Things just keep getting rougher for average citizens in Europe. Some have faced government seizure of accounts to help fund government operations and requirements that they explain withdrawals to their banks. Now, the European Central Bank (ECB) is imposing a negative interest rate on banks for their deposits. So, you can keep your money under your mattress or put it in a bank where the bank will use it to earn money while charging you for the pleasure. This is of course the central bank which directly relates to individual banks as opposed to individual depositors. Those banks will now pay to park their money and those costs will be passed along to depositors. Banks are likely going to try to hide the fact that the interest rate is now negative through fees and other measures.
The ECB cut the rate on its deposit facility for banks from 0 percent to minus 0.10 percent. It also cut its main interest rate to from 0.25 percent to 0.15 percent as well as cutting the rate on its marginal lending facility by 35 basis points to 0.4 percent from 0.75 percent.
It is an interesting situation where banks will now be treated as solely a safe place for holding your money but you will pay for the service as a fee. Much like the airlines where aspects of what was once viewed as the basic service are being converted into fees, banks will now be treated as akin to a safety deposit box. However, unlike airlines or safety deposit boxes, the banks are making money off the deposits. It is a fundamental change in function of banks.
I have long been critical of the tax increases and measures in Europe that will likely have displacement impacts on investments and movement of citizens and businesses. In this case, I would expect people to look for alternatives from Internet banks to foreign banks.
RTC,
No, I don’t. Fox News was developed purely as a propaganda tool for the right-wing. It preys upon and exploits the fear, mistrust, and hatred that certain people have for others.
*****
Roger Ailes’ Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News
By John Cook
6/30/11
http://gawker.com/5814150/roger-ailes-secret-nixon-era-blueprint-for-fox-news
Excerpt:
Republican media strategist Roger Ailes launched Fox News Channel in 1996, ostensibly as a “fair and balanced” counterpoint to what he regarded as the liberal establishment media. But according to a remarkable document buried deep within the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the intellectual forerunner for Fox News was a nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the “prejudices of network news” and deliver “pro-administration” stories to heartland television viewers.
The memo—called, simply enough, “A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News”— is included in a 318-page cache of documents detailing Ailes’ work for both the Nixon and George H.W. Bush administrations that we obtained from the Nixon and Bush presidential libraries. Through his firms REA Productions and Ailes Communications, Inc., Ailes served as paid consultant to both presidents in the 1970s and 1990s, offering detailed and shrewd advice ranging from what ties to wear to how to keep the pressure up on Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the first Gulf War.
The documents—drawn mostly from the papers of Nixon chief of staff and felon H.R. Haldeman and Bush chief of staff John Sununu—reveal Ailes to be a tireless television producer and joyful propagandist. He was a forceful advocate for the power of television to shape the political narrative, and he reveled in the minutiae constructing political spectacles—stage-managing, for instance, the lighting of the White House Christmas tree with painstaking care. He frequently floated ideas for creating staged events and strategies for manipulating the mainstream media into favorable coverage, and used his contacts at the networks to sniff out the emergence of threatening narratives and offer advice on how to snuff them out—warning Bush, for example, to lay off the golf as war in the Middle East approached because journalists were starting to talk. There are also occasional references to dirty political tricks, as well as some positions that seem at odds with the Tea Party politics of present-day Fox News: Ailes supported government regulation of political campaign ads on television, including strict limits on spending. He also advised Nixon to address high school students, a move that caused his network to shriek about “indoctrination” when Obama did it more than 30 years later.
The Idea Behind Fox News Channel Originated in the Nixon White House
“A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News” (read it here) is an unsigned, undated memo calling for a partisan, pro-GOP news operation to be potentially paid for and run out of the White House. Aimed at sidelining the “censorship” of the liberal mainstream media and delivering prepackaged pro-Nixon news to local television stations, it reads today like a detailed precis for a Fox News prototype. From context provided by other memos, it’s apparent that the plan was hatched during the summer of 1970. And though it’s not clear who wrote it, the copy provided by the Nixon Library literally has Ailes’ handwriting all over it—it appears he was routed the memo by Haldeman and wrote back his enthusiastic endorsement, refinements, and a request to run the project in the margins…
The 15-page plan begins with an acknowledgment that television had emerged as the most powerful news source in large part because “people are lazy” and want their thinking done for them:
“Today television news is watched more often than people read newspapers, than people listen to the radio, than people read or gather any other form of communication. The reason: People are lazy. With television you just sit—watch—listen. The thinking is done for you.”
