Europe Opens Antitrust Cases Over Banks Dealing in Derivatives

The New York Times

Business Day

By LOUISE STORY and JAMES KANTER

Ever since the financial crisis, when derivatives were blamed for excerbating the panic, regulators have been looking for ways to make these complex financial instruments less risky. Now regulators are also considering whether a small network of big banks unfairly controls the derivatives market itself.[...]

That news story appears in today’s New York Times.

America’s G.O.P.(neocons) are treating today’s Great Recession(which they caused) the same way the G.O.P. treated 1929′s Great Depression. In 1929, instead of focusing on the cause of economic problems at home, they created TARIFFS to raise “mo” money. Tariffs had nothing to do with causing the depression. But Tariffs shifted focus away from America’s financial industry which was the G.O.P.‘s base. And America’s depression became a GREAT DEPRESSION.

And 80 years later the G.O.P., brandishing a new name, are solving economic problems the same old way they “solved” them in 1929. Protecting America and protecting a political base are vying for the attention of the neocons. And it looks like the political base has gotten neocon attention.

Europe may well be decoupling its financial behavior away from America’s financial behavior. It may well be a matter of intelligence quotient.

Derivatives(the financial kind) are not intrinsically bad or evil. But any tool in the wrong hands can spell trouble.

Derivatives have been around since before Christ. But in the de-regulated, greed infested environment of the neocon’s political base, they were as effective in killing economies as one can imagine.

And America’s neocons don’t see their political base as causing a problem. They see the problem, basically the same way they did in 1929. And that means their political base is not to be investigated.

References:
Story, Louise and Kanter, James. “Europe Opens Antitrust Cases Over Banks Dealing in Derivatives”; New York Times April 30, 2011: Business Day

Letterman Calls Trump a racist

USA TODAY

By Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

David Letterman is pretty ticked off at Donald Trump, who implied that Barack Obama only got into Harvard because of affirmative action. The talk show host took Trump’s friend Dr. Phil McGraw to task for the real estate mogul’s comments about the president.[...]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2011/04/letterman-calls-trump-a-racist-/1?csp=hf

Donald Trump likely meets the expressed qualifications to be President of the United States of America. Those qualifications are way less intimidating than the actual job of being President of the United States of America:

Qualifications for the Office of President

Age and Citizenship requirements – US Constitution, Article II, Section 1

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.[...]

http://www.presidentsusa.net/qualifications.html

So, it looks like Mr. Trump does indeed have the qualifications to be President of the United States of America. And America has seen similiar qualifications put to work for twenty-some-odd years. Most of those qualifications don’t require anything more than what parents(birth) and the calendar(age) gave to the potential candidate to be President of the United States of America.

And today is the ideal time for candidates, who have nothing much to talk about, to run for President. Today’s presidential candidates, of the neocon persuasion, rarely if ever, talk about problems of America. That is likely because the neocons caused the problems.

Tear down that tent. Check his birth certificate. He got into Harvard because of affirmative action.

What the hell kind of a political campaign is that? Neocons don’t and likely can’t “campaign” on their performance. Their performance is “train-wreck” quality. So, what is their strategy?

There are more whites in America than blacks. With the possible exception of business lobbyists – it is one man one vote. The arithmetic of the situation is not beyond the academic limits of neocons. And the neocons have and are taking advantage of the natural divisions within America.

I would place my bets on President Barack Obama’s intelligence against Mr. Donald Trump’s intelligence. I would place my bets on the “hit the ground running” political performance of the Democrats against anything the neocons have mustered over the past twenty-some-odd years.

Mr. Trump should not even venture into the academic achievements of high ranking men of politics. Better yet, stay away from “gossip” quality rhetoric and TELL AMERICA about the accomplishments of his political party and how he plans to continue in that vein. But, then again, he can’t do that – can he? No neocon will do that.

Why would Mr. Trump want to compare LEGACY college admissions at YALE UNIVERSITY to AFFIRMATIVE ACTION college admissions at HARVARD? Mr. George W. Bush is a Yale man and Mr. Bush, himself would not campaign on that subject.

