Posts filed under ‘Financial Crisis’
Athens is Burning
People in Greece are reacting to economic cuts along the lines of what Republicans want to do here:
Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s parliament has approved an austerity and debt-relief bill, crucial for the country to avoid bankruptcy and remain in the eurozone.
Lawmakers voted early Monday in favor of the bill that imposes harsh new austerity measures in return for a euro130 billion ($171 billion) new bailout agreement and related deal with private creditors to shave euro100 billion ($132 billion) off the country’s national debt.
The vote occurred after extensive rioting and looting swept through the Greek capital.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Demonstrators set buildings ablaze and fireballs lit up the night sky in Greece’s capital on Sunday amid widespread rioting before a historic parliamentary vote on harsh austerity measures designed to prevent the country from going bankrupt.
The clashes erupted after more than 100,000 protesters marched to the parliament to rally against the drastic cuts, which will ax one in five civil service jobs and slash the minimum wage by more than a fifth.
At least 10 buildings were on fire, including a movie theater, bank and cafeteria, and looters smashed dozens of shops in the worst riot damage in years. Dozens of police officers and at least 37 protesters were injured, and more than 20 suspected rioters were detained.
See more photos here.
Good News On the Housing Front
WHILE the economy remains stubbornly sluggish and home sales nationwide continue to sag, Manhattan’s real estate market has largely stabilized, with apartments in some neighborhoods selling for prices not seen since the headiest days of the boom.
But on the road to recovery, one segment of the market has outpaced the rest: ultraluxury, which analysts roughly define as properties costing $7 million and up. At these lofty heights, there was only the slightest of hiccups after the crash, and in the ensuing years, values have soared, with some apartments doubling in price.
Normally, that news would mean rising prices in every other segment of the market, from the tiniest starter studios to family-size four-bedroom co-ops. But that is not happening, even with interest rates at record lows and prices considered reasonable by Manhattan standards.
Image via WeSellSarasota.com
“There is a greater disconnect between the very top of the market and everything else than I have ever seen in my 25 years in the business,” said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
That last sentence is remarkable: A guy with 25 years “in the business” has never seen such a disconnect between the “very top of the market and everything else.” Seems to me that’s quite the visual aid when it comes to imagining the 1% versus the 99%.
Rupert Murdoch is Insane
Our Tweet of the Day: This is what billionaire Rupert Murdoch envisions for us peasants (while he hides behind an army of guards in a compound on an island somewhere):
No words.
George Soros’ Predictions For 2012
For what it’s worth, here are some predictions George Soros made earlier this week during an interview with Robert Johnson, Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking:
Photo: Wikipedia
- That one or more countries will leave the eurozone within the year. While he did not fully agree, he said it was not very far from impossible. However, in the case of Greece, default is more than a 50% probability. [On Thursday, Greece struck a deal to clear the way for a bailout.]
- Collapse of the Chinese market. Soros rejected this idea, but noted that the country’s housing bubble has been pricked, partly as a result of the effects of the financial crisis here spreading to China.
- Former MF Global CEO John Corzine goes to jail under Sarbanes-Oxley. A real possibility, according to Soros.
- Attack on Iran–by either the U.S. or Israel. An outside attack on Iran is very unlikely, Soros said. However, he thinks that the country’s present regime is not going to last the year.
- Gold reaches $2,000/ounce and rises. Soros does not think gold will reach $2,000. He said gold is the ultimate bubble; its price can go in either direction. It was the ultimate safe haven, but funds had to liquidate their positions to cover some loses in the stock market. On the other hand, Soros does not expect gold to retreat much and does not consider $1,000/ounce probable either.
- The polarization of the top 1% and the rest of the population leads to rioting in American cities. Soros said rioting is already happening in the U.S., but it is not getting much media coverage.
- On President Barack Obama’s re-election chances. Soros hedged his response, saying it depends on who the Republicans nominate. “Obama has a slightly better chance than most people because of the totally unacceptable character of the opposition.”
