Mon 2010-07-19 16:30 EDT

US gripped with offshore economy

Jobs are becoming scarcer and scarcer particularly in the United States. Is it cyclical or is it structural? Is it something that America has completely turned its back on in a way that could potentially be a factor for decades going forward? Max Keiser discusses this issue with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts...Keiser: Andy Grove, the co-founder of Intel has just written an opinion piece for Bloomberg that has totally vindicated your long held argument against outsourcing American jobs...What is left in the arsenal to fight for jobs? Roberts:Nothing, one of the reasons they like offshoring is to destroy the unions so that's one of the reasons free market economists and corporations are so keen on offshoring, it destroys the unions...the only jobs that have been created in the 21st century in America are domestic service jobs like waiters, bartenders, hospital orderlies, construction workers, real estate, they are continuing to lose manufacture jobs, and not creating jobs for scientists and engineers and this has now been going on for a decade...What the US is going through is a process of disdevelopment of becoming an undeveloped economy; it's the opposite of economic development going on in the US...

grip; Offshored Economy.

Wed 2010-05-19 13:23 EDT

Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash (Update1)

...a nationwide conspiracy in which financial advisers to municipalities colluded with Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Wachovia Corp. and 11 other banks... rigged bids on auctions for so-called guaranteed investment contracts, known as GICs, according to a Justice Department list that was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24 and then put under seal. Those contracts hold tens of billions of taxpayer money...The workings of the conspiracy -- which stretched from California to Pennsylvania and included more than 200 deals involving about 160 state agencies, local governments and non- profits -- can be pieced together from the Justice Department's indictment of CDR, civil lawsuits by governments around the country, e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News and interviews with current and former bankers and public officials. "The whole investment process was rigged across the board," said Charlie Anderson, who retired in 2007 as head of field operations for the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond division. "It was so commonplace that people talked about it on the phones of their employers and ignored the fact that they were being recorded." Anderson said he referred scores of cases to the Justice Department when he was with the IRS. He estimates that bid rigging cost taxpayers billions of dollars...

Banks Rigging States Came; conspiracy; Crash; Update1.

Tue 2010-05-11 09:02 EDT

Barofsky Says Criminal Charges Possible in Alleged AIG Coverup - Bloomberg.com

Richard Teitelbaum

...The TARP watchdog [Neil Barofsy] has also criticized Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner in reports and in congressional testimony for his handling of the process by which insurance giant American International Group Inc. was saved from insolvency in 2008, when Geithner was head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The secrecy that enveloped the deal was unwarranted, Barofsky says, adding that his probe of an alleged New York Fed coverup in the AIG case could result in criminal or civil charges. In Senate Finance Committee testimony on April 20, Barofsky said SIGTARP would investigate seven AIG-linked mortgage-related securities similar to Abacus 2007-AC1, the instrument underwritten by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that is at the center of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed against the investment bank on April 16...

Alleged AIG Coverup; Barofsky Says Criminal Charges Possible; Bloomberg; com.

naked capitalism Thu 2010-04-22 18:57 EDT

More Evidence of Lack of Competitiveness of Many Chinese Exporters

...From Bloomberg: The profits of China's makers of household appliances, automobiles and cell phones may plunge by between 30 percent and 50 percent if the Chinese currency were to strengthen by 3 percent, according to a state media report. Small and medium-size exporters with low price-negotiating powers will face losses and may even go out of business, according to the Xinhua News Agency's Economic Information Daily newspaper, citing the results of a ``stress test.'' ... Richard Kline: ...Not that it matters at all for US manufacturing whether the renminbi notches up or not. Because wealth enterprises in the US don't really give a damn about their host country. Low-value added assembly will simply flow to Vietnam, Bangaladesh, back to Mexico, or the like. An industrial policy presupposes a political policy. And the malefactors of great wealth have complete control of US governmental policy, as we see, and not the least interest in investing in their host country. Great wealth here is parasitical, in a word. Fuddling about with currency rates won't change the political equation at all.

