Student loans

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sherylnancenash/2012/05/17/is-higher-education-a-giant-pyramid-scheme/

Glass-Stegall Act repealed and replaced with Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

I consider myself to be more or less in the political center. I am scared of the possibility of the republicans winning this fall. Only because of the fact that talk of repealing the health care bill is a top priority for the party once they are elected to congress; along with cutting spending, but only in superficial programs, no one talks about cutting defense spending, some $600+ billion plus of the budget. This post really is not about politics but, state of our banking industry. I am mad as hell at Bill Clinton and the 106th congress that supported the, the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 aka: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, basically the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act of 1933, which was instituted after the stock market crash of 1929. Which by the way was thought by some the sharpest minds of the time to be necessary deterrent to the natural greed of the financial services industry. after analyzing what had been one of the fundamental causes of the crash, trading on the margin (aka: speculation).

I was shocked at how closely the depression that we are currently in, really does resemble the last one.

Reading Material:

Here is the search results for Glass-Stegall. 

We have for all intense and purposes, just repeated history.

Only with the social safety nets that were put into place during the last depression. In my humble opinion it is pretty much the same.

What Was The Glass-Steagall Act?

Glass-Steagall Act: The Senators And Economists Who Got It Right

Who's Whining Now? Gramm Slammed By Economists

How bad can this foreclosure mess get? – Pretty Bad

I for one consider myself to fairly informed. This foreclosure crisis is just that a crisis. It really is scary that innocent people can and very possibly getting kicked out of their homes for illegitimate reasons. I know that the people in power have to say the things they are at the moment to try and restore confidence, however this is no minor mix-up in the paperwork. This is serious, and people on all sides have a lot to lose.

This article jumped out at me while surfing some news sites,

The enormous mortgage-bond scandal by Felix Salmon.

Here are other various other reads that really express what is happening and how the people, like Mr. Geithner, don’t see from high above what has actually transpired down below at the individual level. I want to share it with you along with other various view points that really point to the fact that the so called masters of the universe, aka: Bankers, are really in fact incompetent ninnies!

Geithner: Foreclosure Freeze Would Be 'Very Damaging' 

Yes, Mr. Geithner they very well could be damaging, but to restore confidence in the system that seems to have been corrupted and left to run amok. Having a temporary freeze on foreclosure proceedings seems like a fairly sensible option. This is the hangover that the fed and the treasury let happen for not “taking away the punch bowl”. This is a the New Years Day hangover. So do what you have to do to restore confidence, including but not limited to, sending people to jail!!!

Foreclosure Crisis ‘A Legal Impossibility’

Here is a piece from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, that’s says that imposing a system wide moratorium would be “catastrophic” for the economy. Please it would give everyone a chance to sort this whole big warm stinking pile of shit that was thrown against the fan a while ago and see what is really going on. I suspect that the financial services industry is scared that if people actually start to look behind the curtain and really see what the fuck they are selling, that the very possibility is there that we as a society may never let them say, “it’s ok, trust me”.

Housing Market Conundrum

Talk about systemic risk! Makes you wonder; if home ownership is the "American Dream", and it's wrought with errors, is it by extenstion too big to fail due to "systemic risk" and thus either the $22,500,000,000,000 (22.5 trillion)<that's a lot of zeros!!!> real estate market is going to have to self correct or we are going to bail it out and risk artificially keeping the bubble inflated. Think about it. Just so you know the US economy by assets is worth $188 trillion.
It is such an unwinnable situation, if you bail out the real estate market the average investor loses and the home owner wins, if you don't bail it out, then the average home owner loses and thus the entire neighborhood, and the investor still loses just not as badly.

Again i repeat my question from my earlier post, why is no one going to jail?

 

This just illustrates my point:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-07/man-who-had-no-mortgage-faced-foreclosure-anyway-ann-woolner.html

Pandering To Clients, Firm Distances Itself From Wall Street Whistleblower's Testimony

Wow! This is something that is remarkably absent from the news!! So much for, "All the news that's fit to print". One would actually think that this is a pretty substantial piece of news.

/step onto soap box

Can someone please explain to me why no one is on trial? (click link at bottom) Or better yet jail? This seems like a slam dunk to me. The whole system it's crooked, but the only guy to be sentenced so far is jerome kerviel the french banker that is taking the fall for some powerful people in europe (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/jerome-kerviel-rouge-fren_n_750464.html). Fall guys will be a while another topic, (I'm thinking UBS whistle blower.) We have some chicken shit people in our country! Two years later and still no one has been charged, tried, our is sitting in jail, I'm sorry how can I forget madoff. I have very little to no confidence in the system after all that has transposed.
Why is no one outraged by this, rather why is the mainstream media completely ignoring this?
Who really cares what sarah palin had to say, she honestly doesn't have any power, she's nothing but a manufactured distraction; same with that ding-bat in Gainsville and his Quarn Bunring nutso idea.
I'd love to see 60 minutes or front line do a piece on this. But, unfortunately people will still bury their heads in the sand. People will have their brains check out and watch dancing with the stars or jersey shore.
maybe this can/should be included in that contract... Um... Pledge to america. So that our wonderful politicians can try and reinstate the glass-stegall act; and not focus on repealing the health care bill. While these yo-yo's on "wall street" continue to do what they have been doing unabated. While our politicians, elected representatives, hope the same wall street that got us to this point will be able to pull the country out of this depression. If history is any kind of a teacher, someones going to have to start a fight that everyone else will get involved in. because it wasn't washington or wall street that pulled the united states out of the depression, but germany, japan, and italy.
Ahem,

/step off of soap box
I'm a little peeved and a little cynical, can you tell?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=750039

Quran Burning Story: This Is How The Media Embarrass Themselves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=712229

take this flat earth people, Ash cloud disrupts global aviation

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/europe/2010/04/201041692933434631.html

Holy shit, the gulf oil geyser is a BIG deal

 When I read this article it made my stomach drop. This is one of those things that will leave you dumb founded. As you begin to truly appreciate the gravity of the situation in the gulf. What is the price that we as society are we willing to pay for our "way off life"?

Yeah, this guy plays up some biblical references, however the meat of this really sounds legit. Can anyone rebuke this article?

Source:  http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8199-Breakthrough-Energy-Examiner~y2010m5d13-A-volcano-of-oil-erupting

A volcano of oil erupting

May 13, 8:11 AMBreakthrough Energy ExaminerSterling Allan

 The following article was written by my associate, by Paul Noel with some editing and input from me.

New video showing largest hole from pipe 5 feet in diameter spewing oil and natural gas at ~4 barrels per second, along with analysis of the amount of oil on the surface, supports the estimates closer to 1 million barrels per day erupting from this hole BP popped in the ocean floor that contains trillions of barrels of oil and natural gas.

On May 13 from 8-10 pm Pacific, Paul and Sterling will be appearing on True Ott's "The Story Behind the Story" show on the Radio Broadcast Network.

