Black Friday, Blue Monday
This year I shared Thanksgiving with a far-from-home group of twenty-something actor/filmmakers. All of them recent graduates of some of this country’s most elite universities, they were expected to go into medicine, or business, or cutting edge research. But when the going gets tough, creative types tend to get creative, and lacking job opportunities as the art curators and classics professors they trained for, this bunch has turned to Hollywood for their graduate studies. “Might as well be unemployed along with everyone else in the Industry,” seems to be the consensus.
As might be imagined, some of these expensively-educated kids’ parental units are not as supportive of their children’s aspirations as their kids might wish, so to make ends meet in between acting gigs, the group has adopted a variety of survival strategies. Two have pooled the rapidly-dwindling distributions from their once-expansive trust funds to lease a four-bedroom condo/hangout for the gang. Another relies on Granny’s largesse in lending out her conveniently-located house and an unused vehicle near the university where several are in graduate school. A recent University of Chicago microbiology graduate contributes the funds she earns braving the LA traffic as a bike messenger. And one has carved out a financial niche for himself as a “civilian” extra in porn productions—one of those rare characters who not only remains clothed, but actually serves to advance the minimalist plot lines. His straight-to-DVD film debut made for some hilarious post-prandial commentary as we all suffered through the money shots to get to his 15 seconds of AFTRA-eligible screen time.
One of our weekend guests, Jon, had to leave early to get to work on Friday. In order to make a few extra bucks, he’d just signed on as holiday sales clerk for a regional clothing franchise and “had to go buy some clothes” before the shop opened for the day’s business. Apparently, he was expected to outfit himself in the store’s line of clothing as a prerequisite to selling it to others. After all, it wouldn’t do to have the sales staff wearing some rival’s merchandise, so new employees were “highly encouraged” to buy the store’s offerings off the rack—at their own expense.
Though appalled, I was hugely impressed with what appears to be a new trend in mall-shop marketing strategy. First you hire hungry kids for the six-week holiday season and put them on part time at minimum wage, then you require them to shell out a couple of week’s wages to buy your cruddy $40 tee shirts and $90 blue jeans.
Moreover, to ensure that they hustle, you give them a sales quota, which if not fulfilled, results in their dismissal. Since none of these seasonal workers has a job contract, you can fire them essentially at will, and replace them with one of the dozens of other hungry kids cooling their heels on your wait list.
Granted, you have to give them a 30% discount on the clothing you’ve already marked up 200% over wholesale, but that’s a deductible expense. And since these kids are in a welfare-to-work zone, their wages are likely subsidized by government monies anyway. What’s to lose?
Jon told me that the store normally employs four full-time and one part-time worker, but that for the holiday season they had hired on seven new employees—all of whom had to shell out a couple of hundred dollars for the “uniform.” The store expected them to ring up $54,000 in sales on Black Friday, and the new hires’ jobs were explicitly dependant upon hitting the numbers. I asked him to let me know how they made out. Dutiful child that he is, he called me on Sunday to let me know. They pulled in $22K.
He’s out pounding pavement as of today.
It occurs to me that Main Street is beginning to recapitulate the example set by its Wall Street administrators. While the Fed is busy buying up T-bills to finance the US government’s rapidly-escalating spending, small-time retailers are compensating for lack of demand by creating it from labor. Why not simply forego taxes altogether and just have the Fed print money for a few years? Wouldn’t the results be the same?
After all, look what’s happening on the other side of the planet. Despite the 8B+ USD it got in TARP funds, all is not well in Cheney World.
The pending default of the world’s first Commercial Real Estate State may be a harbinger of the coming meltdown in commercial real estate investment worldwide. It certainly shook the financial markets over the weekend.
Straight out of Washington’s “leak it on a holiday” playbook, Dubai’s clumsy announcement just before the Muslim world closed for the four-day Eid, and the US markets closed for Thanksgiving, caused a major kerfuffle amid concerns about the very solvency of the Emerate. Given the recent propensity for timing dire financial announcements to coincide with the start of national holidays, it’s hard not to wonder why people would even want to take three-day weekends off anymore.
During the building boom of the last decade, Dubai World’s investment arm, the city-state’s sovereign wealth fund, incurred at least $80B worth of debt obligations. For a country with only 1.5 million people, the majority of whom are not even citizens, that’s a fair amount of coinage. Only 6% of Dubai’s income comes from oil; the rest is mainly dependent on tourism, real estate, and foreign investment. To woo that investment, Dubai turned itself into a veritable Disneyland for adults, with excesses that put Las Vegas to shame.
An environmental disaster without so much as an aquifer to call its own, the city-state is built entirely on debt, and Dubai now owes its creditors over 107% of its Gross Domestic Product. But that didn’t stop Sheikh Mohammed’s good friends at Halliburton, for example, from relocating their international headquarters there from Houston in March of 2007. Dubai’s free-form tax policies, plentiful slave labor, and reluctance to adhere to extradition treaties have made it a haven for corporations and individuals who might find Singapore a bit too stodgy, and SwitzerCaymans’ newly-cooperative financial authorities troubling.
The possible default on Dubai’s state obligations has caused a great deal of concern about the solvency of other countries’ sovereign debt, and markets are reflecting the worry that funds may begin to pull out of countries which have incurred major CRE-backed loan obligations—countries like Greece and Ireland. And California. The bankruptcy of Iceland can no longer be considered an isolated aberration.
Although the brunt of the potential default will apparently be born by European and Indonesian banks, recall that Las Vegas properties share numerous principal investors with many of these failed Dubai projects. At this point, who knows how much private US-based wealth has been laundered through this latest meltdown? One suspects that the State of Nevada is about to find out.
What is fairly certain, however, is that this time there will be no AIG bailout for Halliburton. With the House Oversight Committee breathing down the neck of the Fed, not even Helicopter Ben will risk the wrath of a chastised Barney Frank and an enraged American public. And this reluctance may portend the end of any governmental ability to create more debt to fight the economic “recession.”
As for Dubai, most likely Big Daddy Abu Dhabi will let the profligate Emirate sweat for an appropriate period of time, then publicly guarantee the debt. But in the meantime, Dubai—and it’s free-wheeling, debt-based economy—is effectively “grounded” while its bratty little sister, Sharjah—home turf of the Russian-based mafia and its war-profiteers—snickers in the corner. How cynically ironic that America is apparently now shifting the bulk of its defense tribute to Afghani$tan— from whence these Russian oligarchs made their fortunes in the first place.
by ahansen
Another outstanding post from ahansen.
I agree. Among other favorites, I liked the placement of the word “kerfuffle.” Nice work, A.
ahansen, terrific as usual.
