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Michael Pento Explains The CNBC Incident, Shares His Other Concerns (Uninterrupted And GE-Commercial Free)
For some, this week's incident on CNBC where Michael Pento was kicked off CNBC for daring to question the basic assumption that his host Erin Burnett presented as fact, was perplexing (to others, who are well aware of the modus operandi of the TV station is, not so much). In a follow up interview that was uninterrupted by commercial breaks and octoboxes, with King World News, Michael Pento gives a post-mortem of just what transpired: "I looked at it 4 times and I don't when I went off the rails, I thought it was a bit unwarranted. All I was doing was being very passionate about an issue I feel very strongly about." The core of the disagreement of course, is the underlying assumption which CNBC takes as gospel, which is that no matter what, interest rates will not, are not allowed to rise (which together with a failed treasury auction, will be the key indicators of the "beginning of the end"). And Pento is completely right to question this as the underlying "factual basis" of any rhetorical question: "We as Americans have no right to believe that interest rates on the 10 year, which are far below their historic 49 year average, 7.31%, are now on 2.7%, so the onus is not on me that interest rates will rise. The onus is on other people to convince me and the investing public that the US bond market will always be in a perpetual bubble that will never burst. And if you look at the data, it shows that this can not be a sustainable situation." Pento then goes on to highlight all the facts that certainly make his case, but that ultimately all collapse into one thing: that the Fed will be able to continue to control, and frankly, manipulate the rate market for perpetuity. This is a flawed assumption and sooner or later Ben Bernanke will lose control as with every system which is in disequilibrium, the snapback to a sustainable balance will occur, and the longer it is kept away from its natural state, the more violent the snapback will be.
One point that Pento discusses that bears further attention, is his argument that governmental investment in the economy should decline and the private sector should be encouraged to pick up the slack. Of course, with the Balance of Payments equation which is now on the forefront of public attention, this means that unless the Current Account goes positive, the private sector is unlikely to be able to pick up the slack from a collapse in endless governmental stimulus (and thus constant debt creation). Which goes to the crux of the Keynesian-Austrian debate. Many would say here that instead of having funded the government apparatus, which as even Mort Zuckerman points out is beyond unwieldy and has grown excessively, the government should have instead have focused on making the US competitive from an international trade standpoint, a topic even Warren Buffett lamented in his non-corrupt days, when he was actually a voice of reason, and not just unbridled, government captured greed. Alas, that would mean a total break from the current Chinese trade surplus hegemony and realigning the US economy in a way that would result in a dramatic shock to millions of people who realize they are simply uncompetitive in the global picture (and thus redundant in the job market) but which would serve as another much needed reset to get America off on a way to long-lost prosperity with an attempt to reincarnate the American manufacturing sector while gradually phasing out the service sector (and especially its "financial innovation" component) . Yet as Gorgon T. Long also pointed out a few days ago, America is now dead set on repeating the destructive Keynesian mistakes of the past, and will continue to fund a broken model until one day, as Michael Pento all too correctly points out, it all snaps, and the "shocking" death of Keynesianism, as described a month ago by Eric Sprott, catches all so many completely unaware.
Of course to explain all this to Erin Burnett, who still believes that the government has done a great job with the "fastest" recovery in the past 20 years, which would be correct if one could eliminate those little pesky things known as "facts", is beyond folly. All those who are invited to CNBC, and dare to explain the truth: you have been warned.
Llink to Pento post-mortem on King World News.
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I hear she's great at the shot put.
LOL
Sylvia wow ... I remember around tech bubble time, she was wearing a sleeveless top commenting from Frankfurt. Fat boy, Mark Haines was in New York. He complimented here on her lovely new tatoo, barbed wire around her right biceps. Last time they let her go sleeveless, thank goodness!
Sylvia vs Haines smackdown. Sylvia wins every time. Haines is without doubt the biggest waste of skin on CNBC, as I have ranted before here.
...and Haines comb-over! Gawd.
BREAKING NEWS - CNBC shake-up. Erin and Mark out. Sylvia and Mike in.
Stung by criticism that CNBC is a Wall Street propaganda tool and can't handle the truth, CNBC announced a major shake-up in "Squawk on the Street", replacing Erin Burnett and Mark Haines with Sylvia Wadhwa and Michael Pento. The 9am show, retitled as "The Rude, Crude, Real Squawk on the Street", promises to be a no-holds-barred probing of Wall Street sphincters. CNBC spokesman said this is the first in a series of sweeping changes in daytime programming.
Forced out of CNBC, Erin plans to start her own business, a Miss Etiquette website, with $10 million seed money from Goldman Sachs petty cash fund. Mark says he looks forward to a new career in a boiler room operation pushing stocks on pensioners, widows and orphans. Other CNBC anchors see the handwriting on the wall. Trish Regan and Joe Kernan have auditioned for Dancin' with the Stars, but rumors say Trish is miffed because Joe has two left feet and is limp as a wet noodle.
Well, Becky Quick isn't entirely unattractive, and her "Make love not debt" article yesterday not only gave me some dirty thoughts, but also made a fair bit of sense.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/10/make-love-not-debt/?section=ma...
Carolin Schober is perfect.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35819091/Carolin_Schober_s_Profile
Very nice. Bet gold turns her on ...
jawohl
Swiss chocolate.
she used to be hot when she was in bloomberg
The pun is intentional? Made me laugh.
How dare Pento question the Fuhrer on air! Send him to Stalingrad!!
"Hogan! Thirty days in the cooler!"
This is mainstream financial media right? Erin is pleasing eye candy and speaks well, perfect for the financial propaganda national initiative. Eternal Student has it correct, Baghdad Bob is running the show while the tanks are moving down the streets mowing down whatever is in the way. Michael 'stands with a fist' is in the way.
erin burnett is a member of CFR.
The late Carroll Quigley member of the CFR, stated in his book, "Tragedy & Hope":
"The CFR is the American Branch of a society which originated in England, and which believes that national boundaries should be obliterated, and a one-world rule established."
