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Post by kramer on May 29, 2009 8:25:08 GMT -6
From the AP: LinkAnd I know the 'genesis' of these risky loans: The 1992 Federal Reserve paper that suggested ways banks could lower their lending standards so that more people could buy homes. www.bos.frb.org/commdev/commaff/closingt.pdfKind of ironic how the fallout of a socialistic goal of the government is now moving us closer to socialisim. Kramer
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Post by kramer on May 28, 2009 11:10:24 GMT -6
And then there is cap-and-trade. I've read through the bill a little and also read some reviews of it and it looks as if some of the higher energy costs from cap-and-trade will be given to other countries. Call me a nut but I believe some of this money (if it does end up in them) will be used in those countries to build up their infrastructure so that they can support manufacturing and other jobs. And I believe that those jobs will come from developed nations, in particular the US.
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Post by kramer on May 28, 2009 11:05:25 GMT -6
I wonder how many of those troubled mortgages are people walking away from being under water or purposely going into default in order to get their mortgage balance lowered?
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Post by kramer on May 18, 2009 9:04:05 GMT -6
From the transcript of one of the House hearings on this mess: Thanks ACORN...
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Post by kramer on May 8, 2009 11:46:43 GMT -6
I took all of my 401K out of the stock market around April-May of last year. And based on this information, I doubt I'll put it back in it.
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Post by kramer on May 4, 2009 21:52:14 GMT -6
This is wrong. The book and site are instuctions on how to develop and execute outsourcing. Here is a review as posted on Amazon: A 'must read' for serious companies considering outsourcing. Outsourcing is a $6 trillion global industry and is a hot topic not only in business but in the daily papers, where workers displaced complain and employers saving money face the pros and cons of outsourcing. Several books have appeared on the topic, but THE BLACK BOOK OF OUTSOURCING: HOW TO MANAGE THE CHANGES, CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES differs in several ways. It's written by a team of experts on the topic who's been coaching executives on outsourcing practices for over a decade, it explains the values - when conducted properly - of outsourcing, and it tells how to identify the right partners and fine-tune outsourcing relationships. It speaks to the user - not in theoretical or highly technical jargon as most the other outsourcing books available want to do. Full of actionable plans and items. Its like a consulting engagement in a book at a very affordable price. Go for this one if you're shopping for an outsourcing book. Trust me, its that much better. I agree. I'm interested in the green jobs part. I want to see if green jobs are being created here or are being outsourced. Since this is an outsourcing site, I'm guessing that these green jobs will be outsourced green jobs which goes against what we've been told as far as green jobs for Americans.
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Post by kramer on May 4, 2009 8:07:26 GMT -6
Just saw this for the first time this morning and thought that this would be a great place to post it. theblackbookofoutsourcing.com/resourceslinks.htmI haven't really read it yet but it contains information on outsourcing. I apologize if this has already been posted here. Kramer
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Post by kramer on Mar 23, 2009 19:22:52 GMT -6
It was clear when NAFTA was being debated that it and subsequent trade deals were violated our national sovereignty and gave authority to extra national NGO's to dictate laws to Americans. But don't expect this to become public knowledge or have the MSM explain these facts of life to the American people - it won't happen since the MSM has been Wall Street's chief enabler on this issue. The fact is they can't let this become broad public knowledge because it means that the U.S. isn't run by the president and Congress but foreign business entities. Imagine that bald headed free trading goon Ali Veshi on CNN mentioning this or the parade of mouth breathing gordon gecko wannabes on Fox talking about this.l. Heck the whole reason these clowns are on the air(like those on CNBC such as Cramer the fraud) is to lie to the people about the real state of the economy and keep from folks from seeing how were being screwed by the corporate and banking elites. I doubt things will change until the unemployment levels get so high that people will start going apeshit on the Wall Street elite. In my opinion, there's also a lot of politicians that need to feel the wrath of apeshit.
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:59:10 GMT -6
Just about every time I come here and read things, I end up getting pissed off.
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:55:50 GMT -6
What I think should happen is that we let AIG go into bankruptcy. Then, void or re-do those CDS contracts for way less than they were negotiated for. The rest of AIG from what I have read is fine and I think they'd come back very healthy.
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:53:11 GMT -6
I don't like the idea of my home price dropping but it's just the law of supply and demand. We have a huge supply with little demand.
I also think any attempt by the gov to control the prices of homes (by trying to stop the downward price drops) is only going to prolong this economic mess.
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:50:30 GMT -6
I've seen the story of Andrew Jackson on the History Channel several times now. He was absolutely right to shut down the Bank of the United States. He foresaw the problems we'd have with a private central bank--which have all come to pass. I know it's a private bank but the have a .gov address. Why is that?