With that in mind, the anonymous GOP official urged the creation of a network “to provide pro-Administration, videotape, hard news actualities to the major cities of the United States.” Aware that the national television networks were the enemy, the writer proposed going around them by sending packaged, edited news stories and interviews with politicians directly to local television stations.
“This is a plan that places news of importance to localities (Senators and representatives are newsmakers of importance to their localities) on local television news programs while it is still news. It avoids the censorship, the priorities, and the prejudices of network news selectors and disseminators.”
Elaine – it sounds like the Obama administration took the Ailes’s plan and made it the heart of the communication strategy.
David: “What evidence do you have for this absurd accusation?”
You, Karen, and Schulte for starters.
Mitt Romney reluctantly confessed to paying, what, 12%…13% in taxes. Pretty long ways from 80%, don’t you think?
And last I checked, France is beyond our borders. Why is it when I make comparisons to Somalia, you cry foul but you bring up trends in Europe whenever it suits you?
RTC – ad hominem attack again. Also ‘I’m rubber, your glue’ fallacy. You really need to move on to something new.
” Do you really think people who have watched Fox News can’t think for themselves?”
No, I don’t. Fox News was developed purely as a propaganda tool for the right-wing. It preys upon and exploits the fear, mistrust, and hatred that certain people have for others.
Karen may have been articulate at one time, but when she says things like, “The rich are being taxed into oblivion”, she sounds downright silly. No intelligent person can honestly make that claim.
RTC wrote: “No, I don’t. Fox News was developed purely as a propaganda tool for the right-wing. It preys upon and exploits the fear, mistrust, and hatred that certain people have for others.”
This is ridiculous propaganda. What evidence do you have for this absurd accusation?
RTC wrote: “Karen may have been articulate at one time, but when she says things like, “The rich are being taxed into oblivion”, she sounds downright silly. No intelligent person can honestly make that claim.”
She was speaking about trends in taxation that lead to 80% and 90% rates. I might add 100% tax rates. We have that too, and professor Turley posted an article about this happening in France not long ago. Everything she said was highly intelligent, based upon knowledge that you apparently are ignorant of and therefore do not believe. The facts are there for those who do their homework. The rich generally do seek to avoid taxes; she is absolutely correct and you are wrong.
RTC –
Would you like to back this hyperbole up with facts?
Criminals get the best price. They jump the fence. What are you waiting for?
All Americans derive the benefit of general welfare, the “blessings of liberty” and the right to private property. That is what the writings of the Founders, the Preamble and the Constitution prescribe. That, and only that, is what we should pay tax for.
All citizens derive exactly the same benefit of freedom and should pay exactly the same amount of tax.
When citizens go to Disneyland, they all pay the same price.
When citizens go to the movies, they all pay the same price.
All citizens derive the same benefit – freedom – from the Constitution and all citizens should pay the same amount in taxes for it.
FREEDOM.
NO REDISTRIBUTION IN ANY FORM – NO CONTROL OF THE ECONOMY.
NO IRS. NO TAX CODE.
ONE CITIZEN, ONE AMOUNT.
John – when I go to Disneyland, I pay less then those who pay at the park because I get discount tickets before I go. 🙂 I also use my senior discount at the movies.
Karen: You’ve officially jumped the shark with all the Fox News falsities you’re sloshing around here. Maybe that was your job after all.
RTC – ad hominem attack at 8:24
RTC wrote: “You’ve officially jumped the shark with all the Fox News falsities you’re sloshing around here.”
Why are you always the one to try to tie what people say to Fox News? Do you really think people who have watched Fox News can’t think for themselves? I see this ploy as nothing more than poor argumentation which is off subject. And then when you allude that maybe this was her job all along, that is purely toward the man or ad hominem.
Personally, I find Karen to be an independent thinker which is very refreshing. She has a sharp mind which articulates her viewpoint without reliance upon one particular news source doing the thinking for her.
Thanks Darren!
Jim: It’s never lazy knowing where, when, and how to employ style in writing.
If I ever need to figure out the pressure drops resulting from air flow you’ll be the first one I contact. Swear.
RTC,
Correct on the Karen thing, I must have read it quickly.
So explain to me how collective bargaining is going to allow for performance incentives?
You call it stylistic usage, I call it lazy. I am no English scholar, but I do try. But if you ever want to go a few rounds on the pressure drops resulting from air flowing across a gas turbine vane, I’m game.
Ok Jim, you can lump performance incentives in with the inclusive term “reform”.
Words like “howz” is a stylistic usage. Just a wild guess, but I’m assuming you never read Joyce or you might understand the plasticity of words. If you do, you might want to bone up on your reading comprehension because I made it pretty clear that pedophilia was Karen’s issue.
RTC,
My post was the first time I’ve mentioned unions. I’m not sure why or how that constitutes, “keep blathering”. Also, I never brought up pedophiles. My point is that why should bad teachers be paid the same as good teachers and why should a science teacher be paid the same a phys ed. teacher? You conveniently ignored any of that.
I have no problem with private industry unions since as their demands increase, they will just destroy themselves. But, public unions should be made illegal. Even the lefts favorite socialist president FDR didn’t like the public union.
RTC,
I didn’t know grammar was so important to you. But then again, as a non-lawyer engineer, I don’t use stupid words like “howz”
Well then, there you go.
I capitalize it. United Brotherhood of Carpenters; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Laborers Union; United Mine Workers; and so on.
RTC – teachers’ union is not a proper name. If you are talking about the NEA or the AFT then it is capitalized.
Bob: I stand corrected.
RTC: “since neither you or Karen are lawyers,”
It’s ‘neither nor’ not ‘either or.’
Your [grammar teacher] would not deserve a raise in my book.
Jim: “Until the public school system gets treated more like a business, we will continue to produce bad educated children.”
Your grammar makes your point more cogently than your argument
Jim: You and Karen keep blathering on as if I’m saying that incompetent teachers should be allowed to keep their jobs. Or pedophiles, in Karen’s case.
I can’t write in Greek or Chinese, so I’m pretty certain this is in English: Many, if not all, unions could benefit from reform. If a teacher’s union is protecting pedophiles, then it needs to change it’s policy. Got it, is that clear enough for you? BTW, it’s B-E-A-T, not B-E-E-T. Your English/spelling teacher would not deserve a raise in my book.
But since neither you or Karen are lawyers, you don’t understand distinctions. Like pointing out that the Teacher’s Union is but one of many unions. And many unions perform the tasks that Milton Friedman identified very well, if not superbly.
Or arguing in the alternative. For instance, by saying that not all unions may be perfect, yet they remain essential for negotiating fair and equitable wages and ensuring workplace standards of safety and demanding a modicum of fair worker treatment.
RTC – teachers’ union is not capitalized.
RTC,
You are completely wrong about Henry Ford. He hated the idea of union’s. FoMoCo was the last Detroit manufacturer to let the UAW in. He even came close to shutting FoMoCo down instead of letting it get ruined by lazy union workers.
As for Teacher unions, I love arguing with the teachers at the fire station I belong to. Every argument they have I can beet with one reply, “Welcome to the real world”. I always ask them, why should a science teacher get paid the same as a phys ed. teacher? Or why should a good teacher be paid the same as the teacher who sucks at their job? Until the public school system gets treated more like a business, we will continue to produce bad educated children.
Karen: The anti-union flavored Kool-aid you’re drinking is causing you to sound ridiculous. Just take the third reform on you list of union reforms:
C) Remove collective bargaining.
Right! Let’s eliminate the primary purpose of unions. Hey, howz bout this idea for reforming Congress, let’s remove the power to legislate. Admittedly, it sounds appealing, but it does pose some problems. Wait, you don’t like the police abuse of power? I know, let’s remove their power to arrest. How does that sound?
Nearly every single union has no interest in killing the golden goose, unlike Reagan and the Republicans. They view themselves as partners with business and they are merely looking for a fair share and a decent living. Henry Ford became the one of the biggest proponents of unions because he understood the value the offered society; he knew they were good for business.
You keep blathering on about pedophile teachers who can’t be fired, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. The Teacher’s Union is pretty strong in Illinois and within the past couple of years there has been roughly a half dozen teachers or so that have been fired for having sex with students, including at least three women here in Northern Illinois. There have also been teachers fired for using drugs – on their own time – and changing grades. This is as it should be and if there is a teachers union protecting a pedophile somewhere, then that is wrong. Again, Bad Policy is Bad Policy. That doesn’t change the fact that unions are, to quote Friedman, indispensable to a free market economy.
The Germans understand this. Let’s see…their economy compared to ours; how do they stack up?