Thank you, guys. I appreciate the props.
Another great post with observations of some very interesting people. Do you know ANY boring people?
Not for long, Bear.
I suspect that just being able to tolerate being around me preselects for eccentricity.
Good job.
My the back end of the baby boom (my generation), they took away pensions.
For Gen X they took away health insurance.
And for the Millenials, they’ll take away wages. But then, how will they buy things now that they can’t borrow?
But then, how will they buy things now that they can’t borrow?
Answer: They’ll steal ‘em!
I was just notified that my order for 30cal ammo is being filled and shipped.Back ordered since Aug 30. Shortage since Barry was elected! Good job on the cop killer last night in Wash.
Good job on the cop killer last night in Wash.
Explain yourself.
DD, didn’t you get the news that a ’street cop’ center punched the cop killer last night. Don’t have to Mirandize him or have a trial. Taxpayers win. Now let’s find out who the retarded judge was who let him out this time. Huckabee’s toast as well.
I H8 Huckabee.
Local gun heaven has ammo for sale by the case: “$100.00 Off” sale. Few takers at extended high prices. Most everyone’s topped off their bunker by now. Gotta save room for those American Eagles. $1200Au/$19Ag. Arent you glad you took Aladinsane’s advice??
did you get a lifetime supply of ammo?
Slim:
Stealing was always a part of minimum wage jobs. Employers wrote off the expenses and paid less taxes then if they had to pay employees $10hr plus benefits.
Clearly, since our entire economy is based on consumption, this will become compulsory, and various fees will be deducted from a paycheck to cover the costs… a “consumption” tax, so to speak. The great irony being, of course, that the great specter of Socialism will have then been reached by propping up our twisted interpretation of capitalism even as it collapses under its own weight.
But I’ve always been something of a cynic.
Simple:
You will be paid in debt: Your “paycheck” will be $2,000 of credit to “buy” stuff you can’t afford, and it’ll all evaporate at the end of the month to make sure it is impossible to save. Wave slavery will be the new cool thing that everyone must do!
Eh, that is old, not new.
I owe my soul to the company store.
Even older,
I owe my plot of land to the lord of the castle
Build them pyramids, I say, build, build !!! Who gets a plot of land ? No one. Now, cut that stone and hike it up the mound to add to Pharoah’s tomb….
SFBAGal,
I thought the feudal system was a lot more akin to a rental system with labor as the payment. You worked the lord’s fields first. He got everything off that. In return you received a place to live, acess to church services, and a strip of land to work yourself. You got to keep what your strip of land produced, or at least a good deal of it. And if you were a serf you were not allowed to leave. I don’t recall ever hearing or reading that the serfs were not allowed to purchase goods from anyone other than the lord of the manor. Actually, I thought that the travelling peddlars were often Jews as that was one of the very few jobs that were outside the land ownership system and the guild system that were restricted to Christians. I’m sure I read a book that mentioned this at one point, but I couldn’t begin to remember the title.
It may have been just as miserable, and not being allowed to quit is an entirely different issue (which the coal mine owners also used), but I don’t recall ever hearing that serfs were required to buy anything from their “bosses.” Is there anyone with a better education in this era of history that can chime in?
“… book that mentioned this at one point, but I couldn’t begin to remember the title….”
Ken Follet’s, “Pillers of the Earth?”
“…serfs were required to buy…from their ‘bosses….’”
Curiously, the actor/writer I mentioned who is being disparaged for his “slimy” activities in the thread below, majored in medieval studies and studied this social system quite extensively as a grad student. Most likely he can shed some light on this question. I’ll ask him for you when he calls home tonight.
Tee hee.
test
polly,
Also, the lord most often made the serfs work his own land. He could charge them for his mill services, make them use his mill, and thus create a monopoly. He also could force everyone to attend court when in session. He held absolute power in establishing punishments for various offenses such as thievery or murder, matters not appropriate for a village court. The people were bound to their land plots and when the land was sold, they were sold along with it. If the land they lived on changed ownership, then they came under a new lord’s jurisdiction.
Don’t think so. This was something excedingly dry and academic - hence the complete inability to remember the title. It could have just been a distributed article in our history/philosophy of law class, or even in my nearly useless property law class, but I don’t think so. I think this was even before law school. I had a Boston library card for a while and access to an academic library before that.
Services requiring a significant capital outlay and access to specific locations, etc. are a whole different ball of wax. You have to have a stream to run a mill, and you have to build the mill before you can do anything useful with it. If the lord owns the local stream, of course he has a monopoly in providing threshing services. The question is could you buy a transported good from someone else in the exceedingly rare circumstance that you had money with which to buy it? If a peddlar came through, could you buy anything from him? If you could get yourself to a town with guild approved artisans, could you buy from them?
Honestly, I don’t know if folks back then really had any wealth above bare subsistance to aquire things that they couldn’t make themselves. I assume that there would have been some barter among the people attached to the same manor just based on someone being better at spinning/weaving/basket making than others, but even that might have been limited by social standards.
I owe my soul to the company store.
Pull man.
On of my papers in Economics at UC Berkeley was that the printed money should have a 10% depreciation rate! Annually, of course!
LOL
JackO
Hah, JackO!
Inks impregnated with time-released, cellulose-munching bacteria perhaps? ADM/Monsanto could make yet another fortune in genetic modification technologies.
For those that did not know back when mining was a big player you got paid in mining money and could only buy from the mine store and live on mine property. This i know from my great Grandfather who lived and worked in a mine from his teens in Alabama and none of the fancy mining either, his was the oil lamp hardhat and hand drawn cart time to save the mine money.
So who knows were thing will go but History shows the big corporations always win in the end. So just maybe we will be paid in GS or megabank bucks to spend at the mega store.
My grandfather was a former surveyor and photographer. He made scrip for his strawberry farmer neighbor in rural Oregon out of several variations of exposed photography papers. One chit per flat. It was just temporary “money,” like poker chips, so not quite as bad I guess.
There was a time when this applied only to education, health care, infrastructure, and public safety. Compulsory consumption, deducted from your paycheck.
We’ve added McMansions and new cars.
I’d actually bring a bucket of coal to work happpily, just like Victorian times, if they allowed burning it.
Our office has under-floor cooling air flow for some ancient computers in another room. Except for this December week, it is usually warmer outside in Texas than inside in this room. The guy across the divider wears a parka. Only having been in TX for 10 years, I still have a few corpuscles of Northern blood left so I’m making due with just a sweater and occasionally resorting to driving gloves small enough to type with.
“Debit” cards?
