Of Philodendron,Ping Pong,Wall Street and All Streets

drawing by marguerita

“It is not really about money,”

said Timothy Congdon, an economist and professed euro skeptic who foresees an exodus of savings from banks on Europe’s periphery to Germany as doubts build about these countries’ staying power in the Eurozone. “It is about how much pain the people in periphery can stand in order to keep this thing going. Once the confidence is gone, and Greeks and Spaniards move their deposits to Frankfurt, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the whole thing implodes.

The Greek “rescue” package announced last weekend is dramatic, unprecedented and far from enough to stabilize the euro zone.

They have abandoned previous rounds of optimistic forecasts and have now admitted to a profoundly worse situation. This new program calls for “fiscal adjustments” — cuts to the fiscal deficit, mostly through spending cuts — totaling 11 percent of gross domestic product in 2010, 4.3 percent in 2011, and 2 percent in 2012 and 2013. The total debt-to-G.D.P. ratio peaks at 149 percent in 2012-13 before starting a gentle glide path back down to sanity.”http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/its-not-about-greece-anymore/?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/business/global/06imf.html

Note: Change of Subject:philodendron, a common creeping houseplant whose name means 'love tree'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1272698/Picasso-painting-Nude-Green-Leaves-Bust-fetches-record-106-5m-Christies.html#ixzz0n7Lc96J0

Dubaiaiaiai..........

drawing by marguerita

E arly this month, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum told its critics to “shut up” and also asked them to “do their homework”, while addressing an investment conference organised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the Prime Minister and Vice-President of the UAE, while stressing the close ties between Dubai and Abu Dhabi —

Dubai drew a $10 billion emergency loan from the UAE central bank recently — said “I just want to tell these people who nag about Dubai and Abu Dhabi to shut up.” Abu Dhabi is the capital of UAE, which includes seven emirates, including Dubai. However, it was a well known fact that the oil-rich Abu Dhabi would never tolerate a phenomenon that any other Emirates growing politically or financially powerful than it.

http://www.hindu.com/biz/2009/11/30/stories/2009113050021300.htm“

This came as a big shock,” said Fahd Iqbal, an analyst at EFG-Hermes, an investment bank focused on the Middle East. Although Mr. Iqbal said he held to the view that Dubai in the end would avoid default, he acknowledged that the measure had severely rattled confidence in Dubai. “One of the main issues now is of credibility and the potential impact on future fund-raising, which could have knock-on effects on building and infrastructure plans for Dubai and the United Arab Emirates,” he said.

Dubai in Arabic means young Desert Locust!! Why is it called that way? Well this area was full of Locust as recent as 50+ years ago. Actually Dubai area was known for Grass hopper to an extent that there is a very old Arabic Proverb (may be pre-Islamic era or early Islamic period), when some body wants to describe something as plentiful he would say "like the Locust of Dubai”. The Stem Deb/Dub in Semitic languges has lots of connections to insects and animals, it also means to crawl or walk and It is interesting for you to know that Debroha, the Biblical name, which means a bee in Ancient Caananite language (Dabbor in Arabic is also a type of bee) Ok I will digress but you might be interested to know that in Arabic language lots of Animal names come from this stem ( db ) for example Daabah: Animals in general Dubb : Bear Dhabb: Lizard Dhaby (like in Abo Dhaby, UAE capitol): Gazelle Dabbor :bee Thobab: Fly (insect) Theeb : Wolf Dhaba' : Hayena

Desert Locust The pesky insects not only disappeared from Dubai but almost from the entire Arabian Peninsula. The insects used to invade the area from Africa across the Red Sea! Why aren't they around any more! I don't know. You might be surprised to know that people used to eat em!! I asked my grand father how it tasted like. Well his answer was (No not chicken) but shrimps. I have to admit that 30 years ago during a fluke, aberrant, mini Locust invasion of the surrounding area I saw a plate full of Locust? How was it prepared? Well it was boiled and NO I did NOT eat any of it. Any way I guess in the early 20th Century and time prior to that those Locust ate nothing but clean desert vegetation and where probably a source of healthy proteins. I suppose I am not sure- that people in the deserts of Africa do still eat these Locust, Please feel free to correct me if you think that I am wrong. If you want to know more about Locust read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/1/3611453-Desert_Locust-Dubai.jpg

