15
Jul
CAN YOU TELL A BOOK BY ITS COVER?
THAT NEW YORKER COVER
The Bad Frame: Why Are the New Yorker, Salon and Other Liberal Media Doing the Right’s Dirty Work?
By Don Hazen
AlterNet Posted on July 14, 2008
New Yorker magazine hits the newsstands today with a
shocking cover — a caricature of Barack and Michelle
Obama depicting the presidential candidate in a turban,
fist-bumping his wife who has a machine gun slung over
her shoulder, while the American flag burns in the
fireplace. The cover is shocking in that it depicts the
Obamas in bizarre, caricatured images and associations
that reflect the very stereotypes with which the
conservatives, particularly Fox News, have been trying
to frame both the Obamas. Thus, instead of satire, the
cover becomes a political poster for conservatives to
reinforce their messages. Sen. Obama was shown the
cover image by a reporter covering the campaign on
Sunday, and while seemingly taken aback, he declined to
comment.
But the Obama campaign quickly put out a release
condemning the magazine cover. Bill Burton, a spokesman
for Obama, said in a statement: “The New Yorker may
think, as one of their staff explained to us, that
their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature
Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create.
But most readers will see it as tasteless and
offensive. And we agree.”
Unfortunately the impact of this image will extend far
beyond the reading audience of the New Yorker; cable
news and the right-wing media noise machine will
amplify the derogatory image to millions more. And the
New Yorker of course will reap enormous publicity,
clearly translating to increased sales and notoriety
for the brand, and for corporate owner Conde Nast –
one of the largest and most powerful media companies in
America.’’’’’’’’’
Angry Black Woman Responds
PAUL KRASSNER: FEAR OF FUN?
I WAS ON GRIT TV WITH LAURA FANDERS LAST NIGHT DISCUSSING THE NEW YORKER WITH WRITER HEDRIK HERTZBERG
MAYBE MORE SERIOUS??? MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE ECONOMY–FROM SAM SMITH’s UNDERNEWS
Thus, the average reader or viewer may not realize that during the glory years of the second robber baron era, things like these have fallen significantly:
Minimum wage as percent of average wage
Real income
Real manufacturing wages
Percent of single women and mothers in the workforce
The bottom 40%’s share of national wealth
Older families with pensions.
Workers covered by defined benefit pensions.
The savings rate
US manufacturing jobsAnd here are some of the things that have grown:
Top 1% share of total income
Income gap between rich and poor
Foreign debt as a percent of GDP
Age at which one can receive Social Security
Hunger
Consumer credit debt
Housing foreclosures
Severe poverty rateWith the media almost completely blacking out all but conservative economic viewpoints, the public has little idea of how well socialism often works or how a blend of capitalism and public involvement can solve many problems, or that we actually function on a principle Paul Soglin, the former mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, labeled lemon socialism, of which the current bailout of the big housing insurers is a classic case and in which the capitalists both get to make money and then get bailed out by the government when they fail.
This has been one of the media’s greatest sins, one that stems from ignorance, groveling to power and infatuation with the cliches of the moment.
The Aftermath Project: War Is Only Half the Story
by Sara Terry
The Women’s International Perspective
It all goes back, I think, to the day I was standing in
a mass grave, hating the fact that I was there, balanced
precariously on a mound of bones, camera reluctantly in
hand. I’d been asked to make a photo of a partly-
preserved pair of hands, the remains of a teenage boy
who along with thousands of other Bosnian Muslim men and
boys had been murdered by Bosnian Serb forces seven
years earlier during the Srebrenica massacre.
I’d already spent two years working on a long-term photo
project about the aftermath of Bosnia’s 1992-95
conflict, documenting the return of refugees, the youth
of Sarajevo, the countless quiet, sometimes
heartbreaking moments that come with the rebuilding of
lives and relationships long after the guns of war have
stopped. I had come on this trip in September 2002,
knowing that I had yet to take a picture of an
exhumation that I felt was a definitive image. And I
knew why I had failed: I hate exhumations. I hate the
smell, the muck of the pit, the horror of decomposing
bodies, the thoughts that stream through my mind about
what it must have been like for these people in the
final frightening moments of their life. Most of all, I
hate the hatred that put them there.
