Financial Crisis

[beechguy]

McDonald's doesn't want to pay its workers a decent wage but instead wants other people (i.e. taxpayers) to pay its workers more

Obviously made by someone who doesn't know very much about business. Most of those places are operated as franchises, and they probably aren't making nearly as much money as these people think. But, I would like to see them do more to help employees continue their education if they can. Also, I noticed she seemed to have thought she could afford to have one more child.

" McDonald's announced Monday that it raked in $1.5 billion in profits in the third quarter, up 5 percent from last year.

The number is strikingly close to the $1.2 billion taxpayers are shelling out each year to help pay public assistance to the McDonald's workforce, according to a report released last week by the National Employment Law Project. "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/mcdonalds-profit-taxpayers_n_4136336.html

And I guess I'll have to repeat again, that is corporate McD's, nothing to do with the average restaurant franchisee, who the article states, is working with narrow margins.

At any rate, I don't think the fast food trade is what many people wanted for a career, normally it was a starting point. I realize the job market may be difficult in some areas, but there a number of loans and grants to go to school. A number of programs at vocational institutions can have someone earning twice minimum wage in a year or two if they can't afford a normal university.

Edited October 29, 2013 by beechguy

[kblaze]

oh wow Huffington Post, the bastion of liberal views is espousing the virtues of the welfare state and the evil of capitalism...im shocked.

McD's has given more jobs to more "needy" people around the world than basically any other corporation. Doesn't matter if its slapping together shitty burgers for 1 dollar a day. If someone is going to take a job at mcdonalds, they know full well that they havent landed a lucrative, god-sent career opportunity. They take it because that 1 dollar a day is worth it to them, worth more than not having it.

Stupid article based on a stupid "review" done by a completely biased, stupid organization, the National Employment Law Project.

[i claudius]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

[yoshiwara]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

Far, far too judgemental. Says more about you than the people you are condemning.

[midas]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

Far, far too judgemental. Says more about you than the people you are condemning.

McDonald's demands a bachelor's degree and two years' experience - just to be a cashier

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303618/Massachusetts-McDonalds-demands-bachelors-degree-years-experience-cashiers-job.html

[yoshiwara]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

Far, far too judgemental. Says more about you than the people you are condemning.

McDonald's demands a bachelor's degree and two years' experience - just to be a cashier

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303618/Massachusetts-McDonalds-demands-bachelors-degree-years-experience-cashiers-job.html

It might also be a reflection of the low numeracy and communication skills of job applicants with sub-degree qualifications.

[baboon]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

Your right about dumb people. Some of them may have written 'You're right.' However, keep looking down on the lowly who are just doing what they can to put food on the table.

[mmh8]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

Far, far too judgemental. Says more about you than the people you are condemning.

McDonald's demands a bachelor's degree and two years' experience - just to be a cashier

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303618/Massachusetts-McDonalds-demands-bachelors-degree-years-experience-cashiers-job.html

It might also be a reflection of the low numeracy and communication skills of job applicants with sub-degree qualifications.

or it may just be that we all have a degree , and that as a business, education is still very well marketed

[mccw]

Did any one notice the price of oil? Down to 96.4 today. Lack of Middle East tension (although all in supply terms is much the same or worse in Lybia) or maybe a divergence of opinion between equities investors who are beliving their own hype on economic recovery being real and sustainable, where as here we see the oil / commodities investors not believing in continued world growth or else prices should be steady or climbing. How father can the price drop do you TVers think? This could pose economic problems for oil dependant countries and the shale oil story as the more expensive to access rescources become unprofitable.

[mccw]

Above talking much the same generally ,

Or fears for worse in Lybia

[mccw]

An investment for the better of worst

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-31/kynikos-alumni-start-hedge-fund-betting-on-declining-stocks.html

[yoshiwara]

An investment for the better of worst

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-31/kynikos-alumni-start-hedge-fund-betting-on-declining-stocks.html

Don't talk to me about investments, I've got Shell shares........

[midas]

McDonald's demands a bachelor's degree and two years' experience - just to be a cashier

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303618/Massachusetts-McDonalds-demands-bachelors-degree-years-experience-cashiers-job.html

It might also be a reflection of the low numeracy and communication skills of job applicants with sub-degree qualifications.

or it may just be that we all have a degree , and that as a business, education is still very well marketed

yes you can say that again...........

