Another Round of Financial Crises: Bill Daley Represents the Banks

It is not “if”, it is “when” there will be another financial crisis, with the banks to be bailed out by the taxpayers yet again.

The banks are well represented in the White House.

Top executives at big U.S. banks want to be left alone during relatively good times – allowed to take whatever excessive risks they want, to juice their return on equity through massive leverage, to thus boost their pay and enhance their status around the world.  But at a moment of severe financial crisis, they also want someone in the White House who will whisper at just the right moment: “Mr. President, if you let this bank fail, it will trigger a worldwide financial panic and another Great Depression.  This will be worse than what happened after Lehman Brothers failed.”

Let’s be honest.  With the appointment of Bill Daley, the big banks have won completely this round of boom-bust-bailout.  The risk inherent to our financial system is now higher than it was in the early/mid-2000s.  We are set up for another illusory financial expansion and another debilitating crisis.

Bill Daley will get it done.

via The Bill Daley Problem « The Baseline Scenario.

The ECONOMIST on Public Sector Unions

Stated quite succinctly…

This should guide the future for the city of Coral Gables–it is time to really change the benefits, the unions should cooperate, and, if not, at their own risk and that of the politician(s) and managers who keep coddling them.

The immediate battle will be over benefits, not pay… America’s states have as much as $5 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities. Historic liabilities have to be honoured (and properly accounted for, rather than hidden off the government’s balance-sheet). But there is no excuse for continuing them. Sixty-five should be a minimum age for retirement for people who spend their lives in classrooms and offices; and new civil servants should be switched to defined-contribution pensions.

via The public sector unions: The battle ahead | The Economist.

Slesnick’s Election Platform

Thanking the mayor for his new year’s greeting by email, he listed the following as his apparent platform (New Year’s resolutions) for running again this year,

  • Control costs to insure that municipal services are affordable to all;
  • Encourage and promote the smart growth of our business district as we emerge from the current economic recession;
  • Recruit and welcome new businesses to revitalize our economy and to create jobs;
  • Work with the School Board to improve and expand public education opportunities for all Gables students;
  • Focus on the development and promotion of cultural assets and international relationships.

Did the County Administrator Say “No Pasa Nada”? More on Miami-Dade Transit Incompetence and Mismanagement

More proof that government in Miami-Dade is fundamentally incompetent, corrupt and indifferent to the taxpayers.

The citizens seem to expect no better than what they are getting–and they are getting no better than the scale of an underdeveloped country.

A federal audit made public late Monday sharply criticizes Miami-Dade Transit for shoddy financial management and weak internal controls — including improper accounting for bus fare boxes and a failure to document how federal grant money has been spent.

The audit comes two months after the Federal Transit Administration took the extraordinary step of suspending grant payments totaling about $182 million to the county-run transit agency.

In a letter to county transit director Harpal Kapoor, Yvette Taylor, regional administrator for the FTA in Atlanta, called the cutoff of funding a “rare action” and said it was “taken to protect the taxpayers’ dollars.”

She said auditors found “very serious financial management oversight and internal control issues.”

via Federal audit blasts Miami-Dade Transit for shoddy oversight – Miami-Dade – MiamiHerald.com.