tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post871455343333888881..comments2023-07-07T00:32:17.629-07:00Comments on BendBubble2: Bend Godfather: "Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism, Dead"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger506125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-48841211065245958662009-11-22T13:16:52.932-08:002009-11-22T13:16:52.932-08:00"everyone's still listening, still in a t..."everyone's still listening, still in a trance"<br /><br />off course it is a trance, including most of the people reading this f'ing blog. We are experiencing alien take over. And like i said, denial of this now is like denying there was an RE bubble- pure ignorance and the unwillingness to confront something that may make you uncomfortable. <br /><br /> Next RE boom is Obama and the Norwegians with a plan that has been in the works for a long time. This is coming soonMDHN09https://www.blogger.com/profile/06608917042142916812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-15156365266074142932009-03-01T06:54:00.000-08:002009-03-01T06:54:00.000-08:00Resort rules proposal brings lawmakers to RedmondM...<B><BR/>Resort rules proposal brings lawmakers to Redmond<BR/></B><BR/>March 1, 2009<BR/><BR/>House committee, local lawmakers got an earful from all sides on a proposal to put more resort oversight in state's hands<BR/>House committee, local lawmakers got an earful from all sides on a proposal to put more resort oversight in state's hands<BR/><BR/>Debate center stage at public hearing<BR/><BR/>By Jennifer Burns, KTVZ.COM<BR/><BR/>New legislation in Salem has the spotlight on Central Oregon because of its popularity for building destination resorts.<BR/><BR/>The Oregon House Committee on Land Use traveled to Redmond Saturday to hear locals testify on the bill.<BR/><BR/>Nearly 100 people came to the meeting to testify or listen to the debate that has Central Oregon split.<BR/><BR/>Destination resorts have long been the center of debate on the High Desert - loved by many for their economic benefits, criticized by others for their impacts on rural areas.<BR/><BR/>They fuel the economy with property tax dollars, but some people say they damage the environment and put new burdens on the water supply and transportation infrastructure.<BR/><BR/>The latest argument is over House Bill 2227.<BR/><BR/>Some fear it could take control over resorts out of the hands of counties throughout the state.<BR/><BR/>"Keep the future of county growth in the hands of the county," said Crescent Fire Chief Kyle Kirchner.<BR/><BR/>For Crescent, a small town with a struggling economy, residents say the bill would put them on the brink of extinction, but a new resort could help revive it.<BR/><BR/>"It would also restore our pride in our community," said Cher Dolan, a Crescent resident.<BR/><BR/>The bill requires an immediate moratorium, and that would stop plans for the area's only destination resort, now in the works.<BR/><BR/>City leaders say Crescent Creek Resort would provide jobs, and put more money into the city's school and fire department.<BR/><BR/>"We need this economic boom to come to us," said Dolan.<BR/><BR/>Many residents in more populated areas like Redmond, Bend and sisters support the bill for its direction to study the impact of resorts on wells, ecosystems and transportation.<BR/><BR/>"The standards are not adequate to protect agricultural resources or forestlands, or wildlife habitat," said Carol Macbeth, an advocate with 1000 Friends of Oregon.<BR/><BR/>Redmond-area residents testified about the so-far unexplained drop in well water levels since around the same time resorts were built.<BR/><BR/>"My own well which is 600 feet deep, and the well of my neighbor went dry in the spring of 2006," said Jack Remington of Redmond.<BR/><BR/>The strongest support for the bill came from those who have been fighting the controversial plans for two destination resorts in the Metolius Basin.<BR/><BR/>They arguing the resorts would be in the line of frequent wildfire, prevent game migration, and put stress on nearby cities' infrastructure.<BR/><BR/>"We need to take immediate action while it's studied," said Macbeth.<BR/><BR/>Bend's two new lawmakers, Rep. Judy Stiegler and Sen. Chris Telfer listened to testimony from their constituents, along with the House panel members.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-9866047930188408342009-02-28T22:04:00.000-08:002009-02-28T22:04:00.000-08:00It just says that we're all in this together. $$$W...It just says that we're all in this together. <BR/><BR/>$$$<BR/><BR/>Who is this 'we' nigger?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-56350478704758782732009-02-28T22:01:00.000-08:002009-02-28T22:01:00.000-08:00Yes we do do stupid...I would not interpret Geithn...Yes we do do stupid...<BR/><BR/>I would not interpret Geithner's statement that way. <B>Rather we are experiencing one of the greatest robberies in history. </B>I have written on the question of nationalization for the “Notes from the Editors” forthcoming in the March 2009 Monthly Review . All the attempts to rescue the financial system at this time go in the direction of nationalization. The federal government is providing more and more of the capital and assuming financial responsibility for the banks. <B>However, they are doing everything they can to keep the banks in private hands, resulting in a kind of de facto nationalization with de jure private control.</B> Whether the federal government is forced eventually toward full nationalization (that is, assuming direct control of the banks) is a big question. But even that is unlikely to change the nature of what is going on, which is a classic case of the socialization of losses of financial institutions while leaving untouched the massive gains still in the hands of those who most profited from the whole extreme period of financial speculation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-2542658080728495802009-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:002009-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:00"we are experiencing one of the greatest robberies..."we are experiencing one of the greatest robberies in history."<BR/><BR/>Let's think of an analogy. Suppose my house burns down from an accidental fire. The insurance company pays me $$$ to rebuild. Where did the $$$ come from? All of us! Well, at least those who pay insurance on THEIR home. <STRONG>So by giving me so much $$$ does that mean that a "great robbery" has occured? </STRONG> I don't think so. It just says that we're all in this together. <BR/><BR/>I think the point to be emphasized is that if taxpayers are buying assets, we ought to be able to benefit down the road from those investments -- i.e., the selling of the good parts -- NOT just the bad parts. Hence the need for temporary receivership ( nationalization ).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-90494124300163087192009-02-28T20:37:00.000-08:002009-02-28T20:37:00.000-08:00In Venezuela they know how to feed people, Chavez ...In Venezuela they know how to feed people, Chavez has 'nationalized' rice company's, perhaps the US could learn something? But not, during the USA depression, it was better to destroy rice and let people starve.<BR/><B><BR/>Chavez sends troops to Venezuelan rice companies<BR/></B><BR/>International Herald Tribune - 1 hour ago<BR/><BR/>AP CARACAS, Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez on Saturday ordered troops to temporarily seize control of all Venezuelan rice processing plants to ensure they produce at full capacity amid soaring inflation and persisting reports of food shortages.<BR/>Chavez orders army to seize Venezuela rice mills Reuters<BR/>Chavez orders army to take over rice companies ABC OnlineAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-60829260924563164182009-02-28T15:55:00.000-08:002009-02-28T15:55:00.000-08:00Even Tocqueville said during his tour that US 'fin...Even Tocqueville said during his tour that US 'financial democracy' was something of a joke.<BR/><BR/>That's why we have an electoral college, to insure that 'people' don't elect the prez.<BR/><BR/>The 'people' will never know why they lost their job, or their money is worthless, and in time, we'll find someone to blame, and there will be a new war.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-28902600892722809702009-02-28T15:53:00.000-08:002009-02-28T15:53:00.000-08:00What is needed in the United States today, we argu...What is needed in the United States today, we argue in The Great Financial Crisis , is a renewal of the classic concept of political economy (with its class perspective), whereby it comes to be understood that the economy is subject to public control, and should be wrested from the domination of the ruling class. The bailing out of the system right now is going on with taxpayer funds but without the say of the public. A revolt to gain popular control of the political economy is therefore necessary.<BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>Yeh, right NEVER fucking happened in US history.<BR/><BR/>Since day-one in USA, its HAMILTONIAN FEDERALISM, aka rule-by-interest.<BR/><BR/>Just like our BEND in micro-cosm, BEND is NOT ran by people, but HOGG, and the USA is also ran by HOGG.<BR/><BR/>The HOGG would just as soon destroy bend as to turn it over to people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-35349728132589344442009-02-28T15:16:00.000-08:002009-02-28T15:16:00.000-08:00California Dreamin' and Bend Realty Written by H. ...California Dreamin' and Bend Realty <BR/><BR/>Written by H. Bruce Miller <BR/>Saturday, 28 February 2009<BR/><BR/>In a way, you have to admire the indestructible optimism of Bend realtors. If you could take an extract from their brains and turn it into a pill it would be better than Prozac.<BR/><BR/>In a post on his blog two days ago, Jim Wilson took a look at an Associated Press story reporting an uptick in home sales in California last month and saw it as a harbinger of better times soon for Bend.<BR/><BR/>“Home sales in the Western U.S. surged in January as first-time home buyers, real estate investors and others seized on bargain-priced foreclosed homes in California, Nevada and Arizona, according to two reports released Wednesday,” The AP said.<BR/><BR/>“A total of 74,000 existing homes and condos were sold in January in the 13-state region. Sales were up 32.1 percent from the same month in 2008, without adjusting for seasonal factors, according to the National Association of Realtors.”<BR/><BR/>Based on this rough sketch, Wilson painted a rosy scenario:<BR/><BR/>“California home sales are a leading indicator of Bend, Oregon home sales. This tells me our real estate market may see the bottom this spring or summer. I showed property last weekend to two different cash buyers and they both wrote offers on bank foreclosures in Bend.”<BR/><BR/>Some observations by The Eye:<BR/><BR/> * A total of 74,000 homes and condos sold in a 13-state region is not an impressive number, especially if that region includes California.<BR/> * Wilson’s two, count ‘em, two offers on foreclosed Bend properties is not an impressive number either.<BR/> * As the AP story says, the surge in California sales was propelled mainly by investors (read “speculators”) coming into the market to snap up bargains on foreclosed properties.<BR/> * Median home prices in the West dropped 26% in January from the previous year to $220,000, the realtors’ association said. (The same pattern, incidentally, holds true in Florida, where January sales were 24% higher than in the same month last year – but the median sale price for existing homes has plummeted 33% in a year, to $139,500 from $206,900.) If the market really had turned around shouldn’t we see prices rising, or at least holding steady?<BR/><BR/>Believe it or not, The Eye really would LIKE to see the Bend housing market bounce back (though not to the insanity of 2004-2006). After all, we live here and own property here too.<BR/><BR/>But continuing to spin gossamer dreams out of every thin thread of semi-encouraging news is not going to make it bounce back any sooner. Our guess is that no matter what happens in California, we won’t see any real turnaround here until our excess housing inventory has been drained off and prices drop to affordable levels.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-26386898172776467432009-02-28T15:05:00.000-08:002009-02-28T15:05:00.000-08:00Between October 2008 and January 2009 the federal ...Between October 2008 and January 2009 the federal government provided about $160 billion in capital and infusions and debt guarantees to the Bank of America, which had a total net worth in late January of only a small fraction of that amount. The rest had gone down the rat hole.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-75993556671948264072009-02-28T15:01:00.000-08:002009-02-28T15:01:00.000-08:00The one place in the world where this world histor...The one place in the world where this world historical ferment appears to not be having telling effect at present is the United States. This can be traced to two reasons. First, the United States as the center of a world empire is a fortress of conservatism. Second, the election of the <B>Obama administration has confused progressive forces, leading to absurd notions that the Democrats under Obama are going to create a New New Deal without renewed pressure arising from a revolt from below.</B> Meanwhile, under Obama's watch, and with the help of his chosen advisers, vast amounts of state funds are being infused into the financial system to benefit private capital.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-83332522391668916542009-02-28T14:56:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:56:00.000-08:00Whether the federal government is forced eventuall...Whether the federal government is forced eventually toward full nationalization (that is, assuming direct control of the banks) is a big question. But even that is unlikely to change the nature of what is going on, which is a classic case of the socialization of losses of financial institutions while leaving untouched the massive gains still in the hands of those who most profited from the whole extreme period of financial speculation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-55744957590650920962009-02-28T14:48:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:48:00.000-08:00For this reason the best economists and financial ...For this reason the best economists and financial analysts are now saying that when the recovery from this crisis begins, perhaps in 2011, it will be an L-shaped recovery, pointing toward long-term stagnation as in the depression decade. Without financialization there is nothing on the horizon to boost the U.S. and other advanced capitalist economies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-38461271474946454022009-02-28T14:31:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:31:00.000-08:00It's NOT often that somebody writes coherently on ...It's NOT often that somebody writes coherently on 'these times', but this guy has put ALL our modern issues today in one article, this is a keeper, there is enough fodder here for sunday HOMER.<BR/><BR/>...<BR/><BR/>The Great Financial Crisis<BR/>Economics / Credit Crisis 2009 Feb 27, 2009 - 11:18 PM<BR/><BR/>By: Mike_Whitney<BR/><BR/>Economics<BR/><BR/>Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleInterview of John Bellamy Foster - John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press.<BR/><BR/>MW :Do you think that the American people have been misled into believing that the current financial crisis is the result of subprime loans and toxic assets? Aren't these merely the symptoms of a deeper problem; financialization? Can you explain financialization and how the economy became more and more detached from productive activity and more and more dependent on the accumulation of paper wealth?<BR/><BR/>JBF: I think it is true, as you say, that the American people have been misled by analyses of the crisis into focusing on mere symptoms, or on the straws that broke the camel's back, such as subprime loans. There is still a great deal of toxic financial waste out there in the financial superstructure of the economy, but the real problems go much deeper. One reason for this failure to account realistically for the crisis is that those at the top of the system have very little clue themselves, given the near bankruptcy of orthodox economics. A second reason is that the dominant ideology is designed to naturalize any economic disaster, pretending it has nothing to do with the fundamental nature of the system but is simply the result of external forces, mistakes of federal regulators, deregulation, corruption of a few individuals, etc. Under these circumstances, what you get from the elites and the media is mostly nonsense, though there are individuals in the financial community, in particular, that are now analyzing the problem at a deeper, more realistic level.<BR/><BR/>The first thing to recognize is that this is a very serious crisis, of an order of magnitude comparable to the Great Depression. It is not a regular business cycle downturn or credit crunch. This should suggest that there are long-term forces at work. These include, over the last third of a century, stagnation , or the slowing down of the economy, and the financialization , the shift in the center of gravity of the economy from production to finance. Financialization refers not to just one or two financial bubbles (such as the New Economy bubble and the housing bubble) but to the growing reliance on financial speculation, which can be treated as a whole series of bubbles one after the other, each new one bigger than the last. This has been the dominant economic development since the 1970s, and especially since the 1980s. This financialization was occurring on top of a "real economy" or productive economy that was more and more stagnant. Given the rot below, financial speculation thus became the only game in town, serving to lift the economy. More and more economic activity was geared not to production but to the pursuit of paper claims to wealth. The last bubble-bursting episode, associated with the housing or subprime bubble, was so severe that it brought financialization to an end, generating what we call in the title of our new book The Great Financial Crisis .