*whistles innocently*

I know nothing of the economy.

Ignorance is bliss, i guess.

well wrap your brain around this image then.


You have lots of 1000 dollar bills.

You are in the Government and need to piddle away lots of cash. Here's what it looks like:

1 stack of 1000 dollar bills to to total 1 million dollars --4.3 inch stack.

1 Trillion dollars? 1 stack. 68.9 miles tall.

Total spent thus far? 9.5 Trillion. A stack over 644 miles tall.
We get to pay it off through taxes.



or look at it this way:

How long is a million seconds?
11 days

How long is a trillion seconds
31,688 years

9.5 trillion seconds
301,036 years


and our economy isn't broke The Chinese sure are some stupid motherfuckers since they keep buying our debt.

cnsnews.com

Obama-Supporter Lucas is against taxes for those making over $250,000, capping executive pay, and claims not to make a lot of money.

[flash width=490 height=390]http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=ydnz6USU4z[/flash]

ARTICLE:

[spoil]
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Star Wars Creator George Lucas Says Raising Taxes on People Making Over $250,000 Won't Help Economy
Friday, February 20, 2009
By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter

(CNSNews.com) - Film director George Lucas of the famed “Star Wars” series said capping the salaries of CEOs at $500,000 a year as part of the $700 billion financial bailout is a decision that rests with stockholders, not with the government. Lucas also said he does not make that much money each year as a CEO, nor would he pay anyone that amount.

The highly successful movie-maker further said that President Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on people making $250,000 or more a year will not help the economy.



“Well, the difference is Hollywood isn’t asking for a bailout,” Lucas said in reference to capping CEO salaries. “So, you know, they are not using taxpayer money, and obviously the cornerstone of American capitalism is that you can make as much money as you want when you work for a company.

“I think it would be a good thing for shareholders to unite and say, ‘We are not interested in paying our executives this much money.’ That would work. But it’s not the government’s job to do that. It’s the stockholders job, but of course, they don’t seem to mind [Obama capping bank CEO salaries]. I’m not sure why. I wouldn’t pay somebody that much money.”

Lucas said he does not make $500,000 per year as the CEO of Lucasfilm Ltd.

“I don’t make that much money – not by a long shot,” he said.

“$500,000 a year – man, that’s a lot of money. You know? I have to make a nickel at a time,” he said. “You know, I have to have people come to the movies, and then when they go to the movies, I get my nickel. I don’t get a giant salary.”

Lynn Hale, senior director of public relations for Lucasfilm Ltd., told CNSNews.com that
George Lucas’ comments about his salary were in reference to “the fact that his salary for running the company is not high.”

“He makes money when he directs a film,” said Hale. “Then, if the film makes money, then he makes money, and the money that the company makes is poured back into the company and used to finance things like games, T.V. shows and things like that.

“George’s philosophy has always been that compensation is contingent on performance,” said Hale.

Lucas also told CNSNews.com that raising taxes would not help the economy, because “bad mortgages” are at the heart of the financial crisis.

“No. You know, the problem is very intricate. It really has to do with bad mortgages,” said Lucas. “Until they solve the problem with bad mortgages and toxic funds, they are not going to solve anything. So, they can do whatever they want, but basically, this is a problem that was created in the last eight years, and it’s not going to go away overnight.

“If I were in charge, I’d have them buy up the toxic waste,” he said. “You know, just like we did back when the savings and loans fiasco happened.”[/align]

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BTW if you wonder why Lucas is (or was) a Obama Supporter check out his latest girl:



Lucas (age: 64) & Mellody Hobson (age: 39)

"A nickel at a time."

That being said I at least agree with him. He's becoming quite the wizened Jedi master in his old age.

My god!

George Lucas fscking gets it. Why can he get it, and our treasury department can't?! Someone tell me this!

They have a low midichlorian count, fer sure.

The scary part to that, is that you've now implied that Hayden Christiansen is good at something...

"stay on target" Back to the subject, the job report for feb came out today and it was the worst loss in 60 years with over 640,000 jobs gone. expect the market to have a hissy fit today. Right now before the open it sits at 6,594 and it could go below 6,000 today.

Also, what is even more shocking news is the FDIC is about bankrupt and is getting a $500 billion loan to stay afloat for the year. They tried forcing banks to give a "one time only fee" to build up their reserves but thousands of bank managers fought it claiming it would wipe out any profit for them for the year.