Helms’ Horrid Legacy: Former Senator’s Damage Won’t Be Undone By His Death
Housing Works AIDS Issues Update
Although former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms died
last week, his hateful HIV/AIDS policies remain. If
Helms had merely been all talk-he once said of gay
people, “It’s their deliberate, disgusting, revolting
conduct that is responsible for the disease” of AIDS-
that would have been bad enough. But Helms’ bigotry
remains in the form of the U.S. travel and immigration
ban for people with HIV/AIDS, and thousands of new
infections that could have been prevented by sound sex
education.
“His longterm legacy will have to be judged for what it
was-he willfully participated in the genocide of
millions of people guided by religious fervor,” said ACT
UP’s Eric Sawyer.
‘YOUR LETTERS
Dan Osso writes:
I recently read an article by Danny Schechter in a Free local paper called Metroland; it’s published in Albany, NY.
Your article “House of Cards” was so right on target about the credit industry and reading it struck a particular chord with me personally. I’d like to share something with you if I may.
From 1998 until 2000 I was in the mortgage lending business and worked for a few different mortgage companies and brokerages. What I saw and learned back then disgusted me. The business practices that were employed, even back then, I felt were at the very least unethical. Lack of full disclosure, hidden fees, back end point bumps in loan interest rates were just some of the strategies commonly used and depending on the circumstances of the loan, in some cases were perfectly legal. Current legislation and banking laws have different controls for different types of lenders. While a banker, a lender and a mortgage broker all do essentially the same thing; lend or get you money, the rules that govern them are different for each one.
The more I learned about the business the more disenchanted with it I became. My problem was that knowing what I knew about borrowing money, and that I personally would never accept for my own financial needs, any of the terms being sold in these mortgages, how could I in good conscience sell one of these to someone else.
In short, I began teaching my clients some of the “tricks of the trade” by showing them how to save money on their mortgages, how to legitimately accelerate a mortgage to save on the interest payments as well as how to manage their credit and a host of other things that you so well covered in your article ie: the marketing of credit.
As you may assume, I didn’t do to well in that business in fact, in a discussion with one of my bosses about what I was doing with my clients, he informed me that “educating my clients” was not my responsiblity and I should just close the deal and get on to the next one. He went further to say, “and if in a year or two they get into trouble agin, they’ll just come back for another mortgage refinance”.
I eventually left that business but in the mean time and since, I have tried to spread the word about the mortgage industry as well as the credit card industry and how the use of credit is marketed. I realized then that talking one on one with people wasn’t good enough and that prompted me to write a book, a how to book in fact which is called “How To Beat The Bank and Win The Cedit Game”. My intention then and still is to get this information out to as many people as possible because it is not only vital, but it in fact is not taught to us unless you happen to major in banking or accounting or finance.
I maintain, credit is a tool that not only needs to be taught how to be used properly, but that it is also forced upon us as a necessity for survival in todays world; which makes it all the more important to be taught how to be used it properly. I understand that some self discipline is needed when using the different forms of credit that are available to us, but like wise some measure of accountability should be held against the banking and credit industries as well as our legislators who create the laws that govern the credit and lending industry.
The use of credit should be taught as a life skill in our schools so people can make educated choices about using credit and not just emotional ones based on instant gratification; the latter of which is promoted heavily through advertising and which more truthfully is referred to in England as propaganda.
The combination of ignorance on the part of the general public, greed by an industry, lack of foresight or conscience by our legislators and psychologically based advertising has put us all in dire straights.
As you so clearly covered in your story, the game is slanted against the consumer but I believe there are more than one predator out there. Your reference to the FIRE (Finance Insurance and Real Estate) sector of the economy misses the growing remedial industry that is also booming and adding to the woes. Credit counselors and bankruptcy attorneys who promote themselves as “fixers” to credit woes in some cases only exacerbate the problem.
Again lack of disclosure. No where do you hear that “getting your debt reduced to pennies on the dollar” or wiped out by bankruptcy may also carry with it a tax liability for the forgiven debt/s. While you may have fended off some of your creditors by these methods, in fact what you may have also done was pave the way for your State Tax or the IRS to come knocking on your door. They consider a forgiven debt the same as money in your pocket.
Lets not forget the pie in the sky types who sell debt reduction or debt management courses with the promise of “showing you how to be totally debt free in 5-7 years, regardless of your debt load or the income you earn”. As I said earlier, debt and the use of credit are necessities in todays world. Having none is just as bad as having too much. Trying buying a plane ticket, or a car or a house without some form of credit, it won’t happen. The trick is balance. Balancing what you owe with what you make. A simple concept but one that takes discipline and some degree of education and awareness.