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/goodbye-dubai/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6016fc26-dd17-11de-ad60-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

,Bruce Wasserstein,Wass Street/the Wall:"It's all about how much can be drained off in terms of fees, golden parachutes etc, that gets a deal done.

drawing by marguerita

Dressed smartly in a black tuxedo and a crisp white shirt and with his new bride Angela Chao - looking resplendent in a floor-length ivory gown with intricate grey beading - on his arm, Bruce Wasserstein smiled shyly to onlookers as he entered the recently refurbished Metropolitan Opera building in New York.

The parallels between Wasserstein and the innovative opera he saw that night should not be lost – a trail-blazer, not afraid of upsetting the establishment, Wasserstein was, in his day, every bit just like the modern-day version of Tosca.

He wasn't really trying to be like anyone else.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6358133/Wall

-Street-is-chasing-the-legacy-of-Bruce-Wasserstein.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/22/bruce-wasserstein-obituary

Enough of Wars,Politics,Blood and Tears

watercolor by marguerita

The Wizard of Maddoz tears of relief

collage by marguerita
Play the Game, Sweetie

Madoff: To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early 1990s.

Translation: Hey, does anybody here really remember the 80s?

Madoff: At that time, the country was in a recession and this posed a problem for investments in the securities markets. Nevertheless, I had received investment commitments from certain institutional clients and understood that those clients, like all professional investors, expected to see their investments out-perform the market. While I never promised a specific rate of return to any client, I felt compelled to satisfy my clients’ expectations, at any cost.

Translation: I have pathological need to be admired.

Madoff: I therefore claimed that I employed an investment strategy I had developed, called a “split strike conversion strategy,” to falsely give the appearance to clients that I had achieved the results I believed they expected.

Madoff: As I engaged in my fraud, I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal.

Translation: As the former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, I tend to know the rules.

The scandal turned a well-respected investment professional _ Madoff was once chairman of the Nasdaq exchange

Parsing Madoff: It Was Me, Me and Only Me - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

The Ape and Signum Temporis

drawing by marguerita ( one of my submissions for New Yorker's 2008 cover competition)Flickr: The THE NEW YORKER'S EUSTACE TILLEY CONTEST, 2008 Pool


“Here’s the bottom line,” Carlie says.

“He’s very beguiling,” Bob says. “He puts his hand out, looks at you with those beautiful brown eyes, and you feel compelled to hold hands.”
“I’d love to say he loves me,” Bob says scrupulously. “But he can’t.”
“I’m just too attached to him,” he says.
“I can pick from his bowl. Unless it’s something he really likes.” On one occasion, they got in a wrestling match, and Higgins put one of his “steel-like fingernails” through Bob’s scrotum.
Living Together - Sharing Your Home With a Primate, or If a Cat Just Isn’t Enough - NYTimes.com

Wall Street Scar......let them go

drawing by marguerita " Oh,You are one of them"........

The esoteric securities underneath the current mess are, to the people who invented and marketed them, analogous to pharmaceutical drugs. Used correctly, they can enhance your life. Abused, they are lethal“Fact is that this is a terrible way to make a living — except for the money,” Ken Miller, a former vice chairman at Credit Suisse First Boston and now a private investor, said. “The lifestyle is terrible — the hours, the sucking up. These guys must feel like they’re the victims of a capricious god.”.Wall Street's New Pariah Status - NYTimes.com

Bernard Madoff ,where did the money go?

drawing by marguerita
Here one possible scenario.....

