2008-11-27, 01:48 PM
kleptophobia's Star Wars reference was quite hilarious. Especially since I watched the third and last movie of the new ones that were released around 2000 two days ago on television.
With the legislative body cutting out a 700 billion dollar jump-start fund: 350 billion meant for bank relief and the other 350 billion open for contention, there should be no surprise that this money will eventually hit the everyday American's wallet in the form of increased taxes.
I truly believe that any attempt to understand the overall flow of government is pointless. Even though this is an extremely rough estimate, if you ask your parents how they pay for tax and then superimpose that value on the hundreds of thousands of people in America, that comes to quite a lot of annual money.
But where has all that money gone? I've been recently reading the New York Times and the Star Ledger in order to verify what groups are attempting to qualify for the funds being given. Among the banking side which has been guaranteed a cut in the 350 billion, Goldman Sachs, a very prominent investment firm in New York City pays it's top wage earners more than 500 million annually. These millionaire men have decided to not take their bonuses. An extremely smart decision as Goldman Sachs has accepted four million from the government in order to "get on the right track." The underlying point is that if they have enough money to pay ridiculously unimaginable salaries to their top investors, then why has the government deemed it necessary to give them a cut within the 350 billion banking fund?
Washington Mutual (WaMu) sold out to JP Morgan Chase and one of the key terms of this transaction involved JP Morgan Chase aquiring and keeping stock of all of WaMu's customers and the investments which were made. A fellow banker at my church told me that numerous WaMu investors lost nearly all their money due to this transaction even though it seemed that reimbursement was guaranteed.
On the non-banking side, CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler went to Capitol Hill in order to ask for a $25 billion cut of the $350 billion up for contention. They were thorougly scolded and escorted back to their private jets. Among the many arguments they presented was the type of "Herbert Hoover" idealism that inspired the "trickle-down-effect." The idea that if you help out the business owners, eventually that aid will trickle down to the employees. The auto-industry has semi-legitimacy to this claim as they employ a large work force especially areas such as Detroit. Unofortunately, I don't quite agree with this argument if no guaranteed cuts are set apart from worker employment.
Perhaps the most reliable form of employment is if the government renacts policies that Roosevelt enacted during the Great Depression. Policies which basically created thousands of federal workforce positions that employed millions among the American populace. This sense of having a job gave the American people hope for tomorrow.
Even though I'm not a large fan of Obama, the fact that he was open-minded enough to make Hilary Clinton his Secretary of State and is seeking help from presidents of the past has definitely earned some hope from the small optimist within me. Obama's cabinet is aggressive, goal-driven, and no-nonsense. I've decided that all I can do as an American citizen is to stop and watch the world revolve on itself.
Before I close, I've always been under the impression that gas prices are not based on supply and demand. My Human Ecology professor did a cross-inventory on oil companies and told me that they carry numerous aquifiers. The prices of gas are perhaps more psychological than applicational. Perhaps they capitalized on the fact that Americans were fighting in a war and therefore used that as an excuse to raise the prices. A more technical explanation reveals that the top three sources for imported oil are Canada, Saudia Arabia, and Mexico. Most of the rise in oil prices was due to speculation. Big investment houses would buy oil futures only to make a profit on them. Because of the recent economic crisis, they are unable to buy out potential oil stocks therefore causing the price to drop to the true level of actual supply vs. demand.
With the legislative body cutting out a 700 billion dollar jump-start fund: 350 billion meant for bank relief and the other 350 billion open for contention, there should be no surprise that this money will eventually hit the everyday American's wallet in the form of increased taxes.
I truly believe that any attempt to understand the overall flow of government is pointless. Even though this is an extremely rough estimate, if you ask your parents how they pay for tax and then superimpose that value on the hundreds of thousands of people in America, that comes to quite a lot of annual money.
But where has all that money gone? I've been recently reading the New York Times and the Star Ledger in order to verify what groups are attempting to qualify for the funds being given. Among the banking side which has been guaranteed a cut in the 350 billion, Goldman Sachs, a very prominent investment firm in New York City pays it's top wage earners more than 500 million annually. These millionaire men have decided to not take their bonuses. An extremely smart decision as Goldman Sachs has accepted four million from the government in order to "get on the right track." The underlying point is that if they have enough money to pay ridiculously unimaginable salaries to their top investors, then why has the government deemed it necessary to give them a cut within the 350 billion banking fund?
Washington Mutual (WaMu) sold out to JP Morgan Chase and one of the key terms of this transaction involved JP Morgan Chase aquiring and keeping stock of all of WaMu's customers and the investments which were made. A fellow banker at my church told me that numerous WaMu investors lost nearly all their money due to this transaction even though it seemed that reimbursement was guaranteed.
On the non-banking side, CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler went to Capitol Hill in order to ask for a $25 billion cut of the $350 billion up for contention. They were thorougly scolded and escorted back to their private jets. Among the many arguments they presented was the type of "Herbert Hoover" idealism that inspired the "trickle-down-effect." The idea that if you help out the business owners, eventually that aid will trickle down to the employees. The auto-industry has semi-legitimacy to this claim as they employ a large work force especially areas such as Detroit. Unofortunately, I don't quite agree with this argument if no guaranteed cuts are set apart from worker employment.
Perhaps the most reliable form of employment is if the government renacts policies that Roosevelt enacted during the Great Depression. Policies which basically created thousands of federal workforce positions that employed millions among the American populace. This sense of having a job gave the American people hope for tomorrow.
Even though I'm not a large fan of Obama, the fact that he was open-minded enough to make Hilary Clinton his Secretary of State and is seeking help from presidents of the past has definitely earned some hope from the small optimist within me. Obama's cabinet is aggressive, goal-driven, and no-nonsense. I've decided that all I can do as an American citizen is to stop and watch the world revolve on itself.
Before I close, I've always been under the impression that gas prices are not based on supply and demand. My Human Ecology professor did a cross-inventory on oil companies and told me that they carry numerous aquifiers. The prices of gas are perhaps more psychological than applicational. Perhaps they capitalized on the fact that Americans were fighting in a war and therefore used that as an excuse to raise the prices. A more technical explanation reveals that the top three sources for imported oil are Canada, Saudia Arabia, and Mexico. Most of the rise in oil prices was due to speculation. Big investment houses would buy oil futures only to make a profit on them. Because of the recent economic crisis, they are unable to buy out potential oil stocks therefore causing the price to drop to the true level of actual supply vs. demand.