Where's my Free Lunch!!!

I found out from Marc Faber today that I have 4 times as much experience in the private sector as the entire Obama Economic Dream Team.

Which is scary, because I don't really have that much experience in private industry.

Stress Tests: Who Will Take the Fall?

To view our impartial assessment, please visit:

www.TheValueatRisk.blogspot.com

So hope equal pain. Sadists. I wish O would have said that during the campaign. I thought he meant hope as in ponies. Maybe it is ponies for some, but for the rest, it's horsemeat....or turnips.

Everytime I hear Obama, Bernanke, Geitner, Summers, etc, say "helping credit flow to families again", I turn it around in my head to read "helping families take on more debt". It gives a much more realistic view of what's really going on.

~ Glimmers of hope and distant visions. ~

Poetry of smoke and mirrors.

Markets may be forward-looking, but, from where I sit in what was formerly the fastest-growing county in my state, things really started to fall apart late last year and are getting worse and worse, from the standpoint of business closures, see-through CRE, turnover of new construction.

There's a 4-building, 2-story office complex that's had one tenant, the rest have been see-throughs for 15 months now.

A smallish strip mall opened with 2 tenants in probably 30 storefronts.

An existing strip mall has lost around 1/3rd of its businesses.

We've lost 3 auto dealerships out of, I suppose 8 in the immediate vicinity. No idea why competing brands form themselves into rows like that.

Work has stopped on a high-end condo development near the hospital.

I'll try to do a walkaround over the next couple of weeks and see what's going on with some of these.

I honestly fear for my safety. Socialism where the masses have guns... It has never been tried before.

Bastard! He can rescue scummy bankers, but he won't rescue a dog. No, it's nothing but pure bred for this elitist prick. Applying his logic in choosing dogs, maybe we should insist our president is pure bred. Nah, I like mutts....just not mutts who think they are blue-blooded pure breds.

LOL:

11:00 a.m. Economy must be built on rock, not sand, Obama says
11:03 a.m. Fed buys $7.3 billion in Treasurys

Hahaha....

Dick Bove - Called a bottom in Financial services stocks for the 294th time. Watch out he will be right one day. Maybe. Right?

Ac

+1

The demons at Greedy Sacks of Crap are very smart... they steal billions and get away with it! No wonder they are the stars of Wall Street. America should be so proud of our capitalism, at its finest.

Obama is in bed with the demons. What can you do?

Obama is probably being told to get out there and cheerlead. Remember the whole psychological warfare mindset at the Fed.

Will it really help?

I think it will help in the short term. However, O is spending a lot of his political capital at the wrong time. By the end of this year people would have forgotten about GB.

So you would rather they be bankers instead of close to bankers?

The problem is not with bankers or private industry per se, the problem is that these institutions have been taken over by criminals.

Again, you have the same problem with any kind of technology that empowers people - there will be a tendency for those with a criminal mentality to use any kind of powerful tool to increase their own well-being at the expense of others.

This is the story of history, but the lesson isn't that you abandon these things that enable economic gains but that you punish criminals and in general create social pressures that make life very difficult for those who engage in immoral behavior.

Unfortunately you can't just rely on strong government or authority to solve these problems because then all the criminals gravitate towards bureaucracy.

It's one of the most difficult problems facing societies...

I'll gladly pay you next Tuesday for a glimmer of hope today.

Nostrovia,

REBear

Obama from the chatter I hear is using a lot of political capital on GM. Many people strongly believe that they should go BK while the others think it should be saved. There is not a lot of people who are in the middle.

ac,

"This is the story of history, but the lesson isn't that you abandon these things that enable economic gains but that you punish criminals and in general create social pressures that make life very difficult for those who engage in immoral behavior.

Unfortunately you can't just rely on strong government or authority to solve these problems because then all the criminals gravitate towards bureaucracy.

It's one of the most difficult problems facing societies... "

I am again humbled by your wisdom and succintness. Well done again ac.

Nostrovia,

Maybe it's just me, but I don't hear him cheerleading here. He says things are going to get worse and it ain't over. Turn on CNBC and listen to what they say and tell me who's cheerleading...

As for the "hope" part, what do you want him to say? We're all screwed and Mad Max is our future? I don't think the hope part is out of line or crazy either.

But please, do carry on...

Banking crisis over AIG, FRE, FNM all up double digits today.. And Citi.

Note the line in the speech about more "tough" and "unpopular" decision about AIG etc.. The unreal thing is AIG is Paulson's bad bank.

