COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, May 11, 2012

Who is Bruno Michel Iksil?


JPMorgan shares slump 6.5pc after chief Jamie Dimon reveals $2bn trading loss

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon has shocked Wall Street by disclosing the bank racked up $2bn (£1.2bn) of trading losses in the past six weeks and warned they could get worse.


Chief executive Jamie Dimon called the mistakes 'egregious' Photo: Bloomberg News


“It puts egg on our face and we deserve any criticism we get,” Mr Dimon told analysts in a hastily arranged call after stock markets closed in New York on Thursday night.
He admitted the losses were linked to a Wall Street Journal report last month about a trader, nicknamed the 'London Whale', who, the report said, had amassed an outsized position which hedge funds were betting against.
The Journal reported that hedge funds were making bets in the market credit default swaps to try to take advantage of trades done by a French-born, London-based trader named Bruno Michel Iksil who worked out of the Chief Investment Office (CIO).
The CIO is an arm of the bank that JPMorgan has said is used to make broad bets to hedge its portfolios of individual holdings, such as loans to speculative-grade companies.
At that time, Mr Dimon said that the media coverage was “a complete tempest in a teapot”, but on Thursday he said the bank's loss had "a bit to do with the article in the press". He said: "I also think we acted a little too defensively to that."
Some of the losses have been offet by gains of about $1bn from the sale of other financial assets, according to the bank, which said that the division that made the trades will now lose about $800m this quarter.
The trading losses are an acute embarrassment for Mr Dimon who has led Wall Street’s fight against what banks have deemed excessive regulation in the wake of the financial crisis. Mr Dimon said that the set of trades, which includes credit default swaps, was designed to shield the bank from risk in the financial markets. “In hindsight, it was bad strategy, bad execution,” he said.
However, the scale of the losses will prompt renewed debate about the level of regulation that is needed to ensure the safety and soundness of the financial system. The chief investment office (CIO), the part of the bank that put on the trades, had moved from hedging risk to making speculative bets designed to reap profits for the bank, Bloomberg reported last month.
Carl Levin, a Democratic Senator who has pushed for tougher regulation of banks' trading, said that the loss "is just the latest evidence that what banks call 'hedges' are often risky bets that so-called 'too big to fail' banks have no business making." Mr Dimon said that the trading losses “plays right into the hands of a bunch of pundits”. He added: “That’s life.”
Shares in JPMorgan tumbled 5pc in extended trading in New York, wiping around $10bn off the bank's value.
JPMorgan was the only bank not to lose money during the financial crisis, and snapped up Bear Stearns for a bargain-basement price in 2008.
Mr Dimon refused to disclose any details about the trades that the bank had put on, but said that its focus was now on “maximising the economic value of these positions. We’ve got staying power and we’re willing to use it.”
The bank, which employs thousands of people in the City of London, generated a record $19bn in profits in 2011 due to an improving US economy.

101 comments:

  1. Are the any greater parasites than these big banks?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, the government whores who doled out our money to bail out their bloated, sorry asses.
    Applauded greatly here by the one with the consistent record of being wrong on most of the big things.
    ...I said bail out the taxpayers and let the TBTFs get back to being not too big...

    Bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act would be too simple and solve too many problems all at once.

    You know, the one that more Democrats voted to dismantle back in '99 than did Pubs.
    ...even tho Pubs are the designated deregulistas responsible for all the World's problems.

    ReplyDelete
  3. by the way, Keiser made that report BEFORE the revelation about JPM>

    ReplyDelete
  4. Now all we need is to have Netanyahu attack Iran and that should pretty well finish the economy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bibi taking out Iran will allow America to grow strong again

      Unless you WANT Iran to be a nuclear power.

      Maybe you should study the fact that Iran is on the war path for nukes, it's supplying syria with arms and men (and russia), is supplying all sorts of islamists across the globe.

      doesnt mean that arabia aint doing the same...

      but iran?

      it's gearing up for a fight


      now go back to blaming Israel

      Delete
    2. I think the destruction of Iran's power is a good thing..

