Another effect of TOO big to Fail...a monopoly

Does anyone remember when AOL an Internet provider became a fortune 500 company overnight due to everyone using it. The had catchy phrases that were awesome until the 200th time you heard the computer voice tell you. "Welcome", "You Have Mail". and automatic inactivity log offs every 15 minutes. The infamous 56K dial sound logging in with Hissing and other random noises, and then someone gets on the line to make a call and your session is over. There was also a tired pricing system when you first got the demo CD, the gave you Internet session limits. Like 30 free hours for one month, and once the trial period is over your hooked. You have to have the Internet because now you have peoples email address and you cant possibly end those relationships. So AOL charges you like $30 for 20 hours or so and if you went over and you paid in credit cards they would let you go over and charge you extra usage fees much like cell phones now. Then DSL and Cable Internet came out and it wasn't necessary to go through AOL as an Internet provider, especially since it was slow or an additional fee to use it along with your DSL or Cable Internet. The AOL time Warner merger was supposed to revolutionize the industry and bring down the cost of cable and the Internet. Because both of the companies had to go before congress and the FTC and pay some lobbyist to pay some government officials and it was determined that this merger wouldn't violate any antitrust rules that were put in place to protect the citizens and ultimately the consumers. I guess it can be looked at as a win/win for both companies even though the AOL brand failed to bring in income. I thought the times where over that the industry would revert to usage limits to pad their pocket books, but Time Warner is bringing it back in a unabashed manner to screw the very customers who they said they would save money.

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable has released new pricing for consumption-based Internet billing the company is testing in some areas of the United States. The tiered pricing, which the company plans to roll out in other regions this year, includes unlimited service for $150 a month.

In announcing the new pricing, Landel Hobbs, chief operating officer for Time Warner Cable, said a pay-what-you-use model is the fairest option for customers while generating the revenue needed to cover the rising costs of an insatiable demand for more bandwidth....Hobbs warned that without expensive network upgrades, Internet demand in the United States would outpace capacity within a few years, possibly as soon as 2012....therefore, Time Warner Cable has chosen what it believes is the fairest approach, one that has people pay more if they use more, Hobbs said. The new pricing options included $15 per month for 1 GB of data a month at download speeds of 768 KB per second and upload speeds of 128 KB a second. People using more than their allotment would be charged $2 per gigabyte per month. About 30% of Time Warner Cable customers use less than 1 GB per month. Options for 10 GB, 20 GB, 40 GB, and 60 GB a month also will be available with overage charges of $1 per gigabyte a month. For $75 a month, a customer can get 100 GB a month at download speeds of 10 MB per second and upload speeds of 1 MB.(Informationweek.com)

SO after the congress has appropriated money for years to assist in upgrading the digital networks and using Tax Money to pay for it. Time Warner justifies that since their company fails to be as profitable their board thinks they should be that they need the citizens to pay more for less service after using their tax dollars. That is screwed up on any level you look at it, the government failed to protect the tax payer investment and from a company that violates many aintrust protections that where supposed reviewed by two separate government organizations the legislature and the FTC. For years unlimited service for cable Internet has been significantly less $150 and now Time Warner is going to charge significantly more for less service with no government review. This isn't change, its just the same thing over again. This has all the evidence of being a monopoly.

The 56K melody for your enjoyment

Wish Farewell to Chrysler

"It's like...an open book test...writing an essay where each automaker's allowed to bring whatever books they wanted with them into the test. Chrysler brought crayons and a coloring book."

The Big 3 auto makers are mighty optomestic about their sales the next couple of years. [Jalopnik]

Fords Plan

GM's Plan

Chrysler

Ford wants you to buy more of their crappy cars.

