{"id":8171,"date":"2011-07-07T09:11:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T13:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=8171"},"modified":"2011-07-07T09:28:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T13:28:11","slug":"good-jobs-numbers-but-not-thanks-to-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=8171","title":{"rendered":"Good jobs numbers. But not thanks to Washington."},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the cover of the latest issue of New York Magazine. The words you can’t read are “Obama’s failure to right the wrongs of the crash has haunted his presidency and coul dundo it.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rich’s logic is simple: Obama has failed to to demand a reckoning from the moneyed intersts who brought the eocnomy down. And his recent obsession with the deficit instead of jobs has been doubly wrong.\u00a0 From the piece:<\/p>\n

What haunts the Obama administration is what still haunts the country: the stunning lack of accountability for the greed and misdeeds that brought America to its gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression. There has been no legal, moral, or financial reckoning for the most powerful wrongdoers. Nor have there been meaningful reforms that might prevent a repeat catastrophe. Time may heal most wounds, but not these. Chronic unemployment remains a constant, painful reminder of the havoc inflicted on the bust\u2019s innocent victims. As the ghost of Hamlet\u2019s father might have it, America will be stalked by its foul and unresolved crimes until they \u201care burnt and purged away.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the 1929 crash, and thanks in part to the legendary Ferdinand Pecora\u2019s fierce thirties Senate hearings, America gained a Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Utility Holding Company Act, and the Glass-Steagall Act to forestall a rerun. After the savings-and-loan debacle of the eighties, some 800 miscreants went to jail. But those who ran the central financial institutions of our fiasco escaped culpability (as did most of the institutions). As the indefatigable Matt Taibbi has tabulated, law enforcement on Obama\u2019s watch rounded up 393,000 illegal immigrants last year and zero bankers. The Justice Department\u2019s bally\u00adhooed Operation Broken Trust has broken still more trust by chasing mainly low-echelon, one-off Madoff wannabes. You almost have to feel sorry for the era\u2019s designated Goldman scapegoat, 32-year-old flunky \u201cFabulous Fab\u201d Fabrice Tourre, who may yet take the fall for everyone else. It\u2019s as if the Watergate investigation were halted after the cops nabbed the nudniks who did the break-in.<\/p>\n

The piece is worth reading for insight into how a president can say one thing,e.g. “A\u00a0 nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperious” and do exactly the opposite.<\/p>\n

To read Frank Rich’s excellent piece, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pushing the European problems down the road. <\/strong><\/span><\/strong>Nouriel Roubini thinks 2013 will be a disaster, as Europe pushes its problems down the hill. Greece is in dire straits, according to Arminio Fraga in this week’s Business Week. He’s right. But they’re not bailing Greece out fully, or allowing it to default gracefully. In short, a mess. Greece is contagious. This is from Business Insider.<\/p>\n

It’s still hard to fathom: A Moody’s downgrade having a huge impact on the market.<\/p>\n

And yet it seems that indeed just that has happened today: What you see below is the incredible surge in Portuguese short-term yields, from under 12% yesterday afternoon to this morning to around 14.5% this morning to to over 16.5% right now, a really mammoth collapse in confidence for a country that’s already been bailed out!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is, essentially, the European nightmare scenario. Because Greek private bondholders will be forced to take haircuts, the bonds of every other country are now treated like the plague.<\/p>\n

Obviously no country can pay these interest rates for long.<\/p>\n

Never, ever become a client of Goldman Sachs.<\/strong> From yesterday:<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/big><\/p>\n

Harry: “So why is my account online so much lower than the paper you sent me a just couple of weeks ago?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Goldman Sachs: “<\/span>The online number is not accurate. By the end of the week you should see a higher number — by about $108,000.”<\/p>\n

So, why is it not accurate? Who knows. No reason. Basic sloppiness.<\/p>\n

I used to have a personal sales rep. They fired hm. Then they fired his replacement. Then I got consigned to a call center in Albany, New York with 20 random reps, few of whom (if any) have ever worked for Goldman at their New York headquarters.\u00a0 Think Microsoft’s call center in India. Yuch.<\/p>\n

I get press releases. <\/strong>From yesterday:<\/span><\/span> <\/big><\/p>\n

Good Morning,<\/big><\/p>\n

Today begins a new era for one of the nation’s top family entertainment centers.\u00a0 Chuck E. Cheese is making a good pizza even better with a revamped recipe, improved crust, and 100% real Mozzarella cheese. <\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/div>\n

Harry Newton who is late because he was listening to Warren Buffett on BubbleVision this morning. He really is a wonderful optimist on America. He points out that despite a depression and several wars, the average American now lives six times better than when he was born — 80 years ago. The new jobs are coming from the new startups and small companies. I see an explosion of companies with great ideas raising money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the cover of the latest issue of New York Magazine. The words you can’t read are “Obama’s failure to right the wrongs of the crash has haunted his presidency and coul dundo it.“ Rich’s logic is simple: Obama has failed to to demand a reckoning from the moneyed intersts who brought the eocnomy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}