Chapter 7 is utter bull and a scam to hide assets.
The executive who urged shipping tainted product because he didn't want to lose any money should be prosecuted as aiding and abetting deliberate harm. That move by those in charge was reckless defiance of the health consequences, depracved indifference.
There needs to be capital charges, 2nd degree murder AT THE LEAST.
Making an example of such a scumbag is the least the FDA/DOJ can do.
We will find out he was "connected", had no reason to fear the FDA or any other regulator. Like Madoff, like the subprime lenders , like the banks repackaging loans and taking all their profits up front before the notes had a chance to show their true value...all "legal" and encouraged.
America is being turned into a massive brothel where it doesn't matter how you get rich, and whom you screw to get rich, and how much suffering and ruin is left behind as you get rich, just as long as you do get rich.
China is copying this successful example, except when their own citizens get poisoned then they have to toast somebody to show they are concerned.
Fat chance the powers that be would allow a single, spoiled legacy like Bush or his retainers or underlings or connected people to suffer one jot for the misery they caused.
It took them a year to declare it when it was obvious to all.
Thus we have both the political and financial leaders of the world trying to apply the wrong solutions to a crisis that they are unable or unwilling to diagnose correctly.
Which translates that 1. they were hoping it would pass just like previous multi month recessions. 2. since the "recession declaration" has been pronounced they are applying the same fixes of past recessions.
The problem, a recession is a business sector problem that can be cured by 'injected' liquidity infusions.
A DEPRESSION however, is a deleveraging process and cannot be cured with more liquidity. The only thing that cures a depression is washing out all of that bad debt.
That is fundamentally Keynesian or Demand side economics.
Micro credits or micro loans is a new bottom up theory to give the extreme poor small loans to enable them to start a small business, i.e. self employment. This is kind of a bottom up approach and in some countries (one has to consider a lot of variables here) it worked.
It's pretty clear to me supply-side or "trickle down" economics as implemented is simply a wealth redistribution mechanism to take from the middle class and give to the super rich.
But I must say still, the middle class, or working America is really being ignored in policy.
and I'm trying to pull in expert blogs who focus on the manufacturing sector/production economy in the middle just for this reason.
Nice analogy on the use of image. Just recently I heard it's a confidence problem and people need to go shopping. Unreal!
Another one of my favorites is when pundits scream "socialism"! We'll end up being like Europe! Well, Jesus, have they even been to Europe? Sure looks like a fine quality of life to me!
Oh my God, you'll end up like Canada! Oh my God, run for the hills!
It's like trying to create a bogeyman from a white fluffy kitten.
On the debt thing, I understand the concept of debt to expand the economy but this is completely out of control.
One of us has to go over those deficit numbers and compare them to other times....we do not have a production economy so I don't think this is quite the same as the Great Depression/WWII to pay it all back.
That was something else on the Stimulus, I didn't see anyone really analyze deficit spending in terms of typical return on the dollar...I did see $250k per job created (which GOP were touting around and on that point ....)
but they didn't talk about the long term investment pay out of public works on the overall economy.
For example, bringing electricity to rural areas in the 1930's set the stage for a host of economic development booms after the fact. It paid for itself many times over in economic growth.
There are several things about today's society that have never made sense to me. The attitude towards debt is one of those things - that you can increase debt levels forever and ever and its not something you need to be concerned with.
Another one of those things is a debt-based currency - that it makes sense to borrow money into existence in order to pay down the interest on previous money that was also borrowed into existence.
I read an article the other week (I forgot from where) that when the TV news media in this country does a story about the economy, they show pictures of a local shopping mall. Contrast this to other nations, when the TV news does a story about the economy, they show pictures of a local factory.
For some reason it seems no one in society has stepped back and questioned this twisted view of the world. It might be ignorance, but I think it is also something more dark.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
- Joseph Goebbels
I couldn't have said it better. The insanity of trying to keep their oligarchy intact and continue to suck off the middle class and the U.S. national economic interest is pure insanity.
And I notice it never seems to cross most analyists and pundits brains that maybe, just maybe the United States should be paying attention to it's manufacturing sector and start returning to a production economy.
