Financial Crisis

Sign of the times II

This rooftop sign in Florida is a good representation of George Bush's current economic policy.




The delusional people who will be voting for the GOP this year, are the very same people waiting for free crab.

WTF is this stupid fucking woman saying?

Oh my God.

Is anybody awake out there?

This is a clueless woman, completely out of her depth, being fed talking points and blindly regurgitating them like a drunk spring break fraternity brother after an open bar and wet t-shirt contest.




This is "crisis moment"?

This woman has spent too much time on the back of a dog sled.

She is talking about the importance of tax breaks when asked about the current Wall Street bailout plan.

Would someone slap this daft women in the head and inform her that the proposed 700 Billion dollar bailout plan will, by itself, cost the average American tax payer $2000-$3000 to implement.

Jesus Christ ... Could everyone turn off Gossip Girl for a moment?

Does anyone read a fucking newspaper anymore?

Conspiracy Theory

There is an old saying, “As General Motors Goes, So Goes Wall Street”. General Motors has long been a market barometer for the general health of the US economy.

Yesterday, GM closed below $10 a share for the fist time since 1954.

Here is an eight-year chart, that shows the financial path of General Motors during the presidency of George W. Bush.



(CLICK CHART TO ENLARGE)

Yesterday’s sharp one day drop was sparked by a Merrill Lynch analyst who said that "bankruptcy is not impossible" if the U.S. auto market further deteriorates and GM fails to raise substantial capital.

General Motors going bankrupt? WTF?




GM is not the only company suffering with rising oil prices. Almost all the domestic airlines have been taken out back and shot. Federal Express and the United Postal Service are left reeling under the high cost of fuel.





It is not just private companies that are suffering from high oil prices. For every single penny that oil prices go up, the United States Postal Service pays $8,000,000 a year extra to ship your mail. Oil prices have gone up $125.00 a barrel with George Bush in The White House. That means the USPS is paying 100 billion dollars more annually to get you your precious Victoria Secret catalog.




A lot of nudity in this post ... I know ... but a spoon full of sugar.

Now … who could possibly benefit from the rising price of oil?

The Bush family ties to the oil industry date all the way back to 1950 with the establishment of the Bush-Overbey Oil Development Co. Their strong ties to the oil industry still continue to this day.

Perhaps we should be blaming those damn arabs for the high price of oil.




One of the regular bullshit right wing e-mails that I get is a power point presentation reportedly showing the home of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the former president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu-Dhabi.

The e-mail asks us, "This is the type of thing being done with your petro dollars”

We are made to believe that the pictures show the Sheikh's palactal house, and his personal fleet of expensive cars.




One of the cars is a beautiful silver Audi A8. It is not merely painted silver. It is completely made out of solid silver.




It turns out that the pictures are a hoax, and in reality they show a fancy hotel in Abu Dhabi called the Emirates Palace.

However, there is unquestionably great wealth in the UAE due to their oil exports, and let’s for a moment take this story at face value. Who does this Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan think he is, taking all of our hard earned money?

Well … I was unable to find a picture of Hillary Clinton with the Sheikh.

I was also unable to find a picture of Barack Obama visiting the lavish residence.

However, strangely enough I was able to find this picture of George W. Bush and President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates sitting under a painting of the Sheikh's father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in January of 2008.




Who else benefits from inflated oil prices?

Perhaps a small global investment banking, securities and investment management firm named Goldman Sachs.

Goldman better be careful. Making a call like that, and betting billions of dollars on a oil price super spike. That could be fairly risky after the recent 800% run up.

Add to that risk Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. He has spent the last few weeks jawboning that he will be raising interest rates later this year in an effort to strengthen the US dollar. This move alone could be a major step towards slowing or reversing the recent meteoric rise in oil prices.

If Goldman Sachs only had a guarantee that oil would continue its climb.

Enter Henry Paulson stage right.




Henry Paulson is the United States Treasury Secretary and member of the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors.

While Ben Bernanke has been desperately talking up the possibility of future US Fed rate hikes, Henry Paulson has spent the same week in Europe downplaying the rate hike possibility and repeatedly talking up inflation and oil prices. Did someone not give Henry a script?

Why would Henry Paulson be doing this?

*Could it be that Henry joined Goldman Sachs in 1974?
*Could it be that he became a partner there in 1982?
*Could it be because he became a managing partner of Goldman in 1988?
*Could it be that he co-headed the investment-banking wing until 1994?
*Could it be that he served as Goldman’s COO from 1994-1998
*Could it be that he received compensation packages from Goldman Sachs to the tune of 37 million in 2005 and 16.4 million in 2006?

It is no wonder that Henry is worth over 700 million dollars.

What moron would have put a Christian Scientist in charge of one of the most important financial post in the US government?




This all has to be a coincidence ... right?

The next thing you are going to tell me is that the Vice President used to work for a United States-based multinational corporation that won a large number of no bid contracts to supply, clothe and feed all the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Steamrolled

I got a chance to meet Eliot Spitzer last year.

We shot a short interview with him at his East 40th Street office for the Children's Hospital at Montefiore.




I am a hardcore Democrat, and I had really looked forward to the shoot,
primarily because I admired some of the things he had been able to achieve as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Especially all of his work exposing the widespread corruption on Wall Street.

However, I must say that when I met the man in person, I found him rather arrogant, and not at all what I expected.

I really don't feel sorry for him.

I also don't feel much sympathy for the high priced call girl he slept with on Valentine's Day eve, Ashley Alexandra Dupre. (Pictured Below) Like Eliot, she made a conscious choice to go down the road that she did.




This guy has certainly fucked up a very promising career, but I think more importantly he has screwed up his entire life.

The four people I feel most sympathy for are his wife Silda and their three young daughters.




Can you imagine what must be going on in the Spitzer household?

I bet you can cut the tension with a knife.

However, there is a famous saying in Washington.

The only thing that can end your career in politics is to get caught with a dead girl, or a live boy.

By those standards, Eliot might still have a chance.

I think his next obvious step is to run for President.




If he does decide to run ...

I think I have the perfect VP choice for a dream ticket.

Brain Trust

"I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low."

-PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
(In a press conference Thursday morning)

I really hope everybody watched the Democratic debate on CNN tonight.