Home Depot Girds for Continued Weakness - NYTimes.com

The leadership of Home Depot has decided to move from a culture of expansion to one that is less vulnerable to consumer and credit slowdowns.

When the collapse of Lehman Brothers froze the credit markets last September, Carol Tome quickly ordered hundreds of Home Depot’s store managers to transfer all their spare cash to headquarters — literally cleaning out their registers and each store’s safe.

In fact, Home Depot’s closest competitor, Lowe’s, is taking the opposite tack, continuing to open outlets at a brisk clip in hopes of closing the gap with its much bigger rival. Lowe’s reported a smaller decline in first-quarter earnings than analysts had expected on Monday, ahead of Home Depot’s report on Tuesday.

“Expansion is risky today,” said David H. Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “but it is also a less expensive time to do so in terms of buying land and hiring labor than it will be when the economy comes back. And maybe even in today’s constrained economy, Lowe’s does not have enough outlets.”

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Goldman Sachs Bribed Senate To Pass Bailout Bill

More at http://www.LifeOnTheEdgeOfABubble.com

--Complete CONTRIBUTION LIST: http://www.washingtonyourefired.com/goldman_sachs_2008_contributions.html

How much bribe money does it take to transfer $700 Billion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street's elite?







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1999: Congress passed bill easing bank laws.

Democratic North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan Saw What Was Coming (and no one listened!)

" 'I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota."

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It Was The Irresponsible Leveraging, Redirect The Blame

Enough Demonizing The Mortgage Holders, It Was The Irresponsible Leveraging

Over and over, it has begun to drone on throughout society and media. “Loser homeowners”, “irresponsible borrowers”, et cetera… the mantra is being touted the main reason behind the current financial collapse. The responsible parties at the helm of major banks and government have shifted blame to those who do not have the means nor the power to defend themselves. It is easy for the well-connected CEO’s and government insiders to get their faces on TV and get the meme of their faultless leadership into the public psyche.

...(A) major banking institution leveraging itself at 35:1 is not the effect of poor home loans but the irresponsible management and leadership of the institution.

The persons holding the cards look down upon and even blame the defaulting homeowners (they are not blameless, but are hardly the key players in the collapse), when it was the the banking lobbyists pushing to relax regulation and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who relaxed leveraging rules to allow banks more room to game the system. And when it all crumbled… it was the banking CEO’s with hat in hand before congress begging for the socialist handouts, not the homeowner who was being booted to the street for taking an ill-advised, poorly managed home loan that the banks were all too pleased to use as a means of leverage by granting to sub-prime borrowers.

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Jim Cramer Gets PWND By Jon Stewart On The Daily Show VIDEO

Having been slammed repeatedly by host Jon Stewart over the past few days for one-sided journalism, Cramer fled any real direct confrontation in his lengthy interview and instead went contrite — absurdly contrite. His voice went high and cracked, his thoughts fragmented as they left his mouth. Includes video.

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AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs - BusinessWeek

"Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

"The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines...

"Goldman Sachs' tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. The firm told its shareholders this year that financial counseling and chauffeurs are important in giving executives more time to focus on their jobs."

Goldman Sachs takes $12B Bailout, Hands out $14B Bonuses

You aren't going to read about this in the US press, they are too busy lying about everything they report. We have to read about it in a British newspaper.

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10 Banks That Could Be Next To Go Under

IndyMac bank going under probably has you wondering, is my bank next? Various analysts are predicted that hundreds of small and regional banks could collapse in the next year. Here's the top 10 list of the nation's most troubled banks...

The list is determined by dividing the bank's non-performing loans by the sum of its tangible equity capital and loan loss reserves, what is termed the "Texas-ratio." Any bank with a ratio higher than 100 means they have more bad loans on the books than money to pay for them.

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