Geithner Responds To HuffPost Readers On Banks, Compensation, Credit Default Swaps June 26, 2009
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Creative Innovations
“…Timothy Geithner… argued against the abolition of credit default swaps – one of the instruments that helped bring the financial system to its knees – saying such a move would stifle creativity in a market desperate for innovation…”
Huh? How is continuing a failed policy stifling creativity? Isn’t creativity about inventing newer, better products to replace old ones that don’t work? Keeping the credit default swaps makes about as much sense as Apple insisting on producing and selling Apple II’s. Who would want them? Maybe that is the lesson GM never learned. If it doesn’t sell, dump it and replace it with a new product that does.
More on Timothy Geithner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
The Bloodless Coup of the Global Financial Stability Board: From Guidelines to Rules June 26, 2009
Posted by zrants in 1, Economy.Tags: Financial regulations, global controls
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Ellen Brown on Huffington.
I’ve been following Ellen Brown for a few months and I’m pleased to see her here. She has a talent for dissecting the most complicated economic theories and laying them out for the layperson to see clearly.
Speculations on global manipulations by capitalists entities operating under the veil of government sponsored agencies is not a stretch when you take into account the unprecedented changes in the global markets we have witnessed in the last few months. The idea that the crisis was created by an international group of bankers seeking greater control of the political arena is not without merit. Consider the Bay of Pigs fiasco that Kennedy walked into.
Obama needs to tread carefully.
More on The Fed
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Single-Payer — A Plan to be Embraced, Not Feared June 24, 2009
Posted by zrants in Health.Tags: Single-Payer Health Care
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(an excerpt of an article by Herbert Hoffman opednews.com)
A single-payer health care plan, as embodied in H.R. 676, is what it says it is–it is a plan to fund universal health care by extending Medicare to all Americans. The primary role of the federal government will be to collect and disburse funds, a task it does well. This will be accomplished by accessing the following sources of funds which will end our current “regressive” funding system with a “progressive” one that is far more equitable and humane:
* current health care line-items in the federal budget
* repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy
* closing of tax loop holes for corporations
* five percent surcharge on annual income of more than $184,00 and a 10 percent surcharge on annual income of $280,000 or more
* 0.25 percent transfer tax for both buyers and sellers placed on all stock and bond sales
* 4.75 percent payroll tax paid by employer and employee
* a health care tax paid by those not taxed as an employee and who can afford to pay
* significant savings in overhead costs (up to 25% compared to insurance premiums)
Today employer and employee together pay more than $13,000 to provide insurance for the average family of four where the employee makes $50,000 with insurance providing far from comprehensive medical coverage. Under HR 676, employer and employee together will lay out $4,750 to cover that same $50,000 employee and family. In addition a single-payer plan will have no deductibles or co-pays, thus further reducing the costs to individuals and families and simultaneously increasing the level of coverage for millions of Americans.
Fixing Health Care Does Not Require a “Bi-Partisan” Bill — It Does Require a Public Health Insurance Option June 8, 2009
Posted by zrants in Economy, Health.add a comment
Voters are overwhelmingly in favor of a National Health Care option. What needs to be stressed is that employees who are currently covered by existing health care plans will have the option of switching their monthly payments into the new government health care plan. Those payments that are now going to the private insurance companies, will flow into the new plan that is set up to guarantee lower costs and better coverage for all Americans. If you deduct the need for huge profits for the health insurance companies, you should be able to stretch that money to cover a lot more people. This is what the backers of single payer and a government health care system are counting on and what the private insurance companies fear.
This is a no-brainer for Congress to pass. If they don’t pass it this time, they will have to find themselves some new jobs soon. The American people have no more “patience” for a broken health care system.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Goodbye, GM June 4, 2009
Posted by zrants in cars.add a comment
Here are a couple of other ideas for car manufacturers to consider to keep the their employees at work on cleaning up the problem they caused by their lack of foresight.
They could market conversion kits for their dealers to install to turn gasoline-powered vehicles into battery-operated ones. Small operators are doing this for around $4K. that price could be lowered and states such as California that pay drivers to junk their old cars could pay a portion of the conversion cost, instead of crushing them and shipping the remains overseas.
Maybe GM should consider closing their R&D department and buying or licensing one of the designs being manufactured by the boutique car companies who are already manufacturing alternative cars with existing technology, at least until they get out of the red. That appears to be the road Chrysler and Ford are taking.
