Uncertainty...

Greetings good citizen,

As we slog forward into an uncertain future those who would drive our civilization over a cliff to mask their crimes against humanity care not what happens after that.

My advice, as always, is to prepare. (And NOT like the idiots on ‘doomsday preppers’ who obviously have a screw loose…besides being decidedly homicidal! If you need further convincing that the world after the collapse is going to be uncommonly hazardous, watch the show!) Hint: it’s the trigger happy preppers you have to watch out for! Stumble upon their ‘hide’ and they will open fire first and ask questions afterwards!

In a flicker of insight on an otherwise direction-less horizon we have this article that belabors the obvious in a couple of directions…

Our Economic Pickle
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

The debt-ceiling debate is unlikely to alter one major factor contributing to income inequality: stagnant wages.

Now that it is ‘on the table’, who (and how) will the issue of ‘stagnant wages’ be addressed?

‘Employers’ have no problems raising their prices in pace with inflation (driving inflation ever upwards) but are ‘strangely reluctant’ to raise their ‘employee/customers’ purchasing power.

The ‘strategy’ could be called ‘out-waiting the competition’, the longer they wait to raise their employees pay, the more they keep for themselves.

Ultimately, your NOT being paid a living wage is being driven by the ‘owners desire’ to wax rich (at, ultimately, ALL of our expense.)

It’s lower prices we don’t pay and fair wages you don’t get, because the idiots who sign your paycheck follow their mother’s advice and PAY THEMSELVES FIRST!

Funny how this advice isn’t so sound when you put it into this context, is it? It creates a ‘penny-wise and pound-foolish’ situation that is crumbling all around us as we sit here contemplating how we got ourselves into such a, as the article calls it, ‘Pickle’?

We will see in the article after this next one who WON’T be working to save us from employer greed

But the other article first:

News Analysis
The Low Politics of Low Growth
By ANNIE LOWREY

What if it is the weak economy that is driving the fiscal failures in Washington?

How odd is it that the question answers itself? (But this can be attributed to the ‘muzzle’ the ‘write for hire’ crowd is forced to wear.)

I find it astounding that our, and let’s face it, none of them has a grip on reality, ‘politicians’ continue to flog the concept of ‘perpetual growth’ as the key to future prosperity.

How can you ‘grow’ when there has been NOTHING ‘new’ since Pong? Every other technological marvel is merely the ‘fleshing out’ of potential that was already there.

So ‘exporting jobs’ (to make it more profitable for the ‘owner’) also doesn’t encourage (local) economic growth. It really only serves to make the owner richer than he/she deserves to be.

But are our politicians focused on their ‘primary job’ of managing our civilization for the benefit of our species?

Let’s have a look:

TOP NEWS
Obama Will Seek Citizenship Path in One Fast Push
By JULIA PRESTON

President Obama and lawmakers from the two parties believe that their best chances for passing substantial legislation on immigration will come early in his second term.

Like healthcare, NOBODY is looking for a ‘solution’ to an already over-populated, far too competitive job market!

It’s been opined that this (European satellite) was built by ‘immigrants’. (It was even somewhat true when most of the immigrants hailed from Europe…)

Not that providing EMPLOYERS with a ‘cheaper labor pool’ to exploit is ever a justification to ‘streamline’ the immigration process, especially when you get a load of how they intend to go about it.

You’ll get your ‘citizenship’ all right but first you’ll have to do your military service. You will be sent to foreign lands, meet new, interesting people and kill them.

What used to be scabs to keep the factories humming (cheaply) will become fodder for the endless wars the capitalists wage, merely to keep the population (and by extension, the unemployment rate down.)

There won’t be any ‘resource wars’. Resources are all sold openly on the (alleged) ‘free markets’ so what’s to ‘fight’ over?

Even the current conflict in the Middle East is over a police problem that should have been handled ‘internally’ by local law enforcement.

BUT NO! Our (block-headed) government had to use military force instead of foreign aid and providing foreign governments the tools to handle the problems itself.