And more bad news is GM AND GE are in trouble and might not last the year.

2009 sucks all the dicks already.

Yup we're in a depression. Fucking greedy money hungry CEO bastards, if it weren't for them we couldn't be in this situation. It's time to reboot the economy and start fresh.

I like the idea of taking the troubled banks bad debt to auction and let the private market buy it up Pennies on the dollar I’m sure, but it will sell. It will then be cleaned off the banks books and they can then get back to the same ole business they had before this mess.. for sure boot out the current management and move on.

Bill Maher says our banks should be government owned. I'll listen to anyone who doesn't believe in God.

Having a government owned bank is one of the worst ideas in the history of bad ideas. If the government owns the bank, all those bank employees then become federal employees. Not only that, but now your money is totally in control and easily monitored by the government, despite what you may think or have read. This is just another step on that slippery slope of socialism that this country seems bound to wind up in.

Capitalism works, let the market figure a way out of this mess. Government intervention is not the answer to our problems, neither is raising taxes. How can our government keep lending money when it is already 3 Trillion dollars in debt? If you want to stimulate the economy, cut taxes so the public at large can start to spend more and increase the cash flow that our economy desperately needs.

Yeah, i think this is true, but at the same time, why do we hold so tightly to capitalism knowing that it will one day fuck us over, like the crisis we're in now?

it will one day fuck us over ( i.e. now) because people are corrupt. there's just too much money involved to not start dipping your fingers into. and that would be the case with any system, communist, socialist, whatever.

the US GDP IN 08 was $14.5 trillion dollars. that's how much our people produced in one year. if we were allowed to keep all that money for ourselves instead of pissing it away to all these foundations and in politicians pockets, we'd have our streets paved in gold. think about that number. 14.5 trillion dollars a YEAR. and now we're going broke somehow. it should make you fucking Furious!

Dude, are there people out there who aren't furious? Even the rich cocksukers who are at fault are looking "fucking furious" in order to blend in.

I went back and rewatched The Story of Stuff. The golden arrow is fucked, fyi.

no dude, there's actually a whole country out there that think obama is gonna fix it all.

Citigroup stock fall from a high of around $60.00 per share to $1.00 just two days ago. According to a spokesperson for Citigroup, they lost another $60 billion dollars this past quarter. That’s after receiving billions from the federal reserve. According to an SEC spokesperson, trading was suspended on Citigroup stock for those two reasons. It was reported that Citigroup was less than 24 hours away from filing chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, Citigroup is the largest American bank. If it was allowed to fail, it would have sent the stock market down to around a forty year low of about Dow 3000.

Yesterday, the talking heads reported that the reason the stock market climbed 379 points yesterday was because Citigroup suddenly made the claim that they were actually starting to make a profit.

Can anybody tell me how a corrupt banking institution whose shareholders have been abandoning the bank like rats on a sinking ship and who shows a loss of $60 billion dollars in just three months, whose stock value drops like a brick to just $1.00 and is about to file chapter 11 bankruptcy can suddenly start making a profit that drives up the stock market by 379 points in one day?

What's actually happening is market manipulation. Nothing has changed to cause a true rally. We haven't seen bottom yet. All that happened is Citigroup lying to the moron stockholders to keep them coming back to the well. Whoever invested this week thinking the worst is over is a fucking moron.

sheeple. we deserve the leaders we have.

I think you're thinking about AIG, the other huge bailout receiver, that posted a loss of 68 billion in the last quarter. Citi reported a total loss for 2008 of 28 billion, and the 379 is because of a report that they've turned a profit of 8.6 billion in the first 2 months of this year. JP Morgan has also reported the same, and now followed up by Bank of America stating that it will not need any more government money to keep itself alive (which put another 270 into the market). This was great news, considering that Wells and JP Morgan probably didn't need the $ to begin with, but were forced to take it.

Once the uptick rule is re-established (please let it be re-established) and short selling is effectively banned by the SEC, I think you'll see a crap-ton of financial stocks re-bound, since the ability to make money off the stock falling will be less attractive.

This goes well for me, since I just bought 100 shares of Citi on a gamble.

May 2007 Citigroup's stock was at 55, yesterday it was at 1.67.

Citigroup's Vikram Pandit was said by Bloomberg that:



a memo?? he reports that his company is ok in a fucking memo that somehow gets leaked to the media that his company will be ok in 2009?? now use some common sense here, if you had a $250 billion dollar company that was just about to go bankrupt, and you suddenly found out that you're gonna make it, wouldn't you shout it from the mountain tops??

