On Pride and Prejudice

 
The greatest thing about not having any ambition to seeking political office is freedom to talk. Or even better, write. Or even mo' better: think. Over the past two years, this medium has given me ample opportunity to spill vitriol...or talk sense, depending on your political affiliation and/or religious beliefs. I am forever indebted to the founders of this site, who have respectfully asked me to "come back to the fold" to plagiarize from The Beige One in his column below. So here we go: 2012 is looming. We're back in business baby!

Checking through my news sources this morning I see the elephant dung beetle that is Sarah Palin has launched a barrage of usual horse shite against Michelle Obama--questioning her patriotism and pride in a racially-charged passage from Palin's new book (link and book name purposefully not included).

Audacity and obtuse racial and religious sentiment in this country has me raising my leery eyebrows. Just a few days ago Roger Ailes, Fox News channel president, called NPR a bunch of Nazis. This term has been thrown around loosely by the GOP now for over two years, and alarmingly seems to be accepted.

The cycle, as I see it, goes like this: outlets like Fox and its cronies start circulating ideas about Communist/Fascist influx into this country's government. Other news organizations give that 24-hour play because it's controversial...and controversy = ratings = advertising dollars. The Archie Bunkers plopped on their recliners watching tee-vee believe this is the word of God. Which in turn fuels their inner, dormant racism, and gives them the balls to actually put Hitler mustaches on Obama posters, carry firearms to protests against gays/lesbians/atheists/Muslims/insert anything you want here that doesn't jive with their values or lifestyles, and vote the aberration that makes up the Tea Party into our legislature.

It's a pretty simple cycle if most of your audience likes to not think for itself. Not to sound like an elitist, but if you don't have the curiosity to cross check ideas and sources (coming from either Left or Right or Middle or wherever), then I have no mercy for you and will assume you are a glib sheep who whistles Dixie on the way to your systematic slaughter.

It may very well be that we will get what we deserve. Or that we have already gotten it. After all, we are a democracy and we choose the evil that we choose--not necessarily wisely--but nevertheless consistently.

I can honestly say that my pride for this country, especially in the last two years, has dwindled down to nothing. And the level of frustration as I read or listen to these simpletons spew their fearful, racist, religious, and most importantly uninformed vitriol before news cameras, has over-spilled the mental vessel.

Strangely enough, I still have hope. But it's of the skewed kind. That is to say, upon seeing the stalemate that is now all but assured in Congress for the next two years, the same Einsteins who voted these incompetents into our government, will turn around and "punish" them by voting them out. And so it will go into my twilight, our economy slated to follow in Japan's footsteps.

To be perpetually continued, and made into a Hollywood movie starring Sisyphus and his buddy: one large, pesky rock.

Thrifty is Nifty

 
I've been reading lately a whole slew about how thrifty Americans have become all of a sudden. The savings rate, according to an article in the NY Times this morning, has risen from zero percent to a bit over 4, in the last year. We went from a savings rate of 14 percent in the 1970s, to negative 2.7 percent in 2005, meaning Americans were spending more than they made.

Corporations had been salivating on the heels of these numbers. They had finally turned us into super-consumers who were actually brainwashed into living on credit. I recall a conversation I had with a friend in 1997 in which I extolled the virtues of paying off your home as fast as possible. My parents paid off their first home in 7 years, and their second in two. My friend shook her head and proceeded to explain how it's "healthy" to be in mortgage debt, and besides...you get to write off the interest at tax time.

Stupid Americans! (I thought). They'd rather pay off a mortgage perpetually and deduct A PERCENTAGE of the interest paid from taxes, than not have a mortgage at all. I never understood it. And never will. Perhaps I'm old school, but my idea is not busting out half my salary on a mortgage for the rest of my life. I'd rather take that $1500/month and store it up for travelling to Italy, Spain, France, Bali, Tokyo, Melbourne....somewhere else.

Now the Econ experts are biatching about how we're all going to railroad the already-struggling economy by not spending. I just shake my head at all of this; they continue to drive into our heads this horseshite that has already bankrupted us. But how to get the economy started again? Spend! Spend what? I think it's time for a new model, fellas.

In any case, I don't believe the majority of Americans have learned their lesson; they'll store away capital out of necessity, not enlightenment. But I am optimistic that our government will regulate bank products such as no-down-payment or no-income-verification mortgage loans and credit lines, thus putting some sort of halt on the Frankenstein that has been created by banks.

And a quick shout-out to all skewed, warped Americans who are now holding their heads in sorrow over the fact that they can no longer afford that third SUV: WAKE UP! "He who dies with the most toys..." still dies.