America’s ombudsmen(voters) no longer seem to require that politicians stick to political subjects during a campaign. Since the neocons “screwed up” every political subject they got involved in, they are happy with how the press treats/mis-treats their political performance history.

A fool and his country may have already parted.

The Price of Oil – Still a “Pain in the Maine”?

Bloomberg.com displays a news story about oil price, confidence in business and inflation. The title is,

“Europe Inflation Quickens on Oil; Business Confidence Drops“

The notion of “supply and demand” seems to be inadequate in controlling oil prices – in the heavily industrialized world. Here is what Wikipedia says about “supply and demand”:

Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity.[...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

One of the first things one might do, in a case where supply and demand seems to be failing is to look for “natural enemies” of supply and demand.

It is totally stupid to call anything by NAME if that name has not been defined. Economy is a name. It has been defined. It is inside a “box”. It is REGULATED.

Those things that attack the notion of economy should be looked at. And they were. Here is what America’s last neocon President saw when he looked at oil and America’s use of oil:

Bush: ‘America is addicted to oil’

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/01/world/americas/01iht-state.html

But not everyone, as is often the case, saw the same thing when looking at oil.

You can’t think of oil without seeing “$$$$$$” signs. That’s what Americans see every time they fill their tanks. And that’s what Representative Ed Markey saw when he looked, some time ago, at oil prices:

Oil Speculators Cost Consumers $31 Billion this Summer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-ed-markey/oil-speculators-cost-cons_b_120713.html

One leader looked at oil and focused on oil prices, the other leader focused on oil consumption. One leader was on the money – the other was a distraction to the problem.

The Bloomberg article, speaking of conditions in Europe, speaks of inflation and business in the same news title. That is indeed rare in America. Generally, in America, LABOR is associated with inflation.

America has had twenty-some-odd years of relating inflation to LABOR!!!!! America’s neocons have kept a “foot on labor’s neck” for twenty-some-odd years. Joejolly has displayed a graph that shows how labor was denied increased pay for its increased productivity.

However, when the price of oil goes “through the roof” much of America’s “current events” news pool don’t talk about it. And suggestions of “over-indulgence” comes from neocon leadership. The neocons(government) are business friendly. Business is responsible for its bottom line only. If and when the government craters, that’s a social problem.

Many leaders of countries have “stashes” throughout the world as a hedge against “a day of reckoning”. If the country they manage craters, those with dual citizenship can “high-tail” it to that country. And for others a “stash of cash” might work just fine elsewhere.

Europes’ problem resolution seems different from neocon America. Neocon America has “untouchables“. If those untouchables figure in a problem, the problem is not likely to be solved by neocons.

The untouchables, in both 1929 and 2007 were untouched by America’s G.O.P. leadership. The 1929 fiasco is now a matter of history. Historians and perhaps even archeologists are waiting to reveal to the world details of how latter-day neocons problem resolution works.

Jason Linkins: Donald Trump Should Receive the Same Scrutiny He Sought for Barack Obama

THE HUFFINGTON POST

Editor, Eat the Press

Now that Barack Obama has proven that which never needed proving we can finally end the birth certificate sideshow. Members of the press have a choice: they can be the audience member, or they can be the critic. They can treat the carny barker, Donald Trump, as an object of ridicule, or better yet, start treating him as if he were a serious candidate. Either way works for me. But they have to quit the circus. They have to stop dancing Trump’s dance, and stop performing to his beck and call.[...]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Kipling’s 6 honest serving men would have a full time job for years if they dedicated their energy to America’s “Current Events” news pool. They could clean-up the double standard in “news” reporting. They could, perhaps, shame some of those deliberately reporting propaganda as news. They could, perhaps, remind some of those reporting the news of something joejolly read long ago about the attributes of a journalist:

• Truth
• Opinion
• Personality
• Columns

Journalists can, of course, display opinion. And their personality can show. And the frequency of columns may exceed the frequency of honest, non-sensational news to report on. Truth should be a given; but blabbing information, given in confidence, should be against one’s ethical values.

Ethics does not show-up in the above list but it is assumed that by the time an American reaches college student age the student should have some kind of knowledge of ethical behavior. That could be thought of as a foundation for the above 4 bullets.

