"Don't be Evil" -- Tell that to Wall Street

After Google announced that it might leave China, Wall Street and other stock exchanges around the world reacted in typical fashion, by buying Baidu stock and selling Google stock. Baidu's stock jumped by at least 12%, while Google's slid by about 1%.

For the money-men -- the same people, let us not forget, who caused the real estate bubble, the ensuing collapse and rise in unemployment, who received billions from the government and are now giving each other BJs and bonuses -- these men (and women) are the core of what allows China to censor with impunity and keeps companies here way passed the point of violating their own principles.

In the world of capital, evil is rewarded and Wall Street's "golf clap" for Baidu's unexpected "good fortune" is a perfect example of evil at work -- or perhaps better said, a perfect example of the unwillingness to do good.

Sock it to 'em Google!

throw a stone or move

Sigh. How many times do we read something like this over coffee/tea in the mornring, imagine charging or throwing a stone at a rich man's house and then ... just go about doin yer thang?

Where does all the TARP go?

This sentence here at the end of the NYT story about the failure of the auto industry bailout is probably one of the most important of the story. Its the very last sentence. A few paragraphs above this one, the "problem" of "legacy costs" (pensions and such?) incurred by Detroit because of the United Autoworkers Union is lamented.

Washington gave a bailout to the financial institutions, and did not ask a single question, the governor said, “then lay the blame for the auto industry, which is a victim of this financial meltdown, on the backs of the people who are working on the line.

(Check out their wages btw -- 55USD an hour for long time union members. Holy shit. 30 hr week? 5 day workweek? i always envisioned an autoworker as a character out of a Bruce Springsteen track ... )


and just cuz i am reading the news and its never "good," might as well plug Justin's column today on Obama's foreign policy objectives. I have been talking about the "sellout" in this blog too ... but not as much as I have been stumping for Hope. Change. I bought it, i voted for it. I attacked McCain supporters and told them they were foolz ... i suppose now, even now, all i can Hope for is "anything but Bush ..."

let me know if i am tripping ...

Its all bad; its all good

My landlord Nikki V is doing a piece for KBOO Radio about austerity measures people (may or may not have learned from their parents/grandparents) are using to get by in "this nasty economy."

I listen with mild interest, because so far my economy seems unaffected by Wall Street's 777+ drop this week after the big bailout failed to get past the taxpayer. I mean, please, does any of those bankers truly believe we are THAT stupid? Supporting a war for oil is one thing, but supporting the big wig banker down the street -- the same guy working on your foreclosure -- naw man. no love for the banker.

I wonder how long I will be able to sit and observe all of this going on before i have to work the strip again just to pay rent ...

Is anyone out there tightening the belt? I know that there are now about 100,000 yuppies wondering what to do with themselves in NYC. They better start learning Chinese and drinking baijiu with some corrupt greedy bureaucrats in Beijing ... Joint Ventures will need their "help" trying to get lying ass Chinese partners to do the right thing ...

The right thing ... the Shenzhou spacewalk is to the Sanlu milk scandal what Palin is to the Republican Party is what Cruise missiles are to Lewinsky is what TV is to woes is what a religion is to the spirit.

There was an insert in last Sunday's paper called Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West. It caught the attention of a few people ... as it is some pretty uninformative scare-mongering propaganda. The basic goal of the DVD is to equate Radical Islam with Nazism both as anti-Semitic and anti-Western.

Now a few people have pointed out that the Treaty of Versailles did help to bring about Hitler, but no one would go so far as to excuse the Nazis for what they did because of WWI. The Treaty of Versailles took land from the Germans and brought about massive economic collapse in that country .. is that an excuse for genocide? never.

So if we keep playing this relativist game, then we have to equate

the conditions in Germany during the 1930s
the causes of those conditions
Germany's response

to

the conditions in the Middle East since the end of WWI
the causes of those conditions
and Islam's response

it gets a little messy and circumstantial. But i think if you read the history of the Middle East since WWI and replace the Middle East with, say, the US, then you will (if you are American) most likely find yourself contemplating mass rebellion and guerrilla warfare. The Arab states were partitioned and controlled by outside forces (Britain, France, US) and pitted against each other and eventually placed under the control of the most iron-fisted despots in the region. Of course an ideology of rebellion will arise out of those conditions ...

I suppose the true link between Nazism and Radical Islam is the Jewish State of Israel. The Nazis (and their many many European collaborators) felt guilty enough to give the Jews a state, but they did not feel guilty enough to give them Switzerland or Luxembourg or Prussia or some other swath of territory from the people who slew them.

Instead, Europe made the Arabs pay for their mistake. And used the Book as justification.

What will arise, eventually, out of America's economic crisis and the wars around the world is a new appreciation for History amongst a people (Americans) who have been taught to believe that history died during the boat trip to the New World. If it means re-learning what Grampa did to get by during the hard times, or what exactly hobo glyphs are or just the aftermath of the Great War ... it will be a maturing of our young nation. Maybe I will live to see it.

We have seen this before, and its always sinister

In today's NYT, the "demise" of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is treated with the soft gloves of supposed objectivity.

The article begins by saying that the tumultuous tumble in stock value of the two mortgage giants is inexplicable and at the same time potentially devastating for the US economy and, above all, taxpayers.

"There is a real panic about these companies on Wall Street right now, and sometimes a blaze like that grows almost without reason,” said Tom Lawler, an economist who worked at Fannie Mae for over two decades before leaving in 2006 to become a consultant. “There wasn’t really any new news to set off this crisis. The stocks just started falling, and didn’t stop.”

Typically, "the Market" is blamed for being skittish, crazy and prone to stampeding through the economy, destroying as it goes. Few have the idea that this may be deliberate or that the destruction of FM&FM might have consequences that are beneficial to some, while hurting the many. And if they do think that, they are dismissed as conspiracy theorists with an anti-American agenda.

Well, this isn't the first time we have seen the antsy investor crowd pinpoint a sector of the economy, "lose confidence" in it, then ultimately take it over when it lies bleeding in the dust.

The Great Depression in the US was an orchestrated event. The Depression was initiated by JP Morgan and Friends and when the dust cleared, they stood alone in the financial sector, with the American banking system in its bloody grip. This is the truth and i urge you to check it out.

The Asian Crisis of 1997 was orchestrated and led to the firesale of assets in Indonesia and Thailand, riots in South Korea and slumps in Japan, Singapore and the Philippines. The investors poured their money into the countries to develop them, "lost confidence" in their investments and the currencies they were to be re-paid in, then launched an attack that left many of these countries in economic tatters. Here is the Oracle on the crisis. the blame is often laid on the corrupt nepotism of Asia, hence the IMF's ill thought out bailouts. Anyway, check it out(pdf). The NYT figured it out at some point and produced a series after the fact -- 3 part -- that pointed toward the Western aka US banks as the culprits, not the Asian economies who had been following the the US economic wake since WWII. T

Can't find that link though, if anyone can please post.

here is some more good info in the current crisis.

Que bono?

this is all we need to ask each other. Who suffers is the silliest question you can imagine. Those who suffer the most are the poorest, the regular Joe who has to pay more gas, whose house is worth less, who can't lend a damn thing no more, who can't afford nights out with the wife no more and just sits there staring into the distance while he listens to this guy:

“I don’t think anything has happened in the last week to warrant the kind of anxiety we’re seeing,” said Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida and a former secretary of housing and urban development. “But the market does what it wants,” he added. “All we can do sometimes is grab on and hope we don’t get thrown off the ride.”