villakram

8 hours ago, sidcow said:

Because if Trump had won they would all have had the bestest wage rises anywhere in the world ever. Yes they would. 

Wages are only falling because they abandoned the wall. 

Why the need to continuously go there.

Any president is in electoral peril if the economy is not working for the electorate. 

23 months of falling real wages for US workers per this mornings inflation/economic data. Biden is toast if this keeps up much longer.

7 hours ago, CVByrne said:

None of them. I work in financial regulation. I've worked on Dodd Frank (the Volcker rule part which prohibits banks from proprietary trading). Solvency II and Basel III (which is the reform of bank capital to ensure when the next crisis hits banks are properly capitalised). 

So I suppose my skin in the game is seeing the stability of the big GSIBs and RSIBs being resilient enough for the coming recession. 

You must have gotten a good laugh at the statements from Mr. Franks given his involvement in Signature.

From the regulations perspective, what do you make of the implied Fed backing of all US banking deposits given their precedent setting decisions over the weekend. Given that they already have an implied floor under the stock market, this is not an especially helpful development imho. Banks needing to behave at a certain level due to the need to protect their liquid capital base will be sorely missed one day.

Internationally, how is this seen? Perfectly above board given international money flows and the connected nature of things or bordering on protectionist behavior etc.

2 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Ok…….let’s deal with some of those.  

Gibraltar was given to the UK.  It was not taken by force. 
 

Australia and Canada are independent. 
 

The Falklands may not be British but the definitely aren’t Argentinian. Argentina didn’t exist when the British first set foot on the Falklands. 

 

Just like America didn't exist when the Europeans arrived... etc., etc.

The Falklands, Gib (given, lol) were taken for the geo-strategic importance. Freedom and democracy for some.

6 hours ago, sidcow said:

I mean the people of Australia and Canada have full independence. 

The people of Gibraltar and The Falklands WANT to be part of the UK and would take exception to bring told they've got to be ruled from elsewhere. 

Now if we went into Australia, bombed them to shit and murdered thousands of women and children and tortured and mutilated hundreds more saying it's because they should never have had the independence we gave them, then yes you'd be right on the money. 

You did all that. Just a long time ago.

tic, tok...

@CVByrne What financial institution do you work for?

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

I meant bailing out the bank not the depositors, they aren’t bailing out the bank.  They are also not explicitly using taxpayer money to do it.

1 hour ago, bickster said:

Russia leaves Ukraine inc Crimea.

There is only Ukraine that can decide when they are happy for peace talks

And they have consistently stated that Russia must leave all Ukrainian territory 

UK leaves Ireland, Falklands, Gibraltar and grants Australia/Canada full independence.... oh, right we're not talking about history, we're talking about now, so let's ignore that.

Xi meeting Zelensky looking likely, after meeting Putin. 

Fingers crossed the bomb them for our freedom crowd will be disappointed by some peace proposals. 

24 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Maybe not the full story in my response but you were wrong as well as you were indicating Yellen was bailing them out which is not really the case reading in detail of how they are doing it, so it is disingenuous saying she’s spraying the money around once the proposal is read in detail.

They have created a new implied backstop. They changed the rules such that those who would have lost money in the old system, now no longer do so. This is a bail-out for those with holding in excess of $250k.

BTW, there are over $0.5T in the same debt instruments that killed SVB on the books of the broader US financial system. All of this is losing value with rates near 5%.  

10 hours ago, nick76 said:

Bit disingenuous, the main part is protecting <$250k depositors who are mainly small businesses who use SVB and who need money to pay rent, employees and utilities thus protecting, I would imagine, tens of thousands of people from losing their job this morning through no fault of their own.

False... all depositors are being made whole. This bank has been well known to be in a risky position for quite some time.

6 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Clueless nonsense 

FDIC limit is $250k. 

Losses for those with > $250k == 0. Failure to carry out fiducial responsibilities rewarded. 

Meanwhile Yellen et al spraying money all around to keep some of the banks in business. Congress... why would need their input, they only control spending.

Full FED bailout of the financial system underway. Same as it ever was. Mark to market... lol, you must be joking.

Make sure to keep up your mortgage/car/tax payments, however.

Your iTunes #1...

