I threw up in my mouth a little

Well, I woke up this morning, as usual and went work and saw the news:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/30/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm?cnn=yes

Yes that is right.

The national economy is in a recession, unemployment is up. States are facing financial troubles, and companies are laying off people. Worst-of-all I was denied my pay raise last month, because my job couldn't afford it! American Express is laying off over 7,200 people.

But it is OK--- Exon mobile had record profits of $14.8 billion

upon reading this story I threw up in my mouth, just a little....

See for yourself -

Voting Rules and Absentee Ballots - GO VOTE NOV 4 2008

Consider this one a non-substantive Public Service Announcement.

Every state has different rules related to voting and what is required on election day in order to be able to vote at the polls. Please take the time now to look at your states voting requirments and see what forms of identification, what voter cards, driver license or what ever other form of verification is necessary to pull the lever, punch the card, draw the line or fill in the bubble. Do not let a technicality take away your right to choose who the leader of the country, your state representative, potentially your state senator for the next 4, 2 and 6 years.

Voting is a right to be exercised liberally. The vote is your voice; it is the most powerful mechanism that allows the citizens of this United States to show their support and dissatisfaction with the people we choose to lead and make difficult decisions in our stead.

Election Day is Tuesday November 4th 2008. Absentee ballots for non-military personnel have to be in before this date. Go online, find your state election site (should have a .gov ending to the URL) figure out the rules. Take 5 mins and do the research because it will make you feel good for the next 4 years (or the next 2 if you are a Mid-Term Congressional participant, which you should be).

Example: Hypothetical state only takes absentee ballots received by Oct 31 at 5:00 pm, US Mail only, clearly marked with a circle for elected official, marked with a medium black pen.

Lotta rules, break em down, follow slowly, vote sooner rather than later. Unfortunately we live in a country where voting is not a priority. But once everyone does vote and we put the men and women in office that we truly believe in and who truly represent the people, it is possible that substantive change can be achieved.

For starters, how about after this election, we all write a letter to our State Representatives and Senators and ask that election day be moved to a Saturday. Tuesday? C'mon. Let's vote now to empower ourselves, and future generations later.

Vote, Vote, Vote!

Have non-spam voting recommendations, horror stories, success stories? Leave em in the comments.

McCain Agrees Western Pennsylvania is Racist... mouth not connect to brain.

Mkay, so here is the set up. John Murtha said that people in western Pennsylvania were racist because they were old. John McCain agrees in his speech and then promptly goes crazy.

Get the shovels out Feminists Palin is about to dump some wisdom on women –

Today Sarah Palin unleashed a tirade of garbage politics hoping to lure women into the old machine politics of “you look like me I look like you, vote for me I watch out for you.” Tammany Hall called Mrs. Palin and wants its political moves back.

When the Irish got off the boat they thought they needed other Irishmen to protect them, who else could? This led to a process of unaccountability and waste as the politicians did not have to stand on or by their ideas but simply on immutable characteristics.

Palin wants to make the false anology that she stands for women’s rights simply because she as a woman. This wrongly assumes that her opinion of what women’s rights should be parallel your view of what women’s rights should be.

Palin is looking to eliminate abortion rights for women, taking away their freedom of choice with respect to issues related to their own autonomy related to their body. She wants to increase the province of government by allowing governments to step into the private lives of women and make this decision for them.

Palin should be rowdily posh poshed on her attempt at portraying herself as a feminist or as standing in line with women’s rights ideals.

Excerpt of article below:

Feel free to read while sitting on the toilet with your computer on your lap.

----------------------------------------------

Palin's speech today was reminiscent of her earliest remarks after joining the Republican ticket, when she sought to appeal to female voters -- and in particular -- Democrats who backed Clinton in the primary. Palin abandoned mentioning Clinton in her stump speech in August, after her name evoked boos from the Republican crowd.

But attempts to woo Clinton supporters were all over her remarks Tuesday, as she stood with Clinton supporters who represented traditionally liberal outlets like the National Organization of Women and Ms. Magazine. Clinton did particularly well among women in the Nevada caucus in January.

Palin’s remarks differed widely from her current stump speech. Gone were attacks on Obama centered on his ties to a terrorist or a community group accused of voter-registration fraud. Her attacks from earlier Tuesday -- suggesting Obama was unqualified as commander in chief -- were nowhere to be found.

Campaign aides called her remarks a “closing argument,” and said it was intended to highlight a perceived vulnerability for Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden.

"Our opponents think that they have the women's vote all locked up, which is a little presumptuous,” Palin said. “A little presumptuous since only our side has a woman on the ticket.”

Palin's Women's Rights Article

The Real Plumbers of Ohio

Op-Ed Columnist
The Real Plumbers of Ohio
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: October 20, 2008

John McCain’s strategy, in this final stretch, is based on the belief that Republicans can still pursue plutocratic policies while claiming to be the party of regular guys.

Forty years ago, Richard Nixon made a remarkable marketing discovery. By exploiting America’s divisions — divisions over Vietnam, divisions over cultural change and, above all, racial divisions — he was able to reinvent the Republican brand. The party of plutocrats was repackaged as the party of the “silent majority,” the regular guys — white guys, it went without saying — who didn’t like the social changes taking place.

It was a winning formula. And the great thing was that the new packaging didn’t require any change in the product’s actual contents — in fact, the G.O.P. was able to keep winning elections even as its actual policies became more pro-plutocrat, and less favorable to working Americans, than ever.

What is the financial instrument a derivative?

With the collapse of the housing market and the debacle of the sub-prime mortgage lending practices finally imploding you and others are probably hearing news anchors and experts talking about derivative financial instruments.

The news programs have been giving an answer so boiled down that it is really useless information for most people and online sites have been giving answers that are overly complex the average person may not really get what is going on in the grand scheme. I tried to strike a middle line.

Purpose of a Derivative – Share the risk associated with lending to customers to increase the lenders ability to access additional capital and stream of income value that was previously dormant or untapped.

A derivative has two areas of value:

1. Capital Value
2. Steam of Income Value
   

Capital Value:
A derivative is an instrument that on its own is worthless, the instrument DERIVES its value from underlying physical capital (goods, real estate, products) that the derivative is supposed to represent. Only derivatives represent thousands of units of capital in one complex bundle of papers. In this instance in history the capital is the houses. The market agrees on a price of the underlying physical goods and that sets the price of the derivative instrument. (important for later on in the example below)

Stream of Income Value:
Many derivatives will have a stream of income value as well. As stated above, the houses are the physical capital, but to get the capital. A customer has to give up a small amount of money (principal) AND promises contractually to pay interest to the lender on the money the lender gives the borrower to acquire the house (STREAM OF INCOME)

A derivative has two areas of risk:

Capital Value Declines
Stream of income Stops

Let’s look at a hypothetical to see how the Housing Dilemma happened.

EXAMPLE:
John wants a house. He only has $1. The market agrees that the house costs $101 (price at which buyers are willing to buy and sellers are willing to sell). John goes to ABC Bank and offers to give the bank his $1 and a promise to pay 10% interest if they will lend him the $100 to get the house.

ABC Bank makes a contract with John. He has to pay interest 10% in year one and 20% going forward on the $100, STREAM OF INCOME to ABC Bank.

So John now has to pay $10 / year (to keep it simple)

If John fails to pay then ABC Bank gets to take the house worth $100 CAPITAL VALUE with the plan to resell the home to break even or make a little money in a market that has grown in value. In exchange, John has to pay interest on the loan but he gets to live in the house and eventually in a functioning market he will own the house.

ABC Bank gives John a loan (THE RISK) & takes the interest obligation (THE STREAM OF INCOME) and the physical stake of bank ownership on default (CAPITAL VALUE) in his house. If he defaults on the interest payments the bank gets the house. ABC Bank does this with John and bundles his home and his loan up with thousands of other Americans.