Let us know how well that overdrive system works in the 9th Circle of the Inferno.

This is who they are...

The following is intentional. I have collected a small smattering of images from today's Teabaggin' Parties from the Washington Independents' Aaron Weiner and David Weigel, as well as some stuff from Daily Kos.

These images, of course, show the worst of the worst. Protestors advocating violence, or racism, or toeing that fine line.

These images do not show all protesters. There were those who merely wanted to protest taxation and the deficit. I merely find these people deluded, not dangerous. And it is danger of which we speak here.


Yeah, let's link our deadly enemy, the one we might have to go to war with, with the duly elected President of the United States.

And yes, the sign says "While Some Kenyan tries to Destroy America". Forget the "In Living Color" quote.


Anything to make the President look alien and foreign.

And of course, my "favorite" for the day...

Apparently, it was from Chicago.


Are you sure you want to go there?



Originally posted at Fort McHenry.

Hard elbows...

There’s something of a pattern emerging in our collective quest to deal with the seeming imminent collapse of Western Civilization, a.k.a. the 2008-9 Recession.

Something happens. Something’s done about it. And then lots of people freak out.

That's not what I would have done...or...what I would have done was better...or you're not going far enough. Yadda-yadda-yadda...

Of course, it’s happening, again.

My fellow Liberals are indeed freaking out over what the President said today in regards his plan to deal with the American Auto Industry. Double standard is the term I keep hearing over and over again.

But to folks like Robert Kuttner, David Sirota (and basically all the Liberals that even I, another Liberal can’t stand), I have to ask the question…do you even read this stuff??

I hate to resort to a Basketball metaphor, but the Commander in Chief is a fan, and this one story seems particularly apt in for the occasion.

Bill Russell as a young Celtics star was, of course, talented…but also prone to having the snot beaten out of him in games because he didn’t have it in him to throw an elbow.

So one day, Red Auerbach comes up to him, and asks him to throw an elbow…but just one elbow…during a nationally televised game. He guaranteed that once you throw that one elbow, you’ll never have to throw another one again.

Russell did…and eleven championships later, the rest is history.

What we all saw today was our President delivering a nationally-television hard elbow to GM’s Bondholders, the rich bastages holding GM’s debt. Turns out they’re about the only party in this mess who has refused to sacrifice anything at the table. GM owes them a lot of money, and they want protection. They want to be first at the trough. Damn the consequences.

Well, the President just fired the CEO of GM. (He'll be fine, from what I understand he's walking away with 20 Million dollars in Retirement.)

The President also let the Boldholders know, in no uncertain terms, that GM’s plan is not complete, and that they have sixty days to fix it. So until then, no money.

Therefore, [President Obama] said, he is offering GM and Chrysler "a limited period of time to work with creditors, unions and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional tax dollars."

He expressed confidence that "this restructuring, as painful as it will be in the short-term, will mark not an end, but a new beginning for a great American industry."

He said he was "absolutely confident that GM can rise again, providing that it undergoes a fundamental restructuring." He stressed that the U.S. government "has no intention of running GM."

If GM is unable to restructure and Chrysler cannot strike a deal with Fiat, they might need to use the bankruptcy code "as a mechanism to help them restructure quickly and emerge stronger," Obama said. He said that could enable the companies to "quickly clear away old debts that are weighing them down," even as their workers remain on the job.

"What I am not talking about is a process where a company is simply broken up, sold off and no longer exists," he said. "And what I am not talking about is having a company stuck in court for years, unable to get out."

I wish Kuttner and Sirota would spend as much time finding out what happened, rather than flapping their gums. Their slavish devotion to Ideology-First is every bit as bad as all the Conservative scumbags we routinely bash on this site, and many others. It’s all there. They just have to keep reading. But I think in both their cases, they are more interested in cornering the market in Liberal Obama opposition than finding out what the hell is going on.

So, in summary: Obama’s message wasn’t so much to GM, but these Bondholders. You have sixty days to give up something, or face a structured Bankruptcy where you lose everything.

Their response?

“Our strong preference is to complete this restructuring out of court,” GM said in a statement issued after Obama’s speech on the U.S. auto industry. “However, GM will take whatever steps are necessary to successfully restructure the company, which could include a court-supervised process.”

Translation? GM is ready to go Bankrupt, if necessary.

“We look forward to working with the company and the task force to configure an exchange that will maximize the chances of a successful out-of-court restructuring,” advisers to the committee of GM bondholders negotiating with the company to restructure the automaker’s debt said in a statement. “All parties seem to agree that an out-of-court restructuring would be the preferred path to viability.”

Translation? Whooooaaa, slow down there, cowpoke. No need to get all hostile. Let's talk!

