The Crisis of Credit

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:13:47 +0000

This little video does a good job of explaining how the financial meltdown we are currently experiencing came to be.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The more one reads about the financial mess Wall Street elites and our government has gotten our country into, the more I’m inclined I am of becoming an anarchist.

For a bit on the negative implications of globalization see the 2006 Charlie Rose interview of David Graeber, anarchist and associate professor of anthropology at Yale University.

How did we get to here, well Frontline did a good piece called: “Inside The Meltdown” and it’s well worth an hour of your viewing.

Tonight Frontline will follow up with “Ten Trillion and Counting”

I should warn you the more your read, the angrier you’ll get. Matt Taibbi’s article The Big Takeover which he wrote over at Rolling Stone pretty much sums up the pent up anger most people are feeling about this financial mess.

Fat Cat Slim Gets a 6% Bite of NY Times

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has acquired ownership stake in The New York Times Company, publisher of one of the most prestigious US newspaper dailies. Slim Helu’s investment stake of 6.4% will make him the largest holder of Class A shares, which are in a separate category from those held by members of the controlling family of the company. The total investment by Slim Helu in the New York Times comes to $127m (£73m), which amounts to $1,352,869,087.38 Mexican Pesos at the current rate of exchange.

Carlos Slim is ranked by Forbes magazine as the second wealthiest person in he world, behind Warren Buffett. I posted on Slim Helu in 2006 when his wealth was then an estimated 30 billion dollars. Today, Slim Helu’s estimated wealth has grown to 60 billion dollars, he has essentially doubled his wealth in just two short years and surpassed Bill Gates on the list of the worlds richest people.

I previously posted about Slim Helu here, when Forbes magazine declared him the third wealthiest person in the world. I posted:

So how much of what Carlos Slim Helu does can actually be viewed as working towards closing the gap between rich and poor in Mexico? Not much. Despite all of Mr. Slim Helu’s generous civic actions they pale in comparison to the millions he and his business partners have contributed to the ruling party the PRI and their political campaigns.

The near monopoly power that TelMex enjoys in Mexico has resulted in what consumer advocates cite as price gouging of the poor while the ratio of telephones per 1000 inhabitants is lower than Brazil and Argentina both of which have smaller economies than Mexico.

A post previous to that is here, which is about Slim Helu’s purchase of a 3% stake in Apple Computers in 1997. That 1997 investment in Apple by Slim Helu cost him a total of 25 million dollars. Apple stock was at $17.00 when Slim Helu purchased the stock and during the next 12 months with the return of Steve Jobs to the helm the stock rose to $100.00.

What can Slim Helu possibly see in the future of The NY Times that other investors have missed?

Tony Herrera » wealth

The Crisis of Credit

Fat Cat Slim Gets a 6% Bite of NY Times