You want to talk about money? Real, crazy, "staggering" sums of money? The conversation apparently begins and ends with Moammar Kadafi, who died with an estimated $200 billion fortune according to incredible new reports.If the new estimates are correct, his secret fortune was worth more than the net worths of the three richest men in the world - combined!
Based on data from Forbes (3/11/2011):
1. Carlos Slim $74 billion
2. Bill Gates $58 billion
3. Warren Buffett $39 billion
This weekend the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Colonel had them all beat...
Moammar Kadafi secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials.
The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are "staggering," one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday. "No one truly appreciated the scope of it."
If the values prove accurate, Kadafi will go down in history as one of the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre world leaders, on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or the late Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
Crazy and rich. Kadafi was a hip hop star before hip hop was even invented. He was running around with golden guns and harems full of big-breasted women since Diddy was in diapers. He was also a monster who ordered terrorist attacks and ruled a population of 6.5 million people by enriching a couple hundred thousand loyalists who kept the country in line through violence and kept him on the throne for decades.
Kadafi had been starving the eastern half of the country (where the people were not loyal to his family) while making investments all over the world using the state-owned bank and oil company as the conduits. The fact that he was able to siphon off so much wealth over the years is simply amazing.
Source:
As Libya takes stock, Moammar Kadafi's hidden riches astound (LAT)
Artwork:
Kadafi Girls (Piccsy)
Follow me on the Twitter
Hullabaloo
Thursday, November 17, 2011
For thee but not for me
by digby
Love this headline:Widening Split in Europe on the Virtue of Austerity
Gosh I wonder why?Throughout Europe’s long debt crisis, Germany has prescribed the same strong remedy to its troubled neighbors: a stiff dose of fiscal discipline.
As long as the patients were southern European countries like Greece and Italy, seen as victims of an unhealthy lifestyle, northern-tier nations like France, Austria and the Netherlands have been willing to go along with Germany’s prescriptions for reducing debt in the name of economic health. And they were willing to support Germany’s insistence that the European Central Bank not be a lender of last resort to indebted governments by actively buying their bonds.
But suddenly, as investors’ fears mount that many euro area nations are about to tip into recession, even countries like creditworthy France are finding it much more expensive to borrow money in the open market. And with that development comes a dawning realization: that austerity, rather than making it easier for them to pay down their higher debts, could make it harder — and more expensive.
Yeah. Austerity's great if you aren't the one suffering.
It's not the same situation here but the lesson is the same. Austerity is very likely to dampen any hope of a robust recovery and make it that much harder to pay down the deficit everyone is allegedly so concerned about. I suppose if they get really hardcore they can withdraw the funds for such safety net programs as unemployment food stamps and Medicaid, but society will pay in other ways. Homelessness, crime, ill health, crushing personal debt, creating a generation of people who've never known any financial security have costs too. I'm sure they fit somewhere else on the national accounting spreadsheet but they are costs nonetheless.
All these people droning on about saving the grandkids and thinking about the long term are actually gorging on America's seed corn. And they're not even hungry.
Update: Here's a piece on how it's (not) working in the UK.
.
digby 11/17/2011 09:39:00 AM
|
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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/19/11 - Mile High Report
Your daily cup of orange and blue coffee. Horse Tracks!
Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/19/11 - Mile High Report2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Day 1a: Jarvis Bags Bunches <b>...</b>
The 2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville kicked off on Friday and attracted 188 players for Day 1a. Matthew Jarvis looks to be the early chip leader.
2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Day 1a: Jarvis Bags Bunches <b>...</b>Rachel Maddow Calls Out Fox <b>News</b>' New Low Against Occupy Wall <b>...</b>
Rachel Maddow pointed out that by trying to tie Occupy Wall Street to the man who shot at the White House; Fox News has reached a new desperate low. Here.
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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/19/11 - Mile High Report
Your daily cup of orange and blue coffee. Horse Tracks!
Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/19/11 - Mile High Report2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Day 1a: Jarvis Bags Bunches <b>...</b>
The 2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville kicked off on Friday and attracted 188 players for Day 1a. Matthew Jarvis looks to be the early chip leader.
