RANT: The paranoia in all of us

Sunday, November 29, 2009

http://www.michaelshermer.com/2009/09/paranoia-strikes-deep/

Paranoia Strikes Deep
published September 2009
Why people believe in conspiracies
Michael Shermer

*** begin quote ***

Conspiracies do happen, of course. Abraham Lincoln was the victim of an assassination conspiracy, as was Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, gunned down by the Serbian secret society called Black Hand. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a Japanese conspiracy (although some conspiracists think Franklin Roosevelt was in on it). Watergate was a conspiracy (that Richard Nixon was in on). How can we tell the difference between information and disinformation? As Kurt Cobain, the rocker star of Nirvana, once growled in his grunge lyrics shortly before his death from a self-inflicted (or was it?) gunshot to the head, “Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you.”

*** end quote ***

Argh! “THEY” are out to get us. Violent people want to seize the power of the gooferment to exercise over us. If you don’t think you are “being controlled”, just try doing something the establishment (left or right) doesn’t like!

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RANT: Climate-gate is a fraud

Friday, November 27, 2009

http://www.mrc.org/bozellcolumns/columns/2009/20091125064520.aspx

When the Press Favors Secrecy
The New York Times has no trouble reproducing damaging documents not meant for the public eye when the subject is national security — but not when the documents embarrass the “scientific experts” used to scare people about global warming.
By: L. Brent Bozell
November 24, 2009 10:39 ET

*** begin quote ***

The e-mails prove just how dishonest this left-wing global warming agenda truly is. And now suddenly, the New York Times has found religion, and won’t publish these private e-mails. Environmental reporter Andrew Revkin, who’s more global warming lobbyist than reporter, quoted – sparsely – from the e-mails, but declared he would not post these texts on his “Dot Earth” blog on the Times website: “The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here.” That rule didn’t apply to things like the disclosure of the SWIFT global bank monitoring program against terrorists.

*** end quote ***

Climate-gate proves that the issue is a fraud and the “scientists” can be trusted.

DIsgraceful! Guess they’l get a Nobel Prize for Science now.

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RANT: Remember the Blue Hippo?

Saturday, November 14, 2009

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/14/0035257/BlueHippo-Scam-Collected-15M-Only-Shipped-One-PC?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashdot%2FeqWf+%28Slashdot%3A+Slashdot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

BlueHippo Scam Collected $15M, Only Shipped One PC

from Slashdot by Soulskill

An anonymous reader writes “Turns out that those BlueHippo commercials advertising financing for computers and other electronics for anybody, regardless of credit, were way more sleazy than you thought. The FTC is bringing this fraud down, but not too soon. ‘According to the FTC, the company’s brazen business model continued without interruption after the 2008 settlement. “In fact, in the year following entry of this Court’s Stipulated Final Judgment and Order for a Permanent Injunction, BlueHippo financed — at most — a single computer to the over 35,000 consumers who placed orders for computers that could be financed during the period,’ the FTC told a court (PDF) yesterday. In the meantime, the company took in a cool $15 million in payments from consumers, who don’t appear to have received anything in return.'”

# – # – #

Why am I not surprised? And, how long did it take to get this fraud shutdown by the “regulators”? And who’s going to jail for the 15M$ stolen from poor people? After all, who has “regardless of credit”. And, the hardware they pictured looked obsolete to me.

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RANT: People will be more cynical; too bad!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/18/colorado.balloon.investigation/index.html

Authorities: ‘Balloon boy’ incident was a hoax

# – # – #

I guess like everyone else, they fooled me.

It was very wrong to fool all the good people.

But fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.

Everyone will be just a little more cynical.

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Cheating a little kid

Monday, October 12, 2009

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/1270200.html

Posted on Wednesday, 10.07.09
LAND SHARK STADIUM
Historic baseball safe at home in Miami girl’s hands
12-year-old gets historic baseball back, but only after lawsuit filed
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY AND EMILY MICHOT

*** begin quote ***

After catching the ball, Jennifer was escorted alone to the Phillies clubhouse, where they talked her into exchanging it for an autographed baseball, worth substantially less, said her Fort Lauderdale attorney and memorabilia enthusiast Norm Kent.

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

Imagine cheating a little kid. It could be her ticket to a college education. Now that might have been a fair trade.

And, what parent lets their child go alone anywhere today?

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MONEY: Watch your “fees”!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/29-sneaky-fees.html

29 Sneaky Fees and How to Avoid Them
by Kathy Kristof

*** begin quote ***

If you feel like you’re getting nickel and dimed to death, you probably are.