- Unemployment falling below 7.5% in U.S. Soros does not expect employment numbers to grow, but also noted that expiring unemployment benefits will push down the overall unemployment rate.
“At times like this is it more important to survive than to get rich,” Soros said at the end of the luncheon. “Since there are not many productive uses of money right now, it is time to take the long-view.” He suggested two potential plays: Think of undervalued stocks that will survive over long-term, and put the rest in cash.
Before I started reading the article I though his predictions would be much more dire.
GE Lies — Super Bowl Ad Claims They’re “Revitalizing Manufacturing”
GE lied big time in an ad it ran tonight during the Super Bowl – on NBC, which is owned by GE — and gosh golly, NBC, an alleged “news” organization, let it go without noting the inaccuracies:
You gotta love the “liberal media.”
Bomb Iran? No!
Occupy and other groups are rallying today in New York City to protest sanctions on Iran, the murder of Iranian scientists, and the increasingly hostile rhetoric coming from the United States and Israel concerning Iran.
The intrepid reporter Tim Pool is sending out pictures of some of the signs people are carrying (see them at his link above). This is my favorite so far:
Ain’t that the truth.
Interesting isn’t it that the usual crowd that screams about cutting government spending isn’t screaming about not going to war again. When it comes to cuts, they only want to cut the programs that benefit we the people. Defense contractors? Not so much.
Depressing News for Republicans
Republicans want as many Americans as possible to be unemployed (at least through November 6) so I imagine they’re in a pretty bad mood today: Job Growth Surges, Jobless Rate Drops to 8.3 Percent
Mitt Romney Campaigns For His Millionaire Donors
Who is Willard Mitt Romney campaigning for? You? Me? No. He’s campaigning for the folks who give to his SuperPAC, Restore Our Future, Inc.
Restore Our Future Inc.? A more appropriate name would be, Restore Rich People’s Future Inc.
Details here
British Banking Crook Stripped of his Knighthood
Fred Goodwin, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s former chief executive officer, was stripped of his knighthood by the U.K. authorities after he led the 285-year-old lender into the world’s biggest bank bailout.
Britain’s Honors Forfeiture Committee met last week and decided that Goodwin should lose his knighthood for services to banking in the light of the collapse, the Cabinet Office in London said in a statement today. He was awarded the honor, entitling him to call himself Sir Fred, in the name of Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
“This decision, not normally publicized in advance, was taken on the advice of the Forfeiture Committee, which advised that Fred Goodwin had brought the honors system into disrepute,” the Cabinet Office said. “The scale and severity of the impact of his actions as CEO of RBS made this an exceptional case.”
Edinburgh-based RBS needed 45.5 billion pounds ($71.7 billion) of U.K. government money after Goodwin, now 53, led its takeover of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Holding NV in 2007.
According to the article, stripping someone of a knighthood doesn’t have any particular legal repercussions; the significance is the humiliation factor. But hey, that’s more than any of the robber barons on this side of the pond have experienced.
In the fall of 2008, while George W. was slinking out the door, We the American people bailed AIG out to the tune of $187 billion. So far? Nada.
Mitt Romney: “Of Course” the Economy Is Getting Better
I thought I’d put up this little tidbit about the economy taken from an appearance by Mitt Romney on Laura Ingraham’s show (January 20, 2012). I have a feeling it will come in handy in July, August, September, October and November, if you know what I mean (wink, wink).
Mitt:
Well of course it’s getting better. The economy always gets better after a recession. There’s always a recovery…
[...]
Have you got a better one [argument] Laura? It just happens to be the truth.
Shopping at the Pentagon
Yep, it’s true. There are shops at the Pentagon. Given the nature of the corporatocracy we live in, I don’t know why I’m surprised:
America’s Most Dangerous Mall: Going Shopping at the Pentagon
Take a tour at the link above.
