Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Douchebags on CNBC
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I am really starting to feel that the economic crisis that we now face is in reality the failure of capitalism. Given the chance, your countrymen will rob from you until you are a dead withered husk. People may complain about the ills of socialism, but I must ask:
How can it be worse than the last 150 years of capitalism in the U.S.? Is it possible to have even more corruption than we now have? Will we face an even more ruthless oligarchy?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Debt of the Dead
I hope when I die that people will say of me, "Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money!" - Jack Handey
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So You’re Dead? That Won’t Stop the Debt Collector
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/business/04dead.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp
Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.
The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent.
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That last sentence up there is all I want to publicize on the matter.
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So You’re Dead? That Won’t Stop the Debt Collector
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/business/04dead.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp
Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.
The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent.
------
That last sentence up there is all I want to publicize on the matter.
Who Cares About Wall Street Numbers Anyway?
Obama On Stock Market: The 'Fits And Starts' Are A Normal Reaction
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/obama-on-stock-market-the_n_171489.html
President Barack Obama compared the stock market Tuesday to the daily tracking polls used during campaigns, saying that paying too close attention to how Wall Street "bobs up and down" could lead to bad long-term policy. "What I'm looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability of the United States ... to regain its footing," Obama said after meeting in the Oval Office with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
He said the developments he follows most closely are whether lending is flowing more freely, businesses are investing and the unemployed are going back to work.
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Why the hell would the general public care what happens to Wall Street numbers on a daily basis? The market is so easily manipulated by pump and dump schemes and irrational bouts of both exuberance and pessimism that it's very hard to understand why the news media focuses on those numbers so much.
What is good for GM is not necessarily what is good for you and I. What is good for Wall Street is even less important to Main Street.
We are going to have to seek out a whole new set of indicators for what is happening in the economy. And we are going to have to find a set of numbers less easily manipulated than the current way the unemployment rate is tracked.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/obama-on-stock-market-the_n_171489.html
President Barack Obama compared the stock market Tuesday to the daily tracking polls used during campaigns, saying that paying too close attention to how Wall Street "bobs up and down" could lead to bad long-term policy. "What I'm looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability of the United States ... to regain its footing," Obama said after meeting in the Oval Office with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
He said the developments he follows most closely are whether lending is flowing more freely, businesses are investing and the unemployed are going back to work.
------
Why the hell would the general public care what happens to Wall Street numbers on a daily basis? The market is so easily manipulated by pump and dump schemes and irrational bouts of both exuberance and pessimism that it's very hard to understand why the news media focuses on those numbers so much.
What is good for GM is not necessarily what is good for you and I. What is good for Wall Street is even less important to Main Street.
We are going to have to seek out a whole new set of indicators for what is happening in the economy. And we are going to have to find a set of numbers less easily manipulated than the current way the unemployment rate is tracked.
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