September 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Capitalism is “survival of the fittest”… capitalism is rooted in the idea of merit; everyone should be compensated according to his or her contribution (to the common good?)… capitalism is about the movement of capital; the more it moves, the richer everyone gets… capitalism is an upgraded feudalism, where the capitalist is an overseer of an abstract terrain made up of investments, not of arable lands… capitalism is democracy; the free spirit of an open society requires capitalism to support the liberties of individual citizens, and protect against government overreach… capitalism is virtue… or, capitalism is the absence of virtue…
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September 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
As the “perfect storm” gathers from inchoate, deceptively non-threatening winds, we can look ahead, backward and into the mirror and ask how crisis comes, or why, if it is inevitable, if we might just fall right out of it, as we fell into it. But the answer is simple: human crisis comes from excess, from inordinate ambition, from misplaced aggression, from over-exploitation of resources, each of which generates real and problematic tension across the landscape of human experience.
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September 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
When Barack Obama, not a month into his first term as president of the United States, announced a far-reaching, phased-in recovery plan, this February, he was trying to do something more clever and more appropriate than an all-or-nothing one-shot stimulus. That would have been a ham-fisted gamble at best, in the midst of a complex banking crisis, especially because such an attempt had failed in Bush’s last year to stave off recession.
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September 6, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
In the wake of last year’s collapse of American credit markets, and the contagion of financial sclerosis to markets around the world, Wall Street’s major banks, which took tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout money, may again be looking to securitize fixed-asset financial products.
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September 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
Today’s Cafe Sentido includes a lengthy write-up on the potential ills of Wall Street plans to bundle re-sold life-insurance policies into a new breed of financial product derivative, but the New York Times is also reporting on a range of new financial exotics that are tempting the deans of Wall Street’s major investment banks to again rig up a system of dubious investment choices, in the hopes of bringing in major fees and new revenues.
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September 6, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The New York Times is reporting that major Wall Street investment banks are looking for a replacement “exotic” brand of investment for the failed bundled mortgage-backed securities, and that they are planning to launch a brazen market in the resale of already-resold life insurance policies. The scheme carries the risk of bundling and reselling high-risk mortgages, perhaps higher, as longevity of the original policy-holder will determine return-on-investment.
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August 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
A World Bank study has projected that the global financial crisis and resulting recession will plunge some 53 million people across “emerging markets” —like China and India— into absolute poverty, in 2009 alone. In China, tens of millions of people have lost jobs related to the export-dependent manufacturing sector.
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August 13, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
August 2009 —one year after the beginning of the visible collapse of the American financial sector set off a global recession— has brought the news that the largest US banks are taking in record revenues from small-account overdraft fees. Applying fees between $25 and $39 per overdraft, the nation’s largest banks are now taking in more revenue from overdraft fees than from their primary banking operations. The reliance on such fees to drive profits also suggests major US banks may not be sustainable in their current form.
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August 10, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Let me be specific. We will stop insurance companies from denying you coverage because of your medical history. (Applause.) I’ve told this story before — I will never forget watching my own mother, as she fought cancer in her final days, worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a preexisting condition so they could wiggle out of paying for her coverage. How many of you have worried about the same thing? (Applause.) A lot of people have gone through this. Many of you have been denied insurance or heard of someone who was denied insurance because they got — had a preexisting condition. That will no longer be allowed with reform. (Applause.) We won’t allow that. (Applause.) We won’t allow that.
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July 22, 2009 :: staff :: 7 Comments
The number of people officially recognized as having no healthcare insurance coverage in the United States has jumped from 46 million in 2007 to 52 million in 2009. The Center for American Progress reported in May that the rate of uninsurance was up substantially in all 50 states. The rate of increase, based on research from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, means the rate at which uninsurance is increasing in the US is without precedent.
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July 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
America’s banks have, over the last decade, entered into a dangerous fictional world of projected automatic wealth in which they expect that all payments they might receive will without fail materialize, regardless of circumstance. They treat the human beings with whom they have major financial relationships as if they were nothing more than endless fonts of easy money. This is the crisis of reasoning and cash flow we are, as a people, as a global society, trying to solve.