Chinese exports; competitions; evidence; lack; naked capitalism.

zero hedge Fri 2010-01-29 16:23 EST

AIG Timeline Of Events

For all who want to get up to speed on next week's political theater involving AIG, Tim Geithner, Goldman Sachs' Stephen Friedman, Goldman Sachs' Bill Dudley, Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, and the endless taxpayer bailouts, here is a terrific timeline for everything relevant to the AIG soap opera. Courtesy of Bloomberg.

AIG Timeline; events; Zero Hedge.

Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2009-12-01 22:19 EST

Mark Pittman, Investigative Journalist

Jesse

Mark Pittman, the award-winning investigative reporter whose fight to open the Federal Reserve to more scrutiny led Bloomberg News to sue the central bank and win, died Nov. 25 in Yonkers, New York. He was 52. ...``He was one of the great financial journalists of our time,'' said Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for economics. ``His death is shocking.''

investigation journalist; Jesse's Café Américain; Mark Pittman.

Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2009-11-03 19:36 EST

Obama's Economic Policy Has Doomed the US to Stagnation - Or Worse

Jesse

This was the very moment of Obama's failure, when he allowed Summers, Geithner and Bernanke to establish the principle of "Too Big To Fail" and set up a financial oligarchy at the expense of taxpayers. We would have expected this out of the Treasury under Hank Paulson, but to see this kind of policy error favoring Wall Street over the US taxpayers from a government elected on the promise of reform is inexcusable, a disgrace. ...(Bloomberg) Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the world's biggest economy is suffering because of the U.S. government's failure to nationalize banks during the financial crisis.

doomed; Jesse's Café Américain; Obama s economic policy; stagnated; worse.

Credit Writedowns Wed 2009-10-14 12:12 EDT

Currencies pegged to the dollar under pressure to drop peg

...as the dollar continues to weaken, those countries with pegs will be under pressure to drop their peg or to revalue their pegs higher. The Bloomberg video linked below explains. The dichotomy whereby the adjustment process is done only through free-floating currencies is inherently unstable -- and invites a nationalistic response. A busted peg in any major U.S. trading partner's currency is likely to have a very negative psychological impact on currency markets and severe knock-on effects... [dollar losing reserve status]

credit writedowns; currency pegs; Dollar; drop peg; pressures.

Calculated Risk Sat 2009-10-10 13:33 EDT

FHA Bailout Seen

CalculatedRisk

From Bloomberg: FHA Shortfall Seen at $54 Billion May Lead to Bailout...The Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages with low down payments, may require a U.S. bailout because of $54 billion more in losses than it can withstand, a former Fannie Mae executive said. ``It appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months,'' consultant Edward Pinto said in testimony prepared for a House committee hearing in Washington today. Pinto was the chief credit officer from 1987 to 1989 for Fannie Mae...

Calculated Risk; FHA Bailout Seen.

Jesse's Café Américain Fri 2009-09-04 18:58 EDT

Stiglitz on the Financial Crisis

Jesse

Joe Stiglitz describes the current financial crisis and prospective recovery quite well, and the conclusions he draws are remarkably similar to our own which is gratifying. It's good to hear these things from a distinguished Nobel laureate, and not just from your humble Propriétaire, while puttering over his daily bread. Bloomberg Stiglitz Says U.S. Economic Recovery May Not Be `Sustainable' By Michael McKee Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy faces a ``significant chance'' of contracting again after emerging from its worst recession since the 1930s, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said. ``It's not clear that the U.S. is recovering in a sustainable way,'' Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor, told reporters yesterday in New York.