America’s “current event” news pool is infected with political agenda “news” reporting. The reporting is so bad that one might wonder just what reading skill level and what mental skill level is targeted by columnists. And politicians, whose performance levels leave a lot to be desired are not complaining.

America’s ombudsmen(voters) seem to be as asleep “at the wheel” as they were in late 2004, early 2005. The House of Representatives, supposely looking after America’s well-being, seemed more interested in the well-being of their neocon party members. Mr. Tom DeLay was given a pass.

Mr. DeLay took the pass and headed for the “goal post”. There was now only one defender protecting America’s goal post. Texas States Attorney, Ronnie Earl prevented Mr. DeLay from escaping the scrutiny of a jury.

And joejolly stopped what he was doing and sent two emails. One to the creators of the “GROWLING DOG” DeLay commercial and one to FOX NEWS.

But America was not asleep. In 2006 America threw the neocons out. However for some reason the incoming majority failed to address the DOUBLE STANDARD that the neocons created at the presidential level. Touch the wrong lady’s knee and fail to tell the truth about it – gets impeachment while starting a war under extremely dubious circumstances gets nothing. Nothing from America. Nothing from the United Nations. Nothing from the World Court. Nothing.

And issues of the next Presidential campaign are  likely to reflect the same “Nothing”. “Tear down that tent“. Where is your birth certificate?

And You can’t make  neocons talk about their accomplishments. Not in twenty-some-odd years have the neocons said a “mumbling word” about their accomplishments.

A fool and his country may have already parted.

Voodoo Economics and Common Sense

TAX CUTS adds dollars to America’s treasury! So the theory goes. But is there EVIDENCE to the contrary? Is there evidence that TAX CUTS don’t add dollars to America’s treasury?

America’s common sense is, or ought to be quite capable of dealing with common sense matters. And budgeting is quite common in America. Whether budgeting is done on a small or a large scale, there are common themes in budgeting.

America’s children have an early introduction to the basics of budgeting. Their childhood allowances were “finite” in dollar values. That is their income. They then related their expenses to their income. They couldn’t spend income they didn’t have. Income and expenses are two basic ideas of budgeting for households and government.

If a high ranking government official or a person creatively involved in economics told the “head of an American household” that cuts in household income would increase household income – eyes would likely cross. But government money and “head of household” money seems to be different. When dealing with government money – cuts in income CAN increase income…or so the unproved theory – hard at work – but never been proved – goes.

Certain sets of American brains do believe that “cuts in income increases income” and certain sets of American brains don’t believe. Perhaps this is an area  where “faith” is required?

Cuts in American income is not investing. Ownership of the “cut” income passes to someone else. And that money could stay in America, go to Sweden, go to the Cayman Islands or whatever. That money no longer belongs to America’s treasury.

Getting America to believe that America benefits from giving its money to others is no more difficult than getting America to believe that “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” was a truthful description of its Southern school systems or that Palestinians are natural born terrorists. The NAZIs, too, were impressed with the value of propaganda.

America’s economy had twenty-some-odd years of neocon management. In 2003 America’s President focused on a working economy. Said he was going to make it better. Wanted all Americans(who wanted to work) to have a job. And by December of 2007 the economy of America was described as being in RECESSION. The economy was fine in 2003. It was in shambles four years after the neocons got done fixing it. And that 2003 economy brought back memories of the 1929 economy which was also managed by the G.O.P.

Voodoo economics, Reaganomics or supply side economics should “scare the daylights” out of America’s ombudsmen(voters). But then again, maybe its the talents of the practicioners that is in need of attention. The practioners don’t have anything to show as an “ATTA BOY”.

America’s ombudsmen(voters) – if they are interested in preserving America – ought to be interested in the neocons’ application of TAX CUTS to America’s treasury. Because high-ranking neocons seem to “swear by” TAX CUTS, the idea won’t die. Somebody benefits from tax cuts and a moron could fathom who that is. But the debate over the effect of tax cuts goes on. An interesting article on that debate can be found at Wikipedia’s website. The article’s title is Bush tax cuts.

Should Tax Cuts Be Regulated?

At the present time, the sky is the limit for tax cuts. And America’s treasury has suffered mightily from the tax cut tool in the hands of America’s neocons. That provides evidence that out of control tax cuts can do significant damage to America’s economy.

