Educate

Greetings good citizen,

How pathetic is it that many of the following headlines are either ‘spin’ or rely on accounting gimmicks for their veracity?

But the lead story belabors a point I have been making for decades:

The Education Revolution
Next Made-in-China Boom: College Graduates
By KEITH BRADSHER

China is making a huge investment in its universities, hoping to leverage its enormous population into 195 million college graduates by the end of the decade.

No irony should be lost that China has overtaken the US as the world’s premiere ‘economic superpower’ on the strength of its ‘blue-collar’ workforce.

Shifting back to our curiously missing OWS protestors, what does this (capitalist profiteering) mean to those who already got soaked big bucks, studying for jobs that will not appear anywhere near here?

I repeat, All economies are LOCAL and no amount of ‘koom-bye-ya’ can alter that!

Let me take it one step further and state unequivocally that it is ‘impossible’ to establish global capitalism as the world’s economic system because of its predatory nature. Resources must be ‘managed’ not ‘exploited’!

Global capitalism gives us stories like this one:

The 787 that made an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday. All 137 passengers and crew members were evacuated safely.
Regulators Around the Globe Ground Boeing 787s
By CHRISTOPHER DREW, JAD MOUAWAD and MATTHEW L. WALD 51 minutes ago

The directives in Japan, Europe and India follow a Federal Aviation Administration ruling Wednesday that it was grounding the planes operated by U.S. carriers.

Design errors, easily corrected or the by-product of the decades long ‘global race to the bottom?’

This is what happens when you put psychopaths in charge of ‘shaking up’ your supply chain. All of the routine safeguards get thrown to the winds in an effort to ‘bull’ their way to a profit. (by bringing their part of the project in under deadline and under cost, thereby maximizing their ‘bonus’!
Seriously good citizen, these people have lost sight of the rationale behind the awarding of ‘bonuses’ (especially considering half the time management rewards itself for failure!)

And remember, THESE PEOPLE CONSIDER THEMSELVES OUR ‘BETTERS!’

They are ‘superior’ to us…at least in their own minds.

But hey, after Wells Fargo made money producing mortgages, we have the (alleged) ‘dummies’ foundering in the same pond…so who are you supposed to believe?

DealBook
Profit Drops 63% at Bank of America After Mortgage Settlements
By BEN PROTESS 6 minutes ago

The bank’s widely expected drop in fourth-quarter profit comes after it settled legal claims over its mortgage business. It earned 3 cents a share, narrowly beating estimates.

Um, talk about lunacy! Here they are, bleeding from the eye-sockets, settling billion dollar claims against them (for mortgage fraud.) Somehow they still ‘beat the estimates’…and Wall Street is giving them a spanking anyway!

Seriously good citizen, if this story isn’t complete and utter, I don’t know what is!

Somebody’s getting robbed and I have a bad feeling about who that somebody is…

In a related story:

DealBook
Facing Legal Costs, Citigroup Disappoints in 4th Quarter
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG 9:30 AM ET

As the bank works to clean up its mortgage mess, it reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.2 billion, or 38 cents a share, significantly below analysts’ estimates.

Did Vikram empty out the main vault as part of his ‘separation package?’ You know how these ‘Master of the Universe’ types operate…

“Sure, I’ll leave…just make sure my golden parachute has a platinum liner!”

Apparently this is something ‘the analysts’ aren’t privy too.

And yet more ‘disappointment’ from the global stage…

DealBook
Rio Tinto to Book $14 Billion Charge; C.E.O. Replaced
By JULIA WERDIGIER and NEIL GOUGH 8:27 AM ET

The mining giant blamed challenges in the aluminum business and at its coal unit in Mozambique for the write-down, and said Sam Walsh would succeed Tom Albanese as chief executive.

I may have dubbed the local rag as the Daily ‘cops behaving badly’ gazette but the business pages of the world’s media are dominated by the details of CEO’s behaving badly (and getting fooked for it…sometimes.)