This is a portion of the 'internal memo' that Pandit leaked,


Revenue is meaningless if your debts smother it! And he even admits it was before disclosed write-downs. Don't you see what that's saying? I made a bunch of money this month, until I went to the mail box and saw all these bills.

Sorry dude, you need to sell that stock soon. Nothing has happened other than a slight of hand.

Most I'm hoping for is it goes to $5. I'll make 400% and then sell it off.

I did find that interesting, though, his leaked memo. The other interesting part is that the memo in question was filed with the SEC. Now why would a publicly traded company do that, unless the purpose was to go public with it. You're absolutely correct, though, 19 billion is nothing if you take 20 billion in write downs, and this is the same company that took 27 billion in the 4th quarter last year.

I hope the treasury gets off its ass, personally, and starts buying up these mortgage backed securities, like it was supposed to do way back in October. But no, instead, it's more important that we show everyone we're trying to wipe out the last 8 years of presidency (yes, we all know, they weren't that great anyway) and enforce our agenda in the first 100 days of office, instead of fixing what's wrong. *shrug* I'm buying stock in a mason jar company, then I'm going to start burying cash out back. :P

go here for shits and giggles about what 1 Trillion dollars actually looks like.

1 trillion

Speaking of economic meltdowns, the bank I had my mortgage through has decided not to return my calls for the past few months, unless I wanted to send them a check for $10,000. Which would have been nice, but since I don't have anywhere near that kind of loot just laying around that hasn't happened. The court system however has been more than generous with corespondence, including papers showing my complete defeat in regards to the forclosure on my property. I had a repayment plan, but due to some technicality they can't seem to explain, that went bye-bye, and they can't tell me what they did with the over $2,500 I have given them since December. They are going to call me back, though. At least that's what they said in February. Oh, and the Sherrif has sent me a nice letter too. It said I had sixty days to gtfo, or I could choose the "fun" option of being kicked the fuck out after the auction. So, I'm moving. Tomorrow.

And the only reason I mention it here is because I'm not going to have the internet for the forseeable future. And I didn't want to be replaced with a SteveOblix or a TimOblix in my absence. I've had a lousy year so far, and that may just put me over the edge. So, good luck, and may God bless the Millennium Falcon.

Wow that sucks balls to read about what's happened to you Troy. I truly do hope things turn out better for you as the year goes on.

No crap. Safe going Troy. I hope you get a better wind to sail by soon, man.

that really does suck Troy. I've lost my job too recently and if it wasn't for mr's Bear, i'd be in the same boat. That's ok though, because the new world order is gonna straighten everything out with new carbon taxes on everything.

Let's just hope you're not going to the FEMA concentration camps that are set up across the country now.
[flash width=425 height=350]http://www.youtube.com/v/0P-hvPJPTi4[/flash]

Here's the coffins they've got ready for those that don't go with the flow. When martial law is declared, you better be on the right list or here's where you'll end up
[flash width=425 height=350]http://www.youtube.com/v/jeqjykY5wPk[/flash]

I downloaded MetaTrader 4 and have a Forex Autopilot Robot trading system running a demo program now. Wondering if anyone out there knows if this shit is the real deal or not. Apparently it will trade for you based on trends and has a 90% track record.

Wow, there sure has been a lot of free porn updtes in the last 5 weeks. And satellite internet is proving to be slllloooooooooowwwwwwwer than I had expected.

The install guy tells me that it is going to update something or other for about 24 hrs and then it should be better. And it better be, because it is very non-cheap.

Holy shit cans batman. It's a troy sighting.

What's up man? How's life?0

Sorry for the slow response. I'm grumpy, thanks for asking.

I have been reading about the swine flu a lot. And considering I am not a policeman, nor do I enjoy Pork, I haven't been too worried about it.

Sort of on topic here, I read an article the other day on cnn about people being foreclosed on who had tried for weeks to get ahold of anyone at thier lender to no avail, and I chuckled. "Cackled" is more like it, for about an hour.

And on a side note, the word "C.ackled", minus the period after the C, is word filtered here for some insane reason. Curious.

Good to see you're back to your usual mood.

Stress tests on banks are to be made public tomorrow, I believe. Will be interesting to see how things turn out.