Robert Oak's blog

What is Nationalization and why is Everyone Afraid of It?

What's in a word? Doesn't a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

But the boogie man du jour is nationalization.

What do they mean exactly? The definition of nationalization is:

Takeover of privately owned corporations, industries, and resources by a government with or without compensation.

Ok, so what's the difference between this and the fact the U.S. taxpayer has given the financial sector $800 billion dollars?

There is little difference says George Will.

The issue is what the U.S. taxpayer gets in return.

zombie

Sunday Morning Comics - Sing Along Edition

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Cup O' Joe

 

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
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Tales From the Financial Crisis Conference - Psychokillers, Bad Math & Burn Baby Burn

On Friday there was a conference on the financial crisis. It was held at Columbia University. Some very good interviews came from Economists Stiglitz, Volcker, Phelps and Bhide.

Below is an interview with Economist Joseph Stiglitz clearly stating the United States is putting good money after bad money. This is a fact we, those insignificant regular folk, have been saying for some time. Stiglitz also reviews what should be done with insolvent banks, discussion of Treas. Sec. Geithner's stress test and why a stress test based on a bad model or wrong assumptions is a problem.

Friday Movie Night - The Meltdown of the House of Cards Edition

 It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

 

We have some real gems this week! The list is long so make sure you click on the entire post, all are must see videos.

First are two exceptional documentaries, CNBC's House of Cards and Frontline's Inside the Meltdown. Former IMF chief economist Bill Simon gave an truth telling Bill Moyers interview that to truly deal with the financial crisis one must confront and break up the oligarchs. (you know our corporate elite).

Frontline is running a series on the financial crisis and the first installment, Inside the Meltdown is below.

Inside The Meltdown

GM, Chrysler - $21 Billion, 50,000 Lost Jobs

This is bad folks. Bloomberg:

General Motors Corp. said it needs as much as $16.6 billion in new U.S. loans, more than doubling the aid to date, and must get some of the cash next month to survive. GM plans 47,000 more job cuts worldwide this year.

Chrysler LLC, propped up like GM with federal assistance, said it’s seeking $5 billion more from the government and will shed 3,000 more positions.

GM says 47,000 jobs will be lost world wide. GM is selling Hummer, shutting down Saturn, bankrupting Saab (which Sweden is going to salvage and return to it's nation), and shutting down 5 additional U.S. plants. It is completely not stated which countries and plants will lose which jobs. It looks bad that most of the losses will be against U.S. workers and other nations where they pay living wages.

What is in The Economic Stimulus Bill of 2009? - Part V

I want to bring to your attention a list of Projected Jobs by Congressional District. Then, Kaiser has a web page of total unemployment rates, the total residents per state, the poverty rate of each state and even the breakdown of citizenship status by state.

Center for American Progress interactive map on which states would get how much of the Stimulus money per Gross State Product (GSP).

Does this distribution make sense? Let's take the case of Michigan. According to the Projected Stimulus jobs per Congressional District, the break down is as follows:

Michigan 109,000 Projected Jobs Created

  • Congressional District 1 Michigan 7,400
  • Congressional District 2 Michigan 7,900

Sunday Morning Comics - Get a Calculator Edition

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Cup O' Joe

 

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the Funnies!

 

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Jobs For U.S. Workers Stripped Out of Stimulus Bill Behind Closed Doors - Update It Lives!

Shockers of all shockers, the Sanders-Grassley amendment survived the corporate lobbyists and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce! Senator Sanders press release:

Senate and House negotiators agreed to prohibit banks and other firms that take taxpayer bailouts from replacing laid-off U.S. workers with lower-paid foreign workers.

The proposal by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) was added to the economic recovery package in the Senate. A conference committee retained the provision in the version of the bill that is expected to win final congressional approval later today.

An investigation by The Associated Press found that a dozen banks now receiving more than $150 billion in bailouts requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years to replace laid-off American employees. The same banks announced at least 100,000 job cuts in recent months.

The measure would require the bailed-out banks to hire only Americans for two years, unless they could prove they were not replacing laid-off Americans with guest workers. Because the banks have announced mass layoffs, the measure would effectively place a moratorium on the H-1B visa program.

“With thousands of financial services workers unemployed, it is absurd for banks to claim they can’t find qualified American workers,” Sanders said.

“While we are suffering through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the very least we can do is to make sure that banks receiving a taxpayer bailout are not allowed to import cheaper labor from overseas while they are throwing American workers out on the street.”

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