96 replies to this topic

[Beowulf]

I'd rather keep the sales tax. The extra that I spend goes to local municipalities to improve the community. Rather have that than just giving more of my money to every corporation.

Edited by Beowulf, 11 August 2011 - 02:58 AM.

[Námo]

THE EMPEROR WEARS NO CLOTHES! Ratigan Spells-It-Out! PAY ATTENTION OBAMA!!!

Some refreshingly honest reporting: TV host Dylan Ratigan loses his temper and tells the TRUTH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1XOBDbIy0

Ratigan is everything a reporter used to be in the days when integrity mattered. He sits there listening to the same political BS from his panel and then literally explodes in righteous anger:

"... the fact of the matter is that there is a refusal on both the Republican and Democratic side of the aisle to acknowledge the mathematical problem, which is that the United States of America is being EXTRACTED - it's being extracted through banking, it's being extracted through trade, and it's being extracted through taxation and there's not a single politician that is willing to step forward and deal with this."

BTW: The White House has informed, that following a fantastic job well done, by which the market is now nose-diving, unemployment is near record highs, delays for presidential press meetings compare with Newark airplane take offs, pessimism is at record highs, America's credit rating has just been downgraded, the country was nearly bankrupted, and sales of end of the world provisions are through the roof, president Obama is taking a long and well-deserved vacation at Martha's Vineyard.

Edited by Námo, 11 August 2011 - 09:42 AM.

[Puppeteer]

The problem is more complex than his petty mind can comprehend. His invective may be flowery, but his attempt at a financial 'solution' is a lot less creative and feasible.
Whoever the lady on the left (in the purple) is completely correct. The scape-goating of the President by the other woman and the presenter is entirely immature. And the other man is also naive - "money and politics is the root of all evil"? Oh stop being so self-righteous and employing vague rhetoric. It's people like him/them, and the Tea Party, who are stifling negotiations and compromises.

[Námo]

Oh yeah, just kick the can down the road, and let's have a truly epic collapse ... Obamageddon, Barackalypse Now! The Teleprompter is "Debt Man Walking" in 2012.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

With the US debt issues,the Euro self destructing,Arab spring it seems that the world is going through a revolution of sorts.
We can only hope that we all learn from it but the truth is nothing will.
The Islamists have hijacked Arab spring,The Euro will stay and the US will not change not even to save themselves.

Ratigan was speaking mostly with passion and offered no real way to overcome this issue.
But at least he's getting passionate about it,I think the worst thing a person can do today is be apathetic.

Would the US people rebel against Congress?
Somehow I doubt Obama would.

Something I have never understood is how can any Democracy allow politicians to make money from interests.
How is that moral,how is it that it's legal.

If China wants to be theeconomic power now would be their time to move.

[Puppeteer]

Oh yeah, just kick the can down the road, and let's have a truly epic collapse ... Obamageddon, Barackalypse Now! The Teleprompter is "Debt Man Walking" in 2012.

You excel in litanies divested of meaning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

[Námo]

Just a little sardonic humour, expecting to see a Black Swan soon.

[duke_Qa]

That guy is pretty correct about politics and money being a bad combination. I really would have loved to see the President declare war upon lobbyists and paid political interests, but I bet he would get killed for being a communist.

It would have been the most interesting thing an American President has done in over 50 years though, a proper black swan event indeed. And I somehow doubt any conservatives would gain much of it.

[duke_Qa]

Just came back from a family party with some rich relatives that are up here a few months every year. The guy is good for $30~60 mill and have been doing stock speculation for 40 years, and I asked him a bit about the current situation, and he is pretty much a doomsayer.

He went from stocks to gold back in 2009 when nobody even had thought about it, and have earned quite a bit on that. The situation is the worst he has seen in his 40 years of being in the business. He basically believes there is no light in the tunnel and plenty of pitfalls left, and that the world is on the brink of a collapse that will cause a "everyone for himself" phase before a "new world order" rises once more. It is mostly the market's fault because of the extraction of industry from the western world over to Asia, which have left us without any production to actually earn money. The politicians are without power against the market powers, and the market powers are without power against their own self-destructive instincts of instant gratification.

He also came with what he called a "little known secret" that the European Central Bank is basically bankrupt. The main reason they bailed out Greece was because if they didn't the bonds the ECB has in Greece would have lost a lot of value and cause the bank to collapse. Seems a bit strange that a small country would be capable of doing that but hey. Also, once the Germans gets to vote on their leaders, they, as the main funders of the ECB, would vote to stop all of these handouts, and shit would really hit the fan...


Sell Sell Sell was his general opinion on the stock market as of today, get the recoil that is going on right now and put it into a high interest bank account and wait for 3-6 years before investing again. Others again were quick to point out that he was very gloomy about the situation, and had more faith in the political element having the will to get some changes done. He called Obama one of the least-effective presidents of all time, but pointed out that Clinton actually had a budget surplus back in his days, and if the USA was less at war this might have all been avoided.

