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It should be obvious to most observers that, recent allegations of strong-arm tactics in negotiations with Chrysler creditors notwithstanding, given the current situation the White House shouldn't need to resort to anything so openly thuggish as naked threats issued by the likes of Steven Rattner. Assuming for a moment, and for the purposes of conversation, that the allegations are substantially true (and I believe they are), the fact that a bit of Chicago-style thuggery seems to have been required- and seems to have failed- says a lot about this White House. It also says quite a bit about the wild overconfidence intrinsic in the administration and how entirely unused to being denied their will are the senior members thereof. A more deft executive need not have pushed so hard, or rattled the saber of class warfare so loudly, but then a more deft executive would not have expected so much."
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reaped more than $100 million in trading revenue on a record 34 separate days during the first three months of 2009, up from the previous peak of 28 in last year’s first quarter. For December, there were 10 trading paydays bigger than $100 million, the New York-based firm said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The first- quarter number was almost double the total for all of 2005.
This is what happens when we don’t arrest hardly anyone except for the most blatant of the financial criminals: they continue doing whatever it was that made them super-rich! Duh! So, as the central banks raid future tax promises in order to capitalize bankrupt banks, the gnomes are again, flush with cash and desperate to continue doing what they did two years ago: get the carry trade borrowing restarted.
Known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower", Victor Lustig was one of the most talented confidence tricksters who ever lived. Born in 1890 in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, he was a glib and charming conman, fluent in multiple languages. He established himself by working scams on the ocean liners steaming between Paris and New York City. Lustig's first con involved a "money-printing machine". He would demonstrate the capability of the small box to clients, all the while lamenting that it took the device six hours to copy a $100 bill. The client, sensing huge profits, would buy the machines for a high price, usually over $30,000. Over the next twelve hours, the machine would produce two more $100 bills. After that, it produced only blank paper, as its supply of $100 bills became exhausted. By the time the clients realized that they had been scammed, Lustig was long gone.
Bernard Madoff used investors' money as his "personal piggy bank" to support a lavish lifestyle enjoyed by his wife, sons and a select few in the office, according to documents filed in bankruptcy court in New York by attorneys for the bankruptcy trustee. Documents filed Wednesday in New York bankruptcy court say Ponzi scammer Bernard Madoff used investors' money to pay for a lavish lifetyle as he rang up $100,000 in monthly AMEX bills. One American Express bill for January, 2008 shows his wife, Ruth, used the company's business platinum card for a fashion shopping spree. She spent $4,782 in Paris on January 11 at Giorgio Armani, Jil Sander and Marni.
One of the least useful habits of thought fostered by the modern mythology of progress, it seems to me, is the notion that historical change can only move in one direction – the direction in which it seems to be going at the present. Those of us who suggest that today’s industrial societies are headed for a process of decline and fall, not that different from the ones that ended civilizations of the past, run up against this insistence constantly. The truism that time only goes one way gets distorted into the claim that since the last three hundred years have seen a great deal of expansion and technical development, the future must follow the same trajectory.
Coming in May
Cornell's Rorbert Frank explained in the NY Times last week that economic success requires luck: Contrary to what many parents tell their children, talent and hard work are neither necessary nor sufficient for economic success. It helps to be talented and hard-working, of course, yet some people enjoy spectacular success despite having neither attribute. (Lip-synching members of boy bands? Money managers who bet clients’ retirement savings on subprime-mortgage-backed securities?) Far more numerous are talented people who work very hard, only to achieve modest earnings. There are hundreds of them for every skilled, perseverant person who strikes it rich — disparities that often stem from random events.
A tragicomedy in one long act
That is the sound of the CNBC in the moments following the worst jobs report in the history of jobs reports. Eight people with at least as many advanced degrees among them are assembled onscreen on March 6 in the network’s customary “octobox” grid formation to hold forth on this fresh piece of data, the 8:30 a.m. release of which a timer in the corner has been ticking toward by the hundredths of a second. In this economy, the network’s promotional spots remind viewers at every commercial break, the most valuable asset you have is information. CNBC: Now more than ever. How valuable is it now to be told America is screwed?
If you have any info that would help, please contact me at my private email address: bailout@michaelmoore.com
