Barney Frank Slaps Wall Street Silly

At about 1:50 he asks, if the banks are so strapped for capital that they can't make new loans, where is the money coming from to give themselves increased compensation.

I tried to post in Free Speech but it tried to direct me to diversitytomorrow.

Nobody is saying banks are strapped for cash. The banks are flush with cash.

The * Banks are saying they have to reserve the capital they have. It's part and parcel of the whole hostage situation. The economy won't grow if people don't invest, yes?

Quote: lojo

The * Banks are saying they have to reserve the capital they have. It's part and parcel of the whole hostage situation. The economy won't grow if people don't invest, yes?

The economy lacks demand.......most Americans are broke.

I wonder why we are broke? Everybody I know is working harder than they did 10 years ago. Doesn't it take money flowing to create wealth? I remember back in the 70's taking home 137 a week and doing about as good as most are now, better than many actually. Did you know that if the wage for fast food workers, actually everybody at McD's had their income doubled, all the way to the CEO, it would add 60c to the cost of a Big Mac? I'm no economist by any means, I just know that money is cheap right now but they aren't lending it - that has been strangling the economy since 2008. The sequester sure isn't helping cash flow. I always believed that being 'fiscally conservative' started with paying your bills and then maybe NOT taking on new debt, but you paid the bills in your budget first.

Why has the economy 'stalled'? Because the money isn't flowing is my only guess.

Quote: lojo

I wonder why we are broke? Everybody I know is working harder than they did 10 years ago. Doesn't it take money flowing to create wealth? I remember back in the 70's taking home 137 a week and doing about as good as most are now, better than many actually. Did you know that if the wage for fast food workers, actually everybody at McD's had their income doubled, all the way to the CEO, it would add 60c to the cost of a Big Mac? I'm no economist by any means, I just know that money is cheap right now but they aren't lending it - that has been strangling the economy since 2008. The sequester sure isn't helping cash flow. I always believed that being 'fiscally conservative' started with paying your bills and then maybe NOT taking on new debt, but you paid the bills in your budget first

Raise your prices 25-30% and see what happens to your sales. Banks are not lending because:

1. People do not want to invest with the regime in power as they do not know how many new regulations and costs they will impose
2. Banks can make money at no risk by borrowing from the Fed and buying government bonds. Why would the lend with risk?

Quote:

Why has the economy 'stalled'? Because the money isn't flowing is my only guess.

It has stalled because of increased taxes and regulation. Obamacare alone is a huge disincentive to invest. Threatened "carbon taxes" are another. Promised minimum wage boosts yet another. All in all we have the most business hostile administration since 1933. And people want to know why the economy is stalled?

Barney knows a thing or two about capitalism. His partner was running a male prostitution ring out of Barney's home...

Quote: lojo

Did you know that if the wage for fast food workers, actually everybody at McD's had their income doubled, all the way to the CEO, it would add 60c to the cost of a Big Mac?

I am pretty convinced any of these similar statements are a canard. I'm familiar with the practice of certain machinaters with various motives who take the cost of doing business and projecting a very small or very large mark-up. They know the public can't understand any of it. In this case, if the 60c is accurate at all, it would be based on a cost of 55c with the assumption there is no need to mark it up much. In reality, restaurants operate on an enormous mark-up which seems to be an necessity. Next time you order an orange-juice with breakfast, go to the grocery store and figure out how much it actually costs, and chew on that for a while.

Quote: odiousgambit

I am pretty convinced any of these similar statements are a canard. I'm 0c familiar with the practice of certain machinaters with various motives who take the cost of doing business and projecting a very small or very large mark-up. They know the public can't understand any of it. In this case, if the 60c is accurate at all, it would be based on a cost of 55c with the assumption there is no need to mark it up much. In reality, restaurants operate on an enormous mark-up which seems to be an necessity. Next time you order an orange-juice with breakfast, go to the grocery store and figure out how much it actually costs, and chew on that for a while.

Restaurants seem to have about a 300% mark-up on food. This covers facilities, insurance, G&A, misc, and mostly labor. I seem to remember hearing this 60c figure and it was debunked because whoever made it up just took gross food sales and divided it by employees of MCD. They missed the fact that the employee data was for MCD and not total system-wide store level employees, a far higher number. It is also a static analysis meaning when the price of a Big Mac goes up 60c then fewer are sold.

In any case I am a bit tired of this, "you can't raise a family of 4 on minimum wage/at MCD/at WMT, etc." You could never raise a family on an entry level job. You are not supposed to be able to. If you have an entry level job you are supposed to wait until you move a few steps up the ladder to earn more.

Quote: wrongway

Barney knows a thing or two about capitalism. His partner was running a male prostitution ring out of Barney's home...

That's all that you have? Nothing about Teleprompters or maybe Vince Foster?