Archive for December, 2015

On Empathy (December 28, 2015)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, On [Traits/Characteristics], Personal Stories Series, Personal Story on December 28, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

9          “You go to bed at night and at times travel to foreign lands and then return and are born anew . . . in the same body . . . in the same place . . . and the hands of the clock are rearranged.”

3          “Boring.”

9          “When I wake up and discover that things seem to be the same as before the slumber, I vow to inhabit . . . another body . . . in another place . . . at another time.”

3          “Less boring.”

9          “And more promising.  Combine that new perspective with a conviction to search out the steepest learning curve before breakfast.”

3          “Not boring.  From my perspective, I want to pursue more than one life.”

. . .

9          “There are three ways to transport yourself from your current venue to a new venue – via reading or listening, via titrating your chemicals, and via travel to a new venue.”

3          “Liberating your imagination.”

9          “Travel is key.  Changing your locale introduces you to new locals.”

3          “Intriguing.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Slip on someone else’s moccasins

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.”  Augustine of Hippo 

Teller Line Withdrawal Notice:  $3000 maximum cash withdrawal per day without advance notice.

 

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Litigation:  “Recreational”, “Sport” And  “Diversionary” . . . And The “Department Of Just-Us” (December 21, 2015)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Courts, Department of, Federal Reserve, Russia, Sports, Wall Street on December 21, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The definition varies yet ‘Recreational Litigation’ is usually defined as an unfounded claim or defense advanced by someone with unlimited funds who uses bullying techniques to harass and often bankrupt a small and often defenseless person or entity for grins.”

J          “Or for some ulterior purpose.  I call it ‘Sport Litigation’ because it is so unsporting.  The ‘Department of Just-Us’ is the richest and most powerful player in the American Legal Game.”

K          “FIFA is corrupt to the core.  So is Wall Street.  The United States has no business investigating and prosecuting FIFA corruption.  The United States does have legitimate business investigating and prosecuting Wall Street corruption.”

J          “‘Sport Litigation’ is the felicitous term.”

K          “I may be wrong, yet I have this nagging suspicion that the government may be trying to pressure FIFA not to allow Russia to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.”

J          “Prostituting the Beautiful Game.  Ugly.”

. . .

K          “The ‘Department of Just-Us’ as you call it long ago served notice that the banksters are above and beyond the law.  The FIFA case may be a way for the ‘Department of Just-Us’ to serve notice that anyone who gets out of line will get it.  And also to distract us from the real problems and the real danger.”

J          “The ‘Department of Offense’ is engaged in endless wars and fear generation to distract us from the inevitable consequences of the actions and inactions of their friends and comrades at the ‘Department of Treasure’ and the Federal Reserve.”    

K          “What about describing it as ‘Diversionary Litigation’ designed to make the public believe that evil foreigners are being prosecuted while actually diverting attention from the real problems and the real danger.”

. . .  

[See the e-commentary at Schooling The Apparatchiks For The Kleptocrats (December 7, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”  H. L. Mencken

May the farce be with you.

Savor the solstice; Nature still sustains.

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To Raise Or Not To Raise? (December 14, 2015)  

Posted in Bureaucracy, Federal Reserve, Interest Rates, Movie Reference, Sports, Wall Street on December 14, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “That is the answer.”

2          “They can’t raise it, they can’t maintain it, they can’t lower it.  They are not in a stalemate because they are in checkmate.”

1          “Game over?”

. . .

2          “A decision not to decide is a decision.  The Fed has been deciding not to decide and has decided to destroy the real economy since at least 2008.  If they decide to raise the rate a nominal .125 or .250 percent, they may be able to get away with it.  Anything more substantial will tip over this unreal and surreal economy of their contriving.  Interest rate derivative swaps will strain, fragile emerging markets will sag and the federal government will be forced to spend more of the budget on interest payments.”

1          “They are said to need to show that they are tough guys and gals who are trying to return to a real economy.  They are said to need to establish ‘Wall Street cred’.”

2          “They have no ‘Main Street cred’.  At least among the few dozen folks who give a cred.”

. . .

1          “So will they raise the interest rate?  Yes or no?  If they do, how much?  .125?  .250?”

2          “The question is not ‘will’ they but ‘should’ they raise the interest rate.”

. . .

1          “A betting pool.  There you go.  We might as well have fun.”

2          “No they should not.  .125 to appear to be doing something.  The effective rate now may hover near an average of .100, so they may be able to do something without doing anything.”

1          “Maybe.  .250 to feign cred.  And then be able to reverse gears.”

2          “See we shall.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Interest Rates ‘risin (March 30, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Do.  Or do not do.  There is no try.”  Yoda

What happens when you run out of altitude, airspeed and ideas all at the same time?

Otter:  “I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”

Bluto:  “We’re just the guys to do it.”

                                                    “Animal House” movie (1978)

Fed up yet?

“In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.”  Isaac Asimov

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Schooling The Apparatchiks For The Kleptocrats (December 7, 2015)

Posted in Bureaucracy, Education, Kleptocracy, O'Bama, Schooling, Wall Street on December 7, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Harvard and Yale are in business to make a profit and provide the foot soldiers to protect those making a profit.  Columbia has stepped up its game.  Both Eric Holder and Lonny Breuer each bagged a pair of degrees from Columbia and dutifully served Wall Street while on the public pay roll.  First Covington & Burling, then time in the Department of Justice (?), and then back to C & B to protect the Owners.  They did their time in government, but they did not encourage the criminal banksters to do their time in government custody.”

K          “I have said for some time that Morningside Heights is in business to protect its friends down the road in Manhattan.  Once Wall Street took a controlling stake in O’Bama, Inc., it was game over.  The game was over on or before January 20, 2009, yet it did not make that night’s sports highlights.” 

J          “The grand irony is that rather than quash any and all prosecutions of Wall Street fraud, Holder and Breuer could have aided and abetted their past and future colleagues by allowing them to get rich quashing government subpoenas.” 

K          “And then toss in Glenn Hubbard, a deceptive and dishonest errand boy for the banks and corporations.  Where is he proselytizing and propagandizing?”

. . .   

K          “On the other hand, Columbia also provides a haven for Joseph Stiglitz and James Hansen.”

J          “And William Kunstler did not toil and moil for C & B.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at America’s Fraud Factories (October 18, 2010), On Merit and the Meritocracy (January 11, 2010), Close the Harvard Business School (February 23, 2009) and Higher Education Tomorrow (November 27, 2006).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Politicians should dress like race car drivers.  At least we would know who their corporate sponsors are.

74 years today.

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