Archive for category Capitalism
ILL Baby, ILL
Posted by Lance Haley in BP oil spill, Business and Money, Capitalism, Energy, Environment, Pollution on August 24th, 2010
IT’S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SICK . . .
A Halliburton employee serving as a technical advisor to BP on the Deep Water Horizon oil rig that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico recently testified before a U.S. Coast Guard inquiry currently investigating the disaster. In that testimony, he informed the Coast Guard commission that he had sent emails and a computer model to BP’s engineers two days before the explosion indicating that their was a considerable risk of gas leaks given the lack of sufficient stabilizing supports utilized in the construction of the oil well.
BP Chief Engineer Brian Morel’s response to that email?
“Hopefully, the pipe stays centralized due to gravity [because] it’s too late to get any more product to the rig.”
In other words, “I hope SH!T doesn’t happen.”
Morel and one of the top two BP officials on the rig have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and have refused to testify. The other top BP official has said he is too sick to testify.
So what do BP boys do when faced with having to take personal responsibility for their own monumentally disastereous – as in deadly – decisions?
They either TAKE THE FIFTH or DRINK A FIFTH.
The Rich Make Majority of Strategic Mortgage Defaults
Posted by Lance Haley in BP oil spill, Business and Money, Capitalism, Cultural Issues, Economics, Ethics, Health Insurance Industry, Morality, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on August 4th, 2010
So you think it’s all those ”immoral” people who got sub-prime mortgages on a house that they could not afford who are mailing the keys back to the bank?
WRONG!
Statistically speaking, it is the wealthiest people who are making “business decisions” to walk away from mortgages when what is owed on the loan is greater than the value of the house. And the rich are doing so at almost twice the rate of the sub-prime and owners of lower-cost homes, according to data compiled by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.
In other words, sub-prime borrowers generally cannot make the payments, and involuntarily have to walk away; rich people can make the payments and voluntarily choose to walk away!
These are called “strategic mortgage defaults”, because the individuals do a complete cost/benefit analysis in order to determine if it makes financial sense to keep the home when it will likely never appreciate in value enough in the long run to pay for itself.
It’s not dissimilar to what health insurance companies do when denying coverage for that little bout of cancer your spouse is battling, or what BP did when deciding to take shortcuts while drilling on that rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Hey, it might cost them more in the long run, but they are willing to take that chance given that it will certainly save them money in the short-run. Thus giving them a better opportunity to make more money in the long run.
Amoral Capitalism. Risk/reward analysis. It’s just business, partner; you know, it’s all about ”the bottom line.”
Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist, said it best:
“The rich are different: they are more ruthless.”
Bernie Madoff: “Fu@K My Victims”
Posted by Lance Haley in Business and Money, Capitalism, Cultural Issues, Ethics, Morality, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, financial industry on June 21st, 2010
”FUCK MY VICTIMS”
So after leaving thousands of trusting clients broke and devastated, Madoff adds insult to injury by telling a fellow inmate while incarcerated at the MCC [the New York city jail] that this crime was not all of his own making, and that he felt unfairly caught up in it.
He even went so far as to tell a prison consultant which he had hired that ”People kept throwing money at me. Some guy wanted to invest, and if I said no, the guy said, ‘What, I’m not good enough’?” Poor Bernie did not want to insult the guy – so he “Made Off” with his money.
But his final comment speaks volumes:
“ FUCK my victims. I carried them for 20 years, and now I’m doing 150 years.”
Wall Street’s Likely Strategy for Financial Reform
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Wall Street, financial industry on June 21st, 2010
Citigroup – another Wall Street financial behemoth – has just released estimates regarding how hard financial reform might negatively effect Wall Street banks’ earnings.
I have news for Citigroup. One of your own – a Wall Street investment banker – seems to think differently.
If you recall back in January of this year, Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, and several of his fellow Wall Street CEO’s testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission regarding their complicity in the global financial crisis. First, Lloyd “Doing God’s Work” Blankfein had the audacity to claim that these events “will not happen again in my lifetime.”
So Lloyd, we can disregard the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund financial collapse in 1998 that almost resulted in a global economic meltdown – click here, here, here, or here. Or how about the dot.com bubble of 2000 – click here or here. And now this more recent Global Financial Crisis? Even though they all three occurred over the course of a mere 10 years?
Lloyd, are you saying you only have a couple of years to live? Has Hell been put on notice to reserve a room?
After that self-serving testimony, the closest any one of them came to admitting that they completely screwed-up the financial system was the statement of Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack: “We did our own cooking and we choked on it.” Well not exactly John; you did your own cooking, the American public choked on it, all while you and Blankfein continue to dine on caviar, Oysters Rockefeller, Fillet Mignon and lobster.
