Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

Irish And Greek Bailouts Won’t Work!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Economic measurement, ethics, Government Failure

James Saft
James Saft writing on his blog discusses the strange bailouts of Ireland and Greece. “What’s strange?” They are unsustainable. They are disastrous. They are a bandaid that won’t hold. This essay uses the word, bizarre. That is correct.

James Pilant

From Reuters –

So let’s recap, because this is truly bizarre: Lenders to Ireland or the other troubled states won’t take a hit now but if they stick around until 2013 then they will take losses along with the taxpayers. Oh yeah, and the current round of bailouts are aimed at seeing Ireland and Greece through the next couple of years, at which point it will become extremely dangerous to lend to them, as their economies will have shrunk, their debt burdens bloomed and private lenders will be on the hook.

To add to this, the European Stability Mechanism, the name of the new fund, will be senior to all creditors except the International Monetary Fund, meaning that in the event of a bankruptcy it would be paid first. Ratings agency Fitch looked at this provision and quite rightly said that it might lead to lower ratings on shaky euro zone sovereigns.

The only way you could make this policy mix work was if you could find a very rich lender with no ability to conceptualize the future. Hmm, let’s see a rich entity with limited ability to fully imagine a future state – it must be the European Union!

Few private lenders will stick around, they will sell their bonds and the only buyers will be the EU or ECB, which itself as it understands this predicament is hugely unwilling to play along.

Germany and France are both so unwilling to both have principles and pay for them that they are refusing to act on proposals for common European bonds and are expected to resist moves to increase the size of the European Financial Stability Fund, the vehicle now being used for bailouts.

Okay, do you get it? These aren’t solutions. They are designed to tide things over until someone new is in office to take responsibility. And especially, they are designed to appear as decisive action when they are nothing of the kind.

It is important that both Greece and Ireland elect new governments charged with challenging these horrendous plans that smack only of disaster. Those countries deserve better, and their citizens should demand better terms. These are sovereign nations not American homeowners subject to the whims of banks.

Let democracies exert the power of the people, the one and only thing that banks fear.

James Pilant

Spencer Bachus, The New Sheriff? In Town?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism

Spencer Bachus
From Salon –

Rarely do you see a politician quite this honest: Last Wednesday, just hours after securing the position of chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., told the Birmingham News that “in Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”

Well, let’s all lick some boots. Millions of Americans in foreclosure, the middle class stuck dead center in a disastrous financial calamity caused by the banks, massive wrongdoing apparently endemic in the financial sector, but don’t worry at least one of our dear Representatives has the right idea.

Let’s serve the banks. Wow, that worked so well in the past.

It’s just another version of Rod Serling’s “To Serve Man.” Want to buy a cookbook, anybody? We’re going to fry up consumers and, in fact, we’re going to rotisserie whole communities, barbecue States and lightly sautee small nations. All so that the banks can feel served. It makes you glow with pride doesn’t it?

James Pilant

Why Aren’t American Financial Criminals Going To Prison?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics

Take a look at this and ask the same questions they are.

James Pilant

Nation On Wrong Track? – COMMENT by Jayaraman Rajah Iyer

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure3 Comments

Jayaraman Rajah Iyer comments on one of my recent posts. Being down with a sinus infection (it’s still hanging on), I wasn’t able to do it justice in my comments, so now I remedy that by letting you all see it as a direct post.

James Pilant

Yes all nations are in the wrong track. Quote from my book:”When the priority is already set, the hungry man accepts
the inevitability of the human race which is non-reacting,
non-acting, non-responding, inert-like entity. The change that
is needed from a Government to shift the gear from
advanced technology and space exploration to a mundane
agricultural economy is a process very tough to implement in
a short notice, even if one realizes that more than a billion
people are below poverty line. Nuclear submarines,
armaments, security initiatives of trillion dollar valued
business enterprise have precedence over morality and
therefore prudence is what the government feels they should
adopt. Not because it is not the priority but effecting change
in increasing the arable lands, increasing the yield per
hectare, linking satellites facilities for better farming,
conclusion on Genetically Modified seeds, advanced
agricultural machinery, increasing the total agricultural
production etc. involve a clear long-term strategy of many
years to implement.