In an attempt to create “sticker swoon,” – an irresistibly low price – an increasing number of businesses are advertising bargain prices for everything from cell phone service to hotel stays before tacking on hidden fees and charges to boost the final cost and make it tougher to shop around.

“The common denominator is the drive to disguise what the true cost is,” said Joseph Ridout, consumer services manager at Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.

*** end quote ***

Eternal vigilance is not just for the gooferment.

Ask the FTC: “Why don’t they crack down on fees?”

There too busy protecting those they supposedly regulate.

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SERVICE: KODAKGALLERY makes itself less valuable

Sunday, October 11, 2009

http://beta.kodakgallery.com/gallery/footerLinksContent.jsp?pageID=600010

*** begin quote ***

3. Availability

Kodak Imaging Network uses reasonable endeavors to ensure that the Service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. However, there will be occasions when the Service will be interrupted for maintenance, upgrades and emergency repairs or due to failure of telecommunications links and equipment that are beyond the control of Kodak Imaging Network. Every reasonable step will be taken by us to minimize such disruption where it is within the reasonable control of Kodak Imaging Network. You agree that Kodak Imaging Network shall not be liable to you for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service. You are responsible for creating backups of any content you post to the Service.

*** end quote ***

Argh! Why make me responsible for backups. That’s why I subscribe to the service by my purchases!

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RANT: Building stadiums at taxpayer expense!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/30/bomberphobia

Sports Arena
Bomberphobia
By Lisa Fabrizio on 9.30.09 @ 6:06AM

*** begin quote ***

Yet, many of you secretly applaud baseball’s version of socialism, euphemistically called the Competitive Balance Tax, which has resulted in the Yanks paying out over $150 million in the last six years to their direct competitors. Meanwhile, Robert Nutting, the dastardly owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates who pocketed $40 million in revenue-sharing alone last year, saw fit to reduce his 2009 payroll to $20 million by selling off the few good players he had. Such doings make those who cooked up the Oil for Food program look like pikers.

*** end quote ***

MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”

Argh!

Before I would hold up ANY sports team as an exemplar of “conservative” values, I’d think about the stadiums they play in.

Taxpayer funded.

We don’t build McD’s. We don’t build WalMarts. We don’t build lots of things for businesses!

Why are we building stadiums for billionaires where they can exercise their millionaire “talent”?

Argh!

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SOCIALISM: Cash for … Sheeple

Sunday, October 4, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster164.html

Cash for Clunkers, RIP by Karen De Coster

*** begin quote ***

The program was little more than a political redistribution of wealth from the people of America to politicians’ power base that includes unions, environmentalists, and social justice bulldogs. Along the way, a few select people who fell within certain purchase guidelines received a generous discount for turning in their paid-off cars in exchange for a new chunk of steel and a large chunk of debt. As with most government programs, a select group of people became empowered or enriched while the general population paid the bill.

*** end quote ***

To see perfectly good cars being destroyed shocked this old injineer.

Those cars were better than some of the wrecks I drove around when I was a “poor” student. (Poor in both a monetary and academic meaning!)

How many really poor people were denied a car they could afford by this absolute stupidity.

Even if you never studied “economics” and the parable of the broken window created by Frédéric Bastiat, you have common sense. Don’t you?

In what universe does destroying a perfectly good car make any economic sense at all?

If for no other reason than that, if your rep voted for this, then you should vote them out of office. There’s no excuse for having an idiot representing you.

Argh, sheeple!

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TECHNOLOGY: Mediasaurus

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/mediasaurus.html

Mediasaurus
Today’s mass media is tomorrow’s fossil fuel. Michael Crichton is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
By Michael Crichton

*** begin quote ***

The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification – framing the debate in terms that ignore the real issues. For example, when I watch Crossfire, or Nightline, or MacNeil-Lehrer, I often think, wait a minute. The real issue isn’t term limits; it’s campaign finance reform. The real issue isn’t whether a gasoline tax is regressive, it’s national security – whether we’d prefer to go back to war in the Gulf instead of reducing oil consumption by taxing it more heavily, as every other nation does. The real issue isn’t whether the United States should have an industrial policy, it is whether the one we have – no policy is a policy – serves us well. The issue isn’t whether Mickey Kantor is a protectionist, it’s how should the US respond to its foreign competitors.

*** end quote ***

He hits the nail on the head. The media is just SO biased that it distracts from the data, info, knowledge, and wisdom from the “story”.

It’s a long article but it does highlight how bias and technology are making the “media” obsolete.

Interesting?

How do we capitalize on the replacement?