Rear Admiral Chester Ward, a former member of the Cfr for 16 years, warned the American people of the organization’s intentions:
"The most powerful clique in these elitist groups have one objective in common — they want to bring about the surrender of the sovereingty of the national independence of the United States. A second clique of international members in the CFR comprises the Wall Street international bankers and their key agents. Primarily, they want the world banking monopoly from whatever power ends up in the control of global government."
And Dan Smoot, a former member of the FBI Headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., summarized the organization’s purpose as follows:
"The ultimate aim of the CFR is to create a one-world socialist system, and to make the U.S. an official part of it."
We can also assume that GE and cnbc by extension, share the same aims.
I think once this is understood, then their act makes sense. They lie all the time at the expense of 99.99% of the country. Once realized, the internal question becomes "What does one do about it"?
CNBC lurker junked you...
Your avatar still scares me.
Juxtaposition of "Primarily, they want the world banking monopoly from whatever power ends up in the control of global government." with "FBI Headquarters summarized the organization’s purpose: to create a one-world socialist system, and to make the U.S. an official part of it."---
conflates international gangsta predator bankers--- with "a one-world socialist system.'--
Not the same thing at all, dude-- and unfortunate obfuscation.
Anyone who doesn't understand the difference should see this:
We're Living in a Kleptocracy: Fears of Socialism and Fascism Are a Distraction from the Naked Theft of Trillions
By William Astore
Tomdispatch.com
Kleptocracy -- now, there’s a word I was taught to associate with corrupt and exploitative governments that steal ruthlessly and relentlessly from the people. It’s a word, in fact, that’s usually applied to flawed or failed governments in Africa, Latin America, or the nether regions of Asia. Such governments are typically led by autocratic strong men who shower themselves and their cronies with all the fruits of extracted wealth, whether stolen from the people or squeezed from their country’s natural resources. It’s not a word you’re likely to see associated with a mature republic like the United States led by disinterested public servants and regulated by more-or-less transparent principles and processes.
In fact, when Americans today wish to critique or condemn their government, the typical epithets used are “socialism” or “fascism.” When my conservative friends are upset, they send me emails with links to material about “ObamaCare” and the like. These generally warn of a future socialist takeover of the private realm by an intrusive, power-hungry government. When my progressive friends are upset, they send me emails with links pointing to an incipient fascist takeover of our public and private realms, led by that same intrusive, power-hungry government (and, I admit it, I’m hardly innocent when it comes to such “what if” scenarios).
What if, however, instead of looking at where our government might be headed, we took a closer look at where we are -- at the power-brokers who run or influence our government, at those who are profiting and prospering from it? These are, after all, the “winners” in our American world in terms of the power they wield and the wealth they acquire. And shouldn’t we be looking as well at those Americans who are losing -- their jobs, their money, their homes, their healthcare, their access to a better way of life -- and asking why?
If we were to take an honest look at America’s blasted landscape of “losers” and the far shinier, spiffier world of “winners,” we’d have to admit that it wasn’t signs of onrushing socialism or fascism that stood out, but of staggeringly self-aggrandizing greed and theft right in the here and now. We’d notice our public coffers being emptied to benefit major corporations and financial institutions working in close alliance with, and passing on remarkable sums of money to, the representatives of “the people.” We’d see, in a word, kleptocracy on a scale to dazzle. We would suddenly see an almost magical disappearing act being performed, largely without comment, right before our eyes.
Of Red Herrings and Missing Pallets of Money
Think of socialism and fascism as the red herrings of this moment or, if you’re an old time movie fan, as Hitchcockian MacGuffins -- in other words, riveting distractions. Conservatives and tea partiers fear invasive government regulation and excessive taxation, while railing against government takeovers -- even as corporate lobbyists write our public healthcare bills to favor private interests. Similarly, progressives rail against an emergent proto-fascist corps of private guns-for-hire, warrantless wiretapping, and the potential government-approved assassination of U.S. citizens, all sanctioned by a perpetual, and apparently open-ended, state of war.
Yet, if this is socialism, why are private health insurers the government’s go-to guys for healthcare coverage? If this is fascism, why haven’t the secret police rounded up tea partiers and progressive critics as well and sent them to the lager or the gulag?
Consider this: America is not now, nor has it often been, a hotbed of political radicalism. We have no substantial socialist or workers’ party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the corporate-friendly “Democrat” party here.) We have no substantial fascist party. (Unless you’re deluded, please don’t count the cartoonish “tea partiers” here; thesepredominantly white, graying, and fairly affluent Americans seem most worried that the jackbooted thugs will be coming for them.)
What drives America today is, in fact, business -- just as was true in the days of Calvin Coolidge. But it’s not the fair-minded “free enterprise” system touted in those freshly revised Texas guidelines for American history textbooks; rather, it’s a rigged system of crony capitalism that increasingly ends in what, if we were looking at some other country, we would recognize as an unabashed kleptocracy.
Recall, if you care to, those pallets stacked with hundreds of millions of dollars that the Bush administration sent to Iraq and which, Houdini-like, simply disappeared. Think of the ever-rising cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now in excess of a trillion dollars, and just whose pockets are full, thanks to them.
If you want to know the true state of our government and where it’s heading, follow the money (if you can) and remain vigilant: our kleptocratic Houdinis are hard at work, seeking to make yet more money vanish from your pockets -- and reappear in theirs.
From Each According to His Gullibility -- To Each According to His Greed
Never has the old adage my father used to repeat to me -- “the rich get richer and the poor poorer” -- seemed fresher or truer. If you want confirmation of just where we are today, for instance, consider this passage from a recent piece by Tony Judt:
In 2005, 21.2 percent of U.S. national income accrued to just 1 percent of earners. Contrast 1968, when the CEO of General Motors took home, in pay and benefits, about sixty-six times the amount paid to a typical GM worker. Today the CEO of Wal-Mart earns nine hundred times the wages of his average employee. Indeed, the wealth of the Wal-Mart founder’s family in 2005 was estimated at about the same ($90 billion) as that of the bottom 40 percent of the U.S. population: 120 million people.
