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3.5 Million On The Streets And Rising: As French Strikes Escalate, Just How Serious Is The Situation?
Even as everyone in America seems to have anywhere between 2 and 4 opinions on Fraudclosure now that the topic is firmly planted in the MSM newsflow, things in Europe are not looking any better, even though most people there shun McMansions for their grandmothers' houses. Enter France, where an ongoing national strike (into its fourth day) was just extended by another 24 hours, and 3,500,000 people seem to have no interest in returning to work with any sense of urgency. Apparently the severity and penetration of the strike is much greater than (under)reported on US media, as seen by the following email from Goldman's Natacha Valla to clients, which explains why things may soon turn much worse.
A crucial (fourth) general strike is unfolding in France today against the pensions reform. I got many emails inquiring on how things looked like on the ground down here. In short:
1. Early to tell, but at this stage, mobilisation sounds quite significant (already 500 000 in the streets at mid-day). 3 million will be, once again, the magic number.
2. A key new dimension is the participation of high schools, which increases the risk of escalation. Transportation and refineries are also significantly hit.
3. Beyond the reform itself, discontent is mounting because the government is perceived to be "forcing" the reform through the Parliament (the debate was cut short at the Assembly, and the vote on key points re. retiring age. - on Monday - was accelerated at the Senate, where the debate is still expected to last until the week-end).
4. A few "grèves reconductibles" (renewed strikes) have already been announced.
5. The government already restated it wouldn't make any further concessions...
Elsewhere, the Telegraph just released the following update:
In the fourth such protest in a little over a month, unions estimated that 3.5 million people had taken to the streets against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension bill – a 20 per cent rise from previous marches and what they called an "exceptional" figure.
Even the interior ministry conceded that turnout had reached a new high, although gave a more conservative figure of 1,230,000, compared to 997,000 on September 23.
In a symbolic act, the Eiffel Tower was closed due to striking staff. The landmark was last closed due to industrial action in April.
"Sarko, you're screwed, the young are on the streets," chanted students in the southwestern town of Toulouse, as they joined protests en masse for the first time. Secondary school pupils also took part with classes disrupted in around 400 schools.
French leaders have been notoriously wary of student protests ever since they sparked a two-week general strike in May 1968 that crippled the country and the government of President Charles de Gaulle.
In 2006, students managed to force the government to withdraw a plan to introduce more flexible short-term work contracts for the young, after paralysing the country.
Who could have possibly anticipated that removing trillions in credit money from the system, and the resulting austerity would have such a negative impact on the general feeling of (dis)content? Luckily, Europe is a fast becoming a great dress rehearsal for what will eventually happen in the soon-to-be-centrally-planned US, when the massively overdelayed domestic austerity episode is finally forced to come to the home of the not so brave and the land of the inkjets.
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Just waiting for the 10,000,000 or so "disaffected, Muslim youths" to join the party...
didnt you hear? our public schools are starting to celebrate muslim holidays - that should help. guess the first holiday they will recognize is our presidents B-day
OK. That was kinda funny.
thank-you, just kidding. jihadists junks
still waiting for that poll of how many americans think obummer's a self-chosenite.
http://www.henrymakow.com/is_obama_literally_americas_fi.html
So its just the numbers that count? 3.5 million in the streets is bad news, just 3 million means all is well?
Hopefully they're keeping up with how the strike is going on their iGadgets. Why work if you own a bit of AAPL, you're sitting pretty as can be. I wonder how many Frenchies own AAPL?
they own French Fries.
I'm gonna go to McDonalds on my fat peoples' HoveRound scooter (They sawed off my foot over diabeetus) and order me some Freedom Fries.
"Why work when you can HELOC your equity on that McMansion, because they're not making any more land!" :D
I think so. As Obama said he rescued the economy and without the stimulus unemployment might 15,20,30 percent. So 10 is pretty good.
I hate discussions of relativity.
The markets closed in the green, so I guess so.
It's actually getting nasty there...breaking news says..
Between 1.2 million (Ministry of the Interior estimate) and 3.5 million (Union estimate) people have joined manifestations across all of France’s main cities, including a large number of high school students.
- 25% of trains are running.
- 30% of flights have been canceled in Paris’ main airport.
