Comments on: Is The G20 Summit Worth Holding?

By: Economic Roundup, Friday 3rd April 2009 - Common Endeavour

Economic Roundup, Friday 3rd April 2009 - Common Endeavour — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:09:20 +0000

[...] brinkmanship from Sarko and Merky and endless pre summit pessimism, the end result appears to be rather good. Stricter financial regulation, a limit on financial [...]

By: Obama Takes The Lead: G20 Viewer’s Guide « The Baseline Scenario

Obama Takes The Lead: G20 Viewer’s Guide « The Baseline Scenario — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:09:57 +0000

[...] These are all reasonable questions. And the answer is simple: in terms of the obvious major issues of the day, this summit is unlikely to achieve much. [...]

By: Ico Ucé

Ico Ucé — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:48:39 +0000

Now you’re getting it! Why is AIG “too big to fail”? I would guess because there’s no better place from whic to spy, than a company with access to the books around the world. I would venture to guess the CIA is full of auditors and MBAs.

By: ” THE G20 COMMUNIQUE: A VIEWER’S GUIDE ” FROM BASELINESCENARIO. COM. EXCELLENT ANALYSIS OF WHAT IT MEANS, WHAT’S BEEN WRITTEN, AND A BETWEEN THE LINES GUIDE. « Want Less Blog

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:52:50 +0000

[...] The debate is apparently still somewhere between an additional $250bn and $750bn. This is the most interesting headline number to watch for. If it’s only $250bn, that’s disappointing, and if they can’t give an exact [...]

By: adios amigos

adios amigos — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:09:32 +0000

MIT, is that what they teach the kids at MIT now? Borrow money until you are completely bankrupt? Tell the Sloan School idiots that you want your money back….just a thought. How about this: pay us back what you stole from the non US pension funds, and then do whatever you like. Go bankrupt, but try not to take the rest of us with you. Ever think of that? I know you have no clue what I’m talking about, but perhaps when your cable TV is finally shut off, you may consider what I say…huh?

By: The Big G20 « The Financial Hub

The Big G20 « The Financial Hub — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:05:22 +0000

[...] summit will be useless in terms of pulling the economy out of the current recession. Blogger Simon Johnson thinks the summit will be completely useless as the leaders will not be able to pin down the cause [...]

By: Realtime: The G-20 Communiqué: A Viewer's Guide

Realtime: The G-20 Communiqué: A Viewer's Guide — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:32:25 +0000

[...] is apparently still somewhere between an additional $250 billion and $750 billion. This is the most interesting headline number to watch for. If it’s only $250 billion, that’s disappointing, and if they can’t [...]

By: The G20 Communique: A Viewer’s Guide « The Baseline Scenario

The G20 Communique: A Viewer’s Guide « The Baseline Scenario — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:06:34 +0000

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:58:42 +0000

Ronny – Thank you for your insights. Yes, some of the fault does lie with the pension system for not having adequate safeguards in place to protect against unforeseen events such as this. I have also learned enough about the loan origination process and the packaging and ratings of the CDOs to believe there was rampant fraud. I think that the people involved need to be held to account before confidence in the US financial system can be restored. I also believe that the people who are the least responsible were those who were ignorant enough to believe they were qualified for a loan made by lenders who knew they would eventually default.

Amigo – I hope that you are correct that changes will be made in a timely manner to solve the problems. It does seem that the rest of the world will have to stand up to the US in a united way to accomplish this. Maybe they could start at the upcoming G20 summit?

By: Obama Against The Odds « The Baseline Scenario

Obama Against The Odds « The Baseline Scenario — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:00:28 +0000

[...] of the important issues are on the table or even allowed in the building: changing the European Central Bank’s monetary policy, persuading European politicians to [...]

