China too has problems with officials engaging in market manipulation. China tries such people, and if found guilty, offers the death penalty. China executes shortly after sentence normally, like within hours. So think of the relief when someone is given 2 years deferred sentence, IF they were extremely cooperative, naming names and spilling guts during the investigation and trial. For the next two years, investigators will have many more questions. Active cooperation might convert the death sentence to life imprisonment.
Why Madoff, and not Paulsen, Geithner, Greenspan, Bernanke, etc? It makes no sense.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Death Sentence In China
How Hamiltonian America Works
We are all pretty ticked off at the fraud foisted on USA by the fascists. Goldman Sachs is at the center of the worldwide fraud, and Goldman Sachs is at the center of this administration, as it was in the last.
So we are told that Goldman defrauded investors of ... one Billion dollars. This is a reverse of the gag out of an Austin Powers movie, a kind of joke. Goldman Sachs is responsible for hundreds of billions of the trillion plus in losses worldwide. Everyone knows it. They are busy stealing right now, protected by all governments at all levels. By admitting to the far lesser crime of stealing a number so trivial, they can say "... we made mistakes, we paid the fine, no let's move on..."
Why only a Madoff goes to jail, who knows. But since Geithner, Paulson, Fuld, Greenspan, Summers and so many others will not be sent to prison, the theft will continue.
These Hamiltonians no longer believe in USA. It does not matter if our country comes falling down, they will still rule over the ruins... as Milton noted, rather rule in Hell then serve in heaven.
I am no fan of the Chinese system, but at least their leaders still believe in China. I disagree with govt provision of mass transit, but at least they provide it, and not blow a 167 million per mile for a choo choo tram in Seattle for Paul Allen.
AS Bill Clinton famously said, I did it because I could. A wee bit of jeffersonianism is indicated now.
China And High Speed Trains and MagLev
China is moving ahead in transportation and infrastructure, while the US government continues to provide cover for thieving banksters and fascist big govt/big biz entities. This ticks me off. China is extending its high speed trains... and has produced its own maglev cars (they previously bought from Germany).
The 88th Floor in a 30 Story Building
Check out the picture of "midlevel" apartments in Hong Kong. If you want to know how they get 7 million people in 500 square miles, yet leave most of the territory subtropical jungle... the picture explains it all.
It seems the govt here has decided to "do something" about funny floor numbering systems. Chinese avoid the 4th floor, since it sounds like "death." Also any floor number that ends in "4." So in a 40 story building, there is no 4, 14, 24, 34, 40... and since there might be western buyers too, no 13th floor.
Why stop there? Since 88 is a hugely popular number, one builder decided to skip about 40 floors in numbering and get right to the 80's, so he could offer the Chinese the 88th floor. The price went through the roof.
(The number one most popular wine label in a competition last year was the one with an 88 in the logo.)
Only govts decide "this must be stopped." If buyers did not like it, they would not bid up the price. Nobody is going to think they are putting down millions US$ for a apartment truly 88 stories up. Everyone knows, so there is no fraud. It is pure market demand.
Hong Kong is a beacon of light to the freedom loving world. I am afraid the locals here do not understand what a gift they have. Maybe they do, maybe it is just Chinese modesty.
Take It From the Top, Gals...
If anyone can refute this cartoon from over at LRC.com, please do so, otherwise memorize the tune... (also, since I am in Hong Kong, google assumes I am Chinese and translates all my sites into Chinese for me... sigh...)
Friday, April 16, 2010
Innovation in Education
I was pricing some tech products at the ICT show in Hong Kong and overheard and Indian importer who identified his company as http://www.classteacher.com... I just looked it up. It is an interesting business model. Not for me, but good to see more and more alternatives emerging.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Hasn't He Done Enough Harm?
Obama wants to close some tax loopholes and gain another 190 billion. What does he want the money for? More waste, fraud and abuse? More wars? If you read the articles, you will see big corporations pay no taxes. Big deal, they cannot anyway. Any tax they pay is ultimately paid by the custoemrs who buy their products. And since the #1 customer for most of these big biz is the govt, it is we taxpayers who are forced to pay.
One solution is to make govt so small its imapact is negligible on the market.
Political Control
A good article over at lewrockwell.com, with the following quote"
Norman Mailer once said he believed the United States, in its endless pursuit of war and domination, had entered a "pre-fascist era." Mailer seemed tentative, as if trying to warn about something even he could not quite define. "Fascism" is not right, for it invokes lazy historical precedents, conjuring yet again the iconography of German and Italian repression. On the other hand, American authoritarianism, as the cultural critic Henry Giroux pointed out recently, is "more nuance, less theatrical, more cunning, less concerned with repressive modes of control than with manipulative modes of consent."
Exactly. Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman wrote a book on this. I once wondered were the powers that be going to control the masses through drugs, or thought control It is as though we have had two competing methofds being foisted on yus. By now, I think we can see the decisions is in. Do both.
Economy Improving
Some experts are say the economy is improving, but take a look at imports and exports, according to the US Census department. Seems, as far as int'l trade, matters are quite level. Time will tell.
Monday, April 12, 2010
3% Fee...
When I travel overseas I first call my credit card companies to let them know, so they will allow any charges to go through when the odd charge shows up from Hong Kong or Moscow or wherever. Both Barclays and Bank of America noted they charge a 3% fee on foreign trade transactions. That is hefty! Barclays tried to sell me lost card insurance, but I assured them I have something better overseas: friends.
Bank of American began tacking on the fees a few years ago, and it was an item of competitiveness that cards either charged or did not charge the fee. This was good. Then there was a class action suit, and so BofA began informing people of the charge. The new credit card laws did not touch this item, which is fine, since card companies like Capital One do not charge the fee.
Back in the old days we carried credit cards, but we carried a lot of cash. And we stashed it well so if we were robbed, we did not lose much. Having bank accounts overseas allows me to draw out local cash for needs, I even have a checkbook for Hong Kong.
Time for me to go old fashioned, leave the credit card idle, and pay by cash and check when I travel.
Avoid Prostrate Cancer Screening
So says the scientist who developed the procedure forty years ago. My doctor tipped me off long ago that such tests were a scam, and it was so sad to see so many friends become castrated,, in essence, needlessly after false positives and nonthreatening cancer.
And for women, we have has 40 years of Hormone Replacement Therapy, at times leads to a sort of female castration, now shown to be deleterious. No wonder people overseas fight so hard to resist USA domination of their countries. They hate our lack of freedom.
This is the problem with govt sponsored health care. You have what the govt says you have. You get the treatment the govt says you need. About 500 people in Washington have decided the definition of medicine for all people and all time.
When we aggregate so much power in so few hands, there are those who will abuse the system, in medicine as in any other field. The trick is to withdraw out support. The opportunity is to offer genuine healthcare.
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