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

Pig Lips

Greetings good citizen,

If you thought the wheels were ready to come flying off this rickety old broken down economy wouldn’t you step up the spending to prepare for a time when you couldn’t spend even if you wanted to?

Worse, wouldn’t the nincompoops who monitor and misdiagnose the economy all of the time say it was something stupid like the consumer is through deleveraging’…so now we can all take on more debt and everything will be just marvelous…(until we find ourselves overextended again!)

For the first time since the Great Recession hit, American households are taking on more debt than they are shedding, an epochal shift that might augur a more resilient recovery.

Many American households had cut back spending on cars, food and other goods.

For two of the last three quarters, American households’ total outstanding borrowing on things like credit cards, mortgages and auto loans has increased after falling for 14 consecutive quarters before then. Some economists even see an end to the long, hard process of deleveraging — as they refer to the cutting of debt relative to income or the nation’s economic output. That process, they say, has been a central reason for the extraordinary sluggishness of the recovery.

“We’re at an inflection point,” said Kevin Logan, the chief United States economist for HSBC. “Debt is less of a burden” for households, he said.

Closely watched economic figures released Friday underscore households’ nascent sense of strength. Despite tepid growth and still-high unemployment, consumer confidence has soared to a five-year high, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan. And economic growth numbers for the third quarter showed household spending picking up pace as well.

Let’s look at the facts for a moment good citizen, prices are rising and nobody is getting pay increases…add the push to the shove of a family has to live and you’ve got ‘increased debt!’.

Now wait a minute, numbnuts SAYS people are taking on debt to finance things they were doing without…like transportation.

You know ‘wheels under your ass’ is part of the equation that makes up the debt cycle, right?

You get a job so you can have the things you need to live. If you can’t get to the job you don’t get paid and a whole avalanche of bad things happen. So spending money on cars is considered a necessity (despite being charged an ‘excise tax’…which translates directly into a ‘luxury tax’ because the butt-head capitalist thinks you don’t NEED a car to get to work!

You COULD ride a horse!

Now, almost nobody rides horses as ‘basic transportation’ these days yet everybody gets charged excise tax on their automobile as if they did (or could if they wanted to.)

Just another example of the flawed thinking that has led to the mismanagement of our civilization.

You know, the capitalists do get ONE THING RIGHT…it is the assertion of ‘how can we expect you to do the big things right when you can’t manage to do the little things correctly?’

Which is to opine that we have overwhelming evidence of their incompetence…what’s taking so long putting corrective action in place?

And you’d (rightly) ask ‘What corrective action?’ Belaboring the obvious fact that nothing is being done to correct the imbalances throughout our civilization so nothing is ‘getting better’ regardless of what these scatter-brains say!

So what about you, good citizen? Do YOU think the tapped out US consumer is ‘on the mend?’

And would your belief do anything to affect reality?

Short answer, no.

How long would you continue to ‘believe’ while the situation continues to go ‘downhill’? As poverty rises and desperation becomes widespread would you allow yourself to be ‘deluded’ by those paid to lie to you?

As this train wreck progresses we are increasingly going to see pigs wearing so much lipstick you won’t be able to tell what the hell they are.

And THAT will be pointed to as more evidence of the non-existent recovery!

Um, enough is enough and it’s time to put this post to bed.

You deserve a break,

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Trust No One

Greetings good citizen,

While I would like to say otherwise, the global economy is still locked in a death spiral.

Not that you’d know this looking at the stock markets (being artificially propped up by ‘quantitative easing’, which makes share prices rise while everything else (like the value of cash) is cut to shreds.

If I were you I’d be extremely worried about the handful of people who have boatloads more cash than they will ever need.

Because there’s something afoot and it doesn’t bode well for those of us considering forming a resistance movement.

If you haven’t printed out your personal copy of ‘A Simple Plan’ you may want to do it soon, it will be too late once they crash the web.