Screenshot from John Wathen's video of the oil devastation.  Here is shown some large vessels trawl around the huge Development-Driller-III which is drilling a side hole to reduce pressure or to plug up the hole dug by Deepwater Horizon.  This is expected to take 2-3 months, considering hurricane season coming.

Mainstream reports are starting to discuss the fact that the oil slick rising from the oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico simply has to be a whole lot larger than first reported. 

My first report on this stated that the total could easily be 5,000 barrels per day. I said this when the report was that only 1,000 barrels per day was the stated total. I was being cautious because I knew the total was much higher and I knew the public would not believe the real totals. Most people simply could not imagine a well of the size involved. 

Now I will discuss the real facts that are known and what the educated guesses on the topic indicate. Prepare to get your jaw off of the floor. The facts are stunning.


Pre-Drilling Estimates and Assurances

BP estimated a spill of 165,000 barrels per day would not even reach land! That is what they told the US Government before they drilled the well. They had excellent science on their side, which you can begin to comprehend when you understand how oil reacts in salt water, as we will briefly discuss belowl.

The fact that the spill has reached land clearly states that the size of the spill is probably well above 200,000 barrels per day. Yes, that's BARRELS, not gallons. There are 42 gallons per barrel. 

To get a full estimate we have to look at the process of sinking an oil slick and count money.  A newly released video of the larger of the two leaks also contributes to our understanding of a minimum estimate of the flow erupting from this man-induced volcano of oil.


When An Oil Spill Originates on the Surface

Here is what happens when oil hits the salt water. If it is poured on top of the sea, oil begins to do several things. First some of it dissolves in the salt water. This dissolving is a bit limited but amounts to several percent per day of the spill exposure to the ocean. Some of the oil evaporates. This is several percent per day. This slows over time. As the oil dissolves and evaporates the parts that do this are primarily volatile fractions. These are things like Gasoline and other light components that go away pretty quickly. Once these are gone the remaining oil is heavy fraction crude. This begins to sink into the water very slowly, eventually falling to the ocean bottom over about 6 weeks. Typically this floats into an area where the shoreline is and embeds about 18 inches deep in the sand. This buried oil is not harmless. Just because the beach might appear on the surface to be clear, the sub-surface oil continues its toxic work.  It locates precisely where the little sea creatures live, and it goes on killing them for about 10 years.

The reason a slick would carry farther than predicted is that the salt water is saturated with oil and the air around it is saturated, so the slick cannot dissipate. In the case of the BP Gulf leak, the size of the slick and the location of on shore oil say this slick represents at least 2 times the amount of oil BP estimated would never reach land  -- or 330,000 barrels per day, minimum. This is an educated guess, borne out by aerial photos and the like.


When Oil Shoots Up Through 5000 Feet of Salt Water -- Fractioning Column

In the case of the BP underwater hole, the slick is not being poured on top of the water. It is coming up from the ocean bottom that is 1 mile deep at that point. That fact raises stunning questions on how big the well releases are. 

Rising through 5000 feet of water, the oil is going through a process that the oil men call Fractioning. Literally the tremendous pressure and temperature issue are the equivalent of taking the oil and boiling it in a cracking tower 5000 feet high. The oil and Natural Gas change on their way up. The very light, easy-to-evaporate parts are all that is rising to the surface. 

The heavy oil isn't even getting to the top. That oil is losing its volatile fractions and is being dragged along with the rising column into the surface water where it is probably distributing as tar balls that are not being skimmed up or burned or otherwise disbursed. 

In fact the chemicals added at the well head to disburse the oil, speed this process up. This oil is mixed into the water for the top 250 feet or so. Salinity and temperature issues probably keep this oil from ever reaching the very top of the water. The exact behavior here will not be known until studies are published some years from now.  This is the first time humans have encountered a deep ocean leak of this magnitude.  We're in uncharted territory here.  Volume per volume, it is highly probable that due to this fractioning, this oil blowing into the ocean from a mile down is causing far more ecological trouble than a surface spill of similar size.  

It is also certain that the slick volume on the surface is substantially lower than the rising column of oil.  This is a key point to bear in mind.  Because of this fractioning, what you see from the air on the surface of the water represents maybe just 20% of the volume of the various types of oil in that area. And we're talking an area the size of Maryland (10,000+ square miles) that is on the surface.  The remaining 80% is under the surface; and all of it is highly toxic to the living organisms encountered.

All of this brings into serious question the volumes of oil rising. Every factor suggests massively higher numbers than what has been commonly reported. 


Video of Slick

Here is a video that Alabama resident John Wathen shot as a volunteer pilot flew him over the area where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank.  He said, "It's not a leak, it's a volcano spewing oil."

(YouTube; May 10, 2010)

As we watch this, and see other photos and videos from the air and ground/sea level, we can agree with Wathen's comment: "The Gulf appears to be bleeding," which is chilling, considering the prophesy in Revelation 8:8: "The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze [appearance of the burning rig and slick], was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."  Most ships cannot travel through oil-infested waters without damage, any more than jets can fly through volcanic ash-infested airways.


Budgeting an Oil Rig

There is also another factor that says that the numbers are vastly higher than published to date. That is money. The BP investment in this well is very high -- close to a billion dollars. They must earn over $5,000,000 a day off of the well in order to pay back their investment. (That was before the explosion, and doesn't count the cleanup costs, etc) 

They were, until the well blew, extremely happy with the well. In fact, on the day of the explosions, executives were on board celebrating the well's success.

This well had to produce over 60,000 barrels per day in order to break even. Shocking as it seems, this well would have been closed in and disposed of had it produced a minor total like 20,000 barrels per day. That would have been a "Dry Hole"! It wouldn't have paid for the pipes to bring the oil to market. The fact that BP management was aboard the rig and very happy, celebrating, just prior to the explosion says the well probably produces more than 200,000 barrels per day. It might well have produced 500,000 or more. Royalties to the US Government multiply the numbers for break even by about 2:1 so 500,000 barrels per day is very realistic.  And that is what they would have been celebrating while things were under control.

With this in mind, remember that this well is running wild. A wild well produces far more than a well during normal production. This is why it is so dangerous. The conclusions for how much is coming up are simply unbelievable. 


Natural Gas

The Natural Gas emissions are stunning as well. As you watch the film remember the pipe is 5 feet in diameter.

The Natural Gas doesn't just bubble to the top of the ocean and release into the air. It is absorbed into the water, like air is absorbed, and actually creates oxygen depletion. Hence, the emission of natural gas of these volumes into the sea is producing a significant area of Oxygen depleted water in the Gulf of Mexico which may be very large threat to fisheries and other wildlife in the area. 

Never forget this point. The spill was "Impossible" by the view of the oil men prior to this. The biggest cost of the spill cleanup is being borne by the US Armed Forces such as the National Guard etc. None of these costs will ever be paid by BP. These costs will appear in taxes not in the price of oil. Alternative Oil is vastly cheaper and safer than this. 


