Thursday, April 28, 2016

SAR #16119


This is not capitalism; this is mere plunder by a powerful few. We do not have 'capitalism.' We have a corrupt system of kleptocracy ruled over by the big money power of a relatively few.” Jesse
-------------
Smoke/Fire: Puerto Rico will cut its minimum wage to $4.25 an hour. Because beggaring the worker is the best way to pay back Wall Street bond holders. Just ask Argentina.
Creativity Abounds: Apparently a lot of liberal arts majors are getting jobs as creative artists in S&P 500 companies' accounting departments, which would explain why 90% of them no longer use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in reporting earnings results. 380 of the Non-GAAP reports claimed net income to be up 6.6%, while using GAAP showed the same companies' net income declined 11%.
Europe Running Out Of Mattresses: Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch behemoth, is offering €300 million of debt maturing in 2020, with a zero interest coupon. The potential four year yield will be 0.06%.
Happy Motoring: 97% of all new diesel cars exceed official pollution limits, some by as much as 600%. VW was giving power-point lectures on how to foil emissions tests back in 2006, and Mitsubishi says if first found ways to beat the tests 25 years ago.
Quoted: “Voters know at a gut level that our system of global capitalism is working mainly for the 1 %, not the 99 %. That’s a large part of why both Sanders and Trump have done well, because they tap into that truth, albeit in different ways. The Panama Papers illuminate a key aspect of why the system isn’t working–because globalization has allowed the capital and assets of the 1 % to travel freely, while those of the 99 % cannot.”
Politics 101: In the US political process should the interests of the voters or the interest of the party prevail? Party, obviously. After all this is not a democracy. Wasn't intended to be. That's why over half of us think the system is crooked, it is.
A Bite Out Of The Apple: Poor, failing Apple; it only made $10.5 billion in profit in the last fiscal quarter and only has $233 billion in cash sitting around after its gross profit margin slipped from 40.8 cents on the dollar to 39.4 cents. How's it supposed to survive at such low levels of greed to goodness?
Words & Deeds: Dennis Hastert, back when his full name was Speaker of The House Dennis Hastert, wanted to “put repeat child molesters in jail for the rest of their lives.” When he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for hiding the money he used to hide his abuse of children for decades, he cried and begged for leniency. If his first name wasn't “Former House Speaker” how many years would he have gotten? Maybe he gets the volume discount, sort of like a Catholic priest?
Question For Graduates: What would you rather do with your life, work in an office cubicle or sail around the world with a cat?
A Parting Shot:

3 comments:

Gegner said...

Smoke/Fire: Sort of like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, isn't it? Then there is Creativity Abounds: it has long been apparent that the term 'value' means different things to different people depending on how they view a given item.

The current definition of the term means something that makes zero sense to the average consumer...but again I struggle with 'word choice' here because 'sense' isn't a good fit.

The working poor 'understands' their head is being held under the water, it is the 'why' that escapes them..because almost nobody self-indetifies as 'working poor' or as being a member of the 'surplus population'.

Last night a local news magazine [Chronicle, WCVB 5 in Boston] produced a show titled AI but referring to how robots were continuing to, er, 'steal jobs'...and how the 'expert' they had on 'hoped' humanity would crack the economy that can't provide jobs for those who need then before it became a nightmare of the well-off few, living behind 'gated splendor' while the rest of us fought tooth and nail (to the death was even implied) over 'the scraps'.

After the capitalist and his sidekick, organized crime get through, there's nothing left to fight over.

If the public doesn't wake up there's gonna be one heck of a 'correction', the bloodiness of which will amaze even the most grim among us.

rto said...

Re. "This woman and her cat are having the best time sailing around the world"

Liz sailed with us a couple of times before she set off on her solo journey. My friends and I had crossed oceans many times and I had sailed around the world twice and we all thought she was insane. At the time she was very immature and had little practical sailing knowledge.

The sea is very unforgiving. I guess she showed us.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

rto - Yes, the sea is very unforgiving - but for those who learn quickly from scary experience, sailing can be easily "the best" of experience.

When my wife and I first set out we were such raw novices that surviving the first night crossing the Gulf Stream was far from given. We somehow schooled ourselves to live aboard for a couple of years, seldom anchoring anywhere for more than a few days.

Later I comfortably single-handed for six months on a craft much like Liz's. No cat; I took Roger, a slightly disreputable Teddy bear.

But then you all knew that I was never one to take the school solution.