Desiderata

Wikileaks: Coming to a Bank Near You – Over on the Premise page, we make it clear that we don’t believe in conspiracies; except the ones designed to stick up liquor stores. So, it will be interesting to see what comes out of the next set of Wikileaks which are apparently going to target a major US bank. One comment from Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ founder, is that the documents will illustrate the unethical policies and lack of regulation that are common at US banks. We look forward to the release of internal documents that support our contention that the sort of bad behavior we talk about here is in fact going on, and is actually the POLICY of some (read “all”) major financial institutions.

Insider Trading – A quick update here from an utter shill name of Halah Touryalai at Forbes. This a breathtaking example of bad writing, muddled thinking and just plain stupidity. Halah’s hard nosed take on all of this? When you play a rigged game, you’ve got to expect this kind of stuff AND she’d be shocked if anyone was put in jail (it’s not clear but I think she’d be shocked as in outraged, not shocked as in surprised). Hey Halah, the stated premise of EVERY company that sells stocks to the public is that it ISN’T a rigged game. And of course, in case you forgot, it shouldn’t be. You’re not hard bitten and cynical, your a moron and a shill for the big boys. BUT, keep in mind, that is the way many, many people who write about Wall Street view the matter.

Your Job is Gone…Forever – You may have seen last week that US businesses posted record profits (and you thought we were in a recession!). One way they’re doing this is by asking workers to find every way possible to save money (great) and to do so with existing technology so the company doesn’t have to buy new or upgrade (hmmmm). What this translates to in many cases is that there really will be persistent unemployment even when the economy does start to rebound. Too bad your 401(k) was decimated in the recent crash or you’d be cashing in on the rising stock prices.

Just a Thought – I keep hearing talk about how our economy is going to crash and go the way of Greece and Ireland because we have such a consumer focused economy and don’t have adequate exports. Here’s a thought: to start to turn that around, let’s devalue our currency (just like China does) and encourage manufacturing and exporting. Any takers? Sure, all the people who would get jobs would love it. And, since pretty much every country in the world manages its currency rate to some extent, it wouldn’t be anything new. But any thoughts along these lines will ALWAYS be railed at as protectionist. Anyone with a good answer as to why this would be so bad, let us know. Mind you, we only want real answers. Any answer that is based upon the sanctity of free trade, the need for global trade etc. will be put in the spam folder.