Clipmarks | Savings Clips

US CAPITALISM - ANTI DEMOCRATIC

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:18:33 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Privatization of Profits and the socializing of loss

Anti-Democratic Nature of US Capitalism is Being Exposed

Bretton Woods was the system of global financial management set up at the end of the second World War to ensure the interests of capital did not smother wider social concerns in post-war democracies. It was hated by the US neoliberals - the very people who created the banking crisis writes Noam Chomsky

THE SIMULTANEOUS unfolding of the US presidential campaign and unraveling of the financial markets presents one of those occasions where the political and economic systems starkly reveal their nature.

Passion about the campaign may not be universally shared but almost everybody can feel the anxiety from the foreclosure of a million homes, and concerns about jobs, savings and healthcare at risk.

These steps predictably increased the frequency and depth of severe reversals, which now threaten to bring about the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

Temp

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:14:57 GMT

clipped by: sprohm

Clip Source: www.businessspectator.com.au

ALAN KOHLER As the G7 leaders meet to try to save the world’s banks, retirement savings are being wiped out by the liquidation of the hedge fund industry, but that’s next week’s problem. 7:00 AM

cats mach

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:21:55 GMT

clipped by: thekav

Clip Source: www.pcconnection.com

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The Current Financial Crisis Is Only The Beginning

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:57:28 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks:

One could argue that the banking crisis is just the cold sweat, not the flu that follows it.

Clip Song

Clip Source: www.iht.com

The problem is not just that the banking system has been broken by an orgy of foolish lending but moreover that huge swaths of the global economy are predicated on that foolish lending and the consumption it allowed.

The bubble wasn't just in real estate, leaving the financial system holding the bag; the bubble was in consumption.

The banking crisis will have very serious negative effects on the real economy, and the cost will grow.

The core of the issue isn't even solvency. It's the way in which the debt causing the banking insolvency distorted, distended and hollowed out economies around the world.

The banking crisis is extraordinarily dangerous. But the changes in the global economy that are needed are even more profound. Savings rates are going to need to rise

and consumption fall.

The recession will be long and probably ugly.

There is no doubt that the needed changes can happen and that these innovative and creative economies can re-balance. But it is going to be very painful.

Alan Greenspan's Culpability: From Keating to the 2008 Economic Crisis

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:44:46 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: In 1985, Keating hired Alan Greenspan as an economic consultant, in an unsuccessful effort to convince an oversight agency to exempt Lincoln Savings from certain regulations. Greenspan delivered a favorable report, writing that Lincoln Savings was “a financially strong institution that presents no foreseeable risk to depositors or the government.” (Greenspan produced similar favorable reports on numerous other banks that also failed soon after).

Clip Source: query.nytimes.com

a 1985 letter written on Mr. Keating's behalf by Alan Greenspan, an economist who is now the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Greenspan's letter described the management of Lincoln Savings as ''seasoned and expert'' with a ''record of outstanding success

In an interview, Bob Maynes, a spokesman for Senator DeConcini, said that Mr. Greenspan's assurances were ''significant in convincing Dennis'' that Lincoln deserved assistance

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Alan Greenspan has fiercely objected whenever derivatives have come under scrutiny in Congress or on Wall Street

The problem is not that the contracts failed, he says. Rather, the people using them got greedy. A lack of integrity spawned the crisis, he argued

But others hold a starkly different view of how global markets unwound, and the role that Mr. Greenspan played in setting up this unrest

Clearly, derivatives are a centerpiece of the crisis, and he was the leading proponent of the deregulation of derivatives

McCain and Palin Can No Longer Be Excused

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:56:06 GMT

clipped by: oscarrob
clipper's remarks: That’s right – evil. Not just wrong. Not just bad. Not just politics. Exploiting otherwise decent people and using their fears, pain and frustration to unleash them on others with different names or different skin colors or different religious beliefs is evil. That’s not what American politicians do. That’s what Adolf Hitler did. And he did it when people were afraid and angry and losing their jobs and their life savings.

Clip Source: aplagueonbothyourhouses.typepad.com

The McCain - Palin Campaign Has Crossed Over to Evil

No longer can we simply dismiss the McCain campaign as “rallying the base” or “politics as usual.” The times have changed. For the worse. Every responsible politician, and particularly John McCain, needs to step back and say “Am I encouraging a mob?” We are in the worst economic times perhaps in 70 years. People are angry and in pain. They are losing their jobs, their homes and their savings. They are looking for people to blame. They still fear for their safety. They are looking for ways to release their frustrations.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, instead of “Country First,” take the “get elected first” approach. They associate their opposition with terrorism here and abroad. They associate him with being “different.” “Do you really know who he is?” the ask. They are encouraging and exploiting the fear, the anger, the frustration and it is getting worse.

What they are doing is evil.

Tags: politics, mccain, palin, campaign

CNN TruthSquad on McCain, Keating 5

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:46:46 GMT

clipped by: reeds
clipper's remarks: McCain was cozy with the notorious Charles Keating, resulting in the S&L Crisis of the late 80's / early 90's, and subsequently a congressional ethics investigation and reprimand for McCain.

Clip Source: www.keatingeconomics.com

[Video]

The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s.

Today, John McCain is the only major party presidential nominee in US history to have been rebuked, censured or otherwise admonished after a Congressional ethics investigation.

When the savings and loan industry collapsed, Keating's failed company put taxpayers on the hook for $3.4 billion and more than 20,000 Americans lost their savings. John McCain was reprimanded by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee, but the ultimate cost of the crisis to American taxpayers reached more than $120 billion.