I hope to be able to affect that education and awareness through my book. Its taken me a few years to get to this point given some of the changes in my life that I’ve had to deal with but that aside, your article has validated what I have written.
If there is anything I would ask of you it is your permission to quote you and possibly use your article or excerpts from it when promoting my book. I am in the process now of getting it on line, my web site, Thecreditsaver.com is in the final stages of completion and will be launched, hopefully in the next few weeks. I would like to be able to notify you of my launch date as well as send you a copy of my book for your review if you like. As I mentioned previously, my intention has been driven by my belief that this information is vital. I want to level the field between lenders and consumers. I have kept the writing in plain speak and as succinctly simple as possible. Since it’s original completion I have updated and redrafted it many times to improve its conciseness and simplicity. I am not offering upsales, up grades or any such marketing hype to inflate its value or price; nor am I looking for a sponsor.
I have also given hundreds of copies away, literally, since I started this project to see if what I was doing would have any impact on the people whose paths have crossed with mine, and plan to donate some of the proceeds of any sales I generate to charity.
If you’ve gotten this far then obviously you have read this lengthy email and for that I thank your indulgence.
Oh Urs writes:
not sure why the broadcasters are so Gung Ho about digital TV, since it seems that they may lose a bunch of viewers come 2009. I wonder who got all this going the way it did? If a broadcaster is 15-35 miles away the digital signal fades to black. Maybe some cable lobby got their fingers in it …
911 COMES TO THE BIG SCREEN
THE REFLECTNG POOL is the first investigative drama about 9/11 and it has just been released. The film tells the story of Russian-American journalist who teams up with the father of a 9/11 victim to investigate omissions and discrepencies in the official 9/11 Report. In addition to presenting important facts about 9/11 to a wider public, the film probes the question of journalistic integrity and the need for deeper inquiry in the current US politcal climate.
The Reflecting Pool
The Pioneer Theater this week
Pioneer Theater 155 E. 3rd (between A & B) New York City
Date/Time:Daily from Fri., July 11 until Fri., July 18, 7:00pm
Thats all for now. Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
Garbage is what this is. An article was written and it’s nothing but distraction to scream over the magazine cover. Count me among the many damn sick of Danny Schechter’s pushing Barack Obama over and over. I’m putting in my email address but don’t write me Mr. Schechter. Use the time instead to stop playing stupid. The Barack Obama campaign wants everyone to focus on the cover and ignore Ryan Lizza’s story. Talk about that and not the candy ass nonsense you offered today.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pmFor thousands of years, usury has been an illegal practice. “Usury” meaning charging excessive amounts for loans.
Yet in the U.S., the major financial institutions have bribed our politicians to pass laws saying that they are exempt from usury laws, and they can charge whatever they want.
The Bush economic policies have crushed American working people so that more and more they need to borrow money just to pay their ongoing obligations. Now they are charged usurious rates. Had they lived in 300 a.d., they would have been protected by law against paying the amounts charged by our major financial institutions. So who knew? The peasants, the uneducated illiterate laborers in 300 a.d. had more financial protection from their government than do Americans.
Interest rate was traditionally the sole cost for a loan. Borrow $100, at 10% interest/year, the cost of the loan to the borrower is $10/year. But in order to deceive the public, most financial institutions not only charge obscene interest rates, but they also add on so many different additional charges, which they say are “fees, not interest,” that the actual rate they are charging for loans is equal to what the Mafia used to charge. In fact, the Mafia probably could sue the major financial institutions for unfair business practices, taking away their knee-busting loanshark practices.
Let’s say a loan of $100 at 10% interest costs the borrower $10/year (interest). But add on a $50 “loan origination” fee, all of a sudden the borrower is paying $60/year in the first year, or 60% on the loan.
Then we have late fees, a fee charged for no reason at all. Again, $100 loan at 10%. Interest accrues daily. Assuming the pay-off of the loan is 1 week late, interest continues to accrue on the outstanding principal, and the lender receives 53 weeks’ of interest instead of 52 weeks’ of interest. The lender is fully compensated on the terms the lender negotiated. The so-called late fee, often $50 on a $100 credit card payment, is simply theft with no logical or economic support.
