Archive for the 'Politics' Category

President Obama and Prime Minister Brown touched upon the need to create a world regulating agency which would oversee all financial institutions — banking — everything, tracking all money moving anywhere.

So the bankers really blew it for themselves this time. No more international safe havens. No more protection from prying eyes.

What if all of a sudden, follow the money actually lead somewhere?

What if we could see the red stain of cash making a trail all the way from our pile in the desert back through Halliburton to Dick Cheney’s pocket? But that will never happen. Who would be brave enough to dip his toe in that river of molten lava. For all we know the last guy to disagree with Dick got his face shot off.

But maybe big oil, and big money, and the big guns got too big for their britches. (I hope — I don’t want this to pi** off anyone still important) Just maybe world government is the only way to effectively regulate big world-wide businesses.

Let’s see; from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. I make $18(average country wage) and the guy responsible for losing trillions received just shy of a half a million for that same hour. Assuming we both have weekends off, of course.

Yeah, right, I want protect this guy’s right to put all that money into his pocket at the expense of my kids education, health care, clean air and the environment. Or do I?

If I had to choose…HEY! Wait a minute – why can’t I get both? The government is having a ball with our money these days. Just stick your hand out and something’s likely to land in it, especially if the Democrats have there way with the checkbook. “Spend now and worry about the tab later…” is roughly what I believe Obama said. Personally I don’t have kids, and being the selfish prick I am, the buy now let them pay later mentality kind of works for me.

Now the Big 3 fiasco is another color altogether. This is a matter of principal – not just ecomonics. The big 3 auto companies should be treated just like any other company with VC investment money. After the 1^st round of financing, they get scrutinized, re-evaluated, and the decision is made whether or not 2^nd round financing is warranted. Unfortunately, the VC investors in this case are the US taxpayers who have no say in their investment monies. It’s about time these big companies are held to the same standard as most other businesses – either keep up with current market demands or fall by the wayside. It’s not like they didn’t see this coming.

Now if all the freakonomic BS hasn’t chapped your ass already, take a look at this link and then come back and tell me your alright with your current financial status: Bonuses Baby!!!

To me the most important protection of our democracy

should be the insulation of our judicial system from corrupt

influences.  If justice comes down to who has the most money,

society as we know it would disintegrate.  For a society to

survive the people within it must, after all, believe in their elite. 

And they must have trust in the fairness of their judicial

systems.  The only other way to hold society together is

with a large internal “security” force.

In a national bestseller, “Personal Injuries”, Scott Turow

vividly describes what can go wrong when “The Judge” is on

the take. The story involves favorable rulings in personal

injury cases where insurance companies are on the hook

for huge settlements.  Common wisdom holds that insurance

companies use the pretext of those monstrous settlements

to charge their customers outrageous fees for what are in

actuality rare cases.  The lawyers get rich, the judges

(in these cases) get a nice bonus of some sort and the

insurance companies get to raise their rates. The plaintiffs

get hugely rewarded for their pain and suffering and as a final

tribute to a system gone horribly wrong, the evildoer is severely

punished.  Everyone involved is the winner, the insurance company

pays off, and if there is a loser somewhere, no one cares.

WE, the majority of people in USA, have a firm belief in our

democracy (with a few detractors), and a strong backbone

of religious and moral convictions. And WE overwhelmingly

support our judicial system.  I believe as a society WE feel shame

when the bad guy goes free (take OJ for example) or when the

good guy gets wrongly convicted (take the hundreds of inmates

recently freed from years of confinement by new DNA evidence).

So what in the world are WE thinking when WE allow the most

politically motivated, and by extension the most heavily influenced,

people in our society to –APPOINT– the judges who sit on the

highest benches in the land. Every honest person needs to believe

that the person presiding over a court of law, and possibly

sitting in judgment of him, will be impartial, which is inherently

an oxymoronic concept under these circumstances. Shouldn’t

WE the people be voting on these guys?

Incredible as it may seem, it appears the Illinois governor might be found innocent in a court of law for attempting to sell Obama’s vacated senate seat and expect (extort) numerous other favors for family and friends.

I think in the court of public opinion, however, he is as guilty as they come.  But if they brought the case too soon there is every possibility that, because he hadn’t overtly (yet) committed any crime, he may not be found guilty of anything.

 IMO whether or not he gets convicted he should not be permitted to appoint the next senator.

That PRIVILEDGE, to change political history for better or worse, for both Illinois and the Nation, should go to an honest man.

One thing is clear; Blagojevich’s pick will be bought and paid for.

In old world banking circles personal conduct was regulated by a moral code whereby honor and self-interest were joined at the hip. To put client capital at risk was a cardinal sin punishable by dishonor and disgrace and therefore unthinkable.

That was a century ago. Where Wall Street erred in judgment was when the giants hired physicists and mathematicians to construct  new financial instruments. These new guys were not steeped in the 100’s year old “Bankers Codes of Conduct”, nor was their family honor at stake. The financial instruments they designed were so complicated analysts were unable to evaluate them properly or assess their risk. Or, possibly, they didn‘t care

But when people are making money, and bankers are no exception, they don’t ask why. They just smile, act smart and bank the money. Effectively the morals clause implicit in traditional banking constructs no longer applied to these side bets. Since the banks, their shareholders, traders and brokerage houses were all making “bank” everybody was winning and the future was blindingly bright. That was only 2 years ago.

So we have all learned a valuable lesson again (for the third time). The notion that anything to do with money, actually gigantic money, could be self-regulating and the people involved trusted to do the “right thing” is a concept which has outlived its usefulness. Money corrupts – big Money corrupts completely. And forgetting the lessons of the past is suicidal.