Tim Geitner better have gotten the same immunity because when someone in the admin finally stands up and refuses to play ball there will be another "deepthroat" in the making. One has to believe that there are Fed / treasury insiders reading Calculated Risk...

The spice must flow.

Obama Suddenly Panicked After Gazing Too Far Into Future

MADISON, WI-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) fell deathly silent in the middle of a speech on education before the Wisconsin Teachers Union Tuesday, his failure of words reportedly a result of the Democratic nominee's forward-looking tendencies suddenly bringing him a harrowing glimpse of a future world shaped by madness and horror. "And that is why we must all strive to make our own tomorrow together," Obama said to resounding applause before stopping abruptly, breaking into a cold sweat, and bringing his trembling hands to his blanched face. "Oh, God, no. They're sentient. Every last one of them is sentient!"

From the Onion

What am I -- I am but a man
I've only got two buckle-shoes
and two soft little hands
perhaps I loved you all too well
and pressed my suit too hot-aahh
for now it seems that I've become
persona non grata...

How have I given you offense
I always used a fingerbowl
and doused myself with scent
and I had you sent a greeting card
upon a silver platter
but you sent it back with this stern rebuke
persona non grata...

persona non grata...

Why must I sulk around your door
why can't I just turn my back
upon your strange allure
you know I'd tell you anything
and give you all I've got-aahh
if you would just tell me I'm not
persona non grata...

persona non grata...

As an aside, and not an Obama fan, he does seem to get it. He mentions the debt ponzi in every speech. Unfortunately the bankers and the consequences of not playing ball are simply too great to chance.

No one has factored in the spike in unemployment come June when all the new graduates will hit the street. The US economy has to create about 300,000 jobs just to keep up with this growth in the employee base. While some may work part time for economic reasons and others will find full time work, the vast majority will remain jobless. Unemployment for part time economic reasons has risen higher than any other employment metric this recession than ever.

It's unfortunate that not enough Americans do not care enough to understand that The Triumph of the Banking Oligarchs continues ( and this will be Obama's nemesis no matter his other policy decisions which I mostly agree with ). Now if they could just read ( and comprehend ) just these 2 articles perhaps there would be be pitchforks and torches on Wall St. and protests much much bigger than the recent one in Fed Reserve in SF

The Quiet Coup
http://bit.ly/9QobY
If the IMF's staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.

The Big Takeover
http://bit.ly/rpHLw
It's over - we're officially, royally f**ked.

But this is wishing too much for dumbed down MSM indoctrinated, fat, lazy and complacent America of today

As Obama mentions "Those glimmers of hope far off in the distance", I wonder if he has heard of mirages ?

-K

"In contrast to a HALLUCINATION, a MIRAGE is a real optical phenomenon which can be captured on camera, since light rays actually are refracted to form the false image at the observer's location. What the image appears to represent, however, is determined by the interpretive faculties of the human mind."

Maybe Obama is seeing China's future?

We could always kill the bankers ourselves.

ac,

JimPortlandOR,

"There isn't enough real wealth to retire the debts the world has amassed, particularly the US. "

That's because we're all distracted by paper stuff. Most of the debts and such are obligations to give paper for paper. And the non-real stated value of that paper. And it's non-real forward earning potential.

The real stuff is still there, and for the most part is valuable, but is not necessarily in the hands of those who value it and know its use. Getting rid of the paper on paper on paper on paper claims is what should be happening. Bail outs gum up those works.

Nostrovia,

The Bankers are just later-day Romanovs, about to lose their dynasty, but how they strive to keep the status quo alive & kicking.

REBear There are two polarized sides on the GM issue and only one side will be happy at the end of the day.

Lose-Lose If BHO saves GM he will be called a Socialist, if he allows BK he will be called a American hating liberal.

Sekar wrote on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 8:31am.

he does seem to get it. He mentions the debt ponzi in every speech. Unfortunately the bankers and the consequences of not playing ball are simply too great to chance.

I don't think he gets it. He is yet another in the long line of banker puppets. Until we get a president that stands up to the bankers, we are doomed.
________________
How does he get it? When all of his prescriptions are more debt? He would have got it had he said early on

"My fellow Americans we have all had a hell of a party and now we have to pay the bill both in terms of cash and a massive hangover. Government can make sure that the safety net is in place but more than that would simply be handing the bill for our party to our children"

That glimmer of hope on the horizon is a wall street pirate ship leaving the scene after pillaging your vessel.

Tim in 2012,
O will have to either save GM, or gut a bank along with GM to show they are equal.
I think he will take the easier route by postponing the June deadline.

Let every nation know, whether it buys our bonds or exports to us, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship - hold it, the whole point is to meet no, nada,zilch hardship - now, where was I - o yeah support any friend, oppose any one who wants to diminish our credit rating, in order to assure the surivial of bankers, and the success of borrowing our way to prosperity

when banks succeed you succeed too. Now get out and shop dammit. I watched Martha Stewart on CNBC today. She was all hopeful because Americans love to shop and buy shiny stuff. I know your salary is falling behind inflation. Your house is worthless. School alone will bankrupt your family. But Martha wants you to buy some of her Chinese made pots and pans. Do it for the world, just one more time.

yahooville. Alas.

The thinly veiled racist remarks about Obama are getting really tiresome. If you want to insult him go for the jugular you craven shills.

the biggest toxic asset out there is the US equity market.

Shop til you Drop has taken on a whole new meaning. We have dropped, and there's no getting up.

Help, We've Fallen and We Can't Get Up.

You can lay there and die, sucka.

Yes Obama, lets take that 1 dollar of debt and turn it into 8-10 dollars of debt. Crisis over!!!

Oopps, forgot we are only paying interest on our current debt payment obligations

Now if someone would do something about all the negative blogger we could get the recovery started.

Is Timmy still doing 'everything possible' to get back bonuses from AIG?

How can no one be more angry about AIG than Obama when Ben Bernanke said exactly the same thing? Turbo Tim has probably said it too. But Obama promised he was the most angry. This is so confusing.

" the daily bail wrote on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 8:25am.

fwiw, now long SRS and SKF for a trade. will initiate a short in C in the next few minutes."

Good luck finding C shares to short, I have been searching for a good chunk for awhile, almost impossible.

And you wonder why their stock keeps going up.

If you can get some shares, though, you will make a killing once the new float is released.

blah blah blah Multiplier Effect blah blah blah

[advertisement]

Jimmy Carter. . . Now Available in Black!

CNBC is the new Mickey Mouse Club. Maria Bartiromo is either the new Annette Funicello or the new Britney Spears, depending on your perspective.

Where is the "Mission Accomplished" banner?

Does he believe the bs he spews? Oh, I forgot, that what he is paid to do.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Debitude or Death!!!

The banskters have one or two more crimes to pull before total collapse. Then they can fly to richistan or wherever. They will still need to keep enough selling of Treasuries going to support a tax base to support the US military. Other than need "protection" from the growing hoard off poor human trash (pirates) they are done with America.

qwefcs,

Yes, but we knew that Ben and Tim were both lying when they said it.

sorry about the typos

S wrote on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 8:26am.
As an aside, and not an Obama fan, he does seem to get it. He mentions the debt ponzi in every speech. Unfortunately the bankers and the consequences of not playing ball are simply too great to chance.

Sekar wrote on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 8:31am.
I don't think he gets it. He is yet another in the long line of banker puppets. Until we get a president that stands up to the bankers, we are doomed.

CrazyV wrote: How does he get it? When all of his prescriptions are more debt? He would have got it had he said early on

"My fellow Americans we have all had a hell of a party and now we have to pay the bill both in terms of cash and a massive hangover. Government can make sure that the safety net is in place but more than that would simply be handing the bill for our party to our children"

@crazyV - it wasn't me that wrote it originally.

@S- please let us know how or why you think he gets it.

Why doesn't O take some of that Bullshit and spread it in his organic garden.

Alright, he's just going in circles. We are going to get out of this, but this is unsustainable. We are going to cut spending, welfare programs, defense, entitlements. But we can't stop spending now; eventually we'll stop spending. Blah blah blah

why does Obama want me to live in a "house in Iraq" [sic?]

It's that or Pakistan. I'd take Iraq.

It is clear that Obama is no Roosevelt. Either one of them.

Goldman profits a couple of lousy bil....I'm getting a couple of inches of rain!!!! who doing better!

I use to work for a telecom/networking company. We designed a 32 processing core single chip device back in 2003 which was manufactured by IBM. This was long before Intel or AMD got into the multicore processing market. IBM focuses on higher end processing in most cases. Intel is not even in that market yet.

I just did a search at IBM for chip related jobs. I found 13 in total. 12 of them was for interns.

Obviously we need more engineers.

