PODCAST-TRANSCRIPT-WEEKLY-UPDATE-2009-MAY-15 (FRANCONOMICS.COM)
Chrysler Bankruptcy, 2000 GM and Chrysler Dealerships Axed, Goldman Director Resigns from Chairmanship of New York Federal Reserve, Who are the Treasury Officials (and ex-Goldman Alums) Really Working For?
The worst news to have hit America since our last podcast two weeks ago was the Chrysler bankruptcy, the potential GM bankruptcy, and Chrysler and GM terminating 789 and 1100 dealers respectively. Unfortunately for the Congress and for America, Larry Summers hates manufacturing. By the same token, he must love services, as in creative financial engineering. Now, I read a lot of financial engineering in MIT Sloan School. It is nothing like real engineering. If you study mechanical engineering, you create robots and automobiles, if you study civil engineering, you build bridges and dams and structures with roofs where human beings dwell, if you study computer engineering, you design cheaper better faster computers, if you study genetic engineering, you create better pharmaceuticals, better drugs, better medicines. But if you study financial engineering, YOU SCAM PEOPLE. Dr. Summers & Dr. Bernanke: PLEASE DON’T HELP RICH BANKERS WITH THEIR FAT BANK ACCOUNTS IN THE NAME OF CAPITALISM, while the average American loses his business, his home to foreclosure, and his job to the Japanese and the Chinese.
OK, let’s tackle the real economic data one by one. First, HOUSING. Now that we are in mid-may, let’s analyze the foreclosure data for April. So… foreclosure filings hit a record for the second straight month in April. A total of 342,038 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, as per RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, CA. In other words, [serious]one in 374 households got a filing, the highest monthly rate since the property data service began issuing such reports in 2005. California was No. 1 in April with 96,560 foreclosure filings, a 42 percent increase from a year earlier; Florida climbed 75 percent to 64,588, Nevada rose 111 percent to 16,266 and Arizona rose 40 percent to 16,245. Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate as one in 68 households there received a filing, more than five times the national average. Florida had the second highest rate at one in 135 households, almost three times the national average,
Now to JOBS and EMPLOYMENT. While the KUDLOWS of the world with their multi-million salaries wax poetic on CNBC that the economy is turning, we have posted links to relevant news, and you might have probably heard somewhere that unemployment was 8.9% at last count, and real unemployment, including those who are underemployed and would like to work full-time is now at more than 15%. The retail industry has now lost more than 744,000 jobs since the recession began in December 2007, accounting for 13% of the total 5.7 million positions that have been shed by U.S. employers over that period. So, if the Kudlows of the world are telling you that the economy is turning around, don’t listen to them. It must be a screwed up world, for the same Kuldow, was going drill drill drill as a solution to high oil prices. Oil was 4 dollars a gallon, and in one year, it is down to 2 dollars. I wonder if Kudlow realizes that he was WRONG WRONG WRONG. Wrong on oil prices, wrong on employment data, [loud] WRONG ON THE ECONOMY, Kuldow, sorry KUDLOW. THE ECONOMY IS NOT TURNING. 2000 AUTO DEALERSHIPS ARE CLOSING DOWN, TAKING WITH IT ANOTHER HALF A MILLION JOBS LOST, ANOTHER HALF A MILLION FAMILIES UNDER DURESS, ANOTHER 100,000 ADDITIONAL FORECLOSURES.
NOW, let’s analyze where the banks stand as of today. In the last couple of weeks, the stress test results are out, even though those who know finance and are honest have called it a JOKE. Anyway, what is the net outcome of the STRESS TESTS? Well, it is the same old stuff --- banks too big to fail should be saved, even if it costs tax-payers trillions. Elite institutions like Goldman are indeed elite, and have passed the stress tests. Our question to the regulators is simple: Goldman mismanaged its business and would have gone bankrupt without the bailout of 10 billion from TARP plus 13 billion from AIG handout, so how could the Goldman bankers pocket a bonus in 2008. And how can they boldly proclaim to the whole world that the same bonus amounts to retain talent will be awarded in 2009. What is this talent? Be greedy, mis-manage, drive your business to bankruptcy, and call yourself the best and the brightest. We at Franconomics think that the Goldman bonus for 2008 should be pulled back and returned to taxpayers. Just tax that bonus at 100% and return the money to taxpayers.
