MetaFilter posts tagged with government and money

it's good to be a banksta

kliuless — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:19:06 -0800

Simon Johnson on Bill Moyers [1] (and, prolifically, making the public media rounds on npr [2]) tackling the bailout of the American Oligarchs, a.k.a. banksters... BONUS LISTENING :P Economic Contagion - "Listen to this interview with former Goldman banker John Talbott for some refreshing straight talk (Leonard Lopate Show)." and peripherally related... clay shirky on, essentially, 'change.gov' (42 mb; approx 92 minutes) and bill moyers with nikki giovanni, which was (and whois) also awesome! --- also recently related moyers on the blue 1 2

alternative currencies

kliuless — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:32:36 -0800

Hard up for cash? Roll your own :P just like Walmart and Amazon coexist with Costco and Craigslist, or like closed and open source software and operating (eco)systems often feed off of one another (and keep each other 'honest') to make a more vibrant market (and community), I think having various kinds of 'complementary' currency systems and transaction mechanisms alongside fiat central banking would help encourage and enable a greater multitude of economic activity than is currently the case. like having the right tool (or program) for the right job, I think it only makes sense that some currency systems are better suited for certain applications and activities than others, and people would therefore benefit from having a choice (freedom to choose!) of currency to use and conduct business in... along with, for that matter, what laws and accounting frameworks they are governed by and where they reside (freedom to move ;) [incidentally as it stands, (some) privileged people, corporations and 'capital' already enjoy these freedoms and benefit from practising regulatory arbitrage; I do not see why this cannot be extended to everyone] btw, post inspired by pharm, thanks!

Deals of the Day

SeizeTheDay — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:39:09 -0800

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank gave a bank, whose capital ratio equaled only 1.88% of assets at the bank, versus a desired level of about 6%, TARP money after heavy lobbying. Frank inserted into the bill a provision to give special consideration to banks that had less than $1 billion of assets, had been well-capitalized as of June 30, served low- and moderate-income areas, and had taken a capital hit in the federal seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (WSJ link) In other news, Merrill disclosed compensation and benefits expenses of $15 billion for 2008, down 6 percent from 2007. That number includes salaries, benefits, retirement payments, commissions for financial advisers and severance for laid-off employees. Bank of America, which has four times as many employees, reported $18.4 billion in personnel expenses in 2008, down slightly from 2007. ~ Charlotte Observer Merrill, through John Thain, former CEO of Merrill and who recently resigned from BofA (this morning), paid this bonus to his employees in December as opposed to January (a highly unorthodox move), just prior to the deal's consummation (as he was still CEO). Meanwhile, BofA, in a memo earlier this month, Lewis said the bank has “significantly reduced the targets for yearend compensation,” with higher-ranking employees taking the bigger reductions. Lewis has recommended that he and his top reports not receive bonuses for 2008. In other news, regional banks, once thought to be spared from the worst credit losses, have shown mixed results.

If Admiral Ackbar had dyslexia, he'd say...

Asparagirl — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:05:22 -0800

TARP, SSFIP, EESA, CPP, TALF, MMIFF... Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the new acronyms coming out of the US Treasury Department lately? Here's a handy PDF reference guide to untangling the US government efforts to rescue banks, financial corporations, and other companies.

Stories of where US stimulus checks are going

ThePinkSuperhero — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:35:38 -0800

HowISpentMyStimulus.com In January, Congress approved $152 billion in economic stimulus checks for millions of American households, intended to boost the economy and avert a recession. Just how this money will be spent remains to be seen. We hope this website helps shed some light on where the stimulus money is going.