<BR/><BR/>The idea at the top was that the financial explosion could be managed, and a financial collapse prevented. The central banks as lenders of last resort could pour liquidity into the system at critical points to avoid a financial avalanche. And in fact they succeeded in doing this for decades. Ben Bernanke, the current head of the Federal Reserve, even referred a few years ago to “The Great Moderation,” in which the business cycle had been overcome by monetary policy. Following the successful leveraging of the system out of the 2001 crisis that followed the 2000 bursting of the New Economy bubble he assumed that they now had discovered the elixir of indefinite financial-based growth. Yet, the scale of the financial superstructure of the economy kept on rising in relation to the stagnant production system underlying it and finally it overwhelmed the capacity of the Federal Reserve and other central banks to stave off the inevitable financial collapse.<BR/><BR/>From a long-term perspective we can say that there is a kind of mean reversion taking place whereby the financial system and the inordinate profits it generated over decades is reverting to the long-term trend of the overall stagnant economy, which means that trillions upon trillions upon trillions of dollars in capital assets are being lost. And with financialization no longer lifting the economy as it has in decades past we are face to face with the underlying forces of long-term stagnation. For this reason the best economists and financial analysts are now saying that when the recovery from this crisis begins, perhaps in 2011, it will be an L-shaped recovery, pointing toward long-term stagnation as in the depression decade. Without financialization there is nothing on the horizon to boost the U.S. and other advanced capitalist economies.<BR/><BR/>MW : Is the financial crisis the result of deregulation, lax lending standards and too much leveraging or are there more important factors involved? In your new book The Great Financial Crisis, you say that stagnation is unavoidable in mature capitalist economies because "a handful of corporations control most industries" which has ended "price warfare". How has "monopoly capital" paved the way for financialization and the creation of derivatives, structured debt instruments and other complex investments? Could you clarify what you mean by stagnation is and how it led to the present crisis?<BR/><BR/>JBF: The long-term process of the growth of financial speculation or financialization (the shift in gravity of the economy from production to finance) was a process that had to keep going because once it stopped you would have a financial avalanche. As increased debt is used more and more to leverage financial speculation the quantity of debt increases while its quality decreases. This means that the level of risk keeps rising. As speculation becomes more extreme various mechanisms are introduced to manage risk. Structured debt instruments like collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, and a host of other exotic financial instruments, were introduced supposedly to reduce the risk of the individual investor, but ended up expanding risk system-wide. Ideologically the increased risk is rationalized in various ways--for example the presumed high tech basis of the New Economy bubble and the notion that new financial instruments had sliced and diced risk and thereby lessened risk exposure in the subprime bubble. But eventually, the decrease in quality that goes along with the increase in quantity of debt has its effect. In this respect, the giving out of subprime loans was simply part of the normal evolution (though this time on a massive scale) of financial instability basic to speculative finance. This was well explained by economist Hyman Minsky in his various works on the “financial instability hypothesis,” largely ignored by mainstream economists.<BR/><BR/>Regulation of this system was impossible, since the risk had to keep rising and any attempt to place any limits on the system once financialization got to a certain point risked a financial meltdown. The capitalist state therefore had no choice but gradually to dismantle the entire financial regulatory system and to allow risk to grow. Indeed, in every major financial crisis over the last thirty years the response was financial deregulation. The risk-prone structure that emerged was presented as “optimal” in the governing ideology and the IMF and other institutions worked at imposing the same supposedly advanced, high-risk "financial architecture" on all the countries of the world.<BR/><BR/>The real underlying problem, as indicated above, was stagnation. Explaining stagnation is a long and complex process. It was analyzed in depth by Paul Baran, Paul Sweezy, and Harry Magdoff. For a fuller understanding, beyond what I am able to give in this short space, I recommend our book The Great Financial Crisis and earlier works by Baran, Sweezy, and Magdoff, especially Baran and Sweezy's Monopoly Capital . There are two factors basically to consider: maturity and monopoly. Maturity stands for the fact that industrialization is an historical process. In the beginning, i.e., the initial industrial revolution phase, there is a building up of industry virtually from scratch as in the United States in the nineteenth century and China today. During this period the demand for new investment seems infinite and if there are limits to expansion they lie in the shortage of capital to invest. Eventually, however, industry is built up in the core areas and after that production is geared more and more to mere replacement, which can be financed out of depreciation funds.<BR/><BR/>In a mature economy growth is increasingly dependent on finding investment outlets, and capital tends to generate more surplus (or investment-seeking capital) than can be absorbed in existing outlets. New industries arise (such as the computer, digital product industry of today), but normally the scale of such industries relative to the whole economy is too small to constitute a major boost to the entire economic system. Although the capitalist economy is not often discussed in terms of such a historical process of industrialization (which lies outside the governing ideology,) it is taken for granted in discussions of the world economy that the more mature economies of the United States, Europe, and Japan are only going to grow nowadays at, say, a 2.5 percent rate, while emerging economies may grow much faster. The maturity argument was influenced by Keynes and developed by Alvin Hansen in the late 1930s and early 1940s in such works as Full Recovery or Stagnation? and Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles . But the most powerful and clearest theoretical discussion of maturity was provided by Paul Sweezy, building on a Marxian frame of analysis, in his Four Lectures on Marxism.<BR/><BR/>The second factor is monopoly (or oligopoly). Marx was the first to discuss the tendency in capitalist economies toward the concentration and centralization of capital, an emphasis that has distinguished Marxian economics. In Marxian and radical institutionalist economics this led to the emergence by the last quarter of the nineteenth century (consolidated only in the twentieth century) of a new stage of capitalism that came to be known as the monopoly stage (or monopoly capitalism) displacing the earlier freely competitive stage of capitalism of the nineteenth century. In essence, the economy in the nineteenth century was dominated by small family firms (other than railroad capital). In the twentieth century this turns into an economy of big corporations. Although monopoly capital, remained a stage of capitalism, the laws of motion of the system were modified. The biggest change is the effective banning of price competition. Monopolistic (or oligopolistic) firms, as Paul Sweezy, then a young Harvard economist, famously explained in the 1930s in his theory of the kinked-demand curve of oligopolistic pricing, tend to shift prices in only one direction--up. Price competition among the majors is seen as self-defeating, and replaced by a steady upward movement of prices, usually a form of indirect collusion, following the price leader (usually the biggest firm in an industry).<BR/><BR/>With the effective banning of price competition in mature industries (there is still price competition in rising industries where a shakedown process is occurring) the main assumption of orthodox conceptions of the capitalist economy is violated. Competition continues over low cost position in an industry (i.e. over productivity), and in other areas aimed at market share, such as advertising and branding of products (referred to as “monopolistic competition”). But actual price competition under monopoly capital is usually treated as “price warfare,” which is no longer acceptable. Throughout the nineteenth century in the United States the general price level fell with the exception of the Civil War years. Throughout the twentieth century the general price level rose with the exception of the Great Depression years.