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:45:06 GMT -6
Below is a 2-page article from Public Citizen describing how the WTO, NAFTA, and other "free trade" agreements eliminate US & local government's ability to restrict procurement to US-made goods. (There are limited exceptions.) In other words, Federal, state, and local governments can not restrict taxpayer-funded expenditures to American-made goods, because doing so would violate international trade law. As a result, taxpayers have no choice but to subsidized foreign competition, and thus have no choice but to subsidize the loss of their own jobs to foreign competition. You gotta be kidding! If this is true, it's a frigging outrage. Seriously, if I was in power in the government to purchase things,, I'd buy American and give those assholes who might be upset the middle finger.
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:42:26 GMT -6
I don't doubt that unions were a good thing in those days because workers were being exploited. I fail to see the need for unions today. In fact, I believe unions are generally bad for a company. For example, I'm a mixed-signal semiconductor product engineer and I have always tried to outdo my co-workers in order to get the biggest raise and promoted the fastet. With unions, I understand that all workers in a given dept get the same raise (assuming they all worked there for roughly the same time period) regardless if they excel or not. When I work, I am always thinking and looking for ways for the company to make more money. I don't see the incentive there for union workers to do the same thing.
Unions were once needed and the right to organize should never go away in case businesses start to exploit workers again. But I doubt this would happen so I think they should go away. We'd all be better off without them. Just look at GM: they are paying healthcare benefits to something like a million people yet they have around 96,000 workers. Many union public school systems are giving us idiot kids and in places like NYCity, it can take over a year to fire a bad teacher while these bad teachers still get paid even though they are no longer teaching.
Unions should die. It's time.
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Post by kramer on Mar 22, 2009 19:30:00 GMT -6
Obama's multiple front approach to the economy is a real mixed bag, some of it good and some real bad.... The bad.... If he wants to save a hundreds of billions - withdraw totally from Iraq and blacklist companies like KBR and Blackwater from getting Pentagon contracts. Obama's idiot carbon caps on our industrial base and allowing Chinese steel to flood the market is nothing short of suicidal. We run some of the cleanest steel and aluminum foundries around and he wants to penalize them. The Good: The EFCA if enacted(very doubtful) will finally put the kibosh on the big box stores. Taxing overseas earnings. The Missing: Killing zombie banks and financial firms like AIG. Banning the trading of derivatives. Allowing short selling of banks and financial institutions. Reinstating Glass-Stegall Putting back the "buy America" clause in for stimulus programs. Instituting tariffs on Chinese and Mexican made imports. I agree with all of the above, especially putting tariffs on Chinese and Mexican imports. Obama should go back to his campaign promise of renegotiating NAFTA. He appears to be caving to Mexico on the Mexican truckers issue. I doubt he's going to do anything with NAFTA.
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Post by kramer on Mar 12, 2009 16:22:19 GMT -6
A death spiral continues to dive into the heart of the American family. As the foreclosures rise so does the quantity of empty, vacant houses which blight neighborhoods and the lifestyle of the family. ======================================================== Foreclosures up 30 percent in February WASHINGTON – Despite halts on new foreclosures by several major lenders, the number of households threatened with losing their homes rose 30 percent in February from last year's levels, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. The rise in foreclosure filings came despite temporary halts to foreclosures by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and major banks JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America. news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090312/ap_on_bi_ge/foreclosure_ratesPerhaps this has to do with the "freeze" put on foreclosures during the holiday season: www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2008/db2008123_362200.htmNow that the holiday season is past, maybe the rise has to do with adding in the ones that were on hold?
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Post by kramer on Mar 8, 2009 17:22:08 GMT -6
In 1992, the Federal Reserve had a plan called "Closing The Gap:} A Guide To Equal Opportunity Lending" for banks. This is what's in this Federal Reserve plan: From IBD: And here is the link to the actual Federal Reserve plan that IBD is writing about: www.bos.frb.org/commdev/commaff/closingt.pdfWhile I'm complaining, I just read in the WSJ that we are bailing out some foreign banks. Call me a nut but I think we are watching a robbery take place... Kramer
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Post by kramer on Mar 2, 2009 22:12:21 GMT -6
There's one obvious way that savings can increase -- when the incomes of the most affluent rise. The most affluent already spend a smaller fraction of their income than the non-affluent. Thus, if the incomes of the top earners increases, and everyone else's stays the same, the savings rate will increase. Needless to say, the reduced availability of credit also increase the savings rate, by reducing consumer ability to spend borrowed money, thus subtracting from spending without subtracting from income. I suspect, however, that the savings rate of the lower 80% of the income spectrum has actually declined, as 4 million jobs have been lost over the last year (an employment decline of -2.7%, and real weekly wages declined -1% in 2008. Combining the -1% 2008 real wage decline with a -2.7% employment decline gives an aggregate wage decline of -3.7%. Thus again, if there's been any savings increase, it's come mostly from the reduced spending/increased income of those at the top, and from those who rely on non-wage income. Good points ULC. I assumed that the savings were from ordinary folk who have stopped spending.
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Post by kramer on Mar 2, 2009 15:53:47 GMT -6
I can say from my point of view, as soon as I heard words of serious economic doom from B.O., I stopped about 95% of my spending.