Bush still haunts us with his neo-con friends. One might even guess that this was a proper Xanatos Gambit to get the world economy collapsing through war if you want to be real conspiratory about it.

[Námo]

He also came with what he called a "little known secret" that the European Central Bank is basically bankrupt. The main reason they bailed out Greece was because if they didn't the bonds the ECB has in Greece would have lost a lot of value and cause the bank to collapse. Seems a bit strange that a small country would be capable of doing that but hey.

It's a well known secret. Their assets just has to drop 4.25 pct. and they will be insolvent; all the junk bonds they have in their balance sheets are at par, but the real value of those bonds are probably below 50 pct.

... once the Germans gets to vote on their leaders, they, as the main funders of the ECB, would vote to stop all of these handouts, and shit would really hit the fan...

... or the German national debt would rise to 140 pct. of GDP, i.e. the situation Greece is in now.

Systemic failure of the Euro-zone.

[Námo]

Sell Sell Sell was his general opinion on the stock market as of today, get the recoil that is going on right now and put it into a high interest bank account and wait for 3-6 years before investing again.

Buy gold ... it's going parabolic.

[duke_Qa]

If i wanted gold I should have gone for it last summer. All in all this guy is a pretty gloomy investor, but I guess its better than being a naive investor. And I suspect he also has a bit too much belief in the market being allowed to run freely than I do. This might be what will happen if absolutely nobody tries to stop the system from collapsing, which I doubt some powerful people will allow.

[Allathar]

Heh, last year at this time I was asking myself whether I should invest in gold or put it in a safe bank account. I listened to my parents.

Shouldn't have done that.

[Romanul]

You can always put money in some socks, you know. Or underneath the bed. It worked a couple decades ago...

As for "New World Order" - Nouriel Roubini recently said that it's gonna happen - Eastern economies will become more and more influent. And it wouldn't surprise me. He even quoted Marx and said that "capitalism is on its own path to self-distruction."

Too socialist for my tastes. Too socialist.


But, as far as I'm concerned, I've heard some local/regional rumors that:

1. Transnistria might get a new president - the current one seems to get opposition, which makes me quite happy. At least it's not the same old same old mafia state. Not to mention Russian support. What's interesting is that:
2. Ex-Prime Minister of Moldova, Mircea Drucv came out and said that Crimea might come out as some sort of separatist entity, in exchange for Moldovanian Unification with Romania. It might sound a deal, not to mention that there are already rumors about a major unification protest happening in May 2012.
3. And the current Romanian president, a skillful politician, even if he's not that popular lately due to his excessive austerity measures, might profit out of this and get 2 extra mandates.

[duke_Qa]

"the free market is a terrible system, but its the most effective one we currently have" was also a quote he came with, which I guess was somewhat ripped off that democracy quote. But yeah, if the US is unable to get their house together, the empire will indeed fall and it will be the age of Asia for 30-50 years or more.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

If the US were to fall from their "Tog Dog" position and China was to become the predominant financial power in the world
would they be able to stay on top for long.

At the moment they are at stag that Japan was in buying in resources and pumping out cheap products to sell to Western markets and their own.
All building up their Industry.
If they were to continue this way there would be a increasing gap between incoming and outgoing money.
The cost of resources will increase so they won't be able to keep selling off so cheaply.
They would have to change like Japan into more quality based goods.

Considering the enormous population of China I wonder how it will go if the Yuan's value rose.

I don't think the Asian markets (India and China mostly) will be as big as people would believe.

For the US to hold onto Top dog they'll have to make sacrifices and the US markets will have to start thinking Long Term for a change.

[Námo]

posted without comments. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc

[duke_Qa]

China and Asia will have a hard time selling us stuff with super surplus if we don't have any money to buy it with, and raw materials are not endless, so we'll see what happens. But I do fear that China has a better future plan than any of us in the west does.

The US would need to sacrifice a lot. But I wonder if they will sacrifice unity for freedom or freedom for unity...

[Beowulf]

The US would need to sacrifice a lot. But I wonder if they will sacrifice unity for freedom or freedom for unity...

I don't think we need to sacrifice either. I'd be willing to bet that many of the problems lie with the current generation of politicians, who are aging and extremely out of touch with the modern world. It shines through in their policies and what lobbyists they listen to, and it's not just relegated to our financial problems either. But I digress, until a new generation of politicians take office, little will be done to truly improve the US. There will be bandages to keep us afloat no doubt, but nothing to solve the real problems. Like Patton Oswalt said, "We need conservatives that can accept gays and hippies that shave and bathe. Only then can we truly move forward." That certainly rings true...

[Allathar]

posted without comments. Enjoy.

Heh, pretty nice. But it seems these problems are more financial than economical, although the two are of course interlinked.

As for what will happen, my money is still on the Chinese winning this war. The USA will become an underdog the coming decades, and the EU will either disintegrate into a wealthy but expensive northern and cheap but poor southern union, or become even more of a totalitarian EUSSR.