". . . Paul Krugman claimed that “too big to fail was at best marginal" to the crash of 2008. Earlier this month, the economist Austan Goolsbee said on Twitter that "BIG wasn't what made Bear or Lehman dangerous. it was the ability to spill damage onto others." Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) even said Lehman was "very small" when it failed. . . This has accompanied a broader barrage of Clinton rhetoric suggesting that Bernie Sanders' plan to break up big banks is a weak proposal that ignores her tough-as-nails shadow banking plan. Basically, the argument goes, "too big to fail" was never a serious problem, or at least the “big” part of it wasn’t really a problem, and anyhow, Lehman Brothers wasn’t very big. . . "
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
". . . Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said. Citigroup has decided to withhold donations for now to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee over concerns that Senate Democrats could give Warren and lawmakers who share her views more power, sources inside the bank told Reuters. JPMorgan representatives have met Democratic Party officials to emphasize the connection between its annual contribution and the need for a friendlier attitude toward the banks, a source familiar with JPMorgan's donations said. . ."
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
I am writing to introduce (if you are not familiar with us) OHO, a band that has been rocking the mid-Atlantic region (and some scattered parts of the world) for a long, long time. Also want to inform you that we have dates available for booking and would very much like to perform for your good clientele at your outdoor events in 2015 or even indoor events this winter at _______.
Baltimore's own OHO began in the early 70s and has evolved through a number of incarnations from performance prog rock innovators to folk-rock, female vocalist-fronted, Fairport Convention-ish ensemble to power-due. OHO currently performs as a trio playing new and classic OHO originals and a variety of sophisticated covers. We are making testosterone-propelled music these days, but in the spirit of Odyssesus strapped to the mast, we have heard the sirens seductively singing our songs and in successfully skirting their perils have survived. Still electrically creative and emotionally charged, OHO forges onward.
Below are hyperlinks to enable you to hear OHO, the first to a YouTube performance in Baltimore earlier this year and the second to SoundCloud for an audio sampling of songs:
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2015 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from Senator Elizabeth Warren's comments to Citigroup)
A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt was America's trustbuster. He went after the giant trusts and monopolies in this country, and a lot of people talk about how those trusts deserved to be broken up because they had too much economic power. But Teddy Roosevelt said we should break them up because they had too much political power. Teddy Roosevelt said break them up because all that concentrated power threatened the very foundations of our democratic system. And now we're watching as Congress passes yet another provision that was written by lobbyists for the biggest recipient of bailout money in the history of the country. And it's attached to a bill that needs to pass or else the entire federal government will grind to a halt.
Think about this kind of power. A financial institution has become so big and so powerful that it can hold the entire country hostage. That alone is a reason enough for us to break them up. Enough is enough.
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
I understand the principle of compromise and the importance of it in the contact of the legislative branch of government. And I understand that if this bill does not pass it will be more difficult to arrive at a reasonable one with the new congress as it tilts further to the right. But politicians who are in the pockets of giant banks (or other corporations) have absolutely NO right to talk about the lack of compromise in our current congress when the only compromise they want to see is one that succumbs to the well-heeled lobbyists working for those banks and corporations. Compromise is, and will always be necessary in the process of making laws. But the laws should be of benefit to all the people and not just to a privileged, monied few.
(from NBCNews.com)
". . . Taking to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon, Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts urged those in her party to oppose the spending bill because of the financial policy language, calling it "a giveaway to most powerful banks in this country." "This is a democracy, and the American people didn't elect us to stand up for Citigroup, they elected us to stand up for all the people," she said. . . "
This bill is dangerous in loosening up on the giant Banks. Have we all forgotten 2007-2008? Our banks managed to bring down the entire global economy. Do we want to see that AGAIN??!!
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
. . . how would we, in America, handle such wealth? . . .
(from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/norway-everyone-now-millionaire-thanks-oil-2D11884040)
Everyone in Norway became a theoretical millionaire on Wednesday in a milestone for the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices.
A preliminary counter on the website of the central bank, which manages the fund, rose to 5.11 trillion crowns ($828.66 billion), fractionally more than a million times Norway's most recent official population estimate of 5,096,300.
It was the first time it reached the equivalent of a million crowns each, central bank spokesman Thomas Sevang said.
Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 percent of the world's stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts.
Not that Norwegians will be able to access or spend the money, squirreled away for a rainy day for them and future generations. Norway has resisted the temptation to splurge all the windfall since striking oil in the North Sea in 1969.
Norway has sought to avoid the boom and bust cycle by investing the cash abroad, rather than at home. Governments can spend 4 percent of the fund in Norway each year, slightly more than the annual return on investment. . .