It has become the biggest mystery to emerge from the $50 billion Bernard Madoff scandal:
Where did the money go?
Federal investigators are likely to take months trying to answer that question as they dig through the disgraced investor's records and attempt to unravel what may be the biggest financial fraud in history.
But several theories are being discussed among financial experts and at Wall Street watercoolers, Palm Beach Country clubs and the offices of university accounting professors.

Among the theories: Madoff lost a bundle in bad investments; paid some of the money out to investors; stashed cash in foreign banks; and spent some on his lavish lifestyle. There is also the possibility he inflated his claim of $50 billion in losses.
"He has plenty of houses and yachts, but not certainly enough to account for all this money," said Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at New York University. "It is tough to really lose 100 percent."

Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock market chairman, has become one of the most vilified people in America since news broke Dec. 11 that he allegedly had been running a giant Ponzi scheme, paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from others.
The scam included a global roster of investors, from retirees on Long Island to the International Olympic Committee, to charities worldwide. So far, investors have said that they have lost more than $30 billion, according to an Associated Press calculation.

By RACHEL BECK AP Business Writer

The Associated Press

The Devil is in the details | New York Social Diary
People were eager to meet him, to put their money with him.

Money quo vadis?

drawing by marguerita

L’IDEA DEI SOLDI COMEMANNA

Il 2009 sarà il primo anno — temo — di una tempesta economica perfetta. Una tempesta perfetta destinata a durare finché non torneremo a capire come nasce il denaro, cosa fa ricchezza.

Grazie a una scuola che non è più magistra vitae, i giovani non lo sanno di certo. Per loro è come se piovesse dal cielo come la manna. Per loro il denaro ci deve essere e basta. Ma è così, purtroppo, anche per i non-più-giovani. Nell’ottica di quasi tutti la ricchezza c’è, così come c’è l’aria o il mare. Se manca è perché è maldistribuita e perché se la mangiano i ricchi. E nemmeno i ricchi, o quantomeno gli straricchi, ne sanno di più. I Berlusconi del mondo sanno benissimo fare i soldi per sé; ma perché i soldi ci siano, e come e da cosa zampillino, non è un problema che li interessi.

L’economia come scienza ha cominciato a deragliare con la sua politicizzazione diciamo di sinistra: una politicizzazione che la induce ad anteporre il problema della distribuzione della ricchezza al problema della creazione della ricchezza e, in questo solco, anche a confondere i due problemi. Ed è questa confusione che ha allevato una opinione pubblica graniticamente convinta del fatto che la ricchezza ci sia (come ci sono, che so, le piante), e che il guaio sta in come viene distribuita, cioè maldistribuita.

Ora, che la distribuzione della ricchezza sia per lo più iniqua, moralmente inaccettabile e spesso anche economicamente dannosa, è un fatto. Un fatto che però non autorizza a confondere tra la grandezza della torta e la sua divisione in fette. Perché non è in alcun modo vero che la ridistribuzione della ricchezza produca ricchezza. Anzi, se la mettiamo così, è più probabile che produca povertà.

In prospettiva — e la prospettiva ci vuole — fino alla rivoluzione industriale del primissimo Ottocento l’economia è stata prevalentemente agricola, e quindi una economia di sostentamento. Dopo la lunga stagnazione medievale il primo accumulo di ricchezza avviene con il commercio e con le città marinare (per esempio, Venezia) nelle quali è fiorito. Ma la ricchezza prodotta dalla società pre-industriale fu ricchezza da consumare (in palazzi, chiese e, s’intende, in bella vita per i pochissimi che ne disponevano), non ricchezza da accumulare per investimento, e quindi ricchezza in denaro da investire nel processo economico. Pertanto fino alla rivoluzione industriale, che è poi la rivoluzione della macchina che moltiplica a dismisura il lavoro manuale, l’uomo è vissuto in grande povertà. Il tepore del benessere si affacciò, nel contesto dello Stato territoriale nel suo complesso, soltanto nel corso dell’Ottocento. Ma sino al Novecento, talvolta inoltrato, l’uomo occidentale non ha conosciuto la società opulenta, la cosiddetta società del benessere. Che da noi è durata soltanto una cinquantina d’anni. Per dire come si fa presto a diventare viziati.

