How many swedish cheese can you buy with...

US$ 50,000,000,000,000

50 trillion dollars in perceived value have been wiped off the world's books.

US$ 50,000,000,000

50 billion dollars was the cost of just one fraud.

50,000,000 jobs

50 million jobs are likely to be lost by the end of 2009.

David Rothkopf Consider this final point: How can Sweden (which got the bank nationalization thing right, by the way, Tim Geithner's comments about how the United States is not Sweden aside) afford to say no to bailing out Saab, a national icon, while we can't afford the same with GM? Which country is more committed to letting the markets work in healthier ways? Which therefore might be seen as more truly capitalist? The reason they can make it happen politically is because

they have a social system which ensures no Swede fears that economic upheaval will leave him or her destitute or without healthcare.

Thus they can afford the creative destruction of markets, but we cannot. Their "socialism" is in this respect more capitalist than our system of bailouts for the richest and subsidies for the greediest. The United States needs new models and to be open to new ideas and we had better start thinking about looking elsewhere because to date precious few are coming from Washington.

But Krugman says...

European Stability

"... I think it’s important, however, to distinguish between the role of the welfare state in stabilizing society and its role in stabilizing GDP.

On the social front, there’s a quantum difference. For given depth of recession, the human suffering in America — where losing your job means losing your family’s health insurance, and unemployment benefits are minimal at best — is vastly greater than in Europe.

On the macroeconomic front, however, the strength of Europe’s “automatic stabilizers” has been exaggerated. Yes, government is about 12 percentage points of GDP larger; so each 1 percent fall of GDP automatically increases deficits by more than in the US. But unless the slump is much deeper than even pessimists expect, that won’t be enough to offset the stronger US discretionary action.

The IMF has tried to incorporate the automatic stabilizer effect; by their estimates, it still comes up short. So yes, the European response is better than it might seem at first sight; but it’s still pretty bad." (Revision 30 March 2009)

24 March 2009

What is your price ?

Everyone has a price.

Read Aaron Smith's Big Pharma opens wallet to Dems.

You, How much ?

20 March 2009

Need and Greed

Timothy Egan " The elder Gates, whom I’ve met in passing here, is a child of the Great Depression who grew up with the fear of being poor. He is also a veteran who went to college on the G.I. Bill – one of government’s great escalators into the middle class.

In the political realm, he is best known for fighting George W. Bush’s efforts to repeal the estate tax, a tax he feels is needed to prevent a permanent economic aristocracy in this country. If you need a moment of instant populist outrage, imagine all those children of people who made billions in the casino of credit default swaps passing on the gains to their little darlings, tax-free.

It won’t happen, in all likelihood, because of people like Gates, who quotes Günther Grass thusly: “The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.” " NY Times

http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/greed-and-need/

Do we still have estate tax in Singapore?

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/03/farquhar/

12 March 2009

Wake Up

" We just spent 8 years creating the appearance of prosperity (McMansions ,SUVs, Excessive military spending) which disguised the actual destruction of this country.

We will spend the next 8 years creating real future prosperity (infrastructure and job retraining) which won’t feel like prosperity but will constitute the rebirth of this country. "

— Ivan NY Times

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/can-america-be-saved/#comments

:-))

11 March 2009

Doing it correctly

" The right wing in the United States is so doctrinaire the even the mildest promotion of the general welfare is denounced as radical proletarianism.

For some reason folks are shocked that the Republicans are anti-social even in times of severe economic stress.

The poverty of solutions coming from Republicans- tax cuts anyone- is stunning. But this underscores the fact that the conservative doctrine of government isn’t about government at all.

They don’t have a philosophy of governance of the people in the classical sense. They have an economic doctrine focused on wealth accumulation that they present as national policy. "

— bellumregio, NY Times
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/marginal-marginalizers/?apage=2#comments

And in the case of the USA, accumulation of wealth NOT for the state but for the few Super wealth holders (be it individuals or corporations).

In Singapore, the richest entities currently are Temasek and the GICs, which still belongs to the state (the latter expressly so and the former, implicit). I hope we are still ok.

07 March 2009

Maybe there is no right or wrong, only poor or very poor

"There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes."
- William John Bennett (b. 1943), US Secretary of Education (1985 - 1988), Republican.

Modern Day Slavery

Slavery is not just the shameful stuff of history books - not in Florida
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslave

Sweatshops

" Sweatshops are not simply a necessary evil of economic growth. They do not necessarily keep costs low for consumers and provide jobs where there would otherwise be none. Sweatshops exist because of corporate greed, international trade policies (that push indebted nations to exploit their own people), and the market's demand for quick production, low costs, and high profits. Workers should not have to endure unsafe and unfair working conditions so that corporations and corrupt government officials can get rich. "

http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/sweatshops.html

Read Henry Blodget's Chinese Sweatshops, Manhattan-Style. Why your clothes are made in China at http://www.slate.com/id/2113689/. A well balance, microcosmic take on the global sweatshop phenomenon.

06 March 2009

The Young Ones...

"...The mandate by voters in 2006 to 2008 for a Democratic government is viewed as strictly a response to the mistakes that Bush made. Once Obama fails (in his hopes and beliefs, only, of course) he ( Rush Limbaugh) believes everything will sort itself back to what it was in the 80s. What they fail to see, even in their darkest moments, is that an entire generation (mine as a 23 year-old) has been lost, which may result in their total demise. Using thinly veiled attempts to connect to younger or “inner-city” voters with Michael Steele or Sarah Palin is an utter disgrace. We’re not that stupid, and the vast majority of us don’t support their archaic value system.

Another problem I frequently point out to members of older generations is that using the term “socialist” does not raise negative feelings or, in some cases, sheer terror, in the youngest generation as it does with those past. We did not grow up hearing these terms equated to evil regimes. It’s not a big deal, and it does not scare anyone 25 and under. In 20 or 30 years you’ll see the term “socialist” has completely devolved into what “liberal” has become today - only a category for a viewpoint or style of governing, free of emotional baggage."

— Scott Kruitbosch
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/marginal-marginalizers/#comments

05 March 2009