Also, it should be mentioned that Obama said Chrysler had 30 days to cut a deal with Fiat, or get nothing.

They cut a deal a few hours later. At least it was the framework for a pact.

Hard elbows in the paint. Seems they're the way of the world.

UPDATE 4:37pm Pacific: Slate's Daniel Gross (Senior Editor at Newseek, and frequent Slate.com contributor) agrees...and best of all has...umm...what do you call them again? Those things, little squiggly lines that didn't appear in the first draft of the GOP Budget Proposal?!?!?

Numbers! That's right, they're called numbers.

[GM] has loads of debt. The most recent quarterly results indicate long-term debt of more than $29 billion. And since the firm's credit ratings have been pushed deep into junk territory, that means most of the holders of this debt are hedge funds, private-equity firms, and other investment vehicles. (Many mutual funds and institutional investors like pensions or insurance companies eschew junk debt.)

GM's debt is trading at what is euphemistically called "distressed levels." As indicated here, bonds due in less than two years are trading at 20 cents on the dollar.

Many of those who bought GM's bonds did so because they hoped to 1) convert the debt into ownership in the case of bankruptcy filing or 2) see the bonds rise in value should the government step in and formally guarantee GM's corporate debt.

Obama made clear today what they suspected: No such guarantee would be forthcoming. While GM had tried to restructure, Obama noted, it hasn't yet done enough. "I'm absolutely confident that GM can rise again, providing that it undergoes a fundamental restructuring. Have they cleaned up their balance sheets, or are they still saddled with so much debt that they can't make future investments?" (If you answered this double question with a no and a yes, you're right!) The upshot: Holders of GM's debt, like other entities to whom GM has made financial commitments—dealers, the auto unions—are going to have to cut a deal, sooner rather than later, and accept less than they think they're entitled to. None of that AIG-creditor treatment for you.

It's been a busy day. Originally posted at Fort McHenry.

"The buck stops with me"... (VIDEO)

 The President on the White House lawn as he prepares to go to California...

The best part about his statement today was the fact that the President gave a wonderfully easy-to-understand explanation of why saving AIG is as important as it is. (About 11:32 into the video).

If you ever hear a Conservative say that we should just let AIG fail, remember this quote.

Last year when the Federal Reserve decided to step in, again, that wasn’t a decision that we made but I actually think it was the right decision. AIG had insured a whole bunch of losses for a whole bunch of banks that had made bad bets on subprime loans and mortgages that had been packaged and bundled up and made into securities. These were massive insurance policies. Unfortunately, because of a lack of regulation, they were able to issue far more insurance policies than they could pay out on these various instruments that these banks had issued.

And had AIG been allowed to simply liquidate and go bankrupt, all those banks who were counterparties with AIG would have experienced such big losses that it would have threatened the entire financial system.

The complete transcript is courtesy of CQ:

Originally posted at Fort McHenry.

Ben Shalom Bernanke (VIDEO)

 The President sooo told him to do this.

A year in the making? Humanizing the Fed Chair? He's from Dillon, freakin' South Carolina?? His family business was once located on Main Street in Dillon? How, if you're our President, do you not promote that??

By the way, that's not a joke, or a dig. That's the man's name, Benjamin Shalom Bernanke.

Couple this with Geithner's recent (and I think successful) appearance on Charlie Rose, and this appears to be a coordinated effort by the Federal Government to tell America, "Hey, we hear you. You're pissed. We get it. We got this."

Here's Part 1:



And Part 2:



Originally posted on Fort McHenry.

"Your Bank has failed"... (VIDEO)

 ...now what do you do?

It's time to highlight the importance of regulation; the effort to keep markets healthy and the financial system working. This was an effort largely abandoned by the previous Administration, due to a slavish devotion to an ideology based on unrestricted markets, and laissez faire capitalism.

We see where this has gotten us.

In the coming months, there is a possibility that your bank, whereever you may live, no matter how big or strong you think it may be, may fail. What do you do then?

If it's FDIC Insured...you do nothing. You don't have to. If you have under $250,000 in deposits, your money is safe.

Here's last night's 60 Minutes piece to show you why.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Originally posted at Fort McHenry.

"A new regulatory framework" (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama. February 24th, 2009:

"So I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary. Because we cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession. And to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system. It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation, and punishes short-cuts and abuse."

I imagine a good place to start would be the SEC, where...if this story from 60 Minutes is correct, the SEC Regulators are Lawyers with no experience in the fields they are regulating, and tend to come in after the bank's been robbed to assign blame and explain what happened.