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July 11, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
At the G8 summit, leaders from nearly thirty nations met to discuss how we will collectively confront the urgent challenges of our time, from managing the global recession to fighting global warming to addressing global hunger and poverty. And in Ghana, I laid out my agenda for supporting democracy and development in Africa and around the world. But even as we make progress on these challenges abroad, my thoughts are on the state of our economy at home. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
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June 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has received the legal maximum 150-year sentence for a fraud in which over $65 billion were stolen or lost. Madoff’s investment business was revealed to be the largest pyramid scheme ever created; his lawyer said today his business handled as much as 10% of all transactions on Wall Street at one time. 9 of Madoff’s victims testified during today’s sentencing, one of them saying she now has to sift through garbage to collect bottles in order to pay the bills.
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June 20, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
We are going to promote markets that work for those who play by the rules. We’re going to stand up for a system in which fair dealing and honest competition are the only way to win. We’re going to level the playing field for consumers. And we’re going to have the kinds of rules that encourage innovations that make our economy stronger – not those that allow insiders to exploit its weaknesses for their own gain.
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June 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
It is an indisputable fact that one of the most significant contributors to our economic downturn was a unraveling of major financial institutions and the lack of adequate regulatory structures to prevent abuse and excess. A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street. And a regulatory regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis — the Great Depression — was overwhelmed by the speed, scope, and sophistication of a 21st century global economy.
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June 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
What mechanisms would do best for ensuring that an open network of institutional transparency could provide stability and sustainability in high-end financial risk-taking? — Join the discussion at TheHotSpring.net…
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May 31, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
So, now that lending institutions are being tasked with taking the same responsibility for sustainable debt relationships that borrowers are tasked with, how can the power to manipulate, shape or undermine the viability of the consumer markets be removed from those institutions, without undermining sustainable growth?
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May 25, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Now that such institutions are being tasked with taking the same responsibility for sustainable debt relationships that borrowers are tasked with, how can the power to manipulate, shape or undermine the viability of the consumer markets be removed from those institutions, without undermining sustainable growth?
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May 23, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The reason this legislation is so important is because there are many others — many who have written me letters, or grabbed my arm along rope lines, or shared their stories while choking back tears — who relied on credit cards not because they were avoiding responsibilities, but precisely because they wanted to meet their responsibilities — and got trapped. These are hardworking people whose hours were cut, or the factory closed, who turned to a credit card to get through a rough month — which turned into two, or three, or six months without a job. These are parents who found, to their surprise, that their health insurance didn’t cover a child’s expensive procedure and had to pay the hospital bill; families who saw their mortgage payments jump and used the credit card more often to make up the difference.
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May 20, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The United States Congress yesterday approved new legislation putting restrictions on credit card companies, limiting the leeway banks have in specifying terms and conditions in complex wording in long pages of fine print. The measure would also require that no lender see interest rates escalate until being at least 60 days delinquent and that rates [...]
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May 12, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The US economy has faced serious challenges on a number of fronts, over the last few years, contributing to a complex downturn with little easy salvation in sight. In order to transition to this new era of recovery and slower growth, the US consumer will have to cut back drastically on luxury spending, and the market will have to rely less on the easy flow of consumer credit.
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May 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
This past week, we acted on several fronts. To restart the flow of credit that businesses and individuals depend upon, we completed an unprecedented review of the condition of our nation’s largest banks to determine what additional steps are necessary to get our economy moving. To restore fiscal discipline, we identified 121 programs to eliminate from our budget. And to restore a sense of fairness to our tax code and common sense to our economy, I have asked Congress to work with me in closing the loopholes that let companies ship jobs and stash profits overseas – reforms will help save $210 billion over the next ten years.
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May 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The US economy is still in recession, and still losing jobs at historic rates. But the rate is slowing, and some see hope for the beginning of a long-term improvement. The US lost 681,000 jobs in February and 699,000 in March, so the lower figure for April suggests a possible turnaround on the horizon. But with over 2 million jobs shed just this year, the stakes for Pres. Obama’s recovery and reinvestment program are high.
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April 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high, and government is still not as efficient as it needs to be. We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.