Come e quando usciremo dalla gravissima recessione nella quale siamo peccaminosamente incappati nessuno lo sa. Il punto da capire sin d’ora è che il diritto a qualcosa sussiste solo se c’è la cosa. Il diritto di mangiare presuppone che ci sia cibo. E il «diritto ai soldi» presuppone che i soldi vengano creati.

Dal vertice dei 27 a Parigi arriva la richiesta di una «tregua permanente», il ministro israeliano Barak «favorevole a uno stop di 48 ore». Nella foto, tank al confine di Gaza.

• 31 Dec 2008
• Corriere della Sera
• di GIOVANNI SARTORI

Madoff : Ole!

drawing by marguerita
He added:
"That was the most important thing; he was looked on as someone who could make you money.
Really make you money."
Recommendations, word of mouth.
That’s how it was done.”
“He was very well known.”
There were wider worlds to conquer.
The only thing that struck the Swiss banker as odd was the bull memorabilia strewn about his office.
“It seemed strange for a guy to have all these bulls, little sculptures, paintings of bulls,” he recalled. “I’ve seen offices with bears. This was bulls.”

Madoff and WallStreetlization: Theme & Variations

drawing by marguerita
12/19. Yesterday was a not very cold three-days-from-winter day in New York.

was about ... one guess ... Bernie Madoff and his Made Off with Billions. The discovery is still on-going for as widely revered as he was in his world, he was unknown, or almost, to so many others ... and, it turns out, even to those who knew him. Or thought they knew him.Madoff Mania | New York Social Diary
The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so. The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.Op-Ed Columnist - The Madoff Economy - NYTimes.com
"As your father cleans his lamp to have good light, so keep clean your spirit... By prayer, Huw. And by prayer I don't mean shouting and mumbling and wallowing like a hog in religious sentiment. Prayer is only another name for good, clean, direct thinking. When you pray, think. Think well what you're saying. Make your thoughts into things that are solid. And that way your prayer will have strength. And that strength will become a part of you -– body, mind and spirit." –-Mr. Gruffydd.from How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, a939's novel.
Note- I met the writer in Sao Paulo,Brazil ,if my memory is correct around 1964 0r 65.
His birthdate year happened to be also the same one of my father !906.

Ship of Fools (painted c. 1490–1500) is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch which shows prodigal humans wasting their lives by playing cards, drinking, flirting, eating, etc. instead of spending it in "useful" ways. The painting is dense in symbolism:

• The owl in the tree is symbolic of heresy,^{[citation needed]} as is the Muslim crescent on the pink banner that flies from the ship's mast.
• The lute and bowl of cherries have erotic associations.^{[citation needed]}
• The people in the water may represent the sins of gluttony or lust.^{[citation needed]}
• The inverted funnel is symbolic of madness.^{[citation needed]}
• The large roast bird is a symbol of gluttony.^{[citation needed]} The knife being used to cut it down may be a phallic symbol or it may be symbolic of the sin of anger.^{[citation needed]}
• A monk and a nun are singing together. This has some erotic overtones^{[citation needed]} (especially with the presence of the aforementioned lute) since men and women in monastic orders were supposed to be separate.

The painting as we see it today is a fragment of a triptych that was cut into several parts. The Ship of Fools was painted on one of the wings of the altarpiece, and is about two thirds of its original length. The bottom third of the panel belongs to Yale University Art Gallery and is exhibited under the title Allegory of Gluttony. The wing on the other side, which has more or less retained its full length, is the Death of the Miser, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The two panels together would have represented the two extremes of prodigiality and miserliness, condemning and caricaturing both.

The painting is oil on wood, measuring 58 cm x 33 cm (23" x 13"). It is on display in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

The ship of fools is an allegory that has long been a fixture in Western literature and art. The allegory depicts a vessel populated by human inhabitants who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious, passengers aboard a ship without a pilot, and seemingly ignorant of their own direction. This concept makes up the framework of the 15th century book Ship of Fools (1494) by Sebastian Brant, which served as the inspiration for Bosch's famous painting, Ship of Fools: a ship--an entire fleet at first--sets off from Basel to the paradise of fools. In literary and artistic compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries, the cultural motif of the ship of fools also served to parody the 'ark of salvation' (as the Catholic Church was styled).

Michel Foucault, who wrote Madness and Civilization, saw in the ship of fools a symbol of the consciousness of sin and evil alive in the medieval mindset and imaginative landscapes of the Renaissance.^{[citation needed]}

The Dollar: Life guard,Underground and Over & the Sprinkler Systems

drawing collage by marguerita


"all just one big lie"


Today we celebrate the Feast of the Guardian Angels, those heavenly creatures who are assigned to be our protectors from the moment of our birth and throughout life. Although the nature of angels and the tasks given to them vary in each tradition ,other roles include acting as warrior or guard :a legend among Wall Street traders, was arrested on Thursday morning by federal agents and charged with criminal securities fraud stemming from his company’s money management business.“We are alleging a massive fraud — both in terms of scope and duration.
Although not a household name among consumers, Mr. M’s firm has played a significant role in the structure of Wall Street for decades, both in traditional stock trading and in the development of newer electronic networks for trading equities and derivatives......Prominent Trader Accused of Defrauding Clients - NYTimes.com

Tell me Why and Let's XChange

drawing by marguerita AND so: just how far have we come?
What’s happened to America? Why is it so heavy-handed? Why won’t it sit down, eyeball to eyeball, with its enemies and try to work things out?
“the way she (he)looked me in the eye, the way she(he) wasn’t on a pedestal, but one of us.”

Wall Street: The Answer is in The Wind

drawing by marguerita
Wall Street looked beyond the government’s bailout plan on Wednesday and saw more signs that the economy was in for a dramatic slowdown.Stocks Slide Amid New Trouble Signs - NYTimes.com

"But the dwarf said there is no need to be upset,because the people Asterisk sacrifices to himself have already been born, and dying in the arena is the common fate that nobody escapes.I tried to ask in that case what was the point of the sacrificial tribute,but the dwarf began getting nervous and said,"Look, he's coming, now you can see him for yourself."I looked up.Two figures had appeared in front of the burnt-out building.Striding along solemnly in front was a dwarf holding a flag,with the Merrill Lynch symbol on it- you remember it, they have that jolly little bull- and the inscription "Be Bullish!'- from The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin

Columbus Arriving on Day,August 12,2008

drawing by marguerita
Christopher Columbus meets the natives of America who are fascinated by trinkets like a bell.

After a weekend of crisis talks, European nations and the United States unveiled a staggering and coordinated series of multi-billion dollar rescue packages on Monday.With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity.
Op-Ed Columnist - Are We Rome? Tu Betchus! - NYTimes.com

America's Self Portrait: Food for Thought

drawing by marguerita Principle 8. Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

Japan’s failure to respond urgently and decisively to its banking mess caused the country to endure a “lost decade” of economic stagnation. If America wants to avoid Japan’s decline, the House should follow the Senate’s lead and approve the bailout — immediately.

Just as in the U.S. today, most Japanese did not initially appreciate how devastating a banking crisis could be to the real economy. Banks and real estate tycoons in Japan were corrupt, profligate and unsympathetic figures, and no one wanted to help them. On corporate expense accounts, they sipped coffee with gold leaf and patronized “no-panties shabu-shabu” restaurants, which had mirrored floors and miniskirted waitresses.

In short, the businessmen involved were jerks. Op-Ed Columnist - Save the Fat Cats - NYTimes.com

This is what a credit crisis looks like.

