Arrived: Depression

/thread.

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quote:

Originally posted by bas Dual exhaust tips on dual exhaust = QUAD EXHAUST = 300 gain in horsepower. Duh

quote:

Originally posted by bas Undies with a dickhole aren't good for guys. Your balls can get caught in them. That's why I prefer to go over the gate instead of through the fence.

quote:

Originally posted by gehzumteufel Arrived: Depression /thread.

True for those that already lost their jobs and 5 homes!

/cries

Paulson Urges Broader Fed Oversight of Wall Street

quote:

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the Federal Reserve should broaden its oversight to include Wall Street investment firms in a shakeup of the supervisory system set up during the Great Depression. In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Paulson praised the Fed's decision last week to lend to securities dealers and said the policy should be reserved for times of market stress. ``Certainly, any regular access to the discount window should involve the same type of regulation and supervision,'' he said in the remarks today in Washington. Paulson, who spent three decades on Wall Street, is finishing his yearlong review of how the American financial system is regulated. He said the Fed-orchestrated purchase of Bear Stearns Cos. by JPMorgan Chase & Co. underscores that ``the world has changed,'' and the roles of investment banks and commercial banks require regulators to ``think more broadly about the regulatory and supervisory framework.'' The Fed's role in helping to finance the rescue of Bear Stearns and the expansion of the central bank's role as lender of last resort suggest it may gain power at the expense of the Securities and Exchange Commission. ``The Bear Stearns action was a sea change,'' said Gilbert Schwartz, a former associate general counsel at the Fed, and now a partner at Schwartz & Ballen in Washington. ``The Fed should be the umbrella agency for all these institutions. The SEC is not set up to handle this.'' Congressional Review As Paulson's speech came to a close, top lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee announced plans to review JPMorgan Chase & Co's purchase of Bear Stearns, including the Fed's investment in illiquid mortgage securities. Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the panel's top Republican, wrote to the firms' chief executives, as well as Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner seeking details on how the buyout was negotiated. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he will hold a hearing next week to probe ``serious public-policy questions'' raised by regulators' role in the sale of Bear Stearns. The Fed set up a lending facility March 17 for the 20 primary dealers of U.S. government debt to borrow money at the discount rate -- currently 2.5 percent -- that traditional banks are charged for overnight loans. In the past, the Fed has been responsible for the safety and soundness of banks, while the SEC has overseen the Wall Street firms.

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www.GenerationTrance.com

*Depeche Mode* Appreciation

The Fed and the Treasury forced the sale of Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank, to J.P. Morgan Chase at a price so low that a shareholder rebellion prompted J.P. Morgan to raise the price. To induce J.P. Morgan to do the deal, the Fed agreed to take losses or gains, if any, on up to $29 billion of securities in Bear Stearns's portfolio. The outcome will influence the sum the Fed turns over to the Treasury, so this is taxpayer money; that's why the Fed sought Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's OK.

i hate always being right :<


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...id=alfGIs6CKH_o

U.S. Loses 80,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Increases (Update3)

By Bob Willis
Enlarge Image/Details

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost jobs for a third consecutive month in March and the unemployment rate rose to the highest level since September 2005, pointing to an economy that may already be in a recession.

Payrolls shrank by 80,000, more than forecast, after a decrease of 76,000 in February that was more than initially reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...id=aw8ifLmYMFlI

Bankruptcies Jump 30% in March, Led by Housing-Bust States

By Bill Rochelle and Bob Willis

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- The jump in March bankruptcy filings is another indication the U.S. economy is in recession, led by states where the housing boom turned to bust.

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jason here it is better:

Arrived: Depression

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quote:

Originally posted by bas Dual exhaust tips on dual exhaust = QUAD EXHAUST = 300 gain in horsepower. Duh

quote:

Originally posted by bas Undies with a dickhole aren't good for guys. Your balls can get caught in them. That's why I prefer to go over the gate instead of through the fence.

quote:

Originally posted by gehzumteufel jason here it is better: Arrived: Depression

agreed.