For example, consider the story of Benjamin Serra Bosch, a 25-year-old Spanish man that moved to London in a desperate search for a job. He has three college degrees, including a Master’s Degree from the IEBS Business School in Barcelona. The following is a rough translation of a message that he recently posted on Facebook…

https://www.facebook.com/benjaserrabosch/posts/10151860752423076

My name is Benjamín Serra, I have two bachelor degrees and a master’s degree, and I clean toilets.

No, it is not a joke. I do it to pay the rent for my room in London.

I’ve been working in a famous chain of cafes in the United Kingdom since May, and for the first time today, after 5 months working there, I see it clearly. I have been cleaning toilets. My thought was: “I received distinction in my two degrees and I clean other peoples’ poop in a country that isn’t my own.” Well, I also make coffee, clean the tables and wash cups.

And I am not ashamed to do so. Cleaning is a very decent job. What embarrasses me is having to do so because no one has given me an opportunity in Spain. Like me, there are many Spaniards, especially in London. “You are a plague,” I was told once here. And let’s not kid ourselves. We are not young people on an adventure to learn the language and have new experiences. We are immigrants.

I’ve always been very proud, I am not going to deny. Those who know me, you know. And I have to bust out a smile at customers who look over my shoulder as I am simply a “barista” (as they call it here). Some are so outrageous that it makes me want to pull out my University and master degrees and put them in their face. But it would not really do anything. It appears that those titles now only serve to clean the poop that I clean from the toilets in the cafe. A pity.

I thought that it deserved something better after putting so much effort in my academic life. It seems that I was wrong.

Edited November 4, 2013 by midas

[i claudius]

Should have taken a degree in toilet hygene,i am sure there is one there are lots like golf management ,wonder what his degrees were in?

[midas]

I knew this kind of thing was going to start happening because not enough people have been outraged about dishonest behavior. This is what the real crisis represents-moral bankruptcy

Desperate people do desperate things, and it appears that Americans are rapidly becoming a lot more desperate. An epidemic of thievery is sweeping across America, and authorities are not quite sure what to make of it.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/tide-thefts-cargo-hijacking-and-cattle-rustling-why-is-an-epidemic-of-thievery-sweeping-america

Edited November 5, 2013 by midas

[yoshiwara]

yes you can say that again...........

For example, consider the story of Benjamin Serra Bosch, a 25-year-old Spanish man that moved to London in a desperate search for a job. He has three college degrees, including a Master’s Degree from the IEBS Business School in Barcelona. The following is a rough translation of a message that he recently posted on Facebook…

https://www.facebook.com/benjaserrabosch/posts/10151860752423076

My name is Benjamín Serra, I have two bachelor degrees and a master’s degree, and I clean toilets.

No, it is not a joke. I do it to pay the rent for my room in London.

I’ve been working in a famous chain of cafes in the United Kingdom since May, and for the first time today, after 5 months working there, I see it clearly. I have been cleaning toilets. My thought was: “I received distinction in my two degrees and I clean other peoples’ poop in a country that isn’t my own.” Well, I also make coffee, clean the tables and wash cups.

And I am not ashamed to do so. Cleaning is a very decent job. What embarrasses me is having to do so because no one has given me an opportunity in Spain. Like me, there are many Spaniards, especially in London. “You are a plague,” I was told once here. And let’s not kid ourselves. We are not young people on an adventure to learn the language and have new experiences. We are immigrants.

I’ve always been very proud, I am not going to deny. Those who know me, you know. And I have to bust out a smile at customers who look over my shoulder as I am simply a “barista” (as they call it here). Some are so outrageous that it makes me want to pull out my University and master degrees and put them in their face. But it would not really do anything. It appears that those titles now only serve to clean the poop that I clean from the toilets in the cafe. A pity.

I thought that it deserved something better after putting so much effort in my academic life. It seems that I was wrong.

I would be more interested in the uni progression stats post graduation than the story of one individual waved around.

[churchill]

From an Oct IMF report. Hide your money. They're coming to get it. Source

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fm/2013/02/pdf/fm1302.pdf

'Box 6. a One-Off Capital Levy?