      Bring on the attacks already...

      The world has no shortage of oil...

      Now is the time to take them out..

      Delete
    3. Think of a world with 22 dollar a barrel oil...

      Imagine if you try...

      Imagine a world with Jihadists starved of cash..

      a bankrupt opec, russia and more..

      it's would be a booming economy...

      and we will all have to thank the nation that will have taken out Iran's nuclear threat...

      Israel...

      the same nation who took out the iraqi nuclear program and the syrian nuclear program...

      Delete
    4. .

      So quit whining, shut the fuck up, and do it.

      No one is stopping them.

      .

      Delete
    5. Actually Quirk,

      America is stopping them...

      Has been for 12 years...

      The question is of course, once Israel DOES take out Iran's nukes how much punishment will the UN, AMERIKA, Russia, China and the world impose on her?

      I am sure the moment Israel does ANYTHING to defend it'self the Israel haters (here and everywhere) will leapt to the fry with accusations.

      After all every time Israel does something (like stake out iraqi or syrian nuke plants) AMERIKA lead the bony pointy fingers at her...

      So I see your "quit the whining" and I raise you a "shut the fuck up" and when it is done?

      KISS MY ASS and keep your fucking mouth shut, unless it's praise

      Delete
    6. .

      Do the capital letters mean you're really, really, really upset?

      Poor baby.

      :)

      As I said, quit whining, Israel should do it if everything you and Bibi say is true.

      You sit here everyday saying how Israel has to do what is in her own self interest. I have never denied that argument. If Israel perceives an existential threat, the last thing she should worry about is America pointing a bony finger at her.

      Likewise, when has what the US wanted ever stopped Israel from doing what she thought was in her interest. Surely, I don't have to cite examples again.

      I don't accept you're and Bibi's interpretation of the situation with Iran. I don't accept that Israel is under an existential threat from Iran. I think if Israel where attacked by Iran, the US would come to her defense just as we did when Iraq attacked Kuwait. If Israel initiates an attack, as far as I'm concerned she is on her own. But what I think doesn't matter. Isreal is a free country and should do what she thinks is in her national interest, of course, with the proviso that she accept the consequences good and bad. The US will just have to accept any collateral damage that accrues to us.

      On the other, as I said, quit whining, especially about the US not subordinating her interests to those of Israel.

      .

      Delete
    7. No, the caps mean he has moved on from torn loyalties. His pissy izzy fit tells it all.

      Delete
  5. I don't get why he'd do it on Obama's watch, when presumably, backup would be non-existant.

    Lota talk about it tho.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama would attack Israel if given the chance...

      Delete
    2. think about it...

      by changing the rule of engagement, Obama has caused the maiming and death of MORE Americans that Osama bin Laden

      Delete
    3. With a leader like this? Who needs enemies...

      Delete
  6. iImagine there's no mullahs
    It's easy if you try
    No hell created on Earth
    Above us only sky
    Imagine all the people living for today

    Imagine there's no Islam
    It isn't hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no Jihadists too
    Imagine all the people living life in peace

    You, you may say
    I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
    I hope some day you'll join us
    And the world will be as one

    Imagine no opec
    I wonder if you can
    No need for greed or hunger
    A brotherhood of man
    Imagine all the people sharing all the world

    You, you may say
    I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
    I hope some day you'll join us
    And the world will live as one

    ReplyDelete
  7. Iran's oil production is falling by about 300,000 bbl/day, annually. They will be an extremely poor country in just four or five years. Why don't we just take the money that we would blow on an idiotic, unnecessary war with Iran, and put it toward Renewable, non-oil souces of energy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let's just bomb their oil refineries and their exporting pipelines.;

      4 -5 years from now?

      they will be a poor nuclear armed nation..

      not real smart

      Delete
    2. why not take all the money we spend on egypt, hamas, hezbollah and the palestinians and use it on solar power in the usa?

      that would be about 10 billion a year...

      Delete
    3. .

      Why not make it $13 billion.

      .

