Exciting Times

Although I dont lend much credence to what rating agencies say, it is still interesting to see that S&P considers the financial climate more risky than in 2008:

Additional fiscal risks we see for the U.S. include the potential for further extraordinary official assistance to large players in the U.S. financial or other sectors, along with outlays related to various federal credit programs. We estimate that it could cost the U.S. government as much as 3.5% of GDP to appropriately capitalize and relaunch Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two financial institutions now under federal control, in addition to the 1% of GDP already invested (see "U.S. Government Cost To Resolve And Relaunch Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Could Approach $700 Billion," Nov. 4, 2010, RatingsDirect). The potential for losses on federal direct and guaranteed loans (such as student loans) is another material fiscal risk, in our view. Most importantly, we believe the risks from the U.S. financial sector are higher than we considered them to be before 2008, as our downward revisions of our Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment (BICRA) on the U.S. to Group 3 from Group 2 in December 2009 and to Group 2 from Group 1 in December 2008 reflect (see "Banking Industry Country Risk Assessments," March 8, 2011, and "Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment: United States of America," Feb. 1, 2010, both on RatingsDirect). In line with these views, we now estimate the maximum aggregate, up-front fiscal cost to the U.S. government of resolving potential financial sector asset impairment in a stress scenario at 34% of GDP compared with our estimate of 26% in 2007.

There is an interesting blog post on washingtonblog.com with a selection of noteworthy news items showing the trends of the day. Considering all that, it sure does look like exciting times are ahead.

Can Ireland pull an Iceland?

Max Keiser has an interesting short video describing what is going on in Ireland, and how crazy it is. It is pretty obvious that the only way Ireland can continue as a proper nation is to do what Iceland did. Of course, Iceland is not part of the Euro zone so its not going to be that easy. The simple fact remains, though, and that is that Ireland simply cannot pay for all the debt the banks have saddled on its shoulders...

See Max's videos below...

Pakakisima

I was chatting with a friend of mine last week and for some reason we ended up discussing bad customer service from various companies in the Philippines. In my opinion, people are just too forgiving when companies make mistakes. People here take way to much crap from these businesses who are blatantly out there to rob you of your money. I was wondering if other people shared my opinion, and sure enough, she forwarded me her recent (and quite telling) experience with a big concert organizer.

Her story follows below...

The Greased Pig

I came across an interesting speech by Simon Johnson at INET. Simon Johnson was the former IMF chief economist and is now professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He is an outspoken critic of government regulators cozying up with financial institutions, particularly in the United States. In this speech he highlights the crazy situation we now have with "Too Big To Fail". Will anything get done about this? Have we learnt and will we be able to avoid the next slide into misery?

I sincerely doubt it. In a very interview on Bloomberg former FCIC chairman Phil Angelides compared Wall Street to a greased pig that is hard to catch. Besides this very telling comparison, his most interesting observation was that the US now has a dual justice system: "One for ordinary people and then one for people with money and enormous wealth and power."

Video of Simon Johnson's speech further below.

Corruption Worldwide Inc.

When living in the Philippines you always hear about rampant corruption in all corners of the government. Well, despair not, it seems its really the norm all over the globe. In a nice article from Matt Taibbi (of the Vampire Squid fame - highly recommended!) it seems that the US has its fair share of grafters too. Be sure to check out his article The Real Housewives of Wall Street in the Rolling Stone.

Jeepney Howto

As mentioned before, I have the intention to get my very own jeepney one day. To help me on my way, a friend of mine sent me this nice video HOWTO.

Ready For The Next Storm?

So far we can conclude that we have weathered the election storm with relatively minor collateral damage. In a country where election violence is not uncommon, this is a good thing. But no sooner as the election season clears, it is time to buckle up for the next storm season - literally.

In about four months it will be the anniversary of typhoon Ondoy, perhaps the most devastating storm that has hit Metro Manila in a century. This typhoon, internationally known as Ketsana, unleashed untold misery to Metro Manila, resulting in hundreds of deaths and billions of pesos in damages.