Here are some of the high low lights:
Chocolate Rain (of Terror)
If it has patriotic value, the Edward Marc candy shop can make something chocolatey out of it. (The Marine Corps logo? Semper Fi, fat boy.) Inexplicably, the chocolatier is one of the first things a visitor sees after coming up the escalator from the Metro entrance. This edible model of the building costs only $1.95.
The World’s Deadliest Tchotchkes
By far the most meta store in the Pentagon. From windbreakers to shot glasses to snapback baseball caps, the gift shop turns the movie version of the Pentagon — the fantasy one where it’s all war-planning, all the time — into cheesy collectables to hawk to the out-of-towners and class trips that take the daily guided tours. If only they made a sweatshirt with an image of an idle lieutenant colonel waiting to be promoted.
Filed under: We the People, Wars, Terror, Financial Crisis, Corporatocracy, Fear and Our Tax Dollars.
Sen. Ralph Shortey: Don’t Believe Everything You Read on the Internets
Oklahoma State Senator Ralph Shortey (R) did “some research” on the Internets and this is what he came up with:
Photo: Ralph Shortey, Facebook
Oklahoma GOPer Proposes Bill To Outlaw ‘Aborted Human Fetuses’ In Food
An Oklahoma Republican is pushing a bill to outlaw the use of human fetuses in food, because, as he says, “there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.”
State Sen. Ralph Shortey introduced a bill on Tuesday “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.”
Though he has allowed that he is not aware of this occurring in Oklahoma, or anywhere for that matter, Shortey cited research he did on the internet that claimed that some companies use embryonic stem cells to help develop artificial flavoring.
So, Shortey was Googling “fetuses in food?” Okaaay.
Vote Republican!
Americans: You’re Paying For a Very Expensive Bat Mitzvah This Weekend
If you are unfamiliar with Matt Taibbi or you don’t read him on a regular basis, make a resolution right now to change that. The guy is a monster writer. Let me tease you with the opening paragraphs of his most recent great read:
If there was ever a news story that crystalized the moral dementia of modern Wall Street in one little vignette, this is it.
Newspapers in Colorado today are reporting that the elegant Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colorado, will be closed to the public from today through Monday at noon.
(This is the Hotel Jerome:
I “collect” old hotels. Ten-or-so-years ago Mr. SayitAintSoAlready and I took a trip to Aspen. I called ahead to inquire about making reservations at the Hotel Jerome. When I learned that they only rented rooms for 2-day increments, I had to let go of the thought of staying there. Forking over the cost of one night was going to be a stretch; there was no way we could afford two.)
Why? Because some local squire has apparently decided to rent out all 94 rooms of the hotel for three-plus days for his daughter’s Bat Mitzvah.
The hotel’s general manager, Tony DiLucia, would say only that the party was being thrown by a “nice family,” but newspapers are now reporting that the Daddy of the lucky little gal is one Jeffrey Verschleiser, currently an executive with Goldman, Sachs.
At first, I couldn’t remember where I knew that name from. But then I looked it up and saw an explosive Atlantic magazine story, published last year, called, “E-mails Suggest Bear Stearns Cheated Clients Out Of Millions.” And then I remembered that piece, and it hit me: Jeffrey Verschleiser is one of the biggest assholes in the entire world!
Unemployment Insurance Claims Soar
This is not good, and I’m not talking about it not being good for Obama. I’m talking about it not being good for the country as a whole:
It looks like unemployment is on the rise again, new claims for unemployment insurance jumped to 399,000 last week. That is 24,000 more than the consensus forecast and also 24,000 more than the prior week’s number. So let’s see some of those shrill talking heads getting scared — real bad news for President Obama’s re-election prospects.
Smog in China Is So Bad, Highways Are Closing
I just got these two tweets from China:
And then I did the Google:
Smog, commonly referred to as “fog” by the propagandistic Chinese government, is reeking havoc in China:
(December 7, 2011) Whether it’s fog or smog, thousands of people have been delayed during the last few days by the almost-opaque air around Beijing Capital International Airport.
