By Robert ScheerConnect the dots: Goldman Sachs made $3.44 billion in profit this past quarter, while the U.S deficit topped $1 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history and appeared to be headed toward doubling that figure before the budget year is out. Since most of the increase in the federal deficit is due to bailing out the banks and salvaging the greater economy they helped destroy, why is the top investment bank doing so well?Well, because that was the plan, as devised by Bush T
IQPC’s 6th Timberland Investment World Summit brings together senior executives from the entire timberlands value chain including pension funds, endowment funds, hedge funds, TIMOs, private landowners, forest management companies, law firms, and banks. New innovations this year include the Pension & Endowment Fund Think Tank and an Interactive roundtable discussion on key international timberland markets . Delegates will learn about forest biotechnology, high yield forestry techniques,
Story from the American Spectator . (H/T ECM) Excerpt: Democrats and President Obama have denied that the creation of a new government-run health care plan would be a Trojan Horse for single-payer health care, but a new report by the Lewin Group (comissioned by the Heritage Foundation) finds that the House Democrats’ health care bill would shift more 83.4 million Americans from private health care coverage to the government plan.
10 REASONS TO START TRADING FOREX! More and more well informed investor and entrepreneurs are diversifying their traditional investments like stocks, bonds & commodities with foreign currency because of the following reasons: 1) FOREX is the largest financial market in the world. With a daily trading volume of over $1.5 trillion, the spot FOREX market can absorb trading sizes that dwarf the capacity of any other market. In fact, when compared with the $50 billion daily market for equit
We offered an integrated total transportation services included Sea/Air Freight Forwarding, Exhibition Forwarding, Custom Brokerage, Parcel and Courier Services , Trucking, Container Depot, Warehousing, Containerized, Break Bulk Shipping and … Male / Female, single; Max 27 years old; Bachelor degree in Accounting with GPA min 2.8 from reputable university; Max 2 year working experience as Finance Accounting Staff; Fresh graduate are welcome to apply; Fluent in English, …
• Posted in Excel Online Jobs July 21, 2009 Excel online job title :GUI for Excel: Futures/Options Trading on Bloomberg by cwlondonJob uploaded date :Tuesday July 21 07 2009 I need help building a clean, intuitive GUI interface, to help guide and direct trading assistants to accurately enter trade information on a trading “blotter.” The GUI needs to have drop… (Budget: $250-750, Jobs: Algorithmic, C/C++, Excel, Graphic Design, Python)Related JobsGUI for Excel: Future
NSW MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Penny Sharpe has started the government 2.0 ball rolling in NSW, launching an event called NSWsphere modelled on Senator Kate Lundy’s successful Public Sphere event in Canberra. Penny Sharpe (Credit: Penny Sharpe) “Since I’ve been elected, I’ve been really interested in how technology can improve democratic processes,” Sharpe said. She attended Lundy’s event and thought there was no reason something similar shouldn’t be done in NSW.
Would Goldman short the Health Care stocks to zero if reform goes through? This is a good question and something to think about, really think about. Goldman has the latest version of the Inslaw/PTECH/PROMS software and front run the market including their own clients, that’s how they get their money throughs software with accelerated business intelligence algorithm and aggregation capabilities. Is your 401k resting in a health insurance investment? I like the one line below a
All CPA firms are still required to have peer review of their auditing and accounting practice in order to satisfy the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) membership, federal regulatory (Generally Accepted Auditing … a break down of the fees for services provided to all clients during the year, showing the percentage of the fees billed to public audit clients for audit services , other accounting services , tax services , and non-audit services .
This is more must-see than any other must-see I have ever recommended. (H/T Hot Air , Stop the ACLU ) Excerpt : (H/T Gateway Pundit ) “ The last time the President made grand promises and demanded passage of a bill before it could be reviewed, we ended up with the colossal stimulus failure and unemployment near 10 percent ,” said Senator DeMint. “Now the President wants Americans to trust him again, but he can’t back up the utopian promises he’s making about a government takeover of health care
Bill Gale of Brookings : Choosing to finance health care reform by taxing the rich is bad economic policy, bad health policy, bad budget policy and poor leadership. It is bad economic policy because, coupled with the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts, it would raise marginal tax rates by 10 percentage points for high-income households. While I object to the general hue and cry that occurs anytime anyone discusses any potential tax increase for the rich, it is nevertheless quite fair to say that a 10 percentage point increase in taxation on the return to labor and capital income is a lot and shouldn’t be the first choice.
Human nature is leap challenged and that’s the way it is My most vivid, earliest memories include the clippety-clop sound of JFK’s horse-drawn caisson; the headline of the Spartanburg Herald reporting the assassination of MLK; and gazing at the Moon with my younger brother minutes after Walter Cronkite’s reporting of Neil Armstrong’s small step on the Lunar surface. I remember being baptized three years later and looking back 40 years later think the only truly positive giant leap for mankind was nearly 2000 years ago by God made flesh and baptized, who, in love made correction possible from the deadly giant leap from Eden.