The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a “capital levy”— a one-off tax on private wealth—as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability.1 The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible and there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair). There have been illustrious supporters, including Pigou, Ricardo, Schumpeter, and—until he changed his mind—Keynes. The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks of the alternatives, which include repudiating public debt or inflating it away (these, in turn, are a particular form of wealth tax—on bondholders—that also falls on nonresidents).'

Edited November 8, 2013 by churchill

[mccw]

Manarak I beat you to it

France rating down graded

This from the sky news article:

"""S&P said it expected net general government debt to peak at 86% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 and unemployment to remain above 10% until 2016.

"""""

-

Always with the future peak and falling back but just dreamings really since demographics worsen every year and the reforms are all stalled and even if implemented may do just as much harm as good. They're in a catch 22 like so many other so called "developed" countries.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[ronz28]

Wall Street scammers free on crackle.

http://www.crackle.com/c/mugshots/wall-street-scammers/2490417

[midas]

lunacy

Want 18% returns? Become a subprime lender Average Joes risk nest eggs on loans to home buyers with poor credit

Barry Jekowsky wanted to build “legacy wealth” to pass down to his children. But the 58-year-old orchestral conductor, who waved the baton for 24 years at the California Symphony, didn’t trust the stock market’s choppy returns to achieve his goals. And the tiny interest earned by his savings accounts were of no help. Instead, Jekowsky opted for an unlikely course: He became a subprime lender, providing his own cash to home buyers with poor credit and charging interest rates of 10% to 18%. It may sound risky, but “it helps me sleep better at night,” he says. “Where else can you find [these] returns?”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-wont-give-you-a-home-loan-ask-hank-2013-11-11?siteid=rss&rss=1

Edited November 13, 2013 by midas

[midas]

Vietnam Shows How To Clean Up The Banking System: Ex-Banker Faces Death Penalty For Fraud

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-12/ex-bank-executive-may-face-death-in-vietnam-fraud-trial.html

Edited November 13, 2013 by midas

[mmh8]

lunacy

Want 18% returns? Become a subprime lender Average Joes risk nest eggs on loans to home buyers with poor credit

Barry Jekowsky wanted to build “legacy wealth” to pass down to his children. But the 58-year-old orchestral conductor, who waved the baton for 24 years at the California Symphony, didn’t trust the stock market’s choppy returns to achieve his goals. And the tiny interest earned by his savings accounts were of no help. Instead, Jekowsky opted for an unlikely course: He became a subprime lender, providing his own cash to home buyers with poor credit and charging interest rates of 10% to 18%. It may sound risky, but “it helps me sleep better at night,” he says. “Where else can you find [these] returns?”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-wont-give-you-a-home-loan-ask-hank-2013-11-11?siteid=rss&rss=1

yeah I saw this one too, its amazing surely fanny and freddie should have shown tyhis? or perhaps its an appeal to the compulsive gambler?

[manarak]

Come on ,if your going to work at Mcdonalds ,your either on the management side ,just there as a fillin job or to dumb to work at a proper job , its not the sort of thing you do as a 'career choice" and as someone else said if this woman works there ,why have two kids ,unless you have a husband also working and bringing in a decent wage.

Your right about dumb people. Some of them may have written 'You're right.' However, keep looking down on the lowly who are just doing what they can to put food on the table.

Without looking down on the "lowly" as you put it, I honestly think that a "lowly" job at McDonald's is not meant to pay enough to raise two children.

Same work, same pay... McDonald's paying enough to raise two kids would either lead to overpaying the bulk of single students working for MD, or to inequalities in wages and MD avoiding recruiting mothers, which would make the problem worse.

A minimum wage cannot be designed to support a family.

France did this mistake, and as a result today of such social policies, France's economy is ruined, the country isn't working nor is it producing anymore.

No, social assistance to the poor has to come from the government.

[manarak]

Manarak I beat you to it

France rating down graded

This from the sky news article:

"""S&P said it expected net general government debt to peak at 86% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 and unemployment to remain above 10% until 2016.

"""""

-

Always with the future peak and falling back but just dreamings really since demographics worsen every year and the reforms are all stalled and even if implemented may do just as much harm as good. They're in a catch 22 like so many other so called "developed" countries.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

well done for beating me to it...

France is headed into the wall, and I don't think these figures really are "peaks"...

A general movement of opposition to stupid socialist policies has started in France. Go "Bonnets Rouges" !!!