- Paris’s public transport is severely affected, with only three out of 14 metro lines running normally and delays on all suburban train service.
- 11 of France’s 12 refineries have shut down.
- The Eiffel Tower has been closed.
- 360 High Schools across the country have been closed or affected.
- 19.2% of Public Workers did not show up to work.
- Between 55-85 ships have been left stranded at the port of Marseilles.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Enter France, where an ongoing national strike (into its fourth day) wes just extended by another 24 hours, and 3,500,000 people seem to have no interest in returning to work with any sense of urgency.
Pretty much sums up the history of France. Nothing out of hand here.
Out of hand French people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYHRq7oMnZQ
Harry, Harry, Harry. Still the Wanker.
The End Is Nigh! Prepare!
/end sarc
Don't worry about Harry, he can turn his opinion on a dime...bull to bear in a nanosecond.
Harry, you couldn't be more wrong; the only place it applies in the modern sense is May 1968. It went on for two weeks, was mainly composed of leftist students (e.g., Danny the Red, now a member of Parliament in Germany), and left union members (and by Left, I mean REALLY LEFT, as in International Communists and Socialists). As was its counterpart in the USA, it was violent, nasty, and brought down a government (LBJ in the USA; de Gaulle in France).
If this continues much longer, and attracts more participants, my guess is that it will bring down the 5th Republic (they rename them after every putsch). Let's just hope that things don't really progress to the point of the First Republic, at the end of which blood freely ran in the streets, along with the heads of the victims, until Napoleon I took charge. The latter was the model for every tinpot dictator ever since, despite his massive failure at the gates of Moscow. Even Lenin emulated Napoleon in photo ops, albeit with a leather jacket instead of a full regimental uniform.
Nothing out of hand here? Think again. If nothing else, these people know their history, even if you don't.
When the elections were finally held in June, the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before.
Hmm. So the government of de Gaulle fell in May/June 1968 did it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_in_France
did you know jews finally won citizenship after the french revolution?
this time they'll win a lot more than that, most goyim will be exterminated per the talmud.
http://tracker.zaerc.com/torrents-details.php?id=15168
Productivity is normal in France, except the workers aren't getting paid?
Nobody works in France any who, so's no big deal for the strikers, and the cops, EMS, fire, etc., get O/T!
Stimulate that economy!
I once said that to my ex when she was buying birth control.
The real workers are not on strike. The productive economy is much smaller than it is here. Very few among those workers get paid when they go on strike, so they basically don't, although some cast envious eyes. For those who are unionized, it's a paid vacation.
I lived and worked there for years. When I first arrived, in 1975, it was a relatively free market, still, although far less so than the USA at that time. If I recall correctly, the success rate of startups in France then vs. the USA was something like 60:1, due to all the legal hangups regarding hiring--God forbid you should really hire someone, everyone is tenured after 3 months, even in small companies. The ratio has, of course, shortened significantly since then. In many ways, we have become France.
There were many other legal hangups regarding productivity then, some of which had to be done on a collective basis (e.g., wine, in the South). That has changed, in part because Thatcher prodded them to it, and because the officials in France saw Argentineans beating them at their own game.
That's why all hires in France are temps now. This has essentially destroyed the middle class there, and is likely to do so here as well; it is in the process of doing so in Japan as I write (yes, I lived and worked there rather recently, as well). France also has an enormous problem with Muslim immigration and integration. Muslims of foreign extraction now constitute roughly 20% of metropolitan France; most of them now are French citizens, which is very recent, and a by-product of the Franco-Algerian war.
The Muslim birthrate in Europe is 8 kids per couple; the French have struggled to maintain replacement rate, which is 2.1 (see today's New York Times article on French women, and what the French Government has done to attempt to stimulate births among the native population). I strongly suspect that the article fudged the statistics, by including Muslim individuals from the Maghreb, as French.
As I've seen on other sites, these statistics indicate that births in France of European origin, never mind French nationality, were around the EU's typical rate of 1.3, which is not replacement rate.
Please note that I'm not including the Roma here at all. They are very difficult to include on any basis, including those of supposedly French origin. They are by societal nature of unfixed origin, and wish to remain so, by all accounts. Their birth rate would tend to ratchet up the collective EU birthrate by a serious factor; but we have no idea of what that factor is. The bottom line, in terms of real productivity in France, is that we have no real idea what it is right now, and that's really bad news; the numbers are just not reliable.