Obviously, I wasn't the only one who reduced spending based on his words of doom...
I wonder if the positive words come after all of their left wing social program spending bills have been ok'd?
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Post by kramer on Mar 2, 2009 15:47:05 GMT -6
American lifestyles and families are suffering mightly in these times. I remember when women started to work in numbers inorder to afford a mortgage and cope with rapid inflation in the 1870s. ============================================================== According to The New York Times over the past year, as companies from Citibank to GM announced massive layoffs, a full 82 percent of the people getting pink slips have been men. Any day now, women are expected to become the majority of the American workforce. www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/03/02/tf.unemployed.boyfriend/index.html?iref=mpstoryviewYeah but maybe this is due to there being more men in the workforce? I would like to see the statistics on this, how many men and women there are and how many of each were affected by reductions.
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Post by kramer on Feb 26, 2009 15:15:43 GMT -6
"Unexpectedly?" I'm no economist but I wasn't expecting any good news in house sales.
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Post by kramer on Feb 25, 2009 8:03:38 GMT -6
Good links, Kramer. I looked at the 2007 report. Our unified budget deficit (after the theft of Social Security funds) was -$162 billion. For 2009, it'll be over $1 trillion. www.gao.gov/financial/fy2007/guide.pdfI found that while reading the testimony of Snow, Cox, and Greenspan during the recent House hearings on the mortgage crisis. Here is what representative Cooper said in regards to the report: So if you want the actual debt based on standards the congress requests businesses to use, this is the report that will give you those numbers.
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Post by kramer on Feb 24, 2009 22:53:13 GMT -6
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Post by kramer on Feb 24, 2009 17:21:54 GMT -6
I can't stand that liberal bitch. Her and Boxer grate on me like a million fingernails scratching across a chalkboard...
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Post by kramer on Feb 20, 2009 1:10:57 GMT -6
I can't believe that the government is going to try to stop the fall in housing prices, I don't see it working based on the size of the housing bubble as seen in that Schiller graph of historical housing prices.
If it doesn't work then what? Are we going to burn another 75 billion in trying another time? This is fucking crazy. I want my home mortgage reduced if I am going to have to help pay the mortgages of those people, many of who shouldn't have qualified for a home in the first place.
I've got two kids and the America that they are going to grow up in is looking like crap. They are going to be on the hook for these bailouts and the unfunded social program liabilities that are approaching 70 trillion dollars.
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Post by kramer on Feb 18, 2009 18:07:01 GMT -6
It seems likely that home prices will have to fall much further to reach a stable level -- a level that is consistent with the historic ratio between incomes and home prices. Too bad for us that Obama wants to stop the slide in housing prices. This in my opinion, is going to prolong this economic mess. Kramer
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Post by kramer on Feb 15, 2009 18:18:00 GMT -6
I've never owned a gun but started the process of getting one a few weeks ago for two reasons. One, that guns would be harder to get under Obama and two, the chance of civil unrest. I've yet to get one, I believe strongly in the right to own guns but I've never cared much for owning a gun.
In one of the gun stores I went into, there was a huge poster board sign that said "Salesman of the Month." On it was a picture of Obama.
Kramer
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Post by kramer on Feb 13, 2009 21:06:36 GMT -6
From what I've read, home prices still have a way to go before the correction is done.
Kramer
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Post by kramer on Feb 12, 2009 17:05:41 GMT -6
In the last few months, I have all of a sudden been reading or hearing people say that we should go back to the Gold Standard. First it was Ron Paul (I thought this made him appear a little nutty), then in the book that I am reading called 'Tragedy and Hope' by Carroll Quigley. The latest was today in the WSJ.
Here's an excerpt from the WSJ opinion:
So, is it a good idea to go back to the Gold Standard?
Kramer
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Post by kramer on Feb 12, 2009 12:50:46 GMT -6
I've been reading a fair amount of stories about buying gold. How does you do this? Do you actually go and pick up the gold bars at a bank or where ever they are selling it? Kramer, The best way to buy gold is through gold coins. Many places require that you wait after paying them before they deliver the gold (either bars or coins). You can buy gold at some small shops that mark them up considerably and give you considerably less when you try to sell them back. Now if I remember right, you live in California. That puts you close to the very best place I've found-- California Numismatic in Inglewood. They're near LAX, about 1 block East of the 405 on Manchester. They actually have gold coins on the premises. You can purchase them with cash and walk out with them. They also have silver an platinum. Their prices on their gold coins are the best I've seen anywhere. They also will buy gold coins, and will give you the best price in town. If you're in southern California, and you want to buy gold coins, California Numismatic is the best place to go. Thanks. I'll check them out if I make the decision to buy, that place isn't too far away for me. I'm in S. Orange County. It bugs me that I have to even consider buying gold... I guess before I do anything, I better read the thread on tungsten inside of gold. Kramer
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