Meanwhile, the EU is telling Germany that German products sell too well outside of Germany, and that Germany please be less successful.

"Atlas Shrugged" - reality worse than fiction?

[midas]

Yoshiwara I am so sorry for succumbing to posting this, but the temptation was too great

I shall expect your flame

but it's still a sunny day

Hungary is making history of the first order.

Not since the 1930s in Germany has a major European country dared to escape from the clutches of the Rothschild-controlled international banking cartels. This is stupendous news that should encourage nationalist patriots worldwide to increase the fight for freedom from financial tyranny.

http://americanfreepress.net/?p=12418

Edited November 14, 2013 by midas

[Naam]

Manarak I beat you to it

France rating down graded

This from the sky news article:

"""S&P said it expected net general government debt to peak at 86% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 and unemployment to remain above 10% until 2016.

"""""

-

Always with the future peak and falling back but just dreamings really since demographics worsen every year and the reforms are all stalled and even if implemented may do just as much harm as good. They're in a catch 22 like so many other so called "developed" countries.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

well done for beating me to it...

France is headed into the wall, and I don't think these figures really are "peaks"...

A general movement of opposition to stupid socialist policies has started in France. Go "Bonnets Rouges" !!!

Meanwhile, the EU is telling Germany that German products sell too well outside of Germany, and that Germany please be less successful.

"Atlas Shrugged" - reality worse than fiction?

i wonder why these bloody Germans are causing since ages all kinds of problems!

[lovetotravel]

yes you can say that again...........

For example, consider the story of Benjamin Serra Bosch, a 25-year-old Spanish man that moved to London in a desperate search for a job. He has three college degrees, including a Masters Degree from the IEBS Business School in Barcelona. The following is a rough translation of a message that he recently posted on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/benjaserrabosch/posts/10151860752423076

My name is Benjamín Serra, I have two bachelor degrees and a masters degree, and I clean toilets.

No, it is not a joke. I do it to pay the rent for my room in London.

Ive been working in a famous chain of cafes in the United Kingdom since May, and for the first time today, after 5 months working there, I see it clearly. I have been cleaning toilets. My thought was: I received distinction in my two degrees and I clean other peoples poop in a country that isnt my own. Well, I also make coffee, clean the tables and wash cups.

And I am not ashamed to do so. Cleaning is a very decent job. What embarrasses me is having to do so because no one has given me an opportunity in Spain. Like me, there are many Spaniards, especially in London. You are a plague, I was told once here. And lets not kid ourselves. We are not young people on an adventure to learn the language and have new experiences. We are immigrants.

Ive always been very proud, I am not going to deny. Those who know me, you know. And I have to bust out a smile at customers who look over my shoulder as I am simply a barista (as they call it here). Some are so outrageous that it makes me want to pull out my University and master degrees and put them in their face. But it would not really do anything. It appears that those titles now only serve to clean the poop that I clean from the toilets in the cafe. A pity.

I thought that it deserved something better after putting so much effort in my academic life. It seems that I was wrong.

The guy has a degree in publicity/PR and journalism from an undergrad university ranked at 6400 in the world:

http://academyrank.com/academy.php?name=CEU%20Cardenal%20Herrera%20University

Or around 4100 if you use this ranking:

http://www.4icu.org/reviews/4256.htm

His masters is in community management. Good luck getting a job these days with those sheep skins. Especially in Spain with an unemployment rate of 27%.

[mccw]

"""

What Farmers Think About Climate Change In One Great Quote

ROB WILE

NOV. 18, 2013 4:37 | 15,935 | 36

REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

On Nov. 1, agriculture giant Monsanto bought a 7-year-old firm called Climate Corporation for about $1 billion.

Founded by two former Google employees, Climate Corporation might be described as the expression of the "big data" movement in the farming sector.

It combines decades of weather data from the USDA and National Weather Service, as well as its own proprietary live monitoring systems and radars, to better help farmers predict what yields will look like. It also sells them weather insurance.

Coincidentally, the New Yorker published Michael Specter's in-depth profile of the company a week after the purchase was announced.

The whole piece is worth reading, but one line stuck out to us. You'll recall that last year the U.S. saw one of the worst droughts on record. Although scientists have actually yet to find direct evidence that last year's epic drought resulted from climate change, the fact that in the span of two years America's breadbasket saw one of the worst-ever harvests immediately followed by one of the best-ever has hurt farmers' bottom lines. (Of course, it also likely helped boost Climate Corporation's value.)

