Throwing Zero's Around Like They're Nothing
I thought that when Bank of America agreed to take on Merrill Lynch they'd do it with their own money. I apparently was wrong.
Is it me, or do zero's in great multitudes act as some kind of null and void towards shock value these days? It's as if the more zero's you stick in there, the fluffier the cushion becomes and the easier it is for everyone to rest peacefully at night...NOT.
Is it me, or do zero's in great multitudes act as some kind of null and void towards shock value these days? It's as if the more zero's you stick in there, the fluffier the cushion becomes and the easier it is for everyone to rest peacefully at night...NOT.
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Bank of America never had any of their "own" money to begin with - nor does any bank.
January 16, 2009 3:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good point.
January 16, 2009 8:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Remember, they had to raise some extra bucks so the guy in charge at Merrill (for 9 months, as I recall) could get his full 68,000,000 dollars. How many people would be thrilled to make 68,000 dollars?
Zero's: the OTHER opiate of the people!
January 16, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
To be fair, banks are capitalized with their own money, or post-TARP with the US giving them more of their own money in exchange for some of their IOUs and debt.
Speaking of zeros, whatever happened to the talk last fall about $531T of nominal value swaps etc. outstanding? That's over 500,000,000,000,000. Some were even talking about a quadrillion dollars worth....
January 17, 2009 1:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
We are well and truly through the looking glass now, Lis. Does the world economy ever reach a point where all the participants just ask for a 'start-over'? We may find out. Meantime, order your seeds for spring planting early, before Cargill, et al run out.
January 16, 2009 3:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
re: spring planting
You know, I did that a few days after the election because I feared what might be coming down the pike. Came back home from the local feed store with a shoebox full. A few days later someone reminded me of some vegetable I hadn't thought of or bought. I returned to the feed store and they were sold out of everything!!! I found that fact stunning.
Kinda beside the point, but along the same vein, around these parts firearms and ammo have been selling like never before.
January 16, 2009 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Better head down to your bunker.
And yeah, consider me a sign that says "kick me" stuck to your troll ass.
January 16, 2009 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Go back and re-read the blog, "Cowards." If you are honest you will see yourself. The only thing republicans have to fear is a lack of fear for them to exploit.
January 16, 2009 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeh, yeh; whatever.
You must be one of those wailing wossies running around flailing your arms in the air screaming "Obama's gunna take our toys away!...Obamas gunna take our toys away!"
Meet me in the ring you panzie!
January 16, 2009 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm beginning to feel like I'm being picked on.
January 16, 2009 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, a green economy may mean whoever has food has wealth! It's a real buzz kill just saying that, but what if the major chains all fold? Where will we get our food?!?
January 16, 2009 3:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Either from our own ground, or from our the ground of the neighbors whom we have ensurfed with superior firepower, I'd say right off the top of my head.
January 16, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQJVSOh7cEc
January 16, 2009 7:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perfect song, Donal! Thanks for the 80's flashback.
January 16, 2009 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly - what's wrong with a couple extra zero's??
That's why I am so shocked that people feel that Obama's $750 - 800bn stimulus plan isn't big enough???
January 16, 2009 7:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is my LisB
Too long, she has been away
Too long, don't you see.
Where was my LisB
Oh no She has been away,
Oh why can't you see
Happy I can be
And that is all I can say
She's come back to me
Is there anyway we could merrily lynch Bank of America?
January 16, 2009 7:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Awwww, you charmer you.
=D
January 16, 2009 8:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
ack ack ack. Pretty funny lately Bwak. Although you are always pretty funny. Pretty and funny.
January 16, 2009 8:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
These bailouts though....Ugly and tragic. If the gubmint gave the 45 billion to the American taxpayer, we'd see a stimulus. Time to let these greedy bastiges fall. Do something for normal people.
January 16, 2009 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and thanks! (hugs for DD)
January 16, 2009 8:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
DD, you're a poet and I didn't know it!! xoxo to you too!
January 16, 2009 8:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
January 16, 2009 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Zeros only matter to people like me, since there's only one pertinent zero - and it signifies my chances of getting a government bailout should I run a scam into the ground and flare out.
January 16, 2009 9:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately, we're to the point where the numbers are so big we can't really comprehend them. I mean, I remember when a million dollars was a whole messa money...not anymore. Billion is the new million, and trillion is hot on its heels...
I'd like to know who the %$@*&%$#s are that invented the financial instruments that got us into this mess. Talk about people who should be going to jail...
January 16, 2009 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Earlier this week, Todd Gitlin cited an outstanding article by WaPo's Harold Meyerson, about how these "instruments" allowed Wall Street to detach itself from the "real" nuts-and-bolts economy - where goods are produced and sold, and money earned - and game away our whole financial system in a virtual crap game.
January 16, 2009 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is a limit to the number of people who don't make a contribution to an economy that actually produces real products. I've long thought we have already exceeded that limit. Trading stocks and the like doesn't produce anything. Same goes for lawyers. In fact all the hot air from all the lawyers is probably why we have global warming.
Listen to Keith O. on Countdown tonight. He's doing a rundown of all the screwups and lies of the past eight years. He is going on and on. It's a big list.
January 16, 2009 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to disagree at all. I think I know what type of lawyers you are speaking of. However, if you should ever run afoul of the law, you will quickly come to appreciate the idea that it is better to become a victim of your own lawyer than to become a victim of our justice system.
It ain't right. But private prisons are a growth industry and they have lobbiests and lawyers to push legislators and judges along their "law and order" agenda. They want a few of those zeros too, and they get them by locking up people just like you and me. The cost of keeping so many people locked up is one factor in California's impending bankruptcy.
January 16, 2009 9:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keith was terrific in his rant tonite, People.
Really reamed the guy. It was fun. Eight minutes, more than half of w's entire speech with five times the content.
January 16, 2009 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, that's what worries me when it comes to my retirement money!
January 16, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Retirement money? What's that?
January 16, 2009 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's what you hoped would be there... if you're 64 and self-employed.
Social Security, I hope that will be there too.
January 16, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
What bugs me are the words, I think they desensitize people. Billion and Trillion should be banned, everything should be in Millions. 500,000 million sounds a lot bigger than 500 billion, 1 million millions sounds bigger than a Trillion. People can relate to a million, it's 4 or 5 houses, or 2 or 3 depending on locale! By counting the number of millions a sense of magnatude can be internalized.
January 16, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
You understand me completely.
Look, I'm glad if I have $500 left over in my one and only bank account after the bills get paid. I get to live on that for two weeks before I get my next paycheck and spend most of THAT on my rent.
I know the value of a zero. Adding zero's makes it bigger, to ME. To YOU. To US.
Adding zero's to anything else, though, just makes it easier to toss around like a bone to a dog.
It's painful to watch and to live through.
Thank god or Whomever for really good wine, though. It certainly helps, until that too runs out. Then it's just ciggies and beer and good conversation, and healthy families and food on the table and a laundromat nearby and a job.
January 17, 2009 1:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
"We make our money the old fashioned way. We get it from Congress."
C
January 16, 2009 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink