Sunday, January 31, 2010

Banks Just Don't Get It

Hi Everyone:

I know that I have written about big banks before, but until they get it, I will continue to revisit the issue of their total lack of any common sense what-so-ever!

So these are the facts as I know them:

1) Bank of America lost $5 billion in the fourth quarter.

2) Citibank lost $7.8 billion in the fourth quarter.

Yet despite those losses, both of those companies plan to pay out billions in bonuses again, as usual. They accepted TARP money to help them from going under. The money was supposed to help them cover the huge amount of defaults and also give them additional capital to make more loan money available. This is what they did instead: some of the TARP money was used to help them cover their losses, but then they held onto the rest of the money and didn't loan it out? Why? I think there is a simple answer. They obviously got badly burned by selling those sub-prime mortgages that they invented, so they closed up credit and invested that extra TARP money in whatever could make them the most money. But that was tax payers dollars they used to earn the profits that they now plan to reward the employees for with outrageous bonuses. And they are going to pay out those bonuses even with those huge losses. To them it is full steam ahead and damn the torpedos.

My first question then is how can they afford to pay out these billions of bonus pay when 1) they had huge losses during the last quarter and 2) only a year ago they needed tax payers help to keep them from going under; due to their greedy and irresponsible ways? Is TARP money being used to help fund those bonuses? And my last question is when will they open up the credit market to people and businesses with good credit at reasonable rates?

It is quite apparent to me that these companies have not learned their lesson. The American public is hurting by their current policies. If this country is going to have a sustainable recovery from this recession, including the creation of new jobs, credit must be opened up, not dried up! Credit for homes, cars and businesses is essential and the big banks hold all the cards. I don't like that one bit. Do you? As I said before, people should cancel their big bank accounts and switch to the local banks in their neighborhoods.

Ok I just thought of another question. How did this get so far out of hand? Maybe banks got to big by buying up smaller banks. All I know is that we should not be beholden to them.

Enough said!

Common sense rules and greed still drools.

Til next week.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

NYS Increases Spending Again!

Hi Everyone:

I know that I have written about politicians a lot, but it is what they do that makes my blood boil. New York State is still in a financial mess. The bottom line is this: not enough money coming in compared with how much money is going out. It doesn't matter whether a Republican or a Democrat is Governor because the crazy spending of both parties is about the same.

For the fiscal year 2010-2011 NYS will probably be in the hole somewhere around 7-9 billion dollars. This country is still in the great recession as far as I am concerned and obviously so is NYS. So what did the NYS Governor do? He submitted his budget of 134 billion dollars. What is asinine is that his budget includes an increase in spending by some 700 million dollars. WHAT??? During a recession, a state that is hurting financially should not and should never increase spending. To try to offset the huge budget deficit, Governor Paterson wants to increase taxes and fees again, just like last year. When your citizens are hurting financially, you just can not keep increasing taxes and fees each year. Where does it all end? When we are all broke? A solution(s) must be found ASAP!

In the past, Governor's have always approved a lot of one shot-in-the-arm money infusions. All of that has now caught up with the state. If Governor Paterson or any of the other elected officials had an ounce of common sense they would see that the solution is right in front of their noses. Through all the years that were supposedly good, the size of NYS's government has grown and grown and grown. Again that happened with both Republicans and Democrats in the Governor's mansion. The first step towards stemming the tide of this financial mess is to decrease the size of government. It just doesn't make any sense to keep the same level of state employees during times of decifits. It is high time for layoffs. I know that people will think that during a recession, more layoffs will only hurt the economy even more. Well, NYS can no longer afford to have so many employees, period. The elected officials must rethink everything including how many employees must be laid off to help make the state solvent.

The increasing of taxes and fees must stop immediately or there will be no more residents. Why don't the elected officials see what needs and has to be done? The answer is simple, they want to be re-elected and that is it. I have said it before, if the elected officials can't get their fiscal house in order then it is time to boot them out the door. For once, politics as usual must end and fiscal responsibility must take over with a healthy dose of common sense.

Til next week.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Haiti and RL and PR

Hi Everyone,

The earthquake that occurred this past week in Haiti has been the worst calamity that could have happened to this terribly poor nation. I believe that Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Haiti already had a weak government and not enough money to help its own citizens by itself; but this earthquake has left the country in almost total devastation. It is refreshing to see so many people, companies, not-for-profit organizations and the Red Cross etc. from around the world, but especially from this country, donate money and their time to actually go to Haiti to help. I am sure it will be years if not a decade or longer for Haiti to fully recover. But for Americans to help out monetarily during this great recession is amazing and uplifting.