Then we have this last ditty that lead me to my previous musing regarding the veracity of today’s reporting:

Economic Data Lift Stocks
By REUTERS 52 minutes ago

Wall Street opened higher after some cheery economic reports on unemployment and housing starts.

It’s been two years good citizen and no change as far as my unemployment status. I’m still twiddling my thumbs as are many of my over fifty peers.

Seems the girls of the over fifty club have joined us recently and if you think that’s a coincidence, tell it to Santa Claus!

Part of what I do here is shine a light on the stories the corporate owned media ‘neglects’ and the other part is providing some much needed ‘food for thought’ that should be fueling public debate.

The corporate owned media is paid to ‘pretend’ that things couldn’t be better, our problems are largely in our heads…and they’d be correct about that because it is their fault our head isn’t pointed in the correct direction!

But that’s an issue for another day,

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Desperation

Greetings good citizen,

The week ‘ends’ here and what a week it’s been. The stock market basically ran in place all week while the pundits/shills found silver linings behind every gloomy indicator. (Either by ‘mis-reporting’ the event altogether or by taking the situation seriously ‘out of context’.)

Energy is hovering at a disturbingly high level as investors ‘maximize’ their returns during ‘Winter’ for most of the world…

I mention these tiny tidbits because they aren’t covered in the following headlines:

Bank Deal Ends Flawed Reviews of Foreclosures
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

As quick justice, regulators are giving cash payments to 3.8 million borrowers, but the deal is actually a way to paper over a deeply flawed review of foreclosed loans across America.

A bank reversed the foreclosure of Christine Lucier, but her home, while empty, was vandalized.

And like many things with our decidedly corrupt banking system, the foreclosure process was riddled with fraud…much to the chagrin of beleaguered borrowers.

If the settlement isn’t enough to make you ‘whole’…tough! Take the settlement and sign away any claim for future damages or leave it and sue (than let us know how that works out for you…in say another dozen years.)

Welcome to ‘Justice’, Reagan style.

If you aren’t rich enough to ‘own’ a court then you have no business there! (Because the (poorly) trained chimpanzees sure aren’t there to help/protect YOU, they’re there to protect the ‘people who matter’, The One Percent!

DealBook
Wells Fargo Profit Jumps 24% in Fourth Quarter, Driven by Mortgages
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG 33 minutes ago

Wells Fargo reported $5.1 billion in profit for the fourth quarter on Friday, a 24 percent rise. For the past 12 quarters, profit at the bank has increased.

Is this a case of some banks have it and some banks don’t or did they manage to confine the mortgages written in the economic desert to certain lenders while consolidating ‘performing loans’ to, er, ‘others’?

Because we certainly have to very different ‘outcomes’ here between BOA and Wells…(with BOA bleeding due to the massive losses it has suffered on the paper issued by Countrywide.)

If you have a problem with that, see the above article…

Meanwhile:

F.A.A. to Begin a Review of Boeing 787s
By JAD MOUAWAD 21 minutes ago

Federal authorities said they would order a review of electrical systems in Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner following a spate of incidents, including a battery fire earlier this week in Boston.

I’ve got your FAA report right here and you know what it says? Globalization is a lousy method for building commercial aircraft!

Next on the hit parade:

Errors Mount at High-Speed Exchanges in New Year
By NATHANIEL POPPER

The United States’ 13 public stock exchanges have been competing to offer the fastest and most sophisticated trading software, creating more opportunities for technology errors.

What are they trying to say? That ‘skinning’ people quicker is going to make the whole world more prosperous? No they’re not saying that at all.

What this warning really means is for every winner there must be a loser, so when the whole ‘shell game’ comes crashing down, don’t get caught with your paw in the cookie jar!

If this were a ‘legitimate enterprise’ there would be no profit in ‘transaction speed’…the lynch-pin here is ‘legitimate’.

We already know the stock market is a gigantic fraud. (Full disclosure, Gegner doesn’t own ANY stock! Or much of anything else for that matter!)

Next!