Agreement to re-open official ties between Saudi & Iran, courtesy of Chinese stewardship...

https://www.spa.gov.sa/w1867376

"The delegations from the two countries held talks during the period 6-10 March 2023 in Beijing - the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia headed by His Excellency Dr. Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, Minister of State, Member of the Council of Ministers, and National Security Advisor, and the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran headed by His Excellency Admiral Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

"The three countries announce that an agreement has been reached between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, that includes an agreement to resume diplomatic relations between them and re-open their embassies and missions within a period not exceeding two months, and the agreement includes their affirmation of the respect for the sovereignty of states and the non-interference in internal affairs of states."

Reasonably big bank collapse (SVB) underway this morn.

Eliza Cassan or Kay Burley...

3 hours ago, fruitvilla said:

No, but Ashli's stupidity was a contributing factor to her death. Frankly, I have more sympathy for the person who pulled the trigger.

That's a little weird.

Do you think that she had a deliberate plan to end up in that situation or she got caught up in events.

.gov agent acting as judge and executioner is never a good thing.  

9 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Peaceful trespassers and insurrectionists are still trepassers and insurrectionists; if you're the police and you're heavily outnumbered, what's the best option? There are cameras everywhere, get them the **** out and use the cameras later to convict.

Next @villakram you'll be telling me that Ashley Babbitt is an innocent victim.

@StefanAVFC Next you'll be saying the Ashley Babbitt deserved to die.

That would be the Ashley Babbitt who had a number of heavily armed police around her as the other guy executed her?  

Yes, I've stated that provocatively, but a trained marksman fired at an unarmed woman at close range resulting in her death.

21 hours ago, LondonLax said:

The US is now claiming it was Ukrainians who blew up Nord Stream, which certainly makes far more sense than the far fetched idea that Russia crippled their own infrastructure. 

It seems pretty unlikely that the job was solely a private operation though. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/us/politics/nord-stream-pipeline-sabotage-ukraine.html

The CIA was not involved in any way whatsoever. 

10 hours ago, Seat68 said:

You go on social media and someone calls out a sourced, evidenced argument and doesn't back it up with a counter argument that has evidence or a source. Or they have a hot take that's based on "apparently" or "I heard". Its frustrating. I get a lot of that on my social media. 

Well, they should just say "anonymous sources" rather than "I heard". Adding "official" to that is a pro move to demonstrate just how serious your point is. Works for the NYT etc.

On 05/03/2023 at 22:36, villakram said:

So Ron has a book coming out and is heading to New Hampshire/Iowa to promote "it" in the next week or so.

So, it appears that Florida has a law on the books that would force poor old Ron to resign if he declared his candidacy while governor. Mid-November is the registration cut-off for the first R presidential state prelim, absent the republican run Florida legislature finding a carve out for Ron.

Tucker Carlson kicking up a right hornets nest with publishing vids for the Jan 6th event. Official media is very unhappy to see secret government security state data be brought into the cold light of day (it's not there yet, hopefully fox force him to release everything publicly rather that the edits revealed thus far). 

Meanwhile, in D.C. our fearless leaders, in welcome but rare display of cross party unity, plough forward in their efforts to save us from the evil Chinese tiktoc. Too many eyes I guess.

2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I've bought a house.

The stairs don't have a bannister.

I want a bannister. One that includes a handrail and spindles and newell posts etc.

Where do I buy one? Who do I need to fit it? Can I do it myself? (almost certainly not) What sort of price will it be? 

So many questions

You can absolutely do it yourself. Loads of vids online of various utility. I did oak post and bannister with black metal spindles. Don't have a pic unfortunately. All the big home improvement centers have the parts over here.

The key point is having a proper solid anchoring for the newell post. I mounted it on the first step rather than the floor due to stairs being near the front door. Next step is if there are holes on the steps already from previous or if you need do new. See what the regs are (<4" between spindles over here, and >38", <44" height for bannister).

Buy a laser level as you'll generally mount newell - then the bannister - then mark spindle positions on threads and bannister and drill out. This part is impossible to do with a measuring tape and a regular level imho. Then you sand and stain etc., before finally installing for good. Our old house that I did this in was old, with zero right angles or straight lines anywhere. I think I did a ~ 40deg angle on the bannister with our stairs... laser level crucial here again (and a miter saw). This may be dependent on your stair dimension and wall trim angle if present. I mounted the bannister to the newell with a "MiniLock Handrail to Post Fastener" (see amazon), so no tricky drilling required here.

A second pair of hands is only briefly required when mounting the bannister etc., no hard work required from this help. Took about 4 weekends in total, which I'm certain is pretty slow, but I got it done!