Land of the inkjets... indeed.
Land of the zombies
zombies, indeed....
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/
Haven't the French heard that they're now wealthier than the US and UK? What more could they want?!?!
LOL!
In France, they're probably entitled to go to the proper government office and collect generous "strike benefits" to keep them going during those tough days off from work.
Not true; they sacrifice the pay for the day(s) when they strike .
Whats TD always say -- "That should be good for another 20 ES handles"
maybe more....
Wow the more bad news that gets posted here the higher the market goes.
It's not really "bad news". Why would our market react to this?? France does this type of thing fairly often.
Stocks Up!
@ Harry and Morph
Your jingoism won't save you, sorry for the disillusionment.
I know, I know, denigrating those with the minerals always makes those without feel more important, less recreant.
Bonne Chance!
I wonder how long it will be before the powers that be need a "crisis" and this might actually become news.
they already have more wealth on average per person than in the USA, after higher taxaes, right? what the phuk more do they want???
To retain it. They'd rather not starve their elderly so that corrupt banksters are ensured their bonuses for the year.
They aren't as easily distracted by 'bells and whistles' as some. Harder to divide and conquer.
Regards
+1
Damn harder to divide and conquer.
Speaking of division, Bob, 3 million of the French is a bit less than 5% of the population. That would be the U. S. equivalent of 15 million people. If my dividing was correct.
That would be some news!
That would indeed. And well earned, I would add.
+1
Everybody shits on the french. Fine. But they do some things right. And shutting down shitty government is one.
++ Go French little people. Reclaim your country.
Allons enfant de la patria, La jour do glorwa (sp?) est arrivee' contra nous est le tyranny, elevee elevee elevee ...
'gloire' :)
The man has a point....
....+1
Another month of paid vacation.
but not for the banksters this time.
They do appear to be getting all oui oui'eed up. Reminds me of a book I read once called "Who Removed My Cheese".
I don't guess anyone on this forum is long equities.
I'm long a bit of AAPL and lots of precious metals. There are actually quite a few longs hanging around here. You can argue about how awful the economy is all day but the reality is the market is not the economy. Smart folks here have figured out that you just play with the flow.
"Smart folks here have figured out that you just play with the flow." Don't confuse luck with skill when it comes to this fake bull rush. You're not getting "junked" consistently because everyone thinks you're smart money...
Never confuse luck with skill. Been in precious metals for years when one of my friends convinced me of an upcoming crash in housing. Bought my first gold in 2004.
As far as AAPL, been pretty hard not to buy it during this rally. I've been in and out a lot with tight stops. When valuations are as low as they are with this kind of growth, it's smart to go where the money is. Just use tight stops. Made a ton with a simple 2% trailing stop. Keep moving it up with the price.
Harry,
I asked you this in another thread and I will repeat it here.
Is it just possible that Apple (as well as other companies/banks) is cooking the books with the blessing of the US government simply because Apple is considered a national security priority? After all, Apple is very important to the NASDAQ index and the psychology of the market at this time.
This idea is not far fetched in the least. I suspect this is the great untold/undisclosed story of the past 10 years, that of the overt and covert manipulation of individual company stocks and financials "for the kids".
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules
Now, the White House's top spymaster can cite national security to exempt businesses from reporting requirements.
President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye.
If you recall, I ranted about AAPL being far too weighted in Naz and SPX for weeks as it continued to rise. Something needs to be done about that. But I really don't think the company is cooking the books. Just look around, everyone has their damn phone or pod or pad. It's growth is real and so is the price.
Now is it TBTF? That's an entirely different question which could be answered with a "yes".
That weighting alone means that it's being pumped externally by the PPT, POMO, futures, index ETF's, etc etc etc. They don't need to play with their books.
On the contrary, they must cook the books to meet the pumped stock price if you believe the stock prices is being pumped, which is moving up the index weighting. We are assuming the price is being pumped yet we are being told their numbers justify the pumped stock price. What's wrong with this picture?
Is the stock price pumped or not? If it's pumped, the financials should not support the pumped price. Yet they do. At least that's what we're told. So the stock price can't be pumped, right?