DealBook
Regulators Propose Overhaul of Benchmark Interest Rate
By MARK SCOTT 34 minutes ago

European regulators on Friday called for a major overhaul of Euribor, a benchmark interest rate, but stopped short of demanding direct regulatory oversight in the wake of the rate-rigging scandal.

The ‘laugh’ here is the idea that the financial markets can even operate without massive fraud! Remove the creative accounting and the web of lies that cover it and you’re holding an empty bag!

Speaking of which…

After more than two decades at the Treasury, Mr. Geithner will re-enter private life.
Geithner’s Tenure Defined by Financial Crisis
By ANNIE LOWREY

As he looks back on a tumultuous tenure, Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, is remarkably sanguine.

Obama’s Chief of Staff Pick Is Said to Be Down to 2

Actually there is nothing remarkable about Mr. Geithner’s attitude. All along he has taken the stance of ‘A failure to prosecute on your part does not constitute a ‘crisis’ on mine’ (and this despite his being on the list of those who should have been prosecuted!)

Speaking of ‘no surprises’:

Dr. Alvin Rajkomar tracks patient data on a Samsung Galaxy Note. A new report questions whether electronic records reduce health care costs.
In 2nd Look, Few Savings From Digital Health Records
By REED ABELSON and JULIE CRESWELL

The conversion to electronic records has failed so far to reduce health care costs, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation, which issued a rosier report in 2005.

In a rare moment of ‘candor’ the corporate owned media is throwing the decidedly Libertarian Rand corporation under the bus for it’s lame proposal that the exponential rise in healthcare cost was linked to ‘redundant’ recordkeeping.

But we are finding that isn’t the only thing the ‘free marketers’ are ‘dead wrong’ about…as our final headline informs us:

Japan Approves $116 Billion for Urgent Economic Stimulus
By HIROKO TABUCHI

The money will go toward public works projects, small businesses and subsidies for companies that invest in new technology.

Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing repeatedly and each time expecting a different result?

Why do they keep throwing ‘money’ into a bottomless pit?

Is it because ‘free market capitalists’ are insane?

This is what their behavior tells us.

The ‘wheel’ of commerce is broken. Let’s suppose they did find a ‘new product’ to peddle to the masses. Everybody is broke thanks to capitalists who pay themselves first and bankers who skinned every customer to the bone! (Insane interest rates on credit cards!)

In case you don’t see the ‘connection’ A fueled B. Employees who couldn’t ‘make ends meet’ with their paychecks tried to ‘make up the difference’ with their credit cards…and nobody can ‘eat credit’ for very long because of the extreme expense.

Needless to say our very distorted finance system collapsed under its own weight.

SO…when you hear some blow hard waxing poetic about yet another ‘imaginary’ recovery, ignore them. it’s just happy talk to keep you from despair.

Because we all know what happens when ‘desperation’ gets a toehold…

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Idiots!

Greetings good citizen,

While it is still WAY ‘too soon to tell’ it seems you’re ALL voting for ‘gutter-gums’, so there is no need to leave the security of the opt-in firewall.

If you’re here it is because this is where you want to be!

All righty then, let’s have a look at where we are!

U.S. Consumer Watchdog to Issue Mortgage Rules
By EDWARD WYATT

In an attempt to prevent future housing crises, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is issuing new laws for lenders.

Um, I know this isn’t the ‘popular’ viewpoint at the moment, most are touting housing’s ‘recovery’ (relative to what we are still unsure.) But it is my ‘opinion’ that the housing markets are toast, houses are ‘all done’ as far as being an ‘investment’.

In order for banks to ‘make money’ originating mortgages, the borrowers need to be paid enough to ‘live on’…and with energy prices poised to hit ‘boing’ at any moment (today’s price is $94 a barrel) the question of ‘how much is enough’ will remain a ‘wildcard’ for quite some time.

The prediction of the ultimate demise of housing hinges, as few of you suspect, on how many will survive the energy crunch.

Without energy there won’t be a ‘housing market/mortgage industry’ left to save.