By: adios amigos

adios amigos — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:46:21 +0000

Ron,
Our pension managers trusted the ratings agencies – the US ratings agencies, who were rating US mortgage products, placed on homes in the US, purchased by US citizens, with mortgage products originated by US mortgage lenders who often didn’t verify ANY of the claims made by the borrowers when they filled out the mortgage applications, and as it turned out…..amazingly….they often lied. Here’s a concept for you, when you have made massive mistakes, it’s best to just admit you screwed up. But that’s not what Americans typically do. Can you say George Bush? Their are a few who say this disaster was intentional. I don’t know that for a fact, so I don’t say that. What is certain however, is that when you control 25% of global GDP, well, that title comes with certain responsibilities. What happened here though showed very little, if any, responsibility. The bottom line though is that there is a global imbalance in finance, manufacturing and trade. It’s off-kilter. If the US wants to consume, it must manufacture more, and import less “stuff”. We are not helping you by forever and blindly financing your deficits. Your politicians cannot control themselves when they see money on the table – it’s the nature of the beast. We, the people, have to afford them the opportunity to do the right thing going forward and somehow cap what they can spend. And no more deficits…period. That’s not our generations money to spend. The Chinese have got to knuckle under and start consuming more, and allow their currency to trade freely as well. I think they may realize that now….they screwed themselves in the long run, they realize that now. Their currency reserves are about to be inflated away to nothing. Oops. The good news is, that these issues are not so big that they cannot be solved, and probably faster than most people think at this moment in time. The other good news is, that this shit-storm has occured across the whole planet. No one wins if this isn’t solved, and fast. In the long run, this current situation will mean changes. Big ones perhaps. This mess was inevitable, as we shifted gears towards globalization, and more trade back and forth between countries. Had to happen. In time, and not much time, the people will demand, and more importantly, the markets will demand a resoloution. ALL parties will realize that they all have to make changes. Their will be a lot of bickering and finger pointing (like we do here), but in the end, the world trade markets will demand a solution. Compromises. America has to go back to making “stuff”, like you use to 20-years ago. More monufacturing, but the unions will have to calm down a lot. Ya can’t pay a guy $50 per hour to bolt a fender on a Chevy, and expect that to have a happy ending. And your taxes must be equitable. Your government budgets must be constitutionally mandated to be balanced. PERIOD. No deficits. Thats killing you.

By: Ronny A

Ronny A — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:24:14 +0000

Tom,
It had been published some time ago that the pension funds of some Norwegian municipalities (probably, some companies as well – but I don’t have a clue about the Norwegian pension system details) had been largely invested in CDOs. Looks like adios amigos was a participant in one of these. I really feel bad for him, but instead of taking to task his pension account managers and demanding the whole pension scheme to be changed (say, insured by the government like PBGC here does) he blames the Americans en masse for causing his trouble. It is always easier to find a distant “other” and blame him for all your problems. Fortunately – the Americans are brought up not to do this. I think we here would have faulted the fund manager had he invested all our money into Norwegian mortgages that suddenly went sour… [I am not saying they would - Scandinavian real estate market are quite different from ours - but say the ones in Ireland and Spain are at least as overvalued]
And btw “American Idol” is watched in 16% of the households… and I don’t know much about Norwegian pop-culture, but in the most of Europe it is as mindless, tasteless and violent (frequently) as it is here. And btw we don’t have violence at the soccer games…

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:04:31 +0000

Adios:
I found the responses I received from my representatives to be less than satisfactory so I doubt they were “quaking in their boots”. I have sent emails but the responses were similar. You seem to be suggesting armed revolution and this seems to be a last resort possibility. Now that we are brainstorming, can you think of something else that is less likely to get me killed or thrown in jail? Since I don’t have a job, I have plenty of time to do something but I want it to be something that has some chance of success. I don’t watch TV and have never seen American Idol. Can you tell me what it is about?
Did you know that it is very difficult to find products for sale in this country that are not made in China? Nevertheless, most of what I own is not made there – I check before I buy. Do you buy things made in China?

By: adios amigos

adios amigos — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:29:56 +0000

Gee Tom, you wrote to them, huh? Well, that letter must have had your Congressman trembling with fear. An actual letter, huh? Very brave of you to actually send him a letter. Are you going to e-mail him next? I know! Send a “Letter To The Editor” of the newspaper too. That always gets the attention of your politicians. I think all of you in America ought to actually wait until you have been completely bankrupted before you march into Washington, armed, and start lining up the Politicians and related criminals and hold “Trials”. READ THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Compare all of the complaints your founding fathers had about the King Of England, and then compare it to what is going on in your country right now. It’ll really amaze you, the similarities. But you won’t do that will you. Can’t. No time…..Gotta go watch American Idol on that new flat screen HDTV (Made in China).

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:53:09 +0000

Adios:
Please allow me to answer your questions and elaborate further. We do not have any foreign-based military bases on our soil. I want our government to close down the military bases we have in Europe and Japan and anywhere else they are not wanted or needed. I also want our government to stop the endless wars that accomplish nothing except run up our deficits, kill innocent people, and engender more hatred towards us. I too want to see the financial criminals brought to justice. I was opposed to the bailouts. I’ve written to my political representatives expressing my views and when I do get a response, I get a generic form letter thanking me for my interest in this “very important issue”. I vote for candidates that appear to most closely share my views. If you have any other suggestions for me, I would be happy to hear them.
Our government tells lies, distorts the truth, and withholds information when they want to embark on an agenda that they feel will be politically unpopular if its true nature was revealed.
This has happened more than once in my lifetime and it mystifies me why people do not catch on. I think they remain in denial. However, it says something about the character of the American people when the government thinks it needs to hide the truth. I am sad to say that this is not the America that I was raised to believe in.