Econ 2009

[japelprime]

Originally Posted by xilman

Q: What's the difference between Ireland and Iceland?
A: One letter and six months.

Courtesy of my youngest brother, who lives and works in Dublin.


Paul

We are lucky as Icelandic taxpayers that some of this claims went to wrong country. This one letter mistake can surely make someone lose his job.
I hope my translation is ok.

Bank claims to Ireland:
Number of claims described in bankrupt old Glitnir came too late. The total of these claims amounts billion. Part of them was sent to Ireland by mistake. This occurred in News Broadcasting.
The deadline to describe the requirements in bankrupt old bank expired 26th November. Approximately 8700 claims were received in finished and the total amount of over 3400 billion(Icelandic króna). In the news RTÉ stated that part of the requirements had been received too late or just not. Repeated after Paul Eiríksson in termination control of Glitnir to approximately 100 claims were received too late and still had requirements to receive. He said amounts different, some of which are millions of dollars. An attempt would be to have test the accuracy of these claims for the courts in this country.
http://www.mbl.is/mm/vidskipti/frett...r_til_irlands/

[ewmayer]

Terrible Timmay Geithner over at Treasuray had a nice Christmas gift for Phoney and Fraudie: "As one of our most valued customers this past year, we're saying 'thanks!' by giving you an unlimited line of credit":

U.S. Treasury Ends Cap on Fannie, Freddie Lifeline for 3 Years: The U.S. Treasury Department will remove the caps on aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the next three years, to allay investor concerns that the companies will exhaust the available government assistance.

The two companies, the largest sources of mortgage financing in the U.S., are currently under government conservatorship and have caps of $200 billion each on backstop capital from the Treasury. Under a new agreement announced yesterday, these limits can rise as needed to cover net worth losses through 2012.The Obama administration is “beginning to realize it’s not getting better and it’s not likely to get better” soon in the housing market, said Julian Mann, who helps oversee $5.5 billion in bonds as a vice president at First Pacific Advisors LLC in Los Angeles. “They don’t want the foreclosures now, so they’re saying, we’ll pay whatever it takes to continue to kick the can down the road.”

My Comment: Apparently "whatever it takes" includes allowing banks to scam F&F by dumping over-appraised mortgages onto the GSEs` balance sheets, and by giving U.S. law enforcement marching orders to look the other way as the same kind of lie-about-your-income scam that ran wild during the peak years of the Great Housing Bubble now gets run in reverse when it comes to loan modifications. Treasury's unofficial motto with respect to the latter would appear to be "Come smoke some HAMP with us."

[cheesehead]

Has anyone yet commented on this December 9th Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone article?

"Obama's Big Sellout"

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...as_big_sellout

The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway.

[__HRB__]

Originally Posted by cheesehead

Has anyone yet commented on this December 9th Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone article?

"Obama's Big Sellout"

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...as_big_sellout

The article proves that Matt Taibbi is a racist who has simply seized the moment to criticize our beloved president. God bless Barack Obama for having the wisdom of Aristotle, the courage of a Kenyan lion and the strength of King Kong to make even the most unpopular choice, when they are mandated by necessity.

I'm certain that deep in his heart even Matt Taibbi knows that our leader, Barack Obama, has made the right choice: America and the American proletariat deserve only the best primi inter pares to lead our one nation under God into the eternal light of happiness and understanding; it is beyond all doubt that our beloved leader will appoint only the most qualified, humble and incorruptible Wall Street insiders this greatest of all nations has to offer.

God bless America,

Theobald Tiger

[garo]

Yeah I posted in the Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize thread. I posted a couple of blog entries from Taibbi as well in which he takes on critics of critics of Obama. I'm going to change the title of that thread and we can perhaps continue all Obama related discussion there in order to keep this thread focused on Econ? This thread is going to be closed in a couple of days anyway.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by garo

This thread is going to be closed in a couple of days anyway.

...In advance of which I would like to ask all of the would-be-pundits amongst our readership to prepare their "Predictions for 2010" - you can make them as broad or narrow-focused as you like, as serious or as tongue-in-cheeky - so we can get the discussion started with those when I open the Econ 2010 thread tomorrow morning (Pacific time, i.e. 2010 will already be rolling westward across Asia toward Europe). Please supplement your Nosferatian Nostradamian prognostications (actually that's a bad descriptor, as I hope ours will be far less vague than those of the late "Dr. No") with a pithy phrase you think will apply well to the global economic and financial scene in 2010.

(NB: I'm claiming dibs on "Reality Bites")

In the latter spirit, we need an informal moniker to apply to the soon-departed 2009 ... some of the more-popular ones which seem apt:

"Extend and Pretend"
"Kick the Can"
"The Year of Living Delusionally"
"Hopium Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"
"Green Shoots, Shits and Leaves"
"Playing Suckface With the Vampire Squid"

Other suggestions?

[garo]

All good suggestions. My choices in order are:
"The Year of Living Delusionally"
"Hopium Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"
"Playing Suckface With the Vampire Squid"

[__HRB__]

"Rats"
"Phantom of the Oprah"
"Hoplahoma!"
"Everything Went"
"Porky and Stressed"
"Wasted Side Story"

But definitely not:

"Less Miserable"

[Batalov]

If we graduated from this class of "Econ 2009" (grades may vary), perhaps the next one could be "Mystery Econ Theater 3000"? We will continue to be forced watching some bad economic mov(i)es and riff?

[Fusion_power]

Predictions for 2010:
1. There will be a gradual lessening of economic stress through the 1st half of the year.
2. Unemployment will gradually stabilize but won't significantly decline.
3. By the latter half of the year, storm clouds will be on the horizon again, the economy will be prepared for a serious downturn.... again.
4. GM will be back at the trough again.. and again... and again.....
5. Inflation will be the next major economic hurdle. It will begin to show in 2010.
6. More companies will go bankrupt including several heavy industry players.
7. You will see a LOT of trucks and trailers on the road hauling scrap metals to sell for whatever it brings.
8. Fewer people will buy new cars relative to 2009.
9. I will move to a new house.... because I dislike paying rent, even if it is only $400 per month.
10. More people will have gardens in 2010 because that is a major way to put food on the table.

DarJones

[davieddy]

Originally Posted by cheesehead

t

... with no early withdrawals.

Unless you had a vascectomy or hysterectomy recently
this line of conversation may be better pursued elsewhere.
(Unless of course you are Irish or use a condom).

David

PS I confidently expect Ernst to exercise his powers of moderation here.