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Cosmetic surgery business sags as purse strings tighten

quote:

It used to be a high point of Goldy Anthony's life. Every six weeks or so, as a kind of personal morale booster, she and a group of girlfriends would make appointments to see a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon for little touch-ups -- getting lips plumped and frown lines on the forehead smoothed out. He was "an artist" with Botox and Juvederm, she said. Afterward, in a carefree mood, the ladies would dine at a popular restaurant on the Sunset Strip. No more. The sub-prime loan crisis, the housing slump and the general decline of the economy have claimed another covey of victims. Anthony is in the real estate business, and under current conditions, the cosmetic treatments -- at $1,800 or more a pop -- can no longer be squeezed into her budget. It's the same with others in the group. "We used to make appointments together," Anthony said. "Then they started saying, 'I can't go next week.' People didn't have the money, but they were ashamed to tell you." "I would rather have Botox than go out to dinner, but it's just gotten so bad," said Anthony, 41, who is looking for a job since her career in the mortgage business went sour. She has not had the facial treatments in months. And what's been happening in Beverly Hills is apparently happening around the country. After years of steady growth, the cosmetic surgery business seems to be going through a rough patch. Doctors don't like to talk about it publicly, but plastic surgeons from the Southland to South Florida said some colleagues are struggling to stay in business.

Boo-hoo, no more botox.

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www.GenerationTrance.com

*Depeche Mode* Appreciation

so can we expect lower cover charges and reduced prices for drinks at the clubs now because you know we sure as hell wont be seeing lower gas prices!

Interesting outlook...

From Global Financial Crisis to Global Recession

Scenario 2008-09

Fundamental structural and in some cases radical reform of the U.S. political economy will be necessary to deal with the economic crisis. This crisis may include some of the following features:

- Widespread corporate defaults and mass layoffs occurring later in 2008 and into 2009

- Continuing revelations of further losses by banks and financial institutions

- The collapse of one or more of the mainstream banks in the U.S., setting off a major stock market correction of an additional 20-30 percent

- A further decline of 10-20 percent of the dollar in international currency markets

- Continued rise in oil and commodity prices as offshore speculators continue to take advantage of the U.S.'s worsening dual financial-devaluation crisis

- Deflation spreading from housing and other asset investments in the U.S. to goods and services. Record U.S. (unified) budget deficits of $700 billion plus

- Growing general awareness that traditional monetary and fiscal policies are increasingly ineffective in addressing financial crisis and recession
Whomever is president in 2009 will almost certainly have to confront the growing reality that the rest of the global economy is also slipping, along with the U.S., into a synchronized downturn.


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http://www.petroleumworld.com/sunopf08040601.htm

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"Ibiza will be Earth’s final refuge after Armageddon" -Nostradamus

Distortions, Deceptions and Outright Lies
by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
Dear Subscriber,


Beware.

The greatest threat to your financial future is not the danger you see or the beast you know. It stems from all those realities that you don't see or don't know.

This great uncertainty is not your fault. Quite the contrary, I lay the blame squarely on ...

1. Washington's distortions of its most vital economic data ...

2. Wall Street's deceptive evaluations of most of your investments, and ...

3. The outright lies that officials of both Washington and Wall Street tell you on a daily basis to cover their tracks or protect their turf.

Take Friday's news, for example.

If you thought that the surge in the U.S. unemployment rate to 5.1% was a shock, consider John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics.

First, Williams points out that the total job loss the government reported on Friday wasn't just 80,000. It was 147,000. Reason: The previous two months of job losses had been greatly understated, forcing the government to revise them by a combined 67,000.

Second, he argues that these huge revisions are no accident. They are the consequence of the government's continuing misuse of seasonal adjustments.

"If the process were honest," he writes in his Flash Update issued to paid subscribers on Friday, "the differences would go in both directions. Instead, the differences almost always suggest that the seasonal factors are being used to overstate the current month's relative payroll level, as seen last month and the month before."

Third, his analysis shows that the job numbers have a built-in bias based on a model that makes assumptions about birth and death rates. Without those distortions, he calculates there would have been additional job losses of 135,000 in February and 142,000 in March.

Fourth and most important, as you probably know, the government excludes "discouraged workers" from its count of the unemployed; and the definition of "discouraged" is highly questionable — anyone who has not looked for a job in just the past four weeks!

His conclusion: The true unemployment rate in America is not 5.1%. It's 13%, or over two and a half times worse than officially reported.

The government's distortions of other critical data are no less egregious, says Williams.


Inflation: The government reports that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is essentially the same as it was two decades ago: It was approximately 4% in 1987, and it's near 4% right now.

But without the cumulative affect of a series of questionable adjustments made in recent decades, Williams calculates that the CPI has actually risen to almost 12%, or about three times higher than the official figures.

Economic growth: The government reports that, except for a brief interlude in the early 2000s, the U.S. economy has escaped recession throughout this decade, growing by 2% to 4% each year.

But Williams shows how, without the government's distortions of the GDP data, the opposite would be true: Except for brief interludes of mediocre growth in 2000 and 2004, the economy has been stuck in a recession throughout the entire decade.

