tpaine posted:
fuzzy memories are the best kind. i like to get up and discover anew what i posted the night before. sometimes i'm like "whoa, i used 'cratered' to describe a guy's back on the net" and it's cool

no i'm done with them and i want to get this thread back on track if that's alright with you.

dm posted:
i'm sorry, i'll be back eventually and/or check in a little bit.

checking in. it turns out that i'm personally responsible for developing a theoretical framework to delimit how the Personal Problems i've been going through manifest themselves in concrete reality. i'm having some success though.

check out this data from an "ethnography" i'm constructing:

a kid I went to junior high with apparently was kidnapped by one of these programs. No one I know has ever heard from him or seen him again. We always thought he probably ended up in prison from the sheer brokenness this stuff probably caused him. But thinking about it now, I wouldn't be surprised if he died there or killed himself.

edit: and he wasn't a bad kid or any other ridiculous trope people use to justify sending teens and children to these places. What he really needed was support for a lot of depressing issues in his life, and somehow the cultural invisibility of what goes on in these places left his parents with the idea that this would be best for him.

like just think about this for a second. that is supposed to be me or w/e, except that i'm very much alive tyvm and i'm actually the one constructing the theoretical framework. if i were that guy's friend, would he want to discuss my framework with me when i completed it? i still need to develop a divide and conquer strategy so they can't keep providing one another support in resisting it.

ok, i'm going to go back to trying to Aufhebung reality into my head now. this is some seriously ridiculous bullshit. later

The thousands of MF Global customers whose lives and businesses were derailed after $1.6 billion vanished in the collapse of the brokerage firm have now received offers to sell their claims and recoup nearly the entire shortfall, people involved in the negotiations said.

What was once thought to be a lost cause has erupted into a bidding war among Wall Street firms: Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Seaport Group, a little-known firm that specializes in distressed assets, are all scrambling to buy MF Global customer claims.

On Monday, Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit of the London-based bank, agreed to purchase most claims for 90 percent of face value, the people said. R.B.S has said that it will pay 91 percent for the claims of institutions (but not individuals), according to a term sheet. Seaport is hoping to top both offers and add an additional sweetener: $200,000 to help fund the group of customers responsible for negotiating the offers.

The possible turn in fortunes for MF Global customers began with a bid from Barclays that followed six weeks of negotiations between the bank and the coalition of customers. Its bid represented a belief that Wall Street investors have an appetite for claims, which customers filed last month with a court-appointed trustee. Other suitors soon followed Barclays.

The new investor interest is a coup for the brokerage firm’s clients, who include small farmers, grain operators and hedge funds. These investors had used MF Global to trade in commodities like wheat and corn. Their money was by law supposed to be off-limits to MF Global, but the brokerage firm violated that time-honored pledge.

After the messy collapse of MF Global on Oct. 31 and the disappearance of the customer cash, clients received only 72 percent of their money. Now, under the offers that have been made so far, customers are in line to get a much higher sum.

The banks do not plan to hold the claims on their books, but will sell them to hedge funds and other clients. Those investors are wagering that, when the dust settles, the trustee, James W. Giddens, will recover nearly all the money owed to customers.

.....

Banks are also trading MF Global’s bankruptcy claims, which belong to the firm’s creditors, rather than the customers.

The offers to customers are expected to pay at least 90 percent of each claim filed with Mr. Giddens by commodities clients in the United States.

For customers who traded overseas, Barclays is offering to pay 65 percent of the face value of their claims, the people said. R.B.S. is offering 66 percent for institutions only. These customers, unlike those who traded in the United States, have yet to see a penny of their money returned by Mr. Giddens, as roughly $700 million is trapped in Britain, which has different bankruptcy laws than the United States.

Despite the brewing legal battle, Barclays and its clients appear confident that at least some additional money will be recovered through the courts.

Wall Street has a long history of scooping up bankruptcy claims. Hedge funds and other distressed investors, after financial disasters like the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, built lively markets around trading such claims. The investors wager that the claims will ultimately settle for greater sums than they now appear to be worth.

The MF Global debacle, however, presents an unusual challenge because the money is not merely caught up in the bankruptcy process. Much of it cannot be accounted for.

all of the money they're using to buy these claims is borrowed and has to be repaid with interest when MF Global already can't come up with the necessary funds.

dm posted:
lol

The thousands of MF Global customers whose lives and businesses were derailed after $1.6 billion vanished in the collapse of the brokerage firm have now received offers to sell their claims and recoup nearly the entire shortfall, people involved in the negotiations said.

What was once thought to be a lost cause has erupted into a bidding war among Wall Street firms: Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Seaport Group, a little-known firm that specializes in distressed assets, are all scrambling to buy MF Global customer claims.

