Blue Horseshoe Loves Sequels
We can probably guess what happened to Anacott Steel during the past 20 years.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Wednesday, June 03, 2009
AN OASIS IN A WORLD OF HACKS, HUSTLERS, AND HIRED SPIN
posted by The Cunning Realist at Wednesday, June 03, 2009
6 Comments:
ALOHA !!
I agree with the comments ...
Funny ... so much has changed in technology since the first Wall Street, where they show Bud Fox with PacMan graphics using DOS commands.
No ETrade or IB or any of the chart action you get today. No mention of derivatives at all in the original Wall Street movie but plenty of LBOs and junk and greed and CEO mismanagement.
While technology has done wonders for the "speed" of markets and REAL TIME it has done absolutely nothing for the human condition. That has not changed since cave man days!
Another big difference since the first Wall Street movie is that back then the SEC actually arrested Wall Street fraudsters. Well, Bud got off easy because he made a deal to wear a wire. When was the last time anyone in Wall Street ever wore a wire? Probably Bud Fox! What kind of role will the SEC have in the new movie. If it is accurate then it will not be mentioned at all, except when the hookers show up!
One of the lines in Wall Street at the beginning was when one of Bud's bosses mentions, "The worst thing that ever happened to this country was when Nixon took us off the gold standard."
BLUE HORSESHOE LOVES GOLD!
Speaking of gold...when was the last time you read something like this? Actually...I don't ever remember reading something like this.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&sid=ajf0L9wTPq6Y
Looted. A small shadow of its former self, if it exists at all, much like industries. It is MUCH more than losing an industry or business. We are losing skills, knowledge, and experiences. Talk about making a Nation weaker.
Jobs = National Security.
Jobs = Family Values.
Republicans who were frenziedly obsessed about both (NS & FV), are supiciously absent when Wall Street kills jobs. Why would anyone want to make us weaker?
Government watchdogs say the military industry complex has components of itself in each state. This is done by design, to give it leverage with politicians from those states. If these same power monied individuals have the same mentality on a world level, does that mean they'll have world-wide leverage.
Bill Maher, New Rules:
"And finally, New Rule: In the upcoming sequel to "Wall Street," "Wall Street 2: In Search of Curly's Gold Card," Gordon Gekko must say, "On second thought, greed isn't good." In fact, it's the common thread that runs through all of the problems this country faces, from financial meltdown, to health care, to climate change. Americans will do anything to each other for money."
The Looting of America: How Wall Street Fleeced Millions from Wisconsin Schools
Meanwhile, Wall Street investment houses had set their sights on school-district trust funds like Whitefish Bay’s. They hoped to persuade districts to stop stashing this money—valued at well above $100 billion nationwide in 2006—in treasury bonds and federally insured certificates of deposit (CDs). Wall Street’s “innovative” securities could provide higher returns—not to mention more lucrative fees for the investment firms.
There is no other way of looking at it. Wall Street is clearly a threat to our way of life, our sustainablity. They are parasites feeding off of the hard working people of this Nation. John Bogle talks about the terrible overhead Wall Street is, in his book, "Enough". So much speculation and very little investing. Complex to favor Wall Street, at the expense of working individuals. I think, for the worlds survival, Wall Street should go the way of dinasaurs, and we should rethink the way we finance projects and progress. For the past 30 years, after each bubble, you'd hope things would change; that our politicians would do right, but Wall Street got bigger, our media got worse, and everyone else got smaller. imho, nothing seems/feels different this time around either. I know it'll take time to clean up this huge mess. But there doesn't seem to be a big enough, all-around movement to change and improve.
A while back Nightline did a story about toxic drywall from China. There were 2 problems, no one was making drywall in the US any longer (they might of mentioned there was 1 but I don't recall if they are still in business), and when they did, it cost something like $20/sheet vs China's $2/sheet. I guess shipping/transportation was free.
Nightline also did a story about some fishery in the NE. They showed cold arthritic surly (at least that is how they came across) 70+ year old employees working. They complained they had jobs but no one wanted them, young people didn't have a work ethic, and that they would be out of business if it weren't for illegal aliens. They talked about "product", wildlife in our vast oceans, but there was no discussion about the state of our overfished oceans.
When companies complain they can't find a CEO, they provide millions in wages, benefits, perks, and golden parachutes. Anyway that's the excuse we get from Corporate Boards. Never mind Universities are graduating thousands of MBA's every year increasing the supply, or that Corporate Boards have conflicts of interest, and are highly compensated themselves for not doint much. This isn't limited to Corporations. Universities do it to.
When companies complain they can't find workers, they go to Congress to raise the H1B, L1, or just hire illegal aliens.
During the China Industrialization of the past 15+ years, we were told it was a good thing because we got lots of things cheap. Consumption was next to Godliness. No mention of quality or toxicity or responsibility or debt. Shhhh... On the other side, businesses were making huge profits by cutting jobs here and buiding facilities elsewhere and taking jobs. This was a temporary "fix" at most. Businesses and Wall Street benefited hugely, but did anyone else, even proportionally? Did anyone else see those profits in any form? They saw the loss in jobs, big box stores replacing mom and pops, and inflation.
It just seems we aren't very honest about the American Dream. And we are getting a lot of BS from the powered and monied. It's just a strange way to run a good country with lots of potential.
Yes they still make drywall in America. LOL. There was a big shortage after Hurrican Katrina. A ton of drywall came in from China because we needed it. Nothing nefarious there...just too bad it was toxic.
Honestly I don't think our problem is the Chinese. We need to get our own house in order before we go blaming problems on foreigners. All they are doing is making products that people want to buy. If we can't compete with the expenses of shipping in resources and shipping back products to the US...then we don't deserve jobs. I think the US could compete myself. We could compete if making useful things...and the things we use was a priority. But it is not a priority. Instead our national priority is to subsidize our financial and military power at the expense of everything else. That is why America can't compete. That is why our manufacturing base is being depleted. Our financial system is now a parasatic institution not just on us...but the world. China and Brazil are working out their own terms for future trade outside the US dollar for this very reason. Expect other countries to follow suit. The corruption of our financial institutions is obvious to everyone. Our military and military manufactures and the biggest, bloated, corrupt, and wasteful institutions on the face of the planet. If our "elites" can not let go of their dreams of being "the indispensible nation", as Allbright cackled, they will run this country into the graveyard of failed empires. Which is probably where we deserve to go...since we have such a weak character as a people. LOL
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