      Delete
    4. Simple, Israel's military aid is in direct compensation for the military arms that America supplies it's enemies.

      Maybe if America did not arm Israel's enemies with AWACs, fighter planes and free protection for it's oil shipping lanes (toss in another 30 billion for that) maybe it would be good idea.

      But as long as America give those enemies 700 billion a year in oil dollars and sells the camel fuckers advanced arms it's in America's interest to give 3 billion a year to her.

      Personally?

      I wish America would cut everyone one off, then when Israel destroys the oil from the middle east they could not black mail Israel.

      Aid to israel has strings...

      And while I am on a roll, cut off aid to Pakistan, NATO, Japan et al,

      Why not make it 100 billion?

      But I know you just hate the idea of aid to Israel.

      Me too, American blackmail should be ended.

      Delete
    5. .

      Direct compensation?

      Ridiculous.

      You can argue that we we should or shouldn't be giving a certain country or group aid but don't talk to me about 'compensation'. We don't 'owe' Israel or any other country a damn thing when it comes to aid.

      .

      Delete
    6. America doesnt OWE israel anything..

      but if America supports, trains and equips Israel's enemies?

      Then be prepared to have those enemies destroyed...

      If you dont want them destroyed?

      then you will do what is in America's interest in preventing the jihadists to be destroyed.

      it's called Strategic "edge"

      Delete
  8. What do they know that we don't?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saudi Arabia has applied for UN money to hep them move off of oil due to global warming...

      Delete
  9. Those "frac'ed" natural gas fields (Barnett, Haynesville, Marcellus) have rolled over, and nat gas production is now Declining. Meanwhile, Electric Utilities are expected to use 100 Billion cu ft/mo More nat gas this Summer than last.

    We are going to go into the Winter with declining production, and the lowest inventories in years. A cold December, and nat gas could go to all-time highs ($20.00/kcuft isn't out of the question.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. EW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Ohio hasn't been an oil powerhouse for nearly 100 years.
    But thanks to new drilling technology, the state that once produced a third of the nation's crude and was the birthplace of John D. Rockefeller's mighty Standard Oil could once again be a significant source of domestic supply.

    "It's one of the most significant economic events to occur in Ohio in decades," said Thomas Stewart of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
    But the new production, which is coming from a layer of previously untapped shale rock deep beneath the state, relies on hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

    An oil bounty: If given the proper development, Ohio could be producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020.
    That's not going to rival Texas' current output of 1.4 million barrels a day and is just a small part of the nation's overall crude output of 5.6 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
    But based on current production rates it would be enough to make Ohio the sixth-largest oil producing state in the country and put it ahead of such heavyweights as Louisiana and Wyoming.
    Stewart says the industry is poised to create 200,000 jobs and half a billion dollars in tax revenue in Ohio over the next five years, and landowners are already getting $3,000 to $5,000 per acre for leasing their land.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Looks like O'loser may have really screwed himself with this gay marriage thing. Romney is suddenly up by 7 points on the Rasmussen Daily Tracking poll. Big move just in the last couple of days.

    who-weee!

    b

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never take political advice from your 10 year old daughter.

      b

      Delete
    2. O's styrofoam pillars are melting in the microwave of American politics.

      b

      Delete
  12. The Antietam of the Culture War
    By Pat Buchanan
    It took Joe Biden's public embrace of same-sex marriage to smoke him out.

    But after Joe told David Gregory of "Meet the Press" he was "absolutely comfortable" with homosexuals marrying, Barack Obama could not maintain his credibility with the cultural elite if he stuck with the biblical view that God ordained marriage as solely between a man and woman. The biblical view had to go.



    Obama had to move, or look like a malingerer in secularism's next great moral advance into post-Christian America.

    Consider. Obama had an appearance coming up on "The View," where Whoopi Goldberg would have demanded to know why he lacked the courage of Biden's convictions. He has a $40,000-a-plate fundraiser at George Clooney's, where the Hollywood crowd would want to know why he does not end discrimination against homosexuals.