What's wrong here? What's coming first, the financials or the pumped stock price? Or are they being worked together? If they have great financials, that alone should support the $300 price and thus there is no hidden hand pumping this stock. Which is it?
"What's coming first, the financials or the pumped stock price?"
The buyer.
Harry,
I didn't ask you what you thought. I asked you if it was possible. And I do recall your two week discussion about Apple being over weight in the indexes. As in obese in the indexes. Which makes it strange you would call a company "great" when the company is priced to universe.
I could give you a long list of companies that for the longest time seemed to be doing everything right, with lots of so-called "proof" from multiple sources, including "common sense" items such as "obvious" blockbuster sales, that helpfully substantiated the common belief that all was well and in fact was great. Then we learned otherwise.
When I see a mass of people all believing the same thing I see the herd being led to slaughter. I'm not saying that Apple is not hitting on all cylinders at this moment. Nor am I saying that Apple products aren't in demand. But Apple is priced way way beyond perfection and that assumes you believe their numbers. And yet they keep on exceeding expectations.
Take a stroll down the long and storied history of corporate manipulation of financials and then tell me it's not going on today. Mix in the huge impact Apple would have on the market if it missed it's whisper numbers, never mind just meet it expected numbers, and throw in the obvious manipulation of the market as a whole and while you might not "think" they are cooking their books, if the US Gvt shows up on their door step and "informs" them they have a get out of jail card and they "will" do as they are told, me thinks they will do so willingly.
Barclays just set a price target today of $385.
To compare with MSFT, their book/share is 5.32 and is trading at 24.83.
Apple's book/share is 47.19 and is trading at 298.84.
If you buy in to the idea that MSFT is not currently overvalued (and their net margin, P/E, ROA/ROE/ROI, etc. doesn't suggest that they are), this implies that Apple's book/share should be more around 64.03, ie., AAPL even by "inside the matrix" valuations is about 35.7% overvalued and should be trading more around 225. Which, of course, highlights just how hilariously bullshit their price is, again even using their own bullshit numbers.
CD: By what metric do you feel AAPL is way way overpriced? Say it's at 18X (alleged) earnings for calendar 2010, growing vastly more than that, (allegedly) w/o any net debt, with 3 of its 4 major revenue drivers growing and 2 of those 3 (iPad and iPhone) young in their product life cycles.
I know this post is a bit late, but your views are so well-informed, I'd like to hear more.
You're missing the point.
Many assume that Apple stock is being pumped up because it's stock price is going through the roof and it's weighting is growing within various indexes, particularly the NASDAQ. This increasing index weighting can only happen if its stock price is growing at a (much) faster rate than the other stocks in the index, particularly the ones near it in it's original weighting within the index. Apple is 20% of the NASDAQ, which is crazy.
Yet people are also claiming that the stock price is fair or reasonable considering the company is a "great" company and it's financials look very good. So which view is correct? If the stock is being artificially pumped, than it would soon leave it's fundamental numbers behind. But since the fundamental numbers, while rich, haven't been left behind, that must mean the price of the stock isn't being artificially pumped.
Unless Apples numbers are being artificially pumped to justify the stock price. I pointed to a news article from Newsweek from May 2006 indicating the intelligence "czar" can authorize companies to basically "cook the books" (see the link above on my earlier post) and this might be what's going on. I was posing a question to Harry Wanger if he thought this was possible. It's a legitimate question no one seems to want to tackle.
Nothing will be done about that otherwise all other stocks would have to be similarly adjusted.
In the eyes of the NASDAQ: trade-weighted FTW
Changes their image as needed to avoid prosecution. Changes life story readily.
Love the long Aaple but swear it's like the scene from Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" where the French restauranteur feeds the fat Anglo til he can take no more...then at $300 offers him one thin mint that causes the explosion. Can't wait to watch and see what happens.
Eeet eez wayfare theen!
Fuck apple
You remind me of a roasted pig with an AAPL shoved in its mouth.
Long. There's no other place to be going forward.
So what if France is on strike - again. Chindia are picking up the pieces. France disintegrates economically somewhere between Morocco and Tunesia. Big deal. Airbus is already building in China.. for exactly that reason.
Hopefully Sarko will remain steadfast.
10,000,000 young muslims aren't good for the pension plan and Sarko knows it. They contribute very little to the economy let alone build a solid foundation for pension ponzis.