On Monday, Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit of the London-based bank, agreed to purchase most claims for 90 percent of face value, the people said. R.B.S has said that it will pay 91 percent for the claims of institutions (but not individuals), according to a term sheet. Seaport is hoping to top both offers and add an additional sweetener: $200,000 to help fund the group of customers responsible for negotiating the offers.

The possible turn in fortunes for MF Global customers began with a bid from Barclays that followed six weeks of negotiations between the bank and the coalition of customers. Its bid represented a belief that Wall Street investors have an appetite for claims, which customers filed last month with a court-appointed trustee. Other suitors soon followed Barclays.

The new investor interest is a coup for the brokerage firm’s clients, who include small farmers, grain operators and hedge funds. These investors had used MF Global to trade in commodities like wheat and corn. Their money was by law supposed to be off-limits to MF Global, but the brokerage firm violated that time-honored pledge.

After the messy collapse of MF Global on Oct. 31 and the disappearance of the customer cash, clients received only 72 percent of their money. Now, under the offers that have been made so far, customers are in line to get a much higher sum.

The banks do not plan to hold the claims on their books, but will sell them to hedge funds and other clients. Those investors are wagering that, when the dust settles, the trustee, James W. Giddens, will recover nearly all the money owed to customers.

.....

Banks are also trading MF Global’s bankruptcy claims, which belong to the firm’s creditors, rather than the customers.

The offers to customers are expected to pay at least 90 percent of each claim filed with Mr. Giddens by commodities clients in the United States.

For customers who traded overseas, Barclays is offering to pay 65 percent of the face value of their claims, the people said. R.B.S. is offering 66 percent for institutions only. These customers, unlike those who traded in the United States, have yet to see a penny of their money returned by Mr. Giddens, as roughly $700 million is trapped in Britain, which has different bankruptcy laws than the United States.

Despite the brewing legal battle, Barclays and its clients appear confident that at least some additional money will be recovered through the courts.

Wall Street has a long history of scooping up bankruptcy claims. Hedge funds and other distressed investors, after financial disasters like the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, built lively markets around trading such claims. The investors wager that the claims will ultimately settle for greater sums than they now appear to be worth.

The MF Global debacle, however, presents an unusual challenge because the money is not merely caught up in the bankruptcy process. Much of it cannot be accounted for.

all of the money they're using to buy these claims is borrowed and has to be repaid with interest when MF Global already can't come up with the necessary funds.

yet more proof that 95% of banking is the ability to find a big enough sucker

cleanhands posted:

discipline posted:
this interview is pretty dang good

http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/defending_capitalism_the_rise_of_the_neoliberal_thought_collective_part_1
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/defending_capitalism_the_rise_of_the_neoliberal_thought_collective_part_2

well timed for me since i got done with harvey's book on the subject recently, although he characterises neoliberalism not as a project to restore and sustain capitalism but to restore and sustain the power of the capitalist classes (is that different??)

yes imo. the new deal and ww2 restored and strengthened capitalism hugely, while simultaneously placing barriers on the power of the bourgeoisie

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The national average price for a gallon of gasoline rose for the ninth straight day on Sunday to $3.838. That is now only about 6.7% below the record high of $4.11 from July 2008.

The average price rose by three-tenths of a penny, according to the survey of gas stations conducted for the motorist group AAA. Gas prices are now up more than 17% this year.

The nationwide average was $3.52 a gallon a month ago and $3.76 a gallon on March 9 -- the day that prices started rising again after a few days of slight declines.

Gasoline averages more than $4 a gallon in seven states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, New York and Washington. Gas prices are also above $4 a gallon in the District of Columbia, according to AAA. At nearly $4.48 a gallon, Hawaii ranks as the nation's high. Prices are less than a dime away from $4 a gallon in Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin.

Wyoming has the nation's lowest gas prices, averaging slightly above $3.40 a gallon.

Gas prices have been rising on the back of soaring oil prices, which have shot up more than 5% over the past month amid fears that tensions with Iran will lead to an all-out war that causes a disruption in oil supplies.

Signs of an improving economy have also boosted oil prices, as has the stock market, which hit multi-year highs this week.

supply and demand, price signals, market forces, Paul Krugman

getfiscal posted:
mine was learning maoism

same, except banjo

Myfanwy posted:
Just 48 hours before the budget, the prime minister will give a speech calling for radical action to improve Britain's infrastructure, which is falling behind those of key competitors in Europe.

lmao i love this. i mean its always implicit in globalized neoliberal discourse but it makes me laugh to see the ideology of nation as business so explicit