Here is what Climate Corporation founder Dave Friedberg said about how most farmers view climate change (emphasis ours):

"You don't need to talk about climate change per se ... Statistically, you are looking at a series of numbers. If it were a roulette wheel, you could say, 'It's coming up black more and more frequently.' Can I attribute that to black being overweighted by the croupier? Or to the pit boss, or the machine being broken? It doesn't matter. Some people will argue that ice ages have waxed and waned for tens of millennia and that this is part of a natural cycle. That doesn't change the fact that black is coming up more frequently and you will get less out of an acre of corn than you used to. The price for that land simply cannot be justified by the income it can generate."

In other words, it doesn't matter what's causing it, but something's definitely not right, and investing in protection from that uncertainty now seems a must.

Climate Corporation now markets itself to ag sectors around the world, and Friedberg added that his data suggests some regions' farming industry will see damage that will dwarf the losses from the U.S. housing sector crash.

"""""

From biz insider app

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[12DrinkMore]

On the 25th January 2009 I started this topic out of frustration. Where are we nearly five years later???

The Financial Crisis is over, well more or less, there is still a lot of hangover, but the liquidity is flowing around the markets thanks to ZIRPS and QE's and the rest.

But where are the economies, the jobs? Just because liquidity is rushing around driving asset prices higher doesn't mean to say that the underlying economies are at all healthy.

Larry Summers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYpVzBbQIX0#t=875

Picked up by Krugman

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/opinion/krugman-a-permanent-slump.html?_r=1&

And also the FT

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2013/11/18/1696762/summers-on-bubbles-and-secular-stagnation-forever/?ftcamp=crm/email/20131118/nbe/AlphavilleNewYork/product

A chronic malaise has set in.

After 5 years of zero interest rates, essentially exported by the Fed to all the world's economies, and a totally unprecedented and concerted action by the US, UK and ECB central banks there has been no sign of inflation except in the stock markets.

That lever into some transmission mechanism doesn't seem to work.

Japanification has arrived at the doors of Yellen, who will doubtless continue the policies of Ben. The whole world will have to import the monetary policies of the US of A which will remain unchanged for as long as I live. ZIRP and QE. Even the first hint of tapering sent the financial markets into a spasm.

The only positive note I can add is that Yellen is setting an excellent example of what will be expected of the future workforce. Well, those who can actually find a full time job. At the age of 67, when 99.999999999% of the population reckon they deserve a retirement on a full inflation proofed pension, she is taking over has head of the world's monetary policy committee.

[midas]

On the 25th January 2009 I started this topic out of frustration. Where are we nearly five years later???

The Financial Crisis is over, well more or less, there is still a lot of hangover, but the liquidity is flowing around the markets thanks to ZIRPS and QE's and the rest.

But where are the economies, the jobs? Just because liquidity is rushing around driving asset prices higher doesn't mean to say that the underlying economies are at all healthy.

Larry Summers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYpVzBbQIX0#t=875

Picked up by Krugman

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/opinion/krugman-a-permanent-slump.html?_r=1&

And also the FT

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2013/11/18/1696762/summers-on-bubbles-and-secular-stagnation-forever/?ftcamp=crm/email/20131118/nbe/AlphavilleNewYork/product

A chronic malaise has set in.

After 5 years of zero interest rates, essentially exported by the Fed to all the world's economies, and a totally unprecedented and concerted action by the US, UK and ECB central banks there has been no sign of inflation except in the stock markets.

That lever into some transmission mechanism doesn't seem to work.

Japanification has arrived at the doors of Yellen, who will doubtless continue the policies of Ben. The whole world will have to import the monetary policies of the US of A which will remain unchanged for as long as I live. ZIRP and QE. Even the first hint of tapering sent the financial markets into a spasm.

The only positive note I can add is that Yellen is setting an excellent example of what will be expected of the future workforce. Well, those who can actually find a full time job. At the age of 67, when 99.999999999% of the population reckon they deserve a retirement on a full inflation proofed pension, she is taking over has head of the world's monetary policy committee.

For you to say that it is over, then what exactly was the definition of “ financial crisis “ in your mind in 2009?