Too many leeches in France. The Rothschilds left the building a long time ago..
I heard they started selling their estates in France. Any idea where the rich and powerful are setting up shop?
Atlantis?
Switzerland of course.. and Quebec. :)
I hear George Bush has a few acres next to his new digs in Paraguay he's willing to sell for the right price. It comes with secret service protection if you're willing to sleep in the guest closet when the natives become restless and the "throw the bastard foreign President out on his ear" riots start.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/23/mainsection.tomphillips
and complete with runway for quick getaway.
don't forget the aquifer down the block...
Planet Goldilocks
Honestly this has nothing to do with muslims . It has to do with the fact that in order to get into the EU the french gov't (the corporate socialists who destroyed small business before sarkozy) made a deal with the largest companies in the country . Basically they took billions of cash up front to get their debt ratio to GDP down below 3% so the could gain membership in the EU . What the companies got in return was the gov't taking on the responsibility of paying those companies pensions in the future . Hence, they strike today because the gov't doesn't have the money to pay because of the extra obligations .
And the Euro plunges ... up
CNBC has obviously learned there lesson, they are not showing any pictures of Paris streets as they did of Greece on May 5.
3.5M according to unions
1.2M according to police
Zero according to american media.
LMAO! =]
Wouldn't want American children to get bad ideas. /sarc
American media.
They can count to potatoe.
*BREAKING*
"The French Government has Surrendered to the Protesters"
- stay tuned.
They've found a way to make lunch free for another 6 weeks?
They've found a way to make the banksters pay for their lunch for once?
Well they were overdue for surrendering to someone.
"...Oh I get it. It's very clever."
Still bitter they wouldn't join your old flame's 'Coalition of the Willing' I see.
"How's that working out for you, being clever?"
Regards
does that mean it's a World War now?
The french are strorming the bastille again? Yeah bring out the guillotines!!!
You think they wouldn't go there?
Irrelevant!
Nice group of folks out for a walk. Well behaved.
Did they take 2 hours for lunch? Were the restaurants closed?
Watts 1965. Now that was interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRDvY_anJdc
And what meaningful political change came out of that? And maybe a better question is why didn't it - I don't know.
That's an easy one: NOBODY cares when the po'folk riot in their *own* neighborhood.
Something interesting might've happened if them Wattsies had strolled a few miles to Beverly Hills.
Best behavior on display until they hit about Culver City or so...
Won't happen in the US bc there's football and golf 24/7 on the teevee.
I guess Americans and Zero hedgers like to get fucked by the financial community and are unprepared to do anything of substance to protect themselves against this money transfer experiment.
Its about time the French got serious - I was getting worried for that Great nation for a while.
If somebody could direct them towards the people behind the state instead of the state itself - there actions might even be effective.
Vive le France.
Ah, but first, lunch and a nap, non?
I find 'Un ballon du vin rouge' is always good for a little 'fire in the belly'.
Americans these days confuse effective efficient work that actually does something useful with a Gerbil like economy where vast numbers of rodent like creatures who spin around in wheels , consume vast amounts of energy and achieve very little.
The Human Brain as many uses- but one of its primary functions is to achieve a goal or obtain a object through the most efficient means possible.
you've never had a woman around, have you?
Elaborate rituals and displays with a prodigious waste of energy to achieve a certain ascendancy is indeed a large part of nature
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgnOQqLhrlw .
Touche.
... And Americans need to have some bloated, 'roid-crazy, "manager" running around and shouting at them to keep them motivated. Reminds them off being persistently bullied at school, I guess.
Fscking Kangaroos
LOL!!
They want to work 30 hours per week, have 6 weeks paid vacation, full benefits and expect to get a pension too!
DOUBLE LOL!!
Must be the water in France where money just grows on trees.
C'mon get real.
Triple LOL (lol lol lol) Spoken like a true wage-slave suffering from an acute case of Stockholm Syndrome!
Bonne Chance, you eunuch jelly thou!
Au contraire mon frere.
It's been ages since anyone has paid me a wage. Nobody wanted to pay me what I was asking for and I like working as much as I can get my sticky fingers on. I'm on track to semi-retire at 55.
See, it's good to work as much as possible between the age of 25 and 55 and then have a great party!
