If You're Confused, Scared and or Pissed Off (and who isn't?), In This Blog, A Financial Crisis Explanation In SIMPLE Terms!!!
Before I give you the "Explanation", because of some new show business obligations I have that I told you about in the last blog, this blog (except for the "Explanation") figures to be short.
The "Explanation" will be our final item in this blog.
TALK SHOW WHINERS WHO OFFER NO SOLUTIONS!!!
Hello Rush "El Rushbo" Limbaugh and Sean "Little Lord Fauntleroy" Hannity!
I know that you two aren't the only ones guilty of what you do, but you two are the ones with the largest audiences and you're the only two (who do what you do) that I listen to.
Both of you whine, whine, whine about how everything that President Obama is trying to do is wrong, wrong, wrong! Both of you say (in essence) that if we (as a country) go back to the way Ronald Reagan did things, we'd be back on the right track.
The problem with that kind of thinking is that once you take the blinders off and really examine what it was that Reagan proposed and supported economics wise, has now been proven to be what the first President Bush said when he ran against Reagan. Do you remember what Bush 41 said about Reagan's economic proposals before Bush became Reagan's Vice President?
He called those proposals "Voodoo economics" and he was right! And it has taken this long to find out how right he was!
Back to the professional "whiners"...
While El Rushbo (when he's not trying to run the Republican party) and Little Lord (when he doesn't have his lips close to El Rushbo's tush) whine and complain about what President Obama is trying to do, neither one of these guys (or any other professionial complainer) has said what we should do instead of what President Obama is trying to do.
This shouldn't be a newsflash to these guys, but in case it is....We are an eyelash away from Great Depression Two because of "zero regulation" policies that benefitted NO ONE except people who were RICH and these policies made them wealthier than wealthy while everyone else (you and me) GOT SCREWED!!!
Now...Does that mean I believe that what President Obama is trying do will result in the SOLUTIONS we now need? I don't know. But here's what I DO KNOW! We HAVE to try something DIFFERENT from the "voodoo" policies that got us INTO this mess!
EXAMPLES OF THINGS THAT HAVE TO BE CHANGED:
Another bailout for AIG?!? Isn't it way past time for every executive in that company to be fired and or jailed? AIG...$62+BILLION dollars lost in the last quarter reported. Largest quarterly loss in history for any kind of business.
IndyMac Bancorp. So-called Federal Regulators knew about problems that outfit was having for at least TWO YEARS before they went belly-up and a lot of innocent people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Have you ever heard of a guy named Darrel Dochow? People who ended up being financially ruined because of him wish THEY had never heard of Darrel Dochow! After helping Lincoln Savings & Loan go broke, this loser Dochow was given another big job at another bank and (with his leadership) helped THAT bank go broke. As the L.A. Times sarcastically noted, "Did Dochow leave Lincoln OFF his resume? And is this loser part of the so called 'limited talent pool' that the old-boys network would have us believe are the only ones CAPABLE of running major corporations?"
Yes, "old-boys network" guys that El Rushbo and Little Lord tell us should be "left alone".
We've all heard of Citigroup, right? About 2 years or so ago, Citigroup was worth more than 270 billion dollars. As of February 27, Citigroup was worth 8.2 billion or so. That's not a misprint. More than 260 billion dollars lost by Citigroup in what appears to be 2 years or so.
Oh, yeah. What WE need to do is go back to policies that GOT us here! (sarcasm intended)
A REAL RADIO LEGEND HAS "LEFT THE BUILDING"...
Paul Harvey...
Never met him. But I feel like I knew him because he was that good. I worked on an ABC station that carried Paul Harvey during the shift I hosted 5 days a week. Probably the most day in and day out BEST radio entertainer I've ever heard. R.I.P., Mr. Harvey!!!
ENTERTAINMENT STUFF...
Did you see the 2-hour episode of "Brothers & Sisters" this past Sunday night? I've said it before and I'll say it again...That show, to me, is the BEST show on television and what they did for 2 hours this past Sunday, reinforced my opinion of that show. I mean, during commercials, I was constantly wiping my eyes and blowing my nose.
Did you see the 2-hour episode of "24" this past Monday night? Wow, wow and triple wow! A first rate thrill ride. "24", for me, got off to a shaky start this season, but they have (again) found their "mojo" and have again become "appointment television".
Speaking of "appointment television"...After a slow beginning this season, "American Idol" is BACK!!! They're doing things a little differently this season and these different things (in my view) are positive different things.
AND NOW THE FINANCIAL CRISIS EXPLANATION I PROMISED IN THE HEADLINE AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS BLOG!
Charlie O'Donnell is a long time friend of mine and he's also the long time off stage announcer for "Wheel of Fortune". Earlier this evening, the guy we all call "Charlie O", sent me a written piece titled, "The financial crisis explained in simple terms:"
Word for word, here it is:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers (most of whom are unemployed alcoholics) to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger, thereby granting the customers loans.
Word gets around and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager of the bank(subsequently fired because of his negativity) decides that (finally) the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar.
However, they are unable pay back the debts.
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and declares bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95%. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after falling by 80%.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities, are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy and her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.
The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the NON-drinkers.
The end.
Charlie O'Donnell actually ends this with, "Finally! An explanation I understand."
Gang, I highly recommend that you read this again and send it to your friends.
THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net If you write to the blog, I won't know what your email address is so I won't be able to respond to you. All thoughts or comments sent to scottstjames@sbcglobal.net are answered by me.
THE NEXT BLOG?
