Desicritics Comments on Wall Street - Cold, Flat, and Broke

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Comment by kerty

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:25:36 EST

How India Avoided a Crisis By JOE NOCERA: Dec. 19, 2008 NY Times "Part of the reason is cultural. Indians are simply not as comfortable with credit as Americans. "A lot of Indians, when you push them, will say that if you spend more than you earn you will get in trouble," an Indian consultant told me. "Americans spent more than they earned."" "Mr. Parekh said, "Savings are important. Joint families exist. When one son moves out, the family helps them. So you don't borrow so much from the bank." Even mortgage loans tend to have down payments in India that are a third of the purchase price, a far cry from the United States, where 20 percent is the new norm" Read Full article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/business/20nocera.html

Comment by kerty

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:21:49 EST

GM is now on the verge of bankruptcy and seeking a bailout. There was once a saying 'as goes GM, so goes the economy'. Auto industry was truly an engine of economic growth until foreign cars raptured it. Thankfully, tech sector came along to replace auto sector as the chief mascot of economy. And when outsourcing cracked the tech-sector, real-estate sector became the main engine to pull the economy along. They all are falling like a domino - tech, real estate, and now auto - three pillars who have sustained the economy for last 50 years. The finance and insurance that have provided the economic infra-structure have fallen too. In a nut shell, there is no bottom for this economy from free fall. Only thing that can pre-empt depression and pull it out of recession is government. Thankfully, government is in an able hands who believes in government as a cure all. Perfect timing. Had it been McCain, he would have dogmatically limited government's role in economic rescue and America would have crashed for sure. Obama can use government without restraints and it will be a good thing for the economy. Forget tax and spend, it should go all out for 'print and spend' - it should bailout every key sector until economy turns around. Worry not deficits - Obama should go for it without remorse or restraints. Deficit financing was invented precisely to tackle this kind of situations. Let there be only thing that remains sick in the end - deficit-ridden government. Government should mop up sickness from US economy. When economy finally turns healthy, sick government can eventually be cured, so worry not about it at the moment. As along as bailouts do not engineer welfare state or entitlements that stay on beyond economic recovery, and that should be the role of GOP to make sure. I think in 2-3 years, this economy should turn around. If Obama pulls it off, and I think he can, he will be hailed as a great president for a generation. Yes He Can.

Comment by curious

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:11:46 EST

“ The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools” -- Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (1820-1903)

Comment by kerty

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:27:03 EDT

#54 I did acknowledge that the source of the post is 'unknown'. It is in the very first line. I had received it by email which must be making rounds on internet, so I had no way to attribute the source. BTW, what I had received is a professional-looking PPT presentation, which I had to cut and paste into a text post as I do not know how to post a PPT file on DC. Does plagiarism lessen the power of ideas or validity of truth, testimony of facts? May be plagiarism is a code of dishonor among writers and journalists but I pretend to be neither. In the end, in the real world of ideas, it is not the source, not who said it and how it is being said, but what is being said that matters the most. World has to deal with the message no matter who is the messenger is and where it originated from.

Comment by George Sore-Ass

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:02:41 EDT

Hey...MR.KNOW-ALL Kerty...school boy Kerty....copy and paste Kerty...source -unknown??...who are you kidding?....why??...cant't you acknowledge...ever heard of plagiarism or if you understand plain English THEFT?? Do you have anything fresh/original/insightful to add apart from your copy paste jobs?We kinda surf the internet too you know?If you are going to lift an article word for word you might as well acknowledge the source or even simpler...create a hyperlink. What you tried to palm off as your own comments is available hereKnow-all Kerty's amateurish copy paste job...word for word lifting of article exposed

Comment by kerty

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:43:31 EDT

#52 Politics of petro dollar might explain what is at stakes for both sides. The oil cartel might use it as quid pro quo to preempt usa from investing in energy alternatives that can threaten dependence on oil. It also explains why no serious energy alternative has emerged over last several decades even when politicians have kept promising it. They know that entire edifice of American economy would come crashing down if oil cartel decides to do away with dollar as a currency of oil.