So while doing the usual “deep research” into that day’s Congressional hearing, I stumbled upon an investment banker’s blog, and referenced some of his brash and flippant statements in this post - Inside the Mind of an Unapologetic Wall Street Investment Banker. Let’s revisit some of his comments:
Investment bankers “have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the whys and wherefores of the financial crisis, the proper size and role of banks and investment banks in the domestic economy, or the moral imperatives inherent in stewarding the financial plumbing under-girding the daily lives and livelihoods of six billion people . . . [i]nvestment bankers have almost no interest in why things are the way they are. Rather, they spend all their considerable intellectual and psychological resources on understanding how they can take advantage of the way things are.”
Moreover, “their obvious lack of intellectual curiosity about the sources of the crisis . . . [explains] their resistance to any major change in the way the industry or the markets are regulated . . . changing regulations will [not]necessarily make the industry less profitable . . . [since they] have well-justified confidence in their ability to turn new regulations to their advantage.”
He goes on to conclude, “Don’t look to investment bankers for answers on how we got here. We don’t know and we don’t care [emphasis added]. We take the world as we find it and try to make money.”
After reading that, you should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing will change after financial reform. Absolutely nothing. Except Wall Street investment bankers will become even richer, while they unapologetically watch the rest of us slowly go to Hell in a hand-basket.
If that is ”doing God’s work”, Hell is fine with me.
A Tragedy of the First Proportion?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, BP oil spill, Business and Money, Campaigns, Capitalism, Energy, Environment, Government, House of Representatives, How and Why We Get Screwed, Oil, Politics, Republicans, Show Them the $$$, White House on June 17th, 2010
No, the heading of this post is not a reference to the tragic deaths of the eleven men killed from the horrific explosion and fire on that Gulf oil rig. Nor is that heading alluding to the environmental devastation being wrought upon Gulf coast region by the oil spill. And it is not even a commentary on the hardships the people of the Gulf coast are experiencing.
Quite to the contrary.
That statement was Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton’s characterization of the outcome of the meeting between BP executives and President Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday – where BP voluntarily agreed to pay $20 Billion into a fund to cover legal claims for the oil spill. Barton seems to think that BP had no choice in the matter – describing it as a political “shakedown” – and then openly apologized to BP’s embattled CEO, Tony Hayward, as more Congressional hearings got underway this morning. Here is what Barton had to say:
“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday . . . [it's] a tragedy of the first proportion, that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, a $20 billion shakedown.”
Furthermore, Barton attempted to insinuate that BP was denied it’s right to utilize the legal system by invoking the constitutional doctrine of “due process and fairness” - thereby concluding that BP entered the agreement under duress, thus ostensibly elevating it to the level of “a tragedy of first proportion”; at least in Barton’s obviously warped world-view.
If anything, Barton’s response is so remarkably disproportionate, it begs the question as to how he could reach such an extraordinarily nonsensical conclusion? Want a not so little clue?
M-$-O-$-N-$-E-$-Y!
Barton – who is the top Congressional recipient of almost $1.5 million in political campaign contributions from the oil industry over the past 20 years – is just another shameless Big Oil shill in Washington, who is willing to do the bidding for their interests; all while placing the interests of average Americans at the bottom of the barrel.
Barton may be the only Republican brazen enough, or outright stupid enough, to say what he really thinks. I guess money and power will do that to you. Other Republicans simply insinuated that it was another Obama-style government takeover, of sorts. Their “measured responses” are just a veil for the same manner of thinking.
Meanwhile, as I am just finishing writing this post, Barton has suddenly issued a retraction of his earlier apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward – not so ironically, under duress from Republican leadership. In Barton’s mind, that is probably compounding the “tragedy of first proportion”? But even soul-less politicians have to compromise from time-to-time.
Nevertheless, don’t be fooled. After all, defending Corporate America is the primary business of the Republicans. Meanwhile, the small business owners of the Gulf Coast are cast afloat on a proverbial sea of oil, all going to Hell in a hand-basket together.
Let’s just hope the voters remember that come November.
Massive Document Spill in Washington by Goldman Sachs
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, House of Representatives, How and Why We Get Screwed, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, financial industry on June 17th, 2010
WHERE’S WALDO?
Lost in the news cycle that has been inundated with stories regarding the Gulf oil spill, there was another giant “spill” that is overwhelming Congressional and SEC watchdogs.
Goldman Sachs is playing a classic legal game of “Where’s Waldo” with the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission by first refusing requests for documents related to the commission’s inquiry, and then suddenly dumping (delivering) hundreds of millions of documents all at one time - a legal maneuver intended to obfuscate and hide the proverbial “smoking gun” documents that may be lurking beneath that mountain of paper.