Well, this one ended up being longer than I thought it would be, but I do have current show business obligations to attend to. Unless I'm "tied up", the next blog will be posted next Wednesday, March 11, in the early or late evening. Hopefully, we'll have better economic news to report.
The "Explanation" will be our final item in this blog.
TALK SHOW WHINERS WHO OFFER NO SOLUTIONS!!!
Hello Rush "El Rushbo" Limbaugh and Sean "Little Lord Fauntleroy" Hannity!
I know that you two aren't the only ones guilty of what you do, but you two are the ones with the largest audiences and you're the only two (who do what you do) that I listen to.
Both of you whine, whine, whine about how everything that President Obama is trying to do is wrong, wrong, wrong! Both of you say (in essence) that if we (as a country) go back to the way Ronald Reagan did things, we'd be back on the right track.
The problem with that kind of thinking is that once you take the blinders off and really examine what it was that Reagan proposed and supported economics wise, has now been proven to be what the first President Bush said when he ran against Reagan. Do you remember what Bush 41 said about Reagan's economic proposals before Bush became Reagan's Vice President?
He called those proposals "Voodoo economics" and he was right! And it has taken this long to find out how right he was!
Back to the professional "whiners"...
While El Rushbo (when he's not trying to run the Republican party) and Little Lord (when he doesn't have his lips close to El Rushbo's tush) whine and complain about what President Obama is trying to do, neither one of these guys (or any other professionial complainer) has said what we should do instead of what President Obama is trying to do.
This shouldn't be a newsflash to these guys, but in case it is....We are an eyelash away from Great Depression Two because of "zero regulation" policies that benefitted NO ONE except people who were RICH and these policies made them wealthier than wealthy while everyone else (you and me) GOT SCREWED!!!
Now...Does that mean I believe that what President Obama is trying do will result in the SOLUTIONS we now need? I don't know. But here's what I DO KNOW! We HAVE to try something DIFFERENT from the "voodoo" policies that got us INTO this mess!
EXAMPLES OF THINGS THAT HAVE TO BE CHANGED:
Another bailout for AIG?!? Isn't it way past time for every executive in that company to be fired and or jailed? AIG...$62+BILLION dollars lost in the last quarter reported. Largest quarterly loss in history for any kind of business.
IndyMac Bancorp. So-called Federal Regulators knew about problems that outfit was having for at least TWO YEARS before they went belly-up and a lot of innocent people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Have you ever heard of a guy named Darrel Dochow? People who ended up being financially ruined because of him wish THEY had never heard of Darrel Dochow! After helping Lincoln Savings & Loan go broke, this loser Dochow was given another big job at another bank and (with his leadership) helped THAT bank go broke. As the L.A. Times sarcastically noted, "Did Dochow leave Lincoln OFF his resume? And is this loser part of the so called 'limited talent pool' that the old-boys network would have us believe are the only ones CAPABLE of running major corporations?"
Yes, "old-boys network" guys that El Rushbo and Little Lord tell us should be "left alone".
We've all heard of Citigroup, right? About 2 years or so ago, Citigroup was worth more than 270 billion dollars. As of February 27, Citigroup was worth 8.2 billion or so. That's not a misprint. More than 260 billion dollars lost by Citigroup in what appears to be 2 years or so.
Oh, yeah. What WE need to do is go back to policies that GOT us here! (sarcasm intended)
A REAL RADIO LEGEND HAS "LEFT THE BUILDING"...
Paul Harvey...
Never met him. But I feel like I knew him because he was that good. I worked on an ABC station that carried Paul Harvey during the shift I hosted 5 days a week. Probably the most day in and day out BEST radio entertainer I've ever heard. R.I.P., Mr. Harvey!!!
ENTERTAINMENT STUFF...
Did you see the 2-hour episode of "Brothers & Sisters" this past Sunday night? I've said it before and I'll say it again...That show, to me, is the BEST show on television and what they did for 2 hours this past Sunday, reinforced my opinion of that show. I mean, during commercials, I was constantly wiping my eyes and blowing my nose.
Did you see the 2-hour episode of "24" this past Monday night? Wow, wow and triple wow! A first rate thrill ride. "24", for me, got off to a shaky start this season, but they have (again) found their "mojo" and have again become "appointment television".
Speaking of "appointment television"...After a slow beginning this season, "American Idol" is BACK!!! They're doing things a little differently this season and these different things (in my view) are positive different things.
AND NOW THE FINANCIAL CRISIS EXPLANATION I PROMISED IN THE HEADLINE AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS BLOG!
Charlie O'Donnell is a long time friend of mine and he's also the long time off stage announcer for "Wheel of Fortune". Earlier this evening, the guy we all call "Charlie O", sent me a written piece titled, "The financial crisis explained in simple terms:"
Word for word, here it is:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers (most of whom are unemployed alcoholics) to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger, thereby granting the customers loans.
Word gets around and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager of the bank(subsequently fired because of his negativity) decides that (finally) the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar.
However, they are unable pay back the debts.
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and declares bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95%. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after falling by 80%.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities, are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy and her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.
The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the NON-drinkers.
The end.
Charlie O'Donnell actually ends this with, "Finally! An explanation I understand."
Gang, I highly recommend that you read this again and send it to your friends.
THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net If you write to the blog, I won't know what your email address is so I won't be able to respond to you. All thoughts or comments sent to scottstjames@sbcglobal.net are answered by me.
THE NEXT BLOG?
Well, this one ended up being longer than I thought it would be, but I do have current show business obligations to attend to. Unless I'm "tied up", the next blog will be posted next Wednesday, March 11, in the early or late evening. Hopefully, we'll have better economic news to report.
posted by Scott St. James at 8:08 PM
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