<BR/><BR/>The result of all of this is that, given rising productivity, monopolistic corporations end up grabbing as surplus a larger portion of the gains of productivity growth (and virtually all the gains when real wages are also stagnant), leading to a tendency of the surplus of monopoly capital to rise. There is then a vast and growing investment-seeking surplus, which, however, encounters relatively diminished investment outlets due to a number of factors: industrial maturity, growing inequality which negatively affects consumption (insofar as this is based on paychecks not debt), and persistent unused industrial capacity which discourages the further expansion of capacity. In Marxian terms, we can say that the rate of surplus value (or the rate of exploitation) within production is too high for all of the surplus value potentially generated through production to be realized in final sales.<BR/><BR/>As Keynes taught savings/surplus ( ex ante ) that is not invested simply disappears, so this slows down the economy as a whole. But the problem of surplus capital seeking investment is not thereby alleviated, since monopoly capital tends to adopt measures that continually pump up potential surplus even in a crisis. So the contradiction continues.<BR/><BR/>Baran and Sweezy summed up their argument by claiming that stagnation was the normal tendency of the monopoly capitalist economy. This was in sharp contradiction to received economic theory which assumed that capitalism by nature tended toward rapid economic growth and full employment. In the mainstream view, rapid growth and full employment were intrinsic to the system, so the emergence of slow growth required a specific explanation. In contrast, Baran, Sweezy, and Magdoff, building on a long line of thinkers before them (Marx, Veblen, Keynes, Hansen, Kalecki, Steindl), argued the opposite, that it was periods of rapid growth under monopoly capitalism, such as the now fabled Golden Age of the 1950s and ‘60s, that needed to be explained as due to special factors. In their view, it was necessary to point to the specific historical stimuli that propelled extraordinary periods of rapid development (in the Golden Age: enormous consumer liquidity after the war, a second great wave of automobilization, military spending associated with two regional wars in Asia and the Cold War, the expansion of the sales effort, etc.). Stagnation itself was the normal tendency of the system and so could be accounted for simply by the waning of such special factors.<BR/><BR/>If investment and consumption are inadequate to maintain demand, as is the normal case under monopoly capitalism, the government is called into help. In the United States this has often taken the form of increased military spending (which is crucial the imperial goals of the system) and lately through financialization. Both of these means of maintaining demand, however, have reached their limits (the U.S. accounts for as much military spending as the whole rest of the world put together and cannot easily expand this at present), resulting in a deepening economic stagnation.<BR/><BR/>Baran and Sweezy's Monopoly Capital had pointed to financial sector expansion as a possible countervailing factor to stagnation, but in the 1960s this was merely potential and had not emerged to any large extent. The evolution of the system from the 1970s on became so dependent on the growth of finance, and the incorporation of the giant corporations into this, that I have termed this later phase “monopoly-finance capital.”<BR/><BR/>MW : As the economy has become more dependent on financialization for growth, the gap between rich and poor has grown wider and wider. As you point out in your book, "In the United States the top 1 percent of wealth holders in 2001 owned more than twice as much as the bottom 80 percent of the population. If this was simply measured in terms of financial wealth, the top 1 percent owned more than four times the bottom 80 percent." (p 130). How have working class people managed to keep their heads above water with all this wealth being shifted to the rich?<BR/><BR/>JBF: The answer is fairly obvious. If people cannot maintain their standard of living on the basis of their income, they will borrow against income and against whatever wealth they have. The result—if their incomes don't rise, or if the value of whatever assets they have do not increase—is that they will simply get deeper and deeper in debt in an attempt simply to stand still. I became concerned about the growth of working-class household debt in 2000 and carried out a study of The Survey of Consumer Finances , which is published every three years by the federal government with a three year lag in the data. This is the only major federal government data source that we have on household debt broken down into income groups so that we can determine the debt burden of different classes. I published an article based on this research in the May 2000 issue of Monthly Review entitled “Working-Class Households and the Burden of Debt.” I then followed this up six years later with an article in the May 2006 Monthly Review on “The Household Debt Bubble,” which was to be incorporated into The Great Financial Crisis . There I wrote that “The housing bubble and the strength of consumption in the economy are connected to what might be termed the ‘household debt bubble,' which could easily burst as a result of rising interest rates and the stagnation or decline of housing prices.” This is of course what happened, and the reason why this crisis has turned out to be so severe was the destruction over decades of the finances of working-class households, on the back of which financialization took place.<BR/><BR/><BR/>MW: Will you define "debt-deflation" and explain its potential danger to the economy? As credit continues to tighten and housing prices sink; aren't we slipping into a reinforcing deflationary spiral? Do you think that fiscal policy will reverse this trend or is the stimulus package too small to stop real estate and equities from continuing to slide?<BR/><BR/>The term “debt-deflation” is associated particularly with the work of Irving Fisher during the Great Depression. Fisher wrote an article for the journal Econometrica in 1933 entitled “The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions.” Deflation as applied to the general economy is a drop in the general price level, something not seen in the United States since the Great Depression, and catastrophic in the economy of monopoly capital (and even more so under monopoly-finance capital). In the first place, deflation (or disinflation, i.e. the reduction of inflation to what the Federal Reserve calls “below optimal” levels) means that the profit margins of corporations are squeezed, even if the cost structure of production, and productivity remain the same. Under these circumstances price competition is reactivated with giant firms actually in a life and death struggle. This also generates pressure for heavy layoffs and wage reductions, creating all sorts of vicious cycles.<BR/><BR/>But the real fear of deflation has to do with the enormously bloated financial structure and the huge debt load of the economy. Under inflation, which is usually assumed to be built into the advanced capitalist economy, debts are paid back with smaller dollars (that is, worth less over time). In a deflationary economy, however, debt has to be paid back with bigger dollars (worth more over time). This then creates a debt-deflation spiral, enormously accelerating financial meltdown. As Fisher put it, “deflation caused by the debt reacts on the debt. Each dollar of debt still unpaid becomes a bigger dollar, and if the over-indebtedness with which we started was great enough, the liquidation of debt cannot keep up with the fall of prices which it causes.” Stated differently, quoting from The Great Financial Crisis (p. 116), “prices fall as debtors sell assets to pay their debts, and as prices fall the remaining debts must be repaid in dollars more valuable than the ones borrowed, causing more defaults, leading to yet lower prices, and thus a deflationary spiral.” In order to check this deflationary tendency, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have been trying to reflate the economy by printing money (euphemistically called “quantitative easing”). But they have not succeeded and deflationary forces are still very strong, causing President Obama to warn shortly after his election that “we now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further.”<BR/><BR/>It is also worth mentioning the effect that deflation has on investment. With capital faced with the fact that a few years down the line the price level could be lower than it is now, expected profits on investment in new productive capacity (given that this takes years to be built and has to paid for in current prices) are depressed, creating a deeper stagnation of accumulation.