You can be certain most of those documents that were delivered have nothing to do with the Congressional inquiry. Moreover, it will take years to scour through them to find the one’s that really matter - assuming they haven’t already been quietly deleted and/or shredded. By the time this thing is over – years from now - Goldman Sachs will have likely have made enough money to pay a “small fine”, and then buy the remaining portion of Congress that they and the rest of Corporate America don’t already own.
The message from Goldman Sachs: we worked diligently at providing the documentation that you have requested, and we can ensure you that we left nothing out (except maybe the sh!t that really matters). Oh, and good luck finding what you are looking for,
If this was the Pecora Commission, you could bet that Lloyd Blankfein and Company – you know, those guys on Wall Street that are doing “God’s work”- would be a lot more cooperative. Yet, Lloyd’s betting this dog ain’t got no teeth. I hate to admit it, but Blankfein is probably right.
So the question should not be ”Where’s Waldo”?
Americans should all be asking “Where’s Percora“?
Message to British Regarding American Criticism of BP’s Monumental Screw Up . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in BP oil spill, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Energy, Environment, Oil, Politics, Pollution on June 11th, 2010
ENGLAND vs. U.S.A – WORLD CUP SOCCER or BP OIL FIASCO?
Help Americans understand this:
So you are distressed over the fact that Americans are extremely outraged at BP’s (formerly called British Petroleum) environmental disaster which is wrecking havoc on our Gulf Coast region; that our fury over this corporation’s massive blunder is somehow to blame for the precipitous drop in it’s stock price; that this drop in the value of BP’s stock has effected the value of many of your citizens’ pensions; therefore Americans need to “ratchet down” criticism of the company so that the stock price can go up again?
Interesting.
So when our Wall Street banks screwed up the world economy, thereby effecting the value of your citizens’ pension funds because they bought some of the over-rated collateralized debt obligations (CDO’s) these financial terrorists were selling, it was OK for you to whip them like the worthless dogs they are. However, when one of your energy corporations screws up, effecting the lives of millions of Americans living on the Gulf coast, we have to bite our tongues because that too negatively affects your retirement accounts?
Locke, Hobbes, Bentham, John Stewart Mills, Bertrand Russell - all great British philosphers. Men of extraordinary reason and intelligence. Did present day British citizens skip the class in Logic and Critical Thinking? These great British philosophers must be rolling over in their graves.
My ancestors left England (and Scotland) in order to come to the United States over 300 years ago.
Maybe for good reason . . . no pun intended.
Rand Paul’s First Slip & Fall – Down the Rabbit Hole of the American Political Landscape
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Anti-government sentiment, Campaigns, Capitalism, Conservatives, Cultural Issues, Economics, Government, Populists, Race, Tea Party on May 20th, 2010
LIBERTARIAN DUALITY SYMBOL
Within 24 hours of getting the first Tea Party nomination for a major political office in the United States, Kentucky Senatorial candidate Rand Paul already committed his first political faux pas in his equivocation regarding a key component of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In an interview last night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, Rand was pressed by Maddow to state whether or not he would oppose the key provision under the landmark legislation prohibiting private sector discrimination based on race. Rand categorically denied that he was a racist and insisted that this position, based on Libertarian principles which philosophically oppose government intervention in the private sector, was the basis for his argument that this portion of the legislation was flawed and that he would not support it.
Today, Rand backtracked from his political posture last night, now saying that he would not advocate for the repeal of the legislation, in whole or part. He said that appearing on Maddow’s show was a “poor political decision” – inferring that her questioning was another Sarah Palin, liberal media “gotcha” moment. He complained to Maddow about her line of questioning during the interview, claiming that the issue of private property owners’ rights under the law was “an abstract, obscure conversation from 1964 that you bring up … You bring up something that really is not an issue.”
I like Rand Paul. I don’t believe for one moment that he is a racist. Neither does Rachel Maddow, and her questioning was not a hatchet job. She is sincerely interested in how Libertarian purists might dismantle 235 years of constitutional interpretation and legislation. I watched the interview, and her questions were fair. Moreover, I think both Rand and his father, Ron Paul, are well-intentioned, intelligent anti-establishment politicians. There is ample room for men of their intellectual and philosophical stature under the tent of American politics. But their positions on serious political and legislative matters must be explored.
Unfortunately for Rand, that is why his alignment with principles of Libertarianism, and the Tea Party’s deep criticism of prior legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does make it an issue. If the Tea Party candidates are going to run on a platform that advocates for the dismantling of any and all government regulation affecting private property rights, they have to accept the fact that critics have good reason to question their intentions regarding repeal of prior legislation, and what those actions would mean for ten’s of millions of Americans.
Most people are not familiar with Libertarianism – a modern, free market philosophy – it eschews government interference in any aspect of private life, while advocating for freedom of speech and behavior, so long as it does not harm anyone. Of course, in theory, it all sounds very enticing. I personally considered myself to once be a Libertarian.