"And taken together, these actions are starting to generate signs of economic progress. Because of our recovery plan, schools and police departments have cancelled planned layoffs. Clean energy companies and construction companies are re-hiring workers to build everything from energy efficient windows to new roads and highways."
What ? Economic Progress? Canceled Layoffs? More wishful thinking by the Govt but I guess they figure on creating enough phoney money to pay their way through anything.
I can't believe for a moment that it is just that simple, or that they truly feel progress has been made.

Have obama open up more gulags. It would provide more construction jobs and there is currently no overbuilding.

He is becoming completely irrelevant in these glamour "glimmer" speeches that are parroted by his gang of taxpaying challenged bubble blowers. It's always a glimmer. Is there something less than a glimmer but not as horrific as we are fucked?

How about "glimerette", or "glim", or maybe "glimage" for the description of seeing something at the end of the nightmare, but not really knowing what it is?

This is going to be looked at in the future as one epic sad period of a president that COULD of done the right things in the economy, but instead surrounded himself with Harvard ethical pygmies and craven money freaks.

History will not be kind, and it is sad as I had the highest hopes for him, and he turned out to be the darling of the flat screen Democrats.

"" GiezCubed,

If the world follows what you are saying... then we are truly f**ked. I do not think you appreciate the secondary and tertiary effects of what you are saying.

What you said would have worked in a world where a demographically young west had bombers, tanks and machine guns (an the others had none). If the west tries to pull that off, they are in for a world of hurt. The non-primary effects of what you say would essentially seal the west's fate... forever. ""

Modern society is incredibly expensive to maintain and without something approaching consumerism or a massive export state it can't be maintained. Few democratic or republican societies want to be the next Sparta.

Lucifer touches on a good point. Whats killing us is demographics. The West (and I include Eastern Europe and the developed parts of Asia here) has at best static population. Most of them are declining. As examples -- the median age on Scotland is 39 and the birth rate is about 1.5 -- this means that Scotland has a shrinking and aging population who need fewer consumer goods and more health care -- from a merchants POV its a disaster.

Hong Kong is even worse off as the birth rate there is about .9. This means in a generation to population will be halved! and what remains will be quite elderly.

Pretty much the same in Japan, much of the EU and if we hadn't imported massive numbers of highly natal Mexicans - here too ... (ours was 1.7 in the 1970')

When added to our excess efficiency it leaves us in a precarious place. The nations that have growing population simply are hostile to us and have societies that well don't support modernity

A military threat isn't what I am worried about -- sub launched predator drones with nerve gas are cheap if it comes to that .. What worries me is the downward economic spiral --

Anybody who doesn't know what SOI means is not qualified to discuss IBM and technology-

'SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Seeking to take the lead in another emerging technology, IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics Group has rolled out what it claims is the industry's first 45-nm, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) foundry offering.

IBM has also bolstered parts of the shaky SOI supply-chain to propel its initial SOI foundry service in the market. But some wonder if the technology will gain traction amid the current IC slowdown and economic crisis.

To fuel a new class of SOI designs, IBM will provide a 45-nm foundry service within its own fabs. As part of the plan, Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. will act as a ''second source'' foundry for IBM's 45-nm SOI offering. And ARM Holdings plc announced a physical intellectual-property (IP) library offering for IBM's SOI technology.

With SOI, IBM appears to have taken the lead in another technology. The company and its foundry partners have recently announced a high-k/metal-gate offering at the 32-nm node, putting the group ahead of its rivals in Taiwan. In comparison, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) separately will not offer a high-k/metal-gate solution until the 28-nm node.

In the digital foundry markets, IBM also appears to have a lead in SOI. Germany's X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG provides a Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) offering on SOI for analog/mixed-signal designs. ARM and UMC have promoted a 65-nm SOI offering with marginal success. And over the years, TSMC has been in--and mostly out--of SOI, generally claiming it has seen little demand for the technology.

SOI makes use of a layered silicon-insulator-silicon substrate in place of conventional bulk substrates in IC manufacturing. SOI-enabled devices are said to reduce parasitic device capacitance, thereby boosting performance. IBM claims 45-nm SOI can offer up to a 30 percent performance improvement or 40 percent power reduction, when compared to bulk silicon.'
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212001346

The article goes on in more detail, for anyone interested.

IBM believes in more than the imaginary property so beloved by some posters here - IBM believes, and profits handsomely from this belief, in actually being able to manufacture real things for real customers for real money. And IBM remains one of the few organizations on this globe able to do such work, which requires massive amounts of capital, skill, technology, and customers with big checkbooks who know precisely what they are buying with their money - which tends to be products that no one else is able to provide.