Governments do focus on taxes because taxes are the life-blood of govenments. While blood transfusions may help an economy – it is highly unlikely that “blood-letting” can do the same. Tax cuts are not blood transfusions for the American government.

For the past twenty-some-odd-years there has been a “rash” of tax cuts and tax cuts, in a neocon environment, seem to have no natural enemies. So, should tax cuts be regulated? America’s neocons have found a crack in America’s financial armor. And that crack should be sealed while there may still be time.

Killing A Country Can Be Done With Less Than A World War

Two alternatives to killing a country, without the world war tool, are: civil war and financial strangulation.

Both options seems to be within the mental grasp and functionality of America’s neocons. While the civil war, put on the table by the neocons, is held in reserve – the financial strangulation effort is hard at work and has been for twenty-some-odd years. The neocons have been TAX CUTTING America’s treasury for twenty-some-odd years.

TAX CUTS can kill a country just as surely as a bullet can. But tax cuts are not as painful. Pain hurts and might alert America’s ombudsmen(voters) to a possible upcoming tragedy. Then America’s ombudsmen(voters) could revert to their old selves and do what they have been doing for almost 300 years – steer America on a sensible, safe road to growth and prosperity.

Since tax cuts can be lethal to a country, did the neocons define an ENTRY and EXIT strategy for their tax cuts? How will they know when their tax cut “GOAL” has been reached? Are tax cuts a “shoot from the hip” operation? What about a “catch as catch can” operation?

What has America’s ombudsmen(voters) demanded of the tax cut strategy? Nothing? Why not? Perhaps America did not know that tax cuts hurt its treasury? But if not – why not? Didn’t America’s “CURRENT EVENTS” news pool remind America that managing the budget of a country is important to a country’s financial health? Did multiple somebodies NOT DO THEIR JOBS?

Everything has a life cycle. Even America has a life cycle. But the “end of life” condition ought not be enhanced by “brain-dead” living.

A fool and his country may have already parted.

Is gold rising because America is broke?

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES

By Jijo Jacob

April 24, 2011

Gold prices shot up to a new record of $1,512.50 an ounce in New York on Friday, posting a record weekly gain and maintaining a six-week winning streak.

While a lot of gold investors are laughing all the way to bank the world over, gold’s super cycle rally could have ominous meanings for the US economy.

A sustained gold and oil boom indicates that the dollar is slipping into grave danger and the economy closer to collapse, according to Daily Markets analyst Michael Snyder.[...]

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137448/20110424/gold-super-cycle-rally-record-united-states-america-economy-pawn-unemployment-dollar-price.htm

America’s neocons just got done with twenty-some-odd years of TAX CUTS. How could anyone think that America may be broke? Tax cuts, via VOODOO ECONOMICS, is supposed to keep America’s treasury healthy. America’s ombudsmen(voters) must have bought that “wisdom” or they would not have allowed their country’s treasury to be sucked dry by the neocons.

And, as if a Great Recession isn’t bad enough, America’s ombudsmen(voters) returned the worse economy managers America has experienced in a “ton” of years to power. So now America’s second “GREAT DEPRESSION” may be a possibility. The neocons dug holes that are difficult to fill. Guantanamo, a hell hole, can’t be closed. And America’s economy, a recession going on a depression, has also been badly managed by the same political party that managed Guantanamo.

And America’s ombudsmen(voters) just returned them to power. And the 1929 pattern – solve the wrong problem – is repeating.

A fool and his country may have already parted.

How Should a Government Fight a Great Recession?

America, under the leadership of the G.O.P. has had two near death economic experiences. What did America learn from those experiences – or, perhaps, more to the point is the question – “what did the G.O.P. learn from those experiences?

Applying “solutions” unrelated to the immediate problem was tried in 1929. Tariffs were not related to America’s depression – but tariffs may well have been related to what followed the depression. After tariffs were applied the world went into a Great Depression. After the G.O.P. applied tariffs – other countries followed suit and the world saw a depression graduate into a GREAT DEPRESSION.