    He has appearances lined up before gay activists raising millions for his campaign. Monday, his press secretary was pilloried for his feeble defense of Obama's now-abandoned position.

    His hand was forced. Yet the stand Obama took could cost him his presidency. Same-sex marriage may yet be a bridge too far, even for a dying Christian America.
    {…}

    ReplyDelete
  13. {…} On the plus side for Obama, his decision is producing hosannas from the elites and an infusion of cash from those who see same-sex marriage as the great moral and civil rights issue of our time.

    But Obama may also have just solved Mitt Romney's big problem: How does Mitt get all those evangelical Christians and cultural conservatives not only to vote for him but to work for him?

    Obama, by declaring that homosexual marriages should be on the same legal and moral plane as traditional marriage, just took command of the forces of anti-Christian secularism in America's Kulturkampf. And Nov. 6, 2012, is shaping up as the Antietam of the culture war.

    Obama's second problem is that he may soon be seen as America's champion of same-sex marriage, but an ineffectual advocate. For Obama can do nothing, as of now, to impose homosexual marriage on the American people.

    Thirty-one states have voted to outlaw it. A constitutional amendment supporting same-sex marriage could not win a majority of either house of Congress, let alone the necessary two-thirds of both.

    Hence, Obama is going to spend six months winning cheers by calling for same-sex marriage. But the price of those cheers will be the rallying of millions of opponents of homosexual marriage, who will fight this battle where they are winning it, at the state level.

    Only six states have approved homosexual marriage, while 30 have imposed a constitutional ban. In North Carolina, a ban not only on same-sex marriage but also civil unions, though opposed by Obama and Bill Clinton, carried on Tuesday with 61 percent of the vote.

    Republican turnout in North Carolina's primary was up half a million, the highest in history. And this is a state Obama carried in 2008, a state whose largest city, Charlotte, will host Obama's convention.

    Even in liberal California in 2008, while John McCain was getting a smaller share of the vote than Barry Goldwater in 1964, Proposition 8, restricting marriage to men and women, won.

    How does Obama propose to win this battle?

    He has one path to victory -- the Supreme Court.

    The New York Times, declaring that homosexuals' right to marry is "too precious and too fragile to be left up to the whim of states and the tearing winds of modern partisan politics," is looking to the court as the last, best hope to impose same-sex marriage on the nation.

    Can't trust voters, can't trust elected legislators, can't trust Congress. Homosexual marriage, says the Times, is too important to be left to democratic decision. The republic must be commanded to accept it by unelected judges who serve for life and against whom the people have no political recourse.

    That process of judicial tyranny has begun. A California judge has overturned the decision of California's voters to ban gay marriage, and his ruling is headed for the high court.

    The Supreme Court thus will tell us whether this issue is to be decided democratically by voters and their elected state and federal legislators, or dictatorially by themselves.

    Four liberal activists on the Supreme Court -- Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor -- are probably ready to declare that homosexual marriage is a constitutional right, as their predecessors declared abortion to be a constitutional right.

    But Obama needs one more justice. If elected, he will get it, and same-sex marriage will be forced on all of America. If Romney wins, the Supreme Court will likely leave the issue of same-sex marriage to be decided by the people and their elected representatives.

    Thus everything is up for grabs this November: the House, the Senate, the presidency, the Supreme Court and whether we still call the United States of America God's country.

    Game on!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Obama jumped the shark. How sweet it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I disagree.

      He was kind of forced into making the move when a couple weeks ago the NYT indicated that they hadn't fully vetted him in '08 on the gay rights issue but they planned on doing so this year. Given the cards he was dealt, I think he and his team played it almost pitch politically and in terms of damage control. I'm not saying there isn't a danger of it hurting him some in the Midwest and South but he did what he had to do.

      With regard to timing, there is never a bad time to take the public's focus away from the economy; although, as has been pointed out, it mught have been a more effective ploy if it could have been delayed until closer to the election.

      .

      Delete
  15. Gag ReflexFri May 11, 11:42:00 AM EDT
    Actually, I think Obama came out (no pun intended) with this way to early. By the time Nov rolls around, this will be old hat.