<BR/><BR/>The stimulus package introduced by the Obama administration is far too small to pump up demand and reflate the economy under these circumstances. It is less than $400 billion a year, forty percent of which is tax cuts, so that the increased governmental spending is miniscule compared to the size of the hole created by the drastic drop in consumption, investment, and state and local government spending. It is also dwarfed by the total federal government support programs, primarily to financial institutions, which now amount to more than $9.7 trillion in the form of cash infusions, debt guarantees, swaps of Treasuries for financial toxic waste, etc.<BR/><BR/>MW : Karl Marx seems to have anticipated the financial meltdown we are now facing. In Capital, he said, "The superficiality of political economy shows itself in the fact that it views the expansion and contraction of credit as the cause of the periodic alterations of the industrial cycle, while it is a mere symptom of them." Marx appears to agree with your theory that the real problem is deeper---economic stagnation which forces surplus capital to look for more profitable investments. While the monetarist theories of Milton Friedman are under withering attack, Keynes and Marx seem to have held up rather well. What does Marx mean when he talks about "political economy"? <BR/><BR/>JBF: Marx was an acute analyst of financial crises in his time and described their main features. However, he saw financial expansions (as economists in general have until recently) as occurring at the peak of a boom, not as a secular phenomenon. Financialization in the sense of a long-term shift in the center of gravity of the economy toward finance, with financial speculation building over decades, is a completely unprecedented situation.<BR/><BR/>Marx and Engels did place great emphasis on the growth of joint-stock companies/corporations and the appearance of a market for industrial securities that began to appear near the end of the nineteenth century. It was this creation of the modern market for industrial securities that was the real beginning of the emergence of finance as a relatively independent aspect of the monopoly capitalist economy. There are essentially two pricing structures to the economy: one in the real economy related to the production of goods and services, the other in the financial realm associated with the pricing of assets (paper claims to wealth). The two are interrelated but can be disassociated from each other for periods of time. Keynes in the 1930s singled-out the dangers of an economy that was increasingly governed by the speculative pricing of financial assets. Marx was such an acute observer of capitalism, that even in his time he began to see the contradictions emerging between money (or fictitious) capital and real capital.<BR/><BR/>One thing that Marx did argue in this context is that surges in financial speculation were responses to stagnation and decline in the real economy, as capital desperately sought a way to maintain and expand its surplus. Thus he wrote that the “plethora of money capital” in such periods was due to “difficulties in employment, through a lack of spheres of investment, i.e. due to a surplus in the branches of production” and showed nothing so much as the immanent barriers to capitalist expansion (quoted in The Great Financial Crisis , p. 39).<BR/><BR/>Marx remains the strongest foundation for the critique of the capitalist economy, down to our day. But the real Keynes (not to be confused with the bastardized Keynesianism of today) is also important, since he emphasized what he called the “outstanding faults” of the capitalist economy: the tendency to high inequality and high unemployment. He also pointed to the dangers of a system geared to speculative finance.<BR/><BR/>MW : Is wage stagnation and income inequality a direct result of financialization?<BR/><BR/>I would put it the other way around. Wage stagnation and growing income and wealth inequality are components of the underlying stagnation tendency. Both have shown a tendency to worsen over time, resulting in deepening stagnation tendencies within the overall economy. Real wages in the United States peaked in 1971, when Richard Nixon was president, and by 2008 had fallen back to 1967 levels, when Lyndon Johnson was president. This is in despite of the enormous growth of productivity and expansion of wealth over the intervening decades. Hence, this is a marker of “the tendency of surplus to rise,” as Baran and Sweezy put it, or a rising rate of surplus value, in Marx's own terms. This was accompanied by a massive growth of income and wealth at the top. As we stated in The Great Financial Crisis (p. 130), “From 1990 to 2002, for each added dollar made by those in the bottom 90 percent [of income] those in the uppermost 0.01 percent (today about 14,000 households) made an additional $18,000.” By 2007 income/wealth inequality in the United States had reached 1929 proportions, i.e., the level reached just prior to the 1929 Stock Market Crash that led to the Great Depression.<BR/><BR/>I do think you are right, though, that financialization made income and wealth inequality worse, and contributed to the stagnation of wages. We can see neoliberalism as basically the ideology of monopoly-finance capital, introduced originally as the ruling class response to stagnation, and then increasingly geared to promoting the financialization of capital, itself a structural response to stagnation. Neoliberalism promoted incessant breaking of unions, forcing down wages, cutting state social welfare spending, deregulation, free mobility of capital, development of new financial architecture, etc. One way to understand this is the enormous need for new cash infusions to feed a financial superstructure that was voracious in its demand for new money capital, which it needed to leverage still more piling up of debt and financial speculation. Insurance companies, real estate, and mutual funds all provided infusions into this financial superstructure, as did the state. All limits were removed. Under these circumstances workers were encouraged to use their houses like piggy banks to finance consumption, credit cards were handed out to teenagers, subprime loans were pushed on those with little ability to pay. Individual retirement packages were shifted toward IRAs that were tied into the speculative financial system. This had all the signs of an addictive system. In these circumstances, too, the real economy, particularly production of goods and manufacturing, was decimated. In the introduction to The Great Financial Crisis we include a chart covering the period since 1960 showing production of goods as a percentage of GDP in a slow, long-term decline, while debt as a percentage of GDP is skyrocketing over the same period. All of this meant a massive redistribution away from working people to capital, and to those at the pinnacle of the financial pyramid.<BR/><BR/>MW : In your book The Great Financial Crisis, you are critical of Paulson's capital injections into the banks saying that "at most they buy the necessary time in which the vast mass of questionable loans can be liquidated in an orderly fashion, restoring solvency but at a far lower rate of economic activity--that of a serious recession or depression." On Friday, Timothy Geithner told CNBC that "We will preserve the system that is owned and managed by the private sector." This suggests that the Treasury Secretary might not liquidate the toxic assets at all, but try maintain the appearance that these underwater banks are solvent. What do you think will happen if Geithner refuses to nationalize the banks? <BR/><BR/>I would not interpret Geithner's statement that way. Rather we are experiencing one of the greatest robberies in history. I have written on the question of nationalization for the “Notes from the Editors” forthcoming in the March 2009 Monthly Review . All the attempts to rescue the financial system at this time go in the direction of nationalization. The federal government is providing more and more of the capital and assuming financial responsibility for the banks. However, they are doing everything they can to keep the banks in private hands, resulting in a kind of de facto nationalization with de jure private control. Whether the federal government is forced eventually toward full nationalization (that is, assuming direct control of the banks) is a big question. But even that is unlikely to change the nature of what is going on, which is a classic case of the socialization of losses of financial institutions while leaving untouched the massive gains still in the hands of those who most profited from the whole extreme period of financial speculation.<BR/><BR/>To get an idea of what is happening one has to understand that the federal government, as I have already indicated, has committed itself thus far in this crisis $9.7 trillion in support programs primarily for financial institutions. The Federal Reserve (together with the Treasury) now has converted itself into what is called a “bad bank.” It has been swapping Treasury certificates for toxic financial waste, such as collateralized debt obligations. As a result the Federal Reserve has become the banker of last resort for toxic waste with the share of Treasuries in the Fed's balance sheet dropping from about 90 percent to about 20 percent over the course of the crisis, with much of the rest now made up of financial toxic waste.