Bailouts will continue worldwide, because the world's financial system and its underlying economic theories are outdated ever since
we left the gold standard in 1971
Show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why Show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why For if we don't find the next whisky bar I tell you we must die I tell you we must die
***
Show me the way to the next little dollar Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why Show me the way to the next little dollar Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why For if we don't find the next little dollar I tell you we must die I tell you we must die
Lifetime Marxist Bertolt Brecht's lyrics sum up today's endless chain of bailouts. How prophetic this tune is. Enjoy the video of Blythe, the Bernank at the piano, & Timmay G. at the jugs.
Thanks WB, am currently in Taian China and needed a good laugh. As you probably know, rural China is an ambush on one's senses (sight, hearing and smell) as well as western perceptions of civility, personal space and reason. Your posts offer a welcome break.
Oh, that's the finger of Gratitude! Yes, thank you for that, may I have another? Heh heh.
BTW, I'm reading a book called Ode To A Banker by Lindsey Davis at the moment which is a murder mystery set in the Rome of Vespasian and involves the brutal murder of a banker (what else?).
The "private eye" hero (Marcus Didius Falco) has a nickname for his own banker, from the Greek - since, FWIW, most of the bankers in Rome at that time were Greeks: Nothokleptes, which loosely translates as "Thieving Bastard". For some reason, the name stuck.
WB, you seem to be fighting for some time now, with how to get the pictures online, in a user-friendly way.
My hint: How about good old thumbnails with a max width of 640, and then *direct* links to fullsize pictures?
Giant pictures on the site here, are as annoying to use, as links to flicker, where for some unknown reason every tiny feature (even just getting a direct link to the fullsize pic), has to use stupid scripting and applets that malfunction 80% of the time, instead of just a good old hyperlink.
I mean, why complicated, when web 1.0 does the job and works for everyone?
Truthfully, it begins with a ZH. User interface that is incompatible with Macs. I can't do anything about the double banner and small image format means people will have to constantly cluck off of the site.
For example, that palm and the eye chart would require thousands of viewers to click off site.
William, why not set all the pictures to a consistent width? The pics on this post vary from 711 to 1024 pixels wide at resolutions between 72dpi and 398dpi. Can't you set them all to 640 pixels wide at 72dpi or 96dpi, and then up the resolution for the more detailed ones to 150dpi+?
But they have to click offsite, or go through a "rightclick -> view image, then press back button"-procedure now anyways, unless they have a really large screen (I can only see about 50% of those images, and thus cannot view them on ZH fullsize anyways).
Ethics is always kind of fuzzy, isn't it. Especially when you want it that way. Makes it so much easier to work around it, through it or to flat out dump it all on the side of the road as excess baggage.
Ethics is for the little people. It helps keep them out of the way of the real business of America...........the thieving.
I never figured out what ethics is supposed to mean. Sometimes people just use it synonymous with morals, but then we've got the term morals for that already, don't we? Then sometimes people use it to imply "the theory behind morals".... uh, yeah, why not just call it moral theory then?
I taught an ethics course in a major brokerage firm for over a year many moons ago as both a refresher course and as part of the new broker training program. My course was always considered a joke when they walked in. Two days later they had a different attitude.
Of course, then they are thrown right back into the black abyss where the only thing that counts is your last trading commission. Kind of hard staying clean when you play with the pig-men. But that also provides a convenient excuse to let it rip. After all, you ain't doing anything different than everyone else in the pen.
Ethical behaviour starts at the top. Or more to the point, if there isn't ethical behaviour at the top, the attitude quickly trickles down to the floor. Then the gang rape begins, though the rapists always will say otherwise.
I still don't get what "ethics" is.... from your post above, all i could infer was morals, logics and plain old selfhonesty - and i'd argue that in an ideal world, one doesn't even need morals for that (i define morals simply as a set of conventions, what a *group* considers "good" and "bad") - just honesty and logic alone should already result in individually recognizing what kind of crap one is doing.
You are correct. It is an extremely slippery slope with ethics usually defined in hind sight without the influence of peer pressure, greed or fear to cloud your judgement.
As I often explained to my classes, what was consider by the majority to be ethical 200 years ago (slavery for example) was usually based upon self serving parameters. The same holds true today. Throw in the obvious fact that those at the top are not held to the same standard as the entry level brokers are and you have clear incentive to rape and pillage all up and down the line.
CD, I always thought that the corporate reason to teach business ethics was a) corporate self-preservation/protection: "We Told Them...", b) to have the employees know where the lines are, c) to let the more creative figure out where the limits exist in the gray zone, and d) to be able to exercise management prerogatives/displeasure post hoc.
But never did think that the sessions would have any lasting effects.
That pretty much describes how it was/is seen by those at the top. And the proof is the common explanation for ethical "lapses" that are always and only perpetrated by lone wolf rouge traders acting contrary to corporate policy and written procedures.
It is official CYA and when you talk to someone in "compliance" after a few beers some might even admit to you that in realty they are the keep-the-executives-out-of-jail department that manufactures plausible deniability.
The first 10 years of my career I moved up the ladder until the stench became so bad that I spent the next 10 years climbing back down and moving around until today I am fully independent. By no means does that make me pure. But at least I don't have someone over me telling me to be ethical while at the same time telling me to sell, sell, sell the high commission products regardless of need or suitability or I will be replaced.
You can always tell very quickly if the place you're working for plays fast and loose or not. It's then up to you to decide if you will go along or leave. If you decide to stay then past that point you are just as much a whore as everyone else around you. The only difference is your price.
At first I believed I could be a clean and honest company whore working among the filthy. But eventually there comes a point where you recognize you are only lying to yourself. That there is just no way to stay clean in the pig pen. So I then began looking for clean companies and I did find one where I created from scratch the in house sales program. But once it began to grow and the execs saw what other programs were producing, all the talk about running a clean and honest program went bye-bye in pursuit of greater profits. I moved once more, then went independent.
That about sums up my path, though it took me less moves to come to that conclusion. My entry into the wonderful corporate world was like "I came, was disgusted, and left". Ironic thing is: Now that i am independent, and get to see lots of companies and corporations as a non-employee, i actually get to see companies where i would feel comfortable to be employed - but such a kind of pool of options one cannot get as an employee - one is basically buying the pig in a poke.
It is my understanding that "pigs" don't actually like to live in a dirty filthy pigpen. It is the human keepers (and Wall Street PigMen) that like it so much they emulate the conditions in their big cities and slums.
Sorry ;-) In german, it's called "Buying the cat in a bag", but it appears that in english they prefer pigs over cats. And i'm saying that as someone who likes cats :)
Speaking from an outsider's point of view when considering Obama's actions, one word comes instantly to mind, that is woefully inadequate to describe his program - EXTREME DISAPOINTMENT. Okay. Two words!
You're too hard on the boy; I'm sure he would have made a perfectly good elevator operator; he was just "affirmative-actioned" into a position over his head.
William,
One of your best!
DavidC
Bailouts will continue worldwide, because the world's financial system and its underlying economic theories are outdated ever since
we left the gold standard in 1971
Check out the latest from the Capital Research Institute http://capitalresearchinstitute.org
First lady describes toll of job on husband
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/06/first-lady-de...
Losing is winnning and winning is losing.
They will make certain that your assets are confiscated, and your confiscated ass will be worked in the labor camps (Kleptoligarchy).
Show us the way to the next Bailout Bar:
Show me the way to the next whisky bar
Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why
Show me the way to the next whisky bar
Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why
For if we don't find the next whisky bar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
***
Show me the way to the next little dollar
Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why
Show me the way to the next little dollar
Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why
For if we don't find the next little dollar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
Lifetime Marxist Bertolt Brecht's lyrics sum up today's endless chain of bailouts. How prophetic this tune is. Enjoy the video of Blythe, the Bernank at the piano, & Timmay G. at the jugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLMp50iK0G0&feature=related
Thanks WB, am currently in Taian China and needed a good laugh. As you probably know, rural China is an ambush on one's senses (sight, hearing and smell) as well as western perceptions of civility, personal space and reason. Your posts offer a welcome break.
Yes, rural China is a different world. But I am sure it has certain merits if done British. Just don't drink the water and boil everything you eat.
