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January 13, 2009
OT 09-02
Comments
following the script pointed out in #92?
O: “on this day we gather because we chosen hope over fear”
Posted by: b real | Jan 20 2009 17:13 utc | 101
can somebody do me a favor and see if you can access shabelle media’s website please.
i’m getting a code 403.6
You are not authorized to view this page
The Web server you are attempting to reach has a list of IP addresses that are not allowed to access the Web site, and the IP address of your browsing computer is on this list.
Please try the following:
* Contact the Web site administrator if you believe you should be able to view this directory or page.
HTTP Error 403.6 – Forbidden: IP address of the client has been rejected.
and i’d like to rule out whether it’s specific to my connection or not
thanks!
Posted by: b real | Jan 21 2009 4:39 utc | 102
not working for me-I’m not authorized. Must be the site
Posted by: David | Jan 21 2009 5:10 utc | 103
thanks david – i was sorta expecting it to be a configuration issue on their end
Posted by: b real | Jan 21 2009 5:36 utc | 104
“This is a delusion about credit. And whereas from the nature of credit it is to be expected that a certain line will divide the view between creditor and debtor, the irrational fact in this case is that for more than ten tears debtors and creditors together have pursued the same deceptions. In many ways, as will appear, the folly of the lender has exceeded the extravagance of the borrower.
The general shape of this universal delusion may be indicated by three of its familiar features.
First, the idea that the panacea for debt is credit…The aggregate of this increase is prodigious, and a very high proportion of it represents recourse to credit to avoid payment of debt.
Second, a social and political doctrine, now widely accepted, beginning with the premise that people are entitled to certain betterments of life. If they cannot immediately afford the, that is, if out of their own resources these betterments cannot be provided, nevertheless people are entitled to them, and credit must provide them…
Probably one half of all government, national and civic, in the area of western civilization is either bankrupt or in acute distress from having over-borrowed…
Third, the argument that prosperity is a product of credit, whereas from the beginning of economic thought it had been supposed that prosperity was from the increase and exchange of wealth, and credit was its product.
This inverted way of thinking was fundamental. It rationalized the delusion as a whole. Its most astonishing imaginary success was in the field of international finance, where it became unorthodox to doubt that the use of credit in progressive magnitudes to inflate international trade the problem of international debt was solved…
Was it possible for nations to sell to one another more than they bought from one another…? Certainly. But How? By selling on credit. By lending one another the credit to buy one another’s goods…
Garet Garret, A Bubble That Broke The World
via Barry Ritholz.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 21 2009 17:45 utc | 105
By Ben Russell and David Prosser
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Britains biggest banks are “technically insolvent”, Royal Bank of Scotland said yesterday, as the global banking industry was rocked by another day of turmoil, including the announcement of $23bn (£16bn) of new losses from Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, the giant US institutions.
Analysts working for RBS, one of several British banks to have received emergency funding from the UK Government last year, told the City that “the domestic UK banks are technically insolvent on a fully marked-to-market basis”.
The warning does not mean British banks are about to go bust, because the assessment is purely theoretical, and RBS said the position was “not unusual at this stage in the economic cycle”.
However, it will add to pressure on the Government to provide more support for the country’s banks. Treasury officials are now set to spend this weekend in talks about a fresh round of measures, which could be unveiled as early as next week, to free up lending to households and major corporations hit by the credit crunch.
The value of Barclays fell by a quarter in stock market trading yesterday, amid a series of wild rumours about its finances, although the bank said it saw no need to comment on the drop. Its board said in a statement last night that it knew “no justification for the fall”.
The statement said next month the bank expected to report that profits before tax for 2008 were “well ahead” of the £5.3 billion forecast by analysts.
City analysts said the bank had been targeted by traders after regulators lifted a ban yesterday on the short selling of financial stocks. Barclays’ share price, along with the value of other British banks, was also hit by dismal news from the international markets, including the announcement on Thursday night that the Irish government was nationalising Allied Irish Banks. In the US, Bank of America announced yesterday that it was taking a $20bn injection of emergency funding from the US government, subsequently revealing that Merrill Lynch, the investment bank it rescued last year, had lost more than £15bn in the final three months of last year.
Citigroup, once the world’s largest bank, announced more than $8bn of losses for the final quarter of last year, and revealed plans to split itself in two.
Treasury officials were still discussing plans to help British banks last night but the proposals are likely to include up to £100bn of new guarantees for the wholesale markets that underpin mortgage and other loans.
Other possible measures being considered include state support to help Britain’s largest companies raise their own funds. Another option is to launch a “bad bank” to remove tainted assets from the banks’ balance sheets, though while this policy is under consideration, it is thought to remain some way off.
Other proposals include ring-fencing the toxic assets within bank balance sheets. Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has also talked of easing the terms of the Government’s £37bn bank bailout in order to kickstart lending. Downing Street made it clear yesterday that the Government remained committed to doing “whatever is necessary to help British businesses and families get through this global financial recession”.
From a published/unpublished Independent article. Via Mish.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 21 2009 18:17 utc | 106
The State of California is a month away from insolvency.
State Controller John Chiang has warned that California will run out of cash by late February unless state leaders act swiftly on the budget. Starting Feb. 1, the state may issue IOUs as tax refunds to millions of Californians. It may also issue IOUs as payment to local governments, state vendors, judges and lawmakers and their staffers.
By some measures, California ranks among the top ten economies in the world.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 21 2009 18:21 utc | 107
U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting the banking system is “effectively insolvent,” said New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic crisis.
“I’ve found that credit losses could peak at a level of $3.6 trillion for U.S. institutions, half of them by banks and broker dealers,” Roubini said at a conference in Dubai today. “If that’s true, it means the U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion. This is a systemic banking crisis.”
Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 21 2009 18:23 utc | 108
On January 20, the HHS “Provider Conscience Rule” went into effect, allowing employees and volunteers at government-funded hospitals and clinics to deny patients access to a variety of medical services, based on moral objection. The Rule is one of the Bush Administration’s parting midnight regulations. Ostensibly focusing on abortion and sterilization, it is considered by some to be written so vaguely that it might be applied to “contraception, fertility treatments, HIV/AIDS services, gender reassignment, end-of-life care, or any other medical practice to which someone might have a personal moral (not even religious) objection.”
The Attorney General’s Office of Connecticut, joined by seven states, has filed a lawsuit to quash the regulation.
Full post at Metafilter.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 21 2009 18:25 utc | 109
As America’s southern neighbor, Mexico, continues to hollow out as a state, residents of Juarez have banded an informal citizens militia intent on driving criminals out of the city.
“Our mission is to terminate the life of a criminal every 24 hours … The hour has come to stop this disorder in Juárez.”
From their press release.
via John Robb.
Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 21 2009 18:33 utc | 111