average person will now send even more tax-dollars to Washington to bail out the sharks? Whatever happened to the "free-marked" economy promised during these Bush years? Was this present administration sneakingly a supporter of a renegade scheme for billionaires? Now you and I pay the price, and have to divert our food intake to a "nouvelle cuisine" style, or else eat some greasy cheep calorie boosting trash food while the billionaires and millionaires sip their martinis floating safely on their yacht, since we now know that the majority of storms in the Gulf and the Caribbean have slowed down. Thousands, many thousands of workers lost their jobs yesterday, white-collar, but so what. I still feel for them.
If I had to choose between capitalistic protectionism (the Bush doctrine) and moderate socialism that would see also to health-care, I would pick the later. But I am not presented with real choices here and now. Yes, I always got bombarded by this cliche of the Republican doctrine, that small government is what they would aim for, less taxes, less bureaucracy. Now we witness the largest bureaucratic public bailout on the back of taxpayers to serve and pay greedy investment firms and their bosses, in US history. So hence the statements of Republicans was always a continuous lie, as so many other lies they threw around during their reign, especially about the Middle East. Why can't they just say the truth: We are for big government and try to drown the country in a flood of debt and blood - and we really don't give a shit about working people.
The price to pay for this? The "little" man, as usual! 
Monday, September 15
Fall - crash - autumn - frost
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
don't suppose all the jobs lost were white collar. there are receptionists, wire operators, secretaries, cashiers, assistants, managers, operations personnel, clerks, security- the whole gamut. one ex-lehman woman said she didn't sell even one share of stock in her 25-year employment. today, her stock is worthless. she will have a much different retirement than she worked for.
You are a sharp woman Sera, that is why you can cut fabric to size and do all kind of other things as well.
This is true. Not only the "office staff" carrying out boxes from the buildings cubicles suffered.
I don't know if you come back here to read my reply - but for whoever, it worries me that Bank of America bought up Cheryl Lynch.
It seems we soon will have ONE bank in the USA, and if that one fails... hmm, none!
I am not sure if I appreciate such a scenario.
awww. bank of america is just catching up to citibank. three of the five largest banks in the world are chinese. hsbc, the old hong kong and shanghai bank, is number five. spain's banco santander and japan's mitsubishi UFJ financial is up there too. if you don't like american banks, try deutsche bank. you have many sizes of fabric to choose from. personally, i like small community banks over the big ones.
It’s interesting to note the Republican will run up (the party of small, government) in excess of $400 billion with the budget deficit this year.
It’s a continuance of a worsening trend for very large deficits whenever they’re in office.
As for socialism I'm sure you’re underwhelmed with the knowledge you now own a stake directly in your current housing market by virtue of the government’s (US Treasury) acquisition of Fanny and Freddie. No small beer either! An extra $5 trillion for Treasury in debt acquisition to supplement the existing 9.7 trillion already owed. What country in the world has control over nearly 40% of all funding for housing?
Its actually good news by default given the interest rate spread between government borrowings currently around 2-4% and the 5.5% to 6.3% rate typified on long term mortgages. It’s likely to be a very highly profitable business going forward, providing your treasury sticks to those basics.
Similarly it shouldn’t be too difficult to orchestrate a takeover of heath and medical providers for a nationalized heath care service, which could be funded out of an ongoing modest levy on taxable income.
Before people become red in the face with fury and hurl abuse in response to that suggestion its worth noting similar schemes elsewhere have shown you can save a lot of money in heath care and related insurance when you’re able to avoid duplication and fraud with a national data base.
I think it’s a sad day for Leman Bros and the stockholders who have lost the value of their shares in this 158 year old firm. Merrill Lynch was too big to fail so Bank of America came to the rescue which does not involve any government money that I know of, although there may be some of securities guaranteed by the Fed. I’m not sure about that. Best wishes
Sera -
I deal with local banks only. Funny, those local banks seem to be chirpy and healthy. Again, it is an image of decentralization virtues.
You make a wonderful point Lindsay!
OK, look at this Lindsay, I lived for five years in Norway. I sort of know how the system works there. Yes, the income taxes are high, so are taxes on certain goods. But nobody seems to suffer from it (besides the oral complaints on the street).
The health care there is basically free, including drugs, unless you are waiting for a retina transplant... that might cost something if you still have vision on your other eye.
My point being. It is more cost effective to run a state directed health system than to have a whole bunch of private enterprises run the show competing with each other and have thousands of lawyers on their leash (which the patient pays for).
Post a Comment