These are vital stats that could make or break your financial future. To the degree that the shadow government stats are closer to the truth than the official versions, it means that ...

The value of your bonds is overstated because of a national complacency regarding consumer price inflation ...


The value of your stocks is overstated because of false optimism regarding the nation's employment and economic growth. And perhaps most dangerous of all ...


Trillions of dollars in derivatives — predicated on the true value of assets like stocks and bonds — could be even shakier than often feared.
This alone should be more than enough to send thousands of officials into the confessional and give millions of investors sleepless nights. But the unfortunate reality is that ...

On Top of Washington's Data Distortions,
Wall Street Adds an Equally Dangerous
Layer of Investor Deceptions

First, most of the derivatives owned by commercial banks, investment banks and so-called "non-bank banks" are kept off their balance sheets. This means that ...

The actual value and stability of the nation's largest and most important institutions are largely unknown — and probably greatly overstated.

Second, with only the rarest of exceptions, the hundreds of thousands of bond ratings issued by Fitch, Moody's, and Standard and Poor's are uniformly bought and paid for by the very same companies that are being rated. As I've written here many times, the result is that ...

There is a built-in bias in the entire system, causing inflated ratings, delayed downgrades and the continuing deception of millions of investors.

Third, brokers and brokerage firms, despite a clear self-interest to keep their clients in the stock market, are routinely allowed to play the role of "objective" advisers and managers. The result is that ...

Investors are almost universally encouraged to buy when they should be holding and to hold when they should be selling. Despite a plethora of guidelines, rules and laws created to encourage fairness, the very structure of the system continually promotes unfairness.

Lies, Lies, Lies

In this environment, the unrelenting pressure — even the mandate — to transform well-meaning public officials into chronic liars is undeniable, and the examples are many:

High-ranking government officials in the 1970s who swore the S&Ls were safe, even as thousands of thrifts were failing all around them.


FDIC and Federal Reserve officials in the 1980s who vehemently denied the threat to commercial banks, even as the bank failure rate surged to the highest since the Great Depression.


State insurance regulators in the 1990s who swore to the safety of annuities and life insurance policies, even as six million policyholders were being trapped in failed companies.


Major Wall Street firms of the early 2000s that consistently affirmed "hold" and "buy" ratings for the shares of hundreds of companies that were going bankrupt. (For our detailed study documenting these extreme deceptions, see our white paper, Crisis of Confidence on Wall Street.)


Auditing firms like Arthur Andersen, KPMG, and Deloitte and Touche that facilitated or even encouraged accounting distortions and cover-ups. (For the details, see our white paper submitted to the U.S. Senate.)
Today, the names and places may have changed. But the systemic deceptions have not.

This leaves you just two choices: Believe them and risk almost everything. Or strike out on an independent path to safety, protection and the potential for very substantial profits.

___________________
"Ibiza will be Earth’s final refuge after Armageddon" -Nostradamus

Big US student loan guarantor files for bankruptcy
Mon Apr 7, 2008 6:49pm EDT


NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - The Education Resources Institute Inc, which calls itself the largest not-for-profit guarantor of U.S. private education loans, on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying rising defaults and credit market problems have damaged liquidity.

The company, known as TERI, filed for protection from creditors with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Boston, where it is based. It has more than $1 billion of assets, and between $500,000,001 and $1 billion of liabilities, court papers show.

TERI said it has more than $17 billion of outstanding loan guarantees, and has since its founding in 1985 guaranteed more than 2 million loans totaling in excess of $20 billion, without ever defaulting.

But a March 26 downgrade by Moody's Investors Service to "junk" status caused a bank to demand that TERI set up a reserve to support its guarantees, a move that would hurt TERI's cash position and liquidity, Chief Executive Willis Hulings said in a court papers.

He also said a slowing economy caused defaults to increase, while the disappearance of investor demand for bonds backed by student loans caused a "significant" decline in revenue.

First Marblehead Corp (FMD.N: Quote, Profile, Research), TERI's exclusive loan processing agent, has been unable to arrange securitizations, Hulings wrote.

"TERI believes that the filing of the Chapter 11 case will enable it to avoid a near-term liquidity crunch that, without the protections afforded by Chapter 11, would threaten its viability," Hulings wrote.

First Marblehead, also based in Boston, was not immediately available for comment.

TERI said it will seek court approval to retain Grant Thornton LLP as its bankruptcy restructuring adviser.

First Marblehead shares closed Monday up 29 cents at $7.70. TERI announced the bankruptcy after U.S. markets closed. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by Gunna Dickson )

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"Ibiza will be Earth’s final refuge after Armageddon" -Nostradamus