Gary Kessler Photographer

Here are a few links to work by a good friend and photographer Gary Kessler. I hope you will take a look at his work. I love his shots of cars.


www.kesslerphotography.com
www.mobile.kesslerphotography.com/
http://kesslerphotography.photoshelter.com/


Stay tuned.

Saturday Is For Art & The Robbers' Stamp of Approval

It appears that the new legislation designed by Congress and the lobbyists to prevent another financial crisis, (at least prevent one for a few years), has left the problem of conflict of interest between the bankers that underwrite the new bond issues and the credit rating agencies that place a bond rating on the new bond issues, unchanged. Thanks Congress for standing up for the investor in this struggle. We know that we can always count on the Congress to favor the money interests when push comes to shove, and as a result, what happens is that the Congress usually shoves it up the peoples' ass.

What am I talking about? For those that have not taken my course in Bond Underwriting 101, let me explain. The three largest credit rating agencies are paid by the bankers that bring the securitized mortgage-backed bonds to them for their rating. If the banker is informed that the new bond issue will not be given a triple-A rating, which by the way is the highest rating given and means that there is little risk or chance of default, then the banker can "shop" the rating to another credit rating agency in pursuit of that triple-A rating. Congress in her wisdom could not see a problem with the existing structure and made no change in the way the bankers and credit rating agencies do business. In other words, it is business as usual and the conflict of interest remains.

Back in the 1980s, Congress thought it smart to let savings & loans invest in other investments besides mortgages and a number of them invested in "junk bonds" (also referred to as high yield bonds). Several savings & loans went under because they did not understand what they were doing. In the early 1990s I painted a stamp to commemorate the savings & loan fiasco. Since Saturday is for Art, I thought it would be appropriate to post this painting. Congress in its wisdom, spell that money in their pockets from lobbyists working for the family, has given the thieves license to continue to mint bogus triple-A bonds and in doing so, set people up to lose their money. Congress permits the robbers to use the flag as their mask as only Congress can.

Stay tuned.

Integrity, Bond Ratings & The Economic Recovery

The new financial regulatory legislation is probably so watered down that it will still leave plenty of room for less than honest people on Wall Street to cheat investors, but I suppose I should wait until I have read more about it before I pronounce this another piece of shit legislation.

As those who have been reading Moneythoughts know, my big thing was the Credit Rating Agencies and the role they played in the mortgage-backed bond market meltdown. This meltdown then put a liquidity crisis in play at the banks that had large positions of these now worthless bonds on the books and had leveraged themselves beyond reason. The liquidity crisis lead to the financial crisis which lead to the total economic crisis that resulted in more home foreclosures.

Trust in bond ratings and the Credit Rating companies that place the ratings on the bond issues is key to a successful bond market. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the new legislation deals honestly or effectively with this challenge. As long as the Credit Rating Agencies can be pressured by the investment bankers, the underwriters of the bond issues, there is going to continue to be fraud in the bond rating process.

If this credit rating problem is not dealt with in a satisfactory manner then investors, large and small, will not be comfortable with the credit rating process and this in turn will hold back economic growth. The economic engine can have every part working, but if the distributor cap is removed from the distributor, the engine is not going anywhere. The issuance of debt and the securitization of that debt is a powerful economic tool when used with integrity. Without it, the recovery of the economy is placed in jeopardy.

Stay tuned.

Let's Kill 'em In Afghanistan Or Get Out

Having been around and in the army during the Vietnam War (again, I was never in Vietnam, I was in the Army in Korea), I remember how stupidly that war was fought because President Johnson tried to conduct the war from the Oval Office. Aside from the fact that we got it wrong from the start in Vietnam, I didn't think the Vietnamese would put up with the Chinese running their country anymore than the Americans. So, in the end, what did we accomplish?

Afghanistan is a very different story, and while I have my doubts about how much nation building we can do there, I would like to think the General on the ground knows more than the administration in Washington that has one eye on the political situation in the states, and the other eye on public opinion polls about the popularity of the war.

The Afghan people know that the Americans are at some point going home. They knew that at some point the Russians were going home too. So, why are we there? We are in Afghanistan to destroy terrorists from having a base from which to attack us. If we can do that in a convincing way, perhaps we can gain some creditability with the afghan people.

But paying off the Taliban is no way to win in Afghanistan in my opinion. The mission originally was to destroy the Taliban not to bribe them into being our partners in the war on terror! We are wasting a lot of money bribing these Taliban and I don't think we are getting anything but trouble for it. We have the military power to take out the Taliban and that is what we should do, or stop wasting American lives and get out.