Although it is conceivable that our (foolish) capitalists will keep the housing industry ‘alive’ in the narrow zone where heating and cooking indoors aren’t ‘musts’.

Okay, not a particularly ‘promising’ start but maybe it will get better:

.
DealBook
Morgan Stanley is shrinking its once-powerful trading business, leaving more of the sector to its bigger banking rivals.

Deep Cuts Raise Questions About Morgan Stanley
By SUSANNE CRAIG

Whether Morgan Stanley can avoid shrinking further and revive its fixed-income trading business will have significant ripple effects in the financial world.

Um, considering Morgan Stanley ‘OWNS’ GE, I wouldn’t be too quick to write their epitaph just yet. Unlike the other ‘financial fraudsters’ J.P. Morgan has a real stake in the bricks and mortar economy…although that stake is run by idiots, it is still successful despite itself.

Moving on:

European Central Bank Leaves Key Rate Unchanged
By JACK EWING 7:56 AM ET

The central bank, which left its benchmark rate at 0.75 percent, appears to have concluded that a rate cut would be powerless to solve a credit crunch in countries like Italy and Spain.

Bank of England Leaves Interest Rate at Record Low 7:14 AM ET

In case any of you are wondering, raising interest rates now would obliterate the global banking network and stock markets around the world in a single day.

But our next story begs the question of just how vital the banking network really is?

Obama’s Pick for Treasury Is Said to Be His Chief of Staff
By JACKIE CALMES

President Obama will announce on Thursday that he intends to elevate Jacob J. Lew to be the next secretary of Treasury, officials familiar with the decision said.

Um, there has always been a patina of ‘patronage’ surrounding cabinet posts but one always assumed the Secretary of the Treasury had to be at least a little ‘knowledgeable’ when it came to the world of finance.

Although Timmy has done the job for the past four years and he doesn’t know anything, so how bad can it be?

How did we get here again?

Did I make my point?

No? Then I doubt you’ll see this one:

Bits Blog
The 2012 Patent Rankings: I.B.M. on Top (Again)
By STEVE LOHR 8:01 AM ET

I.B.M. was granted more patents than any other company in 2012, its 20th consecutive year in the top spot. But the big movement in the rankings comes from Google and Apple.

In THEORY ‘patents’ protect the ‘discoverer’s’ right to exploit certain information. How bizarre is it good citizen that absent capitalism there would be no need for such ‘protection’?

(Which is not to say that patents have protected anything from the suitably deep-pocketed, if you catch my meaning.)

One need only take a hard look at what patents have done to the field of medical research to be convinced it is time to end this counter-productive practice.

But who listens to me?

Finally:

Wall Street Moves Forward
By REUTERS 9:40 AM ET

Stocks rose as stronger-than-expected exports in China raised hopes for a more robust recovery in the global economy this year.

Unexpected Sharp Rise in Exports From China

So, share prices ‘jump’ on ‘unexpected’ rise in Chinese exports…does this sound like ‘sandbagging’ to you too, good citizen?

Which export do you suppose it is (because you know it isn’t ‘across the board’ although that is what the article would like you to believe…)

Think it might be a pick-up in ‘rare earths’ that China had threatened to ‘squeeze off?’

And, as of 10 AM the Dow was only plus ten points and headed straight, you guessed it, down!

So today’s lede may not be its conclusion…

Well, I’m have a ‘good day’ despite the absymal ‘status quo’ the thieves have created for us to wallow in.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

New

Greetings good citizen,

The stock markets are all bleeding the artificial gains they made during the fictional ‘fiscal cliff’ debacle so we’d opine ‘nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’.

On the other hand we have the ‘Platinum coin’, er, ‘threat’ pounding the gold markets.

There’s nothin like this sort of silliness to prove my point that all ‘money’ is funny! (And if we get any further from money’s ‘one useful purpose’ than we already are then our civilization will be swimming in money when it collapses…think Zimbabwe.

Do I need to explain that the collapse will be due to money being rendered ‘useless’ to a majority of society?

Dangerous stuff, especially when ‘mishandled.’

