Another post on our blog, ‘The End’ by Michael Lewis, is prologue for this piece. It’s instructive and frightening. Especially when you take in to account the number of individuals setting American financial policy that have come from Goldman Sachs.
The Great American Bubble Machine
From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression – and they’re about to do it again
PASS THIS ARTICLE ON.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the 34 recipients of $27 million in grants jump-starting the California Clean Energy Workforce Training Program (CEWTP), the largest state-sponsored green jobs training program in the nation announced by the Governor on August 31, 2009. Under the this first phase of the program, anticipated to train 5,600 participants, workers will be prepared for hands-on jobs, such as installing solar panels and maintaining electric vehicles to computer programming and researching fuel cell technologies, to help develop the state’s low-carbon, clean energy economy of tomorrow.
“California’s goals in renewable energy development, climate change reduction, clean transportation and green building are driving green job growth – and these funds are pivotal to building a workforce to meet that demand,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “This program represents the kind of innovative thinking needed to steer our economy toward a greener future while targeting the unemployed, underemployed and new workforce members at a time when we must do everything possible to help Californians return to work.”
The article that used to appear at this URL, ‘The People Living in Drains Below Las Vegas’, has been withdrawn because it was published by the Las Vegas Sun, the sister paper of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Journal has engaged the services of a firm named RightHaven, who is using the copyright law to sue little blog sites like this one for posting full text reprints of their articles, even though the paper is fully credited for it.
Their theory is they are losing money through lost clicks. Anyone with a website can tell you clicks do not a conversion make. So the truth is these are extortion shake downs of people who are, in reality, promoting the sources of the articles.
We have always only posted excerpts of articles with links to their original sources. But the Journal is suing people for doing that. On that basis, we will not link to, or run any content from the Las Vegas Sun or the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Any links or posts linked to or referencing articles published by these two papers will be deleted as soon as they are discovered.
NOTE TO LAWYERS:
This site is a small community created for our friends and clients to share business news along with the cool things we bump into on the internet. We always include a link to the original source. If we cannot include a link, we do not post it, period. We always credit the source. We are not thieves.
We also promote posted articles using both Twitter and Facebook, expanding the marketing footprint of the originating source. We think this is a nice thing to do and we do not charge for it. If, however, a source does not wish to avail themselves of our kindness, please inform us and we will remove the article, just like we did here.
Otherwise, file suit. You won’t win and you know it.
If you’ve swallowed the blue pill, this article will be too strong:
Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge blew the whistle on Goldman’s high-frequency trading and other frontrunning activities, and has also been called a conspiracy theorist.
PhD economist, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and former Wall Street Journal editor Paul Craig Roberts says that the government and mainstream media are lying to the American public about how bad the economic situation really is.
PhD economist Dean Baker said in February that the true purpose of the bank rescues is “a massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives”.
PhD economist Michael Hudson says that the financial “parasites” have killed the American economy, and they are “sucking as much money out” as they can before “jumping ship”.
PhD economist Michel Chossudovsky says that the giant banks which received the most bailout money also finance a portion of the government’s debt, and are exercising their power as creditors to buy public assets for a song and to impose IMF-style austerity measures on the U.S. government.
If you want to understand so you can make a way for you and your loved ones read this.
We are grasping for salvation,” Toyoda said, adding that the company already has spiraled through the first three stages: (1) hubris born of success, (2) undisciplined pursuit of more and (3) denial of risk and peril. His self-admonitions echoed the apologies commonly made by Japanese executives who take responsibility for financial turmoil or corporate scandal.
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interview with the new head of SBA, Karen G. Mills. To get an idea where the SBA is headed, this is a good article to read.
The sixth person we know personally is about to lose their home. We know a lot of small business owners and they are being crushed out of existence between unmanageable debt and evaporating customers. How far they will go down, since the number of jobs employing their college educated skills is trending to zero, we do not know, but they are no longer property owners. This is bad for all of us.
Continue reading “Slipping off the Grid, or, How to Start A Revolution Without Even Trying | Peter Mehit”
Wednesday, July 22
Posted 11 a.m. Eastern
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s appearance before the House Financial Services Committee yesterday lacked any unexpected revelations. One point in his prepared remarks did catch my attention, however.
“Although the unemployment rate is projected to peak at the end of this year, the projected declines in 2010 and 2011 would still leave unemployment well above FOMC participants’ views of the longer-run sustainable rate.”
Reading between the lines, Bernanke seems to suggest we’re in for another jobless recovery. My own opinion is that it will be the mother of all jobless recoveries. Sure hope I’m wrong.
Regarding the economy: On July 31, the initial estimate of second quarter economic output, affectionately known as Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, will be released. There is a possibility that the economy, either based on initial estimates or subsequent revisions, will eke out some growth.
Now, let’s not get too far out over our skis but be cautious about interpreting this if it should come to pass. Here’s why: Any growth posted by the U.S. economy will largely be due to a shrinking trade deficit, as imports (what we buy) have fallen much faster than exports (what we sell). So bottom line, any growth in the U.S. economy during the second quarter is more testament to the resilience of foreign consumers than it is American consumers.
For more of Greg McBride’s posts, go to: Fed Blog: Making sense of the Federal Reserve.
by Louis Uchitelle
Question: Where is the recovery coming from? This article adds some fresh perspective.
“But this time is clearly different. The pent-up demand is not present — not with 6.46 million jobs gone in just 18 months and hundreds of billions of dollars in wages extinguished. Credit is harder than ever to get for those who might want to spend again, and there are fewer and fewer spenders. People who do have jobs are saving (not spending) more of their incomes than they have in years, trying to replenish wealth lost in the stock market and in the declining value of their homes.”
Read Article: When, Oh When, Will HELP Be WANTED? – NYTimes.com.
Below is a summary of the study commissioned by the state Department of General Services. The study was just released, but is based on 2006-07 data, so a more appropriate title may have been “Small Business Used To Power California Economy”. The study contains no comment on how state I.O.U.s are going to affect these business powerhouses.
Small & Disabled Veteran Businesses Power California Economy
New study details billions of dollars of economic activity, and tens of thousands of new jobs, created by the state’s contracting efforts
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A new study details the financial impact of the state’s efforts to increase small and disabled veteran business enterprise participation in the state’s goods and services purchasing. The analysis of results from the 2006-07 fiscal year shows how small and disabled veteran businesses enterprises produce about 50 percent more overall California economic impact for each dollar spent than large enterprises. The report also offers a picture of how much this activity increased overall business tax revenues across California’s economy, and how it affected different sectors of the state’s economy.
“The State’s efforts to contract with smaller business created a powerful multiplier effect,” said Jim Butler, that state’s Chief Procurement Officer. “$4.2 billion in new economic activity of all kinds was produced in California by the state spending around $2.66 billion-and 25,617 jobs were created.”
Continue reading “Small & Disabled Veteran Businesses Power California Economy | Study, C.S.U.S.”
Dispatches From The Front 