    FOR ROMNEY:

    If you can’t trust a president to protect something as basic as a man and woman in marriage, what can you trust him on?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Obama's own doctor says -

    In an exclusive preview of The Amateur by Human Events, Obama’s longtime physician reveals the lack of humanity in Obama’s character and carelessness with which he enacted the entirely politicized health insurance reform, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called ObamaCare.

    Scheiner said that he believes the president miscalculated politically and that the health reform is ultimately doomed to fail. Worse, Scheiner doubts the character of a man who holds the highest and most influential office in America: “I think there is too much of the University of Chicago in him. By which I mean he’s academic, lacks passion and feeling, and doesn’t have the sense of humanity that I expected.”


    This is damning, as doctors get to know their patients very well.

    from Human Events --

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51433

    b

    ReplyDelete
  17. Obama won’t release his college transcripts but the Democrats and media are going after Romney’s high school antics.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Romney's stance unites base
    By: Emily Schultheis
    May 10, 2012 07:15 PM EDT

    Social conservatives who doubted Mitt Romney now have a reason to rally around him after President Barack Obama’s embrace of gay marriage.

    Despite the fact that very conservative and religious voters didn’t support Romney in the primary, their fierce opposition to the issue will give the presumptive GOP nominee a way to harness conservative enthusiasm in November.

    And for Romney, whose position on same-sex marriage has been consistent over the years, conservative activists say Obama’s declaration may be a way for Romney to finally prove his bona fides to voters on the right who have always been suspicious that he’s not one of them.

    “President Obama just ‘evolved’ himself into a one-term president,” said Brian Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage. “This is a disaster for the Democratic Party: The reality is that the exact states he needs to win are the states that have overwhelmingly passed legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman.”

    “What I’m hearing from folks around the country is: ‘Game on, we’re in, we will do whatever is necessary to elect Mitt Romney now because Obama has shown where he really stands,’” Brown said.

    But it’s unclear that Romneyland plans to aggressively use the issue to their advantage — at least among the general public. Reacting to Obama’s announcement, Romney was muted, reiterating his opposition to gay marriage and calling it a “very tender and sensitive topic, as are many social issues.”

    He didn’t even take the bait when asked whether Obama had changed positions on the issue, saying that was up to the media to determine.

    The reason may be because polling shows increased acceptance of and support for same-sex marriage around the country. But despite that, North Carolina became the 30th state to ban same-sex marriage on Tuesday. And a handful of other states, like Maine, Minnesota, Washington and Maryland, are poised to vote on some form of same-sex marriage measure in November.

    And the issue is likely to work to Romney’s favor among motivated social conservatives, who will turn out to vote against those ballot measures — and presumably for Romney — in those states.

    “I’m stunned and shocked that [Obama] would do this before the election because I can’t come up with the calculus where this wouldn’t hurt him,” said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

    Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, agreed.

    “Mitt Romney, who has signed a pledge to support a marriage protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution, may have been handed the key to social conservative support by Barack Obama himself,” he said in a video released by FRC on Wednesday.


    from Politico

    b

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  19. No mincing of words from this brother -

    Americans will be "f**ked" if Barack Obama gets re-elected ... this according to Beach Boys singer Bruce Johnston.

    Bruce was signing autographs for fans in New York yesterday when the conversation turned political.

    "Obama's an a**hole, "Johnston says ... adding, "Unless you're interested in never having any money and being socialized."

    But Johnston was an equal opportunity disser -- saying, "And who's the Republican a**hole?"

    "Our guy isn't any good."

    He continued, "You got Reagan and Tip O'Neill ... those are the last two good guys."

    "Wait 'til Obama doesnt have to try anymore," Bruce added ... "you're f**ked."


    :)

    b

    ReplyDelete
  20. Obama the Redeemer

    Obama’s embrace of gay marriage makes for a spiritual Mother’s Day

    By Lisa Miller, Washington Post, Friday, May 11, 12:51 PM

    When President Obama threw his support behind same-sex marriage, he did something much more than please the members of the LGBT community and the people who love them.