The Ford motor company today released its new buisness plan for congress to review and hopefully incorporated within their decision when they grant this bailout.
FORD MOTOR COMPANY BUSINESS PLAN [CSPAN] PDF

overview & Key Points page 1-7 out of 33

What ford wants you to know:
-the Auto industry supports five million jobs in all 50 states and spends $12 billion
annually on research and development in the U.S. pg. 2

-"While we have much more work ahead of us, Ford did not wait until the current crisis to begin our restructuring efforts, but has already begun a fundamental restructuring in the way we do business. Our early efforts showed promise before the credit and economic crises hit earlier this year." pg. 2

-"The auto sector is one of the first to suffer from bad economic conditions –
indeed, spending on new vehicles historically represents about 4% of GDP and
therefore is closely tied to economic conditions." pg. 4

Translation, we were the first to suffer in this recession, because consumers stop consuming unnecessary crap. Like a new car every 2 years, why is it necessary to have the exact same car come out with relatively few improvements every year? The 07 Ford f-150 looks just like the the 06 f-150. How about alternating production lines every year to avoid over saturation

-The recession and financial crisis has resulted in automotive industry sales volumes at the lowest annualized level in 25 years. pg. 5

- We ask congress for additional incentives incentives for consumers to trade in

older vehicles and move to more fuel-efficient vehicles.
We need the consumer to buy more crap, and we will make it look like we are doing something environmentally friendly. If a person has a old Monte carlo that still gets 20 miles per gallon but have no note to pay or full coverage insurance. It is not in the persons best interest to buy a 21,000 dollar car at 350 per month(That is 5 years of payments with no interest calculated.) in financing fees and insurance for a new car will at least run 150 a month for full coverage insurance and drives 3000 miles a quarter. Then that cost a boat load more to drive and be environmentally friendly. 3000 divided by 20 equals 150 gallons of gas per quarter for the monte carlo equaling 420 dollars spent every quarter on gas which is 1680 per year. Mean while the "Fuel efficient" car gets the recommended mileage which is 35 miles per gallon. Using the same formula as for the Monte carlo would equal out to 240 a month in gas. That is 960 dollars spent on gas per year, now add in the 350 dollar a month car note and that is 4200. add in the additional 1800 dollars in insurance per year and that is a grand total of 6350 a year to go green. Hating the environment would save you $4670 dollars. Now this number doesn't include maintenance for oil tires and all other things that are necessary for maintenance of a car. But no way does the maintenance of the Monte Carlo wost 15,000 every 5 years. I vote no on this part, you want a loan from the people so that you can try to trick them in taking out a loan from you for the next 5 year?

- Ford plans to consolidate their 4 divisions(North America, South America, Asian Pacific, European) Deemed no longer neccessary do to the advances in communication. pg. 7
LAYOFFS

-blah blah blah blah blah lies blah blah lies blah 7-33
Im tired of reading it. Hope that is a good overview..

Sounds like a good start, I am sure they are way ahead of GM or Chrysler. Due to the fact Ford identified the market shift earlier than the others.

2008 Ford Recalls

May 14, 2008 Ford recalls over 650,000 pickups for brake hose
April 28 2008 Ford Recalls F-250, F-350 Trucks for Fire Hazard
Feb 27, 2008 Ford Recalls 470,000 Mustangs to Update Air Bags
Apparently Ford thought it would be fiscally conservative and install the wrong airbags
Feb 11, 2008 Ford Recalls 57,000 More Trucks, SUVS for Fire Hazard
Feb 11, 2008 Ford recalling vehicles over door handles and fuel hoses
Jan 21, 2008 Parts shortages delay repairs of fire-prone Fords
Dec 6, 2007 Ford recalls 1.2 million trucks for engine flaw
Aug 3, 2007 Ford recalls 3.6 million vehicles
in less than two years ford has recalled over 5.9 million vehicles in 2 years. If they made a good product they can sure save money from repairs and lawsuits. Or take their time building a car they can find these problems before you let these deathtraps on the road.
If every repair takes 200 dollars not including lawsuits that is 1.19 BILLION in loses over your own product.

Take the number of vehicles in the field, A.
Multiply it by the probable rate of failure, B.
Multiply the result by
the average out-of-court settlement, C.
A x B x C
equals X.
If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Edward Norton "Fight Club'
Its clear that that is the formula, hurray unregulated capitalism.