Oh, and I wouldn’t count on my surviving the purge. I don’t live in a particularly hospitable climate and winter is coming on.

More than a few of us will freeze to death this winter but the corporate owned media will only report the demise of the occasional elderly shut in who lost utilities during a storm.

They don’t want you to know that many people are left to their own devices due to the, er, ‘imbalances’ in our system of commerce.

No job means no food and no money to pay for heat.

But hey, as long as YOU’RE warm and well fed, who gives a crap about the tens of millions of jealous people the system refuses to provide for?

Um, in case you’re wondering…the one who cares had best be YOU…because it is YOUR house they’ll be breaking into and YOUR food they’ll be eating while they turn YOUR thermostat up to 90, just to get the chill out of their bones.

And you won’t dial 911…because you and yours will be dead long before the cops can arrive.

What was today’s stat? There are 20,000 homeless children living in NYC…but that’s only an estimate because 65% of the people seeking shelter in NYC are TURNED AWAY!

Can’t afford a Mc Mansion in a gated, security patrolled community?

YOU are the one who will pay for a system that has disenfranchised nearly fifty percent of the population…

So it is YOU who will die thanks to the >One Percent.

And you know what their reaction will be?

“It’s not our fault you can’t afford to live in a ‘better neighborhood’!”

But I, naturally, digress.

Let’s head back onto the reservation for a quick look at the news they wanted you to know…

Stocks Down for the Day but Up for the Quarter
By REUTERS 42 minutes ago

Wall Street finished its best third quarter since 2010, but signs of weakness in the economy on Friday pushed stocks lower.

Um, if you’re wondering where the paragraphs above came from, this first story did it.

YOU need to be made aware of the danger the shredding of our society holds for the average individual.

One of the other news item I stumbled upon yesterday informed me that one of the most destitute places in the nation, Camden, NJ had dismissed it’s police department due to a ‘lack of funds’.

Um, don’t look now good citizen but there are hundreds of Camdens out there.

Not a week goes by with out word that another municipality has gone or is going under.

WHY do YOU suppose this is happening?

Can you say mismanagement?

How about a nice ‘conspiracy theory?

Alec isn’t ‘new’ but it IS everywhere…and the people YOU elect that make laws in your name without EVER consulting YOU are using YOUR TRUST to bind you in HELL.

YOU have to LIVE (if you can manage that) in the HELL THEY make for you…because YOU were stupid enough to vote for them!

Which only makes stories like this one all too familiar:

DealBook
Bank of America to Pay $2.43 Billion to Settle Suit Over Merrill Deal
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and SUSANNE CRAIG 3:22 PM ET

Bank of America announced on Friday that it would pay $2.43 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit related to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

Um, I don’t know about anybody else but it seems to me that BOA taking over the ‘thundering herd’ was a pretty rotten deal all the way around…so why are they getting slapped with a class action suit?

And they must have been at least partially guilty or they wouldn’t be agreeing to pay two and a half BILLION dollars to ‘settle’ the suit.

Which is also to point out that I am glad I am NOT one of THEIR customers…’cuz that 2.5 billion is coming from somewhere…

Maybe Turbo Timmy will just cut a check for the full amount…he can do that, right?

We CAN’T let one of the TBTF banks get saddled with that kind of debt, especially in a time when the entire global banking system is collapsing!

Spain Needs $76 Billion to Recapitalize Its Banks, Audit Finds
By RAPHAEL MINDER 7:31 PM ET

The independent banking assessment was well below the potential 100 billion euros, or $128.6 billion, in bailout money Spain negotiated with the euro zone in June.

Um, I just want you to be aware that when the economy of the world collapses, it will happen quickly and most likely without warning.

It will be ‘here today and gone tomorrow…although the more familiar phrase of here one minute and gone the next will probably more accurately describe how it will go down.

The important thing to remember is to not lose your head.

Keep your eyes open and trust no one.

