reizēm banāns ir tikai banāns

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with which it is possible to conduct some shafting

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+1

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correlation does not imply causation

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worth bearing in mind though, eh?

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Always.

However, you might get a bit swamped.



http://www.tylervigen.com/

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whatever helps

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Allison has also been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies (1973–1974); consultant for the RAND Corporation; member of the Council on Foreign Relations; member of the visiting committee on foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution (1972–1977); and a member of the Trilateral Commission (1974–1984). He was among those mentioned to succeed David Rockefeller as President of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2009 he was awarded the NAS Award for Behavior Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War from the National Academy of Sciences.[1]

Ta tad a guy who is active in 'certain circles'- also a guy very interested in ex-soviet states. You don't think there is a chance he'd have some contact with ex-student and Latvian economics minister (+ ex head of Corporate affairs at Swedbank)? You think the likelihood of even a 'discussion' of banking interests between the two concerning Latvia's 'stronghold' is on a level with the relationship between the two factors the intelligent graph you just posted?

Nopietni?

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Brookings Institution!

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;)

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Es ar pamanīju. Bet seriously in the usa the upper class is finely corrupt like mostwhere else. No wonder at all.

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Actually the nature of US corruption is of a little relevance to me: presently it is ex-peace corps types who are highly motivated, educated and get posted around the world. I have known several and worked with one for 12 years - I have done my service, I think, and now, with all respect to their human selves, I don't want to spend another minute in their company - there is something psychopathic in the culture (the renting out of their intelligence and the default agreeability they display at every turn). Okay - just wanted to get that off my chest :)

Still as for the higher-ups, I suspect it is more brutal and less 'fine': interesting, however, how darlings of the new educated rational Latvian (with all that smart austerity and five languages) seem to be immune to any taint of association with the Allisons of the world: geopolitics (slave - pick your master) and the 'educated liberal rational' media's battering of their zeitgeist on the psyche, laikam.

ha ha etc.

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My point is rather this.

Everything is possible. Many things are probable. And only some things actually are.

Yes, we may mark this connection, we might speculate on it, but unless anybody asks some direct questions (and, lamentably, I personally am not sufficiently pissed off by anything to do things like that right now), pointing this out is really the only thing that is worth doing. All that the further speculations are doing is just fuelling one's own perceptions without providing any reality check.

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Speculating is just about all we can do - even on the answers of well put direct questions.
You are right about reality checks, of course - mostly we are (ha ha) self regulating, and should we choose to be open to others' offered reality checks, we are also free to pick and choose whose we accept.
I do wonder, however, about the soundness of accepting the current LV-media (okay, we can discuss this) zeitgeist (see my earlier semi-pompous baloney) reality check on the intelligence/sanity/value of embarking on certain speculations concerning, for example Allison, the CFR (etc), and our own good ex-banker, ex Economics Minister - that's the point I would make.

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Wellll... yes. What are the options?

Really, the amount of people who are both fit and ready to do any serious job in government is shockingly small.

I would take a risk for minister of economics to be connected to economic establishment (which is by itself not a crime), if he has an education in economics (hah) any day over, say, an actor whose pretensions are limited to insulting everybody else publicly (cf. Artuss Kaimiņš).

In this particular case of the Citadele bank, it is very hard to distinguish between rubbish and information as well. The official information does not include any waft of wrongdoing. The unofficial is subject to influence by all kinds of groups, part of whom might well be interested in bank further remaining in state ownership.

Yes, we can speculate, but, if we do, I believe, we should speculate much much more than just whether Pavļuts is a cats-paw for an American professor. We should speculate on behalf of all interest groups, but to do that we need at least some conclusive information: should (in the interests of the nation) Citadele be sold or should it not?

