Rose Cantine » credit crisis

12 days of bailouts

esme — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:57:03 +0000

Happy Holidays!

Apply now for federal bailout

esme — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:43:35 +0000

Peter Schiff was right 2006-2007 edition

esme — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:13:15 +0000

Five ways to survive the recession: travel, meditate, do yoga

esme — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:31:50 +0000

Since economists are predicting a severe recession and people think there’s going to be one, we will probably have one. That means a lot of people will lose their jobs, businesses will close down, consultants have no gigs. But you don’t need to get depressed or panic. There are other ways to deal with the recession: get away. What’s the point of sitting at home being depressed? If you have an apartment or a house, try to rent it out, and go to a place where the living costs are lower. Here are a few suggestions that are good for the body and the soul.

(1) Travel to cheap exotic places and have a real adventure: hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, go trekking in Nepal, backpack around India, Sri Lanka and Burma. For the Inca Trail, check out Peru Andean Experience.

(2) Go on a meditation retreat for several months. In the US, the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts has a three-month retreat (http://www.dharma.org/ims/retreats.php), as does Tassajara (Zen Buddhist retreat center) in California. In India, you can immerse yourself in a vipassana retreat in Bodh Gaya or Sarnath: http://www.bodhgayaretreats.org/.

(3) Go on a yoga holiday in Goa, India: http://www.ashiyana-yoga-goa.com/yoga-holidays.shtml.

(4) Volunteer for charity work in developing countries or for Greenpeace aboard one of their ships.

(5) Get away — deep into your mind by taking a course that develops your creativity. Take a class in creative writing, painting, photography, sculpture, cooking, DJing.

Schwarzenegger to U.S.: California may need $7-billion loan

esme — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:17:39 +0000

Oh no, just when I got done posting the article about car makers getting loans from the federal government, here come the states:

Schwarzenegger to U.S.: State may need $7-billion loan – Los Angeles Times

This makes me mad: car makers are getting preferential loans

esme — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:40:35 +0000

The US government recently decided to extend loans to US auto manufacturers so now it’s the European car makers who are lining up to get their share of our taxpayer money (Financial Times: Car makers ask EU for US-style loan). And you know they’ll get it from the spineless politicians in Brussels, who for all of their talk about making the EU’s markets more efficient, will stoop very low indeed to funding their national auto companies (France: Renault, Peugeot; Germany: VW, BMW).

Aren’t you mad already? Our money is being used to bail out stupid greedy bankers and now there’s no end to the queue of big businesses (those champions of the free market) lining up to get government help.

Why should the auto industry get loans when other industries aren’t getting a thing?

Why shouldn’t the EU and the US give preferential loans to web developers and computer programmers, wireless equipment makers, chip manufacturers, fashion designers, gardening companies, plumbers, roof repair companies, bicycle manufacturers, health clubs, Internet service providers, and video game developers?

As a small entrepreneur, I’m absolutely furious that these car companies are getting help (using my tax money) when everyone knows there’s over capacity. There are TOO MANY car makers! Their industry needs to shrink not grow and under the rules of supply and demand, there should be only a handful of auto makers in the world today (Financial Times: Perfect storm looms for car makers).

We want to lessen the number of polluting vehicles in the world and what are we going to do – bail out the manufacturers? It’s completely irresponsible on the part of governments to support the auto makers.

Paul Krugman: revised bailout plan filled with corporate freebies, won't work

esme — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:22:19 +0000

Krugman: bailout package filled with corporate freebies, won’t work

You can never trust the legislators. They just couldn’t resist adding in corporate tax breaks and freebies. The original plan proposed by Paulson which was bad, was made somewhat better by the Democrats, now it’s made worse so as to get it passed by the Republicans. It’s a worse bill than the one that was rejected last week, according to Krugman.

Credit crisis not just a Wall Street problem: people are not shopping or eating out

esme — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:06:43 +0000

Anyone who thinks this is a Wall Street problem is delusional. Check out the latest statistics on September auto sales: Ford -34%, Toyota -32%, Volvo -52%, Honda -24%. For more, read this post: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/10/auto-sales-tank.html

I am in Amsterdam right now and I have never seen it this quiet. Where are all the tourists? Usually in the early fall, there are a lot of British, Italian, French and Spanish tourists in the Nine Streets neighborhood where I live (which has a lot of cool boutiques and restaurants). But it’s eerily quiet. The shops are empty, the cafes feel like vast tombs. Last night I went out to dinner with my Malaysian friend at a restaurant that’s usually packed, and it was empty. Where’s everybody?

In San Francisco, I’ve noticed how easy it is to get a table at restaurants where, in the bad old days, one would have to reserve several weeks ahead. In fact, I was able to get a table easily at two of the wine bars I frequent in SOMA. Have people really just stopped going out?

Do you also see the effects of the credit crisis in your city?