Wealth concentration is only one aspect of our increasingly kleptocratic system. War profiteering by corporations (however well disguised as heartfelt support for our heroic warfighters) is another. Meanwhile, retired senior military officers typically line up to cash in on the kleptocratic equivalent of welfare, peddling their “expertise” in return for impressive corporate and Pentagon payouts that supplement their six-figure pensions. Even that putative champion of the Carhartt-wearing common folk, Sarah Palin, pocketed a cool$12 million last year without putting the slightest dent in her populist bona fides.
Based on such stories, now legion, perhaps we should rewrite George Orwell’s famous tagline from Animal Farm as: All animals are equal, but a few are so much more equal than others.
And who are those “more equal” citizens? Certainly, major corporations, which now enjoy a kind of political citizenship and the largesse of a federal government eager to rescue them from their financial mistakes, especially when they’re judged “too big to fail.” In raiding the U.S. Treasury, big banks and investment firms, shamelessly ready to jack up executive pay and bonuses even after accepting billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, arguably outgun militarized multinationals in the conquest of the public realm and the extraction of our wealth for their benefit.
Such kleptocratic outfits are, of course, abetted by thousands of lobbyists and by politicians who thrive off corporate campaign contributions. Indeed, many of our more prominent public servants have proved expert at spinning through the revolving door into the private sector. Even ex-politicians who prefer to be seen as sympathetic to the little guy like former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt eagerly cash in.
I’m Shocked, Shocked, to Find Profiteering Going on Here
An old Roman maxim enjoins us to “let justice be done, though the heavens fall.” Within our kleptocracy, the prevailing attitude is an insouciant “We’ll get ours, though the heavens fall.” This mindset marks the decline of our polity. A spirit of shared sacrifice, dismissed as hopelessly naïve, has been replaced by a form of tribalized privatization in which insiders find ways to profit no matter what.
Is it any surprise then that, in seeking to export our form of government to Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve produced not two model democracies, but two emerging kleptocracies, fueled respectively by oil and opium?
When we confront corruption in Iraq or Afghanistan, are we not like the police chief in the classic movie Casablanca who is shocked, shocked to find gambling going on at Rick’s Café, even as he accepts his winnings?
Why then do we bother to feign shock when Iraqi and Afghan elites, a tiny minority, seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the majority?
Shouldn’t we be flattered? Imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery. Isn’t it?
William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), now teaches at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. His books and articles focus primarily on military history and include Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (Potomac Press, 2005). He may be reached at wastore@pct.edu.holy crap ... +(n+1)
lib soddy, what makes you think that "CFR is to create a one-world socialist system"? As opposed to, for example, the pre-renaissance type of monarchy-church system of control where a few select aristocrats, with the help of 'church', control the rest? That's what I want to know.
erin burnett is a stupid bitch. (i'm toning down my lexicon) ...i'm sorry but there is no other explanation other than her being president of the joseph goebels fan club.
Gorgon T Long ? I once fell asleep reading his article, but I was never turned to stone by it !
Poor Erin Burnett, The sad part is she's so brainwashed that she can't see that REAL life is passing her by. CNBC will toss her when they've used her up.
Things that really matter like kids and a family are not for sale. Her money will not buy love and family. She sold her uterus for fools gold.
She will end up a forty five year old washed up money honey with no family, no kids all alone, living with a cat.
What a sad waste of a womens life.
Oh and put Becky in the same pot. Like cooking a live frog.
Slowly the heat gets turned up.
She'll end up marrying Greenspan and living happily ever after.
Say it isn't true!! How could ANY woman want to wake up in the morning snuggled under clean sheets with the airedale snoozing at the foot of the bed and hearing the horses munching in the grass on the other side of the open window...and not one, no not even ONE man in sight!! And then stroll stark ass naked into the kitchen for that first cup of coffee with...oh no! STILL no man to appreciate her fine ass.
Me pach****. Me, myself and I. And my big 40 may roll around and I may still feel this way. No kids, no man and a whole big cool gorgeous exciting world to explore and life to live. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That's me stretching out under these sheets with no one crowding me. Night m'friend.
C'mon ZH posters. Who junked my happy-without-male-species prose?
The difference between the Democrats and the GOP is that one of them is in control of the public propaganda machine...
The public propaganda machine is corporate owned and controlled as are both the D & R parties. The GOP however, holds the patent and the record for kneepads.
Watched the clip. Not to deny the fact Ms. Burnett clearly drank all the liberal cool-aid she could find during her undergrad studies in "Political Economy" at Williams College; IMO, she seems to have some personal issue with Pento.
CNBC is filled with Keynesians who dont realize they misunderstand their diety or the concept of the debt-end-point...
Pento used to be the sky-is-falling "kook" that CNBS brought on to laugh at. Time is proving that he's the smartest guy they've ever had on.
just wondering if he will be invited ever again.
This is not the first time Erin did this when a guest disagreed. There was another when the guest disagreed with Jim Cramer and she said he was rude and would not be invited back on the show.
Any time a guest gets in a really good point that is not on the CNBC agenda the try to talk over them or as Erin has done twice called them rude and said they would not get back on the show.
Where will this kind of censorship lead to?
I do not understand why you people get so upset about this....what level of intelligence and analytical capabilities do you really expect from a person like her?
Business news presenters (especially female presenters) are not usually selected for their brain....if you read their bios you discover that many of them start their career as "analyst" of some sort at a Wall Street firm (including Mrs, Burnett...she worked at Goldman) before switching to the business news world....do you really think that if they were that smart they would abandon a much more lucrative and professionally rewarding career?
I do not understand why you people get so upset about this....what level of intelligence and analytical capabilities do you really expect from a person like her?
I think that ZHers object to that fact that "a person like her" is force fed to a lot of folks who don't (yet) know any better.
Right. They're not smart like you.
Explain it for us, Crock.
Pento already explained it. Don't tell me you only stopped by to harass people with off topic remarks and you didn't review the source material?
Tyler Durden submitted:
"....if one could eliminate those little pesky things known as "facts",
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Paper: Housing and the Business Cycle
9/11/2010 03:05:00 PM - CalculatedRisk
"From Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith in the WSJ: Why We're in for a Long, Hard Economic Slog
In the Great Depression and in every recession since, recovery of residential construction has preceded recovery in every other sector, and its recovery has been far larger in percentage terms than the recovery in any other major sector.