Stay tuned.

How Stupid Are We? A Personal View

I know it is not nice to say there are a lot of stupid people in this country, but the Republican Party to a certain extent proves my argument. The big question for me is whether those stupid people will go and vote in November, or, whether they will be just too stupid to bother to go and vote.

If you listen to some of the Republicans in Congress, you have to wonder: 1) do they really believe what they say, or 2) they don't really believe it, but know that the people that listen to them are too stupid to see the stupidity of what they are saying. It seems to me that with the exception of a very few Republicans, those holding state office like a governorship, that the Republican office holders will say anything so long it is dead opposite of what the Democrats are saying. I am waiting for one of these Republicans in Congress to say we don't need to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf. John Boehner, the minority leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, said a little while ago that the taxpayers should pay for the BP clean up. Evidently that didn't go over very well even with the few Republicans with an IQ greater than 100.

So, this November, 2010, the IQ of the nation will be tested, and that test will determine where we are as a nation and just how stupid we are as a nation. Can politicians say any foolish or stupid thing and get away with it, or, are Americans not nearly as stupid as their diet of TV would indicate.

Stay tuned.

A Day In The Bluegrass State With My Cousin

Thursday I drove down to Lexington, KY to visit my first cousin and work with her on a project she has been interested in getting off the ground for several months - a video of us talking about our family history. Our parents came to the United States as children in 1923 from the Ukraine. They were born in Greater Russia as were their parents and grandparents. Life was good for my grandfather and his family as he had his own tailor shop with a few people working for him making clothes. Then August 1914 came and the beginning of the end for their good life in the Ukraine began. August 1914 saw the beginning of World War I. The German army moved into the Ukraine. Later after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, more trouble came to the Ukraine as the Civil War began between the White army and the Red army. By 1920, or there about, our grandparents decided that they had had enough and made the decision to leave Russia and come to America where my grandmother had several brothers already living. So, we recorded for our children and grandchildren stories that we remembered hearing from our parents and grandfather. Like millions of other Americans, we came from somewhere else.

The story for those of us living in the United States is that this country permits each individual to become an American. You may be from Ireland and call yourself Irish-American, but the noun is always American, and the adjective can be where you came from. For Jews, Russia never considered Jews Russians. Jews were a nationality and as such could never be considered Russian. Even Trotsky knew that he could not erase his Jewish ancestry even as he and Lenin lead the Bolshevik Revolution. This may, to some seem like such a small point, but it is what, in my opinion, is one of our (America's) greatest strengths. Each person can become a citizen of the United States regardless of where their mother or father came from. And, we should remember that when we participate in our democracy. This is a nation of immigrants and with each generation new immigrants come to our shores seeking a better life. We should not hold it against someone just because their parent or parents came from a foreign country and spoke a foreign language or practiced a different religion. We should try and judge people by their actions even if we have to push ourselves to be better people.

Stay tuned.

Comedy This Good Only Comes Once A Year

I know I watch too much TV news, but as a retired person, this is my choice and I like to keep up on what is being said. Take the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this has been in the news every night since the oil rig burned down and 11 lives were lost. And, yet no one will stop to realize that the political philosophy of less Federal Government regulation is at the heart of the problem. But, that is just half of it. The other half is that these same people that believe "Government is the problem, not the solution" are now demanding that the Federal Government do more to take charge of the clean up and stop the oil leak.

Am I the only one that sees this contradiction in the political philosophy of the right wing in American politics? The close relationship between the oil companies and the Federal Agencies that are suppose to regulate them is the problem. This comes directly from a political philosophy that calls for the Federal Government to keep their nose out of the oil companies business.

Now the attack of the nuts right wing of American politics has turned to blaming President Obama for the oil spill while at the same time blaming him for wanting to take over the economy and bring about a socialist state. A lot of the crazies out there don't understand what logic is, so there is little sense in appealing to their sense of logic. The Republican Party does not need logic much less facts to attack the President, as that is all they can do.

I enjoy watching the brainless right wing of American politics on TV news because they are so entertaining, much like the Three Stooges were entertaining. And, let us not forget that these same politicians that don't believe the Federal Government has a duty to protect the lands, waters, beaches and wetlands of our nation, are the same ones that want the Federal Government to pay for the clean up with American taxpayer dollars. Comedy this good comes only once a year, and this must be the time.

Stay tuned.