While the word protectionism they pound on to make it a dirty word...the real dirty word for most in D.C. and pundits is manufacturing.
I also completely agree with the obvious, home prices need to come down, they simply are not affordable.
Then, how beyond stupid is it to subsidize people who cannot afford to buy a home....to buy a home...that is one of the problems in the first place. If they want to subsidize people, create livable jobs in manufacturing, train and hire those who are able.
This is a very good point because a high number of patents doesn't necessarily translate into innovation. They have to be critical patents. One might look at open source, which is assuredly a major innovation and of course there are no patents, it's under GNU Public License and other license variants.
The cost becomes prohibitive on patents and there are some corporations simply running to hit a market window and they are not taking the time to patent every little thing and also keeping their patent costs down. There are other corporations who want people to patent how they tie their shoelaces.
Is the work environment amendable to generating patents? That varies greatly from company/institution to company/institution and even project to project, time to time.
Then, the fees for individuals to file are high so odds are individuals will not patent much, unless they are going to try to strike out on their own and sell or license their own design.
Well it's very, very easy. I actually have filed for my very own patent last year.
I had written a cool piece of code that I was very impressed with and have plans to someday use this code if I ever started my own company. A lawyer friend of mine casually asked me if I had patented it.
This gave me the idea to investigate what would be involved. All that is required is to fill out some forms and pay a piece and copy and paste a limited number of lines of code. You don't have to prove that the software code or invention even works at all. (Mine does, by the way, but ai did not have to prove it.)
So people, please don't be impressed when someone quotes the number of patent filings. It's a total bogus number that proves nothing. Which makes the argument that patent filings by non-anglican names even more rediculous as proof of anything at all.
The money should go directly to every American citizen over the age of eighteen. This will create a new economy of free citizens to do what they want with their money. Now we have a patriarchal handout. If every American over eighteen receives two hundred thousand dollars (less than what is projected to bail everyone out) people can pay their bills, no more housing crisis, no credit card crisis, and entrepreneuship can flourish. This idea is not original, Lincoln used it to pay for the war and restart the American economy, instead of borrowing from England and France. By doing this a new banking system can start and the toxic banks can go away without pain. The stimulus plan, as is, will only prolong the agony, and Americans will pay for it. The American people have to get out from under the mountain of debt, this is where it starts. We keep trying to recapitalize those that created this mess. What do we get? We get to borrow our own money from the same people who destroyed billions of wealth. This is the fourth time we have bailed out the banking system since the late seventies.
Free Americans and create a new economy by giving the cash directly to the people and let those that created this mess borrow from us.
I need to read past the headlines. "Rush Limbaugh could have stopped this" got me off on a wrong tangent.
I'll agree with him then, and add one more point: NO economic system can work for 100% of the population past the 2nd degree of familiarity. Your family, your friends, THEIR family and friends, that's it. Nobody beyond there has the necessary data to help you out. Everybody beyond that point has only one economic interest as far as you are concerned: you're a potential mark in their con game.
That's straight out of Dorthy Day, if you'll forgive the religious reference to an alternate economic system.
President Obama's stimulus plan will not work. He is focused on the big picture while ignoring the small ones the make our economy work. Only local value added economies work. Economies based primarily on making money on money rather than making things do not and are burning out. President Obama does not even mention the history of Free Trade failures. Free Trade and Globalization means centralization. This means all the good and bad are centralized. All the bad that was controllable in de-centralized ways are now out of control.
As long as I've been alive, the United States economy has not been localized. And I'll point out that for most of my lifespan (I was born in 1970) it's been the RUSH LIMBAUGH ERA REPUBLICANS who have been in charge, pushing the stock market ever higher, allowing the banks to leverage out to insane levels, and removing our usury and bankruptcy laws so that the pirates can get maximum profit off of the backs of the working middle class.
We tried your way for 26 of the last 28 years, and what has it got us? 3 recessions and a depression, and an army that is so underfunded and understaffed that even one old Arab with a kidney condition was able to pull together a very small army to attack us and survive.
