Nice blue feet.Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Another Seeking Federal Bailout
Today another firm announced that it will seek federal bailout to avoid an impending financial disaster. The Pygalgia Group, a minor Back Street blogging company (not yet incorporated), is in danger of failing according to a company spokesman.
"Our assets have seriously decreased in value in the face of the current market, and our revenues will not meet our obligations." said company president Pygalgia. "Part of this is due to a lack of production in two of our major sectors, Zymurgian and Sweaterman. Neither are expected to meet expectations in the coming weeks. The Gandhisxmas sector has performed well, and is expected to continue to do so, but this will not be enough to make up for the shortfall."
Advertising revenue for the Pygalgia Group has not met expectations, and will again be $0.00 (as it has been throughout the blogs history) forcing the company to reevaluate its advertising strategy.
Valued at over $30,ooo (see right), Pygalgia plans to seek a $30 billion federal emergency loan, but is open to other investment offers.
"As bad as it looks right now" said Pygalgia "we're much closer to solvent than AIG or WAMU. With the right package of assistance, we could be back up to speed in a matter of weeks. Or at least buying our own beer."
"Our assets have seriously decreased in value in the face of the current market, and our revenues will not meet our obligations." said company president Pygalgia. "Part of this is due to a lack of production in two of our major sectors, Zymurgian and Sweaterman. Neither are expected to meet expectations in the coming weeks. The Gandhisxmas sector has performed well, and is expected to continue to do so, but this will not be enough to make up for the shortfall."
Advertising revenue for the Pygalgia Group has not met expectations, and will again be $0.00 (as it has been throughout the blogs history) forcing the company to reevaluate its advertising strategy.
Valued at over $30,ooo (see right), Pygalgia plans to seek a $30 billion federal emergency loan, but is open to other investment offers.
"As bad as it looks right now" said Pygalgia "we're much closer to solvent than AIG or WAMU. With the right package of assistance, we could be back up to speed in a matter of weeks. Or at least buying our own beer."
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Socialism Done Wrong
Monkeyfister (http://www.monkeyfister.blogspot.com/) has a great post pointing out how the republicans are even getting socialism wrong: you're supposed to nationalize profitable companies; not bankrupt ones. But this got me thinking about our new taxpayer owned enterprises:
We, the taxpayers, now own (80% of) the nations largest insurance company. But none of us will get insurance out of the deal. I know I'm still uninsured.
We, the taxpayers, now own the nations two largest mortgage brokers. But I doubt that any of us will get help with housing out of the deal. I know I'm still homeless.
If this were a socialist country, at least those things would be guaranteed. But republicans aren't truly socialists; they're oligarchs. And so the fruits of these nationalizations will only go to the rich.
And at the same time that we pour $85 billion into AIG, the people of Houston and Galveston are not getting relief from hurricane Ike. That Federal Emergency Management Agency? Not available in cases of actual emergency. Republicans have to cut spending somewhere, don't you know.
We, the taxpayers, now own (80% of) the nations largest insurance company. But none of us will get insurance out of the deal. I know I'm still uninsured.
We, the taxpayers, now own the nations two largest mortgage brokers. But I doubt that any of us will get help with housing out of the deal. I know I'm still homeless.
If this were a socialist country, at least those things would be guaranteed. But republicans aren't truly socialists; they're oligarchs. And so the fruits of these nationalizations will only go to the rich.
And at the same time that we pour $85 billion into AIG, the people of Houston and Galveston are not getting relief from hurricane Ike. That Federal Emergency Management Agency? Not available in cases of actual emergency. Republicans have to cut spending somewhere, don't you know.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Economics
Watching the Wall Street meltdown, I'm seeing the huge disconnect between classes. Being amongst the poor, I don't have to worry about my stock portfolio falling. Most of the folks I know live paycheck to paycheck, and invest in a night out when they can. We balance our books by paying our bills and spending what's left.
But the major investment banks don't have to follow such simple rules. They can simply inflate the value of their assets to create a false 'bottom line' and if reality intrudes they get a government bailout. At least, that's the way it usually works. After all, the government always has a few extra billion for the rich. Okay, it comes from the taxpayers (us) or an increase in the deficit (us), but it's not like it's real money. The country isn't bankrupt as long as it can borrow more (unlike regular people), and the first rule of Wall Street is "there are no rules." In the circles of high finance greed is good, lying is rewarded, and oversight (regulations) are removed by buying up a few congressmen (St. Sleazy McCain and crew).
Which is why they really wanted to privatize Social Security. All that money going to regular people when it could so easily be stolen for the much more deserving rich. Face it, Grandma won't spend her Social Security check on a congressman or deregulating Ponzi schemes.
It was all a fine system (for the rich) until someone started to notice that all those pieces of paper weren't worth what they claimed. In fact, most of them were beyond worthless. The 'assets' added up to nothing but a very large debt.
Now they're busy trying to figure out how to foist this debt off onto the regular people; the homeowners, the taxpayers, anybody who hasn't bought a congressman. And it's going to hurt a lot of us.
I'm fairly safe, being among the poorest of the poor. They can't get much from me because I haven't got it. I'm only semi-employed (or semi-unemployed), semi-homeless, and completely broke. If my bank failed, the FDIC would laugh at my account. I'm not going to get billions in a federal bailout. Hell, a thousand dollars looks huge to me (please feel free to use the "donate" button on the right if you can spare it, or any other amount) and my economy has been tanking for a long time.
The republican greedheads have had their way for a long time, but reality is starting to piss on their "trickle-down" theory of economics. We can't afford another four years of criminal insanity guiding our economic policy. The question becomes "how badly will people have to be hurt before they realize this?"
But the major investment banks don't have to follow such simple rules. They can simply inflate the value of their assets to create a false 'bottom line' and if reality intrudes they get a government bailout. At least, that's the way it usually works. After all, the government always has a few extra billion for the rich. Okay, it comes from the taxpayers (us) or an increase in the deficit (us), but it's not like it's real money. The country isn't bankrupt as long as it can borrow more (unlike regular people), and the first rule of Wall Street is "there are no rules." In the circles of high finance greed is good, lying is rewarded, and oversight (regulations) are removed by buying up a few congressmen (St. Sleazy McCain and crew).
Which is why they really wanted to privatize Social Security. All that money going to regular people when it could so easily be stolen for the much more deserving rich. Face it, Grandma won't spend her Social Security check on a congressman or deregulating Ponzi schemes.
It was all a fine system (for the rich) until someone started to notice that all those pieces of paper weren't worth what they claimed. In fact, most of them were beyond worthless. The 'assets' added up to nothing but a very large debt.
Now they're busy trying to figure out how to foist this debt off onto the regular people; the homeowners, the taxpayers, anybody who hasn't bought a congressman. And it's going to hurt a lot of us.
I'm fairly safe, being among the poorest of the poor. They can't get much from me because I haven't got it. I'm only semi-employed (or semi-unemployed), semi-homeless, and completely broke. If my bank failed, the FDIC would laugh at my account. I'm not going to get billions in a federal bailout. Hell, a thousand dollars looks huge to me (please feel free to use the "donate" button on the right if you can spare it, or any other amount) and my economy has been tanking for a long time.
The republican greedheads have had their way for a long time, but reality is starting to piss on their "trickle-down" theory of economics. We can't afford another four years of criminal insanity guiding our economic policy. The question becomes "how badly will people have to be hurt before they realize this?"
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