<BR/><BR/>Obviously, full, straightforward nationalization would be more rational than this. But one has also to remember the system of power—both economic and political—that we are dealing with at present. The classic case of full bank nationalization was Italian corporatist capitalism of the 1920s and ‘30s, and was carried out by the fascist regime. Without suggesting that we are headed this way now it should be clear from this that nationalization of banks itself is no panacea.<BR/><BR/>The fact that Geithner, Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary, is overseeing the enormous robbery taking place, probably exceeding any theft in history, with the ordinary taxpayers picking up the tab, should certainly cause one to ask questions about the “progressive” nature of the new administration.<BR/><BR/>MW : Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan has dismissed criticism of his monetary policies saying that no one could have seen the humongous bubble developing in housing. In your book, however, you make this observation: "It was the reality of economic stagnation beginning in the 1970s...that led to the emergence of the 'new financialized capitalist regime's kind of 'paradoxical financial Keynesianism' whereby demand in the economy was stimulated primarily 'thanks to asset bubbles.'” (p 129) The statement suggests that the Fed knew exactly what it was doing when it slashed rates and created a speculative frenzy. Debt-fueled asset bubbles are a way of shifting wealth from one class to another while avoiding the stagnation of the underlying economy. Can this problem be fixed through regulation and better oversight or is it something that is intrinsic to capitalism itself?<BR/><BR/>Greenspan is of course trying desperately to salvage his reputation and to remove any sense that he is culpable. I would agree that the Fed knew what it was doing up to a point, and deliberately promoted an asset bubble in housing—what Stephanie Pomboy called “The Great Bubble Transfer” following the bursting of the New Economy tech bubble in 2000. The view that no one saw the dangers of course is false. It reminds me of Paul Krugman's face-saving claim in his The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 that while some people thought that financial and economic problems of the 1930s might repeat themselves, these were not “sensible people.” According to Krugman, “sensible people” like himself (that is, those who expressed the consensus of those in power) knew that these things could never happen—but turned out to be wrong. It is true, as Greenspan says, no one could have foreseen precisely what really happened. And certainly there were a lot of blinders at the top. But there were lots of warnings and concerns. For example, I drafted an article (“The Great Fear”) for the April 2005 issue of Monthly Review that referred to “rising interest rates (threatening a bursting of the housing bubble supporting U.S. consumption)” as one of the key “perils of a stagnating economy.” Other close observers of the economy were saying the same thing.<BR/><BR/>The Federal Reserve Board, indeed, was internally debating in these years whether to adopt a policy of pricking the asset bubbles before they got further out of control. But Greenspan and Bernanke were both against such a dangerous operation, claiming that this could bring the whole rickety financial structure down. Since they didn't know what to do about asset bubbles they simply sat on their hands and tried to talk the market up. The dominant view was that the Federal Reserve could stop a financial avalanche by putting a rock in the right place the moment there was a sign of trouble. So Bernanke went ahead, closed his eyes and prayed, raising interest rates to restrict inflation (an action demanded by the financial elite) and the rest is history.<BR/><BR/>At all times it was those at the commanding heights of the financial institutions that called the shots, and the Fed followed their wishes. Greenspan himself is no dummy. He wrote in Challenge Magazine in March-April 1988 of the dangers associated with housing bubbles. But as a Federal Reserve Board chairman he pursued financialization to the hilt, since there was no other option for the system. Needless to say, such financialization was associated with the growing disparities in wealth and income in the country. Debt itself is an instrument of power and those at the bottom were chained by it, while those at the top were using it to leverage rising fortunes. The total net worth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans (an increasing percentage of whom were based in finance) rose from $91.8 billion in 1982 to $1.2 trillion in 2006, while most people in the society were finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. None of this was an accident. It was all intrinsic to monopoly-finance capital.<BR/><BR/>MW : The financial crisis is quickly turning into a political crisis. Already governments in Iceland and Latvia have collapsed and the global slump is just beginning to accelerate. Riots and street violence have broken out in Greece, Latvia and Lithuania and worker-led protests have become commonplace throughout the EU. As unemployment skyrockets and economic activity stalls, countries are likely to experience greater social instability. Do you see this crisis as an opportunity political mobilization? How does one take deep-seated discontent and rage and shape it into a political movement for structural change?<BR/><BR/>JBF: The first thing to recognize is that we are suddenly in a different historical period. One of my favorite quotes comes from Gillo Pontecorvo's 1969 film Burn!, where the main character, William Walker (played by Marlon Brando) states: “Very often between one historical period and another, ten years suddenly might be enough to reveal the contradictions of an entire century.” We are living in such a period; not only because of the Great Financial Crisis and what the IMF is now calling a depression in the advanced capitalist economies, but also because of the global ecological crisis that during the last decade has accelerated out of control under business as usual, and due to the reappearance of “naked imperialism.” What made sense ten years ago is nonsense now. New dangers and new possibilities are opening up. A whole different kind of struggle is emerging.<BR/><BR/>The sudden fall of the governments in Iceland and Latvia as a result of protests against financial theft is remarkable, as are the widespread revolts in Greece and throughout the EU, with millions in the streets. The general strikes in Guadeloupe and Martinique, the French Antilles, and the support given to these movements by the French New Anti-Capitalist Party is a breakthrough. In fact much of the world is in ferment. Latin Americans are engaged in a full-scale revolt against neoliberalism, led by Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, and the aspiration of a new socialism for the 21 st century (as envisioned also in Bolivia, Ecuador and Cuba). The Nepalese revolution has offered new hope in Asia. Social struggles on a major scale are occurring in emerging economies such as Brazil, Mexico, and India. China itself is experiencing unrest.<BR/><BR/>The one place in the world where this world historical ferment appears to not be having telling effect at present is the United States. This can be traced to two reasons. First, the United States as the center of a world empire is a fortress of conservatism. Second, the election of the Obama administration has confused progressive forces, leading to absurd notions that the Democrats under Obama are going to create a New New Deal without renewed pressure arising from a revolt from below. Meanwhile, under Obama's watch, and with the help of his chosen advisers, vast amounts of state funds are being infused into the financial system to benefit private capital.<BR/><BR/>What is needed in the United States today, we argue in The Great Financial Crisis , is a renewal of the classic concept of political economy (with its class perspective), whereby it comes to be understood that the economy is subject to public control, and should be wrested from the domination of the ruling class. The bailing out of the system right now is going on with taxpayer funds but without the say of the public. A revolt to gain popular control of the political economy is therefore necessary.<BR/><BR/>It is possible to start with the demand for a New New Deal rooted in the best legacy of the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s, most notably the Works Progress Administration. But as Robert McChesney and I argued in “A New New Deal Under Obama?” in the February 2009 issue of Monthly Review , the struggle has to move quickly beyond that to an expansion of workers' rights along socialist principles, breaking with the logic of capital. For this to occur there has to be a great revolt from below on at least the scale of the industrial unionization movement of the 1930s that created a new political force in the country (later destroyed in the McCarthy Era). The story of this struggle is told in David Milton's classic account, The Politics of U.S. Labor , which also points out that the rising labor movement was led by socialists and radical syndicalists.