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RANT: Ayers is closer to Obama then previously led to beleive

Thursday, October 1, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110789

*** begin quote ***

Because, if it is true – and I believe it is – it confirms Obama lied boldly and blatantly about something so significant during the campaign. It would also confirm Obama as a close associate and trusted friend to one of the most despicable America haters on planet Earth.

You just don’t hire anyone to collaborate with you on your autobiography. You only choose someone you trust, someone who thinks like you, someone who really knows you and your innermost convictions and shares them.

The evidence is mounting that Obama selected Bill Ayers.

*** end quote ***   

The American People, in their rush to justly punish the R’s, has elected a “Manchurian candidate”. As we learn more, as the “legend” he’s created unravels, as he pursues hid true agenda, we are finding that we have really screwed up.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Kennedy seat belongs to the D’s; not the people!

Friday, September 25, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzO_Ki9dF9tOlEmbHGiBPp0hgzzAD9AU95JG0

Mass. GOP seeks to block Kennedy interim successor
(AP) – 3 hours ago

*** begin quote ***

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Republican Party is seeking to block the interim appointment of Paul Kirk to the Senate seat that was held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

The GOP has filed an injunction in Suffolk Superior Court that will be heard Friday morning.

*** end quote ***

Now I realize that I have my law degree from the Judge Judy school of law,

BUT, (there is always a big butt),

(1) Shouldn’t this be unconstitutional on its face. The state legislators should just write the law that MA Senators have to be picked by the head of the Democratic Party!

(2) Shouldn’t this trigger one of those “This is so outrageous that it offends the sensibilities of the Court. Rule it unconstitutional Ex Post Facto. Et cum spiritu tuo two two oh. Or what ever Latin mumbo jumbo you want to use.

Huh?

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RANT: Who voted against defunding ACORN

Sunday, September 20, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/the_seven_senators_who_voted_a.html

September 15, 2009
The seven senators who voted against defunding ACORN
Ethel C. Fenig

*** begin quote ***

Now who were those seven senators who were apparently unfazed by ACORN’s bland unconcern of providing mortgage money to a supposed prostitute and her pimp, even counseling them on evading taxes? (Nine senators did not vote.)

# Dick Durbin (D-IL)
# Roland Burris (D-IL)
# Robert Casey (D-PA)
# Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
# Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
# Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
# Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

*** end quote ***

Would seem to be an easy vote.

This demonstrates the culture of corruption in DC.

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RANT: Big insurers may gain from Obamacare

Thursday, September 10, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/cato090309

Cato Daily Podcast, 09/03/09
Cato Institute

“Big insurers may gain from Obamacare,” featuring Michael D. Tanner. [MP3] (09/03/09)

# – # – #

I am shocked — “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca — to hear that.

But I knew it when they started advertising for its passage.

Argh!

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LINKEDIN: Scammer sighted on LinkedIn

Saturday, August 29, 2009

OVER ON Vincent Wright’s MyLinkedinPowerForum

*** begin quote ***

I googled him and found out that in addition of being a LI member (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mr-isaac-howells/13/7b1/35 and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/isaac-howells/12/b23/944 where you will notice that the same person works in two different African countries and has no connections), I also found out the Spanish based version of http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/index.php where warnings have been issued about this person being part of a worldwide fraud attempt.

*** end quote ***

The scammers “DO” social networking too. Forewarned is forearmed!
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RANT: Gooferment Flood Insurance

Saturday, August 8, 2009

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/08/07/flood-insurance-mend-it-or-end-it-but-dont-just-extend-it/

Flood Insurance: Mend It or End It, But Don’t Just Extend It
Posted by Mark A. Calabria

*** begin quote ***

Before leaving for the August recess, the House of Representatives passed a bill (HR3139) to extend the authority for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) until March 2010. The program was set to expire on Oct. 1, 2009. The bill now goes to the Senate. Instead of taking up HR3139, the Senate should insist on real reforms to the NFIP, rather then a blanket extension.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the NFIP has operated under a deficit of close to $17 billion, which had to be borrowed from the Treasury in order to pay claims. Under the NFIP’s current structure, it cannot even make the interest payments on its borrowing; these losses will ultimately hit the taxpayer.

*** and ***

In one instance, a house in Houston this is valued at around $100,000 received over $800,000 in flood insurance claims over a 20-year period, before it was finally destroyed.

*** end quote ***

At the very least, we, te taxpayer, should only be forced to insure something once.

And, what exactly is the gooferment doing in the “insurance business” any way?

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: MSFT patents?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/06/2322209/Microsoft-Patents-XML-Word-Processing-Documents?from=rss

Your Rights Online: Microsoft Patents XML Word Processing Documents on Thursday August 06, @07:37PM
Posted by timothy on Thursday August 06, @07:37PM
from the no-problems-there-nothing-to-worry-about dept.