Debit cards are of no use when there is NO money in the bank, since all the jobs are being either “off shored” or “on shored” by cheaper international labor.
If the old work ethic model does not work any more, then what do we do with the “unnecessary” extra people in our society?
Perhaps what needs to happen is all debt needs to be wiped clean and indebtedness made unlawful there-after, since most will not be repaid anyway. There is not enough money in the universe to repay the worlds current debts.
Um…GH? I think that was a joke. Just a guess.
Sadly, it seems that the “unnecessary” people as GH puts it will simply become poorer. I don’t see any alternative. 3rd world countries have an elite and a lower income class, with a tiny middle class. That is our trajectory.
Simple fact of the matter is that we now compete with the rest of the world. We can’t turn this back. Smoot-Hawley 2, as many on this board have proposed (i.e. tariffs or whatever to make it unnecessary to buy the cheap crap we are now forced to buy) won’t help a thing–tariffs would only make it worse.
Anyone remember their grandmother’s steel electrolux vacuum? The one that lasted for 50 years? I’ve burned through 2 wal-mart plasti-vacs in the last 12 months.
Anyone remember their grandmother’s steel electrolux vacuum? The one that lasted for 50 years? I’ve burned through 2 wal-mart plasti-vacs in the last 12 months.
Thats doesn’t seem to help your argument that tariffs would be bad.
Show me a case of where Tariffs have actually been net positive to the economy? How does erecting artificial walls stimulate growth? Why don’t we just revert back Nixon-era price controls? Something is too expensive, just wave a magic wand and control the price. Make it illegal to charge over some set threshold. That will fix things.
Show me a case of where Tariffs have actually been net positive to the economy?
High tariffs have been good for the Brazilian economy IF one values jobs above cheap stuff and if one values jobs over corporate profits derived by off-shoring.
Brazil has very high tariffs to protect its (less efficient than China’s) manufacturing base.
Maybe 70% of the stuff here is made in Brazil. It’s more expensive, but jobs are protected.
I personally would rather have a job than a cheap microwave oven.
Rio …..No truer words could be said than your post . I think just about everybody would rather have a job and maybe pay more for home produced products than becoming a ward of the State or dependent on welfare or maybe even starving .
Enough of this BS that we can’t go back to a system that seems to work a lot better here in America .The Corporations and Wall Street ,Banks etc. ,just gained control and got laws changed to pad their pockets and give them free rein to impose their idea of a functioning economy ,,,,which is ……more money for us ,less money for you .
When I think of how much blood was shed to get the majority to the point where they finally got a piece of the America pie ,with product protections and every other
employee gain that took them out of slave status and now
all those gains are being lost ,I’m appalled .
Don’t be so passive and say that things can’t be changed . Your giving to much power to these greedy creeps that love unfair playing fields . Life is not fair ,but no reason to give
the different POWER structures their way . The Majority is actually bigger than the thieves and its just a matter of taking your power back There are many ways to do this that I won’t go into now . The Power groups just love to keep the majority
fighting among themselves ,while the public doesn’t notice what they are doing . They went to far this time with their
robbery ,to the point that they exposed themselves .Right in front of us they even had the gull to take the money from taxpayers screaming they were going to save us .
Don’t accept that this Nation has to go the path that they set up . Screw them ,they are greedy mad-hatters .
Tariffs may reduce output overall (and they sure will if you end up in long, drawn out trade wars) but they also impact distribution. Economists tend to use funny phrases like “distribution aside X will have no effect on Y.” Once got really peeved in my Law and Economics class and pointed out that distribution mattered. May have been the only time I got a cheer out of my classmates. That was first year. Not sure what the reaction would have been in later years.
Moms electrolux vac was around $500 back when that was a lot of money. The walmart plasivac dirt devil is like $90, and comes with cool attachments and HEPA filters (did you get the warning not to use yours to clean up Anthrax (not the band, the sporez?).
If you bought a $1000 vac today, it should last longer. Maybe spring for the dyson jank with the funny looking pogo-ball contraption under it.
Where does it state that we are “entitled” to a certain standard of living? Why is it bad if “international labor” takes our job?
Ideological consistency, please.
We’re entitled to a certain standard of living because of sovereignty entailing control and independence, a very American concept well promoted by the Right, but lately and curiously not in this context.
We’ve earned certain standards because Americans sacrificed, educated and invested in our future more than many countries we are competing with. Fighting for rights and in two world wars for more important reasons, it’s not just about “all markets, all the time.”
Our sovereign values led us to regulate pollution, child/slave labor, reward our citizen’s honorable work and to enforce laws.
I don’t want to betray these achievements just because my rice maker will be cheap and my stocks will rise.
Rio…I didn’t see you second post ,Bravo .I said something like you said down the posts ,but you said it so much better .
I can’t help it if other Countries don’t give a darn about their employees or the standard of living of their people . America cared and fought for these advances in
decent wages and product protections for over a century .
Maybe you said it better.
Rather than tariffs, why not just tax the living hell out of corporate executives and banksters? Nobody in the US seems to remember that the maximum income tax rate during WWII was 94%. It was very effective at preventing the rise of the super-rich.
“…since all the jobs are being either “off shored” or “on shored” by cheaper international labor.”
This is what really burns me up, even more than the bailout. The bailout was horrific, mind you, but the continued practice of destroying American jobs, or importing cheaper labor to fill them is what is killing this country, and not so slowly anymore.
The administration had the audacity to call a “summit on job creation” when the problems are as plain as day. The outsourcing of jobs, and the importing of cheap labor, both legal and illegal, are causing record unemployment and threaten the long term health and security of our country. They need to immediately arrest these practices of eliminating jobs for American citizens! This is not about companies being forced to close if they cannot use the cheap labor- this is about using cheap labor to glean record profits for shareholders and CEO’s who buy yachts and make billions of dollars. They’re raping the country, and laying waste to everything that was once good.
I have worked as a busboy, a dishwasher, a bartender, a waiter, a clerical temp, a shipping clerk, a computer operator and an I.T. person. What jobs has Barack held in his life? Oh, yeah, that’s the guy we need leading up a “jobs summit”. His apostles really bit on the head fake. “I love The Leader.”
I’m not a Bush fan either. So don’t try that one.
Where does it state that we are “entitled” to a certain standard of living? Why is it bad if “international labor” takes our job?
I love how people on this blog, who seemingly take delight in the “joshua tree” concept, don’t apply the same set of rules to their own economic well being outside of housing.
If someone else can do you job cheaper or better, guess what, at some point you won’t have that job. We can cry for our politicians to make it illegal, but putting up false barriers simply erodes our own standard of living even further.