What wasn't so amazing to me, during this past week were the comments made by 2 public figures who you would think would know better, but wait.................probably don't! The first comment was made by Pat Robertson. He said that the earthquake in Haiti was the result of a "pact with the devil". You've got to be kidding me! Even if PR really believes that statement, I don't think that it was an appropriate thing to say. If what PR said was absolutely true and everyone believed him, it would then appear to mean that no one should help the victims, because they brought this on themselves. God was just punishing them for making the pact. What complete BS! It is obvious that PR has no common sense. Using common sense could help him avoid saying such stupid things. But I don't think that will happen until he sees the light.

The second comment was made by Rush Limbaugh. Actually he made two. In his infinite wisdom, RL said that the Obama administration would benefit politically from the disaster in Haiti because they would "use this to burnish their credibility with the black community in both light skinned and dark skinned black communities in this country. It's made to order for them."
Again, WHAT???!!! Why is everything political with this guy? Not only is this a political comment but it is also a racist comment, in my book. Why did RL bring race into an effort to help people in desperate need? This has nothing to do with race. But he doesn't see it that way. He wants the present administration to fail and will say and probably do anything to try to accomplish that. Haiti is so devastated that there is no politics involved by this administration, but rather a humanitarian effort on a herculean level from human beings trying to help human beings ASAP. I am not sure why RL has to say such stupid things, but he continues to do it and probably will continue.

Even though RL brought politics and racism into the relief effort, it is his second comment that may actually hurt the relief effort. RL, obviously in a club of his own, said that "Americans should not donate to Haitian relief because, we've already donated to Haiti.....it's called the U.S. Income Tax." Congratulations RL. Probably because of your stupid and idiotic comment, I am sure there are lots of your "followers" who will not donate any money. I hope that makes him sleep better at night, knowing that there are tens of thousands of victims who are in desperate need of; food, water, medical care and housing and now there will be less money, then if those "followers" had donated.

People who have jobs that allow them to speak to the general public should use that pulpit wisely and not to abuse it, which is what I interpret their comments to be. I have a friend who thinks "RL is one of the smartest people in the world." I try to keep an open mind about things, but if smart people make such stupid comments again and again and again, it makes me wonder.................how smart can they really be? I previously wrote about RL on my 4/5/09 blog. It is apparent that nothing has changed with him.

Shame on both PR and RL for their totally insensitive, incorrect and outrageously stupid comments. Smart people learn from their mistakes, so as to not repeat them. But these two clowns will never learn. I think that they should learn some common sense to help them think twice before they speak once.

Common sense rules and stupidity drools!

Til next week.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Hi Everyone:

Today's blog is bit off the beaten path for me. Today I just need to vent my frustration on the meteorologists, (weather forecasters).

Last month, 12/19/09 to be exact, we were warned about a huge storm, that had crossed the country and was going to hit us. Where we live, we were suppose to get between 12-16" of snow. Now to be fair, the meteorologists did say that if the storm veers to the east, we may not get as much snow. Well we got about 3-4". I guess the storm veered east. Even though we did not get a lot of snow, there were a lot of places that really got socked.

This morning, while watching a Sunday news program, the meteorologists said that, where we live, we should expect occasional snow flurries. That was at about 8:00 am. Then right on cue, the snow flurries started. Within 30 minutes, the flurries started to accumulate. Then it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed and then it snowed some more. By 5:00 pm we so far have about 6" of snow. But guess what? It hasn't stopped snowing yet. The snow is coming down a lot lighter but damn it, it is still snowing. What the ....? For a predicted occasional snow flurry, it certainly has become a full day snow storm with occasional white out conditions with the wind giving a helping hand.

Now I can fully understand that the unpredictable mother nature moved our first so called big (at least for us) storm, to the east and not hitting us hard. That makes sense, because they could see it coming on their Doppler weather systems. They watched the storm travel across the country for days and they had two paths that the storm could take in our area. Obviously, path B worked to our advantage. Mother nature was rightfully blamed for the weakness of the storm that left us with minor snow. So my question about today's forecasted occasional flurries is this... did they turn off their Doppler systems today for repairs or to save electricity, or were they asleep or what? I mean, how could they have missed not seeing this storm, which is now about 9 hours old. Isn't it big enough to see? lol!

I have always said that the perfect job would be a weather person. Why? Because it doesn't matter if you are wrong. You can always blame it on mother nature and your boss will believe you. The weather person just has to look good for TV or sound good for radio. lol

Til next week.