Applied to the Great Recession, it appears that those who see signs of a recovery may be grasping at straws. This is something I've been writing about since I started the blog in 2005, but it is worth repeating ..."
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/
Well, this was a real mess.
You had a holocaust denier-- "hollowCOST".
A crowd that seems pretty cool with it.
Some really misanthropic comments about women.
Some sick stuff about Erin Burnett's womb.
Yuck.
And don't forget the voyeurist (thrusts finger through hole in wall poking jm in eye).
Speaking up about sick shit on a financial site doesn't make me a voyeurist, but your comment does make you a complete dumbass.
SLLLLLLLaaaaaaaaAaammmmmmMmmm-Ohhhhhhh!
Double plus good! I hear chocolate rations are going up!
F@ck you.
You mean the hegelian dialectic is collapsing and that logic is reasserting itself?
+1000
Logic is irrelevant without observation.
How do you explain away the documented policies of concentration camps, the systematic killing corroborated by thousands of American and other soldiers that liberated these concentration camps, the weight of personal testimony housed in holcaust museums all over the world, and the testimony of Eichmann himself and other functionaries that spells out the genocide plan.
Have you ever been to the Dachau or Auschwitz sites? If you live in the US, go to the Holocaust museum?
I'm talking only to you. Other denier stay out of it. Don't reply with some regurgitated article or other canned crap. Think for yourself.
Many people have been subjected to genocide. Why are these people, who are now subjecting the Palestinians to genocide as well, special?
F@ck that noise. F@ck your BS. Hitler was financed by the same people who run this country.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9442970/Collateral-Damage-US-Covert-Operations...
The Jews know something of genocide.
And they certainly have the capacity.
Do you honestly think they couldn't get a real one going if they felt so inclined.
The Palestinians will come around. The Israelis are stocking their stores with abundant food and large screen tv's are on sale all over the territories.
Soon we will have the peace of the satiated.
And you will have to find another reason to hate Jews.
Potty mouth.
are your for real, and why should I care?
You are vile and empty. You cannot even puke up one shred of support for your venom. You are beneath contempt.
Where are the 24 tons of ashes?
I don't know what you've been through or what you have experienced, but you are better than this. There is something inside of you that can rise out of your dark place. I wish you the best.
Its ironic that a lot of men complain about the reporting by MM bimbos, but remark on how attractive they are which is why they are there and why you watch them. Thus supporting their neccessity to MM.
If you are replying to me, I have no problem with appreciating a beauty. I've said before that Bloomberg has the most beautiful women on TV. If there's brains to go with it, that is pefection.
Is she a shill, sure. Some of this stuff about Erin Burnett is just so mean it is wrong.
I agree and was just pointing out the men are supporting attractive women reporting the news whether they are competent or not by watching them.
Not sure where Chumba went, but he was certain to have gotten your dander up. I read the comments here and while they could be considered sexist, had this been about Dennis "Beaker" Kneale or Steve Liesman, I think the comments would be just as brutal (but maybe not as much from a sexual perspective).
Liesman used to lurk, and for a short time respond, but got SLAUGHTERED here.
Hey, now.
I'm easy like Sunday morning.
If you're nice to me I'm nice to you. Just don't understand it: whenever I respond to an attack in like manner, or try to engage a holocaust denier, I always collect junks.
Liesman used to lurk, and for a short time respond, but got SLAUGHTERED here.
That was back during the first year of Zero Hedge when it was (briefly) being taken seriously. As opposed to what it has devolved into, a blog for for neo-NAZIs and other similar types of "Wide Load" dwellers.
Apparently, that's what the "Zero Hedge Team" prefers.
Your comment is depressing.
:-)
duplicate
What name did Liesman use?
Some of this stuff about Erin Burnett is just so mean it is wrong.
Well, I personally thought she did a competent job reading the teleprompter at the beginning of the piece. It was almost possible to imagine that she was not reading from it.
But then it went straight downhill from there.
Is that you Cramer?
And all this hype causes buzz, which makes for good TV, which makes for higher ratings, which makes for more ad money. Mo money for CNBC, mo money for Erin. Check your ethics at the door, welcome to 'only money matters'.
Lenin’s tomb is a Communist plot.
@ jm
Congratulations on your marksmanship.
Those you target are a nasty bunch.
And the silence of the majority here that deep down disagrees with their filth is disturbing.
An odious parallel comes to mind.
You don't need any help. Carry on.
third pic on that slide is lolworthy, what an expression :D
Someone asked "what will this censorship will lead to"?
(Be sure to click the link after you read)
"The collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980's was a great blow to the hopes of revolutionaries. Why did it collapse? The primary causes were political and economic and they were the result of the culture of war.
The immediate cause of the Soviet collapse was economic, as the Soviet Union lost the arms race and international competition with the West. The United States was able to profit from its imperialist exploitation of other countries, while socialism could only lose economically in that competition. By the end, the ruble collapsed as Soviet consumers turned to imports to satisfy their needs. They could not buy a good pair of leather boots or a good television set or a computer made in the Soviet Union, because all the boots and the electronics were swallowed up by military procurement. And, needless to say, there were no quality goods to export in order to balance imports.
Economic factors were linked to political and psychological factors. As the Soviet economist Latsis said at the time, "the gloomy background of the worsening market situation ... has a depressing effect on people." Their gloom deepened as a result of policy failures such as the explosion of the Chernobyl atomic power plant and the war in Afghanistan (see US military analysis of Afghan war).
Another factor was the lack of honest information, the secrecy and propaganda that is central to the culture of war. As contradictions mounted the Soviet people became more and more cynical about the propaganda of government-controlled media. It was common to hear the Russian people say that you could find truth anywhere except in Pravda and the news anywhere except in Izvestia. This was exacerbated by the propaganda warfare carried out by the West in Radio Free Europe and by dissidents in self-published Samizdat.
