09 Jan 2009
Bank industry slams lawmaker-Citi mortgage deal

I'm sure the banks don't like it - but then, packaging loans into securities is inherently fraudulent in the first place, so perhaps we should just retroactively declare all such "derivatives" null and void. And forbid their creation in the future.

But I'll bet the banks wouldn't like that, either. Poor babies - whining for bailout money then complaining about the terms. He who pays the piper calls the tune, boys, as my momma was fond of saying. And with the amount of money the taxpayers are feeding you, you'd better get used to dancing some pretty bizarre jigs.

Reuters - A top bank industry group said on Friday that it opposes an agreement between Citigroup Inc and Democratic senators that would rewrite U.S. bankruptcy law to help troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, saying it could make home loans more expensive.


(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

21:58 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Dell Closes Ireland Plant

The folks in Poland better enjoy it - they'll be too expensive in another decade or so. Considering the distance moved, and the directions (east and west), at this rate manufacturing should return to the US in about 50 years...

Wide Angle writes in with a PBS report on tough economic news from Ireland: Dell announced that it will relocate its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland to Lodz, Poland. "Dell's announcement... is a severe blow to the Irish economy, which has been hit hard and fast by the global economic crisis. Dell is Ireland's second-largest corporate employer and the country's largest exporter. Nineteen hundred shift workers will lose their jobs. ...Dell's closing is not a result of the economic downturn, but of a pattern all too familiar in the United States — corporations' perennial search for cheaper labor. Since 2000 several companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Intel, Gateway, and NEC Electronics, have moved manufacturing jobs from Ireland to China, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, it became an attractive place for companies to set up manufacturing plants. ... However, Ireland has managed to maintain and attract... 'knowledge-intensive jobs.' Google's European headquarters are based in Dublin, and Facebook announced late last year that they would locate their international headquarters there. But the overall economic picture for Ireland is bleak."

(link) [Slashdot]

21:54 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link