On Goldman, one of their directors resigned from his position as Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve over allegations that he was also serving as a director at Goldman. MR. Friedman abruptly resigned, and had to say this --- The Federal Reserve System has important work to do and does not need this distraction. Now where have we heard this before?? Oh I remember, when the honorable treasury secretary Mr. Geithner was being grilled for his tax related faux paus, didn’t he say something similar? Like apologizing for the minor distraction when the Congress and the US Treasury had a lot of important work to do? And what is the result of such important work in 5 months? The honest congressmen who come on national television and cry that larry Summers hates manufacturing, and hates construction, have grown weaker. The bankers from Goldman have grown bolder, promising to the world that they will pay themselves as much or more bonus in 2009 vis-à-vis 2008.
WE at Franconomics.com think that America is on the wrong track. When fraudulent people as in scheming and scamming bankers get rewarded, and hard-working auto-service technicians and car salesmen get the axe, there is something very wrong. Now, don’t laugh. You thought your new (or used) car salesman was a con-man. NOOOO. The real con-men are these wall-street bankers, and their hand-picked government officials in important positions. For example, in a congressional testimony, Neel Kashkari, a key treasury official, and a Goldman alum quipped that he was working very hard, to which congressman Dennis Kuschinich had asked: Yes, we have no doubt you are working hard, but who are you working for? And Kashkari the Cash man prudently kept quiet. The congressman was alluding obviously to the fact that the treasury official was working on behalf of his former employers, as in GOLDMAN SACHS! And Kashkari could say nothing, nothing! Millions and more millions in bonus for Goldman Sachs in 2009, and we wonder how some of that will flow back in the future to the Kashkaris and the Summers and the Geithners of the world. Well, please listen to our last podcast tounderstand how once you work as a treasury secretary (or State Secretary), you can go work for a hedge fund, as Madeline Albright did and Larry Summers did. Time has to fly for that to happen, but WILL IT NOT BE TOO LATE? Let’s do something NOW, folks. Let’s not get our tax money LOOTED, PLUNDERED, and STASHED AWAY IN SWISS (and American) BANK ACCOUNTS by bankers who mismanaged their businesses and without the taxpayer dole-outs would have no banks to work for today.
Folks, you see the problem, right? Fundamental reform is required, and honest people should be in charge o taxpayers money. Not wall-street insiders, not friedmenites, not elites working one day a week to pocket a multi-million dollar salary and coming back to grab power in the name of public service.
As we mentioned in the last podcast, eventually stock markets do come up. And when they do, it has everything to do with the hard work of Americans and very little to do with the machinations of the economists and bankers, who, as PARASITES, HAVE BEEN FEEDING OFF THE GULLIBLE AMERICAN. DO YOUR PROGENY A FAVOR. IN THE NEXT TOWN HALL MEETING, ASK PRESIDENT OBAMA WHY HE KEEPS WINING AND DINING THE BANKERS WHILE LETTING AUTO MANUFACTURERS GO BANKRUPT? ASK HIM WHY HE LISTENS TO DEREGULATORS LIKE DR. SUMMERS WHO HAVE CAUSED THIS CRISIS? ASK HIM IF THIS COUNTRY IS SO BEREFT OF TECHNOCRATS THAT WALL-STREET INSIDERS HAVE TO SET POLICY ON EVERYTHING FROM WHY NOT TO CONSTRUCT INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS OR INFORMATION SUPER-HIGHWAYS TO WHY BANK JOBS NEED TO BE SAVED???
Tune in again next week for your next weekly podcast. I APOLOGIZE FOR skipping the last weekly podcast --- we were moving our podcasting headquarters from Silicon Valley to Washington DC. We feel that we will be more effective in regulating the regulators up close and personal. And as weeks roll on, we will let YOU, THE LISTENER, be the judge. Thank you for listening, and I am Sam Mishra from Franconomics.com, Thank you. You have a great week ahead, and stay well.
Listen / Subscribe to this PODCAST Using:
DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST MP3 FILE >>