When someone or something (e.g. IT / automation) takes your job, that is simply market forces at work. I guess we can ask the PTB to make market forces illegal.
Ideological consistency, please.
When they don’t have the votes in Congress to do anything about offshoring jobs (and they don’t) or getting rid of H1B visas (and they don’t) or restricting trade (and they don’t) or doing a WPA style jobs program (and they really, really don’t) then talking about it is about all they can do.
It won’t accomplish much, but talking is about all there is left. Congress still has some power in this town.
Obama worked in a deli, at Baskin-Robbins, as a telemarketer, retail, records clerk. I would guess that he has worked a greater variety of “regular people” jobs than any prior president. I like this because I worked in retail, dishwasher, food waitress, cocktail waitress, and typist when I was young. Gives you an appreciation for what you have.
http://letustalk.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/obama-summer-jobs-used-to-work-at-baskin-robbins/
I know you’re right, Polly. That was my point, I guess, that there is absolutely ZERO political will to address the fundamental problems which have lead to decreasing wages and a sharp increase in unemployment. The “summit on job creation” is nothing more than a ruse to pacify the growing discontent among the unemployed and underemployed masses. The politicians brought us to this precipice, and they will not deliver us from it. Perhaps a revolution is the only way out.
NYCityBoy,
Right, I recall that particular speech being given from the floor of the CAT plant in IL? To rousing cheers I’m sure. But I think it was the voters that bought into the head fake.
So I’m w/ Grizz on this, the bailout infuriates me, but not half as much as the process that’s been going on since I was in HS.
FIRE CONGRESS AND THE SENATE . CURB LOBBYING FOR FIVE YEARS IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY ,(sorry I’m shouting ),and call it the Abolishing Bribery Act . Than have
newly elected Politicians go about the process of undoing the damage that has been done .
GrizzlyBear …great post and right on the money about what
is really going on ,especially about the record profits . They lie
everybody ,don’t you get it .
Lobbying is protected speech under the Constitution.
Contracts were protected also until the lawmakers decided
that they could screw with them and in the name of emergency bail out and obstruct justice regarding the culprits of the financial meltdown .
Polly ,you know how it is ,Politicians get around the Constitution all the time ,in the name of what they want to do ,especially when it comes to doing it in the name of Emergency .
How many times have you seen the Constitution violated ,even by the Highest Court in the Land ,for a Social good .
You make a law that lobbying is allowed but money donations
are not allowed ,ending the bribe aspect of lawmaking these days .
The money is considered speech too. No, I don’t have the SCOTUS citation at my finger tips, but it is there. Some restrictions are allowed(see limit on individual donations to specific campaigns), but not what you really need to change anything. I’m not even sure this SCOTUS will uphold those restrictions if they are challenged.
The closest you are going to get is for the House and Senate to change their own rules as I explained a few ahansen posts ago - committees and chairmanships to be assigned randomly after the election and change randomly after any re-election. That will at least take away most of the motive for giving them money. Honestly, it would be easier to ammend the Constitution.
“Where does it state that we are “entitled” to a certain standard of living? Why is it bad if “international labor” takes our job?
If someone else can do you job cheaper or better, guess what, at some point you won’t have that job. We can cry for our politicians to make it illegal, but putting up false barriers simply erodes our own standard of living even further.”
What you’re ignoring is the fact that these large corporations are breaking the law by using illegal alien labor. They hang the threat of deportation over the heads of their employees in order to keep them in line and skirt labor laws. Is that ok with you, YankeeDoodle? Anything for a buck, right? Who needs laws, or ethics in business?
I suppose, in your world, there is nothing wrong with importing an entirely new workforce from outside of the country to do your job cheaper, leaving you out in the cold? Should we ignore all that is moral, ethical, and just? How about some of those desperate citizens for whom there are no more jobs show up on your doorstep with a full metal jacket and take everything they want from you killing you and your whole family in the process? Who cares about laws, morals, and ethics, right? Anything for a buck…
Bear:
You just don’t get it…..Even Intern “jobs” which were paying jobs just a few years ago…
Places now want you to have your own high end laptop and with non pirated software for a no pay gig.
——————————————————
“Where does it state that we are “entitled” to a certain standard of living? Why is it bad if “international labor” takes our job?
Yankee Bear . you said ,
“If someone else can do your job cheaper or better ,guess what ,at some point you won’t have that job .”
Oh ,who made up that rule . Must of been a Corporation that just outsourced a 1000 jobs to India .
China junk is just so much better just because its cheaper . I suppose at anytime during the vast history of this Country
people outside our borders said ,”We can do it cheaper ,
or better” ,but that didn’t mean we let them take our jobs ,or that didn’t mean we didn’t charge tariffs to level out the playing field . I can’t help it if other Countries don’t give a darn about their employees or the standard of living of their people . America cared and fought for these advances in
decent wages and product protections for over a century .
Why ,because we evolved into a culture that valued the quality of life ,more than cheaper ,so the Corporations could make 10cents more on a plastic bottle.
When did the memo go out that the competition for jobs was going to be with every slave labor Nation in the World .
I can understand some healthy competition within a Countries own borders to prevent monopolies ,but there isn’t any contest when you expect Americans to compete with
a China man making 75 cents a hour . Our min. wage in
America is far above that ,and certainly not ample enough for most people to survive on based on our cost structures .
You act like other Countries would be just ready and willing to give us their jobs if we could do it cheaper or better . No,they aren’t that stupid . Some people would call it a
traitor act to do such a thing . Trade is ok ,with proper trade balances ,selling out the Country to cheap labor from countries that don’t even abide by our rules or Constitution so the Greed Machine can make more money ,is a act of treason actually .
This-here boomer ain’t gonna fall into one of those traps. I got my retirement all planned out — I’m gonna sell all my gold and use the proceeds to buy a condo in Dubai. How’s that for smarts? Eat you hearts out!
“Apparently, he was expected to outfit himself in the store’s line of clothing as a prerequisite to selling it to others. After all, it wouldn’t do to have the sales staff wearing some rival’s merchandise, so new employees were “highly encouraged” to buy the store’s offerings off the rack—at their own expense. Though appalled, I was hugely impressed with what appears to be a new trend in mall-shop marketing strategy.”
This is nothing new. I remember a friend or two in high school who needed to buy their employers brand (Limited, IIRC). Apparently the union they had to join in order to work there didn’t put a stop to it, but was happy to collect its dues anyway. Its even more disgusting when the employment is so temporary as to be counted in days or weeks, as the case with your friend.
OTOH, thanks for another interesting read, ahansen!
You first purchase the job by buying the clothes and then act as a manikin by wearing them.