    He gave hope and encouragement to millions of Americans struggling to do right by their children in unconventional or nontraditional families by implicitly asserting “as a practicing Christian” that using the Bible as a literal handbook for raising healthy, happy kids is retrograde, insensible and wrong.

    This Mother’s Day, Obama’s declaration gives gay and lesbian couples, as well as interracial couples, infertile couples and single parents — as well as every mother who fears she’s not doing it right — a reason to rejoice.

    For too long, the Bible has been used to stigmatize and censure people who fail to adhere to approved norms. “Shame, despair, solitude!”: This was the plight of Hester Prynne, the heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorn’s “The Scarlet Letter,” after conceiving a child outside of marriage. But norms change and are, in any case, not approved by God. Such is the consensus of the faithful, in retrospect, about the Bible’s acceptance of slavery.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Obviously, Lisa Miller hasn't a clue about the Bible. Also, I haven't read "The Scarlet Letter" since high school, but I do believe it is novel and Mr. Prynne is a fictional character.

    Might as well quote The Wizard to back up your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This Mother’s Day, Obama’s declaration gives gay and lesbian couples, as well as interracial couples, infertile couples and single parents — as well as every mother who fears she’s not doing it right — a reason to rejoice.

    Inane nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  23. What mother fears she's not "doing it" right? I doubt mine ever did. Whatever "doing it" right means.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Obama down a nickel on Intrade (0.5%)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Told ya. And I had you on I'll Have Another, and you didn't listen to that, either.


      b

      Delete
  25. And in Oregon Obama is only up by 4 points -

    Obama may have a solid lead, but it’s an unimpressive one in what should be a no-worry, loyal Democratic state. By failing to get to 50%, Obama gives an impression of vulnerability in Oregon, a state that last went Republican when Ronald Reagan ran for re-election. Romney might have Obama playing defense outside of the normally-accepted set of swing states in November.

    from Hot Air -

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/11/obama-only-up-4-in-surveyusa-poll-in-oregon/

    b

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  26. One Gigawatt Solar Project for Jinchang, China


    What's interesting about this (other than that it's Huge) is the price - about $1.70/Watt, installed. That's about half of what utility-sized projects are costing in the U.S.

    ReplyDelete
  27. You have to laugh at some of these lefties. The hit of the day is that Romney was a bit of a tough in high school. A real vote killer that is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      A tough?

      No, I don't think so. It appears he was a bully and that he required his peeps to help him pull it off.

      There is nothing in the story that plays to Romney's advantage.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      I told Ruf that for the past two weeks I was marking down pluses and minuses on these two guys. I continue to do so.

      They are both dicks and my original plan (Plan A) was to not vote for either of them. However, with a couple of the things Obama has pulled lately (mainly constitutional issues) I was considering actually voting against him as opposed to just not voting for him. That would have required a vote for Romney.

      We'll have to see how it goes. There's still a few months to go and so much stuff may come out on both these guys that I might have to revert to Plan A.

      .

      Delete
  28. His STONES may be bigger than Obama's. And we all know Obama's stones are HUGE! At least according to some who post here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YEAH, Romney's stones are so BIG he can pin down a pooufee blond kid and cut his hair. What a MAN! A man with STONES!!

      Delete
  29. That Romney is such a man's man. I bet you like manly men like that Gag.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I knew the bar's education professor would be in. Hey, Ash, Obama's only ahead by four in Oregon. What is going wrong?

      Delete
    2. Education professor, coupon clipper, sailor, and Obama golf buddy.


      And, political loser.


      :)


      b

      Delete
    3. Still a long ways to go to the election bob. I'm betting that Obama will win but given the traits of the folk in the 'heartland' it is hardly a sure thing.

      Delete
  30. yes, you know how us Heartland folk are. I have a date with my sister tonite. we are going parking down by the river. Cant wait. I sure hope she wears them cotton panties again.

    acourse, we ain't queer, but we might try it with a cousin, since our Presdent say it ok. Why his stones are so big, and he ain't sceerd a no queer nation neither. All them pillow biters are so proud a him.