An Inconvenient Audit

Kadin2048 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:49:58 -0800

The Pentagon's $1 Trillion Problem. Even as the Defense Department prepares to send Congress its $481.4B FY2008 budget request, it also prepares to admit -- for the 18th year in a row -- that its finances are in such poor shape that it is effectively impossible to audit or account for over a trillion dollars in past expenses. "For the first three quarters of 2007, $1.1 trillion in Army accounting entries hadn't been properly reviewed and substantiated, according to the Department of Defense's inspector general. In 2006, $258.2 billion of recorded withdrawals and payments from the Army's main account were unsupported. It's as if the Army had submitted multibillion-dollar expense reports without any receipts." Not that it's a new problem, however: "In 1990, Congress enacted legislation requiring all federal agencies to pass independent audits. Every year, the Defense inspector general dispatched dozens of auditors to the military's financial and accounting centers. Every year, they reported back that the job couldn't be done. Defense Department records were in such disarray and were so lacking in documentation that any attempt would be futile. In 2000, the inspector general told Congress that his auditors stopped counting after finding $2.3 trillion in unsupported entries made to force financial data to agree." Annual audits were suspended indefinitely in 2002. And in an interesting historical note: the 'Mechanization of Contract Administration Services' (MOCAS) system, which "pays invoices and vouchers for hardware supplies and services"*, was originally brought on-line in 1958, making it half a century old this year.

the terms of his employment would be made public in the future

amberglow — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:02:34 -0800

Albania to get more corruption, and duct-tape expert-- ... As much as Ridge's security expertise, Berisha wants him to also bring to Albania his "success story" as Governor of Pennsylvania on education, the judiciary, information technology, agriculture and money laundering. ...

we're paying them to report, and they take it from blogs?

amberglow — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 16:39:49 -0800

A daily intelligence brief on Iraq, prepared by a private contractor for the U.S. military and companies working in Iraq--SOC-SMG Inc --paints a grim picture of life in Baghdad. The information in large sections of the brief? It came from this blog: Iraq the Model

Burn, Onitsha, burn

klangklangston — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 16:56:31 -0800

The other religious riots. While much of the world's press has covered the Muslim cartoon riots, not nearly as much ink has been spilled over the continuing violence in Nigeria. A good analysis of underlying factors here. A Shell report points to oil as a proximate cause of violence as well. For oil companies, this may not be a bad thing. (If I was more interested in trolling, I'd have framed this as "Christian Leaders Fail to Condemn Religious Violence." The real world's a little more complex).

it's not just Armstrong, Gannon/Guckert and their pals

amberglow — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:50:31 -0800

The Price of Payola and Fake News? 1.6 billion dollars for just 2003-5 alone. The GAO's new report lays it out. That's how much seven federal departments spent from 2003 through the second quarter of 2005 on 343 contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, media organizations and individuals, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. ... The new report reveals that federal public relations spending goes far beyond "video news releases." (full report is a PDF download from there) And there's another scandal coming, if Wonkette has it right.

the acknowledged general of such propaganda warfare

amberglow — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:58:49 -0800

The Rendon Group -- covert perception managers using our taxpayer money to start wars. ... the product of a clandestine operation -- part espionage, part PR campaign -- that had been set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon for the express purpose of selling the world a war. ... it was hired by the CIA to help "create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power." Working under this extraordinary transfer of secret authority, Rendon assembled a group of anti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name -- the Iraqi National Congress -- and served as their media guru and "senior adviser" as they set out to engineer an uprising against Saddam. ... Rolling Stone thoroughly documents the way we pay to be lied into war and one of the people who do it. From Noriega and Panama through to Chalabi, Miller, al-Haideri, Bush, and you.

Lincoln Bedroom, anyone? and Kitchen and Living Room and Office and Hallways...

amberglow — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:18:25 -0800

The Pimping of the President --Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist Billing Clients for Face Time with G.W. Bush: ...He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. ... Jack Abramoff, in the news due to his shady dealings with DeLay, and Grover Norquist, and the White House. Norquist has not responded to inquiries about using the White House as a fundraiser.

Free Annual Credit Reports

Steve_at_Linnwood — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 09:44:54 -0800

Free Annual Credit Reports
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 goes in to effect today. One of the major provisions of the bill, is that consumers now have the right to one free report from each of the three major credit bureaus every 12 months. [more inside]

87 billion

mathowie — Wed, 08 Oct 2003 20:45:06 -0800

Just how large is 87 billion dollars exactly? It's this large, about the size of three costco warehouses by the looks of it.

Bush Wants $60B for 2004 Fed IT Budget

archimago — Thu, 16 Jan 2003 09:34:31 -0800

Bush Wants $60B for 2004 Fed IT Budget. It's the only area aside from defense that is going to have an increase in spending when Bush releases his budget on 2/3. Mitchell E. Daniels said federal IT projects contain "tons of overlap and redundancies" and "far too many plans for which we do not have good business cases." And here I thought that was just the proper definition of our government.