The delays since Sunday evening at one of the busiest, most modern airports in the world raise questions about whether air pollution in China has gotten bad enough to derail the country’s economic growth. Nearly 1,000 flights have been canceled and 10 highways in northern China had to be closed due to lack of visibility.
Wow!
Chinese authorities say the murk is fog, purely a weather phenomenon, acknowledging only that there was “light pollution.” The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which has its own air monitor on the roof, however, reported Sunday night that the index of fine particulate matter had soared to 522 micrograms per cubic meter, which is off the charts. (A reading between 300 and 500 is considered “hazardous.”)
Beijingers bought more than 20,000 face masks on Taobao, a shopping site; and people took to the Internet to mock their government’s reporting of air quality.
“They are treating citizens as idiots,” complained a young man on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog. A middle-aged man wrote sarcastically, “The city looks like a fairyland but thanks to the government, it is only ‘slight pollution.’”
The poor air quality Tuesday resulted in the cancellation of more than 370 flights. The U.S. Embassy monitor reported the particulate matter as “very unhealthy.”
The life the Chinese are living is brought to you by a government that is bent on development and growth, sans regulation. This is what the Republicans want to bring to the US of A. I.e., give corporations free rein to do whatever they want because that CREATE JOBS. Yeah, so we have (low paying) jobs but then what? We’re can’t take our kids outside, walk the dog or grow veggies in the garden, and we die of emphysema or heart failure on our day off.
Oh, and again, ain’t it great that our “liberal media” seems to have gone into 27/7 campaign coverage mode (due to last until November) so we conveniently don’t hear about things like this? And, as usual, any “news” that occurs outside the literal borders of the United States isn’t covered. What a disastrous combo.
When Mitt Romney Rode Into Town
Ouch. Here’s the trailer for a new 30-minute, anti-Romney film titled “When Mitt Romney Came to Town.” The pro-Gingrich PAC, “Winning Our Future” just bought the rights to it.
Capitalism made America great – free markets, innovation, hard work – the building blocks of the American Dream. But in the wrong hands some of those dreams can turn into nightmares. This film is about one raider and his firm and how they destroyed that dream for thousands of Americans and their families – Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/_evS-T-c35M?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
It is going to be interesting to see how much attention Romney’s “work” at Bain Capital gets. Because of what he did there, I think he is exactly the wrong candidate for today. I don’t know if anyone’s done any polling on it but I would imagine corporate raiders are pretty darn low on the popularity list and that’s exactly what Romney was. How in the world is it possible , in this day and age, that a guy who made millions streamlining companies by cutting their work force is doing as well as Romney is? I don’t get it. It must be the anyone-but-Obama phenomenon.
NBC’s David Gregory Wants Americans to “Feel Pain”
I’m coming down from watching this morning’s GOP presidential “debate” on NBC/MSNBC, hosted by the elitist 1%er, David Gregory. During the first 15-minutes, Gregory seemed obsessed with hearing what the candidates would cut (as in Medicare and Social Security), repeatedly asking both Santorum and Huntsman what cuts they would make that “will make Americans feel pain,” and then, “What do Americans have to learn to live with less of?”
Seems to me we Americans are already feeling pain due to the games the banksters and the corporate elite played with our economy. The people who should feel “pain” and do the time are the people who committed the crime. Then again, I don’t suppose we can expect that perspective from Mr. Inside-the-Beltway Gregory, a guy who’s married to a lawyer whose expertise is defending white collar criminals…like banksters.
UPDATE: An hour after putting up this post, I come across this:
Bonus battles: Disgruntled bankers threaten to sue or walk
Wall Street bankers are fuming about the prospect of paltry payouts come bonus time — and plan to go nuclear.
They’re taking their cues from their disgruntled brethren in London, who are eyeing lawsuits to regain their over-the-top pay. Here at Jefferies Group, a group of brokerage executives reportedly threatened management that they would walk away from the firm if their year-end compensation was not up to par with The Street.