It’s not like a stock market crisis, where the scary plunge of stocks is obvious to all. The credit crisis has played out in places most people can’t see. It’s banks refusing to lend to other banks — even though that is one of the most essential functions of the banking system. It’s a loss of confidence in seemingly healthy institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman — both of which reported profits even as the pressure was mounting. It is panicked hedge funds pulling out cash. It is frightened investors protecting themselves by buying credit-default swaps — a financial insurance policy against potential bankruptcy — at prices 30 times what they normally would pay.It was this 36-hour period two weeks ago — from the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 17, to the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 18 — that spooked policy makers by opening fissures in the worldwide financial system.

In their rush to do something, and do it fast, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. concluded the time had come to use the “break the glass” rescue plan they had been developing. But in their urgency, they bypassed a crucial step in Washington and fashioned their $700 billion bailout without political spadework, which led to a resounding rejection this past Monday in the House of Representatives.

As Credit Crisis Spiraled, Alarm Led to Action - NYTimes.com

Of Bubbles and Wrath or Grapes of Dust

drawing by marguerita

We’re living in an age when a vast excess of capital sloshes around the world fueling cycles of bubble and dust ,as smoke clouds typically promise..Op-Ed Columnist - Revolt of the Nihilists - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

“Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, after Damien Hirst”

It could be argued that with fundamental assumptions about race, gender and politics up for grabs in an election that might pivot on things besides policy, having a woman in the anchor chair with a history of roaming across all kinds of subject matter might be a pretty good asset.
“This is a great story for everyone, clearly,” she said. “But with the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and the emergence of Governor Palin, it is also worthwhile to have a female perspective on the news as well.”by David Carr from The New York Times

The Greening of the Apple,Ha! Mr. Bloomberg:My landlord is evicting me on June 15th

drawings by margueritaToday I pleaded with my landlord. He does not care. Money,he said.Otherwise street,he said,
I want the money!!!!!!!!!
The building,by the way was owned by J.Jacob Astor. and has a long and excentric history.No. 732 Broadway

July 1, 1872, Wednesday

Page 8, 326 words

The first paragraph is not available for this article.

Note: This article will open in PDF format.

At the top of a grand old building at Broadway and Waverley Place in Greenwich Village is a sign that says "Treffurth's."Treffurth's was a noted restaurant on Broadway at the turn of the century. The building, according to the book "A Walk On Broadway: A Journey Over Time" by David Dunlap, dates to 1882.

6.   THE  ASTOR  PLACE  RIOT
 It was in Astor Place that there occurred a riot on the tenth of May,
1849, which is sometimes spoken of as the "Macready riot," the enmity of the
rioters being directed against the famous English actor of that name who was
appearing at the Opera House, whose site is now occupied by the Mercantile
Library. The trouble grew out of the rivalry of Forrest and Macready, and
the friends of the former aroused the passions of the multitude by making it
a dispute between American and Englishman. The Seventh Regiment fired upon
the mob, thirty-four of whom were killed and many wounded. The regiment
itself had one hundred and forty-one of its members hurt, some seriously.

.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE4DF153EE43BBC4953DFB1668389669FDE

“…Cause its all about money,

ain't a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and
Honey…”
Its all about money in NYC. Knock down the affordable buildings and put up towers as fast as possible before the market crashes….posted by MM
http:/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/crane-collapses-on-upper-east-side/#comment—

Dov Charney :I'm very proud of the underwear"

As creative director of the company, he appointed himself fit model, the person who tests the look and size of his men's line. He has even appeared in the ads. "I weigh 155 pounds, I'm five-10. Am I not fit? Is there any job that is not appropriate for me to do?" he said.
"I'm very proud of the underwear," he added.
In an interview, he also defended appearing in front of Nelson with just his genitals covered. "The demonstration of the" garment, Charney said, "was a product we were considering -- and I was in fit condition for it." He ultimately decided against putting it in the American Apparel line. "It wasn't classy," he said.