Well, sometimes they have no choice...that's supposed to be the deal when economic times are tough, well, they are on temporary work and student visas and hence get last consideration since the United States is concerned about it's own citizens first (and this is true in any other country on Earth, they always put their own citizens first, it's part of the job of each national government) (except Burma).
and think about that...you've lived in another country for 6 years, 7 years and now you are kicked out. Now that sucks too.
I mean this is the human condition, we're not commodities to be moved to and fro, put on a shelf when not needed, shipped abroad ....
people are societies, cultural groups and get attached to places, other people...we are not mobile as much as corporations want everyone to believe we are...
all sorts of invisible strings bind us to the land, to families, to friends, to a way of life.....
But yes, it's clear green cards and citizenship are being viewed as simply a business strategy and in terms of cultural identity, national loyalty, "throwing in your lot" with one country....that is not happening.
but this is not always true....for instance we have many labor activists who came to the U.S. on work Visas and they are fighting for U.S. labor every day....so they have become Americans and are now fighting for U.S. workers...
so one cannot blanket assume things here.
Although I feel the United States has been sold as the "roads are paved with gold" overseas like a product, like Coca-cola or McDonalds....
they also did this in the 1820-1904...painted a fantasy land of wealth and riches to basically get their cheap labor supply to continue to flow.
Tapsearcher. You cannot post spam comments pushing products, websites which are not simply writings and legitimate economics or commentary. It's ok to link to your own writings, you own blog, but not ok to peddle sites to sell products or services.
I'm going to unblock you because this blog post seems legitimate but this is a strong warning. Any link, anything that is linking over to some product site or something where you are simply trying to increase link counts to some service, or product you are trying to peddle...
until the banks finally start feeling their demise. Until they are gasping their last breath and realize that if they don't take some of the hit they won't be in business any longer.
In the first days of 2009 it appeared that progress might be possible on a different front. A slumping Citigroup came back to the Treasury Dept. for a second round of bailout money. Bowing to pressure from regulators, Citi broke ranks with its rivals and dropped its opposition to bankruptcy cramdown.
Of course they will eat their own before that all happens. Just like the depression only the well connected will be left standing.
By the time McConnell talked to the JPMorgan and BofA representatives the next day, however, "they had gone on full defense mode and started to complain about how lousy a deal Citi had struck," says the person familiar with the exchanges. Bank opposition, Durbin says, "was very shortsighted in light of the mess they have created in our economy."
On the point about the same people running the show. What I found interesting was we had three nominees for position with the current administration (Solis, Daschle, Geithner) with tax problems .... and the only one to emerge was the one connected to the banks and FED.
To even cross the border into the United States, one had to take an oath giving up loyalty to foreign princes.
I'd be willing to trade a instant-approval visa/green card system in return for *ONLY* immigrant visas and that oath of loyalty to the Constitution back.
As for the guest worker, visitor, and student visas- they only get the fruits of this country if they're planning on staying, otherwise 2 week limit.
cacophonix is one of those guest workers (although he's the longer guest worker Visa holder in history! as he claims) who is a comment writer who blasts anything that puts U.S. workers preferred for jobs in their own country and so on..
although I believe he is more strongly interested in the green card backlog issue from India (there are per country quotas on lower skilled Visas and hence from some countries a big waiting list).
He would spam all my posts on dailykos along with (odds are) other Indians and Chinese who don't want U.S. citizens put first for their own interests (to be frank).
They have a case but if and only if they are going to really become Americans.
I won't name one group but it's incredible...constant hate against Americans, constant hate posts against U.S. workers and really racist, based on national origin type posts...
yet.....they want to become Americans. I've read through these thinking, uh, you want to become the thing you despise? What's that about?
That's the problem with this crap, you cannot gun for a green card, citizenship in one country while being loyal or consider yourself a citizen of another. But that reality often comes home to roost when someone on a green card or with new citizenship gets displaced....by offshore outsourcing or a guest worker...which has happened many times.
So, using temporary work visas as a way to immigrate...
there is a huge back log, but are most people truly immigrating, adopting a new country as their own....or are they using green cards as a business feature for the resume...i.e. I can move freely between two nations thus transfer technology to offshore outsource as well as lobby the United States on my home country's behalf...
It would be bad enough having to go through this with reality based and principled elos in Washington. As is, it is scary as hell.
