tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post6182458238196503932..comments2023-10-30T09:23:42.803-05:00Comments on Some Assembly Required: SAR #12187Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-85817671104113400572012-07-06T19:01:24.910-05:002012-07-06T19:01:24.910-05:00re "For a Few Dollars More" Asked and an...re "For a Few Dollars More" Asked and answered. . . Is "crop insurance" socialism? In the sense that most Texas farmers would describe it, yes. Do most Texans oppose "Socialism"? Yes.kwarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-34134635966640570122012-07-06T13:56:34.522-05:002012-07-06T13:56:34.522-05:00«LIBOR has been “a long running confidence trick.”...«<i>LIBOR has been “a long running confidence trick.” This LIBOR rate fixing episode should be the last straw, but it will be shrugged off just like all the other crimes of the financial elite. Yes, Barclays rigged the Libor rates for years. Yes, the BOE and Fed were probably aware. Yes, another dozen or more crooked bankers from crooked banks were involved.</i>»<br /><br />But statistics have been "managed" by government more or less subtly for a long time:<br /><br />As Steve Waldman and others show the "prime rate" in the USA has been "managed" by USA banks and the Fed/regulators to greatly boost bank lending profits to individuals, to allow them a cushion when they have trading losses:<br /><br />http://www.interfluidity.com/posts/1160447599.shtml<br />«<i>the spread between the Federal funds (and Treasury bill) rate and the prime rate widened from 1 1/2% to 3% in 1991. That was Greenspan's gift to the banking sector to insure that major banks would not fail. You may recall at the time that rumors were rife — including some repeaed on the floor of the House — that Citibank was about to go under. By doubling the margin between the prime and the funds rate — and essentially increasing the profitability fourfold after taking into consideration the costs of processing loans</i>»<br /><br />The conclusion here is that the finance industry, like the oil and arms industries, are thinly veiled arms of state policy, and of elite domination within states.<br /><br />As to finance/banks profitability and subsidies Nassim Taleb (and others) have pointed out that over the cycle they accumulate net losses, thus the need for periodic bailouts.Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-27810736232031913602012-07-06T11:52:29.791-05:002012-07-06T11:52:29.791-05:00Papers please: How much you wanna bet if he hadn&#...Papers please: How much you wanna bet if he hadn't turned out to be a former governor, the poor, er, son of a gun would probably still be in a holding cell? <br /><br />Just like the event outlined in Kinder, Gentler: once again demonstrating the 'glories' of privatization.<br /><br />Citizens have yet to save a nickel by farming out these formerly public jobs.<br /><br />More welfare for the (already) rich!Gegnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01918737715343158105noreply@blogger.com