Secrecy and distortion of information have disastrous economic as well as political effects. As explained in a 1991 article "Secrecy and restricted movement, the hallmarks of militarism and bureaucracy, pervaded Soviet society when I was working there. They hampered the work of the scientific institutes where I was located, even though they were not doing military research. As a result, I found that all levels of the system, from institutes to ministries, were isolated from each other, both by barriers to communication and by an attitude that one should mind one's own business."
The command-administrative model of war-communism hobbled economic development. As the article by Latsis put it, "The glitter of [the war-time economic] miracle blinded us for decades, and the command-administrative methods of the extensively developing economy took firm root in the country."
When, at the end, the Gorbachev administration realized that they would have to convert military industry to civilian production, they could not even get the Defense Ministry to give them an accurate list of defense industries (See Agaev remarks to the United Nations). In other words, the Soviet Union had developed its own military-industrial complex.
Economic indicators were routinely suppressed or falsified to the point that when the final economic collapse was imminent there were no published figures to indicate the points of weakness. For example, as Latsis remarks, the government did not even admit until 1988 that it was running a budget deficit. As a result the government had no way to take remedial action.
All of these factors accumulated on top of a profound alienation of the Soviet people that had grown up over the years as the country remained in the grips of the culture of war. In the Stalin years, not only was the economy devoted to the arms race, but information was controlled in the form of propaganda and dissidents were sent to labor camps. People did not feel free to discuss this, and most people did not participate in governance. Although women were more equal in the work force than in the West, at the top the Communist Party was all men. Photos of the ruling Politburo showed old men covered with war medals like so many old military generals.
Labor camps were largely disbanded by the time of the Brezhnev years, but the alienation remained. And by the time of Gorbachev, it was too late. The economic collapse and the loss of the war in Afghanistan came on top of generations of alienation. Few seemed to care when the government collapsed.
http://sfr-21.org/collapse.html
==================================
The collapse of the United States at the beginning of the 21st century was a great blow to the hopes of revolutionaries. Why did it collapse? The primary causes were political and economic and they were the result of the culture of war.
The immediate cause of the United States collapse was economic, as the Economic lost the arms race and international competition with the Eastern power block (Russia, China, Japan,etc). The United States was able to profit temporarily from its imperialist exploitation of other countries, while socialism could only lose economically in that competition. By the end, the dollar collapsed as US consumers turned to imports to satisfy their needs. They could not buy a good pair of leather boots or a good television set or a computer made in the US, because all the boots and the electronics were swallowed up by military procurement. And, needless to say, there were no quality goods to export in order to balance imports.
Economic factors were linked to political and psychological factors. As the American economists Latsis said at the time, "the gloomy background of the worsening market situation ... has a depressing effect on people." Their gloom deepened as a result of policy failures such as the war in Afghanistan (see US military analysis of Afghan war).
Another factor was the lack of honest information, the secrecy and propaganda that is central to the culture of war. As contradictions mounted the US people became more and more cynical about the propaganda of government-controlled media. It was common to hear the US people say that you could find truth anywhere except online.
Secrecy and distortion of information have disastrous economic as well as political effects. As explained in a 2010 article "Secrecy and restricted movement, the hallmarks of militarism and bureaucracy, pervaded US society when I was working there. They hampered the work of the scientific institutes where I was located, even though they were not doing military research. As a result, I found that all levels of the system, from institutes to ministries, were isolated from each other, both by barriers to communication and by an attitude that one should mind one's own business."
The command-administrative model of war-imperialism hobbled economic development. As the article by Latsis put it, "The glitter of [the war-time economic] miracle blinded us for decades, and the command-administrative methods of the extensively developing economy took firm root in the country."
When, at the end, the Obama administration realized that they would have to convert military industry to civilian production, they could not even get the Secretary of Defense to give them an accurate list of defense industries. In other words, the US had developed its own military-industrial complex.
Economic indicators were routinely suppressed or falsified to the point that when the final economic collapse was imminent there were no published figures to indicate the points of weakness. For example, as Latsis remarks, the government did not even admit until 2010 that it was running a budget deficit. As a result the government had no way to take remedial action.
All of these factors accumulated on top of a profound alienation of the US people that had grown up over the years as the country remained in the grips of the culture of war. In the Bush years, not only was the economy devoted to the arms race, but information was controlled in the form of propaganda and dissidents were disappeared to secret military prisons. People did not feel free to discuss this, and most people did not participate in governance.
Public unions were largely disbanded by the time of the Bush years, but the alienation remained. And by the time of Obama, it was too late. The economic collapse and the loss of the war in Afghanistan came on top of generations of alienation. Few seemed to care when the government collapsed.
I see what you did there. No mention of bread and circuses -- perhaps no Soviet equivalent?
why even go on this fraud of a network? She's an idiot that needs the stock market to go up to stay in a job. Why even watch these cnbc numbskulls, you know their angle. Who cares what they say - the market will go where the market wants to go weather jim cramer or erin what-ever-her-name-is try to cheerlead and pimp the market up. They are irrelevant
The comments in this thread lead me to believe that ZH attracts really despicable and loathsome groups of individuals.
So many of you around here are nothing but a bunch of crude, manner less, nihilistic, chauvinistic/racist/bigoted pigs dreaming about the end of the world and/or the unraveling of modern society.
I would be fascinated to know what the psychological underpinnings are for the extreme cynicism and apocalyptic dreams that are so rampant on this forum. Perhaps if the world ends and the entire fabric of society is proven to be woven with threads of theft and fraud, then your mind can easily dismiss its own personal failures and unrealized dreams. Delusion and cynicism is the refuge of a sick mind.
Is ZH's smear campaign against Wall Street nothing but therapy and vindication for a young man ostracized from the club? What better revenge than to burn the house down and spook everyone out of the neighborhood?
Tyler - the cake you bake is full of poison, isn't it? You've lured thousands to this site with sharp wit and a market analysis of Wall Street's inner workings that many novice traders can't get elsewhere. But what's your real motive? You didn't tell everyone that your hors d' oeuvres are laced with poison, and now you've got everyone buying guns, hoarding gold and digging bunkers in their backyard waiting for the sky to fall.