Video from Largest Leak

Having just seen (as I write) the film of the larger of the two leaks under sea, I can say with my trained eye that the volume coming out of the hole is in the order of 4 barrels per second (around 350,000 barrels per day).  

As you look at this, it might seem like a small hole, and a small amount of oil.  But bear in mind that the diameter of the pipe is 5 feet -- five feet wide!  Those deep sea drilling rigs don't make small diameter holes like you might be used to seeing on land.  Some of those huge drilling rigs, which make an aircraft carrier look like a toy boat in comparison, put down huge pipe.  The rig that is on site now, Development-Driller-III, which is drilling a relief hole to reduce pressure from the hole dug by Deepwater Horizon, has a torque (drill twisting) rating of 78,450 ft-lbs.  You who know torque will appreciate how huge that is.  Yes, the hole opening is 5 feet in diameter, spewing approximately 4 barrels each second.

Oil and gas stream from the larger of two existing leaks on the riser of the Deepwater Horizon well on May 11. (CNN, via YouTube; May 12, 2010)

What Could Yet Come

This is not a system in stasis.  This is an out of control volcano of oil spewing up with 70,000 psi behind it, from a reservoir nearly the size of the Gulf, with an estimated trillions of barrels of oil and gas tucked away.  What we are seeing now could be small compared to what may yet unfold if things break apart, as they can do under such circumstances.  If this thing blew, it could be like the Yellowstone Caldera, except from below a mile of sea, with a 1/4-mile opening, with up to 150,000 psi of oil and natural gas behind it.

That would be an extinction event.

It is not likely to happen, but it is within the realm of possibilities.

That's the kind of stuff we're playing with here.

When we humans go tinkering around with this stuff, it is like the movie of men flying space ships to asteroids and setting off nuclear bombs to deflect them from hitting earth.  Except in this case, setting off a nuclear bomb on top of a veritable volcano spewing oil from what is presently a relatively small hole in order to shut if off, doesn't seem like a very good idea.


Definitely Far Greater than the 5,000 Barrels / Day First Reported

I have pond in my yard. It holds about 400,000 gallons of water full. I can pump into it with a garden hose over 10,000 gallons of water per day. The hose is 5/8 inch diameter. (35 psi) Summer months I often do this to keep the fish alive. In barrels of oil my pond is just about 1000 barrels. The pond is about 9 feet deep and about 75 feet across. (Tiny pond) I think if you realize that the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico covers about 9,000 square miles and it it growing you have no trouble at all realizing the real size of the oil supply. I knew this from the very start of the fire etc. 

Spilling the equal of 5 times my pond of oil 5,000 barrels per day would not have even bothered the Gulf of Mexico. It naturally has seeps ( natural leaks of oil) that leak more oil than that per day. The volcano of oil down there is very very much larger than that. 


Postscript

There is no way to get the size of this in mind. It is just too big to imagine. The slick is now as large as Maryland and growing. It will grow probably for 90 days or more. Even if contained tomorrow it will set the record for biggest in history.

Here is a fairly safe estimate of the economic damage to tourism, fisheries and the like in 3 US states. (AL, MS, LA) Over the next 10 years this will cost about $1 Trillion Dollars. BP will not pay this. This does not count damage to ports and trade generally. There is no way out now. What do Texas and Florida get ??? How about the east US Coast or even parts of Mexico? Does this go all the way damaging England and the northern EU?  It certainly will not stop with just 3 states.

Imagine how much alternative energy work that would have produced. Now it is all waste. Now we must do it while it is hard. Imagine how easy it would have been a year or two ago when it was argued it was too expensive. 

We have to turn around from this way and never look back. Freedom, prosperity and happiness will not be found in that eruption of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Some might think that I am against the oil industry. Actually I view them [rig workers, not execs] as some of the bravest most heroic people we have ever seen on earth. I have to say this plainly. I am in awe of many of the things they accomplish. 

I just know that we must get a brighter future. This one has no hope.

# # #

Paul Noel, 52, works as Software Engineer (as Contractor) for the US Army at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He has a vast experience base including education across a wide area of technical skills and sciences. He supplies technical expertise in all areas required for new products development associated with the US Army office he works in. He supplies extensive expertise in understanding the Oil and Gas industry as well. 

Born in Lynnwood Washington, he came to Huntsville Alabama, when his father moved to be part of NASA's effort to put men on the moon. Neal Armstrong may have gotten the ride, but his father's computers did the driving. 

Paul is also a founding member of the New Energy Congress.

Previous Coverage

Oil > Ecological Impact > Deepwater Horizon debacle pushes alt energy - In addition to devastating ecological despoiling, the oil slick could shut down Mississippi River transport, effecting nearly half of U.S. import/export commerce. The damage to the tourism industry in Alabama and Florida could top $25 Billion a year for several years. Faced with this disaster the Obama Administration has just stopped all off shore drilling. (PESN; May 1, 2010)

 

Oil > Ecological Impact > Mother gusher danger not passed - With BP applying several fixes to the leaking well and the spreading oil, people might tend to classify this spill as "just another spill" among so many, which will go away after a while. A blowout is still a very real possibility, and the repercussions of the oil spilt are far-reaching. (PESN; May 6, 2010)

Additional Links

• Million gallons of oil a day gush into Gulf of Mexico - Interviews with surviving Deepwater Horizon rig workers show how explosions led to what may be the world's worst oil spill (Independent; UK; May 9, 2010)
• Gulf Oil Spill - Radar Satellite Image May 8, 2010 - Rigorous calculations are linked in this article estimate over 1 million gallons a day (SkyTruth; May 8, 2010)
• Oil Spill Pics - sobering (Boston.com; May 12, 2010)
• First Underwater Images of the Gulf Oil Leak (What BP Won't Show You) (TreeHugger; May 12, 2010)
• BP.com - company website
• Deepwater Horizon.pdf  - brief history and photos of fire.
• Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher 30 Apr 2010 'The following is not public' document --A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf. "The following is not public," reads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Response document dated April 28. "Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."

 

ROV Vid: See the oil gushing into the water off the coast of Louisiana.