Too many people own trucks that don’t need them. Dealers could offer trade-in deals for new small cars and rent out trucks for a few hours when people need a truck. Customers drive their car into the lot, park it for a few hours, days, or whatever, while they haul stuff and then return the truck and pick up their car. The key is to make it easy for people to make the changes they need to make.
Keep up your efforts they are appreciated. Can’t wait to hear your single-payer arguments for health care. That is where my energies are going.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Progressives Launch Effort To Force Obama’s Hand On Health Care June 3, 2009
Posted by zrants in Health.Tags: SIngle payer health plan
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I support a single payer system as the best solution to aim for. There are plenty of places for the stakeholders to make a decent living with a single payer plan. Many doctors support it as the best way to simplify their billing woes. Counting aspirin takes as much time as doling them out. Writing a single check out to the hospitals each month makes a lot more sense than charging for each phase of each patient treatment. The system is broken. Patients, or their caregivers, find mistakes in every bill. We need to simplify the process for everyone’s sake. The details on how to transition to a single payer health care system is best left to the professionals who deal with the details.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Congress Needs to Put it all Together Fast May 22, 2009
Posted by zrants in Economy, Environment.Tags: global issues, new energy grid, Waxman bill
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It’s pretty clear that a lot of people have a problem with Waxman’s bill and many do not believe in global warming. Not having read the bill yet, or seen a summary of its contents, I reserve the right to withhold judgment on its merits. I have heard opinions from the “other side”, those representing concern about global warming, and they fear the bill doesn’t go far enough. It sounds like a compromised bill meant to satisfy everyone, that ends up satisfying no one. Congress better do something soon.
We desperately need leadership and direction to tackle the big three issues: Climate, Health, and the Economy. Designing and implementing a new energy system will create a lot of manufacturing jobs. Making the air healthier to breath and our water sources cleaner will result in a healthier population, which will lower health care costs. The economy needs a new industry that can’t be exported overseas, and installing and maintaining a new power grid system will employ a lot of people in their communities. Do millions of unemployed Americans care whether they work for the government or a private energy company? I doubt it. A job is a job.
It is up to Congress to put the package together and put Americans back to work fixing the problems. Bickering over the details, and the effect changes will have on our current way of life, will not get the job done. Change is inevitable. All change is not bad. Having your own windmill and/or solar panel on your roof to power your home is probably the most independant you can be. Selling power back to the grid is priceless.
The Big Takeover March 24, 2009
Posted by zrants in Economy, Policy and Initiatives.Tags: bailout, global power, political power, takeover
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This link will take you to a Rolling Stone article about the Fed, the non regulation of the financial instruments that got us into this financial crisis and how Wall St fucked up. Would you believe that Congress has NO oversight capability of the Federal Reserve? Yup. It’s the law. Of course, they aren’t going to change that law, because all of our politicians have been bought by Wall St. I am not just saying that, they all were bought.
Who do you think kicked in the money to have them elected. Silly as it may seem, the biggest firms had a deal rigged so that the only oversight they got was by one man, who was in way over his head. It’s complex, deliberately so. That way you can’t understand it and you have to trust the experts who are well paid. One company’s average salary is 275,000 per year. They are still making that kind of money because they don’t have to justify anything to anyone. They are totally beyond government oversight.
This is an eight page article, and bleak as you can’t even imagine. One thing about the Stone, they find writers who can explain stuff. They did an article way back when Three Mile Island was in critical condition and it was the best article about the accident I had read in the general media. This article about Wall St traces out the relationships between the key players in this bail out game that is going on and how the deregulation set this game up. While it isn’t pretty, I think you should take the time to read it so you’ll have an understanding about how this is all just set up so that insiders get to keep getting paid and outsiders keep getting bent over the barrel.
The link and comments were sent by Tom.
Tax the Bonuses March 16, 2009
Posted by zrants in Economy, Policy and Initiatives.Tags: Tax bonuses
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The government may not be able to stop the corporations from fulfilling contracts, that promise bonus payments to employees as part of their compensation packages, but they can set really high tax rates on those bonuses. Congress is empowered to set tax rates, and they would win high praise from their constituents for doing just that.
Send this suggestion to Congress. Don’t fight the bonuses. Tax them instead.
