tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post1165280369607261787..comments2023-10-30T09:23:42.803-05:00Comments on Some Assembly Required: SAR #16278Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-88217556426873744302016-10-04T13:29:56.489-05:002016-10-04T13:29:56.489-05:00Some of us read you for links like the Zodiac thin...Some of us read you for links like the Zodiac thing, but then, every other day or so, you slip in things like Hillary couldn't possibly have affected public policy except as a formal public official. We are not Trump supporters/believers but have brains and memories and other sites to view. Please knock off the crap.mcnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-75999431624957843582016-10-04T13:09:29.451-05:002016-10-04T13:09:29.451-05:00«it's pretty hard for a bank to make money wit...«it's pretty hard for a bank to make money with interest rates at zero»<br /><br />That common idea is based on a confusion: that there is only one interest rate, and that rate is the fed funds target rate.<br /><br />But actually there are many different rates, in two in categories: "passive" (or "cost of funds) rates paid by the banks to those that lend to them) and "active" rates (collected by the banks from those the banks give loans). The difference between them is the "spread".<br /><br />The fed funds target rate is indeed near zero, and thus the "cost of funds" to the banks is near zero. But "active" rates are as a rule far from zero for most borrowers. Only very large very safe corporate borrowers suffer near zero "active" rates, and those haven't borrowed from banks for a long time. So banks are still making a lot of money from pretty large spreads with many customers. Plus banks make a lot of their money with trading, which is financed by borrowing at near zero "cost of funds" rates.<br /><br />It is only in the ridiculous "neoclassical" style models that there is a single interest rate on "money" and that coincides with the "rate of profit".<br /><br />There are some interesting graphs here (figures 1 and 2) about the rather different levels of the federal funds target rate and other "wholesale" rates:<br /><br />http://noisefromamerika.org/articolo/why-the-fed-s-zero-interest-rate-policy-failed<br /><br />Of course "active" rates paid by retail customers like ordinary businesses and individuals, such as credit card borrowers, still involve colossal spreads.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-89957969425453678402016-10-04T12:47:48.608-05:002016-10-04T12:47:48.608-05:00Todays vermin are sort of very much over-achieving...Todays vermin are sort of very much over-achieving aphids... sort of ants or such that have these giganormous white frothy outpourings.... On sycamore tree.Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-46701783894484334022016-10-04T09:45:57.734-05:002016-10-04T09:45:57.734-05:00The world of 'I' remains relatively tiny w...The world of 'I' remains relatively tiny when we are young and most of us were preoccupied with our own needs and interests because we [foolishly as it turns out] believed 'the adults' were minding the store.<br /><br />Funny how 'parental love' can turn so quickly into 'abandonment' when we learn things aren't as we were taught.<br /><br />Worse, this realization doesn't come until later in life although it does account for the Angst felt by the young as their attempts to get their proverbial 'feet under themselves' are repeatedly foiled.<br /><br />Again they blame themselves when the fact of the matter is they have been sabotaged by 'other people's parents' and the 'pay to play' legal system.<br /><br />Um, in a totally unrelated matter, is today's snapshot a microscopic view of sperm or are they the weirdest pussy willow's ever?Gegnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01918737715343158105noreply@blogger.com