*** begin quote ***

On Tuesday, Microsoft was granted U.S. Patent No.7,571,169 for its ‘invention’ of the Word-processing document stored in a single XML …

*** and ***

the biggest question raised by this patent is: How in the world was it granted in light of the 40-year history of document markup languages?

*** end quote ***

What kind of “barbara streisand” is this?

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MONEY: A global central bank would be a disaster

Thursday, July 30, 2009

http://thedailybell.com/bellPage.asp?nid=461&fl=

Daily Bell Archive
Issue 360 • Sunday, July 26, 2009
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” – Ayn Rand
Peter Schiff explains why he was right about free-markets, why Art Laffer was wrong and whether he will run for Senate

*** begin quote ***

Daily Bell: Where do you think this central banking approach to economic development is headed? Do you think it will eventually succeed as a global force – generating a global central bank, etc?

Peter Schiff: I think that in the end, central bankers controlling fiat money will prove to be an unworkable and inherently flawed system. Despite the apparent distinction, central bankers are politicians who are more concerned about rosy economic statistics than they are about sound currency. This can only lead to devalued currencies, which sooner or later becomes a major issue. A global central bank would be a disaster.

*** end quote ***

It would truly signal the end of the American Empire.

Without the status of the world’s reserve currency, an awful lot of dollar would start looking for a home! They’d come to our shores looking for something to buy. Price inflation would be inevitable. Anything that could be boxed up and shipped home would be bid up. One can see whole productive factories being packed up and shipped lock, stock, and barrel. Labor is cheaper elsewhere. The USA wages would drop like a rock.

We’d suddenly know what it is like to be the tail on someone else’s dog.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Gooferment has its thumb on the scale

Monday, July 27, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi113.html

Obstructing and Manipulating
by Bill Sardi

*** begin quote ***

Bernanke Caught Swapping Currencies

On the same day Barofsky was briefing Congress on his 250-page report, a film clip on YouTube showed Congressman Alan Grayson grilling the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke, who admitted to swapping $500 billion of US funds to central bankers in Europe in one day (this represents 25% of what the US collects in taxes in an entire year), in what appears to have been an attempt to alter the value of the US dollar and to influence the price of oil and the value of stocks.

*** end quote ***

What that means is that, to the Average Joe , the markets are being manipulated.

What that means is that eventually one big ugly chicken is going to come home to roost.

What that means is that sooner or later the truth will come out.

We wuz robbed.

And the elite did it.

So recognize the thieves in DC and vote them ALL out.

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MONEY: Recognize the dollar for what it is; an ongoing fraud

Thursday, July 23, 2009

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GOLDBUG: Myths, Misunderstandings, and Outright Lies

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

http://www.cmi-gold-silver.com/gold-confiscation-1933.html

Myths, Misunderstandings, and Outright Lies

# – # – #

Well worth reading BEFORE buying or selling anything gold, silver, or other “valuable stuff”.

As a veteran “gold bug”, I knew this stuff, but it’s well written refresher.

It’s long, but let me summarize: If you see it on TV or hear it on radio, be afraid. Be very afraid!

If Wall Street is a casino, then a lot of the gold dealers are just fraudsters.

Fore warned is fore armed.

Now can I interest you in Nigerian Gold Shares?

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RANT: Government is uncontrollable

Friday, July 10, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Jury sees videos of La. congressman accepting cash

By MATTHEW BARAKAT – 17 hours ago

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal jury has seen video of a former Louisiana congressman accepting a suitcase filled with $100,000 in cash outside a northern Virginia hotel.

The videos played Tuesday are a key piece of evidence in the bribery trial of William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans. He’s accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes to broker business deals in Africa.

*** end quote ***

This bozo did not have the decency to conceal his corruption. ALL politicians and bureaucrats are the same. Some are just a little more circumspect than others. BUT they all are feathering their own nests at our expense.

Anarchy, not chaos, is the only solution. Government, as a meme, can NOT be controlled.

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INTERESTING: The Authorship of Obama’s ‘Dreams’

Monday, July 6, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/breakthrough_on_the_authorship_1.html

June 28, 2009
Breakthrough on the Authorship of Obama’s ‘Dreams’
By Jack Cashill

*** begin quote ***

Within days of my going public last September with the speculation that terrorist emeritus Bill Ayers helped Barack Obama write his acclaimed memoir, Dreams From My Father, I learned that I was not alone in that intuition.

*** end quote ***

I remember a day in High School. I don’t remember THE day. Or even the year. But it was in High School. We had extensive “reading lists” that we were expected to conquer. It wasn’t part of any course; it just was to “magically” get done. A relatively fast reader, I polished them off by the end of the sophomore summer.

