For the vast majority of American’s QE has been a dismal failure. Stock gains for the average guy were offset by losses in real estate. There was no wealth affect there.
“…Powerful people at the heart of our financial system still have the incentive and ability to take on large amounts of reckless risk – through borrowing large amounts relative to their equity.
There is an insularity and arrogance to policymakers around capital requirements that is distinctly reminiscent of the Treasury-Fed-Wall Street consensus regarding derivatives in the late 1990s – i.e., officials are so convinced by the arguments of big banks that they dismiss out of hand any attempt to even open a serious debate.
Next time, when our largest banks get into trouble, they may be beyond “too big to fail”. As seen recently in Ireland, banks that are very big relative to an economy can become “too big to save” …
…what the Bank of England refers to as a doom loop“.
‘You can take the blue pill and wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want. Or you can take the red pill and see how far down the rabbit hole goes…’ That line from ‘The Matrix’ applies to this piece by Giordano Bruno. If you’re having a tough time wondering how the stock market can go up while people are losing jobs and homes, this will give you something to hang your hat on.
WARNING: You can’t unlearn this information.
This may be a highly distasteful proposition, but just for a moment, I want you to sit back, and imagine that you are a member of the corporate banking elite. You are a walking talking disease ridden power mad pustule who naively believes himself intellectually superior to the vast majority of humanity and above the inherent laws of conscience, honor, and general good taste. You are a villain in the purest sense, in that you not only do great harm to the world, you actually SEEK to do great harm to the world, if only to benefit yourself and your exclusive circle of “friends”; a clan of degenerate blood thirsty sociopaths with delusions of omnipotence that stalk the night like Armani wearing Chupacabra exsanguinating the joy from poor unsuspecting cultures. You are capable of anything, and sadly, you take “pride” in this fact…
…the justice system not only sucks at punishing financial criminals, it has actually evolved into a highly effective mechanism for protecting financial criminals. This institutional reality has absolutely nothing to do with politics or ideology — it takes place no matter who’s in office or which party’s in power. To understand how the machinery functions, you have to start back at least a decade ago, as case after case of financial malfeasance was pursued too slowly or not at all, fumbled by a government bureaucracy that too often is on a first-name basis with its targets. Indeed, the shocking pattern of nonenforcement with regard to Wall Street is so deeply ingrained in Washington that it raises a profound and difficult question about the very nature of our society: whether we have created a class of people whose misdeeds are no longer perceived as crimes, almost no matter what those misdeeds are.
To those of you who don’t understand what the Federal Reserve Bank is doing to, er, for the economy, this HILARIOUS video is for you. It features two little fluffy characters who speak of the ‘Bernanc’ and explain why the Fed is printing $600BN dollars.
On Thursday, when they spoke, the bank executive was sweetness and light—she told them that Ilsa and Brian qualified for HAMP, that they would get refinanced, that they would not have to pay the difference in mortgage of the last three months—“Your lower mortgage rate is locked in!”
And as to the $84 penalty fee, which had driven Brian in particular up the wall: It was waived.
Ilsa told me, “It was the nicest conversation we’ve ever had with a bank executive.”
The executive promised to have the papers drawn up, ready to be signed before November 1.
That’s right: November first. After dicking them around for months on end, Wells Fargo all of a sudden went from turtle-speed to light-speed—to warp-speed—boom!—just like that. They didn’t even engage thrusters, Captain—it was warp drive the instant Brian e-mailed that threat.
Important Application Information for New Small Business Funding
Earlier today, our office sent you an email regarding yesterday’s announcement for $30 million in funding from the Recovery Act and FY 2010 budget appropriations which will be made available to qualified small businesses to support the commercialization of promising new technologies.
Qualified small businesses can submit applications through Grants.gov to be considered for award. Use the Grants.gov “Basic Search” feature to search for the Xlerator program. Questions relating to the content of the FOA must be submitted through the FedConnect portal at www.fedconnect.net. While there is not a direct link to the SBIR Phase III FOA, applicants can search for it by typing “DE-FOA-0000397” in the search box under the reference number search.
Please note that only DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I and Phase II grantees from FY 2005 to FY 2009 are eligible to apply to this U.S. Department of Energy Phase III Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).
For additional information please review the attached FOA for the DOE FY2010 Phase III Xlerator Program for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity Delivery, Energy Reliability, Fossil Energy, and Nuclear Energy.
Transparency, Accuracy, and the Small Business Dashboard
With small businesses creating two out of every three net new jobs, holding more patents than the largest corporations and universities combined, and employing half of all working Americans, we can’t afford to ignore opportunities to improve and advance federal contracting opportunities to small businesses.
Today President Obama’s Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Businesses put forward thirteen recommendations to:
Develop clearer and more comprehensive small business contracting policies;
Provide for a better workforce and hold agencies accountable for meeting small business goals; and
Leverage technology to enhance transparency, increase federal procurement accessibility for small businesses, and improve data quality.
Transparency, Accuracy, and the Small Business Dashboard
Small business contracting goals, started in 1978, help agencies map out the percentage of annual prime contract spending that should be awarded to small businesses every year. The thirteen recommendations that the Interagency Task Force put forward today will address the gap between the annual government-wide goal for contracting and the actual annual prime contract spending. While the Department of Energy received an “A” grade for FY 2009 achievement from the Small Business Administration, we are fully committed to improving government-wide small business contracting.
The brand-new Small Business Dashboard is a reflection of this commitment. On the Small Business Dashboard visitors can see government-wide goaling information, design their own data feeds from small business data, perform detailed searches on government contractors, view top types of contracts used and states by vendor locations, and learn more about the contracts at each Federal agency.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization is looking forward to working with the Task Force as we implement the recommendations put forward today and evaluate progress. We hope resources like the Small Business Dashboard prove useful to your small business, and we welcome the opportunity to continue talking with you.
“If the U.S. Armed forces can’t find Osama bin Laden in 10 years, let Goldman Sachs try to find me.”
‘You can take the blue pill and wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want. Or you can take the red pill and see how far down the rabbit hole goes…’ That line from ‘The Matrix’ applies to this piece by Giordano Bruno. If you’re having a tough time wondering how the stock market can go up while people are losing jobs and homes, this will give you something to hang your hat on.
To those of you who don’t understand what the Federal Reserve Bank is doing to, er, for the economy, this HILARIOUS video is for you. It features two little fluffy characters who speak of the ‘Bernanc’ and explain why the Fed is printing $600BN dollars.
Dispatches From The Front 