Some Thoughts from Ray

While consumer credit was booming a couple of years back, I posted about one of my favorite tunes, "Master Charge," by blues legend Albert Collins. This evening, I've been sitting here writing with my iTunes list going, and a different tune hit my ears as more appropriate for today. It's "Busted" by the great Ray Charles:

My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes and I'm busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound, but I'm busted
I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won't lay
A big stack of bills that gets bigger each day
The county's gonna haul my belongings away cause I'm busted.

I went to my brother to ask for a loan cause I was busted
I hate to beg like a dog without his bone, but I'm busted
My brother said there ain't a thing I can do,
My wife and my kids are all down with the flu,
And I was just thinking about calling on you 'cause I'm busted.

Well, I am no thief, but a man can go wrong when he's busted
The food that we canned last summer is gone and I'm busted
The fields are all bare and the cotton won't grow,
Me and my family got to pack up and go,
But I'll make a living, just where I don't know cause I'm busted.

I'm broke, no bread, I mean like nothing,

Check it out on iTunes. We miss you Ray.

Comments

[wpanther]

As long as it's whimsical Friday...

The Terms They Are A-Changin’
(To Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’)

In open-end lendin’, the returns are great
But to sign ‘em up, you must hang out the bait
With miles and cash back and low teaser rates
Oh, your come-ons you’re always arranging
But lock in your terms and you’ve sealed your fate
Cause the terms can’t be a-changin’.

You sign ‘em up easy; you give ‘em a loan
You make ‘em all think that they’re one of your own
You quote ‘em a rate that they think’s set in stone
But the market outside it’s a-ragin’
Soon they better keep payin’ or they’ll sink like a stone
And the terms might be a-changin’

A contract’s a contract except when it’s not
So just change the terms; they don’t care what they’ve got
An even agreement’s what they think they’ve bought
But your customers you’ll be maintainin’
But late on the rent and they find that they’re caught
‘Cause the terms you’ll be a-changin’.

Zero percent for six month’s pretty great
But don’t think it lasts; and never pay late
Pay ‘em all, every month; or your rate’s twenty-eight
If your FICO to you is worth savin’
You got a dispute? Go ahead! Arbitrate!
‘Cause the terms they are a-changin’.

[Patches]

very creative. Sounds like a Country Song.

[Stephen Taylor]

John Conlee covered "Busted" about 25 years ago. I had no idea Ray Charles had it first. Conlee's version was more countryfied, but good all the same. I think it was on an album called "Rose-Colored Glasses."

[William E. Brewer, Jr.]

Here is my contribution. It was sung by Richard Sparkman, a local bankruptcy attorney, accompanied by one of the NC bankruptcy judges on the harmonica, at North Carolina annual bankruptcy seminar last November. (I have it on video) I am to blame for the words.

Billy Brewer

THE CODE NEEDS SOME MORE CHANGIN’
(To the tune of Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’)

I
Come debtors’ lawyers
Wherever you are
I’ve some things to say
To the bankruptcy bar
This bankruptcy law
Has gone way too far
It’s your clients now
That need savin’
Enlist in the Cause
Let’s all declare war
For the Code needs some more changin’

II
Disgruntled Creditors
From East to West Shore
You paid for this, yet
Got not what you paid for
Poetically, you’ve
No right to be sore
On your own pitard
You’re hangin’
It’ll be much harder
Than it was before
To the Code to do more changin’

III
Come law clerks and judges
Who interpret this law
You’re fleshing its meaning
While the meat is still raw
This distasteful task
Must stick in your craw
The creditors, you
Should be blamin’
They wrote the Reform Act
With all of its flaws
For the Code needs some more changin’

IV
Come Senators, Congressmen
Here our new cry
These toxic mortgages
Please modify
Home loans are excepted
There is no reason why
Our trust
Is rapidly fadin’
Our economy is sick
And soon it may die
And the Code needs some more changin’

© William E. Brewer, Jr.
2008

[Patshes]

Raivo Pommer
[email protected]

HEDGE-FOND

Die Kapitalabflüsse gestalteten sich in der Branche in Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten allerdings sehr unterschiedlich: Während amerikanische Hedge-Fonds in großem Umfang juristische Sperren nutzten, die eine sofortige Rückzahlung von Anlagegeld an die Kunden beschränkten oder hinauszögerten (Gates), ist dies bei europäischen Hedge-Fonds weniger üblich. Auch gibt es in Europa mehr Dachfonds, in die Privatinvestoren investieren. Diese hatten die erste Kündigungswelle bei Hedge-Fonds im Herbst 2008 ausgelöst. Die Kapitalabflüsse aus Hedge-Fonds waren daher in der zweiten Jahreshälfte vor allem in Europa relativ hoch. Die Mittel europäischer Hedge-Fonds schrumpften nach Einschätzung von Morgan Stanley um 25 bis 30 Prozent.

In den Vereinigten Staaten beliefen sich die Mittelabflüsse zunächst „nur“ auf 15 bis 20 Prozent. Dies erklärt, warum der weltweite Verband der Hedge-Fonds, die Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), kürzlich bekanntgab, dass das Anlagekapital der 1200 bei der AIMA registrierten Mitglieder jetzt zum Großteil von institutionellen Investoren gehalten werde und nicht mehr von vermögenden Einzelpersonen, wie dies früher der Fall gewesen war.