However, that all began to change after recognizing that those among us who have more “freedom” – as in money or power - will utilize that advantage in order to quash or interfere with the freedom of others to pursue their own goals and dreams. What I often hear in response is that “life isn’t fair” – inequities will always exist.
If that is so, we are headed back to a time when robber barons and monopolists are allowed to manipulate and “game the system” for their own devices. Wall Street’s domination of the finanical landscape is a case in point. Once they have wrested complete control or dominated an intolerable degree of economic and political life in America, social unrest and anarchy will inevitably rule the day. Case in point: the colonial revolt against England in 1776. I would think Rand Paul and the Tea Party might see the irony in that.
Even Adam Smith – author of Wealth of Nations, and the father of free markets – recognized that government intervention was a necessary evil. For those of you who doubt this, read the book (here is a free online edition). I did over thirty years ago. And I have read it several times since then. Smith was a closet “socialist” (with a small “s”). The principle underlying his whole theory was the overall social good would be elevated by HARNESSING – as in placing a bridle on – greed. When you harness a horse – you keep it under control. You do not let it run completely free.
Libertarians think the horse should never be bridled; under any circumstances. The law of unintended consequences will always come into play when you let a horse run wild.
For that reason alone, Rand Paul must accept the reality of having to go down the rabbit hole of American politics.
Just go ask Alice . . . or Barry Goldwater.
JP Morgan Apologizes for Saying What They Think, So You Don’t Think About What They Said
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, economy, financial industry on May 5th, 2010
YOU CAN’T UNRING THE BELL . . .
A top executive and economic analyst at mega-bank JP Morgan Chase trashed U.S. senators in a company memo to the bank’s clients - stating that they showed “an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics” regarding the Goldman Sachs hearings, and said “it’s time for the grownups to step in” regarding financial reform.
Interesting . . .
These same banks showed an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics when coming to the taxpayers for bailouts; which suggests that it’s time for the grownups to step in, and teach them a lesson about what happens when you demonstrate an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics – you lose the privilege to have such a powerful influence over OUR economy.
The grownups need to make TBTF (Too Big To Fail) = TSTM (Too Small To Matter) – break up these childish Big Banks.
P.S. After a spokesperson for JP Morgan Chase issued an apology for the memorandum – stating that it “does not reflect the views of our firm” – you could here the collective chant from JP Morgan headquarters as they covered their ears . . . “THE BELLS, THE BELLS, THE BELLS.”
Republicans Suddenly “Get Religion” On Financial Reform?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Congress, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Republicans, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, White House, financial industry on April 26th, 2010
Several weeks ago Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John Cornyn, leader of the National Republican Senatorial Committee – a principle Republican campaign fund-raising organization – flew to New York City to meet with Wall Street. Looming on the “dark horizon” was another long and bitter battle with President Obama and the Democrats over the proposed financial reform bill. It was safe to assume that Republicans would drag this one out like they did health care reform so as to impact the coming Fall mid-term elections.
True to form, McConnell and Cornyn made their pitch to the money-changers sitting in the temple – which was 25 Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers. The two powerful Senators made it very clear that in order for the Republicans to have any chance to take back control of the Senate and the House, they would need Wall Street’s assistance. As one anonymous Wall Street executive in attendance so eloquently put it, “There was no arm twisting, but they did say that we should feel uncomfortable living in any country where one party has unfettered ability to pass anything [legislation] . . . President Obama dreams up.”
I hope I don’t have to spell out what the Republicans quid pro quo was? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ . . . and lots of it.
So upon the Senator’s return to Washington, McConnell immediately announces that the Republicans are united in their oppostion to the Democrats’ financial reform bill, and they will utilize every procedural move to block the proposed regulatory-laden legislation because it will risk future tax-payer bailouts. That was just two weeks ago.
Fast forward one week, with one big freakin’ revelation about Goldman Sachs’ “gaming the system” to the $1 Billion detriment of several of their institutional clients, as well as proposals for much stronger derivatives regulation coming out of another Senate committee – and the Republicans are caught in a trap that they set for themselves.
Yet, in spite of the fact that the Republicans suddenly reversed course and were quickly backing away from supporting their Wall Street financiers, appearing more conciliatory towards President Obama and the Democrats than they have in more than 14 months, Mitch McConnell would have you believe that he has the Democrats on the ropes.
McConnell seems to think he should get credit for forcing the Democrats to negotiate. Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and author of the pending legislation, responded to McConnell’s baseless bragging, saying this:
“That is like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise.”
YEP!
UPDATE: Now after two days of filbustering and holding up floor debate on financial reform, McConnell got those Democrats to negotiate again – or was it get the voters to forget about the GOP’s siding with Wall Street by November?