Rants and Raves

Paul Volcker for years has been adamant that banks should not be allowed to use federally insured money to gamble on the market.

Hard to deny that we need to make changes in the way Wall Street and Big Banking does business; remember, we’ve done nothing but bail them out and allow them to make record profits using tax payer money.

I personally believe the right solution is to tax big banking and to make it more profitable for them to break up into smaller (more easily regulated) business units.  This would also make small banks and credit unions much more capable of competing as well as prevent an economic collapse when one or two banks make bad investment decisions.

Tags: Economy, Finance by roger
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Yesterday Apple announced another record quarter in sales.  In fact, iPhone sales doubled in Q4 2009 (a good holiday present for Apple).

Tomorrow Apples announces a new tablet computer (at least that’s the rumor of what they will announce).

Google has a lot of ground to catch up with Apple in the phone market, and it certainly doesn’t appear that Apple is going to just stand by and wait for them.

I guess the one thing that Apples numbers show is that there is money to be made in economic hard times if you’ve got something people want.

Tags: Cellular, Communications, Computers, Economy, Hardware, Software, Technology by roger
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Obama may propose a discretionary spending freeze for three years.

Hopefully he’ll fully define what discretionary means; I remember the budget surplus (you know, “extra” money when the country had a trillion dollar debt) so I don’t make any assumptions what politicians in Washington mean by any term that they don’t have a clear track record using.

Of course, he’s already exempted the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs (sound like he’s playing to the political right) from the freezes.

I think it’s great to implement “new” ideas to reign in government spending — of course I’d like to see some the “old” ideas (you know — those campaign promises Obama made that got him elected) implemented.

In the back of my mind I see this a yet another failure looming for the Obama presidency.

Tags: Economy, Politics by roger
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Many of my friends and I have engaged in intellectual discussions about the evils of society and what most needs to be fixed.

Views of what’s evil, though, largely depend on your perspective — social liberals might call something evil that a fiscal conservative feels is simply just; and vice-versa.

If you’re a conspiracy buff you’ll enjoy reading through the TheHiddenEvil.com.  Volume I contains a number of factoids, and draws interesting conclusions (I’m certainly not going to say I agree with any or all of them).  Volume II builds on Volume I to make some fairly remarkable assertions — of maybe they’re just hard to believe (or hard to read without a giggle or two at least).

With disinformation an accepted practice of government, organized religion, and business it’s always hard to say definitively what is true and what is a shade of gray.

Tags: Economy, History by roger
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Retailers started releasing fourth quarter earning reports yesterday.

There’s no surprise here — Target, the number two retailer in the US, announced on Christmas Eve that sales would not meet there expectations; and Master Card also indicated that spending (via credit card) was down.

Wal-Mart, of course, tipped everyone off that they expected a bad retail season when they started their “Black Friday” sales three weeks before Thanksgiving and most retailers followed suit with deep discounts through out the retail season.

While a bad retail season doesn’t by itself mean that the economy will continue to slump, there are certainly enough signs to that effect (personally I’m ignoring the US Department of Labor’s unemployment numbers… they simply don’t make sense, they don’t seem to reflect reality, and they are designed to be misleading).

I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, but the long the economy continues the slide downward the harder it will be to revive.  My instinct tells me that this downturn, like The Great Depression, will not be ended by planning and programs — but by aggression, greed, and exploitation.

Tags: Economy, Finance by roger
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And now the dawn of a new day and with it a new year…

Once our collective head ache clears I’m sure the future will seam sunny and bright; even though today is overcast and bleak.

Tags: Economy, General, History, Politics by roger
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It is the eve of a new year.

It would be interesting to know who future historians will characterize the first decade of this millennium; and what they will have to say about the causes of our plights.

Today; however, we don’t have the advantage of hind sight on today — nor can we really have good perspective on the recent events that have gotten us to where we are.

Each generation looks to it’s time as a decay of what was, and longs for the “good ol’ days”… and for us it’s hard to imagine that these will be the “good ol’ days” of another generation — and much as we lament about today with dwell on fond remembrances of our past so will our children’s children.

Well, that is if the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an on coming train.

Tags: Economy, General, History, Politics by roger
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Help Wikipedia grow — read the appeal from Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s founder, for US tax deductible donations to help grow Wikipedia and keep it free for ourselves and future generations.

If you want to give this holiday season, give something small that will really help big… or give something big that will help hugely!

Jimmy Wales

Donate to Wikipedia

Tags: Communications, Finance, General, Philanthropy, Politics, Technology by roger
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Have you seen that Bank of America has become the first financial institution to issue all of it’s card holders a one page statement that explains their rates and fees on their credit card.

The really funny thing is the news media is applauding this like something new and different and patting BofA on the back.

Hell, I can issue a one line statement that will tell card holders from every financial institutions clearly and concisely what their relationship is with their bank…

YOUR BANK WILL SCREW YOU OVER EVERY CHANCE THEY GET.

I’m just not sure what I’d do with the rest of the page.

Honestly, why is the news media treating a lack of “double speak” like something that should be applauded and not treating the rampant abuse almost all financial institutes exercise on a daily basis as something to be put in the fore front?

Admittedly I don’t have much respect for banking institutions (nor do I have much respect of the news media in the United States) — but give me a break, how stupid does the media think the average American is?

Tags: Credit Cards, Finance by roger
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I have added side-bar and banner advertisements to my BLOG in order to offset the hosting costs.  The advertisements are supplied through Google AdSense, and public service advertisements have been enabled.

I certainly will _not_ allow any pop up (or pop behind) advertising, and I have no idea how many (if any) readers will actually click-through the advertisements; but my feeling is it’s certainly worth a try to see if it can support itself.

Tags: Blogging, Communications, Finance, Technology by roger
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