This hubris is just the beginning of much more to come as the downtrodden banking industry gets ready to dole out the most meager bonuses since the 2008 financial crisis.
Let’s talk about these guys feelin’ some pain David.
Hey, Let’s Turn on Each Other!
Who is the target of this ad? The struggling landlord or the struggling tenant? In the end, I guess they want us to turn on each other:
Kick’em Out Quick® Evictions & Collections saves Landlords Time, Money and Effort by offering a “One Stop Shop” for all their Tenant Eviction and Tenant Collection needs. We will connect you with a Kick’em Out Quick® Member Eviction Attorney in your area that will evict your Non-Paying or Nuisance Tenant(s) just as quickly as the law allows. After your eviction is complete our collection partner, Express Recovery Services, Inc. will aggressively pursue your ex-tenant for the money that they now owe you.
Watch the Kick’em Out Quick video here. (Love the ® after the title. Kicking people out quick is trademarked. You go America!)
Iowans Applaud Rick Santorum for Saying He’ll Cut Social Security
I just watched (@ 7:52 p.m. ET) a live clip of Rick Santorum speaking to senior citizens in Iowa, telling them, when president, he will cut the deficit by $5 trillion, “including entitlements,” which means Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.
Like idiots being lead to slaughter, THEY APPLAUDED.
Ahhh!
P.S. Let’s start referring to “entitlements” as earned benefits. The money we get back for those things came out of our paychecks, dammit.
Ron Paul Ad: Imagine Foreign Troops in Texas
I’m an anti-war, anti-billion-dollar-defense-budget voter so I can’t help but agree with this latest Ron Paul ad:
Drunk Shopping on QVC
Apropos of my post of a few days ago about stores targeting people who are drunk-shopping, check out what QVC is hawking as we speak (at 9:12 p.m. ET / on 1-1-12):
$1,000 for a camera? Someone, anyone, please, is QVC’s audience as a whole in the bracket of those who can afford to spend that kind of money on that kind of thing?
I don’t think so.
Heck. I wouldn’t pay that much either. I looked at a camera the other day that was going for something like $84, and I nixed it.
It’s just sad. Sad that ten days from now good, well intentioned good people will open their credit card statements and wonder WHAT THE HELL DID I DO? QVC, on the other hand, will smile all the way to the bank.
Ugh.
What’s With Ezra Klein?
If you’re a news junkie like me you know who Ezra Klein is. And you probably think, like me, that he has the potential to be an up and coming liberal, soon-to-be star.
Photo: Via Twitter
But I must admit that when MSNBC signed him on as a “contributor” a month or so ago, I wondered why. I mean, you don’t get to be a “contributor” on MSNBC if you’re a true radical lefty. You have to have kissed some corporate a** somewhere along the line.
I’m not saying that this is the be all, end all article about Mr. Klein but I think it’s an enlightening glimpse into what he’s about: Ezra Klein’s Shine Job on the Kochs:
Ezra’s shine-job, headlined “How powerful are the Koch brothers?” does its Beigeist best to muddle the reader’s head into believing that, yeah, the Kochs are kinda bad ‘n stuff, but hey, it’s just how things are.
That ain’t good.
Just sayin’.
Tea Party Governor Hopes to Improve the “Mood” in So. Carolina Via Telephone Greeting
Geezus. This is par for the course in terms of what Republicans have to offer to help alleviate the suffering going on around here during this God awful recession depression:
Two South Carolina legislators say state employees shouldn’t have to answer the phone with Gov. Nikki Haley’s mandated cheery greeting unless it’s truly a great day in South Carolina.Democratic state Reps. John Richard King and Wendell Gilliard have filed legislation saying no state agency can force its employees to answer the phone with, “It’s a great day in South Carolina,” as long as state unemployment is 5 percent or higher. Their bill also would prohibit requiring the greeting as long as all South Carolinians don’t have health insurance.At a September meeting, Haley ordered her Cabinet agencies to embrace the greeting, saying it could help change the mood of state government.A Haley spokesman says the Republican governor stands by the greeting.
