The Key to Financial Recovery: Restoring the Rule of Law on Wall Street
The financial crisis in America isn't over. It's ongoing, it remains unresolved, and it stands in the way of full economic recovery. The cause, at the deepest level, was a breakdown in the rule of law. And it follows that the first step toward prosperity is to restore the rule of law in the financial sector....Appraisers were selected who were willing to inflate the value of the home being sold....Third, the counterfeit mortgages were laundered so they would look to investors like the real thing. This was the role of the ratings agencies....Upon taking office, President Obama had a chance to change course and didn't take it. By seizing the largest problem banks, the government could have achieved clean audits, replaced top management, cured destructive compensation practices, shrunk a bloated industry, and cut the banks' lobbying power and therefore their capacity to obstruct financial reform. The way to write-downs of bad mortgage debt and therefore to financial recovery would have been opened. None of this happened.
Why the Idiocy About Unemployment?
If the public knew that the top ten hedge fund managers were averaging $900,000 an hour (not a typo) during the worst economic year since the Depression--and paying lower income tax rates than the rest of us--the American public would be outraged....The idea of a purely private sector is pure fiction, a soothing fairy tale for Tea Partiers and faith-based, free-market ideologues. Despite all the perks we've been giving to corporate America, it's not at all clear that the private sector will ever again create enough decent jobs to support a middle class society in this country. Right now the economy is supposedly growing, but employment isn't. So what is growing? Well, the obscene bonuses and pay packages of corporate America and Wall Street --- the only growth that counts for our financial elites....When Wall Street is in trouble, we come to the rescue with trillions in bailouts. We've poured hundreds of billions more into two wars. But when it comes to investing in our people to get needed work done, we can't seem to summon the will or find the cash. There's a one-sided war going on between financial elites and the rest of us. They've engineered the economy to enrich themselves at our expense, with Wall Street taking the lead.
Are Profits Hurting Capitalism?
Over the past decade and a half, corporations have been saving more and investing less in their own businesses....The reason for all this saving in the United States is that public companies have become obsessed with quarterly earnings. To show short-term profits, they avoid investing in future growth....If households and corporations are trying to save more of their income and spend less, then it is up to the other two sectors of the economy — the government and the import-export sector — to spend more and save less to keep the economy humming. In other words, there needs to be a large trade surplus, a large government deficit or some combination of the two. This isn’t a matter of economic theory; it’s based in simple accounting....Yet corporate executives are being rewarded for myopia and speculation, undermining the very operation of capitalism. We need tax and regulatory policies to counter this destructive development, along with wider recognition that government deficits, when they counteract corporate savings, are necessary and salutary.
Taming Finance in an Age of Austerity
The "innovations" unleashed by modern finance did not lead to higher long-term efficiency, faster growth, or more prosperity for all. Instead, they were designed to circumvent accounting standards and to evade and avoid taxes that are required to finance the public investments in infrastructure and technology - like the Internet - that underlie real growth, not the phantom growth promoted by the financial sector....When US President Herbert Hoover tried that recipe, it helped transform the 1929 stock-market crash into the Great Depression. When the International Monetary Fund tried the same formula in East Asia in 1997, downturns became recessions, and recessions became depressions....In short, having gotten the world into its current economic mess, financial markets are now saying to countries like Greece and Spain: damned if you don't cut back on spending, but damned if you do as well.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
WELCOME TO THE TREMAINE ZONE ALSO KNOWN AS THE REAL ZONE
USER GUIDE FOR THE CUSTOM REAL NEWS FEED
This is a continuously updated feed of the most important news, commentary, and videos from the world wide web, also known as the "Where in the hell has Tremaine Been? Version of the Unity-Progress Internet Project. (Tremaine refuses to be tied down to a few web sites for information; he goes pretty much everywhere.)
THE BASICS OF HOW THIS WORKS
Whenever I find something very important but I know I probably will never have time to directly incorporate it into one of my articles (which less face it, is most of the time) I will link to it here. I will almost always leave the titles alone but I will sometimes write my own description, or more often I will for the description extract out one or two or three major points that are in the content.
OH YES, THERE WILL ALSO BE VIDEOS AND MUSIC
The content will not be strictly limited to news and commentary (much of it quite depressing under the circumstances, to be honest). My favorite music videos and other much lighter stuff will be included from time to time, roughly once a month and hopefully more often than that.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY AND FULL CUSTOMIZATION
Aside from efficiency and good organization, another primary feature and benefit of this custom feed is quality over quantity. There will be three or four items apprised and rejected for every one included in the feed.