SALE OF THE DERIVATIVE -
ABC Bank not wanting to hold all of this risk on their own sells the Derivative to other banks. The other banks buy based on the value of the STREAM OF INCOME and based on the value of the underlying CAPITAL VALUE of the homes on default. However, these other banks who do not know John and who have not seen his house are also buying a piece of the risk that he will default.

The banks and financial institutions buying these derivatives are now holders of Derivatives.

Problem in Hypo land.

The interest rate is too high for John. Initially he can pay the $10 but there was a clause in the lending contract that says after 1 year the interest rate John has to pay is 20%. John has either lost his job, had no job or miscalculated his ability to pay.

He cannot pay, STREAM OF INCOME to the bank is gone. John is also now in default. ABC Bank takes the house. This happens to many people. There are now many many empty houses on the Market. People do not need homes. There is no demand. Demand falls and the prices of homes fall. As well, in the initial pricing of houses the market was wrong. The price was too high and was artificially inflated by a market belief that the growth rate in real estate would be sustained and that people would not default due to the nature of the capital (a HOME).

A house is now worth 10 dollars. The bank lent $100 as that was what the house was valued at. The derivative has now lost almost all of its value.

The other institutions who did not know John or the home hold a close to worthless financial instrument and there are no buyers. The spreading of the risk has caused a problem as the banks may not have the capital to cover the loss as they did not expect the losses on the home value to be so large.

If you have any further questions, comments or corrections email lucklesshero@gmail.com

Letter to my Congressmen - I never received a reply.

Dear Congressman,

Sorry I am not hand writing this letter, but to be frank I plan on sending this question / recommendation to my U.S. Congressional Representative in addition to your office.


I am writing this letter as I am concerned with the action that Congress is taking with respect to the funding and promotion of clean energy. I say clean energy because I do not want a response that dives into the minutia of “alternative energy.” I do not consider the liquefaction of coal or the use of switch grass or corn to make bio-fuel viable options, particularly after the studies that question bio-fuel production to be carbon positive over its production lifetime. Those options seem like Band-Aids not answers to a growing problem. As well, I am a firm believe that the shift of land use from the production of food to the production of fuel crops will increase prices of groceries and other simple commodities that will negatively impact lower income Americans.

This letter was spurred by an article that I read from January or February of 2008 about Abu-Dhabi, capitol of the United Arab Emirates, and how a carbon free city is being constructed. The goal of the city is to be carbon neutral and to also use 60% less water than the average consumption levels of a comparable per capita urban area. The venture seems to be placing the UAE on the bleeding edge of the future of clean technology. The steps they are taking seem to be placing them at the forefront of a money making machine that is highly marketable and environmentally sound. The Middle Eastern country will also be garnering world accolades for its “green” initiative.


Secondly, the United Arab Emirates just built the largest hydrogen producing plant in the world. From popular news media outlets to simple commercials on the TV it seems that everyone wants a hydrogen powered car.


I believe that the United States should be leading this eco-fuel charge and that the USA should be positioning itself to reap the benefits, both environmental and economic, of the changing energy landscape. When I was growing up I was always told that the United States was the land of innovation and that we are the world leaders of new technology. I see this truth waning and slipping into darkness.


With regards to the green technologies and the hydrogen production capability the UAE’s technological front runner status will be established, position the country to continue their dominance in the energy production and sales arena. My concern is that this money could potentially end up in the wrong hands. I believe we are waging a war to stop such an occurrence.
In the economic interest of America, in the homeland defense interest of America and for the simple pride and patriotism of being an American I ask you to push for more money and resources to be allocated to clean technologies so that the United States can be in the Alpha position in this technological race.


CC: Representative Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania
CC: Senator Robert Casey of Pennsylvania
CC: Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania

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