This is absolutely incredible… look in the background and you will see it. I think it's more than "5,000" gallons/day. How is this number even estimated, does anyone know?(Not rhetorical)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/first-underwater-footage_b_567007.html

 

Why Jamie Dimon will not debate Elizabeth Warren CFPA

/Step onto Soap Box

Elizabeth Warren who is championing (and should run) for the CFPA (Consumer Financial Protection Agency) should not be ignored by anyone that cares what happens to our economy in the long run. She has been promoting consumer protection what is now way back in 2004. Here on a PBS Frontline piece about, “The Secret History of Credit Cards” which aired on 11-23-2004. Which I highly recommended that everyone watch because you will understand why the banks are the way they are. Here she is again in Harvard Magazine, bring to light the harsh and deniable truth about, “The Middle Class on the Precipice.” I only bring this up because I came across this article on the Time, “Why Jamie Dimon is Afraid of Elizabeth Warren.” Why do you ask is the CEO of the 7^th largest bank in the world afraid of this woman, with her background as professor of at Harvard in contractual law. Because he (and most all the big boys up in the top 1% of earners) know that she is right. I truly believe that there is a war on the middle class. This financial crsis is, in my humble opinion the nasty side of capitalism. I do not believe in the idea of Trickledown Economics from the Reagan years. In theory it is a sound idea, however over the last 30 or so years it has not panned out the way that it was sold, as evidenced here. Those on wall street are not the kings of the universe as they continue make themselves out to be. As Michael Moore said during an interviewed on the Hannitys', excerpt:

MOORE: Yes, yes, and there's a lot of small business people who struggle to get by. You know, I'm not against — when you say I'm against capitalism, I'm against what it has become.

HANNITY: In some instances.

MOORE: In most instances. Downtown here in the big picture of how this economy is being run, of how the money is being moved around. We don't make things anymore, Sean. Have you recognized that?

HANNITY: I've made things my whole life, so I agree with you. I agree with you.

MOORE: I'm talking about the money. We just make money off money now.

HANNITY: Some people do and some people do it in ethical way. Some people do it...

MOORE: But where's the stuff? Where's the next invention? Where's the thing — where's the incentive for our young people?

HANNITY: They're the ones that provide these start-up companies sometimes, the money that gets, you know, the next new drug that's going to extend or prolong our life. They're the ones that create the goods and services that we desire every day

We have less and less wealth in this country, we continue to ship it overseas in the way of jobs. We cannot have a strong middle class without a solid manufacturing base, which just emphasizes Mr. Moores’ point about. Only the self proclaimed kings of the universe seem to be making anything and it seems that their workmanship is pretty fucking shoddy. What check and balance is in place to examine the product, (that, remind you is able to be patented, copyrighted, and stolen), they are creating is safe. As you can see just by this site Foreclousures.com. Whenever 3M makes something for a home the FTC has to approve it through a process. Whenever BP drills a new oil well the EPA and Dept. of the Interior has to approve it through a process. Whenever something gets introduced into the food supply the FDA and USDA have to approve it through a process. So who checks to see if a mathematical formula, or the wording on a contract is going to bring a country to its knees before it happens? Or to check if it’s even fair.

Just for the record, I'm not against capitalism, I'm just not happy with the way it has evolved. I think it has lost its way.

This is a great op-ed by Elizabeth Warren on the middle class.

Updated: 5/9/2010 13:15

/Step off of Soap Box

Andre Bauer, South Carolina Lt. Gov., Blames 'Flat-Out Lazy' People For Immigration Problems

If you receive public assurance in S carolina then you must be lazy. While I agree with the generalization, it is an incredibly callous comment. And surely taken out of context. (I haven't read the original comment)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=551985

The SEC Lawsuit = Change? GOD, I hope so

Bond Market Will Never Be the Same After Goldman: Michael Lewis

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Commentary by Michael Lewis

April 22 (Bloomberg) -- If you happen to be sitting on the Goldman Sachs bond-trading floor life must feel horribly unfair.

You did nothing worse than live by the ethical assumptions of your market -- any money-making event short of obviously illegal is admirable -- and now your own grandfather thinks you’re some kind of monster. Your world feels upside down: What was right is now wrong; what was good is now bad; what once felt like winning now feels like losing.

You are probably wondering: What next? What will the angry rabble -- all those ordinary people who can never really understand your business -- now demand that you explain to them, so they can disapprove of you all over again?

A few possibilities:

No. 1 -- Full knowledge of the inner workings of your proprietary trading desk.

In particular: the moment-to-moment dealings of your correlations traders from late 2004 (when they first exploited American International Group’s idiotic willingness to sell cheap insurance on pools of subprime mortgage loans) until the end of 2007, when they would have taken most of their profits from the total collapse of the subprime bond markets.

Your bosses claim to have lost almost $100 million on the Abacus trade for which your firm is being sued. This seems, to put it mildly, disingenuous. In March 2007, the time of this particular Abacus trade, your prop traders were already short the subprime market. Would they really have taken a naked long position in a deal you helped to construct precisely so that it would fail without offsetting in some other way on their books?

Ritual Sacrifice

Sadly, it will not suffice to offer up Fabrice Tourre as a ritual sacrifice. No one is going to accept a then 27-year-old Frenchman, whose job was apparently to keep sweet the patsies on the other end of your trades, as the world’s authority on your trading positions.

His name isn’t even on the top of the list of Goldman traders listed on the $2 billion Abacus deal for which you are being sued. The name on top of that document is Jonathan Egol. Egol appears to have been the bond trader at the center of your Abacus program. The same Jonathan Egol who told fellow traders in 2006 -- a year before this transaction -- that the subprime market was doomed.

The public eventually will ask: Who is Jonathan Egol and what exactly was his game?

No. 2 -- A far better understanding of your relations with the inaptly named “CDO manager.”

Clearly Clueless

In this case the manager was ACA Management, but there were other CDO managers at least as pliable as ACA. The SEC suit charges you with using ACA as a shill: the end investors in your CDO assumed that it was ACA’s job to figure out whether the bonds inside the CDO were intelligent investments.

But ACA quite clearly had no idea what it was doing -- and you quite clearly understood that.

The telling details here are the e-mails between your French salesman and ACA, in which ACA feels it needs to understand exactly what John Paulson’s interest are in this new CDO. Paulson, who had done a great deal of analysis on the underlying bonds, was of course picking the ones he wanted to see inside the CDO. (Hard to understand why it didn’t disturb you that he was even in the room, by the way, but that’s another conversation.)

The SEC accuses you of lying to ACA, by suggesting Paulson was a long investor in the deal when he was in fact selling the deal short.

Good From Bad

But what’s interesting here is what you appear to take for granted: that ACA has no talent for evaluating the bonds picked by Paulson. After all, if ACA was doing its job it wouldn’t have cared one way or the other what Paulson (then a little-known hedge fund manager) was up to. ACA would have known which bonds were good and which were bad, and picked the good ones.

In their anxiety about Paulson’s motives we can all glimpse their incompetence. They want to know that Paulson has an interest in picking the good ones because they themselves have no clue which ones they are.

But if a CDO manager had no independent ability to select the bonds inside a CDO what, please explain to us, was his financial function? Why did you select ACA to manage your deal?

No. 3 -- A far better sense of why, and when, you ceased completely to concern yourself with the consequences of your actions.

The masses will be curious to know, for instance, how you became blinded to the very simple difference between right and wrong. The more moralistic among them will ask the question mainly to fuel their own outrage; the more tactical will ask the question because they sense that the financial system doesn’t function unless you have the incentive to think in these terms - - and you clearly do not.

Soul-Changing

What begins as an effort to change your business may well end up as an attempt to change your soul.

Among the many likely consequences of the SEC’s decision to sue Goldman Sachs for fraud is a social upheaval in the bond markets.

Indeed, the social effects of the SEC’s action will almost certainly be greater than the narrow legal ones. Just as there was a time when people could smoke on airplanes, or drive drunk without guilt, there was a time when a Wall Street bond trader could work with a short seller to create a bond to fail, trick and bribe the ratings companies into blessing the bond, then sell the bond to a slow-witted German without having to worry if anyone would ever know, or care, what he’d just done.

That just changed.

(Michael Lewis, most recently author of the best-selling “The Big Short,” is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions he expresses are his own.)

Click on “Send Comment” button in sidebar display to send a letter to the editor.

To contact the writer of this column: Michael Lewis at mlewis1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 21, 2010 21:00 EDT

Goldman Sachs Evil? or Incredibly Clever?

Goldman Sachs Hatred Might Cost You Your Bonus: Jonathan Weil
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=an4AafR_zcJI

Senate Probes Banks for Meltdown Fraud

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124890898142691729.html#mod=rss_Politics_And_Policy

 

Goldman Sachs News Page

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/goldman-sachs

 

4-Way Fermi GTX 480 SLI

holy shit! Runs on 1.2 kilo watts!
also doubles as a space heater and stove, just add a hot plate. Btw, for those that don't know, this chip,  fermi, runs at a nice 105°c. That's not overclocked, but designed that way. Maybe just maybe things have gotten a little out of hand in the graphics market. anyhoo, enjoy the pics.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/fermi-gf100-gtx-480-sli-gtx-470,10158.html#xtor=RSS-181

Being indebted the new way of controlling the people?

I was reading an article at The Atlantic, titled the Student loans are the New Indentured Servitude, and it made me think back to the movie Sick-o in which Michael Moore is interviewing a lord who is retired from the house of lords in which he says to some effect, that the best way to keep people under control is to keep them in debt. It seems that it is the same reason that a lot of women stay in abusive relationships, they don’t have economic freedom to make decisions.

So that bring me to my thoughts on this article.

How many Medical Bankruptcies in the land of the swiss?

This wee bit of information is really good, it fits with the theme during this time of year, a little scary! Watch both videos…

http://consumerist.com/5390189/al-franken-how-many-medical-bankruptcies-are-there-in-switzerland

 

Lions, tigers and Unintended consequences, oh my! Still needs some work.

 

-X

Astroturfing

These five companies participate in the movement to setup up “grassroots” groups through their million dollar donations. Sounds like a shadow banking operation. The consumerist.org has a great bit on this here.

Source: http://www.freepress.net/astroturf

Processed food: a silent assassin?

 

By Sophie Clayton

Processed food has long been identified as the villain in our diets. The quick and easy alternative to slogging over a hot stove messing about with 'fresh' ingredients. When you're home late from the office, or the kids are screaming and need their face-holes filled ASAP, it is all to easy to reach for the tin of hot dogs at the back of the cupboard, or even cram the whole family in the car and drive to the nearest Wendy's or Maccy's.

Despite the nation's love (or perhaps lust) affair with processed food, we are all aware of the 'dangers' that accompany it. But can processed food really be considered a 'silent assassin'?

Processed food can be defined as food that has been altered from its natural state in order to increase shelf-life, for example. The methods used include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration and aseptic processing. Whereas some processed food such as frozen vegetables and milk can be considered 'safe' or even healthy processed food, the processing methods can create some pretty unhealthy stuff. It is argued, among the anti-processed food mob, that foods such as canned food (containing lots of sodium), high-calorie snacks (like fries and cheese-based snacks) and sugary breakfast cereal can contribute to high-blood pressure and heart disease.

Processed meats are among the worst of these food sorts, and eating them can apparently increase your chances of colo-rectal, kidney and stomach cancer. Meats found in fast food burgers and hot dogs tend to be the most highly processed of all foods. According to Steven Gortmaker, professor of society, human development, and health at the Harvard School of Public Health, data from 2005 shows that every day, seven percent of the US population visits a McDonald's, and 20-25 percent eat fast food of some kind.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) processed foods are to blame for the sharp increase in obesity cases (and chronic disease) seen in the US and across the globe. Also, according to associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard David Ludwig, processed food is also responsible for the increase in diabetes among Americans.

It is without doubt that processed food, when eaten to excess, is harmful and may even contribute to things like heart disease. And it is also true that fast food restaurants are a huge contributor to the nation's, and indeed the world's, processed food in take. However, this is when consumed in excess. If people are irresponsible enough to eat a hot dog three times a day, or go to the drive-through every time they're peckish, then of course they will cause grave damage to their health. However, food alone cannot be an 'assassin'. Far too many people could be accused of 'self-assassination', as they refuse to consume processed stuffs in moderation.

Judge Overturns Bank Of America-SEC Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses

 

STEPHEN BERNARD | 09/14/09 07:11 PM |

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2008 file photo, a Bank of America logo is shown in Concord, N.C. A federal judge on Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, rejected a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp. over bonuses paid by Merrill Lynch.(AP Photo/Chuck Burton, file)

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Monday rejected a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp., saying the SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must now go to trial.

Separately, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office is preparing to file charges within the next couple of weeks against several high-ranking executives at Bank of America, claiming they failed to disclose details about the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The ruling in the SEC case comes one month after the agency and Bank of America thought they had put a thorny issue behind them, and leaves the SEC with the task of mounting a case against BofA over one of the most sensitive issues of the financial crisis – executive pay on Wall Street.

The SEC announced last month that it had settled its civil charges against BofA, which agreed to buy the New York investment bank last year, without the bank admitting or denying guilt in the case. BofA has said it didn't violate disclosure rules.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff held up his approval of the settlement, however, and ordered the SEC last month to explain why it didn't pursue charges against specific executives at Bank of America over the accusations.

Rakoff, in his ruling, found that the settlement "suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the SEC gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger, the bank's management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth."

Cuomo's office is likely to file civil charges against the executives over their role in failing to alert shareholders to mounting losses and accelerated bonus payments at Merrill, said the person, who requested anonymity because no charges have been filed yet.

The AG's office has also questioned whether Bank of America failed to tell shareholders about its consideration of backing out of the deal and mounting write-downs at one of Merrill's mortgage lending subsidiaries.

Story continues below

Both the attorney general's office and Rakoff have questioned whether the bank knowingly hid details about the acquisition from shareholders ahead of a vote to approve the deal.

After receiving additional statements from the SEC and BofA last week, Rakoff ruled Monday that the proposed settlement "cannot remotely be called fair," and ordered that the case go to trial beginning Feb. 1.

"We disagree with today's ruling," Bank of America said in a statement, adding that the bank would consider its legal options in the coming days. The SEC said in a statement the agency believes the proposed settlement "properly balanced all of the relevant considerations."

Bank of America agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch in a hurried deal exactly one year ago today at the height of the financial crisis, just as Lehman Brothers was preparing to file for bankruptcy. It was later revealed that Merrill, with the knowledge of Bank of America executives, paid Merrill employees $3.6 billion in bonuses just before the deal closed on Jan. 1.

Merrill wound up paying the bonuses for 2008 despite losing $27.6 billion that year, a record for the firm. Those losses affected the bottom line at Bank of America, one of the largest recipients of U.S. government bailout funds.

In seeking approval to buy Merrill Lynch, Bank of America told investors that Merrill would not pay year-end bonuses without Bank of America's consent. But in its complaint filed Aug. 3 in federal court in Manhattan, the SEC said BofA had already authorized Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses and didn't share that information with shareholders. That rendered a statement Bank of America mailed to shareholders of both companies "materially false and misleading," the SEC said.

"BofA is in serious, serious trouble now," said Anthony Sabino, professor of law and business at St. John's University in New York, saying the bank is at war on two fronts. "One, Judge Rakoff, by refusing to countenance the settlement, is forcing the SEC to go back and demand more details and more money. The other battleground is with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo."

Rakoff's move was unprecedented. While judges have on occasion sent back proposed settlements to the SEC, ordering them to be renegotiated, experts said, throwing an accord out entirely breaks legal ground.

"I've never seen this," said James Cox, a Duke University law professor and securities law expert. "To me, it's long overdue," he added, saying that the SEC and the Justice Department have tended to accept settlements from companies "without drilling down to find out who the culpable parties were."

Bank of America, among the banks hardest hit by loan losses and the recession, received $45 billion, including $20 billion in January, and guarantees to protect it against losses on hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to help it absorb mounting losses at Merrill.

BofA's stock has underperformed the market since it announced the deal to acquire Merrill. It has lost about half its value during the past year.

The SEC could seek to renegotiate the deal with Bank of America, though it may be difficult to find revised terms that would satisfy Rakoff if bank executives weren't individually charged.

The imminent move by Cuomo against executives intensifies the pressure on the bank.

"It's truly a come-to-Jesus moment for Bank of America and its relationship with its various officers," Duke's Cox said. "They need to hang up a scalp or two."

__

AP Business Writers Ieva M. Augstums in Charlotte, N.C., Marcy Gordon in Washington and Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/14/judge-overturns-bank-of-a_n_285947.html

How much is your time worth?

By Sarah Dobbs |19 August 2009 |Categories: Wired Blog, Culture

You probably know your hourly rate at work, but what about the rest of your time, the time spent not doing work: shopping, queueing, waiting on the phone, eating lunch, watching TV, drinking in the pub? Paul McCrudden decided his every minute was worth money, and set out to reclaim it from every company he spent time with over a six-week period this summer.
Between June 15 and July 31, McCrudden used Daytum to record how he spent his time. Then he wrote letters and invoices to all the brands he’d encountered, arguing that they should pay him because his patronage is valuable to them:

“My time on this planet is valuable to me. But more importantly, my time is valuable to you. In our attention economy, my presence in your café helps your company in a number of ways. For example, it attracts other customers to you because they see that your brand is popular – especially so with an ABC1 male (or however you’d define me these days.) And it means I’m not spending time with your competitors. My attention and time in your café ultimately helps your bottom line and market position.”

McCrudden charged his time at a rate of £102 per hour, but offered companies a 75 per cent discount on that rate (“as I appreciate that my time is not spent in the same way as it is with my employer”). He invoiced 50 companies, asking Transport for London for £531.25, Sainsbury’s for £97.95 and the Killers for £178.50, for his attendance at their Hyde Park Concert.
Amazingly, Pret A Manger responded by not only paying his invoice, but also adding £22 to cover the price of his lunches, a nominal amount to cover interest, and even an extra £1 to cover the inconvenience of having to walk to the post box. Other companies to respond include Boots, whose customer care department said they thought their Advantage Card points were enough of a reward for their customers’ time, and Cranberry, whose managing director sent McCrudden an invoice of his own to cover the time spent reading his letter and website.
You can read more about this experiment at McCrudden’s website. In total, McCrudden is seeking £6,250 to cover his wasted time, though it doesn’t seem likely he’ll actually receive anywhere near that much.
(P.S. It’s taken me about an hour to read his site and write this blog post. Should I send McCrudden a bill for my time? But then he might send me an invoice for the time taken to read my email and process my invoice, and the cycle of madness would never end. Er, Paul, you can consider this a freebie.)

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-08/19/how-much-is-your-time-worth.aspx

A Healthy Debate about Healthcare.. it can be done

OMG, a discussion about healthcare that didn’t devolve into a screaming match. I am really impressed with Mr. Franken on this one and he really deserves some kudos as does his audience. It was on the verge of turning into a circus. There must be something in the water in MN.

Why can’t discussions like this be the norm? Why does it have to be a shout down at all the town halls? This should be held up as an example to what can be done. Sadly, no news channel is carrying this story yet. If they finally get around to carrying it, it’ll be a blurb at the bottom of the hour, right before they continue talking about Michael Jackson or Chris Brown.

While coverage of the health care reform debate has focused on yelling, booing and fistfights, not all engagements between lawmakers and constituents turn hostile. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) discussed his beliefs and goals about health care reform at the Minnesota State Fair Wednesday with a group of constituents, and calmed down some who were upset, giving clear, honest answers to thought-out, sincere questions. "I thank you for your passion," he says to a vocal member of the crowd, "we need that, and we need to have these conversations." And then, remarkably, she calms down, and everyone discusses the matter in a reasonable and cool-headed manner. "We all want reform, the question is how do we do it," Franken said. A mixed bag of opponents and supporters gathered around as the senator explained his perspective, how he will vote, and how he believes the legislation will benefit the people of Minnesota and the nation.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/04/franken-calms-down-health_n_277687.html

The title of this video is a bit grandiose… can’t have it all. Though I have to wonder who the guy holding the camera is… the circumstances seem a little staged. Probably about as staged as all the other town hall meetings have been. Actually, thinking about it, it’s pretty clever on Mr. Franken’s part. An impromptu town hall meeting. Guerilla Town Hall Meetings…

Intelligent Video About Healthcare

This video shows the result of people being scared out of they’re wits. Through a very effective fear mongering and misinformation campaign. I’m saddened at how much this “debate” has devolved. It has devolved into something completely unrecognizable from what it was just a month ago. I pray that the President does not do away with the public option. The fact that the insurance industry is scared shitless of this, tells me that it has the potential to make a difference , and probably for the good.

Sure the British or Canadian setup may not be the systems we want to emulate, due to the fact that they have to wait a long time for doctors and specialized surgeries. Those are not the only system(s) in the world; we have a multitude from a variety, French, Swiss, Norwegian, Japanese, and German all have public health care. We have the luxury of cherry picking what has worked and what has not and tweaking it to work for our society.

Can there be any room for a centrist at a health care reform town hall meeting

This is a thought that has just popped into my head, the death panel argument really holds no water. Because the insurance companies don’t want any competition in that area, except that the industry calls them underwriters. Think about it for a moment.

Take a look at this wikipedia article, it has some interesting links at the bottom of the page. Yea it's wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt:

Publicly-funded health care

Barney Frank Calls out Healthcare Ding-Dongs

Here is Barney Frank calling out a right-wing ding-dong and it's great... this is what all politicians should do..

The people in the town hall sound like talking head pundits. I don't always agree with Mr. Frank, but it's nice to see a politician having a back bone and standing up for the facts.

 

Loyalty to a Company

I was reading a Question of the day on Tom's Hardware, and I thought this was a brilliant way to define my loyalty to a particular brand or company:

I'm as loyal to them as they are to me. Which explained happily by their PR dept in a press release carefully worded by a team of lawyers and summed up by me. " As a non stockholder, any perceived notion that we owe you anything by being our customer/fan/stockholder/employee/enthusiasts/etc is nil, despite our ads/claims which we consider to be more of a artistic form of expression rather than a statement of fact. Please vacate the premises immediately, stragglers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Thank you, and we look forward to doing business with you again. "

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/toms-hardware-news-reviews,7320.html

Derivatives: What are these things?

By Jim Hightower - Sat., 11/1/08

Derivatives amount to a casino game. They are pieces of paper whose only real value is derived from the anticipated value of some other tangible asset--such as mortgages on people's homes. Wall Street banks buy up millions of these pieces of paper from local lenders, package them into inscrutable securities called derivatives, add a nice profit margin, and sell them to wealthy individuals, foreign governments, pension funds, etc.

The derivatives sold by Wall Street are actually bets that something will happen. Thus, in the case of mortgage-based derivatives, investors placed bets that the value of the homes underlying the pieces of paper they had bought would keep increasing and that homeowners would keep making their monthly mortgage payments. Millions weren't able to, and BLAMMO!--the bubble burst.

But the financial crash wasn't the fault of struggling, low-wage working folks who weren't able to meet their obligations. That's a cynical lie now being pushed by right-wing corporate apologists. Note also that the derivatives game created by Wall Street smarties is based not only on mortgages, but also--and much more--on the future value of everything from commodities like oil and pork bellies to shares of stock and the weather (yes, there are even derivatives based on which way the wind will blow).

Source: HighTower Lowdown

TOP 10 NON DRUG BASED ADDICTIONS

I thought this was really kind of informative. Found this on stumble.

 

Substance Abuse Trends

People struggling with substance abuse turn to the internet for help and information every day. Whether searching for signs of an addiction, addictions treatment resources, or addict relapse prevention, the ratios within these search statistics help us understand the nature of substance abuse today.
The following table highlights the most common substances found in online searches for addictions to legal drugs. How does this knowledge challenge your assumptions? How can you use this information to prevent addictions in your community?

 

Top 10 Addictions - Legal Drugs:

1 GAMES 1,326,314 *

2 SEX 505,353

3 INTERNET 231,922

4 LOVE 230,544

5 PORN 178,975

6 GAMBLING 131,336

7 FOOD 114,377

8 SOLITAIRE 103,755

9 COMPUTER 62,420

10 CARBOHYDRATE 61,407

“Honorable Mentions” - The Next 10:

11 DIET 53,849

12 CHURCH 45,482

13 CAFFEINE 32,722

14 SHOPPING 32,680

15 SUGAR 32,372

16 PAIN 25,964

17 MASTURBATION 25,182

18 PANTYHOSE 23,324

19 RELATIONSHIP 18,587

20 PANTY 18,185

* Estimated annual searches across all search engines in phrases including 'addiction', 'addictions', 'addict', 'addicting' and 'addictive'.

Addictions to games, sex, pornography and gambling account for a large share of addictions-related online searches. While many of these searches may spring from harmless situations, the pattern of abusing substances to cope with stress is a more common social issue than addiction to one specific substance.

Several bizarre addictions highlight the strange range of habit-forming acitivites reported by tens of thousands of people, inslcuing addictions to shopping, panties, soliatire, diets and computers.

Additional topics in this series:

• Top 10 Illegal Drugs Addictions
• Top 10 Legal Drug Addictions

Source:

http://www.clearhavencenter.com/addictions-research/special-features/top-10-non-drug-based-addictions.html

Noise Annoys and essay by Mark Vernon

I can’t tell you how much I miss having peace and quiet. Especially in seattle it was so nice to go hiking in the mountains and just enjoy the sounds of nature, coming up on a stream that you can hear, what seems like miles, and the sounds of birds, wind rustling the leaves, and if it’s not windy then …. Nothing … it was the one true joy that I had. Going hiking in the mountains! I can’t wait to do it again. Too bad there aren’t a lot of jobs in the woods.

I haven’t contributed in a while and this is not going to change that since “I” didn’t do it.

But it’s a great essay that I have to share with all of you. And notice that I resisted the urge to "texify" it by saying ‘y’all’.

I don’t think the pictures are going to show up on the blog, so feel free to click on the link to follow it.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7078882.stm

Noise annoys

By Mark Vernon

Silence is golden, but it's under threat in a world where as business booms and prosperity looms, noise is growing.

A composer recently described how orchestras find it impossible to play a piece of her music. The problem is not that she has written too many notes. Neither is it that she requires unusual musical instruments. Rather, it is that in the piece she has written 25 seconds of silence.

The pause is intended to build tension. But when they see it, she said, conductors baulk. They fear that musicians wouldn't know what to make of it, and worse, that audiences wouldn't be able to take it. Over such a long period of time, a concert hall would be plunged into near panic.

When the last episode of the Sopranos was broadcast this year, finishing with a sudden cut to black and silence, many baffled viewers assumed there was a fault with the signal.

Lewis Hamilton is moving to Switzerland for a quieter life

We live in a society with a growing aversion to the emptiness that comes not just with silence but, more generally, with a fear of not knowing what to say.

Consider what might mark someone out as your best friend. For some, it is the person who they don't see for some time and yet, when they do, it is like they have never been apart. Perhaps more commonly today, in the era of mass mobile communication, a best friend is someone with whom you are in constant contact, texting or messaging as automatically as breathing.

But there was a time when it was said that a true friend is someone with whom you can sit in complete silence, without a hint of embarrassment or need to fill the space.

Silence as sin

Then there are politicians. For them, to be caught off guard in front of the cameras could result in nothing less than the curtailing of a career. Alastair Campbell famously filled the political day with the "grid". He argued that 24-hour news loathes a vacuum and that if he did not fill it, an editor or producer would. That is undoubtedly true.

But as Douglas Hurd has observed, on some subjects silence might not only be a good policy, it might be more honest. "Silence is regarded as a sort of sin now, and it has to be filled with a lot of gossip and sound bites," he has written.

Some people are ready to defend their right to quiet

Not knowing what to say can be social death, as well as political. Everyone can remember a time when they got into a tangle over something, and then - horror of horrors - they then said the wrong thing; they were in a hole and could not stop digging. It can be amusing to watch.

Probably the most famous episode of the classic comedy Fawlty Towers was built around Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, trying not to talk about the war. "Don't mention the war!", he endlessly repeated and mentioned nothing but, because he could not just shut-up.

Research suggests that there is a connection between the wealth of a society and the levels of noise within it. A project at Sheffield Hallam University tracked the levels of noise in UK for a number of years. It is rising - in Sheffield city centre, for example, by 3 decibels in 10 years.

Firework hell

A report from the Noise Association this month says that sound levels on the Piccadilly Line of London's underground can exceed that of a jet taking off at Heathrow Airport. And complaints about noise from domestic premises rose almost fivefold in the twenty years up 2005 in England and Wales, according to the UK government.

Then there is Bonfire Night and fireworks. "All the surveys show that people are concerned about noise," Val Weedon, National Coordinator for the UK Noise Association says. "The fireworks issue is an example of that. Thousands of people contact their MPs about it getting out of control."

Planes are loud but so is public transport

Now, for all that we can hate it, it might be that we use noise and chatter to protect ourselves. There are people who can't stop talking and would panic if they did.

And then there are iPods and Walkmans that create a bubble of noise to keep the outside world out. Some users might even be listening to Simon and Garfunkel singing their song, Sound of Silence: "People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening."

But does this matter? I think it does. I know a monk. He spends the majority of his day not talking. The aim is that he lives in quietude punctuated by periods of noise - when in chapel or talking with his brethren.

A more usual way of life is exactly the opposite, for most people live in noise and occasionally seek out silence.

Speech is shallow

For a monk, not talking has an intrinsic value, since it is then that he is able to listen, notably to the "still, small voice of God". To put it in secular terms, silence is necessary in order to perceive and understand things.

As Thomas Carlyle wrote: "Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as time."

That, then, might be the most profound worry about rising noise levels in our society: it stops us from thinking. Or to put it differently, the next time you don't know what to say, don't be alarmed. Try saying nothing.

Mark Vernon is the author of What Not To Say: Finding the Right Words at Difficult Moments.

del.icio.us Tags: noise annoys urban noise overwheleming society

The Music Man

Let me just start off by saying that this whole fiasco, or another way to say it is débâcle, or even another way to say it is, disappointment. This is how I truly feel under the anger and the betrayal of trust. I am speaking of the Jena Six case. The case that really broke out in September when black America took it upon themselves to inflate the population of this sleepy little Louisiana town of 3,000 to 10,000+. For a demonstration in support of six teenage boys that on the surface seemed to be suffering an injustice at the hands of a biased system. The bias in this case seemed to be based on race and not facts, because this being the deep south, and it being Louisiana, the state that openly popularized corruption in the late 20th and early 21st centuries! Ah ha, au contraire, there where some pretty substantial facts that the folks organizing the demonstrations didn't think we, the public, were privy to either through omission or by blatantly lying to us, the public. Now the folks that I believe share the blame for this distasteful lack of judgment for preying on sympathies of the public for perceived racial injustices are the notorious SOB's, (that's actually the name of the club they are in), they are in order of notoriety...

Rev. Jesse Jackson - Who is a low life, hypocritical son-of-a-bitch, bible thumping, adulterous, racists, and let's not forget a classic example of a type A narcissist. He is the founder of the Rainbow/PUSH collation, whatever the hell that is supposed to stand for anymore. This man is from another era. A time when he was in the right place at the right time. He rode the coattails of a truly great man. He never actually did anything great himself. It's not like he's a great diplomat or negotiator he's just good at inciting a mob. Just like his friend and protege(?) business associate...

Rev. Al Sharpton - is just as slimy as his former boss and compatriot. He does likes to march into a situation and twist and construe the facts to the point of them being lies and will even step over the line to get his way.

Both of these gentlemen belong to the same club. They are both past their expiration dates. Meaning that when Dr. King, was assassinated and the civil rights movement was embraced by American mainstream as a just cause. As things started to change, abet slowly, since you cannot just stop and reverse course overnight, this is still an ongoing process, mainly an educating one for the rural folks since this is where most of this residual racism seems to be, i.e. Jena (pop. 3,000). However this is not necessarily a blog so much about racism as it is self-righteous public speakers taking advantage of small folk for their own personal gain. Alas i am getting to the heart of what it is that really chaps my hide in this situation.

Both of these guys organize a demonstration, and start to inflame racial tensions, insinuating, and exaggerating facts to fit the situation for their own personal glory, just so it'll look good as a bullet point on their resumes. And the public, yours truly included, believe's them. Yes, believe's that this town's d.a., judge, and police department, where in a conspiring to victimize these six young black men for beating the snot out of this white kid. Who more than likely hung the nooses. What the protest organizers seemed to forgotten to mention is that, they didn't beat him up at school right after finding out what had happened. No they jumped the kid, yes all six of them, almost like a gang, as he was leaving a gas station on foot. They put him in the hospital. The police did investigate the "noose" incident, and decided that charges where not warranted in this matter. Well, we all know, that all the police, d.a., and the judges like to do, is totally screw up innocent peoples' lives, right. That's all they live for. Seriously, how diluted have we become. I know we all agree that checks and balances for the judicial system seem to be going out of whack, however that is on the scale of whole system in large. But when you get down to the local level, the officials don't want to screw up the lives of six kids, especially if they are innocent!

Now for the article that sparked this rant on my soapbox, was about Mychal Bell. He was the one that the conviction got over turned on due to technicalities, well it turns out he was on probation for those prior run-ins with the law, he got thrown into jail due to violating the terms of his probation. Here is a quote(s) from his dad:

"He's locked up again, No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."

This is what the illustrious Rev. Sharpton had to say:

"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement"

And one more quote from his dad,(last one):

"I don't know what we're going to do, I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."

Maybe you should ask your new friends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to give you some money to help you through these rough times, and to help you become a better dad, since apparently you weren't involved in your son's life enough to know what kind of people he was hanging around with, or that he wanted blood for the noose incident.

Anyhow, this is the end of my rant for this edition. I don't normally get worked up over things like this, because usually we (the public) don't always get the whole story about a situation, like the McCann's and the daughter that disappeared in Portugal. That incident was picked up by the media and blown sky high, and for no other reason but for ratings, it was a slow news week. But what made me jump on the Jena six band wagon, was that it was almost a year later, and it was easy to grasp the hope that was being peddled for these kids, in the face of a grave in justice. Since almost a year had passed since the transgression in question, it seemed logical that the media would've had plenty of time to research the topic before just accepting what the Music man (men) had to say. That would be what they are getting paid for no? At least in the movie the Music Man came back and did the right thing.

The Article:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071012/D8S7K6680.html

 

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