>> ^ajkido:
So you didn't get the feeling that she's kind of wasting her life just because of her religion? (Emphasis on "kind of". Clearly she can do and achieve lots of things that her religion doesn't restrict...)
She's obviously an awesome girl but damn...

Because she's not having sex? I think her strict enforcement of the no sex before marriage rule works in her favor when it comes to choosing a good husband.

Mormonism is Christianity, because they believe that God sent his son to earth to die for our sins, and if we believe in him we will live eternally in heaven.

By this standard, even the Devil is Christian.

Very nice, but don't try this at home.

A lot of these microphones have "phantom power", which uses a +48V line. I like my women hot, but not electrocuted hot.

>> ^Memorare:
That was 2006, it's now 2008, so did they make the switch - does Iran now trade in Euros?
Either way it's just a matter of time, the US is in it's end of empire phase. Actually the Chinese could topple the dollar any time they wanted, with little consequence to themselves.

Yes, they made the switch. The Iranian oil bourse now deals in Euros.

However, for now they only support cash operations (i.e., one can't trade future contracts), so the bad effects on the dollar are partially contained. By far the largest commodities trading is done by speculators who have no need for the actual goods. These guys trade future contracts, who are bought near their expiration date by people who actually need the goods.

>> ^Farhad2000:
But thats the thing, flavioriberio, I don't believe anyone is going to be going bankrupt. They are gonna be bailed out.

Indeed.

>> ^Farhad2000:

(2) start taxing speculative market operations, especially those involving overseas transactions;

I agree with this one, as right now speculative market transactions are done at seemingly no risk.

Well, it's always like this at the end of a bull market. And the bull market/bear market cycle is a creation of the central banks. It's a cycle of low interest rates, overvaluation and malinvestment followed by the inevitable price corrections and high interest rates.

There's already a way of making institutions accountable: let them go bankrupt. The market is self regulating, and bailing speculators out is stealing from tax payers.

Taxing speculative operations would only further aggravate the crisis, because in times of uncertainty it's the speculators who move the economy.

>> ^Enzoblue:
Or we can just take 4% the richest 2% of americans net worth and solve this issue instantly and end world hunger at the same time.

It would certainly fit the third world nation rationale behind the current US economic policy.

The White House should go with the whole banana republic package. Here are some ideas: (1) institute a price freeze on basic food products, also prohibiting their export; (2) start taxing speculative market operations, especially those involving overseas transactions; (3) tax all monetary transactions, irrespective of nature; (4) increase the size of government, increase regulation; (5) start blaming foreign nations; (6) nationalize health and infrastructure services; (7) start a program awarding food/fuel vouchers and money allowances to low income families, where "low income" encompasses a large category; (8) increase government spending with large projects, in order to jump-start the economy; (9) have the president make frequent, 4 hour long speeches.

So much of economics is perception - if they can just convince the lenders everything will be ok for a while, the borrowers will come back in with incredible demand.

You've just outlined why Jim Rogers is right. Banks have been technically insolvent for at least 2 months, and the NY Fed open market reports have shown that there's at least one very large depository institution in deep trouble. The credit crisis stems from people not knowing who is in trouble, and to what extent. The Fed only makes this worse by extending endless credit to institutions which would've otherwise been forced to liquidate their assets, returning confidence to the system.

The credit market won't start moving just because the Fed keeps throwing money at it, because in the grand scheme of things it's the market that sets interest rates, especially to the low income owners that you're trying to protect. They've gambled with this gimmick for the last 9 months and have only managed to create more uncertainty and a weaker dollar.

Instead of outlining everything I believe in, I'll refer you to Karl Denninger's open letter: http://www.denninger.net/letters/open-letter.pdf

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*kill

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What a bunch of crap.

Last week President Bush said we're not in a recession. I hear the Fed dropped interest rates, so whatever I'm paying will only get cheaper. It's time to get MORE debt, not less.

Clueless journalists.

</sarcasm>

>> ^MarineGunrock:
I was beginning to think that Ron Paul either silently dropped out or silently died - I haven't heard a damn thing about him in the past month.
I especially haven't seen a video of him here in the past month!

Some of Ron Paul's largest rallies have happened in the last month (we're talking 4000+ people in some venues). I haven't submitted these videos because I already submit a lot of RP stuff.

He's not going anywhere, and he's not dropping out either. The next big thing is the march on DC, called by Ron Paul himself (www.ronpaulmarch.com, www.revolutionmarch.com).

*dead

>> ^J-Rova:
> Cartel? Like drugs? Oil? :-P And of course it's a bunch of banks! They have all the information! Would you rather it be a collection of... say, hospitals, making all the same decisions? I can picture that - "Well, Mr. Bernanke, there were an unusually high number of influenza cases this year, sooo ahh, let's see.... ahh, fuck it - we recommend contracting the money supply to prevent inflation." ???? HAH!

It's a bunch of private banks. This is akin to having wolves guarding a hen house.

>> Since mid-2007, Bernanke has been hiking rates for people who were solvent, and lowering for the ones who were not.
> Hiking and lowering rates at the same time, for specific people? I'm not sure where you got that.

You don't understand what I'm saying because you're in over your head. Starting in December 2007 the Fed started auctioning huge short-term loans at the 3% rate, available only to the big banks. This brand new loan mechanism is called the TAF: (Temporary) Term Auction Facility. It has allowed institutions like Citibank and Bank of America to stay afloat despite having no reserves of their own. They will carry on renewing these loans indefinitely as long as they can provide the collateral.

It just so happens that for everyone else, interest rates are determined by the market and not by the Fed, and are a function of risk. No one but the big banks get loans at 3%. Last week, municipalities were forced to raise rates from 4% to 20%, and even at this rate they can't get buyers for their bonds. These finance basic services such as hospitals. Now there are about $265 billion in outstanding municipal bonds (i.e., bonds that haven't found buyers). Mortgage rates have skyrocketed, meaning people can't refinance their houses at acceptable rates. Even prime mortgages are at risk now, and the crisis will spread.

The Fed has provided extremely low rate loans only to big banks -- precisely the ones who caused this crisis and shouldn't be artificially kept afloat. Meanwhile, the market has screwed over the parties who were still solvent by giving them huge rates due to the perceived high risks. By not forcing the exposure and liquidation of bad debt tied to banks, the Fed is creating the conditions for a domino effect. If conditions continue to deteriorate, Americans will have a deflationary credit crisis similar to the one seen in the 1930's.

People borrowed money they couldn't afford to borrow, and lenders allowed them to do it. They all miscalculated some of the risks involved, and it finally started biting some people in the ass. This is NOT the Fed's fault!

The Fed is partly responsible by keeping artificially low interest rates, which gave rise to the credit bubble. Today the Fed is accountable for providing liquidity to float junk assets owned by big depositary institutions, temporarily favoring them and creating the conditions for a widespread credit collapse.

>> Everything connected to the Fed is secretive, and not even members of Congress with the highest clearance can find out what's going on.
> Is this bad?

It's bad because it lets bankers manipulate the market. The President's Working Group on Financial Markets (a.k.a. Plunge Protection Team) is the prime example.

I'm all for having educated discussions about the economy. but I sense that you're the kind of person who first makes his mind and then tries to find arguments to back up your claims. Quoting a few paragraphs from Wikipedia doesn't show the Fed's integrity. If you want to find the truth, look at the market. It can be temporarily manipulated, but in the end it never lies.