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April 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The biggest banks in the United States have been engaging in practices designed to nudge US economic policy and banking regulation toward permitting nearly any sort of interest-rate manipulation and ignoring, or erasing, necessary anti-usury laws. It’s been part of a concerted effort to try to shape policy to make it easier for banks to come into fresh money and claim new levels of profit from what would otherwise be considered escalating risk.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office have been a flurry of major reforms and of global political and economic strategy. He took the oath of office on 20 January 2009 with the worst recession in 70 years setting in, major banks on the verge of insolvency, record numbers of home foreclosures, two wars in Asia, an increasingly hostile Russia and a predecessor’s policy of using torture to “enhance” interrogations. Not only has he moved forward on the economy, healthcare, security, and energy; he has reformed the entire American diplomatic paradigm, moving toward a “smart power” based on 3d vision: diplomacy, development, defense.
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April 26, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States is healthcare costs. The system, as it is designed is destroying people’s lives as punishment for their seeking means of staying alive or maintaining relative good health. This is a comprehensive failure of the system, at all levels. As of 2008, some 54.5% of personal bankruptcies filed in the US involved unpayable medical expenses or loss of income or insurance due to health-related causes.
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April 25, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Good morning. Over the last three months, my Administration has taken aggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis. As we do everything that we can to create jobs and get our economy moving, we’re also building a new foundation for lasting prosperity – a foundation that invests in quality education, lowers health care costs, and develops new sources of energy powered by new jobs and industries.
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April 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After one Republican senator committed the extremely dangerous act of openly calling for a run on the banks, something that could literally bankrupt the nation and lead to massive economic collapse, one would expect the national party to ignore, disavow or directly oppose the idea. But the national party is so drunk with the lust to sabotage Barack Obama’s presidency, it has endorsed the idea.
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April 20, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
The 24th and 25th banks to fail this year in the US, American Sterling Bank of Missouri and Great Basin Bank of Nevada, were closed Friday by the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will fund their accounts to solvency and management of their insured deposits will be taken over by other banks.
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April 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 8 Comments
Pres. Obama today gave an address at Georgetown University, in which he explained his economic policies and how his budget and recovery plan will achieve not only better healthcare for more Americans and a green energy agenda, but real substantive entitlement reform, new financial regulations intended to both curb abuses and spur sustainable investments in future prosperity, and protect against long-term decline stemming from mass under-education.
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March 31, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
The White House gets tough with automakers and Wall Street ‘takes a dive’. At least that’s the news the CNBCs of the world are pushing. Every time something happens in the world and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) swells or declines, it was direct cause and effect. Nevermind the millions of people who may have milions of reasons to act one way or another and the countless permutations of those interests.
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March 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama tonight held his second prime time press conference, in the East Room of the White House, at 8pm, EDT. The main topic of the evening was the president’s budget proposal and the process of economic recovery. Obama opened with a prepared statement, before taking questions from the press corps. He praised efforts being made around the nation to implement projects that are creating new jobs, and defended his plan for a tax cut for 95% of working families.
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March 19, 2009 :: The Editors :: One Comment
Andry Rajoelina, legally 6 years too young, assumes Madagascar presidency, after Marc Ravalomanana is forced to step down. Ravalomanana had vowed to fight to keep his office and had proposed a referendum to let the people decide, but military forces stormed the presidential palace and the president resigned and fled. From Johannesburg, Xinhua reports: The [...]
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March 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
An array of reports show some 1,200 people living in a growing tent city outside the California capital Sacramento, as more and more people are left homeless by the housing crisis. The UK’s Daily Mail on Friday detailed the community, noting echoes of the Depression era. There are an estimated 2,000 people living in such communities around Sacramento, with foreclosure and jobless rates skyrocketing.
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March 7, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Yesterday, we learned that the economy lost another 651,000 jobs in the month of February, which brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to 4.4 million. The unemployment rate has now surpassed 8 percent, the highest rate in a quarter century. These aren’t just statistics, but hardships experienced personally by millions of Americans who no longer know how they’ll pay their bills, or make their mortgage, or raise their families.
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March 5, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is an irresponsible analysis of economic outlook speeding over the airwaves these days, implying that if the stock market doesn’t “respond” favorably to a given political announcement then that is 1) a “vote” of no confidence in said policy, and 2) proof that said policy is obviously wrong. This analysis is a vicious disservice to the American people: markets respond to thousands of variables, which in combination represent countless numbers of interests large and small, problems large and small and long-term outlooks more and less long-term.
