Wall St: "Apple Worth More than Greece"

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Thursday January 19, 2012 · 6:59 PM PST

2012/01/19 · 18:59

A CNN Money headline, ironically authored by David GOLDMAN (I'm sure no relation) notes that by the rules of the casino operation known as "Wall St", the stock (aka gambling chips) of the Apple Computer company are worth more than the nation of Greece, a land area of 50,000 square miles of fabulous, fabled beauty and history, of 12 million people who labor to produce $300B in actual stuff.

At $400 billion, Apple is worth more than Greece

Apple doesn't actually make anything, it contracts with Chinese and other Asian companies that actually make things in low wage, non-union, highly exploitive, near slave labor factories. Apple itself is some real estate and office furniture maybe a few patents worth probably $10B in actual salable assets vs. it's value in gambling chips.

Kind of like WalMart but with shinier products. Of course Apple opening "stores" in Target/WalMart stores completes the circle.

These are the same financial rules that claim that the $14T in US debt is due to Social Security which has actual hard cash assets from direct, dedicated taxes vs. the crazy gambling debts of Reaganomics which invested in Wall St casino chips such as "mortgage backed securities" and "Fannie Mae bonds" and "reinsurance policies" and "derivatives" or the "Savings & Loans" of people like Neal Bush (aptly named "Silverado") all which were Wall St fictions. Fictions that the Reaganomics fans took the actual Social Security money, gambled and lost it on over ht last 30 years.

Instructive because we have seen recent cuts to Social Security funding and Medicare funding based on the casino rules of Reaganomics and are told the lie that $14T in gambling debts are not due to the "mortgage based Silverado derivatives" but due to the hard cash paid by people from their paychecks to fund Social Security at a surplus over the last 30 years.

More instructive still as we read that the White House and the other Wall St enablers are:

White House preparing left for budget they'll hate, but says look for jobs focus by Joan McCarter

Continuing the phony claim that fully funded Social Security is responsible for the $14T in debts owed by the Wall St gamblers paying off DC politicians to buy their gambling chips vs. health care and retirement benefits for the people who paid for them. We have had the $1T paid to bail out AIG, some insurance company that makes "chips" for Wall St gamblers, the $1T paid to bail out Neal Bush and friends "Silverado" casinos. $1T spent on gifts to the worlds richest oil corporations. $10T in money spent on unproductive guns (see Ike for explanation) to protect the assets of the oil companies.

All summed up in a headline that some real estate and office furniture that would sell for $10B on Craig's List is worth more than 50,000 square miles of land and history, 10 million people or the $300B of actual stuff they make every every year. "Apple is worth more than Greece".

German Unemployment 6.8%, Socialism working great!

ProximalSuns

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Tuesday January 03, 2012 · 10:30 AM PST

2012/01/03 · 10:30

Germany's unemployment rate at record low in December. Germany Strong exports of German cars are helping drive employment figures. German unemployment fell to its lowest rate in December since 1991, according to the German Federal Labour Agency.

Must be that high unionization rate of German industry powering the economy.

Germany has about 60 percent unionization. And German workers have fully 50 percent representation on corporate boards.

Does lead to great stuff like big trade surpluses vs. massive US trade deficits, a huge tax on US economy.

German Trade Surplus Widens

Or maybe that Germany has "socialized" health care that costs 50% less per person than in the US, covers 100% of the people and gets better results.

German health benefits are very generous. And there's usually little or no wait to get elective surgery or diagnostic tests, such as MRIs. It's one of the world's best health care systems, visible in little ways that most Germans take for granted.

Or maybe the fact that Germany uses 50% less energy (less imported oil, less greenhouse gases) than US.

World Energy Use Stats

GOP hate the French because France exposed Bush II's phony war in Iraq. GOP should really hate the Germans for disproving every single point of GOP Reaganomics ideology from unions to health care to jobs to oil to climate change. Toss in the secular public education system and money free democracy and Germans are the true anti-Reagan/GOP heretics in the world.

Now if we could just find a US leader who wanted to use the German model in US. US voters would go for it.

With a tip of the hat to the other DKOS Germany Just Works diarists.

The mainstream German magazine Spiegel asks has the United States of America become an Oligarchy?

U.S. Exmas 2011, America in Decline: Why Germans still, Think We're Insane+

Nurses strike over Obama Medicare cuts.

ProximalSuns

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 15, 2011 · 6:08 PM PST

2011/12/15 · 18:08

With Obama cutting $400B from Medicare/Medicaid in his last budget and targeting $300B more in Medicare and Medicaid cuts in his 2011/12 budget, we often hear this bad policy defended as the cuts coming out of "waste, fraud and abuse" when in fact it comes out of nurses pay, hours and job duties all the detriment of nurse's health and patient health.

Though finances differ, all hospitals face cuts in Medicaid and Medicare and uncertainty over budgets under new payment models.

We see the same cost of Obama's Medicare/Medicaid cuts with individual doctor practices where primary care physicians cannot afford to see Medicare patients due to the Medicare reimbursement cuts.

WASHINGTON — The number of doctors refusing new Medicare patients because of low government payment rates.

Obama refuses to honestly discuss Medicare/Medicaid issues. The real need is for higher Medicare/Medicaid income by applying Medicare tax to all income, not just payroll and having progressive tax rates.

Remibursement has to cover real health care provider costs vs. the Obama/GOP lie that the $1T in current cuts, like the $5T in previous Medicare/Medicaid cuts some out of "waste, fraud and abuse". It is a lie. The cuts come out of the health care services and wallets of older Americans who are as bankrupted by Medicare as by private insurance.

We see the effect of the Obama/GOP Medicare cuts in the nurse's strikes in NY and CA, where the cost of the cuts is passed on to the nursing staff who must take on more patients putting patient safety, patient health and the nurses own health at risk to pay for the Medicare/Medicaid funding cuts.

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