And quite honestly, IBM is unlikely to lose that edge any time soon - they aren't GM, after all.

But please, don't confuse your dinky desktop with what IBM makes its money providing - it would be like comparing a tricycle with a Tour de France racing bicycle in terms of speed and weight. And price, of course.

Hey, we're all Goldman Sach's bitch

I see a lot of cynicism here. Obama didn't create this problem. Private-sector thieves and Republicans did, by creating loans to people who couldn't afford it and then not policing the re-selling of those "counterfeit" loans.

>> Hope is not an investment Strategy

He didn't say it was.

>> so the glimmer of hope seems to revolve around pushing more debt on people.

At lower interest rates, people get to save more of their money. (If they have a job.)

>> Teleprompters are all ready to go.

Everybody uses a teleprompter or notes.

>> When will the 20-somethings that supported Obama realize that Hope/Change + ???? = a lot of unemployed 20-somethings? UE for 20-24 year-olds is already 15% so I'm guessing the "when" is upwards of 20%.

Holy shit. You're already blaming Obama for this economic crisis? This debt-to-GDP crisis was 40 years in the making, probably from around the time we wasted a lot of money in Vietnam and couldn't pay for it without taking ourselves off the gold standard. Economies don't turn on a dime. The bankstas created trillions in counterfeit over an 8 year period. Do you expect the hangover to take less than 2 years? I'll be happy if it's just 4. I expect it to get much worse (for average Americans) before it gets better. As for the "20-somethings", maybe the "20-somethings" that support Joe The Plumber will understand this some day.

I stopped reading the rest of comments. Otherwise, I'll probably write another 20 responses.

A lot of nothing. Why bother?

"way off in the distance, we can see a vision of an America's future that is far different than our troubled economic past." .....You are looking thru a strong telescope. Our future will not return to rosey until the American Corporate heads return manufacturing and good paying jobs back to this country. They will hold steadfast to cheap labor so we are doomed for quite a while yet. When will corporate America realize that the American public has to have money before they will again make money? Hopefully laid off Americans are educating themselves to beat boredom.

The speech was good.

Politician's words are empty, watch what they do and what bills they support. In my actions you will know me.

In the bleak days of nineteen-eighty-three, as England languished in the doldrums of a ruinous monetarist policy, the good and loyal men of the Permanent Assurance Company-- a once-proud family firm, recently fallen in hard times-- strained under the yoke of their oppressive new corporate management.

Pushed beyond the bounds of decent and reasonable victimisation, the aged retainers take their destiny in their own hands and-- Mutiny!

And so, the Crimson Permanent Assurance was launched upon the high seas of international finance.

There it lay, the prize they sought, the richest jewel in the crown of the I.M.F.: a financial district swollen with multi-nationals, conglomerates, and fat, bloated merchant banks.

Hidden behind the faceless, towering canyons of glass, the world of high finance sat smug and self-satisfied as their future, in the shape of their past, slipped silently through the streets, returning to wreak a terrible revenge.

Adopting, adapting, and improving traditional business practises, the Permanent Assurance puts into motion an audacious and totally unsuspected takeover bid.

And so, heartened by their initial success, the desperate and reasonably violent men of the Permanent Assurance battled on... until, as the sun set slowly in the west, the outstanding return on their bold business venture became apparent: the once-proud financial giants lay in ruins, their assets stripped, their policies in tatters.

It's fun to charter an accountant
And sail the wide accountancy,
To find, explore the funds offshore
And skirt the shoals of bankruptcy!

It can be manly in insurance.
We'll up your premium semi-annually.
It's all tax deductible.
We're fairly incorruptible,
We're sailing on the wide accountancy!

Obviously, Barry et. al. realize the complete fallacy of our paper economy. But I'm still holding out for them to actually do something about it. Till then, it's business as usual until they find a way to usurp the International Bankster Conglomerates. Remember, unlike the Crimson Permanent Assurance, private industry now transcends geographical political barriers; and there is nothing left to plunder, so we'll have to "actually" engineer a solution or completely fail. No other feasible choices exist. It could take a decade (if at all), so am I surprised Barry has disclosed little or nothing of an actual overarching plan to wrangle control of the international monetary system and US political interest? Absolutely not. He would be completely retarded to show his hand.

Have some faith... skeptical faith and prepare yourself for a revolution should it be necessary. No one implicitly deserves your trust, but everyone deserves your concerted deliberation and unwavering skepticism.