UAW is good at making demands

Now the UAW speaks up, they were not concerned with this during the last contract talks.
UAW to Congress: The autoworkers union calls on the government to give aid to GM Get a deal done Ford and Chrysler before Congress adjourns. (CNN.com)
Since they are fighting for this bailout, I know its a bad idea. If any congressional leader elects to give the money to the auto companies based on this plea, then they are spineless just like I thought.

"Congress must not adjourn with the Bush administration in place without an
agreement,"
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger.

That sounds like a demand instead of a request, from a person who didn't see this coming. Now they suddenly know how to fix the car industry! 2 years ago they didn't see this crash coming. Yes it is a crash, it is time to stop calling it an economic downturn. Its time for economist and people in the financial sector to stop acting like they know whats going on. Every week it is some new anomaly in the system they are trying to explain for the reason why the bailout isn't working. Can't they admit this is a completely new situation that can't be fixed by using the economic models that got us into this mess. The people old enough to remember the depression, are not the same people that pulled us out of the depression. Just because they have a government title, does not mean they know anything when it comes to the financial sector. In fact it probably means the opposite.


Business in the areas of the big 3 factories agree with a bailout (CNN.com)

Congress wont help because of a lot of things

Dean Baker is the Co-director, Center for Economic Policy Research as well as a contributter to The Arena @ Politico.com.
Dean Baker had this to say about the situation the Big 3 & the UAW have put themselves in.

"The Big Three have a problem in that there is a fundamental conflict between the interests of the top executives and the interests of the workers and the most affected communities. The latter should be perfectly happy to accept a bailout that has as one of it main conditions that the top industry executives get put out to pasture and that whoever remains on top also gets big pay cuts. Reduce...

Obviously the executives themselves are not interested in such a package and would rather try to milk the companies of every last penny before they go under.

Congress will also be ambivalent about a bailout package that imposes real restrictions on executive pay because it will yet again highlight the fact that they handed over hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street bankers without any real restrictions. In short, you have a situation where is it difficult to justify to the public a bailout that hands millions more to auto executives with a track record of dismal failure. On the other hand, a justifiable bailout would call attention to the completely outrageous terms of the Wall Street bailout.

Will Congress be willing to embarrass itself to save economies of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana? Probably not."

Everyone has egg on their face :(

The Guy that layed the Golden turd; Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm the man who said"We are experiencing a mental recession" had no trouble accepting $54 billion of dollars to bailout the "investment" bank UBS. The reason I said he had no trouble accepting it is because he is just not a board member or lobbyist for UBS, he is the Vice Chairman of UBS.

"The Swiss government injected six billion francs into banking giant UBS onThursday, and the central bank lent it 54 billion dollars to transfer its non-liquid assets into a separate fund....Eugen Haltiner, president of Federal Banking Commission, told journalists that the step was necessary because "trust in UBS has seriously suffered" owing to the subprime crisis and general financial turmoil. In an indication of how much of a pounding the bank's once-solid reputation has taken, customers withdrew nearly 84 billion Swiss francs worth of assets from UBS during the third quarter, it said in a statement...UBS's wealth management and business banking division saw clients withdraw a net 49.3 billion Swiss francs, "with a significant part of the outflow taking place in the last few weeks of the quarter," it said...[ZURICH (AFP)]"

Way to go Phillip! Another piece of proof that every time you touch something it is guaranteed to lose money. You just identify what is happening as capitalism, as long as Phil Gramm makes money the economy can't fail.

Phil Gramm produced porn during the Nixon administration & lost money.[The Nation]
The Porn industry is a 10 billion dollar industry according to Steve Croft and 60 minutes. How does he fail in an industry that is that profitable, how can Gramm even be referenced as a reliable economic advisor.