The great irony is that ZH and CNBC are the same; the only difference is the direction of the bias.
Is your mind washed yet?
I take exception to your ignorant rant.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9442970/Collateral-Damage-US-Covert-Operations...
The basis of their power is the dollar.
It is time for it to die so that we may all live in peace.
Take your exception and shove it up your ass.
It is the absolute height of conspiracy, paranoia, ignorance and delusion to believe that 9/11 was an inside job.
Maybe not an inside job, but they knew something was about to go down and let it happen. The problem was they thought it would be some run-of-the-mill hijacks with a low body/asset damage count.
You can tell that by the "oh fuck what have I done" look by Dubya when he was interrupted while reading his pet goat.
You're ignorant. You're trusting. You're delusional. Shove that up your ass.
The problem with 9/11 explanations started with the "official theory"... a conspiracy by Al Queda, led by Osama BL, in cohort with Saddam Hussein/Iraq attacked America, whose intelligence agencies (the best and strongest in the world) were asleep at the switch.
This theory was used cynically by the Bush administration to invade and occupy Iraq, kill Saddam Hussein seemingly on a personal grudge, and bring Iraq into the western corporatist world.
In retrospect we know the administration lied about many things to promote their Imperialist agenda and the official theory has holes a mile wide. No wonder alternate theories have gained adherents.
Only if the government comes clean, reinvestigates, admits to its failings will the truth ever be found out. But that's not going to happen, the truth obviously threatens those in charge.
Sadamn Hussein's biggest problem was he had posters of that old fucking egotistical Bush all over his country with rewards for capture or death. So of course little george attacking him was payback. Where sadamm went wrong was being caught in a hidey hole with freaking american dollars in a suitcase. That was a show of respect and trust that doesn't make you a very good enemy.
Sure he was an asshole who the CIA fed his enemy lists too so he could wack them or break them. But what makes me so fucking sick about the whole thing is the same people who make assholes break assholes. That's just sick disgusting stuff.
To think of all the people involved in it all doing all this stupid stuff clueless about what is going on. It's the ssame thing with these fort dix "terrorists". They get a freaking fed operative on their ass and get pushed and talked into a plan to attack fort dix and then busted as "terrorists". These people entirely too much time and resources on their hand and don't give a shit about anything but setting people up and making them fall guys.
......
You ain't seen nothing, but, maybe, I am mistaken. Try having your epidermis filled with melanosomes and see how people treat you in real life. It's despicable; yet, I still do not hate.
Anyway, I think you are being unfair. You are overestimating a vocal few and underestimating the silent rest. Because:
Cogito ergo sum
Just glad I never got around to ordering a Zero Hedge T-shirt or some other thing that might identify me with this crowd.
Speaking of which, Howard Beale, if you are still looking for some sort of Zero Hedge saying for mugs and t-shirts, you should use this one, "It's the Jews' Fault." I expect it would be a big seller with the crowd that now posts comments here nowadays. Like I've said, I think this what The Zero Hedge Team intended for this place to end up being anyway or they would not have allowed it to get this way.
Being one of the few (i think) admitted Jews on this site, I can tell you that it has been worse. My sense is that some have become more restrained for whatever reason, and some just try it on for size when the rhetoric heats up. Maybe it's me, maybe I've become more tolerant to it.
And then there are those who may be passing through and get the impression that this place is a total free for all, but figure out it's not, and leave.
V.I.
To deny the holocaust is simply Jew-hating. Hitler murdered many people other than Jews; Russians about 25 million and millions of gypsies and political inconvenients.
Meanwhile the millions that Stalin starved in the Ukraine remain quietly ignored. The Armenians were starved and murdered by the millions, whether Turkey "justifies" it or not.
It seems to me somewhat perverse that Israel treats its own Arab population and those in the occupied territories in the same fashion that the Nazis initially did European Jews.
Bulldozing Palestinian homes and replacing them with Jewish "settlements" hardly seems helpful to resolving the Israeli/Palestinian problem.
Maybe it is a conundrum that will remain unsolvable.
Nevertheless, anyone that denies the Nazi's systemic murder of millions of European and Russian Jews, has their sphincter muscle firmly wrapped around their pencil neck.
Thank you for the reply. I agree with your comments. My objection to the use of the word "Jew" on this site is that the word "Jew" has become a "catch-all." I understand the legitimate frustrations that some people have with the israeli government, et. al.
When the word "Jew" is used in a sentence, and is clearly a veiled feeling of something else, yeah, I have a problem. Bigotry, ignorance, racism, however rationalized, all expose the true nature of someone - stupid. No matter how brilliant they appear to be, or their comments read, there is always that inherint flaw - which, literally, negates anything of value they have to say. That fact alone is a shame.
In your opinion, what part of this statement was junk? Curious.
While you are here, relax.
You will only be judged by what you say.
But you will be judged.
Severely.
Please do go on.
Sorry, readers and commentators on this site participate on a voluntary basis, including you.
By nature, I'm very optimistic, but you'd have to be a complete fool not to notice that there's something fundamentally wrong with the US Govt, the response to Hurricane Katrina for example, was completely inept, if not downright negligent, yet Progressives seem to think that only MORE Govt can solve our problems, such as health care inadaquecies. I understand expotential functions extremely well my friend, and continuing to enlarge the debts of US taxpayers can only result in reaching infinitude -- and NOT in a good way!
The inept response wasn't because government was too big, it was because it was bing run by a bunch of people that believed the same as you. You got what your "Bush would be great to have a beer with" buddies voted for.
Katrina.
I remember the pics from New Orleans of fleets of buses sitting uselessly, hub high in water the day after.
I guess Bush should have been down there, passing out free crack and five dollar bills to entice passengers, urging the people, 'Get Houston bound, don't drown.'
Merely warning the people days in advance to evacuate and being the commander-in-chief and actuating the federal system wasn't enough.
The fedgov was inadequate to the task? Shock!
What about the DEMOCRAT governor and mayor? Oh, that doesn't fit the narrative.
