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Grok
Has Been a Bad Boy



Registered: 12/03/03
Posts: 1,262
Loc: Greener Pastures
Last seen: 9 years, 8 months
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The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!)
#9674021 - 01/24/09 11:53 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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This is a two part piece that is definitely worthy of a read to anyone at all interested in the US financial system. My dad, a former investment banker and hedge-fund manager, sent this to me, so I assume it has some credibility. I am curious to hear the opinions of other financially savvy members here.
http://www.strike-the-root.com/82/allport/allport6.html (Part I)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/allport/allport1.html (Part II)
Quote:
The "massive and rapid increase in the amount of money" that we have witnessed in the last six months is sure to continue, if only because the predicted federal budget deficit is expanding at near lightspeed, with some estimates – for just the deficit, not the budget as a whole – topping $1.5 trillion per year. And what about all those trillions already created recently? Don't ask; it's apparently easier to pretend they don't exist. For that matter, don't even ask who got the money – Bloomberg News tried and failed to get the Fed "to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral." After asking politely, Bloomberg filed suit to force the issue, invoking the Freedom of Information Act, but to no avail. The result, so far, is that you, the American taxpayer, have the right (oops! – the "obligation") to pay that $2 trillion (plus billions in interest), but not the right to know where your money went.
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memes
Blessed



Registered: 01/11/05
Posts: 27,785
Loc: In a Tree
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: Grok]
#9674973 - 01/25/09 08:37 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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If they release where the money went, those institutions who received emergency loans would be revealed to the public -> thus removing all faith in their organization -> thus driving down their stock price -> thus sending them into a worse position than they would have been in had they not received the loan.
So, I understand why they won't release the info.
The deficit is quite alarming though. I'm intrigued to see how the Ds overhaul our entitlements while they have the ability to do so.
edit: No, I didn't read the links (yet), but I do plan on it. Just wanted to throw my tidbit out there before the hounds came in
Edited by memes (01/25/09 08:40 AM)
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usr
Interested.


Registered: 09/16/07
Posts: 164
Loc: United States
Last seen: 10 months, 22 days
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: memes]
#9675107 - 01/25/09 09:37 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Those links are excellent, thought provoking reads.
In all honesty, as someone who's tried for years to observe everything from an objective point of view, the worse scenarios presented in the article are things I have feared for some time.
Everyone has this veil over there eyes that the U.S. is indestructible and that our quality of life could never be threatened from within.
However, that is just folly when you observe history and consider the obvious fact that no nation in throughout it has maintained it's power forever. And there have been numerous instances where the big ol' government "knew what was best", but in reality that couldn't have been further from the truth. We are no exception.
As a reasonably intelligent young man, I can honestly say that I am somewhat fearful when I consider what I might possibly have to endure at some point in my lifetime.
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memes
Blessed



Registered: 01/11/05
Posts: 27,785
Loc: In a Tree
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: usr]
#9675721 - 01/25/09 11:25 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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So equip yourself with the necessary tools to deal with it now while you're not in that particular predicament 
Learn to live off the land, get your savings up (although some will argue this is pointless, since when the economy fails, money will be worthless), buy lots of guns & bullets, and put on your tinfoil hat :-D
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ZippoZ
Knomadic


Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: Grok]
#9675782 - 01/25/09 11:33 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Government response to the financial crisis has mainly consisted of throwing taxpayer money at the problem in Keynesian fashion – no surprise – although not even I imagined we would see trillions of dollars being created and given to the culprits as a means of allegedly "saving" the system. This is not mere Keynesianism; it is Keynesianism on steroids and crystal meth.
-------------------- PEACE
zippoz "in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption" "People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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ZippoZ
Knomadic


Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: ZippoZ]
#9675859 - 01/25/09 11:44 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
8 really, really scary predictions Dow 4,000. Food shortages. A bubble in Treasury notes. Fortune spoke to eight of the market's sharpest thinkers and what they had to say about the future is frightening.
-------------------- PEACE
zippoz "in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption" "People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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ZippoZ
Knomadic


Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: ZippoZ]
#9675918 - 01/25/09 11:55 AM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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wow, i just read all of that, and i have to say, i am more concerned than i was before...
-------------------- PEACE
zippoz "in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption" "People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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Tedwilto
Veni, vidi, vici




Registered: 12/08/08
Posts: 5,158
Loc: Sunny Afternoon in
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: ZippoZ]
#9678677 - 01/25/09 07:07 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Give that last sentence a moment's thought: a small group of people gave trillions of your dollars – not that you have that much money – to, well, mostly to crooks and failed businessmen. No one asked your permission, and now suddenly you and your children and grandchildren, and probably even their grandchildren, are in debt for an unpayable, galactic-sized pile of money – money you did not borrow or spend, but which others did – in your name!
looks like its time to move to Canada everyone.   
on a more serious note Ive only finished about half of the first part and it is really an interesting read.
5 shrooms for you for posting this.
-------------------- Song of the week, click Huey:
Song of the week list in journal.
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ZippoZ
Knomadic


Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: The Year Ahead: 2009 (Excellent Read!) [Re: Tedwilto]
#9679258 - 01/25/09 08:29 PM (15 years, 3 months ago) |
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global economic meltdown does not respect international borders
-------------------- PEACE
zippoz "in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption" "People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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