Worse, our (rogue) government supports criminal regimes like the Israelis who openly subjugate the former inhabitants of the nation they now ‘occupy’ and use military force to maintain the upper hand, in open defiance of international law…not that ‘respect for the law’ is real strong here either.

But that’s another issue altogether as the ‘over fifty crowd' prepares to fight for its survival!

BUSINESS
Over 50, and Under No Illusions
By CAITLIN KELLY

Many people aged 55 to 64, who had been dreaming of easy retirement, have had to remake their lives to find work during the recession and its aftermath.

As many of us close in on the ‘finish line’ of our professional careers (most of them in tatters…the careers and our humble selves.) We are encountering the above mentioned ‘lawlessness’ that offers us no recourse to what is likely to turn into a very deadly confrontation.

While we have long lamented the ‘rudderless’ condition of our crumbling society, this was no accident. It didn’t ‘wear out’, it was snapped off by those who could (through manipulation) afford to ‘buy’ the justice system…(something many will pay dearly for because so many already have!)

Note how the capitalist credo is parroted here in the headline. How the ‘over fifty crowd’ are (unsuccessfully) ‘making themselves useful’ as they ‘sprint’ (more like limp/drag) themselves toward a finish line that (mysteriously) keeps backing away! (So a wretched few can be rich…)

Yes, good citizen, we’re all going to be each other’s ‘financial advisors’ and manage each other’s money and sell each other houses neither of us can afford.

With those ‘encouraging words’ I thank you for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Voting with their wallets...

Greetings good citizen,

Happy Saturday! (A day of ‘respite’ in the bad old days of the seventy plus hour week without any ‘overtime’ pay.)

How sad is it that these days you can’t get 40 hours and paying overtime will get some managers fired! (Weirdly, that part hasn’t changed…)

And yes, thanks to the ‘elimination’ of the Blue Laws (seems the founders didn’t completely separate the Church from the State, the Church, up until forty years ago, kept ‘Sabbath’ legislation in place.

We won’t even go into the ‘coincidences’ (The Jews celebrate the sabbath on Saturday and the ‘Sun-worshippers’ keep ‘Sun-day’ as their sabbath!)

How the Christians, who are basically Jews that believe their ‘savior’ has already come…(and now anxiously await his return.) As opposed to the orthodox Jew, who is still waiting for the savior to arrive for the first time…

Well, how did those two groups ended up shifting the sabbath from Saturday to Sunday remains pretty much a mystery.

Maybe they wanted to ‘break from tradition’…and this from a guy who has no truck with ‘Spirit in the Sky’.

The ‘good’ and the ‘evil’ are BOTH within YOU!

Since I didn’t start off writing a post about superstition (although the main topic borders on it…) I need to ‘re-wind’ and start over.

While the pundits on both side of the issue have prostrated themselves, attempting to convince the rest of us that ‘guns’ should be ‘restricted’

The public in general is (in typical capitalist fashion) ‘voting with their wallets.’

TOP NEWS
Sales of Guns Soar in U.S. as Nation Weighs Tougher Limits
By MICHAEL COOPER

The rapid growth in gun sales began after President Obama's re-election and surged after the Dec. 14 shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn.

The ‘anti-gunners’ will claim this is the knee-jerk reaction of ‘a few’ loony radicals, saying the numbers aren’t high enough to prove conclusively that ‘everybody’ (or even a majority of the population) is ‘girding their loins’.

But have you checked out the prices on weapons lately?

They sure aren’t giving them away…Which is to say the ‘heat or eat crowd’ may WANT to ‘improve their security picture’ but for the most part can’t.

Even a battered Saturday Night Special represents a week’s worth of food for people living on the edge (of starvation.)

The people buying guns can be divided into two groups. These are people who have ‘talked about’ getting a gun for a long time but haven’t done anything about it because they couldn’t justify the expense. (Never mind hit the broad side of a barn, but that’s another issue entirely!)

These are the ‘would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it’ crowd.

The second group are people who have been considering ‘upgrading their firepower’ since their initial purchase of a weapon after (one of) the recent massacres.

9 mm have loads of penetration power but almost no knock down power, that’s why police forces have been switching to 10’s.

