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I may have this scam wrong Maxrot (@#38), but I think the way it works is that when Goldman's financial products based on short positions on corporations or countries go up in price they actually force the value of the corporation's stock or countries' bonds down. Once some momentum is established this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The banksters rig the game so that they have gotten paid 1) to setup the game (transaction fees, percentage on naked CDO pool, etc.) even the original bond as in Greece, 2) in inflating the original value (again transaction fees for setting up the marks) and finally, 3) they collect a lot of everyone else's money when they close out the scam by selling the original and drive a bandwagon effect to crash the market for the original and then they sell out of the rigged short position at an inflated price. Money flows to them all the way through, the original position (corporation/country) is crashed and investors now hold paper that goes up when others suffer instead of stock in a productive corporation or a country's infrastructure bond. Oh, and the original position is now artificially deflated so the bankster's snap it back up and they have completed an under the table takeover. So, as in Greece they can convert the scammed money into real assets and they try to get more real assets through privatization of public assets. Seems pretty twisted but something like this is clearly working for these vampire investment banksters who have gotten incredibly rich while the economy stutters and 'normal' commercial banks become understandably afraid to put their assets anywhere.
Food Fascist: Postitive feedback is when competing forces push the state of things away from equilibrium, whereas negative feedback is the opposite. Thom's discovery is that ratings agency demotions trigger sell-off, which triggers lower bond price and lower ratings, etc. Requirements not to hold bonds rated lower than BBB were also cited as a trigger.
I've seen articles from Pravda that were loonier than National Inquirer, i.e. "I ate my Baby's Ears off!!"
Bobby Kennedy remarked that we don't bomb an entire US neighborhood because a bad guy might be there.
@n8schz Sya hwat?
I'd like to buy an electric car too, but the $40,000 price puts the monthly payment out of my reach. If they priced something around $20,000 then I could seriously consider it. I have little doubt that pricing it out of reach of the median income earner is yet once again playing the "We tried to produce an electric car, but nobody bought it" game, "So we're going back to producing gas only vehicles".
I'll believe there is a serious desire to get people alternative energy cars when they make the introductory price reasonable.
N
PG & E may be in big trouble in California. DO NOT mess with those tough Women of Marin, just North of San Francisco. They will eat anything lving to preserve the environment and are very progressive.
Community Choice Aggregates
Community Choice Aggregates (CCAs) are to energy reform what the public option is to health care. Cities form the equivalent of a buyer's cooperative by purchasing bulk energy on the market to build local green-power facilities. That electricity is then re-sold to local residents and businesses using the distribution system built by the city's current private electric service provider, PG&E.
Dan Walters (2010), reporter for the Sacramento Bee writes “Nearly a century later, PG&E is still resisting efforts to create publicly owned utilities." The provider has recently collected enough signatures from paid gatherers to qualify as an initiative termed Proposition 16 : New Two-Thirds Vote Requirement for Local Public Electricity Providers. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. Walters writes this will cost PG&E at least 25 million dollars to persuade voters to adopt the constitutional amendment.
Read more at Suite101: Solar Power for the Roofless: Off-site Solutions: Innovative Programs Offer Greater Accessibility To Clean Renewables http://environmental-engineering.suite101.com/article.cfm/solar-power-for-the-roofless-off-site-solutions#ixzz0oIwIOuQ6
Sounds like Thom has discovered a positive feedback loop. Positive feedback, while it sounds positive, is destabilizing. Negative feedback is what you want.
I noticed their Pope doesn't practice Christianity either.
Usually pension fund managers
A grass roots movement isn't enough, its only gets us short term goals, progressives need to start and maintain a current, forever demanding fair and equal treatment.
The constitution is a good start, our forefathers were wise indeed when they built our foundations. I really want to see the progressives build their house on it. But like Winchester, never accept the words "Its Finished", keep building.
N
If these companies are making these bets, who is on the other side matching that bet?
