Tuesday, March 23, 2010

SAR #10082

Extinction is the default setting.

What Just Happened?  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the first time in a long, long time that the government comes down on the side of the people, as part of a solution.  That minority of the population actually affected by the Act in significant ways will experience the government as their protector and not as an enabler of Wall Street rapacity (even though that's a role the bill also plays).

Everyone Does It:  The defense for Lehman playing pick-a-number with its financial statements seems to be it was no big deal because everybody was doing it.  And still are.  It's not fraud as long as you pay the accountants to say it's not, right Kenny Boy?

Been There, Done That: Iraq is accusing Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil by 'cross-border drilling.'

Safety First:  The point of the bank bailouts was to increase the ability of banks to loan money to entrepreneurs who would then hire people, make stuff and get the economy going.  But that didn't happen.  For example, Goldman Sachs (which became a bank holding company solely to suckle up to the government's teat) had – as of December 2009 - $27.43 billion lodged with the Feds as “reserves”.  Of that amount 94% was “excess” - beyond what they were required to have on deposit.  That's over $25 billion they could have loaned out, were supposed to have loaned out, but did not for fear of not being paid back.

Point of View:  While much of the US was enjoying an old-fashioned winter, much of Canada had the mildest and driest winter on record.  Some Arctic areas were much warmer and the northern part of Quebec province was 10ºF warmer than normal.  El Nino gets the main credit,  global warming gets an assist.

Truth Will Out:  "If you don't tie our hands, we will keep stealing."   Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA)  Fooled you.  You thought it was someone at Goldman Sachs, didn't you?

Porn O'Graph:  Galluping to the rescue.

2 comments:

TulsaTime said...

no loans is not based on fear of lack of repayment, they just have a sure thing with the carry trade, and the HFT operations....we don need no steenkin loans man!!!!

fajensen said...

The point of the bank bailouts was to increase the ability of banks to loan money to entrepreneurs

HaHaHa - No, the main point was to recapitalize the banks, to prevent that even a single bank ends up in bankruptcy proceedings because that would make massive fraud all the way through the system an Official Matter rather than mere speculation. The second purpose was to allow banks to hide losses forever and pawn bad assets to the FED.