I stopped my 403b a year ago. I wish I had rolled everything out, too; but I didn't.
They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20 ~~ Dennis Kucinich
Chapter 7 is utter bull and a scam to hide assets.
The executive who urged shipping tainted product because he didn't want to lose any money should be prosecuted as aiding and abetting deliberate harm. That move by those in charge was reckless defiance of the health consequences, depracved indifference.
There needs to be capital charges, 2nd degree murder AT THE LEAST.
Making an example of such a scumbag is the least the FDA/DOJ can do.
We will find out he was "connected", had no reason to fear the FDA or any other regulator. Like Madoff, like the subprime lenders , like the banks repackaging loans and taking all their profits up front before the notes had a chance to show their true value...all "legal" and encouraged.
America is being turned into a massive brothel where it doesn't matter how you get rich, and whom you screw to get rich, and how much suffering and ruin is left behind as you get rich, just as long as you do get rich.
China is copying this successful example, except when their own citizens get poisoned then they have to toast somebody to show they are concerned.
Fat chance the powers that be would allow a single, spoiled legacy like Bush or his retainers or underlings or connected people to suffer one jot for the misery they caused.
It took them a year to declare it when it was obvious to all.
Which translates that 1. they were hoping it would pass just like previous multi month recessions. 2. since the "recession declaration" has been pronounced they are applying the same fixes of past recessions.
The problem, a recession is a business sector problem that can be cured by 'injected' liquidity infusions.
A DEPRESSION however, is a deleveraging process and cannot be cured with more liquidity. The only thing that cures a depression is washing out all of that bad debt.
It has always been about class warfare.
That is fundamentally Keynesian or Demand side economics.
Micro credits or micro loans is a new bottom up theory to give the extreme poor small loans to enable them to start a small business, i.e. self employment. This is kind of a bottom up approach and in some countries (one has to consider a lot of variables here) it worked.
It's pretty clear to me supply-side or "trickle down" economics as implemented is simply a wealth redistribution mechanism to take from the middle class and give to the super rich.
But I must say still, the middle class, or working America is really being ignored in policy.
and I'm trying to pull in expert blogs who focus on the manufacturing sector/production economy in the middle just for this reason.
Nice analogy on the use of image. Just recently I heard it's a confidence problem and people need to go shopping. Unreal!
Another one of my favorites is when pundits scream "socialism"! We'll end up being like Europe! Well, Jesus, have they even been to Europe? Sure looks like a fine quality of life to me!
Oh my God, you'll end up like Canada! Oh my God, run for the hills!
It's like trying to create a bogeyman from a white fluffy kitten.
On the debt thing, I understand the concept of debt to expand the economy but this is completely out of control.
One of us has to go over those deficit numbers and compare them to other times....we do not have a production economy so I don't think this is quite the same as the Great Depression/WWII to pay it all back.
That was something else on the Stimulus, I didn't see anyone really analyze deficit spending in terms of typical return on the dollar...I did see $250k per job created (which GOP were touting around and on that point ....)
but they didn't talk about the long term investment pay out of public works on the overall economy.
For example, bringing electricity to rural areas in the 1930's set the stage for a host of economic development booms after the fact. It paid for itself many times over in economic growth.
There are several things about today's society that have never made sense to me. The attitude towards debt is one of those things - that you can increase debt levels forever and ever and its not something you need to be concerned with.
Another one of those things is a debt-based currency - that it makes sense to borrow money into existence in order to pay down the interest on previous money that was also borrowed into existence.
I read an article the other week (I forgot from where) that when the TV news media in this country does a story about the economy, they show pictures of a local shopping mall. Contrast this to other nations, when the TV news does a story about the economy, they show pictures of a local factory.
For some reason it seems no one in society has stepped back and questioned this twisted view of the world. It might be ignorance, but I think it is also something more dark.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
- Joseph Goebbels
I couldn't have said it better. The insanity of trying to keep their oligarchy intact and continue to suck off the middle class and the U.S. national economic interest is pure insanity.
And I notice it never seems to cross most analyists and pundits brains that maybe, just maybe the United States should be paying attention to it's manufacturing sector and start returning to a production economy.