Comment by kerty

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:43:08 EDT

Did you know? source: unknown Petro Dollar Scam: Fall of US Dollar ------------------------------------ � People do not realize the real reason for the Iraq war and the current war threat against Iran by USA. � It's not the nukes, it's not the terrorism and it's not the oil. � It's all about the protection and propping up of the greatest con-job in recent history, the US Petrodollar Scam. � Back in 1971, the USA printed and spent far more paper money than it could cover by gold. � Few years later, French demanded redemption of its paper-dollar holdings in gold. But the USA rejected as it actually didn't have enough gold for the dollars it had already printed and spent all over the world, thus committing an act of bankruptcy. � So the USA went to the Saudis and cut a deal – OPEC denominate all sales of oil in US dollars. � From that point, every nation that needed to buy oil had to firstly hold US dollars, which meant that they exchanged their goods and services for dollars, which the Americans just printed. � The Americans brought their oil literally for free by printing those dollars. The ultimate free lunch for the Americans at the expense of the rest of the world. � However, the scam began to unravel when Saddam Hussein started selling Iraq's oil directly for Euro, abrogating the cozy arrangement the Americans had with OPEC. Thus Saddam had to be stopped. How? � USA concocted up a pretext to wage war (drama of twin tower blast) and invade Iraq and the first thing the Americans did was to revert sales of oil back to dollars. The currency crisis was averted for the moment. � But Hugo Chavez (Venezuela President) also started selling Venezuelan oil for currencies other than dollars, so there were a number of attempts on his life and "regime change", traceable right back to the CIA. The petrodollar cat was out of the bag. � Iran President (Ahmedinejad), watching all of this, decided to kick The Great Satan in the goolies and do the same thing - sell oil for every currency EXCEPT US dollars. � The shell game is coming to an end for the Americans. As the nations of the world find that they can buy oil for their own currencies instead of holding paper US dollars, more OPEC nations will abandon the dollar. � The worst thing for the Americans is that eventually, they will also have to buy their oil with Euro or Rubles instead of just printing paper money to get it. � That will be the end of the American Empire, the end of funding for the US military and the destruction of the US economy. � The great scam is coming to an end and there's not a lot that the USA can do about it, except start another world war!!!

Comment by Vidya

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:17:53 EDT

Their analysis and opinions are well-respected in their respective ideological camps. couldn't agree with you more....one needs to keep one's mind blank if Friedman's ideology has to be understood.

Comment by kerty

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:53:36 EDT

Vidya Finest conservative and liberal commentators means those commentators are the finest in their respective field of ideological expertise. Their analysis and opinions are well-respected in their respective ideological camps.

Comment by Vidya

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:02:26 EDT

finest commentators indeed...you must be referring to people like "The Earth is Flat(AND THE MIND IS BLANK)Friedman

Comment by kerty

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:08:48 EDT

Vidya NYT has some of the finest conservative and liberal commentators, though its overwhelming leftist bent is unmistakable. The NYT link in #46 traces how housing bubble originated during Clinton presidency and its liberal politics. I was surprised to find such a candid investigation implicating liberals in a liberal newspaper, when it is more fashionable and politically profitable to blame it all on free-market, conservatism and GOP. I think there is enough blame to go around for both sides for the housing mess, and it wouldn't have been possible without the excesses from each side.

Comment by Vidya

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:45:40 EDT

The NewYork Times stands guilty of cheerleading the housing bubble during the boom years.Now that their credibility is at stake these selfannointed soothsayers have decided to study the entrails of a dead pig. There have been other commentators far more prescient and reliable than the NyTimes and this issue has already been discussed threadbare with comments exceeding a 1000 on the link provided at #37

Comment by kerty

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:34:26 EDT

Good article on how housing bubble was built Building a flawed American Dream: By DAVID STREITFELD and GRETCHEN MORGENSON (you might have to register(free) to access the article) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19cisneros.html?em