Financial Crisis; Jesse's Café Américain; Stiglitz.

naked capitalism Fri 2009-09-04 18:45 EDT

Stiglitz Doubts Recovery Can Be Sustained

Joseph Stiglitz takes issue with the view of economists (well, economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, which not surprisingly have a Pollyannish optimistic streak) that the economy is in or on the verge of a recovery. ``In most quarters, there is a feeling we should move away from the dollar system. The question is do we do it in an orderly way, or a chaotic way,'' Stiglitz said. ``The size of the deficit and the size of the balance sheet of the Fed have just increased the anxiety and the desire that something be done...'' Between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Lehman Brothers was ``the short period of American triumphalism, where we dominated the global scene. That period is over,'' Stiglitz said.

naked capitalism; Stiglitz Doubts Recovery; sustained.

naked capitalism Sun 2009-08-30 14:53 EDT

Party Time! Wall Street Back to Its Old Highly Levered Ways

Bloomberg reports that Wall Street is back to its free-wheeling, high-levered ways. This is a classic example of moral hazard in action. Why worry about blowing up the bank when you know the taxpayer will bail you out?

naked capitalism; Old Highly Levered Ways; Party time; Wall Street.

Fri 2009-07-24 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Summers, Geithner Are Silent as IMF Loses Grip: William Pesek - Bloomberg.com

services; term.

Fri 2009-07-24 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Goldman Sachs Shareholders Rebuff Firm's Board for First Time - Bloomberg.com

services; term.

Tue 2009-06-16 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Summers Earned Millions in D.E. Shaw Salary, Bank Speech Fees - Bloomberg.com

services; term.

Wed 2009-06-10 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Russia, Brazil to Buy $20 Billion IMF Bonds, Diversify Reserves - Bloomberg.com; dollar losing reserve status

services; term.

Fri 2009-05-08 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Summers, Geithner Are Silent as IMF Loses Grip: William Pesek - Bloomberg.com; decoupling; asian crisis aftermath; asian monetary fund

services; term.

Fri 2009-05-08 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Global Crisis `Vastly Worse' Than 1930s, Taleb Says (Update1) - Bloomberg.com; ``Gold, copper and other assets that China will like are the best investment bets as currencies including the dollar and euro face pressures''

services; term.

Mon 2009-05-04 00:00 EDT

Terms of Service

Flawed Credit Ratings Reap Profits as Regulators Fail, by David Evans and Caroline Salas, Bloomberg.com; ``As the U.S. has spent, lent or pledged about $12.8 trillion in efforts to revive the slumping economy...no one has taken steps that would substantially fix a broken ratings system.''

services; term.

Sun 2008-11-23 00:00 EST

Calculated Risk: Bloomberg Sues Fed to Force Disclosure

Bloomberg Sues Fed; Calculated Risk; force disclosure.

Fri 2008-11-07 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: Bloomberg: Treasury Forces Nine Banks to Sell Perpetual Preferred to TARP

bank; Bloomberg; naked capitalism; Sell Perpetual Preferred; TARP; Treasury Forces.

Thu 2008-07-03 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil Probes Lehman-R3 Hedge Fund Relationship

Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil Probes Lehman-R3 Hedge Fund Relationship; naked capitalism.

Fri 2008-06-20 00:00 EDT

The Big Picture | Bloomberg: Can the Fed Cook Bear's Books?

Big Picture; Bloomberg; Fed Cook Bear's Books.

Thu 2008-06-19 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Bloomberg: Lehman Sold $5 Billion of Assets to Investee Hedge Fund

5; assets; Bloomberg; Investee Hedge Fund; Lehman sold; naked capitalism.

Fri 2008-06-06 00:00 EDT

Jesse's Café Américain: To Restore Our Economy the Banks Must Be Restrained

Jesse's Café Américain: To Restore Our Economy the Banks Must Be Restrained; Bloomberg commentary by Mark Gilbert, "Time to Put Investment Banking Back in Its Box"

bank; economy; Jesse's Café Américain; restore; Restrain.

Thu 2008-05-15 00:00 EDT

Jesse's Café Américain: We Can't Handle the Truth?

Jesse's Café Américain: We Can't Handle the Truth? Volcker testimony coverage on Bloomberg cut; ignored by other media outlets

handles; Jesse's Café Américain; truth.