<BR/><BR/>It is important, as István Mészáros explained in his Beyond Capital , that the radical politics opened up in this historical moment not be diverted into attempting to save the existing system, but be directed at transcending it. As Mészáros wrote: “To succeed in its original aim, radical politics must transfer at the height of the crisis its aspirations—in the form of effective powers of decision making at all levels and all areas, including the economy—to the social body itself from which subsequent material and political demands would emanate.”<BR/><BR/>In the United States a primary goal of any radical politics should be to cut military spending, which is the imperial iron heel holding down the entire world, while corrupting the U.S. body politic and diverting surplus from pressing social needs.<BR/><BR/>The obvious weak link of the whole political, ideological and economic structure in command in the United States today, is that the system has clearly failed to meet peoples' real needs. Rather than addressing these pressing needs in the crisis, the emphasis of the economic overlords is to bailout private capital at virtually any cost. Between October 2008 and January 2009 the federal government provided about $160 billion in capital and infusions and debt guarantees to the Bank of America, which had a total net worth in late January of only a small fraction of that amount. The rest had gone down the rat hole.<BR/><BR/>The robbing of public funds to bailout private capital is now on a scale probably never before seen. A politicized, organized working class capable of understanding and reacting to that theft, and choosing thereby to restructure society, to meet real social, egalitarian needs is what is now to be hoped for. The title of a recent cover story Newsweek declared: “We Are All Socialists Now.” As it turned out, Newsweek 's editors were simply referring to the increase in public spending now taking place—hardly an indication of socialism. But the fact that this is said at all in the mainstream media points to the fact that we are in a different historical moment in which radical forces have the possibility of moving forward.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-60257051465322885002009-02-28T14:24:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:24:00.000-08:00We overreach, never asking ourselves why these guy...We overreach, never asking ourselves why these guys would take a step down...<BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>What does it really mean? An efficient 'public servant'? Today in Vallejo,CA that is BK, the city-manager gets over $300k,<BR/><BR/>Today a city-manager is someone that can shovel shit to the public, and city-hall, its NOT about competence, its about SHIT.<BR/><BR/>THE US, at local, and state, and federal is PONZI, and NOBODY can fix it, so what what we do is HIRE professional liars, ... and then wonder why the outcome is always the same??<BR/><BR/>The TRUTH, we don't want the truth, NO US CITY wants the truth.<BR/><BR/>The TRUTH is DPUSS is an idiot, the US public get the city-staff it deserves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-58012543228418406462009-02-28T14:16:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:16:00.000-08:00KUNT's WANT TO KNOW WHY OREO WILL GO DOWN AS THE B...KUNT's WANT TO KNOW WHY OREO WILL GO DOWN AS THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE IN HISTORY?? READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY...<BR/><B><BR/>Timothy Geithner told CNBC that "We will preserve the system that is owned and managed by the private sector."</B> This suggests that the Treasury Secretary might not liquidate the toxic assets at all, but try maintain the appearance that these underwater banks are solvent. What do you think will happen if Geithner refuses to nationalize the banks? <BR/><BR/>I would not interpret Geithner's statement that way. <B>Rather we are experiencing one of the greatest robberies in history.</B> I have written on the question of nationalization for the “Notes from the Editors” forthcoming in the March 2009 Monthly Review . All the attempts to rescue the financial system at this time go in the direction of nationalization. The federal government is providing more and more of the capital and assuming financial responsibility for the banks. <B>However, they are doing everything they can to keep the banks in private hands, resulting in a kind of de facto nationalization with de jure private control. </B>Whether the federal government is forced eventually toward full nationalization (that is, assuming direct control of the banks) is a big question. But even that is unlikely to change the nature of what is going on, which is a classic case of the socialization of losses of financial institutions while leaving untouched the massive gains still in the hands of those who most profited from the whole extreme period of financial speculation.<BR/><BR/>To get an idea of what is happening one has to understand that the federal government, as I have already indicated, has committed itself thus far in this crisis $9.7 trillion in support programs primarily for financial institutions. The Federal Reserve (together with the Treasury) now has converted itself into what is called a “bad bank.” It has been swapping Treasury certificates for toxic financial waste, such as collateralized debt obligations. As a result the Federal Reserve has become the banker of last resort for toxic waste with the share of Treasuries in the Fed's balance sheet dropping from about 90 percent to about 20 percent over the course of the crisis, with much of the rest now made up of financial toxic waste.<BR/><BR/>Obviously, full, straightforward nationalization would be more rational than this. But one has also to remember the system of power—both economic and political—that we are dealing with at present. The classic case of full bank nationalization was Italian corporatist capitalism of the 1920s and ‘30s, and was carried out by the fascist regime. Without suggesting that we are headed this way now it should be clear from this that nationalization of banks itself is no panacea.<BR/><BR/>The fact that <B>Geithner, Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary, is overseeing the enormous robbery taking place, probably exceeding any theft in history, with the ordinary taxpayers picking up the tab,</B> should certainly cause one to ask questions about the “progressive” nature of the new administration.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-45378111700055186902009-02-28T14:12:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:12:00.000-08:00"What is it about Central Oregon cities that leads..."What is it about Central Oregon cities that leads them to make so many bad choices in hiring managers?"<BR/><BR/>I think it's because we like to think we're big time, when we're a backwater.<BR/><BR/>We overreach, never asking ourselves why these guys would take a step down...<BR/><BR/>Better to promote someone who's lived here for awhile. Too many peculiarities to hire outside...Duncan McGearyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02857388833850939721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-19108711371646175952009-02-28T14:09:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:09:00.000-08:00Re: The H/B-puss seems to think that a missing pag...Re: The H/B-puss seems to think that a missing page is the 'big story', but they don't really want to see the AD cuz that would end their conspiracy theory so they keep talking shit. Just run an ad in craigs-list for that all paper, and pay the $5 and get the ad, but then that would end the BIG-STORY of it not being found, ... Typically pussy stuff in BEND.<BR/><BR/>###<BR/><BR/>Yeah, that's what I thought. The nice lady on the phone said give her a few minutes and she would call me back. After a few hours it was past five and still nothing.<BR/><BR/>So I'll try again on Monday. If it's a non-story fine by me. It sure has some people worked up, though.Bewerthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08389021459268558541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-27785483590258869662009-02-28T14:01:00.000-08:002009-02-28T14:01:00.000-08:00Here's the deal someone last night called bust...Here's the deal someone last night called buster 'wrong' about OREO and popularity, ... he was at 57 heading south, the state-of-union gave him a lift, but the FDIC has to raise reserves, but heres the DEAL their passing the cost directly of all people to those who hold credit-cards, this is the kind of thing that you can't blame 'W', this is 100% OREO,... Mark my Words, OREO will go south, and quick.... <BR/><BR/>Bad Banks? Right? Golden Showers for MOSS? So why the FUCK are the little people paying the BILL?<BR/><BR/>CALL IT WHAT IT IS, its a MOSS-TAX, a little extra to keep MOSS in biz,... so she can get more MDU&JRMB.