Most people can take a couple of 9mm slugs and still keep running…for a while (and those fat boys want you to stop!)

Which brings us to the second part of our, er, ‘discussion’.

Who is ‘safe’ to be armed?

The front page of the local rag could be re-named to read as the daily exploits of ‘Cops behaving badly’.

Hardly a week goes by without somebody in uniform (and half the time it’s the Chief!) getting caught doing something outside the bounds of or in direct conflict with their position of authority and the public trust.

I think we’d all breathe a sigh of relief if we started by disarming those clowns (making the job like that of the English Bobby) but you know that ain’t going to happen.

Take away the guns and you might as well declare ‘open season’ on the banks!

And I will remind you once again that the police force IS NOT there to protect YOU. It exists to protect THE ONE PERCENT(s)! (Er, ‘interests’, it’s their bank you’re robbing or their plant you’re pilfering from!)

But I digress…

Now we cross into the delicate area of military veterans and the stunning number of them who parrot the deeply disturbing credo ‘my country RIGHT OR WRONG!’

Is it just me or is this evidence of our leadership’s determination to harvest the youth of this nation and convert them into mindless killing machines?

Is anyone else disturbed by the high number of mentally stressed soldiers who return from (pointless) foreign service on the very edge of snapping?

War isn’t a career choice…but that isn’t how the reckless and self-centered ‘One Percent’ sees it.

If not for the military, our ‘unemployment problem’ would be even worse than it is!

And what is the One Percent’s ‘solution’ to the unemployment problem?

More War!

Let’s back up a step and re-examine ‘why’ there is a ‘surge’ in the number of people purchasing personal defense weapons.

You don’t suppose they see what I see, do you? A society coming ‘unraveled’ before their eyes?

Could it all be as simple as ‘Gun Rules’ (The one with the gun makes the rules…you’ve all seen enough suspense movies to know how this one ends. How sad is it that the one with the gun has seen the movies too…making him that much more likely to kill you before that incredible lucky break happens that allows the 'hero' to overpower him.)

How ironic is it that you don't need a gun until you do? (Worse, when this need presents itself, usually it is desperate!)

Bang, bang, good citizen.

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 fuckers 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

Business as usual

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

Problem, What Problem?

Greetings good citizen,

It turns out if you keep playing with the web address tool you can eventually get something it will accept…which is why the ‘new’ (firewall-less) site is not Civics 101 but Civics 202.

A Simple Plan remains behind the firewall for the moment while I let the new site ‘come up to speed’.

How ironic is it that A Simple Plan has twice the number of Russian readers than it has US?

They have seen the worst of both (economic operating systems) and are more open minded than the typical ‘patriotic’ US citizen.

Well, I’m going to see how the new site ‘draws’ before I open up the ‘main attraction.’

Those who have been ‘told’ they already live ‘in paradise’ are oddly resistant to new ideas, even new ideas that ‘fix’ long standing injustices in the old ways…

But we really start walking the tightrope when we get into determining ‘what is ‘injustice’ and ‘who decides’.

It is a mystery to no one that the One Percent decide, they are the sole arbiters of ‘what is just’

It is their viewpoint that YOU are incapable of understanding what it’s like to be them, you aren’t ‘smart’ enough (probably how wealth and brains came to be equated when they have nothing to do with one another!)

So what are to make of our first headline?

A Bold Dissenter at the Fed, Hoping His Doubts Are Wrong
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

Jeffrey M. Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in Virginia, has warned that the central bank’s efforts to stimulate growth are ineffective.

Economix Blog: The Great Dissenters

One need not be the president of a Federal Reserve Bank to realize (5 years after the fact) that the Fed’s ‘stimulus’ has had zero impact on ‘growth’. But that would be missing the whole point of calling the exercise ‘stimulus’.

What the Fed has been doing has nothing to do with ‘stimulating’ the global economy, what the Fed has done is to stabilize a badly broken global banking system.

How sad is it good citizen that despite trillions pumped in (and billions leaking out as ‘bonuses’) it is still broken beyond repair!

So what are we to make of this Fed President’s assertion?

He’s correct, but what are they supposed to do?