Because of the job purchase situation there exists an incentive for the employer to churn the employee roster as much as possible so as to make way for new job purchasers.
So to get lots of job applicants the employer likely needs to offer jucy incentives to applicants. One incentive I could envision: Huge bonuses for sales above a certain amount.
This policy would benifit an employer in one of two ways:
1) If the employee doesn’t reach the sales quota that triggers the bonus then the employee gets fired and thus makes way for another job purchaser. Meanwhile the employer benifits from the money generated by the purchase of the job.
2) If the employee does make the sales quota and has earned her keep the employer benifits due to the high sales revenue generated.
In addition: It would be of great benifit for the employer to hire too many employees because:
1) The employer gets money for each new hire.
2) The number of human manikins is increased which offers more selections to customers.
3) Too many employees working the sales floor dilutes sales opportunities which minimizes the chances of any one employee reaching the trigger point for getting the bonus.
When this kind of thing is done in the sleeze business, they cheat on taxes and withholding also.
ahansen
You’ve gone too far with this one. None of the Russian oligarchs made any money from Afganistan. There is a limit to how interconnected things are.
I would argue that the expense (both financial and political) of fighting the Chechnyan rebels in Afghanistan led directly to the breakup of the Soviet Union—and the ascendance of the oligarchy as it was dismantled. The weapons-running that spawned was both based in and financed through the UAE. Still is. Perhaps the Big Boys live in Gstaad, but their operations still go through Sharjah.
Either way, those Stallone movies were awesome.
derek,
Here, here! While everyone is chasing for loose threads and far flung theories to connect all this interconnectedness we’ll have a beer.
Just starting to think it’s all just a top/down head fake. No one, and I mean no one loves to jump through hoops to lend credibility to tinfoil hat theories than Americans, so… why not give ‘em to them?
It keeps us occupied spreading their urban myths basically doing all the heavy lifting for them as they profit from random acts. That we keep trying to find a pattern in.
“The pattern,” which we concerned citizens seem to fall for every time, is to slip the bad news (in this case, about Dubai’s debt-based economy, our imminent re-re-invasion of Afghanistan, the October consumer numbers, and the sick-care debate,) under the door over a holiday weekend while distracting us with drivel like shopping tips, Tiger Woods’ girlfriends, and party crashers. Oh, and one kid’s considered foray into the pathetic world of adult entertainment productions.
I find it curious that what I considered the two genuinely controversial insinuations mentioned in this guest blog haven’t even merited comment from the board—but I guess that just proves my point.
1. Eliminate the federal income tax for a few years and just print money—to the same effect.
2. Afghanistan being codified as the latest pipeline for funneling American tax money to the oil royals and their minions in the UAE.
…with drivel like shopping tips, Tiger Woods’ girlfriends, and party crashers. Oh, and one kid’s considered foray into the pathetic world of adult entertainment productions.
Hey…if mega-millionaire Tiger Woods got his putter bend at 2:25 a.m. on Thanksgiving , enquiring minds want to know !
“None of the Russian oligarchs made any money from Afganistan.”
+100! Lets not misinform the public, please…
A quibble or too- I’m seeing a little disconnect between the expectation that your friends would be going into “medecine, business , or cutting edge research” but they trained to be “art curators or classics professors…”
Also, there’s nothing new in mall shops hiring lots of kids at minimum wage and getting rid of some of them when sales are bad - that’s been happening at least since I was teenager, some 40 years ago…
Also I think Dubai is using some hard ass negotiating tactics - I expect they aren’t Goldman Sachs alumni and won’t be inclined to help out their buddies. I agree some sort of guarantee might happen, but it will be at a lot lower figure.
Hi Dave,
The parents raised these kids with the expectation they would go into a profession. All were expected to go to college, which being dutiful, they did. But they majored in history, and philosophy instead of biochem and engineering.
The high turnover in mall shops was not what shocked me. It was the fact that these kids were basically being used as a customer base to buy the store’s overpriced clothes.
Dubai World’s investment arm, Istithmar, is led by Chief Executive Officer David Jackson, the former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executive. Sigh.
ahansen,
I believe what the stores did is now illegal in California.
What bopped me over the head was the lack of practical skills among these kids. Not a carpenter, mechanic, or plumber among them.
And I’m not just talking about having enough know-how to get hired on a job site, I’m talking about the ability to take care of your own needs instead of having to pay others to do so.
They’re learning fast, Slim. They’re learning fast. And to be fair, several of them have spent a lot of time here at the ranch over the years. They know all too well that if you wanna eat dinner, you gotta dig some post holes. (And wash off your hands in the outside sink!)
A place where one must dig post holes in order to earn grub. Sounds like my kind of ranch.
It reminded me of the article I read awhile back about how over half of the males graduated from university in Saudi majored in “Quranic studies.” A government spokesman lamented that not enough of their males went into the professions, so they had to continually import people who actually knew how to do something. Me, I’d try to get into med. school, or nursing school, if I was one of those smartie movie-makers. Lots of wannabe movie-makers, very few Coppolas or the like out there. But, El Duh from my standpoint….
Having lived over there, I found that there is a huge cultural divide over those who work with their hands and those that do not work with their hands.
Those that work with their hands are very much looked down upon. In Dubai, I would wager that not a single citizen has a job that requires getting their hands dirty.
“Me, I’d try to get into med. school, or nursing school”
That would take a lot of makeup work in chem, organic chem, biology, and probably higher math & physics for the wimpy liberal artsy fartsy ones. After all, they chose those majors to avoid all that.
Good point, Montana.
In general, you know who the “medicine” and “cutting edge research people” are as early as junior high. They aren’t necessarily the nerd-studiers either. There are also the ones who seem to get high grades with little effort.
There were a lot of Iranians in my engineering graduate school. Back in the early 80s, they couldn’t go home to Iran. If they have filtered back, they are probably developing the missile program there now.
There’s a nice video of the Mike Row the “Dirty Jobs” guy talking about the how our society values work on the TED conferences site. (Google: “TED Mike Rowe”)
And it’s not just seasonal retail employees who are employed “at will” - nearly everyone I know is employed at will.
They can’t fire you for some reason that the law considers discriminatory, but your job can disappear at any time for any other reason or no reason.
And it’s not just seasonal retail employees who are employed “at will” - nearly everyone I know is employed at will.
Good point. Everytime I have changed jobs in the past my mother in law would ask “Did you get a good contract?” and I would have to explain to her that these days only high level executives get contracts, and everyone else is “at will”, and I had to explain to her what that meant. My FIL was an executive with a German mining company, so that’s what colored her perspective I guess.