Seriously, consider yourself lucky to be seeing what you are seeing at such an extraordinary time.
williambanzai7
Our own Digital (Jacques-Louis) David.
the charts are spot on
Welcome the Obama-nation ...
Oh, that's the finger of Gratitude! Yes, thank you for that, may I have another? Heh heh.
BTW, I'm reading a book called Ode To A Banker by Lindsey Davis at the moment which is a murder mystery set in the Rome of Vespasian and involves the brutal murder of a banker (what else?).
The "private eye" hero (Marcus Didius Falco) has a nickname for his own banker, from the Greek - since, FWIW, most of the bankers in Rome at that time were Greeks: Nothokleptes, which loosely translates as "Thieving Bastard". For some reason, the name stuck.
I hope the hero gets away ;-)
Safe bet I think. There are 6 more books in the series.
Have to read just for entertainment, now and then. Davis is pretty funny, too.
WB7, LMFAO! Time and time again you provide me with a laugh to make it through the day! Can't thank you enough!
Keep on truckin ;-)
Nice try, Banzai, but it's probably completely hopeless. When do you think you'll throw in the towel?
Throwing towels is not in my nature.
Throwing tantrums?
Thrown under a bus?
Throwing rocks?
Throwing a line?
Thrown for a loop?
I'll take throwing up for 100.
dup post
No, no, no. The glass is half full.
For those of you that find yourselves on your couch right now, "This is Sparta1"
No, no, no, the glass is twice the size it needs to be...
WB, you seem to be fighting for some time now, with how to get the pictures online, in a user-friendly way.
My hint: How about good old thumbnails with a max width of 640, and then *direct* links to fullsize pictures?
Giant pictures on the site here, are as annoying to use, as links to flicker, where for some unknown reason every tiny feature (even just getting a direct link to the fullsize pic), has to use stupid scripting and applets that malfunction 80% of the time, instead of just a good old hyperlink.
I mean, why complicated, when web 1.0 does the job and works for everyone?
Truthfully, it begins with a ZH. User interface that is incompatible with Macs. I can't do anything about the double banner and small image format means people will have to constantly cluck off of the site.
For example, that palm and the eye chart would require thousands of viewers to click off site.
William, why not set all the pictures to a consistent width? The pics on this post vary from 711 to 1024 pixels wide at resolutions between 72dpi and 398dpi. Can't you set them all to 640 pixels wide at 72dpi or 96dpi, and then up the resolution for the more detailed ones to 150dpi+?
But they have to click offsite, or go through a "rightclick -> view image, then press back button"-procedure now anyways, unless they have a really large screen (I can only see about 50% of those images, and thus cannot view them on ZH fullsize anyways).
Ethics is always kind of fuzzy, isn't it. Especially when you want it that way. Makes it so much easier to work around it, through it or to flat out dump it all on the side of the road as excess baggage.
Ethics is for the little people. It helps keep them out of the way of the real business of America...........the thieving.
I never figured out what ethics is supposed to mean. Sometimes people just use it synonymous with morals, but then we've got the term morals for that already, don't we? Then sometimes people use it to imply "the theory behind morals".... uh, yeah, why not just call it moral theory then?
I taught an ethics course in a major brokerage firm for over a year many moons ago as both a refresher course and as part of the new broker training program. My course was always considered a joke when they walked in. Two days later they had a different attitude.
Of course, then they are thrown right back into the black abyss where the only thing that counts is your last trading commission. Kind of hard staying clean when you play with the pig-men. But that also provides a convenient excuse to let it rip. After all, you ain't doing anything different than everyone else in the pen.
Ethical behaviour starts at the top. Or more to the point, if there isn't ethical behaviour at the top, the attitude quickly trickles down to the floor. Then the gang rape begins, though the rapists always will say otherwise.
I still don't get what "ethics" is.... from your post above, all i could infer was morals, logics and plain old selfhonesty - and i'd argue that in an ideal world, one doesn't even need morals for that (i define morals simply as a set of conventions, what a *group* considers "good" and "bad") - just honesty and logic alone should already result in individually recognizing what kind of crap one is doing.
Trapped in morality is for big people.
Ethics is the straight line and obviously no one understands it; if they did we wouldn't be in the mess we are in.
Ethics was for an earlier age----just a word---it no longer exists
You are correct. It is an extremely slippery slope with ethics usually defined in hind sight without the influence of peer pressure, greed or fear to cloud your judgement.
As I often explained to my classes, what was consider by the majority to be ethical 200 years ago (slavery for example) was usually based upon self serving parameters. The same holds true today. Throw in the obvious fact that those at the top are not held to the same standard as the entry level brokers are and you have clear incentive to rape and pillage all up and down the line.
Welcome to Crimerica.
CD, I always thought that the corporate reason to teach business ethics was a) corporate self-preservation/protection: "We Told Them...", b) to have the employees know where the lines are, c) to let the more creative figure out where the limits exist in the gray zone, and d) to be able to exercise management prerogatives/displeasure post hoc.
But never did think that the sessions would have any lasting effects.
- Ned
That pretty much describes how it was/is seen by those at the top. And the proof is the common explanation for ethical "lapses" that are always and only perpetrated by lone wolf rouge traders acting contrary to corporate policy and written procedures.
It is official CYA and when you talk to someone in "compliance" after a few beers some might even admit to you that in realty they are the keep-the-executives-out-of-jail department that manufactures plausible deniability.
The first 10 years of my career I moved up the ladder until the stench became so bad that I spent the next 10 years climbing back down and moving around until today I am fully independent. By no means does that make me pure. But at least I don't have someone over me telling me to be ethical while at the same time telling me to sell, sell, sell the high commission products regardless of need or suitability or I will be replaced.
You can always tell very quickly if the place you're working for plays fast and loose or not. It's then up to you to decide if you will go along or leave. If you decide to stay then past that point you are just as much a whore as everyone else around you. The only difference is your price.
At first I believed I could be a clean and honest company whore working among the filthy. But eventually there comes a point where you recognize you are only lying to yourself. That there is just no way to stay clean in the pig pen. So I then began looking for clean companies and I did find one where I created from scratch the in house sales program. But once it began to grow and the execs saw what other programs were producing, all the talk about running a clean and honest program went bye-bye in pursuit of greater profits. I moved once more, then went independent.
Twice in my life I have quit jobs when I was asked to bill for services not done. The first one was a complete fraud. I quit on the spot.
The second time I was asked to sign a monthly maintenace inspection that had not been done.
The customer had paid for 12 inspections and my boss wanted me sign off on month that I had not visited because of the work load.
I told him we would talk about it the next day. The next morning I dropped my company vehicle in the parking lot and dropped the keys on his desk.
Right and wrong are not concepts. Ethics is not just a word.
I was unemployeed for three months before finding my next job. I lost about half of my savings. I never lost one minute of sleep.
That about sums up my path, though it took me less moves to come to that conclusion. My entry into the wonderful corporate world was like "I came, was disgusted, and left". Ironic thing is: Now that i am independent, and get to see lots of companies and corporations as a non-employee, i actually get to see companies where i would feel comfortable to be employed - but such a kind of pool of options one cannot get as an employee - one is basically buying the pig in a poke.
Are you talking about your experience in America or some other country?
Germany.
CD (from above) and Rynak--I applaud your comments, but, well ... I'm a little bit discomforted with the nasty pig references.
Maybe that's just me ;-(
- Ned
It is my understanding that "pigs" don't actually like to live in a dirty filthy pigpen. It is the human keepers (and Wall Street PigMen) that like it so much they emulate the conditions in their big cities and slums.
Sorry ;-) In german, it's called "Buying the cat in a bag", but it appears that in english they prefer pigs over cats. And i'm saying that as someone who likes cats :)
Speaking from an outsider's point of view when considering Obama's actions, one word comes instantly to mind, that is woefully inadequate to describe his program - EXTREME DISAPOINTMENT. Okay. Two words!
Somewhere in cyberspace there's a photoshop of Zero standing amidst a smoking wasteland. Caption: "well, my work here is done."
Man, you are awesome!
You're too hard on the boy; I'm sure he would have made a perfectly good elevator operator; he was just "affirmative-actioned" into a position over his head.
wild bill hickonomics...
lol @ obamanomics, bushonomics, etc...
just call it what it really is: rothschildonomics.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/3/image001gk.gif/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/27/graphathy.jpg/