FREE MONEY FREE FRAUD Greg Easterbrook

Gregg Easterbrook a writer for the world wide sports leader ESPN, might be insane when comparing Eli to Peyton Manning. He does have a complete understanding about how much our government cares about YOU! In his recent artilcle where he makes the argument that Eli is better than Peyton, Mr. Easterbrook makes valid points about all the elected politicions esentially commiting fraud by not doing their job and the elected polititions who lack a true backbone(Bailout).

Of Course They Vote for More Subsidies, They Themselves Are Subsidized

In the spring, as a dozen Democratic and Republican officeholders were crisscrossing the country campaigning for presidential nominations yet still receiving taxpayer money for jobs they were making no pretense of performing, TMQ declared there should be a federal resign-to-run law. Several states now have resign-to-run laws: They prevent officeholders from taking tax-funded salaries while not doing their jobs. Why is it assumed that saying the words, "I am running for president" makes it OK for a senator to pull in $200,000 or so per year in pay and benefits, yet perform no duties? If you told your employer you would not perform your duties for a year because you were running for president, yet still expected full pay, your employer would say two words that are not "Merry Christmas." Now we're down to four White House-seeking freeloaders, and both parties look bad. All three senators are billing the federal taxpayer to self-promote around the clock; the governor is billing her state's taxpayers to self-promote around the clock. Either presidential candidates should be required to resign to run, or at least anyone who declares for the presidency or vice presidency should have his or her public salaries and benefits suspended.[ESPN Oct, 7, 2008]

What, No Subsidies for Rum-Soaked Wool?

"SENATE ADDS SWEETNERS TO BAILOUT BILL was a standard headline last week. Oh, so
it's not enough to give away $700 billion of taxpayers' money, we've got to add sweeteners! Special-interest groups across the spectrum tacked wish-list items onto the bailout bill, which also passed the House and became law with George W. Bush's signature. Some $100 billion in business and upper-middle-class tax breaks were added, along with tax favors or direct subsidies for solar power, wool marketing, subway maintenance, Puerto Rican rum sales, "motorsports racing track" facilities, and investing in the District of Columbia (already among the most heavily subsidized place on Earth; Alaska, which consistently ranks first or second in federal spending per capita, may be the most subsidized -- scan down to "Alaska" in this study), tax breaks for farmers, eligibility of foreign banks for U.S. bailouts, tax favors for people who won money from the Exxon Valdez lawsuit, subsidies for "certain wooden arrows used by children" -- the list goes on. Scan the bill for the word "wool," for example. It's the noise of the lambs! What started as a $700 billion bailout could easily cost taxpayers $850 billion, and every penny of it borrowed from our children.

Three points need to be made about the bailout legislation. First, conservatives in the House torpedoed the initial bill, calling it too expensive at $700 billion, then voted for the second version, bloated to $850 billion. Now there's a profile in courage! Second, the bill was originally three pages -- and grew to 451 pages as enacted, as giveaway after giveaway was tacked on. The United States Constitution and all amendments is about 20 pages; it takes 451 pages to legislate a bank recovery payment? Super-long legislation is both inherently too complex and litigation-prone -- last year's Warner-Lieberman greenhouse gas regulation bill, which almost passed the Senate, was 491 pages -- and invites giveaways. In a brief, straightforward bill, a tacked-on special-interest favor stands out and looks embarrassing to the sponsor. In a gigantic laundry-list bill with hundreds of pages of special favors, none stand out. Everybody else's constituent is getting a handout, where's mine? Proposal: Congressional legislation should be limited to the word length of the United States Constitution. If Congress can't say something in fewer words than the Framers required to found the country, then Congress shouldn't say anything.