I remember a class discussion (The Brother teaching monologued about the book. The students got few chances to put in a penny’s worth.) The good Brother concluded with a “knock your socks off” question. (He was known for these!)

“Do you REALLY believe that Jack Kennedy wrote this book? And, why do you believe that? Because it’s printed on the cover.”

That was the end of my naiveté in politicians!

Does anyone really believe that Obama wrote “Dreams”?

Sorry, doesn’t pass the sniff test.

IMHO.

And, if that’s a fraud, what else is?

Kennedy conceal his Addison’s and his whoring. As a Catholic, that’s a terrible scandal. (Like pro-abortion CINO republican and democratic “catholic” politicians!)

Just can’t trust any of them.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: No Justice in the Government’s Courts

Monday, July 6, 2009

*** begin quote ***

A federal judge approved the sale of G.M.’s assets to a new government-run company, removing a major hurdle to the auto maker’s plan to exit bankruptcy.

http://online.wsj.com#mod=djemalertNEWS

*** end quote ***

As a GM bondholder getting screwed, why would I expect justice from the government’s court? THe government seized my propoerty violating the rule of law. And, the government’s court approved the government’s plan in violation of the government’s law.

Tyranny!

But not a surprise.

Who protects the serfs from the “King”?

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POLITICS: Regulators don’t regulate

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/06/reining-in-wall-street-well-maybe-not.html

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Reining in Wall Street (well, maybe not)

The business community seems OK with the Obama administration’s proposed revamping of the financial regulatory structure — which should give anyone looking to rein in the so-called “Masters of the Universe” pause.

# – # – #

My comment:

Sorry, at risk of enraging “Annony-mush”, regulations and regulators are the reason we have a problem. More regulations and regulators ain’t going to solve anything. The FED is at the root of the problem inflating the currency. Making them bigger and more powerful is like asking a the fox to “guard” the hen house. Can we at least AUDIT the FED to see what this private monopoly is doing to us for the benefit of the elite?

Never met anyone who needs a CDO? Try a homeowner who wants a low cost mortgage. CDOs allow a lot of them to be aggregated and sliced and diced.

Know any pension funds that need cash flow at very specific points in time? CDOs allow them to get that.

“We”, the collective sheeple of these United States, have made one mistake. We’ve allowed the congress critters and their bureaucrats fool us into thinking we didn’t have to watch them like a crooked dealer on the rube’s pay day.

Maybe we need less regulation and let things fail. Bankruptcy has a interesting effect on management. It puts them out of work.

“Too big to fail” is just “TOO BIG”!

Maybe the rule should be no ledgers with room for more than a 1,000,000,000.00 at the bottom line. That’ll make work for a lot of out of work regulators, bureaucrats, and congress critters.

Argh!

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MONEY: Banks aren’t safe

Friday, June 26, 2009

http://mises.org/story/3507

Dead Banks Walking
Mises Daily
by Doug French
Posted on 6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

*** begin quote ***

On the other hand, if a legitimate banking system were in place, it would be based upon honoring property rights. Customers making a deposit in a bank expect the bank to guard, protect, and return their money — at a moment’s notice in the case of demand deposits. After all, that person has not traded a present good for a future good. The depositors believe the bank is warehousing the money for them and that it is available to them at any time. This deposit is not a loan — there is no fixed term, which would be required in the case of a loan — and availability hasn’t transferred.

However, we don’t have legitimate deposit banking but a fractionalized banking system that combines deposit banking with loan banking. Those that sympathize with fractionalized banking will contend that time certificate of deposit accounts are in essence loans from depositors, entitling the bankers to use the funds at their discretion for the term of the CD — just as long as the banker has the money ready when the CD matures. But if the money is lent secured by illiquid assets such as real estate, the banker is clearly not counting on those loans to satisfy expiring CDs and must count on attracting new CD money to pay off the old.

“There is no incentive for bank depositors to go to the trouble of determining a bank’s soundness if the government is going to guarantee deposits.”

Bankers, pressured to earn returns for shareholders and protected from bank runs by FDIC insurance, have over time lent not only more of their deposits but advanced the money for riskier projects. James Grant in a recent Grant’s Interest Rate Observer reminisced about National City Bank, which back in 1954 had only lent out 41 percent of its deposits, with less than one percent of the portfolio being real-estate loans.

By the end of last year, the total loan-to-deposit ratio for all US banks and thrifts was 87 percent, and 60 percent of all loans were classified as real-estate secured.

*** end quote ***

Bottom line: Don’t invest in any bank stock.

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