JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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GJDailleult
Well in the area of financial derivatives you didn't have one. Americans know that government regulation is BAD BAD BAD!!! It's SOCIALISM!!!
That sure worked out great, didn't it.
Posted in: Obama asks Americans not to expect too much from gov't; appears on Jay Leno show
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GJDailleult
That guy in the life insurance section would not have a job without Uncle Sam paying his salary. His company is bankrupt, makes no difference whether he had anything to do with credit default swaps or not.
Posted in: House passes bill taxing AIG and other bonuses
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GJDailleult
Actually, they sold insurance with neither the ability to or the intention to pay the insurance holders if the insured against event happened. They were just gambling that it wouldn't happen. That is fraud, not insurance. They've been stealing the money for years.
Posted in: White House, Congress knew AIG was planning to pay bonuses
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GJDailleult
I see that with the exception of Good Donkey, pretty much all other posters have about zero understanding of the situation, and some of them, like Molenir above, don't care that they don't understand and are just making stuff up.
And the question from sailwind "Educate me...... They insured with what? Their private gold vault?". C'mon, you mean you don't know the answer??? Nothing. They insured the US housing market with NOTHING, cause they thought a real estate price drop would never happen so they would never have to pay. Kind of like your life insurance company assuming you're immortal. And as it turns out, they don't have to pay, they're leaving that to Uncle Sam while they relax on a nice tropical beach.
Posted in: Obama berates AIG and vows to try to block bonuses
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GJDailleult
That is seriously the funniest thing I have ever read on Japan Today. "These AIG people" engaged in the biggest fraud in human history, have cost the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars, and may have singlehandedly destroyed the American economy. They are clowns and criminals. Now they are, as it was put in the WSJ, trying to "loot the corpse", because a guy named Paulson didn't think to put conditions on the money before he handed it over. Who did that Paulson guy work for again??? And your worried about the poor people being so "demonized" by that big bad Obama guy that they can't do their jobs. Hahaha, they actually have done their jobs very well, they took you to the cleaners.
Posted in: Obama berates AIG and vows to try to block bonuses
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GJDailleult
Very funny comparing the posters on yesterday's "Outrage grows over millions in AIG bonuses" story and today's "Obama berates AIG and vows to try to block bonuses" story. I'll give skipthesong and a couple others credit as they show up on both, but otherwise I see lots of people seemed to have either gotten worked up over AIG for the first time in the last 24 hours, or was there something in the today's article's title that got people excited? Hmmm...
Anyways, what AIG was doing in their Financial Products division was fraud, and likely the biggest fraud in history. They were selling insurance on an event that if it happened, they wouldn't be able to pay out. And they knew it too. Surprise, surprise, US house prices did drop, but they get to keep their money and you guys get to hold the bag. And some people here want to pay them their bonuses too, cause they were nice enough to stick around and fulfill their contracts and not quit. Hey, nice work if you can get it, as they say.
Posted in: Obama berates AIG and vows to try to block bonuses
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GJDailleult
This would be hilarious if it came from the Onion, but it is from the NYT business section.
"A.I.G. had set up a special bonus pool for the financial products unit early in 2008, before the company’s near collapse, when problems stemming from the mortgage crisis were becoming clear and there were concerns that some of the best-informed derivatives specialists might leave. It locked in a total amount, $450 million, for the financial products unit and prepared to pay it in a series of installments, to encourage people to stay."
In other words, it is a retention bonus, not a performance bonus. They had to stay around because they were the only people who knew how they had screwed up, and so the only people possibly capable of unscrewing things up. They couldn't unscrew things of course, however they did stick around and now want their bonuses, because they have a contract. Good work if you can get it!
Posted in: Outrage grows over millions in AIG bonuses
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GJDailleult
Uh, Madoff didn't make any money for anybody. He didn't invest, he just moved money around. And nobody griped until he walked into a police station and said that his business was a fraud, which is not exactly the same as "things weren't working out".
Posted in: Madoff sent to jail for Wall Street swindle as furious victims applaud
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GJDailleult
Perhaps the political donations just mean that con artists are people who generally have their ear to the ground, know which way the wind is blowing, know how to pick a winning horse etc. Unlike some others...