The Keating scandal is eerily similar to today's credit crisis

Tags: politics, fact_check

One Year Anniversary of Dow's Peak

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:20:31 GMT

clipped by: daltonsbriefs
clipper's remarks: Bad News - we've dropped 34.6%
Good News - it can go right back to where it came from, and will, as soon as we all agree to regain our confidence in what we are, and how we do it.

IMHO, Obama will never give us that kind of confidence.

Clip Source: www.marketwatch.com

HomeAutosSavingsMore Rates »

30-year fixed5.9%+0.9%

15-year fixed5.6%+1.6%

Equity6.3%0.0%

National averages from
Bankrate.com

New 36-month6.8%+0.1%

New 48-month6.8%+0.1%

Used 36-month7.2%+0.1%

National averages from
Bankrate.com

Money Market2.4%0.0%

3-month CD2.6%-0.8%

1-year CD3.6%-1.6%

National averages from
Bankrate.com

Tags: stock market, dow jones, marketwatch

Another bailout story

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:31:22 GMT

clipped by: comy1234
clipper's remarks: Honestly, the world has always been about money and power. If you're not rich, just try to enjoy the ride as we see the end to the world as we know it

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

They're Stealing from You and Me -- Where's the Outrage?

Where were the cops?

Poor Senator Larry Craig got a truckload of moral condemnation for tapping his wingtips in the men's john, but his party proposes to spend 5 percent of the GDP to buy up bad loans made by men who walk away with their fortunes intact while retirees see their 401(k) go pffffffff like a defunct air mattress, and it's business as usual.

John McCain is a lifelong deregulator and believer in letting brokers and bankers do as they please -- remember Lincoln Savings and Loan and his intervention with federal regulators in behalf of his friend Charles Keating, who then went to prison?

McCain now decries greed on Wall Street and suggests a commission be formed to look into the problem. This is like Casanova coming out for chastity.

Confident men took leave of common sense and bet on the idea of perpetual profit in the real estate market and crashed. But it wasn't their money. It was your money they were messing with.

Tags: bailout, mccain, economy, accountability

Wall Street panic rolling over consumers worldwide

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:02:10 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: uk.reuters.com

Wall Street panic rolling over consumers worldwide

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A London businessman may have to put off his wedding. A baker in Paris fears customers will disappear. A student in Slovenia sees an automobile loan fall out of reach. And a real estate agent in Chicago says she's just plain scared.

The worst financial crisis since the 1930s was stark reality for millions on Wednesday as retirement savings evaporated, jobs disappeared, stock market values slipped again and a dramatic cut in interest rates by central banks from Europe to Asia did little to stem three weeks of near panic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank another 2 percent on Wednesday, closing 189 points lower at 9,258.

Tags: wall street, global economy, business consumers, crash, financial crisis

Nobody saw THAT one coming....

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:44:19 GMT

clipped by: strider72

Clip Source: query.nytimes.com

Published: September 30, 1999

the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people

Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Tags: politics, financial crisis, fannie mae, bill clinton, hud

Republican Rallies Now Sound like the KKK

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:20:44 GMT

clipped by: citizenbfk
clipper's remarks: The clip from the New York Times reports someone at a Palin rally urging killing Barrack Obama, others calling Obama a 'traitor," -- Palin associating him with domestic terrorist...and an Afro-American TV reporter being hassled by the crowd.

If we let these Republicans win again these are the types of people we'd be continuing to let rule and mislead our country.

I urge their defeat not just in the elections next month, but the elections after that and the election after that until their party is driven into extinction.

This will not only help our country but "send the message," that you shouldn't mislead and lie a nation into war, you can't commit war crimes, you can't shred the Constitution, you can't destroy our economy and give away money to the banks while people life savings are stolen.

KKK America in power again?

Not on my watch. Not while I still have breath.

And I hope, sincerely hope, you feel the same.

Vote Obama. Defeat Republicans.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Politics of Attack

It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember.

They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.

Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult.

Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

Icesave Suspend Access to uk Customers' Savings Accounts

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:10:26 GMT

clipped by: lovemorgul

Clip Source: www.money.co.uk

The Icelandic government has attempted to calm savers, worried that the nation's economy might be in meltdown.

Speaking on TV yesterday, Icelandic prime minister Geir Haarde said that the government was to offer a 100 percent guarantee for all domestic bank customers' savings - and that the financial regulator was to be given greater powers to intervene in the financial firms' affairs. Earlier, trading in the nation's banks was suspended.

Thousands of Britons have taken out savings accounts with the popular Icesave and Kaupthing Edge brands - run by Iceland's Landsbanki and Kaupthing banks respectively. However, the worsening of the credit crunch and the decline of investor confidence in banks has hit the Nordic country hard.

Tags: news, money, financial, banks

Icesave Frozen

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:04:23 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Thousands are in fear of their life savings in UK and elsewhere.

Clip Source: www.icesave.co.uk

We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly.

Tags: icesave

Army going Solar

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:47:24 GMT

clipped by: deb2012

Clip Source: www.treehugger.com

Huge Solar Thermal Power Plant
The Army will be joining with an unnamed private sector partner to build a 500 MW solar thermal power plant at Fort Irwin, California. The plant will supply both power to the public electric grid as well as the base itself. The Army is touting the project as providing greater energy security in the event of a disruption to the power supply at large.

Other Green Efforts
The solar thermal power plant is the obvious big news, but three other green projects were announced concurrently:

The Army is pursuing the purchase of 4,000 small Neighborhood Electric Vehicles to replace gasoline-powered vehicles traditionally used by maintenance and operations staff for use on its posts

Six Army posts have been selected as sites for biomass to fuel demonstrations

The Army will enter into a pilot energy savings performance contract with the private sector

Tags: alternative energy