(from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/pope-francis-mafia-target-corruption)
". . . Prosecutor says pope's attempt to bring transparency to Vatican is making mobsters agitated. Pope Francis's crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy's all-powerful mafia clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned.
Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria's shadowy 'Ndrangheta mafia, said on Wednesday that Francis's attempt to bring transparency to the Vatican was making the white collar mobsters who do business with corrupt prelates "nervous and agitated".
He told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano: "Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican.
"If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn't hesitate. I don't know if organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about it. They could be dangerous."
Francis, who has called for "a poor church", has backed reform at the Vatican's bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of mob profits. This week police impounded a luxury hotel on Rome's Janiculum hill – formerly a monastery – which the 'Ndrangheta allegedly purchased from a religious order.
In a fiery sermon on Monday, Francis railed against corruption and quoted the bible's advice that practitioners be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. . ."
(from http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/elizabeth-warren-comes-out-swinging-banks-regulators.php by Sahil Kapur)
". . . Just two months into her new job as Massachusetts senator, the former consumer advocate has used her perch to publicize and rail against shady practices by financial institutions and what she views as leniency from the regulators tasked with overseeing them.
The latest example came last Thursday during a Banking Committee hearing, when Warren demanded answers from a panel of federal regulators as to why the multinational bank HSBC got off with a fine for money laundering for Mexican drug cartels — along with violating international sanctions against several countries, including Iran and Libya — when people caught with drugs go to jail for life.
“No one individual went to trial, no individual was banned from banking and there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States,” Warren said. “So … what does it take? How many billions of dollars do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?”. . . "
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AMBIENCE & WINE
. . . enables us to immediately send messages about matters of interest and importance, to our loved ones instantaneously through the wonder of the internet (and utilizing the internet) and email . . .
". . JANUARY 1, 2013, THE US GOVERNMENT WILL BE REQUIRING EVERYONE TO HAVE DIRECT DEPOSIT FOR SS CHECKS. WONDER WHY? Subject: HR 4646
Watch for this AFTER November elections; remember this BEFORE you VOTE, in case you think Obama is looking out for your best interest. A 1% tax on all bank transactions is what HR 4646 calls for. Do you receive a paycheck, or a retirement check from Social Security or a pension fund and have it direct deposit? Well guess what ... It looks as if Obama wants to tax it 1% !!! This bill was put forth by Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA). YES, that is 1% tax on all bank transactions - HR 4646, every time it goes in and every time money goes out. Ask your congressperson to vote NO. FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW! 1% tax on all bank transactions ~ HR 4646 - ANOTHER NEW OBAMA TAX SLIPPED IN WHILE WE WERE ASLEEP. Checked this on snopes, it's true! Check it out yourself ~ HR 4646. President Obama's finance team is recommending a one percent (1%) transaction fee (TAX). Obama's plan is to sneak it in after the November elections to keep it under the radar. This is a 1% tax on all transactions at any financial institution - banks, credit unions, savings and loans, etc. Any deposit you make, or even a transfer within your own bank from one account to another, will have a 1% tax charged. If your paycheck or your Social Security or whatever is direct deposit, it will get a 1% tax charged for the transaction. If your paycheck is $1000, then you will pay Obama $10 just for the privilege of depositing your paycheck in your bank. Even if you hand carry your paycheck or any check in to your bank for a deposit, 1% tax will be charged. You receive a $5,000 stock dividend from your broker, Obama takes $50 just to allow you to deposit that check in the bank. If you take $1,000 cash to deposit at your bank, 1% tax will be charged. Mind you, this is from the man who promised that, if you make under $250,000 per year, you will not see one penny of new tax. Keep your eyes and ears open, you will be amazed at what you learn about this guy's under-the-table moves to increase the number of ways you are taxed. Oh, and by the way, if you receive a refund from the IRS next year and you have it direct deposited or you walk in to deposit that check, you guessed it. You will pay a 1% charge of that money just for putting it in your bank. Remember, any money, cash, check or whatever, no matter where it came from, you will pay a 1% fee if you put it in the bank. Some will say, oh well, it's just 1%. Are you kidding me? It's a 1% tax increase across the board. Remember, once the tax is there, they can also raise it at will. And if anyone protests, they will just say, "Oh,that's not really a tax, it's a user fee"! Think this is no big deal? Go back and look at the transactions you made from last year's banking statements. Then add the total of all those transactions and deduct 1%. Still think it's no big deal? . . "
Then the nefarious email goes on to state that ". . . 1. snopes.com: Debt Free America Act���
Is the U.S. government proposing a 1% tax on debit card usage and/or banking transactions? ...It is true. . . "
. . but if you bother to really visit Snopes.com, you'll find they actually say it is FALSE! Go to http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/debtfree.asp
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http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
Also download
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AMBIENCE & WINE
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