Whyoung, thank you very VERY much for posting that Mike Rowe link. It’s comforting to know that I’ve a kindred spirit out there somewhere.
I’ll make a point of watching the show.
I know what you speak of - my older son just finished his MA in History, and he was President of the Classics Society at uni.
On the bright side, he did it without student loans - he had a assistantship and also worked another job. But he’s kinda underemployed right now…
At least he’s done better than my niece who is in about her 6th year of university pursuing her journalism degree - she dropped out of two of the most expensive universities in Canada and is now at U of T.
Dave,
At the risk of coming off as something of a prude, I also fail to see the “inter-connectedness” of our imaginary role as self-destructing the economy and being some sort of male fluffer on a p0rn shoot?
Seems to me, anyone doing that was heading that direction inevitably anyway?
Not a fluffer. He actually got the gig through his (legit,) casting company. The call was for a “straight” actor to play the guy who gets kneed in the groin by the “heroine” in a bar scene.
Since the kid had a lot of marital arts experience from competing in college, and since his professed “lifelong ambition” was “to be one of the guys who get kicked in the balls in a kung-fu movie” it was a compromise he was prepared to make.
Actually, he’ll probably end up as a politician. He’s already served two Congressional internships, and does occasional speech-writing for one. But after 17 years in school, child needed a break….
“Since the kid had a lot of marital arts experience”
That is one of the best typos possible. The “marital arts” and kicks to the groin go together.
It sounds like you spent your Thanksgiving with a lot of the little snot-nosed types that are ubiquitous in Manhattan. I am glad I had dinner with my wife and her friends instead of being at that table. I can’t believe you got any of them to stop text messaging long enough to actually talk.
Oh, I know, these are the good trust fund babies. Still, better you than me.
LOL, NYBoy. That was a *great* Freudian slip.
These kids are mostly first generation-born Americans with family backing from some of the grandparents. Our meal was a group effort in preparation, serving, and clean-up, and basically lasted all weekend– with engaging entertainment and conversations throughout.
They’re a wonderful bunch of kids, and I love them dearly. Very diverse backgrounds, experiences, and orientations, and all extremely well-bred and sweet-mannered. Not a snot among them; I think you would have liked them, NYC. Even some rich kids have heart, you know? And not all poor ones are playahs.
We don’t get any cell reception up here–or wifi–so telephonic diversion was not an issue. A couple did use the land line to call their families on Thanksgiving, however.
“That is one of the best typos possible. The “marital arts” and kicks to the groin go together.”
Just ask Tiger.
Apologies in advance. I have no idea what happened and am doing my darnest to avoid the story, but just can’t. It was meant as a joke, not an accusation or endorsement of any tabloid story. I don’t think we’ll ever know what happened and personally I don’t think it’s any of our business. But I still thought it was a funny line.
doc, NYC, et al,
For some reason my reply hasn’t shown up. Good catch on a really EXCELLENT Freudian slip, guys.
Someday my bifocals will come….
“Someday my bifocals will come….”
In your teens it’s “someday my prince will come.” By the time you post regularly on a housing bubble blog it’s more practical (and real) things.
Someday my California tax refund will come.
Please ’splain who hitting one’s head on a windshield causes facial lacerations? If the windshield actually broke on impact, then I would guess facial lacerations would be the least of your problems. On the other hand, if it did not break, wouldn’t it cause a bump on the head rather than scratching up your face? And don’t tell me the Tiger’s car doesn’t have an airbag between the driver and the windshield?
I can’t figure out what his attorney is driving at…if you are going to make up stories, shouldn’t they at least be internally consistent?
“The scratches on his face were consistent with someone who maybe was in a minor car accident and hit his head on the windshield. … None of his injuries looked like he was beat up by his wife.”
tragic that experience in the… uhhh… marital arts… preps one for knee to groin
-evildoc
or politics….
If word gets out that he “worked in p*rn,” then he probably won’t be elected to anything. It doesn’t matter if he did the nasty or not. He “worked in p*rn,” and people stop listening right there.
He “worked in p*rn,” and people stop listening right there.
Well, he could segue into Religion and then get the “cred” off that and then segue in yr or two to politics. Gosh we still have Ensign, Craig and that guy from SC who are still in office.
It isn’t po rn but close enough for horse shoes.
“…..worked in porn….”
Didn’t seem to hurt Paris Hilton’s “career”.
Nobody can tell me that her PR rep/Publicist didn’t sell her on the boost her “career” would get by a home porn movie hitting the Internet by “accident”
Next, we may see her in a pay-per-view “Whore-Off” with Mr. Slave.
“…Sheikh Mohammed’s good friends at Halliburton, for example, from relocating their international headquarters there from Houston in March of 2007. Dubai’s free-form tax policies, plentiful slave labor, and reluctance to adhere to extradition treaties have made it a haven for corporations and individuals”
Hey does “Dickey Boy” get a free US Gov’t airplane ride complete with the same Obama top-notch “Secret Service agents” to get to that “special” meeting in Halliburton’s new shiny “No-Bid” Headquarters building?
(Hwy wonders if they have installed an indoor “Duck hunting” field in the new building, complete with Duck Soup & Sanguine Salad with a post hunting alcohol bar called the “Duck, I’m Shooting” …Cheney’s named specialty: Grey Goose Martini)
ex-VPs do not get Secret Service protection.
Clinton is the last former president to receive life-time protection.
Wow, something new every day…
“Ironically, the legislation creating the agency was on Abraham Lincoln’s desk the night he was assassinated.”
“…Former Vice Presidents six months after their term ends (the Secretary of Homeland Security can extend the protection time).
I wonder if Dickey Boy has filed for extension, you think Rash Limpbaughs will get a “hard-on” over this Gov’t “Spending” or would he consider it “Stimulus”?
He doesn’t need it. I’m sure he has his own private protection.
Might have to cash in some of those Halliburton ‘No-bid” stock options…Cha-Ching $$$$$$$$$$$$
Blackwater, or stone or whatever the heck the NO BID corp via Amway/farrightreligionist via NC is probably giving Dick some good head cover, for free
now that they got all the $s rolling in nonstop for the past 8 yrs and forward.
Okay, after the previous posts about the “civilian” in the “business,” I totally missed the “cover” word in your post.
Totally changed the meaning.
LOL, Hwy. Given Cheney World’s profligacy, an indoor duck/lawyer shooting range is not beyond the realm of imagining.
There are no civilian actors in the porn industry, but there is plenty of denial.
We have the footage to prove that you’re wrong, skroodle. Besides, he’s not hung enough to merit a featured role—or so I’m told. I think he did it as “material” for his stand-up comedy act. (ouch.)