I have previously pointed out that “independent experts say that total government spending [for the bailouts] could rise to $ 20 trillion dollars.” Now, the government’s own watchdog over the various bailout efforts – the special inspector general – says that that number could be $ 23 trillion dollars in a worst-case scenario. Treasury argues that that amount will not really be spent, because the worst-case won’t happen. But given that Treasury used “worst case scenarios” for the stress tests that we’ve already surpassed, does that argument have any credibility whatsoever
When President Obama traveled to Russia to meet with President Medvedev for their first summit, he made a concerted effort to reach out to ordinary Russians – business leaders, academics, students, civil society activists, and the population at large – to remind citizens in both countries that the US and Russia share numerous common values, concerns and strategic interests. One of the highlights of that effort was an important speech Obama gave to the graduating class of the Higher School of Economics (HSE), one of Russia’s top academic institutions. In that speech (which, as has been reported , did not receive the media coverage within Russia that had been hoped for), Obama spelled out clearly the links among democratic governance, the rule of law, the fight against corruption, and economic development.
PhD economist Robert Kuttner points out that Goldman’s health shows the economy’s sickness: The financial sector has not yet returned to health, despite outsized profits (and bonuses) reported by the likes of Goldman Sachs. This is the kind of purely financial engineering that caused the collapse. The fevered activity at Goldman is a sign of lingering economic illness, not economic health.
By Lance Thompson “It is the nature of an intelligence service that it must receive encouragement and support from the government of the day; if the government lacks interest in or expert understanding for its intelligence service, not even the best service will succeed in overcoming external prejudices against it.” These are the words of Reinhard Gehlen, chief of the German federal intelligence service , the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), in 1971, in his excellent memoir, “The Service.” (English edition: World Publishing, New York, 1972).
A soon-to-be released report by special inspector general Neil Barofsky finds : Many of the banks that got federal aid to support increased lending have instead used some of the money to make investments, repay debts or buy other banks It is not clear whether the report will also disclose the banks’ use of the bailout money to pay executives fat bonuses which they used to buy gold toilets and prostitutes, and to lobby Congress to stop any meaningful reform . The report by the special inspector general also calls on the Treasury Department to require regular, more detailed information from banks about their use of federal aid provided under the Troubled Asset Relief Program
My all-time favorite article by Hayek is his 1945 classic, “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” Although he doesn’t mention the term “local knowledge” in that article, that is the term we Hayekians have adopted to refer to his “knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place.” On Saturday night, I drove to the Salinas Rodeo to see a performance by Credence Clearwater Revisited. (I give it an A, by the way.) Sitting there listening, I remembered one of my favorite passages from Stewart Brand, ed., The Next Whole Earth Catalogue , 1980: Peter Spectre went to a Frank Zappa concert in Amherst, and in the middle of it, someone in the balcony threw a whiskey bottle at Frank Zappa and hit him in the arm
The reaction to An Bord Snip Nua’s proposed spending cuts in the agriculture, forestry and fishing (AFF) area has been predictably intense. The overall savings proposed are €305 million, out of total voted expenditure of €1,985 million (or €1,655 if EU receipts under the Rural Development Programme which count against this expenditure are excluded), amounting to a reduction of 15.4% on voted expenditure (18.4% on the national contribution to this voted expenditure). Taking all of public expenditure, An Bord Snip Nua identified potential savings of €5.3 billion or 9.3% of relevant expenditure
Although the IMF is accountable, above all, to the governments of its 182 member countries that determine its policies and operations and provide its funding, inter-changes between the IMF and civil society have grown considerably in the 1990s. This budding dialogue has much potential, for the development of relationships between the IMF and civil society can both enhance the effectiveness of IMF programs and encourage democratic governance. In what will be a unique gathering in Istanbul, Turkey, the IMF and World Bank annual meetings will bring together finance ministers, central bankers, and other top officials and provide a forum for policymakers to meet with civil society organizations and the private sector
John Taylor of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the fundamental causes of the financial crisis of 2008. Taylor argues that the housing bubble of the early 2000s was caused by excessively loose monetary policy, in particular, a sustained period of excessively low interest rates pursued by the Federal Reserve. Other topics covered include rules vs
A quick look at news you might have missed from around the world for Monday, July 20, 2009. British embassy staff finally released on bail Retired general, lieutenant colonel join suit against President Obama South Africa to test new AIDS vaccine Honduran talks break down between Zelaya and Honduran government Tehran, Iran The last of the British embassy staff arrested by the Iranian secret police during protests against the stolen June 12 election, have been released on bail. During the massive protests in the streets of most major Iranian cities following the disputed reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the British embassy was treating Iranian citizens injured by police.
I am opening this strand to facilitate discussion about the many recommendations made for reform of the legal system by the McCarthy Report. Whilst there are lively discussions going on here and in many other media concerning proposals for cuts there has been little discussion of the extensive proposals for the legal system beyond a focus on the abolition of the tipstaff posts within the Courts Service and merger of various ombudsman functions. The law pages of neither the Sunday Business Post nor the Irish Times give any mention to the Report.
The good Attractive little unit The bad Power button on back Interface dated BitTorrent download plug-in doesn’t work Media Center doesn’t work Firmware updating esoteric Confusing terminology used in the UI Design Promise is known in the consumer space for producing entry-level storage card solutions, and it has taken this one level up by producing a NAS. The SmartStor NS4600 is a NAS that takes four 3.5-inch SATA disks.
Optus has secured a seven-year managed network services and network refresh deal with Brisbane City Council, leaving incumbent supplier Telstra out of the picture. The council plans to commence a major network refresh using Cisco equipment, which will link around 200 of the council’s sites via an IP-based communications network. The deal was signed early last week with the complete transition to Optus’ services due by June 2010, according to an Optus spokesperson.
