bravenrace wrote: What really is the function of a foil hat. I wear mine because, well, I just try to fit in, but I really don't know why.
It protects the rest of the world from your awesomeness.
I mean, come on. Magneto had a foil hat, and he was the awesomest one.
Credit is a conspiracy, that's why it's hard to find conspiracy theories about it 
Credit Conspiracy? How about this one: Large banks conspire to manipulate the LIBOR, the rate that about 700 Trillion Dollars worth of "stuff" is based on, including probably your ARM. Never happen, huh? Just crazy talk?
carguy123 wrote: New World Order is good, but what is the name of the group of Jewish (?) Financiers/billionaires that supposedly secretly run the world?
That would be the Learned Elders of Zion - a hoax some supporters of the Tsarist Russian started, Henry Ford picked it up, and it refuses to die. They'd be a good one to get involved in a spoof as they're already supposed to be in banking. And several notches up on the crazy scale beyond the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderbergs, since the Elders of Zion aren't real, while the Trilateral Commission had David Rockefeller as one of its founders. (Although, of course, having David Rockefeller in the Trilateral Commission does give it a bit more plausibility to build a really good conspiracy theory. Start with the proven, move on to allegations, and finish up with the insane...)
Dr. Hess wrote: Credit Conspiracy? How about this one: Large banks conspire to manipulate the LIBOR, the rate that about 700 Trillion Dollars worth of "stuff" is based on, including probably your ARM. Never happen, huh? Just crazy talk?
Yeah, and to think those bastards conspired to keep my ARM rate LOW! How could they be so evil!
carguy123 wrote: ...what is the name of the group of Jewish (?) Financiers/billionaires that supposedly secretly run the world?
The Pentaverate from the movie "So Married an Ax Murderer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPMS6tGOACo
Basil Exposition wrote:Dr. Hess wrote: Credit Conspiracy? How about this one: Large banks conspire to manipulate the LIBOR, the rate that about 700 Trillion Dollars worth of "stuff" is based on, including probably your ARM. Never happen, huh? Just crazy talk?Yeah, and to think those bastards conspired to keep my ARM rate LOW! How could they be so evil!
This is why:
^^^ Great example of demagoguery and hyperbole whipping up conspiracy theories! Good work finding one for the OP.
Cartoons wearing bowler hats and Rolling Stones reporters-- I lol'ed.
Love those giant infographics.
How about some disclosure, Basil. You work for a bank? And it ain't a "theory" when the participants admit it.
From what I've read so far, while the Libor scandal sounds bad, it apparently had little to no real effects.
Does anyone know where I can get a monocle? I only need a corrective lense on my right eyeand think I could pull off a nice hat if I had one.
RossD wrote: Propetual Motion Machines are real and the Credit Companies are holding them back other wise energy would be free and with free energy, everything else would be super cheap and you wouldn't need credit at all. (Tin foil hats create run on sentences.)
Good thing I was able to keep my uncle's 100 mpg carb. Don't tell anyone.
Dr. Hess wrote: How about some disclosure, Basil. You work for a bank? And it ain't a "theory" when the participants admit it.
I ain't saying there wasn't a conspiracy and that those involved shouldn't have their testicles twisted for it. Just that that chart is hilarious in its rather clever but hugely propagandized attempt to make it all about screwing the little guy by artificially lowering the interest rate.
Now, if those guys had used the conspiracy to RAISE interest rates, then they'd have a case that the little guy got screwed. But do you think you'd see a chart praising the hero bankers for increasing the income on pensions for firemen, etc? NFW.
And, yes, I work for a bank and I have a Masters degree in Finance, so I know what I'm talking about. Though I have a feeling that isn't why you asked. Where do you work?
Fair enough. I run databases for a drink company. Among other things. I have a BBA in the MIS track from TAMU and a MD from UTMB.
Sure, lower interest rates help the borrower (assuming the lender will actually lend at that rate), but massively hurt everyone else like pensions, Social Security (crashing because the "trust fund" has a ROI of zip on its government bonds), retired people, savers, basically everyone and everything that is not living on credit. And it hurts the borrower because the lower interest rates forced the price of everything purchased up.
Dr. Hess wrote: Fair enough. I run databases for a drink company. Among other things. I have a BBA in the MIS track from TAMU and a MD from UTMB. Sure, lower interest rates help the borrower (assuming the lender will actually lend at that rate), but massively hurt everyone else like pensions, Social Security (crashing because the "trust fund" has a ROI of zip on its government bonds), retired people, savers, basically everyone and everything that is not living on credit. And it hurts the borrower because the lower interest rates forced the price of everything purchased up.
Sigh. Not necessarily. You've ignored inflation, "real" interest rates, the velocity and supply of money, and about a gazillion other things, not to mention that lower interest rates on govt bonds reduces the cost of govt borrowing, which affects virtually everybody positively while reducing income on the "trust fund." You've made some very simplistic conclusions about some very complex interactions. The converse of your statement is that high interest rates are "good" and help retirees and savers. Well, we had those in the 70's and the retirees and savers got hurt by inflation and the resulting economic malaise just like everyone else.
And, by the way, the LIBOR rate is an index more than anything else, so yes, you can assume the lender will actually lend at that rate and if you have existing floating rate debt it will likely be indexed to that rate, directly or indirectly. Which is really the danger of people manipulating it. It is supposed to be a market rate that the world relies upon to set borrowing rates. This time there was no discernible damage (and perhaps even some benefit), but next time we may not be so lucky, so the hammer has to come down on the manipulators very hard.
So, who got hurt? How about whoever was on the other side of the 40 million a day that the "traders" pocketed by knowing which way the LIBOR was going to go that day?
LIBOR scandal had no real effect? Thanks for the laugh. It is just another example of how there is absolutely no rule of law in this country.
Dr. Hess wrote: So, who got hurt? How about whoever was on the other side of the 40 million a day that the "traders" pocketed by knowing which way the LIBOR was going to go that day?
Still on a victim hunt? I guess it would disappoint you to know that the victims in that case were more traders/bankers, not the downtrodden unsuspecting proletariat. Not that I trust those calculations, necessarily.
$500 million in fines and possible jail sentences show the rule of law in action. The problem is that the rule of ethics didn't prevent it in the first place. The Wall Street/London investment banker culture has truly gone well off the rails. Don't mistake me for defending any of the greedy bastards, I just get annoyed by cartoon explanations that are just demagoguery.
Well this is what I finally ended up with Credit Conspiracies in the video. I didn't get to go where I wanted to because it simply took too much time for the real stuff.
I did a Monte Python type of skit where I was talking to strangers on the street, and I think you'll agree you can't get much stranger than these 2 people. They begin just over a minute into the video. Thanx for the help guys.
PS. the music in the video is from one of those live local bands like we were talking about in the Live Music thread.
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