Then again, you could get hit by a bus...
Appy polly logies walküre : congratz, it's not you, just the duped line you tout; bent horn you blow; ignorant rote you spew; conditioned blather you trumpet... you get the idea.
lol dude you have 2 hour lunch breaks here!
It's been covered and ongoing, you're 2 years late to the bankster unmasking party.
French Socialists love to march for show (where's the farm tractor blockade this year?).
We just take care of business.
+1!!!!
Banksters & Kleptocrats rape the Treasury and then pronounce "austerity is necessary".
It is fucking humourous I tell you.
Bingo.
BINGO - been going on for hundreds if not thousands of years. Recognize it for what it is and all of a sudden the fog of lies just lifts away.
Wow, Apple approaches 300. Rally on.
If we could convince everyone holding AAPL long to liquidate at... say 310, what a fine party we'll have.
<sarc on>
The striking workers won't starve...
Let them eat cake! Marie Antoinette had it right. She was the Lady Gaga of her time.
Someone should just tell the protestors to go long equities.Do they not know money is free now. If necessary Ben will scale the Eiffel tower and drop Bennies
We've all gone from "It Just takes a Village" to "It just takes a lighted match" in no time.
Appears to be a rather tame demonstration.
http://www.wwnewsflash.com/paris-strike
Nothing serious. France is always on strike a few days after New Moon, or when some clouds are up in the sky. Once a month or so, minimum. A good fundament of the EUR.
Stupid fucking Kraut hates French!
Bist du neidisch?
Does anyone on zh get together? We could really make a difference if we did.
Hey Big Boy.
This is a fight club, not a frat. Keeps our minds sharp.
Yep had to happen.....Hope U.S gets a good look at what's commin' down the pike We'll be there by the new year
"students managed to force the government to withdraw a plan to introduce more flexible short-term work contracts for the young"
- send them to Fuking China see how happy they would be
I love how everyone bags on the French here. I'm not there biggest fan, culturally and nasally speaking, but what the fuck? In case you hadn't noticed the crooked fucking world banker syndicate hasn't obeyed national lines... At least they have the balls to stand up and shout from the rooftops. You bunch of cowards? (and I include myself with the exception of some tea party rallies) I think not.
If even a decent sized minority decided to strike work, taxes, and mortgages and rents for even just a month we could make the powers that be shake in their boots and capitulate.
Oh, I'm sorry, that's something free men would do, and that's not you is it? Oh well, lets wait for collapse, total war, the NWO, or a benign dictator.... I'm sure that will work. What's on TV tonight? Go Rangers....
I'll give them credit for marching when they're pissed, but continue to mock them for marching about stupid bullshit, like outrage over reforms that mean they might be fired for not following instructions from their managers. Oh, le horror!
Their young adults are even more more crammed full of a sense of entitlement than ours are. They're not in the street demanding freedom, they're throwing a hissy fit because they want someone to hold their hands.
It's way better for the general populace to err on the side of entitlement and bitchiness than pusiness. At worst, the system will collapse into anarchy, as opposed to neo-feudalism or complete fascism which you're looking at in the US.
Totally agree. At least they have the courage to go out and do something, right or wrong. The bankers have nothing to fear from America, which is why things will have to hit rock bottom here. People won't really get motivated till their hungry, they will be to concerned if their neighbor is getting away with something an they aren't.
What is worse, imo, is that so many of those who flatter themselves as not being of the sheeple freely spout resignation to further abuse, "ahh, the taxpayer will just have to pay for the MBS fraud bailout" as if it were wisdom.
We're not victims. We're volunteers.
"We're not victims. We're volunteers."
that's a brilliant point, bob, especially considering mako's MMM lesson from last week.
we're volunteers made to believe we're victims.
It's all too easy to fall into that mode. I think we need to keep ourselves honest--if you help keep me honest, I'll do likewise for you.
I think we've got to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Resignation by any name is no longer an option we can afford.
you're on bob.
Yet another "benefit" of constantly stoking the partisan politics coals. Can you imagine Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians (both the real and fake ones) putting their petty bullshit aside and actually taking to the streets, hand in hand? Not when Fox News and MSNBC drive that wedge deeper.
Nope. I can't actually imagine that. It is sad I know.
The protests of the late '60s accomplished very little.