Did America learn anything from its 1929 experience? Not to apply tariffs again? That was an easy lesson. Actually the 1929 American ombudsmen(voters) worked to solve the problem of their great depression. But in 1980 there were political changes in America. And to a large extent America’s “current events” news pool started “re-training” America. And that brought us to where we are today – trying to recover from a recession caused by the neocons.

And the neocons(G.O.P.) are once again applying a “peculiar” strategy in solving the economic problem that they started in 2003. They are attacking labor.

How should a government fight a Great Recession? One thing that seems certain is – NOT THE WAY THE G.O.P. fights recessions/depressions and they have the most experience causing recessions/depressions. Joejolly asked the Internet, “How should a government fight a recession“?

That question led joejolly to the website of “KELLOGG INSIGHT” where he saw this post:

Recession-fighting Serendipity

Well-timed government spending can blunt economic contractions

BASED ON THE RESEARCH OF LAWRENCE CHRISTIANO, MARTIN EICHENBAUM AND SERGIO REBELO

Japan’s economy has been stuck in what economists call the “zero bound” since 1996. The zero bound is a danger zone where an economy’s short-term nominal interest rate is at or near zero percent. It can be a portal to an economic vortex that beckons massive unemployment and a deflationary spiral. The zero bound is also where the U.S. economy has been lodged since December 2008.

Economists argue heatedly over the best way to escape the zero bound’s danger vortex. An old idea that has been around since the Great Depression is that government spending can jolt a contracting economy with stuck interest rates back into the black. But Japan’s government has been spending to stimulate the economy since the mid-90s—and it has yet to achieve any significant growth—so what gives?

According to a recent paper by Sergio Rebelo, a professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management, and his colleagues Lawrence Christiano and Martin Eichenbaum, both professors at Northwestern University, the power of government spending to stimulate an economy pinned against the zero bound is all in the timing.

A nimble government that spends quickly in the wake of a huge fiscal shock, while the economy is still stuck in the zero bound, can have a huge multiplier effect that brings the economy back to life. In this narrow window of time, the value of the government spending multiplier can be as large as 10 or even 20.[...]

http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/recession-fighting_serendipity

Take a look at the last paragraph and then recall how the neocons spent close to a year denying there was a R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N. And now that America’s ombudsmen(voters) have put the neocons back in charge of “managing” the economy they broke – labor is under attack. And the neocons, under a different name, are cutting government spending. While the neocons current “management” of America’s economy might enhance TAX CUTS, it is not likely to improve upon the poor conditions of many Americans. The likely reason why the neocons don’t learn from history is that someone else pays for the wild spending and TAX CUTS of the neocons.

And looking up the meaning of the word serendipity:

[ The noun serendipity has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)

1. serendipity -- (good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries)

Wordnet 2.1]

Does America Now Have An Addiction To Recessions/Depressions?

Could America’s ombudsmen(voters) now have an “addiction” to Recessions/Depressions?

In 1929 America’s ombudsmen(voters) were decisively against depressions and made that evident by removing the cause of the Great Depression from power. And the Great Depression went away.

In 2010 America’s ombudsmen(voters) returned to power the same party that caused America’s 2007 Great Recession. Could America’s ombudsmen(voters) now have an “addiction” to recessions/depressions?

Things that harm the physical body, for example cocaine, and things that harm the economy, for example recessions/depression, are, generally speaking, to be avoided. But there are “dare-devils” among us. And their presence, under the Bell Curve may have grown after twenty-some-odd years of training via America’s current events news pool.

Why else would America’s ombudsmen(voters) return to power the “functionality” of a political group that has displayed a way-less than “high performance” against recessions and depressions?

Recessions and depressions cause job loss. How does floating a Tariff Law(1929) help the out-of-work American standing in a soup line? And if you “fast forward” to 2011, how does attacking labor help “solve” a Great Recession problem? For almost a year, the 2007 recession was denied by the ones who caused it. Comparatively speaking, America’s economy was fine in 2003. The neocons cut some taxes, deregulated the financial industry and “walla” – a well qualified economy(2003) was in recession within four years. And the mentality of America’s “current events” news pool contained this reason for the crashed economy: “They gave your mortgage to a less qualified minority”.

Does America have an addiction to recessions/depressions?