N
re: #32: yeah. I remember as a little kid in the '50's, in Donald Duck comic books, Donald's elderly granny or aunt drove an old sun-powered jalopy. The roof of the vehicle was like an early photovoltaic receptor.(solar panel)
I hope my current car lasts another 10 years, but when it's time to retire that baby, I want an electric car. 40 miles a day will be fine for me; for longer trips I'd like to be able to take the train.
@harry re: #30 and #33, great minds think a like.... and apparently so do ours LOL ;-).
N
One antidote: Sousveillance
@Gene, well maybe Thom is broadcasting just West of the International date line today (perhaps he's day dreaming of Sun Bathing on a South Pacific Island, far from all the hectic political issues of the day. He could use some real time off (instead of all the Progressive cruises and international speaking tours), perhaps its just subconscious.
N
I agree with Thom about electric cars. We had electric cars back in the 1920's, and we had water/steam powered cars even earlier, at the turn of the 20th century. A few of those companies folded due to poor sales, but all the ones who were thriving were purhcased either by the big oil companies or by one of the gas propelled auto giants to eliminate competition. Just think about how advanced we'd be now if we'd continued to develop and market those technologies all these last 90-100 years. Food for thought for those reichwingnuts who just can't support weaning us off of the oil teat.
We are a 'mirror shades' society; with one way information flow.
re: #29: I believe Thom had briefly astral - projected to Japan and was speaking from the other side of the international date line.
@Maxrot Thom announced that it was Wednesday in his top of the hour report.
@RandyWinn: Also, it's only audio recording without mutual consent. Video without audio is OK. A judge in DeKalb County, Illinois found that two brothers who tried to record the cops who pulled them over should be tried on the felony rap.
A police officer is not just some guy talking with you, he is the executive of the state who is talking AT you. This relationship is not a conversation between people. It is the state giving you orders.
@Gene re: #23: Thom IS a time traveler...he told me so in 2038. :D
Okay- I just called 2 of Yee's offices and my assembly person Dave Jones, whose staffer asked me to keep abreast of this should there be any developments. Just called Senator Pro Temp Steinberg as well.
Bill to Block Texas Curriculum Changes in California Approved by Committee Monday, May 17, 2010
Yee's bill would help ensure ultra-conservative changes do not affect California textbooks
SACRAMENTO – On a 6-3 vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee today passed legislation to help ensure California textbooks are not subject to the ultra-conservative curriculum changes recently made in Texas.
SB 1451, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), will require State Board of Education to review all California social studies textbooks to ensure that they have not been changed as a result of textbook changes in Texas.
In March, the Texas State Board of Education approved several extreme right-wing curriculum changes. Due to the number of public school students in the state, the changes in Texas could drastically influence textbooks throughout the country.
“While some Texas politicians may want to set their educational standards back 50 years, California should not be subject to their backward curriculum changes,” said Yee. “The alterations and fallacies made by these extremist conservatives are offensive to our communities and inaccurate of our nation’s diverse history. Our kids should be provided an education based on facts and that embraces our multicultural nation.”
Such curriculum changes approved in Texas include reducing the scope of Latino history; replacing Thomas Jefferson among influential writers with individuals guided by “strict Christian beliefs;” terms such as “capitalism” replaced with “free market;” labeling civil rights programs that protect women and people of color as having adverse “unintended consequences;” emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s,” including favorable mentions of the Eagle Forum, Moral Majority, Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and New Gingrich’s Contract With America; more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism; removal of third-party presidential candidates; labeling Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as a role model for effective leadership and a statement from Confederate President Jefferson Davis to accompany a statement from President Abraham Lincoln; removing references to the term “slave trade;” and to include country and western music among nation’s important cultural movements while dropping hip-hop from the same list.
“These curriculum changes are completely unacceptable,” said Yee. “Our children deserve better.”
SB 1451 will next be considered by the full Senate.
http://dist08.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={EFA496BC-EDC8-4E38-9CC7-68D37AC03DFF}&DE={1D364A1E-9BAB-471D-8EBC-D735D6C02F11}
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Contact: Adam J. Keigwin
(916) 651-4008
A sure recipe for the downfall of a civilization is the witches' brew of religiosity and nationalism inherent in the mantra 'God and Country.'