Cut off the stimulus and the global banking system collapses, pretty much immediately.

In a related story we are asked how ‘credible’ this situation is:

James A. Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington believes that recent online attacks on American banks have been the work of Iran.

Bank Hacking Was the Work of Iranians, Officials Say
By NICOLE PERLROTH and QUENTIN HARDY

The skill required to execute the attacks convinced American officials that Iran was behind them, likely in retaliation for economic sanctions and online attacks by the United States.

After being, er, ‘hoodwinked’ into a ten year long war by one desk of ‘the office for strategic studies’ chasing imaginary ‘Weapons of Mass destruction’ (for which no one was ever prosecuted, by the way.)

We are now being presented with ‘Quid Pro Quo’; we levied sanctions on Tehran so they ‘retaliated’ by hacking the (decidedly corrupt) US banking system…

With all of the chicanery going on in the TBTF banking network, how the heck can they tell? (It was ‘hacked’ and not outright theft or fraud?)

Short answer, they can’t!

For our next trick:

Former Analyst Cooperates in Insider Trading Case
By PETER LATTMAN 9:57 AM ET

Wesley Wang, a former analyst at SAC Capital Advisors, the hedge fund, has given federal agents the names of about 20 people that he said engaged in insider trading.

Or ‘touche’ as they say in fencing!

Of course ‘one incident’ isn’t proof that our whole financial network is corrupt…but it’s been more than one incident, in fact it’s been a long string of them ever since Saint Ronnie (Reagan) ‘privatized’ the healthcare system, unleashing a juggernaut!

Fund Titans Battle Over Herbalife
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED 29 minutes ago

Daniel S. Loeb’s Third Point disclosed that it had acquired more than 8.2 percent of the nutritional supplements company. That puts him at odds with his friend, William A. Ackman.

How sad is it good citizen that the ‘titans of capitalism’ have been reduced to squaring off over control of a MLM network?

Well, as they say, you just can’t make this stuff up. That said, how’s that future looking to you now?

HSBC Sale of $9.4 Billion Ping An Stake in Jeopardy
By DAVID BARBOZA and KEITH BRADSHER 57 minutes ago

The British bank HSBC’s bid to sell its stake in China’s Ping An group is in jeopardy after China Development Bank decided not to finance a large part of the transaction.

Um, not for nothing but 9 billion balloons is still a lot of cake even in these days when everything is measured in billions (millions are for pikers.) Worse, I’ve never heard of the Ping An group (but I’m going to assume it’s not the guys who make the popular brand of golf clubs…although I might be wrong!)

And speaking of trouble from across the Pacific:

A 787 had to be towed back to the gate Tuesday in Boston because of a fuel leak. On Monday, a parked 787 caught on fire.
Dreamliner Is Troubled by Questions About Safety
By JAD MOUAWAD 5:34 AM ET

All Nippon Airways canceled a domestic flight on Wednesday after a computer on board a 787 Dreamliner erroneously showed problems with the aircraft’s brakes.

Capitalism at its finest! Buyer BEWARE!!!

Once again we see the folly of ‘sold to the lowest bidder’ when it comes to producing complex objects that must work in harmony with one another!

The Dreamliner was 3 YEARS behind schedule due to the inability of the engineers to deal with problems continents away. Sometimes ‘tele-conferencing’ just doesn’t cut it.
But hey that’s capitalism for ya, if the product doesn’t float/fly it’s not management’s fault, they aren’t engineers!

Um, does anyone else have a problem with this?

I have no need to fly…and for that I am grateful!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

New page!

Greetings good citizen,

in a move that has 'asshole' stamped all over it I am going to ask you to follow the link to the new 'firewall-less' website

If you don't like the idea of 'open water' I sympathize.

Later tonight I will post today's offering here.

Thanks for your co-operation...

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.

and should AIG ‘win’ its case against the US, I propose the judge be lynched on the spot with extreme prejudice as well as 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.

And, naturally, doesn’t this beg 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. Considering the price of 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

Postscript: was unable to post a 'new' blog on blogger...apparently the 'autofill' feature on the address bar isn't working so I'll let you know where the 'new' blog lands!