Third, why do members of the national legislature give away your money as fast as it can be borrowed? Because they want campaign donations. Polls show Americans don't like the idea of public funding for House and Senate elections, because it seems like a giveaway. But the public already funds congressional elections, just in an incredibly overpriced, inefficient way. Members of the House and Senate give away billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to special-interest groups, in order to get back thousands of dollars in campaign donations. The $150 billion or so in sweetheart handouts in the bailout legislation will probably result in several million additional dollars given to House and Senate members as campaign donations. It would be far, far cheaper for taxpayers just to fund congressional campaigns! Suppose the public funded each House race at $1 million (435 races every second year) split between the parties, and each Senate race at $5 million split (roughly 34 races every second year), then banned campaign contributions. (Skip whether the Supreme Court would allow the latter, this is a thought experiment.) The cost would be about $600 million every second year, when there are national elections. That's peanuts compared to the amounts House and Senate incumbents give away to PAC-backed lobbies in order to inspire campaign donations. Federal financing of House and Senate races would save the public tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars. "
[ESPN, Greg Easterbrook, Oct, 7]

Dumbo's and Asses

Thomas Jefferson, declared, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

This Bailout or RESCUE of the American economy is clearly an example of taxation without representation. It is just not morally wrong but it is goes against one of Americas’ most deeply held ideals. What are the people going to receiving in exchange for the 700 billion dollar tax leveled against the people? We are not receiving anything else more that what has already been budgeted for, though large corporations are receiving money in exchange for debt. The same companies that once back on their feet will profit off of the American people while the future generations of this country pay for the debt Wall Street accumulated. It is not a question if or how they accumulated the debt, it is merely a question of why? And the answer to that question is greed. It was not enough to make a good profit, companies wanted insane profits. One way of accomplishing that is to continually sale debt along with tangible assets for money. As companies continue to due this they are able to tell their investors that though they have sold assets they have also unloaded debt and convinced another person to pay for the debt along with the assets. That is alright due to the fact that I can insure this debt to make sure if it starts devaluing more I can write it off and get real money back from the insurance company. As this process continued the last 12 years in the economy insurance companies continued to take a loss until they stopped insuring wall street debt, and wall street decided to start hiding their debts within their overpaid for assets. The companies that were profitable when insurance was paying out claims were merely manipulating the system and got caught up in their own deception and are looking for a free pass from taking responsibility. The threat that there is no money is preposterous, has anyone looked at JP Morgan’s price lately its down only $0.28 cents from its 52 week high and up $20.48 from a 5 year low. Look it up here is the stock price. So it is clear that the money exists in the market it is only in the hands of a few and they won’t release it unless the American people buy 700 billion dollars in debt and wooden arrows. That is not capitalism that is a monopoly when one institution the Fed can control the market. No, the Fed is not a government institution. It is a private company made up of the biggest banks. Here is the address if you want to go see yourself:
33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States
Founded in 1913
Phone:
212-720-5000
Fax:
212-720-7459
www.ny.frb.org
That’s ORG not GOV.

For the politicians’ to merely make this economic crisis, red and blue talking points is dumb and counterproductive. At least when it comes to identifying the problem that caused this crisis, fixing the identified problem and truly rescuing our economy. Now all of them are using this crisis for vote, either to say see I finally listened to what you had to say. See I stopped the bleeding and saved you from us. They are all responsible for the present state of the economy, Republicans and Democrats. Let us not forget at one time in the last decade our government had a 1.4 trillion dollar surplus. Now they say we lost 1 trillion in a day and it’s the fault of the politicians who voted against this ridiculous bill. It’s Dumbo and Ass politics that got us into this problem, and it is going to take common sense to get us out of this problem. It is apparent that they need to listen to the people instead of trying to line their pockets with the money of the people. Stop this Bailout, Stop this Politicking and Save the American People.

Strong fundementals from a nation of whiners?

John McCain NAILS IT !! Fundamentals of Economy STRONG !!


Phil Grahm - McCain's former economic adviser July 9, 2008

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

"We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today," he said. "We have benefited greatly" from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.

McCain Responds to Phil Gramm "Mental Recession" Comments July 10, 2008


McCain: "Fundamentals of Economy Are Strong" September 15, 2008 JUST DAYS BEFORE THE BAILOUT PROPOSAL


Why would McCain like to president....DId he just lie in a church, no shame, no shame.


Why isnt Obama using this stuff, its not like its made up. They are the words of the Republican Nominee for President of the United States.