Items are chosen according the following criteria:
--Accuracy of information
--Importance of information
--Correctness of information (and of any opinions)
--Timeliness of the information
--Forward-lookingness
--Quality of writing
Forward-looking means that I favor the items that describe not only exactly how things are now but how they will be in the near and long term future.
Notice that unlike with most publishing the amorphous and establishment oriented concepts of "credibility" and "authoritativeness" are NOT criteria. Reality has shown that those who are supposedly credible and authoritative are very often nothing of the sort. They have a hidden agenda which makes their pronouncements fraudulent.
Of course I know in the first place where to go to get the best items that have these characteristics. Most of the items I review for possible inclusion will be on the sites that most often have the best content. But my curiousity is endless and I am always checking out sites I have never been to before to see if I can find a new "top site" to add to the list of creme of the crop sites that I visit several times a week. And I am also always revisiting sites I seldom visit to see if I can find that one in a hundred article on that obscure site that usually has the more lame and/or the less accurate stuff that I should include in the feed.
This is a continuously updated feed of the most important news, commentary, and videos from the world wide web, also known as the "Where in the hell has Tremaine Been? Version of the Unity-Progress Internet Project. (Tremaine refuses to be tied down to a few web sites for information; he goes pretty much everywhere.)
THE BASICS OF HOW THIS WORKS
Whenever I find something very important but I know I probably will never have time to directly incorporate it into one of my articles (which less face it, is most of the time) I will link to it here. I will almost always leave the titles alone but I will sometimes write my own description, or more often I will for the description extract out one or two or three major points that are in the content.
OH YES, THERE WILL ALSO BE VIDEOS AND MUSIC
The content will not be strictly limited to news and commentary (much of it quite depressing under the circumstances, to be honest). My favorite music videos and other much lighter stuff will be included from time to time, roughly once a month and hopefully more often than that.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY AND FULL CUSTOMIZATION
Aside from efficiency and good organization, another primary feature and benefit of this custom feed is quality over quantity. There will be three or four items apprised and rejected for every one included in the feed.
Items are chosen according the following criteria:
--Accuracy of information
--Importance of information
--Correctness of information (and of any opinions)
--Timeliness of the information
--Forward-lookingness
--Quality of writing
Forward-looking means that I favor the items that describe not only exactly how things are now but how they will be in the near and long term future.
Notice that unlike with most publishing the amorphous and establishment oriented concepts of "credibility" and "authoritativeness" are NOT criteria. Reality has shown that those who are supposedly credible and authoritative are very often nothing of the sort. They have a hidden agenda which makes their pronouncements fraudulent.
Of course I know in the first place where to go to get the best items that have these characteristics. Most of the items I review for possible inclusion will be on the sites that most often have the best content. But my curiousity is endless and I am always checking out sites I have never been to before to see if I can find a new "top site" to add to the list of creme of the crop sites that I visit several times a week. And I am also always revisiting sites I seldom visit to see if I can find that one in a hundred article on that obscure site that usually has the more lame and/or the less accurate stuff that I should include in the feed.
FOUR PER DAY BUT THERE WILL BE GREAT DAY TO DAY VARIABILITY
The feed begins as of July 1, 2010. For the first 30 days there will be four items per day. Starting on July 31, the number of items per day will become just three. Unfortunately, time limitations require that reduction. Fewer than three makes the whole thing virtually a waste of time and more than that is beyond the resources available for this project and is hopefully unnecessary because of the quality over quantity principal in operation.
There will be a post for each day with three links in each post. Unfortunately, however, time resources available will not always permit these posts to actually be made daily. I will often be in catch-up mode, making several days' posts in one day. (Note that the posts will still be dated as if they were made on a daily basis; fortunately, Google Blogger permits postings to be date stamped with dates in the past; so at least the archive will at least look like I was able to post on a daily basis.)
This is not by any stretch an up to the minute news service. In fact, most links will be to items that were posted at the source one week earlier. This is done so that I can often maintain a one week ahead cushion for my postings.
So we are definitely not all that concerned with being "up to the minute". Again, the value of this project comes from the quality of the items chosen and from the long term importance of maintaining a library of links. For example, several years from now, you or I can go back and find out what we were being warned about years ago, to among other things see if things did in fact turn out in accordance with the warnings made years ago. So don't think of this as a full scale news service but do think of it as a long-term repository of critical information.
I have other Internet sites that offer bigger quantity within their subjects. But here I guarantee three very accurate and very important items per day (90 items in a 30 day month) over the long term.
The feed begins as of July 1, 2010. For the first 30 days there will be four items per day. Starting on July 31, the number of items per day will become just three. Unfortunately, time limitations require that reduction. Fewer than three makes the whole thing virtually a waste of time and more than that is beyond the resources available for this project and is hopefully unnecessary because of the quality over quantity principal in operation.
