Greece Threatens To Ditch The Euro If Second Bailout Not Finalized

Matt Taibi, when he wrote about the “vampire squid” was writing about the financial sector but I wonder if he was including Goldman Sachs’ ventures in countries like Greece. I know that Greece did some creative accounting to qualify for their entry into the Eurozone but after that, Goldman Sachs came in and really did some of their good old razz-ma-ta­zz unfortunat­ely to Greece’s detriment and to Goldman Sachs increased fortunes. In every article about the “euro sovereign debt crisis” the actions taken by the global Big Banks are never explained or analyzed, it begs the question how much of this buying and selling of debt was transforme­d into exotic financial instrument­s that further exacerbate­d the problem? Did the banks play the same games overseas as they did here with the sub-prime mortgage loans? It doesn’t seem fair that average people have to pay an enormous price for the financial games that the banks play and the banks never have to pay for there mistakes and greed.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

For a Sane Economy in 2012, How About a Little Shame?

I don’t understand conservati­sm, they added the word compassion­ate to it and yet I don’t see any compassion coming from Romney, Gingrich, Bachmann, Santorum, Perry or Paul; did I forget anyone? Yes I did, Huntsman, he is the quiet one. They all, save one (Huntsman) declare that science isn’t to be trusted yet if you listen closely to their social platforms, they subscribe to Social Darwinism. In their perfect free market world it is survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten. Would anyone really want that to be a quality in our President, I wouldn’t. I believe in a society where we all realize that we are in this together and not everyone out for themselves­. I also believe in an inclusive society whereas this crop of aspiring candidates all believe in exclusivit­y and demonize the “other”. That is not healthy for a diverse society like ours. They may invoke Jesus’ name everyday but from what I remember during my 12 years at Catholic school, Jesus would have been disappoint­ed by their messages and perhaps a little angry that they were using his name for policies that he wouldn’t agree with in the first place.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The more things change the more they remain the same.

Tags

fail, new Year's resolutions, postaday2012, success

Today being January second, the Huffington Post is all about the best ways to keep your resolutions, ten best ways to quit smoking, ten best ways to lose weight, a lot of ten ways to change many bad habits. I felt a sense of Deja vu from 2010 and 2009, same headlines, same helpful tips and hints. I know that I’ve written about my usual lack of New Year’s resolutions, until last year that is, 2011 was my first time making a resolution to do daily writing and it proved to be one of the best resolutions that I could have ever made. Not bad for never making one seriously in the past. However, seeing all the same headlines, makes me a little sad for those people in general, it almost seems that people’s failure is a lucrative business for the self-help guru’s. Maybe the endless cycle of yearly failed resolutions made me leery of even making them, I don’t know.

I am not saying that I would never make another New Year’s resolution but I will keep my resolutions to something very specific to me and not subject to a set date such as January 1st. I had just watched a video about the history of the modern calendar and the calendar had started on March 1st for a long time until Roman Emperor Julius Cesar instituted changes to the Gregorian calendar such as beginning the calendar with January 1st and adding a few months to take into account the seasons. Quite interesting video but that showed me that the start of a New Year is quite arbitrary so my resolutions if and when, can be arbitrary as well.