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March 3, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Zimbabwe has released a top human rights activist whose detention was illegal, according to activists, the opposition and foreign governments. Zimbabwe power-sharing arrangement still under strain as Mugabe regime seeks to guard against prosecution for past crimes. After a sustained series of bombings across Pakistan, an attack by gunmen in Lahore, this time targeting a [...]
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March 2, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: 2 Comments
The Obama administration is looking at the severity of the banking crisis with a mind to settling the issue of survivability and recoverability of banks, case by case, based on facts in evidence. The first step will be to gather evidence, through a series of ‘stress tests’ designed to examine what resources troubled banks have to weather oncoming storms, then plan according to the results of those tests.
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March 2, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The hardest thing to understand about the current, and deepening, economic crisis, is that it came about largely because some of the most experienced, well-staffed and prestigious financial institutions in the world gambled on untenable projects of unlimited expansion, without ever producing sound mathematics to back up the projections. Philosophical exuberance replaced philosophical underpinnings, and the dynamo of financial speculation greased the wheels of commerce in a way that masked underlying shortfalls.
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February 28, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Transcript of President Barack Obama’s Weekly Address Saturday, February 28th, 2009, as released by the White House Two years ago, we set out on a journey to change the way that Washington works. We sought a government that served not the interests of powerful lobbyists or the wealthiest few, but the middle-class Americans I met [...]
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February 27, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go. For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that kind of dishonest accounting is not how you run your family budgets at home; it’s not how your government should run its budgets, either. We need to be honest with ourselves about what costs are being racked up — because that’s how we’ll come to grips with the hard choices that lie ahead. And there are some hard choices that lie ahead.
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February 25, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: Comments Off
Last night, Pres. Barack Obama made his first address on the state of the nation to a joint session of Congress, though not officially classed as a ‘State of the Union’ address. Obama sought to reassure the public that economic recovery was in its beginning stages and the future was full of hope and possibility, proclaiming: “We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
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February 25, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Bobby Jindal’s official Republican response to Barack Obama’s address last night was nothing short of a startling, clumsy, shameful attempt to hijack the ideas and the achievements of Barack Obama. One by one, he listed priorities his party has neglected or fought against for decades, each of which Obama not only talks about, but has been implementing, as if the Louisiana governor believed there were any credible way for Americans to take his spiel seriously.
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February 25, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
As Prepared for Delivery, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States: I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us [...]
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February 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A few years back, an ambitious youngish president staged an impressive event, in which he landed a fighter-jet on an aircraft carrier, then declared “Mission Accomplished”, in the midst of what would turn out to be only the first baby steps of a very complicated war. The $780 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a victory for the president in terms of his organizing Congressional support, but it is just the beginning of a very long, high-stakes journey, for his nascent administration, and for the nation.
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February 17, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
What makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3½ million jobs over the next two years, including nearly 60,000 in Colorado. It’s that we are putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done in critical areas that have been neglected for too long, work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.
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February 16, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
50 years ago today, Fidel Castro was sworn in as president of Cuba, after his rebel militia overthrew the authoritarian Batista regime. Castro’s revolutionary government is still in command, under Fidel’s brother Raúl, whom many are calling on to institute substantial reforms and democratize Cuba and its one-party system. Xinhua reports that “Sri Lankan President [...]
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February 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
We have hashed out the details of how finance became a shell game and our major banks lost track of what was real money and what was speculative. And now, we have the consequent malaise, rippling out and flooding underfoot. People are infused with a sense of urgency and intoxicated by the beguiling qualities of the concept of their own martyrdom.
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February 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is talk of a major overhaul of the US banking system, with some analysts and economists saying the situation is so dire that widespread “nationalization” —or government takeover— will be necessary, and others saying there needs to be a bad-debt takeover bank, that takes on the huge financial risk of major banks’ “toxic assets”, so that the banks can “clear their books” and begin to lend. But another possibility looms as the likely more appealing option: the creation of a Federal Competitive-Lending Bank (FCLB)…
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