2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Day 1a: Jarvis Bags Bunches <b>...</b>Rachel Maddow Calls Out Fox <b>News</b>' New Low Against Occupy Wall <b>...</b>
Rachel Maddow pointed out that by trying to tie Occupy Wall Street to the man who shot at the White House; Fox News has reached a new desperate low. Here.
Rachel Maddow Calls Out Fox <b>News</b>' New Low Against Occupy Wall <b>...</b>You want to talk about money? Real, crazy, "staggering" sums of money? The conversation apparently begins and ends with Moammar Kadafi, who died with an estimated $200 billion fortune according to incredible new reports.If the new estimates are correct, his secret fortune was worth more than the net worths of the three richest men in the world - combined!
Based on data from Forbes (3/11/2011):
1. Carlos Slim $74 billion
2. Bill Gates $58 billion
3. Warren Buffett $39 billion
This weekend the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Colonel had them all beat...
Moammar Kadafi secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials.
The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are "staggering," one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday. "No one truly appreciated the scope of it."
If the values prove accurate, Kadafi will go down in history as one of the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre world leaders, on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or the late Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
Crazy and rich. Kadafi was a hip hop star before hip hop was even invented. He was running around with golden guns and harems full of big-breasted women since Diddy was in diapers. He was also a monster who ordered terrorist attacks and ruled a population of 6.5 million people by enriching a couple hundred thousand loyalists who kept the country in line through violence and kept him on the throne for decades.
Kadafi had been starving the eastern half of the country (where the people were not loyal to his family) while making investments all over the world using the state-owned bank and oil company as the conduits. The fact that he was able to siphon off so much wealth over the years is simply amazing.
Source:
As Libya takes stock, Moammar Kadafi's hidden riches astound (LAT)
Artwork:
Kadafi Girls (Piccsy)
Follow me on the Twitter
Hullabaloo
Thursday, November 17, 2011
For thee but not for me
by digby
Love this headline:Widening Split in Europe on the Virtue of Austerity
Gosh I wonder why?Throughout Europe’s long debt crisis, Germany has prescribed the same strong remedy to its troubled neighbors: a stiff dose of fiscal discipline.
As long as the patients were southern European countries like Greece and Italy, seen as victims of an unhealthy lifestyle, northern-tier nations like France, Austria and the Netherlands have been willing to go along with Germany’s prescriptions for reducing debt in the name of economic health. And they were willing to support Germany’s insistence that the European Central Bank not be a lender of last resort to indebted governments by actively buying their bonds.
But suddenly, as investors’ fears mount that many euro area nations are about to tip into recession, even countries like creditworthy France are finding it much more expensive to borrow money in the open market. And with that development comes a dawning realization: that austerity, rather than making it easier for them to pay down their higher debts, could make it harder — and more expensive.
Yeah. Austerity's great if you aren't the one suffering.
It's not the same situation here but the lesson is the same. Austerity is very likely to dampen any hope of a robust recovery and make it that much harder to pay down the deficit everyone is allegedly so concerned about. I suppose if they get really hardcore they can withdraw the funds for such safety net programs as unemployment food stamps and Medicaid, but society will pay in other ways. Homelessness, crime, ill health, crushing personal debt, creating a generation of people who've never known any financial security have costs too. I'm sure they fit somewhere else on the national accounting spreadsheet but they are costs nonetheless.
All these people droning on about saving the grandkids and thinking about the long term are actually gorging on America's seed corn. And they're not even hungry.
Update: Here's a piece on how it's (not) working in the UK.
.
digby 11/17/2011 09:39:00 AM
|
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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/19/11 - Mile High Report
Your daily cup of orange and blue coffee. Horse Tracks!
Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/19/11 - Mile High Report2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Day 1a: Jarvis Bags Bunches <b>...</b>
The 2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville kicked off on Friday and attracted 188 players for Day 1a. Matthew Jarvis looks to be the early chip leader.
2011 World Poker Tour Jacksonville Day 1a: Jarvis Bags Bunches <b>...</b>Rachel Maddow Calls Out Fox <b>News</b>' New Low Against Occupy Wall <b>...</b>
Rachel Maddow pointed out that by trying to tie Occupy Wall Street to the man who shot at the White House; Fox News has reached a new desperate low. Here.
Rachel Maddow Calls Out Fox <b>News</b>' New Low Against Occupy Wall <b>...</b>
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