<BR/><BR/><B><BR/>Bank failures lead to credit card rate hikes<BR/></B><BR/><BR/>05:12 PM PST on Friday, February 27, 2009<BR/><BR/>By WAYNE HAVRELLY, kgw.com<BR/><BR/>Many customers are about to face shocking rate increases on credit cards.<BR/><BR/>Friday the FDIC imposed an emergency assessment on every bank in the nation. This after the fund that protects our bank accounts dropped to unacceptable levels.<BR/><BR/>The move will cost all of us, especially those carrying high credit card balances like Robert Brown of Salem. He opened a credit card to pay thousands in vet bills for his dog buddy.<BR/><BR/>He used another card from a big national bank to pay his own hospital bills. He's disabled from a head injury and now lives on a fixed income.<BR/><BR/>“So that credit card saved your dog buddies life?” asked Havrelly. “Yes it did”, said Brown.<BR/><BR/>Brown said, “We didn't default, we didn't stop or miss any credit card payments, but we're one of the Americans now living from paycheck to paycheck trying to pay them off.”<BR/><BR/>A few days ago he learned one of his credit cards was jumping from the 0 percent he thought he would enjoy for another year, to 17.9 percent. The company said it's changing terms because of extraordinary changes in the economy. If Brown is just three days late with a payment, that interest rate balloons to 29.4 percent.<BR/><BR/>“It's unreal”, said Brown. “The thing is we just got done giving those big banks billions of dollars to help them out and now they are sticking it to us.”<BR/><BR/>Lark Wysham is Chairman of the Oregon Bankers Association, a group that represents smaller community banks in our area.<BR/><BR/>KING photo<BR/><BR/>Credit and debit cards.<BR/><BR/>“My heart goes out to those consumers. It doesn’t sound fair to me and if I were him, I'd go to his bank and work with a community banker to get some help with that,” she said.<BR/><BR/>However, some smaller community banks have also suffered big problems recently. This year, 24 banks have failed so far and three of them were right here in the Portland area.<BR/><BR/>Because of the failures the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation took a dramatic step on Friday. It assessed every bank in the country an extra 20 cents for every $100 in deposits because the insurance fund that protects our accounts dropped below acceptable levels.<BR/><BR/>“Nobody has ever lost a dime of money in a bank failure and that’s because we’ve continued to fund the FDIC fund and I believe that will always be there to help the consumers," Wysham said.<BR/><BR/>She also says the higher FDIC assessments will force all banks to cut costs and raise fees.<BR/><BR/>Robert Brown said, “I'm afraid of the next bill that's going to come in with the new rate that I didn't sign up for. I don't think I'll be able to afford it.”<BR/><BR/>Brown says with $15,000 currently on those cards, dramatically higher interest rates might just force him into bankruptcy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-69441541982590741772009-02-28T13:56:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:56:00.000-08:00Garzini considered for Bend manager | News Archive...Garzini considered for Bend manager | News Archives | The Bulletin<BR/>Bend Bulletin - Dec 4, 2003<BR/>Bend city councilors may tap former assistant city manager Ron Garzini to fill in as city manager while there's a search for a permanent replacement for ...<BR/>Related web pages<BR/><BR/>POLICY WATCH.(room tax increase in Bend)(Brief Article)(Statistical...<BR/>Free with registration - Oregon Business - AccessMyLibrary.com - Oct 1, 2001<BR/>The Bend City Council is increasing it again for general fund purposes." ... (9.5%) and Burns (9%) -- according to Bend interim city manager Ron Garzini. ...<BR/>Related web pages<BR/><BR/>Heppner ponders manager choices<BR/>EastOregonian.info - EastOregonian.info (subscription) - Jul 26, 2007<BR/>I think it's very rewarding to help a smaller community do something," Garzini said, adding that his most rewarding job was being city manager of Seward, ( BUILT THE BIGGEST CITY OWNED PRISON IN USA ) ...<BR/>Related web pages<BR/><BR/>Bend, Ore., voters to decide whether to add bus system<BR/>Seattle Times - Nov 1, 2004<BR/>"The community is radically changing," said Ron Garzini, a former interim city manager and a member of the group backing the levy. "Bend is going throughAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-8316827004528591212009-02-28T13:53:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:53:00.000-08:00Garzini considered for Bend manager | News Archive...Garzini considered for Bend manager | News Archives | The Bulletin<BR/>Bend Bulletin - Dec 4, 2003<BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>Prison Booster, Enforcer, GOB's GOB, he's been called MANY FUCKING THINGS,<BR/><BR/>But don't tell us that hard ass bad-boyz haven't ran Central Orygun HPUSS, it shows your either stupid, or a newbie.<BR/><BR/>Regarding Redmond, what happened up there was the the city-manager became 'untouchable' he hired/fired the police-chief, and controlled the city, and the mayor was a patsy like aber-pussy. The Redmond city-manager had been on a rampage in bars for a year, drunk every night, and finally they had to have the Sheriff arrest him, cuz the cops couldn't touch him, also Redmond is ALL NEPOTISM.<BR/><BR/>The NEW POLICE CHIEF from 'Springfield-ORYGUN' is a good guy, and now that he got the sheriff to remove the city-manager, things in REDMOND will be fixed. It's BEND that is FUCKED, the Sawyer story is just the tip of the iceberg in BEND, but in BEND we have NOBODY that can or will fix the fucking city. The city-hall/staff don't have the balls to HIRE OUTSIDERS for fear they'll all go to jail.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-86536325209284241072009-02-28T13:46:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:46:00.000-08:00It has 252 banks on its watch list and will increa...It has 252 banks on its watch list and will increase its fees from banks by $27 billion to bolster its current low level of reserves -- $19 billion.<BR/>When you consider what would happen if people lost confidence in bank deposits, the increase is a small price to pay.<BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>Now that is really fucking interesting, cuz just two months ago FDIC had about $50B in reserves left, so they're losing $15B/mo and the avalanche hasn't even started, and so far they have 'FORCED' people to BUY the bad banks.<BR/><BR/>I'm sure the FDIC has begged UPQUA to BUY CACB, but why the FUCK with 'The Shire',...et-al, ... would UPQUA want anymore exposure to non-performing BEND?? Who the fuck wants BEND?? That's the fucking problem, thus CACB will go down, but its going to be fucking ugly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-81111548887732541682009-02-28T13:43:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:43:00.000-08:00While, I contacted the person at the BULL whose na...While, I contacted the person at the BULL whose name I was given by the reception girls who were surprised by the missing page, but no word back yet. She assured me she could find it and get me a copy.<BR/><BR/>So we'll see.<BR/><BR/>Anybody near Redmond? Their library probably has a copy. I'm getting really curious about actually seeing that ad. I read the BULL everyday and have a tough time remembering it.<BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>They set the BULL with pagemaker for some software, it would be easy to bring up that issue.<BR/><BR/>All 'advertisement' is invoiced, and a copy of the ad is attached, certainly in 'accounting' the BULL would have a copy of the ad and detail.<BR/><BR/>The H/B-puss seems to think that a missing page is the 'big story', but they don't really want to see the AD cuz that would end their conspiracy theory so they keep talking shit. Just run an ad in craigs-list for that all paper, and pay the $5 and get the ad, but then that would end the BIG-STORY of it not being found, ... Typically pussy stuff in BEND.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-51447393103014355742009-02-28T13:39:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:39:00.000-08:00From Obama's budget message:*Obama's writing team ...From Obama's budget message:<BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>Obama's writing team is two 24 yr old kids at starbucks, and they also wrote his coronation speech, so fucking what?<BR/><BR/>It don't mean shit. Its as about as useful as the term 'Bend Median', it don't mean shit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3449433527135568372.post-25557621637544858742009-02-28T13:37:00.000-08:002009-02-28T13:37:00.000-08:00we can learn how to fix a banking crisis. And from...we can learn how to fix a banking crisis. And from our friends in China, we can learn how to punish the jerks who caused it. <BR/><BR/>*<BR/><BR/>Now that I agree with, in CHINA they say, kill one monkey, and silence 1,000, it would only take a few bankers to the gallows and our banking problems would be fixed in a week, but with all these golden-parachutes, its everybody's interest to wait like MOSS for their golden taxpayer shower.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com