While the word protectionism they pound on to make it a dirty word...the real dirty word for most in D.C. and pundits is manufacturing.
I also completely agree with the obvious, home prices need to come down, they simply are not affordable.
Then, how beyond stupid is it to subsidize people who cannot afford to buy a home....to buy a home...that is one of the problems in the first place. If they want to subsidize people, create livable jobs in manufacturing, train and hire those who are able.
Great post.
This is a very good point because a high number of patents doesn't necessarily translate into innovation. They have to be critical patents. One might look at open source, which is assuredly a major innovation and of course there are no patents, it's under GNU Public License and other license variants.
The cost becomes prohibitive on patents and there are some corporations simply running to hit a market window and they are not taking the time to patent every little thing and also keeping their patent costs down. There are other corporations who want people to patent how they tie their shoelaces.
Is the work environment amendable to generating patents? That varies greatly from company/institution to company/institution and even project to project, time to time.
Then, the fees for individuals to file are high so odds are individuals will not patent much, unless they are going to try to strike out on their own and sell or license their own design.
Well it's very, very easy. I actually have filed for my very own patent last year.
I had written a cool piece of code that I was very impressed with and have plans to someday use this code if I ever started my own company. A lawyer friend of mine casually asked me if I had patented it.
This gave me the idea to investigate what would be involved. All that is required is to fill out some forms and pay a piece and copy and paste a limited number of lines of code. You don't have to prove that the software code or invention even works at all. (Mine does, by the way, but ai did not have to prove it.)
So people, please don't be impressed when someone quotes the number of patent filings. It's a total bogus number that proves nothing. Which makes the argument that patent filings by non-anglican names even more rediculous as proof of anything at all.
Last week it was three. I think we should add the count to the Friday Night videos.
The money should go directly to every American citizen over the age of eighteen. This will create a new economy of free citizens to do what they want with their money. Now we have a patriarchal handout. If every American over eighteen receives two hundred thousand dollars (less than what is projected to bail everyone out) people can pay their bills, no more housing crisis, no credit card crisis, and entrepreneuship can flourish. This idea is not original, Lincoln used it to pay for the war and restart the American economy, instead of borrowing from England and France. By doing this a new banking system can start and the toxic banks can go away without pain. The stimulus plan, as is, will only prolong the agony, and Americans will pay for it. The American people have to get out from under the mountain of debt, this is where it starts. We keep trying to recapitalize those that created this mess. What do we get? We get to borrow our own money from the same people who destroyed billions of wealth. This is the fourth time we have bailed out the banking system since the late seventies.
Free Americans and create a new economy by giving the cash directly to the people and let those that created this mess borrow from us.
and already deleted a comment that was pure product link spam...
So, ya know borderline.
I need to read past the headlines. "Rush Limbaugh could have stopped this" got me off on a wrong tangent.
I'll agree with him then, and add one more point: NO economic system can work for 100% of the population past the 2nd degree of familiarity. Your family, your friends, THEIR family and friends, that's it. Nobody beyond there has the necessary data to help you out. Everybody beyond that point has only one economic interest as far as you are concerned: you're a potential mark in their con game.
That's straight out of Dorthy Day, if you'll forgive the religious reference to an alternate economic system.
he's arguing for localized economic centers and is saying this globalization free trade is destroying the nation.
This is a straight paleo-conservative type of post and he's blasting both parties on trade policy.
He's saying the Stimulus will not work because it's not focused in on production as well as localized regional economic boosts.
Now of course this post could use some economic references and some actual graphs because it reads as just a manifest opinion piece....
but he's not defending Rush Limbaugh, main point.
President Obama's stimulus plan will not work. He is focused on the big picture while ignoring the small ones the make our economy work. Only local value added economies work. Economies based primarily on making money on money rather than making things do not and are burning out. President Obama does not even mention the history of Free Trade failures. Free Trade and Globalization means centralization. This means all the good and bad are centralized. All the bad that was controllable in de-centralized ways are now out of control.