Another “Mega” Shopping Day
It looks like the media has coined yet another term for the days on which the corporatocracy wants us citizens consumers to concentrate on buying stuff: “Mega-Monday.”
It’s “Mega-Monday,” and retailers expect the day after Christmas to be one of busiest shopping days of the year.
[...]
“The day after christmas is now considered to be up there with ‘Black Friday’ as one of the hugest shopping days of the year,” Yarrow points out. “Gift cards really fuel a lot of the day-after-Christmas shopping. It used to be, primarily, returns.”
Ah yes. “Black Friday,” “Cyber-Monday” and now “Mega-Monday” (next year it’ll be “Mega-Tuesday”). They have us right where they want us.
Boehner Caves
House Speaker John Boehner announced Thursday that he had agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a two-month extension of a package including a payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment benefits.
Boehner said in statement he and Reid “reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators.”
He said the Senate “will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension. We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas.”
[...]
This news of the accord came after two of Boehner’s GOP members called on him to allow the two-month extension to proceed.
It’s a Christmas miracle. Democrats stand firm for once.
Seven Occupy Protesters in Texas Charged with a FELONY
Geez. The more I hear about Texas, the more I never want to go there:
Seven Occupy protesters were indicted on felony charges by a grand jury in Houston on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office says, in connection with their demonstration at the local port as part of a national day of action by the movement.
The decision comes nearly a week after a judge initially dismissed the charges, saying the protesters could not be charged with possessing or using a “criminal instrument” – a felony in Texas – for their use of PVC pipe.
The protesters — three from Austin, four from Houston — put their arms through the pipe and used latches on it to connect together, making their arrest more difficult but not preventing it, said one of their attorneys, Daphne Silverman, of the National Lawyer’s Guild in Houston. Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, confirmed the indictment.
“They are feeling, ‘wow,’ is the word. … They’re in a lot of shock. They were very happy with the justice’s decision last week, they believed in her, they believed in the justice system,” Silverman said. “These people … are not criminals. These folks are out there attempting to make the country better for all of us.”
[...]
The protesters had joined with other Occupy outfits across the country that were conducting port shutdowns on Dec. 12 to economically disrupt what they called “Wall Street on the waterfront.”
Arrests on felony arrests were occurring in other cities, such as Denver and New York. Civil rights lawyers have suggested the use of felony charges was another form of crackdown on the movement.
The Houston Police Department has used the “criminal instrument” against protesters on previous occasions, according to Attorney Randall Kallinen, who is representing one of the seven protesters. The charge usually does not hold up in court in such cases, but because it is a felony charge it has a chilling effect on would-be activists, he said.
So they’re charging Occupy protesters with felonies for linking together with PVC pipe –it would be funny if it weren’t so serious — and now they face up to two years in prison. Last I looked, not one of the banksters who brought down the world’s economy have even been charged with so much as a misdemeanor. Gosh. Don’t you just love how “justice” is dispensed in the good ol’ US of A? And isn’t it interesting the way the judicial system seems to be working to intimidate the Occupy movement on behalf of the corporatocracy?
Rick Santorum: “I Have No Problem With Income Inequality”
This would be Rick Santorum (R) yesterday in Pella, Iowa:
“The reason you see some sympathy among the American public for them is the grave concern — and it’s a legitimate one — that blue-collar workers, lower-income workers, are having a harder and harder time rising,” the former Pennsylvania senator said at a presidential campaign stop. “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality. I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.
“President Obama is for income equality. That’s socialism. It’s worse yet, it’s Marxism,” Santorum said. “I’m not for income equality. I’m not for equality of result — I’m for equality of opportunity.”
Yo, Ricky: Nobody is saying that everyone should have the exact same income and you know it. People are pissed that there is such a humongus difference in the amount people do make, and you know that too. It’s charts like this that burn people up:
(Via.)