Give it time ( they have ’stuff’ to fix that now ) and NO I won’t be interested in seeing any of the non-proof proof. ( Ever hear of outtakes? )
Slimey is… just slimey. We’ve got to stop making excuses for younger people. No matter how direct a hand we had in destroying the economy. How is seeing images of them in sex acts any less exploitive than our perceived responsibility?
Ever hear of in-release DVD’s?
You’re looking at this through a jaundiced eye, DinOR. It was “an experience.” A fully-clothed, and AFTRA-sanctioned one. In fact, I am the one who recommended that he take the gig so he could come back and tell us about it. He did, and it was hilarious. Not a career choice, more an anthropoligical field study. It’s okay, the morality of America’s Youth is still intact.
“through a jaundiced eye”
LOL! Hey, sugar coat it all you want “anthropological study…”?
How did I know we’d get all kinds after-the-fact rationalizing.., but I’m hardly praying for their souls..? The point was simply the same mindset that leads to strategic default, walking away and all ‘other’ manner of using the “blindsided by this darned economy” defense.
Hell, I’m no altar boy so portraying ‘me’ ( of all people! ) as a bible-thumper is a strawman at best. Dramatizing the situation by implying “the economy is so bad young people are going into adult video biz!” to make a point is going just a bit far.
AFTRA is American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. It was rally nice of them to sanction that film as they normally leave films to SAG.
Very few porn producers are signatories of SAG any how and most pay cash the day of the shoot.
Can confirm the cash payment part. Not sure how “AFTRA-eligible” came into it other than maybe the martial arts/second unit thing?
I wasn’t there, so couldn’t tell ya.
The piece was about Dubai, actually. And how we’re going to have to bail it out again— even if we don’t do it officially.
Hey! Did you guys hear? The party crashers claim they had an implicit invitation after all!
I recall reading an article some years ago that claimed that about 50% of all US households purchase these fine cinemtaic products and that couples watch them to “get in the mood”.
And I thought romanticism was dead!
In Colorado,
And that’s all I was really trying to say? In good economic times or bad, smut is smut. I recall hearing that Larry Flint was raising a ruckus that ‘he’ wanted a bailout for the industry too!
( Yeah, like they need one )
And here I thought the internet age only destroyed book reading with its serial 2D image processing rewiring the brains of younguns.
I have neighbors with a big screen TV. They’re very careful to leave the curtains drawn, and I think this is because of what they’re watching.
I’ve gotten up to use the small room in the house in the early morning hours, and I’ve looked across the street on the way back to my sleeping quarters. Invariably, the TV is on, and, from what I can surmise, the peeps aren’t watching sports or late night film classics.
heck the kids are doing nude photo shots on their cameras nowadays anyway and passing them around all viral-like. So this youngster crowd won’t ever be able to say, ” i didn’t inhale” or something akin.
Like your posts, but your message loses some effectiveness when you go partisan. There’s plenty of slime on both sides to go around, and we all know it. Trying to get a dig or two against a particular side seems petty in your otherwise outstanding diatribes.
Petty is as petty does.
Not a side, Socrates, a person.
His affiliation is obviously Dick Cheney.
Our political parties are so muddled as to be irrelevant at this point—as I wrote last week.
If it makes you feel any less persecuted, I think I got in a pretty good dig against Obama in the last sentence.
Are you trying to throw a bone to Eddie here?
I think “Eddie” finally got the message and toned it down a tad. He’s has a pretty good thread going in the Bits Bucket today that’s thoughtful, considered, and even genteel. Plus, he’s actually on “your” side on this one. Way to go, Prof!
Time to cut him some slack, maybe?. For now at least….
ahansen .Good writing as usual ,great subject . As far as Eddie goes ,don’t you remember the song about the women who took
in the dying snake just to have the snake bite her ?
Ahaaa, but I breed zee mongeeses, HW….
“Time to cut him some slack, maybe?”
I did.
Business has never been better in Dubai City. Now if only the #*&!)@*#% media would just STFU!
The Financial Times
Dubai ruler hits out at crisis reaction
By James Drummond in Abu Dhabi
Published: December 1 2009 11:30 | Last updated: December 1 2009 14:26
The ruler of Dubai on Tuesday sought to deflect criticism of his economic policies by attacking the media for its coverage of the crisis and global markets for misreading an announcement by Dubai World, a state-owned company with debts of $59bn.
Responding to questions on the global fallout from Dubai World’s request for a standstill on its debts Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: “they do not understand anything”. His comments were his first in public since the debt crisis erupted last week.
He also attacked the media for its coverage of Dubai World’s part in his country’s financial crisis. “This company is independent of the government. This exaggerated media uproar will not affect our determination,” he told reporters in Dubai on Tuesday.
“It is only natural that we should oppose this campaign and this huge media uproar,” he added.
Earlier Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of neighbouring emirate Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, who was also making his first public statement, described the UAE economy as being in “good” condition.
In a statement published on the state news agency website, Sheikh Khalifa said the UAE was strong enough to negotiate “the current difficult circumstances of the international economy” and that most sectors of the UAE economy had begun to show growth in the fourth quarter of the year.
…
“lacking job opportunities as the art curators and classics professors they trained for, this bunch has turned to Hollywood for their graduate studies.”
worthless sh!ts.
White collar trash.
Nah, they all wore tee shirts and plaid flannel when they made the dump run after we cleaned up.
Is that you Alice?
Whatever you want, son.
What would be a pity is if a person has no other choice but to go in the smut business to survive ,maybe to feed their kids . If unemployment gets high enough people will do things they normally wouldn’t .
Sometimes I think the great future that the Powers are leading us to
will be no different than the past like a Les Mis”erables.
“Sometimes I think the great future that the Powers are leading us to will be no different than the past like a Les Mis”erables.”
Throughout human history, this tends to be the norm.
“During the building boom of the last decade, Dubai World’s investment arm, the city-state’s sovereign wealth fund, incurred at least $80B worth of debt obligations.”
Someone please help me out here. Isn’t borrowing and lending money against Islamic law? If so, how was this debt buildup even possible?
Welcome to the world of Islamic Finance: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/business/global/01islamic.html?_r=1
Does anyone else recall when subprime was contained? My observation is that these financial dislocations tend to be contained right up until the very instant that they are not.
* The Wall Street Journal
* DECEMBER 1, 2009, 4:45 P.M. ET
WORLD FOREX: Dollar Falls As Concern Eases Over Dubai’s Debt
By Fabio Alves
OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The dollar tumbled against most rivals Tuesday as concerns over Dubai’s debt situation receded, spurring investors to snap up global stocks, commodities and higher-yielding currencies.