Comment by kerty

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:12:55 EDT

Myth Buster: Does tax cuts and consumer spending in energy sector boost economy? Conventional wisdom is as follow: 1) More money in the pockets of consumers can boost consumer spending which in term can boost the sagging economy 2) Higher consumer spending on energy can boost sagging economy 3) Tax cuts and tax rebates can boost consumer spending which in turn can boost sagging economy. If current economic mess proves the conventional wisdom wrong. Because pricing in the market place is not driven my market forces alone(demand and supply) but by many other factors ie speculation, ability of market to bear the price. Infusion of additional purchasing power allows certain sectors to adjust its pricing to what consumer markets can bear. The main sectors to take advantage of it are oil sector, health care sector, auto industry, housing sector and taxation. That is why same drug that sells for peanuts in India costs a fortune in USA, because pricing is adjusted to what market will allow it to bear. That is why every time Bush issued tax rebates, the energy sector escalated its pricing to rob away all those tax rebate checks from consumers. The oil lobbyists justified the price hike on increased oil demand from China and India, as if demand for Oil spiked in those countries out of the blue. And on the wake of recent mess in USA, the price for oil dropped by half - is that because demand fell in India and China? Nope. It is because market can now bear only lower price because of losses suffered by consumers. When consumers have more money, oil cartel boosts the price of oil, when consumers have less money, oil cartel is forced tp lower prices. That means tax rebates did not boost the economy as intended, but only fed the oil cartel. Same will be true of bail out plan. The additional bailout money pumped in the economy means oil cartel will position its pricing to steal away most of that additional money supply from the economy. Pricing is not just function of demand and supply. It is also function of ability of people to bear the price. When people make only $1 a day, the pricing structure in such economy also adjusts to what such people can afford to bear. That means, escalating pay scales, tax rebates, government spending can only be inflationary and harmful for aam adami.

Comment by commonsense

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:32:30 EDT

Suresh: ""I agree with commonsense, where he commented for my post Who is an intellectual? use brains. He is right."' hey, not so fast! brains and emotions are not in a state of total disconnect. unless the intellectual in question happens to be a robot masquerading as a human!

Comment by Aaman

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:50:09 EDT

Kerty, in case it wasn't clear, that article - Blowback - is written by Sridhar

Comment by Vidya

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:02:50 EDT

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Comment by Vidya

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:00:24 EDT

Quotable-“Financial operations do not lend themselves to innovation. What is recurrently so described and celebrated is, without exception, a small variation on an established design . . . The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version.” John Kenneth Galbraith, A Short History of Financial Euphoria

Comment by kerty

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:49:22 EDT

Dr. Marc Faber, the investment guru and great entrepreneur concluded his monthly bulletin by commenting about the US economy as follows: "The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Walmart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to Arab. If we buy computers it goes to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico. If we purchase a good car it will either go to Japan or Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none will help the US economy. The only way to keep the money at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer since these are the only products still produced in US. I have been doing my part"

Comment by kerty

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:43:49 EDT

Vidya Thanks for the link to Chalmers Johnson's Blowback. It presents a compelling counter view. http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/05/06/044649.php

Comment by sridhar

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:35:54 EDT

Dear Suresh, Thanks for your comments. I merely said if one is pro war, pro nuke and pro Bush it shows that one is not using ones brains. The war in Iraq has killed thousands of innocent people and has bankrupted the US economy. Bush is one of the most unpopular Presidents of US as the recent polls in US show. Obama is not in favour of Nuke energy but is for alternative energy (wind, solar etc)In fact US has not built a single new reactor on her soil since 1979( Three Mile high incident) The reason? There is growing opposition to nuclear energy as unsafe energy. To sum up- to be anti- nuke, anti-Bush and anti- war is not the same as being anti- American. Finally, who is an intellectual? a person who uses his brains for the good of society.

Comment by Vidya

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:34:25 EDT

Re #34 ..I wrote about this in Blowback ( Blogcritics),where I said that financial implosion in US cannot be ruled out.The link to that article can be found here..Chalmers Johnson's Blowback - The Costs and Consequences of American Empire: Is America in Decline?

Comment by Ledzius

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:50:24 EDT

Sridhar, nice article. Continue posting and, who knows, maybe you could get the Economics Nobel Prize next year :)

Comment by suresh.naig

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:23:54 EDT

Sridhar #33, Regarding Koshy, if a vote is taken on nuke deal, Iraq or Bush, majority would be pro USA. You conclude that is not intellectualism. I agree with commonsense, where he commented for my post Who is an intellectual? use brains. He is right. Emotions for and against USA is not intellectualism, for intellect is free from emotions. Otherwise a great article crs.