The liberal brain's pathways are so disposed to reflexively spout 'Bush did it' that they cannot accomodate a dissonate set of FACTS.
Dear repub/dem sides of the same delusional coin:
The reason the response to Katrina was delayed was because the Lousiana National Guard, who was on the list of first responders had been whisked away and stationed in Iraq. The inept response was just another price of the Iraq adventure.
The locals should have covered their own asses.
The guard wasn't the only group that could have driven those buses out of there. There were days that passed when everyone knew the score and did nothing.
I ran from Hugo in '89.
No mandatory warning.
I took one look at the radar as it came ashore and got my family out of there.
I didn't need my hand held.
A few years later another one blew through and we were told at the last minute to scat. Major traffic jams on all roads. If it had hit we would have been dead.
The local government failed us.
No one to my recollection blamed Bill Clinton.
But the locals failed worse in La. because they had days advance notice.
As for the aftermath, the only way in was by helicopter or boat. I guess every time there's a hurricane in La. we'll have to shut down the rest of the world and get all the helicopters and boats in there to take care of the inept and lamebrained because I guarantee you nothing has changed.
And hopefully we won't be at war. No way we could handle two emergencies at once.
Maybe Obama wants to be a bus conductor.
He'll probably screw that up, too.
And oh, yeah.
Bush did it.
Red Neck Repugnicant
on Sat, 09/11/2010 - 16:03
#576046
@redneck
I have only caught bits and pieces of you since you joined, so I don't have a complete picture yet. But some of what you say in the above post may have merit. The limited number of junks indicates this. OTOH, I see no problem with, metaphorically speaking, burning down Wall Street - as long as it's somewhat controlled and organized!
@ Red Neck:
More please!
@ Red Neck:
More please!
How nice to see francismarion team up with an ultra-liberal Obama supporter. It's not exactly the lion laying down with the lamb, more like the Hep-C tranny laying down with Dr. Mengele. But it's a start.
I hear the rustling of their little feet in the walls, Red Neck.
Erin "B-Cups" Burnett has nothing to lose.
Because at a moment's notice, she can accept any number of invitations from various hedge fund managers with "billions under management" to accept their offer to become a paid mistress, sequestered on their private yacht somewhere sunny, showing off her new $10,000 boob job.
It's only a matter of time before somebody "buys her out of her CNBC contract" and sets her up for life.
In fact, Amanda Drury has been stringing along suitors for years. The price tag on her is probably approaching a billion dollars by now.....
Once Amanda loses her chicken wing arms and the price tag gets high enough, she'll be gone. Probably end up moored off Mykonos somewhere in a private vessel like this:
Dude, chill-out.
That picture is obscene. To think one man stole that much money from all of us to be able to afford that thing is too hideous to even contemplate.
To be fair, maybe he didn't steal it, he probably provided liquidity------all over our faces.
The anonymous vilification of a woman is the most cowardly act I can think of.
The anonymous vilification of a woman is the most cowardly act I can think of.
Dude, it's September 11.
Why deny the murderers' courage?
As the flight that terminated in the Pennsylvania field demonstrated, their victims weren't all women.
And there you have it. francismarion celebrates 9/11 by calling the terrorist attack which killed 3,000 Americans a courageous act. Bookmark it.
C'mon, Crock. Of course they had courage. Courage is a (an almost) universal human attribute.
They sought to dehumanize us. Must we do the same to them?
Hitler was a hateful lieing murderer but I wouldn't say he lacked courage. Iron Cross and all that.
Inhuman, yes. Non-human, no.
Both sides in any fight have courage. If only the virtuous had courage it wouldn't be much of a fight, would it?
It took a lot more guts to do what the 9/11 murderers did than it did for you to snuggle up to your computer and imply I somehow support their heinous act, didn't it, Crock?
Yet I shouldn't consider you a lieing coward, should I, Crock?
So you believe that it is courageous to attack innocent people who have no chance to defend themselves? People who are sitting at their desks and have no idea that a jet airliner is about to crash into their office building? Just because the terrorists committed suicide doesn't make them courageous. Suicide is generally considered to be a cowardly act.
Chauvinist pig.
Never let a good story die for lack of fact!
Never let a good story die for lack of fact!
SEC Expands Circuit Breakers to Russell 1000 Stocks
Sep 10, 2010 4:17 PM ET - Bloomberg - excerpt
“The Securities and Exchange Commission doubled the scope of stock trading curbs to include all companies in the Russell 1000 Index, expanding a program meant to help prevent another plunge like the May 6 rout.
The announcement, which also extends coverage to 344 exchange-traded funds, was made in a statement on the regulator’s website. The volatility curbs put in place in June applied only to Standard & Poor’s 500 Index stocks. The Russell 1000 tracks shares of the biggest U.S. companies.
The pilot program, which is scheduled to last through Dec. 10, was implemented by U.S. exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority after the May 6 stock market crash that erased $862 billion in less than 20 minutes. The curb halts a company for five minutes after it rises or falls at least 10 percent within five minutes.
“The pause gives the markets an opportunity to attract new trading interest in an affected stock, establish a reasonable market price and resume trading in a fair and orderly fashion,” the SEC’s notice said. The agency is working to alter the program to avoid problems that have emerged with the current circuit breakers, which have sometimes been triggered by a single transaction or trades that were later deemed erroneous.
‘Anomalous Trades’
“The existing circuit breakers for individual equities were an essential first step -- but I believe they can be improved,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a speech in New York on Sept. 7. “Our next steps are likely to include a careful review of a limit up/limit down procedure that would directly prevent trades outside specified parameters, while allowing trading to continue within those parameters.” That would prevent “many anomalous trades” from occurring, she said.”
http://tinyurl.com/27anx7t
So for example, if the circuit breaker for AAPL triggers when bids/asks start coming in at $20, the bots reset and then: The bids/asks STILL come in around $20, what then? Are the markets intelligent enough to recognize when prices are REALLY coming in at a low level, or will reality defer to wishes for eternity?
What bothers me is the almost casual acceptance of "anomalous trades" or financial roadside bombs.
Everyone wants to see this barren, smug bitch bludgeoned to death with a sledge hammer.