“The new pledge to commit $20 billion to global
agricultural development.. has the potential to dramatically
improve the livelihoods of more than 700 million of the
world’s poor living in rural areas, so says Catherine Bertini,
former executive director, UN World Food Program; and Dan
Glickman, former secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
$20 billion is a minuscule amount, given the defense
expenditure and the estimated sum tax evaders who have
effectively squirreled away between 7 and 11 trillion dollars
in safety deposit boxes and offshore bank accounts, as
Lesley Curwen reports in BBC, it gives the state of
affairs of the economy driven by forces beyond the control of
the world governments. Agricultural production gets stagnated for years but world, if ever takes cognizance of
increased production in agriculture, then the society as a
whole has to be brought into action. The canvas is much
larger, expansive, broad and comprehensive in its strategy
to execute. Without involving many in the society it is
conceptually difficult to materialize major results.”

Recent visit by Obama to India has again pushed defense equipment for sale that would at the most protect a few jobs. India is stagnated at 300 million tonnes agricultural produce for too long and there seems to be no strategy to scale up to 500 million tonnes. Leadership is very much needed lest those who remain hungry takes the leadership in their hands – at the street level.

Lawrence Lessig on Citizens United v. FEC (via Business Ethics Memo)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Julian Friedland
My thanks to Business Ethics Memo (Julian Friedland) for calling my attention to this.

James Pilant

An excellent video presentation by Harvard law professor Lawrence lessig, on the negative implications of this year’s Citizens United US Supreme Court Ruling. Lessig is also Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.

Dollar a year Men (via Insatiable Curiosity)

On By southwerkIn Uncategorized

This was just delicious and a great idea!

James Pilant

Dollar a year Men Where are the captains of industry when we need them? There is precedent for business experts actually coming to the service of their country when we find ourselves in dire straights. And we are in a real crisis now, are we not? When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the moral fervor of the American commitment, inspired by President Woodrow Wilson's ringing call for a "war to end all wars," motivated a large number of prominent merch … Read More

via Insatiable Curiosity

ADAM LEVITIN…21% HAMP First Year Redefault Rate (via Foreclosureblues)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

Just when you thought the President’s HAMP program couldn’t be any worse, it is. I teach my classes that just when you think you’ve reached the bottom that there is always more down. Here is solid evidence from the gentlemen at Foreclosureblues.

James Pilant

ADAM LEVITIN...21% HAMP First Year Redefault Rate 21% HAMP First Year Redefault Rate Today, December 13, 2010, 1 hour ago | Adam Levitin The Congressional Oversight Panel has a new HAMP report out.  Like all COP reports, it's long and chock full o' analysis.  There's an executive summary up front, but some of the most important points are only in the report proper (especially pp. 100-111).  I think there are three big things to take away from the report: First, 21% of HAMP permanent modification … Read More

via Foreclosureblues

Elderly Face Future Near Poverty Line

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics1 Comment

From MSNBC –

Nearly half of elderly Americans will face a future with at least one year below or close to the poverty line, according to a new study that showed a huge racial divide in prospects for the elderly.

Mark R. Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the results of his research contradict popular beliefs about the economic stability of America’s elderly population.

“We have an image of the elderly as doing pretty well,” he said, adding that data spanning 35 years does not support that assumption.

Nobody is safe. Nobody is secure. We face an economic future in which those that have created value, those that have worked for a living, are just pawns in a game of financial monopoly.

James Pilant

Nation On Wrong Track?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure2 Comments

From Yahoo News –

A majority of Americans feel that America has is “on the wrong track,” and that they are worse off than they were in 2008.

In a sweeping poll released by Bloomberg today, 66 percent of respondents said that they felt that “things in the nation…have… gotten off on the wrong track,” compared to just 27 percent who felt the country was heading in the right direction. 51 percent of respondents said they were worse off now than they were two years ago.

We need leadership and we need someone in power whose first concern is the welfare of the middle class. Period.

James Pilant

Elderly Hit Business With Automobiles Twice In Five Hours

On By southwerkIn ethics1 Comment

The picture is not directly related to the story (but is fun anyway).

From the Wichita Eagle –

Tammy Hatley stopped to ask a doctor whether he wanted a refill on his coffee before she continued to the front desk this morning.

It may have saved her life.

An elderly patient arriving for an appointment at Lakewood Chiropractic, 2434 N. Woodlawn, shortly before 10:30 a.m. hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, propelling her car through the wall and into the office.

Five hours later, it happened again — this time an elderly man broke the freshly replaced front window with his car.

“It’s been a pretty exciting day,” said Tammy Hatley, a chiropractic assistant.