Thanks for letting me inside our head,

Gegner

Disarm

Greetings good citizen,

What’s up with the stupid Batman thing? Like the High School shooters we are never given an explanation as to why kids with their whole lives ahead of them decide to ‘Hari Kari’ and take as many of their classmates with them as they can.

This, idiotically, feeds calls for ‘gun control’. Like ‘Jacko the Whacko’ wouldn’t have gotten his hands on the guns regardless of the law…

Right.

There are certain aspects of this crime that raise one’s eyebrows…like where does a kid get that much free cash? (Ammunition ‘averages’ fifty cents a round and Bobo bought and paid for six thousand of ‘em.)

That’s a ‘chunk of change’ no matter how you look at it. We have people preparing for Armageddon that don’t have that much ammo laid aside!

[When all hell breaks loose you won’t have to buy ammo; you ‘ll be able to pick it up for free from the dead.]

The corporate owned media is focused on the gun control issue, the, er, ‘other guys’ are all over the chart flailing like mad… but this particular article takes a fairly balanced point of view.

The US government considers “eco-terrorism” the greatest terrorist threat in our country. The evidence suggests this is not the case. Most people who struggle with mental illness do not act out in violence. Some convicted terrorists said to be “obviously” mentally ill do not have a diagnostic condition recognized by the medical community; while juries convict terrorists who display clear signs of mental distress. What if the few terrorists who are mentally ill are like the mine canaries, warning us of something toxic spreading the fumes of anxiety through our society?

Even the definition of the term terrorism is hotly disputed and politically-biased. Not all acts of violence—even political violence—are necessarily forms of terrorism. A broad generic definition of terrorism is using force or the threat of force to harm or intimidate civilians to advance a political or social objective. Using this definition, terrorism can be carried out by individuals, groups, or states. It can be a methodology used by the weak against the powerful, or the powerful against the weak. It can be aimed at persons or property. Using this definition, in the Middle East, suicide bombers targeting Jews and Israelis and the Israeli government shelling of Palestinian towns are both acts of terrorism.

The U.S. government rejects this definition in favor of one that assumes nation states cannot be engaged in terrorism. This is self-serving, since it excludes from “terrorism” US drone attacks that kill non-combatant citizens in foreign countries. It also excludes the World War II carpet bombing of the German city of Dresden in February 1945, and the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

You can tack the highest suicide rate ever for all of the servicemen and women trapped by ‘stop-loss’ in the never-ending conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You don’t suppose this is a factor weighing heavily on the minds of those dwelling in the economic desert formerly called the Mid-West?

We would be justified in assuming that this kid, like the kids in Columbine and Virginia Tech might have been ‘recruited’ by some covert organization to instigate calls for a weapons ban.

Otherwise this bullshit makes ZERO sense.

Um, just like the covert agency that has bought our electoral process, the same ‘criminals’ would be very interested indeed in ‘disarming the peasants’…preferably before same said peasants came after said criminals for crimes against society.

But that’s just ‘crazy talk’, right?

There aren’t any fringe groups out there looking to disarm the public, guns are just plain dangerous, right?

Unless you need one…then it’s a different story.

What do you suppose the victims of the holocaust would have done if they were armed?

Might not have been quite so easy to exterminate ‘em if they could shoot back.

Worse, good citizen, it is probably the only thing preventing them from rounding up the ‘dissidents’ right now.

Gun control is being able to hit your target…

When guns are outlawed, only criminals will have guns.

Take a good look at our society and ask yourself if you believe for one second that the ‘One Percent’ aren’t all packing?

You know they are!

And they have already made it known that they think YOU are a waste of perfectly good butt-wipe.

Do you really want to deny yourself the ability to defend you life and the lives of those you love because some whacko got a gun and went berserk in public?

NO LAW can ‘protect you’ from that…but if just one of those moviegoers had a piece, the whole situation probably would have turned out quite differently…

Think about it.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner