Friday, September 19, 2008

Bubbles Burst and Banks Go Bust

Earlier this week I was enjoying Fizzy Lifting Drink and swimming among the bubbles whilst listening to the radio when I heard the financial report. Ordinarily I don't normally listen because I don't have much money, or any assets. Compared to what most people my age have, I have tuppence. That is merely due to the fact that I am a perpetual student and without a job.

But the words Lehman Brothers,large drop in the Dow Jones, largest bankruptcy in US history, came tumbling out of the radio. Well this caught my attention.

What the bloody hell was happening to the US financial market?

This is what I was able to gather although my mind is not so financially oriented.
Merrill Lynch was going to be sold to Bank of America.
AIG shares fell 95% and the Federal Reserve intervened.
Lehman Brothers filed chapter 11.


What does this all mean?
Should I be concerned? Should I hide my tuppence in my shoe? Whose fault was this? How could this happen?

A Possible Solution...Time to Reform Wall Street
There is a general problem in corporate America of stockholders being unable to effectively organize to rein in top management. This problem is most serious in the financial industry.

Thankfully, the credit crisis gives us the tools we need to rein in executive pay. Currently, the major surviving investment banks (e.g. Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs) are operating on life support. They are drawing money at below-market interest rates from the Federal Reserve Board's discount window. This privilege (for which they pay nothing) can easily be worth billions of dollars a year.

These banks are also operating with an explicit guarantee from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to their creditors that he will honor their loans in the event that an investment bank, like Bear Stearns, goes belly up. This guarantee is enormously valuable. Investors who make loans to Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley don't have to worry about the health of these companies because Bernanke has said that, if necessary, he will use public money to pay them back.

While we don't want a chain reaction of banking collapses on Wall Street, the public should get something in exchange for Bernanke's generosity. Specifically, he can demand a cap on executive compensation (all compensation) of $2 million a year, in exchange for getting bailed out. For any bank that is not on board, Bernanke could make an explicit promise to their creditors - if the bank goes under, you will get zero from the Fed.


I have always been weary of bankers and investors since a young age after watching an ancient man sing about how great money is then try to steal from a little boy. I guess if I do enter the market I will tread lightly.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Lil Green Patch

I have of late fallen head over heels with a Facebook application called Lil Green Patch. The developers of (Lil) Green Patch are using sponsorship revenue from advertisers to make donations to the Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program. Adopt an Acre is a program that provides critical funds for rainforest protection and restoration.Basically the more you use the application, sponsors give money to the cause. As of April 2008 20,547,567 Sq ft of rainforest was saved. Plus it is a delightful way to procrastinate and make my page pretty.



Friday, February 8, 2008

Why you shouldn't argue with your Therapist...





So I have stumbled into a little bit of a pickle with Therapist. I am sure like any other relationship that you have had for 3 years, tension will build, some nasty remarks are made, and you end up in a bit of a quarrel. The only problem is when it is your therapist, she has the power to lock your bottom up in an asylum so you can bounce off the walls in your brand new jacket, that surprisingly doesn't let your hands come out the other side but end up behind your back. I mean I like to bounce off my own walls and wear my own not so fashionable clothes in my own house. I don't need to be given a new location to do that.

When you get loud with your therapist, now you are aggressive. If you don't agree with them, you are oppositional-defiant. If you don't have friends, you are suffering from social isolation. If you like sex and to spend money you are maniac. If you tell them you are not happy with where you go to school, then you are depressed and just can't see how great things are. I mean I am happy when I go home, when I go to other cities, I am even happy when I don't have school and stay in town. So situational depression is hard to identify when you are in a situation that lasts about half a decade.

So to prove how sane I am to my therapist and prevent getting locked up. She slapped some drugs on me to control me in order to prevent putting me in an asylum but now I have to see her all the time. So due to crazy school scheduling, I have to meet her at the crack of dawn. So I am late and she calls me a flake. I disagree with her because she has been late before...mistake number one, now I am labeled as oppositional-defiant. I decided to reach out to others to show I didn't have social isolation. I chose the headmaster of the school. That didn't go so well, I ended up yelling at him...uh-oh is that aggressive? Then they are like hey why don't we take a trip to the local hospital (cough cough asylum). I am like can't I am traveling across the country for a weekend...damn that just comes off as looking manic, although I had bought that ticket a while ago. Then my Headmaster expresses his doubts about me continuing in the program...so I start to get teary eyed (ok I was crying)...now they got me for depression! Damn CheckMate...the people at my school are professionals they have gotten everything to make it seem like I am completely off my nutter.

But wait I was lucky enough to have a sanity check by talking to people that actually know me and not just glimpses of me from halls or through completely loaded questions.
Honestly, my school and those associated with it (Therapist, Headmaster, professor that knows a lot and can't teach (oh wait that is practically all of them)) are my sources of stress, my anxiety, and my depression. But I don't have clinical depression because it has to persist for two weeks. Oh they are sorry I have internet access and can look up DSM-IV criteria. So I won't let my Therapist convince me I am crazy, insane, mad, loony, wacky, bonkers, or loco.