    It shore makes ye proud to be an Emirican, don't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wellll Gag, I was thinking more along the lines of tea party thoughts like that famous sign "Keep government hands off of my Medicare" but you live in the heartland and maybe you know better :O

      Delete
  31. All the "diamond" jokes have been made. Can't imagine what they'll do with Lewis, Pandit or Blankfein.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Is Morgan Stanley next?

    ZeroHedge (Sept 2011):

    Lastly, and tangentially on a topic that recently has gotten much prominent attention in the media, we present the exposure by product for the biggest commercial banks. Of particular note is that while virtually every single bank has a preponderance of its derivative exposure in the form of plain vanilla IR swaps (on average accounting for more than 80% of total), Morgan Stanley, and specifically its Utah-based commercial bank Morgan Stanley Bank NA, has almost exclusively all of its exposure tied in with the far riskier FX contracts, or 98.3% of the total $1.793 trillion. For a bank with no deposit buffer, and which has massive exposure to European banks regardless of how hard management and various other banks scramble to defend Morgan Stanley, the fact that it has such an abnormal amount of exposure (but, but, it is "bilaterally netted" we can just hear Dick Bove screaming on Monday) to the ridiculously volatile FX space should perhaps raise some further eyebrows...

    LINK

    ReplyDelete
  33. Romney is a piker compared to Bad Boy 'bye bye' Biden. The dude was nothing to be fooled with.

    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/05/11/washington-post-young-joe-biden/

    And if he'd been drinking I'd bet to 'watch out'.

    b

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Once Joey [Biden] set his mind, it was like he didn’t think at all—he just did. "

      A heart beat away from the nuclear button.

      b

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    2. 'bye bye' wouldn't just cut your hair off, he'd cut your head off.

      We have a rabid dog as Vice-President.

      b

      Delete
  34. Biden was gracious to Palin during the VP debate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm exaggerating. Yes, he was gracious.

      b

      Delete
  35. House Financial Services Committee - "A Bunch of Jokers" - LINK

    In the modern world, people remake themselves. Maybe they did in the old world as well but it seems less likely - shorter life spans etc.

    Spitzer is doing well as a media analyst, I think (better than Palin who may find her road more difficult for various reasons.)

    ReplyDelete
  36. I forgot to finish my thought.

    Which is why I have a certain agnostic shrug for some of the 'long ago' gossip. Let's see what ya got now buddy and go with that.

    Up to a point of course.

    (But high school stuff? Yikes. Probably .01%% of the population have fond memories of their post-pubescent adolescent angst.)

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  37. Cyclicity

    The beds display a pronounced cyclicity, with the precession, obliquity, and eccentricity orbital components all clearly detectable. This enables the beds to be internally dated with a high degree of accuracy, and astrochronological dates agree very well with radiometric dates.[3]

    Oil shale

    The Green River Formation contains the largest oil shale deposits in the world. The 213 billion tons of oil shale contain an estimated 2.38 × 10¹¹ m³ (1.5 trillion US barrels) of shale oil.[10]
    wiki


    Oil Shale Resources


    While oil shale is found in many places worldwide, by far the largest deposits in the world are found in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, the estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation would last for more than 400 years1.

    More than 70% of the total oil shale acreage in the Green River Formation, including the richest and thickest oil shale deposits, is under federally owned and managed lands. Thus, the federal government directly controls access to the most commercially attractive portions of the oil shale resource base.

    EIS

    b

    ReplyDelete
  38. You can get a permit to work the Green River Basin any time. The gov. is begging people to mess with it. Chevron will sell you theirs, and, if the truth were known, Shell would probably give you theirs.

    It's not Shale; it's Marlstone (much harder than "shale," and unfrackable.

    It's not oil; it's Kerogen (a non-viscuous, gummy substance, that no one yet has been able to figure out how to extract.)

    This is, basically, the petroleum equivalent of cold fusion.

    ReplyDelete
  39. the petroleum equivalent of cold fusion.



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