Today has got to be short and sweet. I have things to do and a new gallon of gesso to use.
Over the last 18 months, I have written a number of pieces about the economy, inflation, monetary policy, investment securities, etc. Travel back today a pick a post and read it. The economics does not change. The movement of capital is still the primary reason for investment securities. Capital from people that need to invest to people that need capital to grow their business. Whether a giant corporation or a start-up corporation, capital moves in the direction of those that can employ it to build their business. Credit, another form of money, needs to flow so that businesses have a reason to grow. Without customers for products and services, there is no reason to borrow capital to grow. The movement of credit at the consumer level moves the needle. Honest and fair consumer credit is an important piece of the economic puzzle.
Stay tuned.
Posts
9 comments:
I hope you're going to do sunflowers over that gallon of gesso.
I hope I don't use the whole gallon, but the answer is yes.
Referring to one of your previous posts where you tell your readers to read Matt Taibbi's article on Goldman Sachs in the July issue of "Rolling Stone" -- you might be interested in what appeared on CBS Business News today. Under Econowatch, is the headline: "The Shine Comess Off Of Goldman Sachs," by Brian Montopoli.
He starts his article with the description of an illustration in the most recent issue of New York magazine, as follows: A giant masked man is holding a bag of money, as he towers over the tiny people below, who are offering up what appears to be futile resistence. The title asks: "Is Goldman Sachs Evil?"
Montopoli quotes Taibbi on Goldman Sachs: "...the world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
This is just an FYI for your other readers, who, like me, have not yet read the Taibbi article. That oversight will now be remedied!
Thanks, Fred!
Summer
Goldman is like a shark. A great eating machine (of money). These guys and gals "eat" other people's money. That is the way they are programed, just like a shark is programed to kill. I have known Goldman people, one from Chicago was a real nice guy, a real person. He left Goldman after many years to sell municipal bonds in another place. But, I have seen the shark instinct in other firms on Wall Street too. The game is about money, making lots and lots of money, and then living the "good life." But, like any game, officials are needed to run up and down the sidelines and blow their whistles and throw their flags. The sick part came about when the big players were able to undermine the integrity of the game. No whistles, no flags, no penalties, no penalty box, and then the game got really good for the players, and hell for the fans (the investors).
Re: "no whistles, no flags..."
Further complicating the Administration's efforts to effect changes on Wall Street, we see in today's business news, quoted from the Washington Post that "Local banks could emerge as key allies to bigger financial institutions in limiting regulatory reform."
This story, by Brady Dennis, goes on to report that "The alliance between big and small banks isn't a natural one. Community bankers are in an altogether different business than the nation's largest firms. .... But they worry that they will face extra regulatory burdens..." The small local banks point out that they didn't cause the current crisis and shouldn't be forced "to shoulder new rules because larger firms that embraced complex financial derivatives and abusive lending practices wrecked the system." (We-didn't-do-it-they-did!)
They plan to "use the August congressional recess period to make the case that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is wrong."
Looks like health care reform's not the only baby that might be thrown out with the bathwater. The August recess is going to stall or table some critically important initiatives.
Meanwhile, the sharks continue to feed with impunity. And who's going to stop them?
Summer
Moneythought Heads to the rescue. This blog's mission is to make people aware of the huge need to put pressure on Congress to do the right thing. There are more people invested in the capital markets than there are people working in the capital markets. Right now they, the people on Wall Street, have the edge and the influence, "money talks and bull shit walks." The balance of power needs to change, and there are more voters with a vested interest in how their retirement funds are treated. How their 401-k are being treated.
The problem is too few people understand that they are being hosed by the Wall Street & Washington Alliance!!!
This pretty much says it all.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinion/ssi/images/Toles/c_07292009_290.gif
Summer, if you like what is here and you like Taibbi's article you can also go to the TrueSlant site or Matt Taibbi's blog and read more, I have, all because of Fred.
Learning by the day.
By the way Fred, I now email or fax questions and responses to my government "watchdogs" and voice my opinions and concerns. Never would have done it had I not stumbled on your site because you visited my daughters art site.
Thanks, Butch, I'm also learning by the day and will check out TrueSlant, as you suggest.
Still wading through The Great American Bubble Machine -- which, to me, is Orwellian!
So much to learn and so little time.
Summer
Post a Comment