Easing fears about Dubai’s debt crisis spreading to other credit markets “is helping to relieve some concerns that had weighed on riskier assets,” said Omer Esiner, senior market analyst at Travelex Global Business Payments in Washington.
The greenback remained under pressure versus other major currencies except the yen, which fell across the board on the announcement of a surprise meeting by the Bank of Japan.
Late afternoon Tuesday in New York, the euro was at $1.5086, from $1.5015 late Monday, according to EBS via CQG. The dollar was at Y86.68, from Y86.45, while the euro was at Y130.76, from Y129.80. The U.K. pound was at $1.6617, from $1.6456. The dollar was at CHF0.9994, from CHF1.0043.
The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six currencies, was at 74.426, from 74.788.
“At least for now the market is under the impression that the Dubai situation is more or less contained,” Esiner said.
…
There were a few NYC law firms that specialized in structuring deals to comply with Islamic law in the 90’s. Bet there are more now. And I bet there were always plenty more of them in the City of London.
I don’t know exactly how it is done, but you could strucuture preferred stock to look a heck of a lot like a loan. Add some insurance and a few credit enhancements (preferred stock default swaps?) and voila! Something that provides an investor with compensation for the use of his money over time and doesn’t let him participate in any of the up side of the deal. Looks like debt. Smells like debt. But, for Sharia purposes, isn’t considered debt.
“I don’t know exactly how it is done, but you could strucuture preferred stock to look a heck of a lot like a loan.”
Or structure a mortgage to look like a lease. So long as you merely make lease payments, thereby paying no interest, you are good.
I believe Shakespeare’s insight generally applies:
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
That which we call a loan by any other name would still risk losing both itself and friend, and dull the edge of husbandry.
They run monies through private investment funds such as Carlyle Groups and Nakheel. Not sukuk, but close enough for government work….
LOL. This question hit me about 45 minutes ago while out of the office on the road and I wondered if it had been posed yet. Just got back on here and, voila! Very dynamic this group is.
As a redneck , hardnosed, republican, I wonder why all of the uproar about the porn business!
It is a business, and no shadier than many other businesses!
How would you rank it against the mortgage business, banking business, credit card business, real estate business?
Do you think those businesses are more ethical,honest, or something like that?
Do you think that they are cheating their buyers, or just doing what you think is morally wrong?
And, to confuse you further, what is morally wrong with selling porn?
But. to answer your question , I do not patronize,or watch, said stuff!
JackO
Regardless of whether porn is good, bad or neutral, this strikes me as a strawman argument. Its irrelevant whether or not banks or the REIC are immoral or not if we are discussing the morality of the porn business.
In the end I think both the porn biz and the banksters will be around for a long time.
“It is a business, and no shadier than many other businesses!”
Actually it’s really not. It lures in a lot of young women (and porn is much more socially acceptable today and teens much more open to being involved), but the majority of them quit after their first movie because it is such a disturbing experience for them. There are huge stars, some who have moved into mainstream, but very few and like prostitution it leaves a lot of damage behind mostly to the young women involved.
I would prefer my niece and nephew not be realtors, mortgage brokers, credit card operators or certain types of bankers (although I know some very good bankers), but I would not actively discourage them from any of these businesses. Porn I would in a heartbeat.
I’m very libertarian and do not want porn outlawed, but there is a cost and people should be aware of it if they support the industry. (Which is why I never pay for my porn.
)
“I would prefer my niece and nephew not be realtors, mortgage brokers, credit card operators or certain types of bankers (although I know some very good bankers), but I would not actively discourage them from any of these businesses. Porn I would in a heartbeat.”
I reluctantly concur. There are worse professions than those under the REIC umbrella.
The Financial Times
Bernanke faces confirmation grilling
By Krishna Guha and Tom Braithwaite in Washington
Published: December 1 2009 19:17 | Last updated: December 1 2009 22:42
Ben Bernanke is likely to face tough questioning when he appears before the Senate banking committee on Thursday seeking confirmation for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman.
While there is little doubt he will be confirmed, the hearing will showcase congressional unease about the Fed manifested in legislative proposals to reduce its powers or its independence.
Experts fear the Fed could end up paying a heavy institutional price for the unorthodox actions most economists credit with helping to avert a second Great Depression.
Allan Meltzer, a professor at Carnegie Mellon and historian of the Fed, says relations between Congress and the central bank are the “worst” and “the most threatening” in its history.
This is in spite of the fact that the Fed has not lost any money on any of the unorthodox liquidity programmes used to fight the crisis, while its expanded asset portfolio is generating large profits. The Treasury’s share is $27bn (£16.25bn) already this year.
The Fed has taken $9bn writedowns to date on the Maiden Lane vehicles used to bail out Bear Stearns and AIG. But with $8bn net income from these assets, the Fed does not expect any ultimate loss on these bailouts either. “If the vote came from academic economists, Bernanke wins with 99 per cent of the vote,” says Alan Blinder, a Princeton professor and former Fed vice-chairman. “But we are not voters and we do not have to face the voters.”
He says “quite a few people in Congress on both sides of the aisle feel that the Fed overstepped its authority” by using emergency powers to allocate money without specific congressional approval.
Voters – suffering 10.2 per cent unemployment – blame the Fed for hated bail-outs. “In the public mind there is no operational line between what the Treasury did and what the Fed did, and no line between lending money and spending money.” Mr Blinder admits “it is not entirely a misconception. The Fed and Treasury were holding hands on most of these things”.
…
A little late to comment on this….
Retail jobs have always worked like that. Well maybe not always, but for a while anyway. When I was in college, my girlfriend at the time worked at a Victoria’s Secret in the mall, part time. I remember her complaining about having to make sales quotas and the constant threat of being let go if she was short.
I did enjoy the frilly things she bought with her discount. Nice perk that I got to enjoy without the drudgery of working retail myself.
(cue Professor Bear to make comment about me wearing frilly things in 5…4….3…2…)
Time for a truce, Edster. We’re all going to try to be a bit more respectful, not waste Ben’s bandwidth with our verbal baiting, and save our invective for those who so richly deserve it– NOT our fellow HBBerz.
Kay?
Thanks for being groovy!
a
Yep ,Eddie is real groovy …yep …right ……didn’t deserve anything he got .
“(cue Professor Bear…”
Truce!
They better have the kids buy their “uniforms,” after all, I won’t. I get all of my clothing two years after its made in Daffy’s. Filenes or wherever. In the meantime, since things are tough, I’m only buying gifts for the children this year and shopping in my own closet for trendy looks.