As long as I've been alive, the United States economy has not been localized. And I'll point out that for most of my lifespan (I was born in 1970) it's been the RUSH LIMBAUGH ERA REPUBLICANS who have been in charge, pushing the stock market ever higher, allowing the banks to leverage out to insane levels, and removing our usury and bankruptcy laws so that the pirates can get maximum profit off of the backs of the working middle class.
We tried your way for 26 of the last 28 years, and what has it got us? 3 recessions and a depression, and an army that is so underfunded and understaffed that even one old Arab with a kidney condition was able to pull together a very small army to attack us and survive.
Well, sometimes they have no choice...that's supposed to be the deal when economic times are tough, well, they are on temporary work and student visas and hence get last consideration since the United States is concerned about it's own citizens first (and this is true in any other country on Earth, they always put their own citizens first, it's part of the job of each national government) (except Burma).
and think about that...you've lived in another country for 6 years, 7 years and now you are kicked out. Now that sucks too.
I mean this is the human condition, we're not commodities to be moved to and fro, put on a shelf when not needed, shipped abroad ....
people are societies, cultural groups and get attached to places, other people...we are not mobile as much as corporations want everyone to believe we are...
all sorts of invisible strings bind us to the land, to families, to friends, to a way of life.....
But yes, it's clear green cards and citizenship are being viewed as simply a business strategy and in terms of cultural identity, national loyalty, "throwing in your lot" with one country....that is not happening.
but this is not always true....for instance we have many labor activists who came to the U.S. on work Visas and they are fighting for U.S. labor every day....so they have become Americans and are now fighting for U.S. workers...
so one cannot blanket assume things here.
Although I feel the United States has been sold as the "roads are paved with gold" overseas like a product, like Coca-cola or McDonalds....
they also did this in the 1820-1904...painted a fantasy land of wealth and riches to basically get their cheap labor supply to continue to flow.
Tapsearcher. You cannot post spam comments pushing products, websites which are not simply writings and legitimate economics or commentary. It's ok to link to your own writings, you own blog, but not ok to peddle sites to sell products or services.
I'm going to unblock you because this blog post seems legitimate but this is a strong warning. Any link, anything that is linking over to some product site or something where you are simply trying to increase link counts to some service, or product you are trying to peddle...
is cause for immediate banning.
until the banks finally start feeling their demise. Until they are gasping their last breath and realize that if they don't take some of the hit they won't be in business any longer.
Of course they will eat their own before that all happens. Just like the depression only the well connected will be left standing.
On the point about the same people running the show. What I found interesting was we had three nominees for position with the current administration (Solis, Daschle, Geithner) with tax problems .... and the only one to emerge was the one connected to the banks and FED.
It has always been about class warfare.
To even cross the border into the United States, one had to take an oath giving up loyalty to foreign princes.
I'd be willing to trade a instant-approval visa/green card system in return for *ONLY* immigrant visas and that oath of loyalty to the Constitution back.
As for the guest worker, visitor, and student visas- they only get the fruits of this country if they're planning on staying, otherwise 2 week limit.
cacophonix is one of those guest workers (although he's the longer guest worker Visa holder in history! as he claims) who is a comment writer who blasts anything that puts U.S. workers preferred for jobs in their own country and so on..
although I believe he is more strongly interested in the green card backlog issue from India (there are per country quotas on lower skilled Visas and hence from some countries a big waiting list).
He would spam all my posts on dailykos along with (odds are) other Indians and Chinese who don't want U.S. citizens put first for their own interests (to be frank).
They have a case but if and only if they are going to really become Americans.
I won't name one group but it's incredible...constant hate against Americans, constant hate posts against U.S. workers and really racist, based on national origin type posts...
yet.....they want to become Americans. I've read through these thinking, uh, you want to become the thing you despise? What's that about?
That's the problem with this crap, you cannot gun for a green card, citizenship in one country while being loyal or consider yourself a citizen of another. But that reality often comes home to roost when someone on a green card or with new citizenship gets displaced....by offshore outsourcing or a guest worker...which has happened many times.
So, using temporary work visas as a way to immigrate...
there is a huge back log, but are most people truly immigrating, adopting a new country as their own....or are they using green cards as a business feature for the resume...i.e. I can move freely between two nations thus transfer technology to offshore outsource as well as lobby the United States on my home country's behalf...
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