And speaking of ‘mis-handling’:

Rescued by a Bailout, A.I.G. May Sue Its Savior By BEN PROTESS and MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED A lawsuit claims that the rescue by the government deprived A.I.G.’s shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and took private property for public use without appropriate compensation.

Should AIG ‘win’ its case against the US, I propose the judge be lynched on the spot (along with the attorneys for the prosecution!)

You already know there won’t be a jury involved in such a ridiculous case, it will be a judges decision like it always is when the One Percent rapes the public with its frivolous lawsuits.

How ironic is it that some people (and we’re talking about the permanently brain damaged here) think suing the ‘over-reaching’ government is no less than it deserves.

That’s how ‘brainwashed’ the corporate owned media has the few who don’t possess the capacity to think for themselves.

The company would have been a smoking pile of ashes if it hadn’t been for the ‘taxpayer bailout’ it received. Would the jokers have tried to sue the government for NOT helping had that been the case? Sure looks that way.

Naturally, doesn’t this begs the question of who is the psychopath who thought this was a ‘good idea’?

Shouldn’t s/he be ferreted out and institutionalized as being a ‘menace to society’?

But wait, we have even more ‘bad news’ from the crippled and broken ‘banking sector’.

In Deal, Bank of America Extends Retreat From Mortgages By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and PETER EAVIS The problems at Bank of America have cut down its mortgage ambitions, ceding market dominance to Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. DealBook: Banks to Pay $8.5 Billion to Speed Up Housing Relief

The only question remaining good citizen is how long will it be before the mortgage industry becomes so unprofitable that it is abandoned altogether?

The term ‘qualified buyer’ is a joke because today’s youth aren’t paid enough to buy a pup tent on a postage stamp. Add to that how motor vehicles hasn’t fallen despite a significant drop in demand...

Did I mention out economic model is FUBAR, as exemplified by the piddling figure the banks are contributing to ‘speed up’ housing relief’ vs. the $700 BILLION congress GAVE THEM five years ago?

We don’t even want to know what happened to that and several TRILLION more, it would only make your little head hurt.

This is way beyond WTF!

Speaking of which, what about that ‘recovery’?

Euro Watch
Unemployment Climbs in Euro Zone By DAVID JOLLY 9:30 AM ET The jobless rate in the 17-nation bloc rose to 11.8 percent in November, a month in which German exports, imports and industrial orders all declined.

What’s this??! It’s been five years! All of the economists are predicting 3 to 5 percent GROWTH this year!

How can the Eurozone be in the dink? Didn’t they get the memo?

Or maybe it’s time we stopped listening to clueless economic cheerleaders who are well paid for their totally unqualified opinions.

Yes, Bubba, they get away with being wrong 99% of the time because their fall back position is ‘it’s just ‘my opinion’…and they know they’re full of crap when they make these sunny ‘predictions’.

They literally get paid to…well, if it’s manure and you know it it’s a lie!

Last on today’s hit parade is this reminder of why our economic system is on ‘life support’.

Bags of contaminated soil outside the Naraha-Minami school near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In Japan, a Painfully Slow Sweep By HIROKO TABUCHI Much of Japan’s post-Fukushima cleanup is primitive, slapdash and bereft of the cleanup methods lauded by scientists as effective in removing radioactive cesium.

Seriously good citizen, outside a school? Let’s hope for the children’s sake it’s outside an ABANDONED school! (The corporate owned media do love to ‘tantalize’ its audience by omitting critical details.)

While Mother Nature appears to have methods of ‘sequestering’ radioactivity from the environment that our scientists don’t yet understand, we can only wonder what constitutes an acceptable clean up of these extremely hazardous compounds? (Because the article infers such methods exist…)

Insanity aside, this post marks the start of my ‘cleaning up my act’ so I can reach a wider audience. It will also serve as the first post on a non-fire walled edition of A Simple Plan.

How sad is it that there will still be posts made to the fire walled version of the site…pig that I am! Hopefully my readers follow me for my insights and not just my colorful speech!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner