The Market Ticker - Causes

Hope And Change's Backlash

nospam@example.com (Karl Denninger) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:57:00 -0500

My only comment: Youtube appears to have taken this down several times, but it keeps reappearing. I found several incantations along with people hosting the raw FLV file.

This appears to be created by some rather angry Democrats, and is one of the things I expected to start to see this year.

You better start listening to the people Washington. Youtube is today's version of handbills nailed to trees in the dark of night - in 1775. Ripping down the handbills does not make them go away when the people are pissed - it makes them multiply and the people begin to consider that the first box of freedom - speech - may no longer be effective.

God forbid the path that could lead us toward.

Haiti - A Humanitarian Disaster

nospam@example.com (Karl Denninger) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:34:00 -0500

On January 12th in the early evening hours Haiti suffered the largest earthquake recorded in the modern era in the area.

A nation that is regularly buffeted by hurricanes and comprised of people who live in gut-wrenching poverty, many of the buildings were constructed of brick and other wind-resistant materials - but with no consideration given to the possibility of temblors. A huge percentage of those buildings immediately collapsed, killing everyone inside.

The epicenter was about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince and literally destroyed the city. 30,000, 50,000 or even more people may be dead. The true total may never be known. Basic services - water, sewer and electric - have collapsed. Structures that remain standing are likely unsafe and with the possibility of aftershocks could come down at any time.

If you believe people are poor in this country, you have never been to Haiti. I have. This is a nation where life expectancy is 53 and the average per-capita income barely eclipses $1/day. Many of the people away from major cities such as Port-au-Prince attempt to subsistence fish in ramshackle hand-constructed boats with tattered pieces of cloth for sails. Many years of using explosives to fish has destroyed many of their most-productive reefs, making the fish sparse and bellies empty. A few large international corporations, Royal Caribbean being one of them, have "carved out" their own little niche there where they present for their guests a "beautiful island paradise." Uh huh - their little private enclave is surrounded by razor wire cleverly disguised - not for the guests safety, but so the "common people" don't come in when the ships aren't there, even if it is only to sleep under the roofs they do not otherwise have.

Today the need is for food, water and basic medical supplies, along with getting the basic infrastructure operating to prevent an epidemic in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. But this need will not dissipate in a few days, weeks or months.

I do not normally write about things like this in The Ticker, but I've been to this nation. These people need help. Be cautious about who you decide to provide that help through - there are many "relief organizations" that waste huge amounts of money, and then there are those that manage to provide nearly all of what you give to the people impacted.

So choose wisely, but please do choose. If you're reading this, you have more than they did on January 11th almost by definition.

Today, they have even less, and they need your help.

MOVE YOUR MONEY

nospam@example.com (Karl Denninger) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:17:00 -0500

Tired of the fraud by "big banking interests"?

Tired of bailouts?

Tired of 29.9% credit card interest rates?

Tired of our government screwing you while favoring (and handing billions of your money to) big banking interests?

THEN DO SOMETHING LAWFUL AND EFFECTIVE ABOUT IT.

I started talking about this quite some time ago. Specifically, in October I said:

Go withdraw all your money and business from the following institutions:

Bank of America
Wells Fargo/Wachovia
Citibank
JP Morgan/Chase

Those four.

Place your business with a local community bank or credit union in their place, and tell the above four institutions to "piss off."

I've resisted doing this, but the idea that banks are now going to try to penalize those who do not carry balances or pay late fees is the last straw.

This is a call for a boycott.

A call to break these institutions by destroying their deposit base and "net interest margin", one consumer at a time, as a protest against the outrageous actions these firms have taken in terms of risk and their shifting of the costs of that risk, which should have resulted in their failure and closure by The FDIC and OCC, onto the backs of their customers via outrageous fees, interest rates and costs, along with the direct subsidy being paid by all taxpayers generally.

Now The Huffington Post has picked it up and suddenly there's a Facebook group for it too.

Huffpo said:

The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it's meant to be. It's neither Left nor Right -- it's populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It's time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths. And you don't have to worry, there is zero risk: deposit insurance is just as good at small banks -- and unlike the big banks they don't provide the toxic dividend of derivatives trading in a heads-they-win, tails-we-lose fashion.

Yep.

So come on board folks. Yeah, I know, I started banging this drum a couple of months ago and others have been doing so as well.

The point is not to take credit.

It is to make a meaningful difference.

Go over to http://www.moveyourmoney.info to learn how easy it is and to research which local banks you should patronize - based on safety, soundness, and most importantly BEING A LOCAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION.

While IRA doesn't include this and neither does the web page, a credit union is just as good an option if you have one available and is a MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION - not a money-sucking Wall Street monstrosity. One such Credit Union that I personally like is Pentagon Federal Credit Union - they'll allow anyone to join for a one-time donation to an affiliated organization that works for our men and women in the armed forces.

Make your New Years Resolution telling the big Wall Street robber barons TO GET STUFFED!