Posted in: Madoff sent to jail for Wall Street swindle as furious victims applaud
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GJDailleult
Long hospital visits, extra medical treatment for smokers? Somehow I think 10 years of geriatric care is a bit more expensive than a guy collapsing on the street from a heart attack. The anti-smoking movement has long used the increased health care costs argument and implied that non-smokers never get sick and live forever, when the reality is they of course don't live forever, and often require many years of costly medical treatment in their old age. He is right to say medical costs will increase, but a it's a big, crazy jump from there to recommending smoking as a cost saving measure.
Posted in: Doctor apologizes for saying people should smoke themselves to death
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GJDailleult
In basketball the term is "No harm = No foul". There was no injury and no intent to injure here. Three years for an "insult" in a country where people are still busy killing each other is a farce.
Posted in: Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush jailed for 3 years
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GJDailleult
Very true, but the key is ""may" and "could have" instead of would have. It is just one possible outcome out of many. The idea of having a gun for self-protection is not illogical, but it ignores the fact that it creates the risk of other things happening, and those risks are far greater than the risk of being in personal danger and not having a gun for protection. That is a statistical fact. I'll assume the kid's father kept one gun in the bedroom to protect his family from intruders. Understandable, except now he has got a dead son and 15 innocent victims, but no intruders. If people say they are aware of the risks but still want a gun because they themselves are intelligent and responsible enough to minimize them, then that is a personal decision. Myself, I am convinced that I would be able to drink and drive safely without causing an accident. However, society doesn't allow me to make that decision, because a) the stats say other people can't do it safely and b) I may be deluding myself. Guns however are treated differently.
Posted in: 17-year-old gunman kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
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GJDailleult
Of course they do. Lawful citizens don't commit crime, that is why they are called lawful citizens. People who use a gun to commit a crime are called "criminals".
"Hand guns are made for killing, Ain't no good for nothing else." Lynyrd Skynryd, song is Saturday Night Special. Truer lyrics never written.
Posted in: 17-year-old gunman kills 15 in Germany before taking own life
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GJDailleult
Kanadamanada-I know, just a lame attempt at late night humor on my part. And I agree, one of the best.
Posted in: Rod Stewart kicks off Japan tour after 13-year absence
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GJDailleult
Hate Canadians??? Americans are supposed to ignore Canada not hate it, actually noticing Canada and Canadians exist is un-American. At least it used to be, seems things have changed a bit down south.
Posted in: Canada to emerge from economic crisis first: PM
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GJDailleult
Goals0 - I believe their band was actually called "The Face" not "The Faces". Had Sting on bass. And early Rod was great stuff, his career path of starting from the cutting edge (it was in 1971!) to more commercial stuff was a pretty sharp move. A lesson in how to have a long career, you end up with two groups of fans.
Posted in: Rod Stewart kicks off Japan tour after 13-year absence
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GJDailleult
smithinjapan-I wasn't referring to you if that is what you thought, it was the other smith and his offensive and now rightly removed post. I'm in complete agreement with your points.
Posted in: Obama reverses Bush stem cell restrictions
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GJDailleult
herefornow - good posts. As for being "unscrupulous", setting yourself up as an "expert" and then charging people for your "expertise" when you don't actually know much of anything is pretty much the definition of unscrupulous. Their job was just to get meat to feed the machine. As for Japan, any intervention would be pointless and would just show a lack of understanding what the problem is. Stepping in front of the wealth destruction train isn't going to work.
Posted in: Gov't may seek additional steps to stem diving share prices after Nikkei closes at 26-year low
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GJDailleult
Actually I agree. The point is it has nothing to do with either Bush OR Obama. The US financial industry simply ran out of unemployed people, idiot hedge funds and idiot private equity firms to lend money to and PonziAmerica came to a stop and then started to fall. Blaming Obama for a process that started in 2007 just shows that that person doesn't have even a basic understanding of the situation. Blaming Bush the same.
Posted in: Obama says crisis is time of 'great opportunity'
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GJDailleult
Anybody who blames Obama for the economic crisis is basically just advertising their ignorance. Why am I not surprised that many people do?
Posted in: Obama says crisis is time of 'great opportunity'