Letters to the Editor
aveutter
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 32
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If this is substance, have you got any style?
[Read the article: What Hillary would do tomorrow, if she could]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The 30 bln$ fund is a vague proposal, although she mentions 'communities', which means 'new' communities, the homebuilding industry, and retail stores, which are the twin peaks of urban sprawl. These two groups are the bubble stocks of the 2000's. (Wall St 1, Main St 1)
The 90 day moratorium on foreclosure means almost nothing, since an Ohio court set precedent in this matter. Unravelling the legal ownership is going to take some time. (Wall St 2.... Nobody wants to write these loans off, Main St, still 1)
Mortgage rates aren't going up anytime soon. Since the previous stagflation event in the 70's the Central Bankers have accumulated a great deal more clout, and collusion is a matter of policy. Our Chinese masters are considering price controls to curb inflation. Would those controls apply to US exports? (Wall St 3.... We have to keep the China economic miracle going, that means low interest rates. Disingenous Politics 1)
Families with 'skyrocketing' energy bills includes that McMansion down the street, with a pool and 5000 sq feet of empty space. (Wall St 4, Politics 1, Main St 1 1/2.. the gardener and the pool service keep their jobs...)
We always extend unemployment benefits in a recession, nothing new there. (Disingenous politics 2)
Taxing incomes above 250K sounds a bit like rejiggering the AMT to account for inflation. Eventually, with hyperinflation it will start to take a bite out of average Americans, Main St MINUS 1.
Final tally Wall Street 4, Self Serving Political Statements, 2, Main Street 1/2 point)
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Greenspan the Great Amoralist
[Read the article: Barney Frank on the regulation warpath]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Greenspan legacy was to spread economic risk as uniformly as possible. You might think his role as Fed Chief would be to take a neutral risk adverse approach to the economy, but all economists have a sworn allegiance to growth, and the enemy of economic growth is savings.
Under Greenspan the economists discovered an untapped source of savings, home equity. To further demostrate their turpitude, these scam artists refused to acknowledge what they were doing. Home equity has never been counted as personal savings, while it was being plundered as a source of consumer spending, and new wealth.
It matters little if we beleive these loans were the equivalent of selling fire water to the Indians, what was happening away from the scene, is what matters. Fixed income investors were being robbed of their right to make a decent income from their savings. Greenspan punished savers, and rewarded borrowers, especially those with no collateral, and no prospects. The right to make a moral decision about your money, was circumvented by the Great Amoralist, Alan Greenspan. Borrowers are bailed out by savers. The raid on equity will continue, probably at the hands of hedge fund managers, who now own America's land, and the homes which are built upon them. A recent quote suggests that there is grave concern that another great transfer of land ownership will occur, as it did during the first Great Depression. Certainly they have set the stage, and washed their hands of the matter, more beautifully than a hundred Pontius Pilates.
When this economy collapses the very bonds which were purchased by people who needed safe investments, will probably default. There is nothing kind that can be said of his tenure.
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Once upon a time
[Read the article: How Wall Street broke the free market]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A Congressional delegation travelled to Hong Kong, to investigate allegations that the trade ban with Mainland China was being circumvented. They found athletic shoe components made in Communist China were being assembled in Hong Kong factories. The delegation pushed their way into mainland China, trying to follow the trail.
What they found was a trail of subterfuge, factories which suddenly were empty, when the delegation arrived. Finally the group did find one talkative factory manager, who bragged openly, 'that before the political crackdown, the pool of forced labor was very poor; thieves, prostitutes, murderers. BUT, after the political crackdown, there were bureaucrats, professors, scientists, all good workers!"
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Good Taste
[Read the article: YouTube, j'accuse!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Good taste is a sin of omission. It leaves out direct awareness of forms and situations."
Good taste is the first refuge of the noncreative. It is the last ditch stand of the artist
Good taste is the anesthetic of the public. It is the critic's excuse for lack of perception.
Good taste is the expression of colossal incompetence. It is the 'putting on' of the genteel audience as a mask or net by which to capture ambient snob appeal.
Good taste is the most obvious resource of the insecure. People of good taste eagerly buy the Emperor's old clothes.
Good taste is the highly effective strategy of the pretentious."
From Through the Vanishing Point, Marshall McLuhan and Harley Parker
the term public requires clarification. The public, according to the writer, is a function of the printing press technology, a form made obsolete by electronic technology. McLuhan refers instead to the 'Mass Audience.' The abscence of the private point of view is the primary difference between a mass audience and a public. The private point of view has been replaced by the corporate point of view, however the social and corporate point of view is not synonomous with the business corporate point of view.
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The ultimate bail out
[Read the article: No debate on bankruptcy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't blink, before you know it the Congress will be bailing out the Credit Card companies, and their past dues clients. To be sure their rates constitute usury, and these companies have a number of other egregious practises, red-lining probably. On the other hand, if you use your Credit Card wisely, the service doesn't cost you anything, although it was once said that (all) consumers underwrite the use of credit cards, and retailers who did not take CC's could sell the same product cheaper, it's hard to make that case anymore. The same experts used to advertise cable as television without advertising.
People with large credit card bills were abusing the system in bankruptcy court, and these companies were hard pressed to do anything about it... The question of consumer credit is a nagging one. We could probably benefit from a bill which would prevent healthcare providers from putting their services on your Visa card. That might force them to deal with the issue.