That's why she was hired.
I doubt any non jew can lie so consistently and shamelessly. I would love to see mishken or stiglitz or kreugman stand in there.
Their studio will be in flames as oneof the first acts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism
You're a despicable pig.
I can't even fathom how varmints like you make it through life.
Lets not give pigs a bad name. :-(
"I doubt any non jew can lie so consistently and shamelessly."
You have got to qualify that statement, my man. Are you throwing us all in together?
V.I.
I think Liberal Sodomy is a receiver not a punter. Splains a little....
Wow..i never thought I would ever say this, but I see 3 people more retarded than that Burnett whore..posting in this thread...
"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
Who you talkin' 'bout?
He might be talkin' 'bout you, Arnold. Time to get mad. Real mad.
sometimes they just need some noise, and there is a guy in their ear every f**king second telling them what to say. its entertainment ducklings, and has nothing to do with the economy as government policy, how can such an economy fail? its a policy, not an experiment. the only thing that can happen is war!! and some hedge funds, or goldman sachs may declare war on the federal reserve, not out of some desire to have it all for themselves, but like the south, and the north, but out of self preservation of their way of life. this is civil war ducklings. they're forcing the hand of the antebellum economy. so give a good johnny rebel yell, and short this market. yeeahooow
Nice work TD. One of your most concise, comprehensive posts. Good job, well done.
What are the chances that liberal sodomy, Red Neck Repugnicant, jm and francismaron are attempting to hijack the thread in a WWF style piece of none too sophisticated psyops?
Tyler can you get ip's for them, do they come from the same building?
I read your post.
Edit: It was late, I'm not sure what I was implying.
Psyops!?!
I speak up about some sick shit going on here and I'm the bad guy?
I think Milbank is right. The disturbed outnumber the sane on this site.
Oh, and a lot of pussies that won't speak up.
del
Engage brain before clicking mouse.
I was excluding dicks from the conversation. That includes you.
"Engage brain before clicking mouse."
You should see me speak - stuff just falls out.
Why are you sowing mistrust among our colloquy?
Tyler, Mr. Durden, sir, sir, please, sir, MUST we have all this disagreement? Wahhhh!
You sound like a spy! Sir! SIR!!!
CNBC:
-profd
Erin just dropped another two notches after this episode..Oh wait, there are no more notches left. Just remember this is the same girl who stands there with straight face and actually tries to add credence to Jim Cramers ever failing attempts to explain and predict market moves during his Stop Trading segment. She has proved herself as a total sell out, and a good example of why not to attend a top 10 liberal arts college.
Sounds like clitoris envy to me.
I'd like to skull fuck the bitch. Then hate fuck her into oblivion.
Erin has the hots for him, that's all.
Wow, a lot of you guys are so uptight. I thought it was universally taken for granted that all TV news anchors are airheads. If you'd kick Erin out of bed just for saying some stupid stuff about the recovering economy, there's something with you. I agree with everything Michael said, but I still thought he came off a little gay.
A man salivates over a woman and at the same time hates her, but rather than walk away, he publicly debauches her?
Weakling.
The rationalization that she taints public awareness and therefore deserves this kind of bestial treatment?
Diseased.
Both are Drama Queens. Its no longer about making $$ in the Market but to Bring the 'Financial Drama'. At least Burnett knows her role.
It's all entertainment isn't it? Nobody would actually invest money based on what they saw on CNBC would they? I'm from Canada - please enlighten me.
My take on it is that CNBC perpetuates discredited ideas like 'buy and hold' that has caused such havoc for so many investors over the last decade; and that they fail to acknowledge many of the devastating macrotrends in the economy such as the failure of real wages to go up for the average worker over the last thirty years.
No one I hear seeks to deprecate legitimate anger from CNBC and their cohorts.
My beef with many on this thread (and others) is with the misogynistic and anti-Jewish bent that many of the bloggers take.
I will not be silent in the face of this filth and I encourage others of good will to speak out as well.
When reason strips away their spurious claims and debunks their claptrap efforts to confuse conflate and deny, all that is left for all to see is their pathetic rage.
The truth we speak confounds the lies and hatred many would foster here.
Silence is consent.
CNBC's parent GE is fully invested in keeping the "old normal" going. Retail buy and hold gets them out of the macro flypaper they are stuck on. So the shilling continues.
While watching CNBC pumping up the leaky balloon, I always think back to the Goebels propaganda Christmas 1942 "Stalingrad calling" (implying Herr Hitler remained a military genius) while 300,000 men were dying in the cold.
Our financial criminals and our lying/cheating prostitute/politicians have killed the Golden Goose. American manufacturing jobs are gone.
China is booming by making things sold to the U.S.A. Gee, do ya think there is a connection there ?
Hey, Timmy- how's that China is NOT a currency manipulator thing going ?
red neck repugnicant, milbank, francismarion......
attacking ZH and it's readers over this? 3 blind mice....3 blind sith mice
hey it's never too late to change, though that appears very improbable
keep reading ZH, maybe you'll finally see the light one day
I read most of the comments above. I need a shower.
"I read most of the comments above. I need a shower."
I happened to be looking back at some old posts last night. The commentary, the participants - it reads like a different time.
" there are other worlds than these "
"This union represents Dalí's assertion that the two seemingly diametrically opposed worlds of faith and science CAN coexist."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_(Corpus_Hypercubus)
Every "host" on cnbs thinks they're more important than they actually are. They think they are actually doing important stuff; that they make a difference. They think they are financial business insiders. And Erin is no different. She's just one in a club of many.
Next time "be more gracious in how you present your points of view" - translated: "don't make me look like an ass"
Federated guy ended by saying we will continue to be the safe haven until we aren't. Thank you guy for that great insight. And she thinks that guy is a good guest. Unbelievable.
I don't have high expectations for cnbs hosts. Their best skill is being able to read a teleprompter without moving their eyes back and forth. I'll take Kudlow off the list of morons; he is versed enough to be able to debate both sides of an issue, and understands what he is doing is more entertainment than information/news.
The recovery is here ! well... except for the unemployment rate...