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Re your point about those being fit and ready for government work, it's interesting to note that Pavļuts kungs actually doesn't seem to have any graduate or post-graduate education in economics (Cultural Management and Public Administration). I'm not quite sure how he got the position of head of corporate affairs at Swedbank. On the one hand, I would assume that he has the usual neo-classical schooling, which very importantly considers banks as having a neutral role in the economy -i.e, they assume the banks lend from deposits, be it on a fractional reserve basis. They don't readily admit to banks when acting in concert being able to create new deposits - that is create new money via the Central Bank reserve system - quite convenient, in my humble opinion.

As for Kaimiņš, well I think he is playing a very necessary role - 'sapurināt' man liekas ir pareiz vārds (slinkums tagad skatīties vārdnīcā) the establishment. In fact we could make a direct comparison between the two men. Kaimiņš with his 'tauta sāka' attack (surprisingly well-researched at times btw) is very popular in ex-pats in Ireland. These people are predominately my and your generation - who left (and I am certain about this) in the main because post crisis (Parex et al), they could not earn enough to pay their mortgages to banks (who let us not forget were creating money to do this), face losing their homes, and still being 'in hock' for the huge negative equity (all the bigger for the fact that most were paying interest before the sum for the property). Who had a top position in one of the guilty establishments? Why, our educated respected cultured multi-lingual, soon-to-be Economics Minister.

In light of this, I take a sceptical view of those who say 'ah, so what if this well-connected CFR erm ...I think the term is 'Globalist', but... njaa' who is the main 'investor' in the 'good Bank' part of Parex is a Professor in the Kennedy School of Government (Jesus) where Pavļuts studied (from where he went to Swedbank and thence to his ministerial position).

Don't you think some direct questions should be asked? Do you really think it is insignificant? Okay, I know you don't, your more concerned with tainted research motivations.

That is for another post (got work to do), but let me just say this. Even if you consider the banking system as well.. necessary and not so bad (which I don't), this Parex/Citadele business stinks as badly as the dog shit I stepped in this morning.

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already spotted two typos
'your more concerned' being the gravest :)

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Kas ir ar to citadeli, es nesaprotu, par ko ir jācepās? Par to, ka labi pelnoša valsts banka tiek pārdota par lētu naudu?
Tad sanāk, ka citi baņkieri, kuri arī varētu gribēt Citadeli nopirkt, ir tādi muļķi, ka to nesaprot?

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Imagine a state-owned commercial bank used for the public interest?
Go on!
No?
Neither could the European Commission.
Our administrative staff (Latvian State) informed that it had to be sold by the end of 2014
Citadele's assets = 2.56 billion - operating profit last year of 18.6 million
75% bought behind closed doors (no?) for 74 million
Latvian admin staff (politicians) on vacations that were "unfortunate episode that just lets political opponents exploit it in a speculative manner.”
utt utt

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joprojām nevaru atšķirt miljonus no biljoniem...
un tava atbilde arī par sarežģītu.

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All this from the carved-up fruits of a private bank whose collapse caused loss of sovereign control (however savtiigs un vispaar dodgy) of economic matters - probably irreversibly (see SVF - see debt paid off w/issuance more debt (issues of treasury bonds) - see fiscal pact - see no lat-era devaluation during the crisis (for the banks) - see euro adoption (link more tenuous but still there - more along the lines of ah-well-we-can't-be-trusted meme amongst the IR-type lasitaajiem) and subsequent loss of all monetary policy.

Yeah: loss of control ALL monetary policy at democratic level.

Bet jaa- nothing to see here, of course: conspiracy nutcases in a nutshell.

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At least in media, btw, the statement is that Latvian state was informed by EC that the bank must be sold by the end of this year as part of the original lending package, I believe. Rather than the opposite.

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that's what I meant -
"Our administrative staff (Latvian State) informed that it had to be sold by the end of 2014."
- here it is truncated passive ('was informed').
In the active voice, we need an object after 'inform' - e.g 'He informed us that...''

Though, when I post here, I have to admit I make some shocking typos sometimes :)

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