There will be a post for each day with three links in each post. Unfortunately, however, time resources available will not always permit these posts to actually be made daily. I will often be in catch-up mode, making several days' posts in one day. (Note that the posts will still be dated as if they were made on a daily basis; fortunately, Google Blogger permits postings to be date stamped with dates in the past; so at least the archive will at least look like I was able to post on a daily basis.)
This is not by any stretch an up to the minute news service. In fact, most links will be to items that were posted at the source one week earlier. This is done so that I can often maintain a one week ahead cushion for my postings.
So we are definitely not all that concerned with being "up to the minute". Again, the value of this project comes from the quality of the items chosen and from the long term importance of maintaining a library of links. For example, several years from now, you or I can go back and find out what we were being warned about years ago, to among other things see if things did in fact turn out in accordance with the warnings made years ago. So don't think of this as a full scale news service but do think of it as a long-term repository of critical information.
I have other Internet sites that offer bigger quantity within their subjects. But here I guarantee three very accurate and very important items per day (90 items in a 30 day month) over the long term.
THEMES
In this feed there will be primary, secondary, and temporary themes. The primary and secondary themes match those of the Unity Progress project overall:
PRIMARY THEMES
--Health system failure in the US
--Labor market failure in the US
--Economic system failure in the US
SECONDARY THEMES
--Internet myths and realities
--The environment in general and the oil gusher in particular
--Haiti and Jamaica
Primary themes will continue indefinitely and will dominate the feed. For primary themes, in some weeks you will see all of them mixed well and in other weeks you will see just one of the primary themes very heavily represented. This is because sometimes I am in the mode of keeping up with all the primary themes at once (you can call this "news mode") whereas other times I am in the mode of digging down deep for very detailed information that almost no one knows about (how about calling this "deep mode"). In deep mode, you might for example all of a sudden see a dozen sophisticated articles about the health system failures of the US.
Secondary themes will appear only sporadically. Sometimes, it will be months between appearances of an item for a secondary theme.
TEMPORARY THEMES
There will be one or two temporary themes from time to time. These will generally involve disasters and catastrophes. It is possible that a temporary theme will evolve into a permanent theme. With the beginning of the theme as of July 1, 2010 there is a temporary theme: the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.
A DREAM FINALLY COME TRUE
The ability to easily and efficiently include anything and everything that is on the Internet that I want to include in one seamless feed and in one place summarizes the power of this great new page. I have designed many web pages and many of them are quite good and/or quite informative. I can honestly say that this particular page is one of my best and most informative yet.
You are welcome to share and take advantage of my vast knowledge of what is real and true and what is not. I guarantee you that the untrue propaganda will never be included here except for rare accidents. I have taken the trash out and left only the good stuff in the kitchen. So let's proceed with the feast. Bon appétit.
In this feed there will be primary, secondary, and temporary themes. The primary and secondary themes match those of the Unity Progress project overall:
PRIMARY THEMES
--Health system failure in the US
--Labor market failure in the US
--Economic system failure in the US
SECONDARY THEMES
--Internet myths and realities
--The environment in general and the oil gusher in particular
--Haiti and Jamaica
Primary themes will continue indefinitely and will dominate the feed. For primary themes, in some weeks you will see all of them mixed well and in other weeks you will see just one of the primary themes very heavily represented. This is because sometimes I am in the mode of keeping up with all the primary themes at once (you can call this "news mode") whereas other times I am in the mode of digging down deep for very detailed information that almost no one knows about (how about calling this "deep mode"). In deep mode, you might for example all of a sudden see a dozen sophisticated articles about the health system failures of the US.
Secondary themes will appear only sporadically. Sometimes, it will be months between appearances of an item for a secondary theme.
TEMPORARY THEMES
There will be one or two temporary themes from time to time. These will generally involve disasters and catastrophes. It is possible that a temporary theme will evolve into a permanent theme. With the beginning of the theme as of July 1, 2010 there is a temporary theme: the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.
A DREAM FINALLY COME TRUE
The ability to easily and efficiently include anything and everything that is on the Internet that I want to include in one seamless feed and in one place summarizes the power of this great new page. I have designed many web pages and many of them are quite good and/or quite informative. I can honestly say that this particular page is one of my best and most informative yet.
You are welcome to share and take advantage of my vast knowledge of what is real and true and what is not. I guarantee you that the untrue propaganda will never be included here except for rare accidents. I have taken the trash out and left only the good stuff in the kitchen. So let's proceed with the feast. Bon appétit.