CC,
American/Canadians or any other hard-working country would have more than enough reason to strike.
In France, its 2 hr lunch breaks, 34 hr work weeks, and retirement most typically at late 50s (dont let the 60 round # fool you).
So the French are basically whiners. I like French people for the most part and am actually here for the next few months, but the general strikes once a week piss me the fuck off.
Dylan Ratigan is doing a blow out expose on the MBS mess on MSNBC right now. He's tearing the banksters a new one.
This is gonna hit the front pages sometime in the next week, imo.
Why don't they just come to America? Where their pensions are fully funded and will be paid out at par for the rest of their lives, regardless of reality.
Apparently, no one in France was smart enough to just tell them they would get everything they could ever want and more.
In America, we have close to 40 million people on strike everyday! You don't even have to leave your house to strike, mostly because they won't foreclose on you anyways.
I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.
Edit(OT): Just bought my first year supply of freeze-dried food. Felt better than buying gold coins.
Really disappointing to see all the comments ripping on them for protesting. I guess everyone here wants the model of a few thousand billionaires and the rest of us living hand to mouth working in sweatshops like China, if you're lucky to get one of those gigs.
At least they have the stones to try to oppose the banking takeover of the world. In the US everyone just plugs on the TV, i-pad, internet and goes comfortably numb, "hoping" that the next President will bring "change".
I blame Hamilton and his disinformation campaign.
"In the US everyone just plugs on the TV, i-pad, internet and goes comfortably numb, "hoping" that the next President will bring "change".
In France - and much more Germany! - everyone just plugs on the TV, i-pad, internet and goes comfortably numb, hoping that the next President/Cancellor will bring change.... French strikes are boring because (1) they smell like scheduled by (2) well-established and well-paid Union asses, supported by teachers, children and professional protesters. No significant influence to EURUSD or EURCHF.
A strike in Germany would be worrisome. In France? Not so much. Who cares. Overpaid public servants and underaccomplished workers go on strike. Big effen deal.
As long as Thyssen, Krupp, Mannesman, Bayer, Mercedes, BMW, Lufthansa etc are not on strike.. the world is in good shape.
Why are German corporations that depend on the unsustainable consumption of other countries superior to French utilities that depend to a large extent on domestic demand.
The German economy is the mirror image of the deindustrialised financial centres - they are infact a symbiotic organism that depend on capital reduction for their temporary wealth.
That's very philosophical and you may have a point.
But until the day that I'd loose sleep over what you are saying, I go with the Arabs, the Russians, the Chinese and the Indians that are very much interested in owning a piece of Germany.
The French have their problems. They need to deal with it themselves. When they're unhappy they go after the elite and demand their heads to be cut off. All the while they follow the next group that promises them more bread and cheese. Read the history on the French Revolution to understand.
Unionistas in France are full blown communists. Animal Farm a la mode.
I don't think its philosophical - the Germans are the ECBs bitch. At the moment they are receiving some loving from the central bankers.
When the central bankers find another whore they will bitch slap the Germans again.
I am not saying that the French are always right - but there was always a tradition withen the Paris executive of tough love with the bankers - not unlike the attitude withen the US treasury before the Friedmanite revolution
Please refer to the second FT article on the Euro crisis today - it is full of the usual propoganda about fiscal debt but has a interesting graph of the total euro debt since the start of the decade.
There has been a massive increase of corporate financial and non financial debt and a substantial increase in household debt but Goverment debt has only increased slightly during the height of the crisis.
The ECBs 3% fiscal debt rule has forced German and French savings into speculative monetory instruments that inflated Iberia and Ireland via pointless development that will explode because of lack of revenue - meanwhile investment in German energy infrastructure has been limited to dubious solar projects - its boom is based on cheap Russian gas which compromises its independence for short term wealth.
The Paris executive have always realised that this artificial brake on the nation states debt is a attack on its sovereignty by the ECB and has to a limited extent fought this papal bull.
Increasing production for maoist principles is a very communisst idea and the German state has engaged in this activity - although to be fair they produce more then just pig iron.
And once again Dork of Cork proves himself to be a whale's penis in moniker only; by deservedly spanking walkure's ignorant, programmed rote.
Bit off more than you could chew again, eh dubya?
We live in an uber-American fantasy world.