René O'Deay gBlog

“These errors make us look either incompetent at credit analysis or like we sold our soul to the devil for revenue, or a little bit of both.”

A Moody’s managing director responding anonymously to an internal management survey, September 2007.

The housing mania was in full swing in 2005 when analysts at Moody’s Investors Service, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious credit-rating agency, were pressured to go back to the drawing board.

Moody’s, which judges the quality of debt that corporations and banks issue to raise money, had just graded a pool of securities underwritten by Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender. But Countrywide complained that the assessment was too tough.

The next day, Moody’s changed its rating, even though no new and significant information had come to light, The Reckoning - Debt Watchdogs - Tamed or Caught Napping? - Series - NYTimes.com

All this, years after nationwide realtors, assessors and tax assessors began a campaign to consisently overvalue housing, for their own and tax base benefits.

Or haven't you noticed?

After reading the whole article, seems to me these guys at Moody's did sell their soul to the devil.

What's your take?

Glass Jar - New Kingdom
via Wikipedia

Daily News Egypt - Full Article: "Dying for that ancient treasure By Emad El-Sayed, June 6, 2008

Although prospecting for antiquities has been going on for several decades, recently monument trafficking in Egypt has been spreading like wildfire, with several big families in Upper Egypt in particular implicated in the illegal practice.

Dreams of striking gold and finding that long-lost treasure have made those who prospect for monuments ready to sacrifice their lives for it. That distant dream has, however, claimed the lives of thousands of youth who die in tunnels they believe will lead them to a yet undiscovered Pharaonic era tomb."

Fortunetellers, sheikhs, dreams and metal-detectors fuel the dreams of Egyptians seeking relief from the deteriorating economy.
But many have lost their lives, in tunnels, and some even under their own homes.
In the past, mostly metal was taken, now any pharaonic artifact is fair game. Over 15.000 antiquities were stolen in the last 7 years.
The Department of Retrieving Stolen Artifacts was established in 2003, and one judge called for the death penalty to deter this growing crime.

René O'Deay

Escaping the Matrix In the matrix world, the benefit was going to the periphery in the form of countless aid programs; in the real world, immense wealth was being extracted from the periphery.

The West became the collective core of a global empire, and exploitative development led to prosperity for Western populations, while generating immense riches for corporations, banks, and wealthy capital investors.

Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington, reported,"that democratic societies “cannot work” unless the citizenry is “passive.” The “democratic surge of the 1960s” represented an “excess of democracy,” which must be reduced if governments are to carry out their traditional domestic and foreign policies."

Besides failing to deliver popular passivity, the policy of prosperity for Western populations had another downside, having to do with Japan’s economic success. Western capital needed to find a way to become more competitive on world markets, and Western prosperity was standing in the way.

If popular prosperity could be sacrificed, there were many obvious ways Western capital could be made more competitive. Production could be moved overseas to low-wage areas, allowing domestic unemployment to rise.

In reality there is only one significant political agenda these days: the maximisation of capital growth through the dismantling of society, the continuing implementation of neoliberalism, and the management of empire. Clinton’s liberal rhetoric and his playing around with health care and gay rights are not the result of liberal pressure. They are rather the means by which Clinton is sold to liberal voters, so that he can proceed with real business: getting NAFTA through Congress, promoting the WTO, giving away the public airwaves, justifying military interventions, and so forth. Issues of genuine importance are never raised in campaign politics – this is a major glitch in the matrix for those who have eyes to see it.

Too Much A vivid description of how Congress, the lobbyists and private equity funds have looted our economy and helped dismantle our society.

It never was about religion. Only about the money.

But what really happens when you kill the 'Golden Goose'?

Is your boss a psychopath?

I hope is not too late, to wake up America.
René