Mortgage loan brokers used to be called loan officers and were bank employees. They became independent, on their own, just like so many former employees are now contract workers: the former employer is relieved of the responsibility to pay a salary, health insurance, pension, vacation time, overhead, and the former employee assumes all of the expense of the overhead, and has no guaranteed income.
But the biggest perk of all to the former employer is that by having independent brokers solicit, negotiate, and explain the loan to the borrower, the lender is completely insulated from responsibility for any fraudulent inducements by the mortgage loan brokers.
Anything the broker says is between the borrower and the broker. Few borrowers actually read the lender’s loan papers, but if they did, they would find full disclosure and probably terms that they really don’t understand.
The financial institutions and the wealthy elite have stolen most of the money of working people in recent years. By hook and by crook.
The best way to take it back would be to sue all the insiders and former insiders, grab their assets, use them to prop up our financial system.
And raise taxes on the wealthy. I would say 90% of all consideration in excess of $250,000. Nobody needs more than $250,000/year, and if they get it, they inevitably use it to try to set up a dictatorship with them and their friends in the top spot.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:59 pmThe current financial debacle facing this country has so many facets to that it is very difficuly to address completely in the space provided here. The underlying cause is greed. Greed based on the premise that under collaterlized loans and accounts receivables could be turned into cold hard cash in the present, while deferring the debt load that created those profits into something that will work itself out in the future.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:23 amThe problem is, this concept of what was once called trading paper but has since elevated it’s illusionary profit structure to be called debt securitization, is based on playing the odds on old historical values.
OK, lets make it simple. A bank gives you a $100,000.00 loan at 8% interest for 30 years. Assuming you make all your payments, they will get back their original $100,000 plus roughly $180,000 in interest. But instead of waiting 30 years for their money, they “sell” your debt to someone else for $120,000. The bank makes a quick 20K, and the buyer will more than double his investment if he waits out the 30 years. But he doesn’t. He sells his investment for $150,000, picks up a quick $30k profit and the next guy down the line, if there is any room left on your loan, will do the same thing until it hits the end of the line or the lowest profit margine has been reached. All this works as long as you keep making your payments on your original loan. If you have a fixed rate mortgage, you are pretty much golden unless you are struck with some major calamity in your life ie: divorce, illness, death or unemployment.
In the case of adjustable rate mortgages or uncollateralized loans line credit cards, the after market game is played the same way except the rates on those types of “securitized” debts are based on such high interest rates and the odds of probability that more people will pay their loans than not; that the failure of those who don’t, will be more than covered (because of the high interest rate)by the theoretical majority who will make all their payments.
The problem behind this financial crisis, is because the number of failures increased beyond the odds of probility. So when the bankss couldn’t make good on their original notes to the back end investors, people started calling in their markers , so to speak, and there was not enough money to pay them off. One solution to this mess, especially where adjustable rate mortgages are concerned is for the banks and the back end investors to take a small loss, renogiate the original mortgage to a lower fixed rate deal. This way, less foreclosures, less bankruptcy and the banks don;t have to get stuck holding, managing and maintaining properties they don’t want in the first place. The down side for them is less profits, too bad! The upside is less losses. Will they and the congress have the chiptza to make that happen? We’ll see, but I’m cynical of the good ol boys in DC.
When this mess is all said and done we will realize or be aware of the following:
The lending and credit institutions of this country have made strange bedfellows with our elected officials, much to the detriment of our economic well being.
We will recover from this fiasco but at a price far geater than we can now imagine. Hopefully when its over we will have not only learned something, we will apply what we have learned to our lives and the economic policies that propell this country. Instant gratification needs to be replaced by long term deferment. Debt, on all levels, should only be incurred if it can be managed soundly and not on hypothetical circumstances ie: the price of real estate generally goes up, but don’t count on the value of your house increasing so you can sell it to pay off a loan you shouldn’t have taken.
Credit is a tool, not a standard of living. Keep your commercial debt payments to less than 30% of your take home pay. And last, bring your lunch to work, its a lot cheaper and probably better for you too.
PLease keep an eye out for TheCreditSaver.com, soon to be launched, for more information that could help you during these tough time ahead.
The people that owned the banks made a fortune and got a great bonus so why does the public have to foot the bill because of their screw ups, Is Bush involved in with the bank owners?
September 25th, 2008 at 1:22 pm