I know for a lot of people (myself included) just seeing or reading the words high finance will make your eyes glaze over. But in case you haven't heard, the laughably poor standards of the Bush Administration paled in comparison to his SEC.

We need to do better.

If you ever need to remember why regulation of Financial Markets is vital and important, just watch this 14 minute piece from 60 Minutes.

Originally posted at Fort McHenry.

The ANTIs

 
And oh how the mighty have fallen, as Lincoln's Grand Old Party ain't looking so grand lately, its leaderless power vacuum apparently now being filled by that insufferable ogre, Rush Limbaugh. "I WANT the new president to fail," he told listeners on his show recently. Hear it again in case you missed it: he wishes the administration to go down in flames. Did that sink in properly? As you struggle to pay your mortgage, if you haven't already foreclosed, or as you pump down the heat to save a fistful of bucks, or stretch that loaf of bread you've had frozen for a couple of weeks now. Why, not too long ago under the leadership of another administration, those words constituted near treason; they were un-American...perhaps even "terroristspeak."

What disgusts me to no end at a time like this is the GOP partisan bickering and refusal to support the new stimulus package which passed the House a few days ago. Are Republicans that out of touch with reality that in their delusionary state they honestly believe we need more tax cuts for the rich and corporations? The very things that got us to this deplorable state?

"I WANT the new president to fail..."

Maybe the Republicans don’t think there is an emergency. Remember now, it was Phil Gramm, John McCain’s economic guru, who told us last summer that the pain was all in our heads, that this was a “mental recession.” And so the 20,000 jobs Caterpillar has announced it's eliminating, the 8,000 cut by Sprint Nextel, and 7,000 axed by Home Depot, all within the last two days...all of this is in our heads.

The Republican answer? Tax Cuts! Jesus, these people need to be committed. It's infuriating to stand by and listen to this decades-old rhetoric, which has somehow brainwashed reasonable Americans into thinking that as of Tuesday this country is being led into the realm of Communism. Are you kidding me? Wake up! You're getting ready to be evicted and you're worried about two gay men marrying. Or from out of the suspended unknown that is space-time continuum, through a hidden wormhole, some colonialist redcoat will materialize, break down your front door, and take away your beloved guns.

If anything, the stimulus package is not large enough. But the GOP won't stand to hear it. It's complaining that Republican members are being pressured into accepting the deal. Pressured! Imagine that, actually holding politicians accountable for making a ballsy decision without pussyfooting around and working backroom deals with influential businesses back home.

Imagine a political system in which decisions are being taken without consulting with parasitic lobbyists and hangers-on offering comp-ed packages of all-inclusives in the Caymans.

The GOP has become the party of Anti. Anti-abortion, Anti-immigration, Anti-gay marriage, Anti-union, Anti-anything that the rational mind of a hard working American can fathom to do in order to help himself and his fellow human being.

This is the party that preached fiscal discipline and then cut taxes in time of an un-ending war with a phantom enemy. This is the party that still wants to decimate Social Security and Medicare. This is a party that, given a choice between Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, would choose Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat.

Citiboobs Get Grounded

 
There's nothing more to do for me than to just sit here in the 5 a.m. hour with java in hand, and shake my head not only in disbelief at what Citibank tried to pull with its $50 million corporate jet, the exclusive Dassault Falcon 7X, after losing $28.5 billion in the past 15 months and receiving $345 billion in government investments and guarantees, but almost ready to give up on this system which breeds nothing but gluttonous consumption, greed, and a propensity for voluntary, individual accessorizing with horse blinders from its denizens.

It's not just the economy, stupid...it's the stupids who drive the economy, stupid. And it's the stupids who continue to passively endure economic abuse from the fatcats' ruinous, bankrupt tactics, stupids. What this country needs about now is a mass of pissed-off, unemployed Joe the Plumbers taking to the streets, torches (and PVC pipes) in hand. The Revolution WILL be televised. Chris Matthews is waiting.

Lot by lot I realize what ill fits capitalism and deregulation are for me. Over the last few months I've heard from my colleagues "if you don't like it, LEAVE" so often, that I've started packing boxer shorts into suitcases (well, that settles THAT debate for those of you wondering about my choice of underhosen). Not really, I have family ties which bind me here, but one can take metaphorical liberties when one deems himself some sort of op-ed wanna-be columnist. Or is just fed up with abuses.

In any case, to my incredulity, these Citiboobs---as the New York Post, which broke the jet news calls them---didn't learn jack from the auto bigwigs who got in trouble last month for flying their private jets to Washington to ask for bailouts, or the A.I.G. moguls who got dragged before Congress for spending their bailout on California spa treatments. Don't get me wrong, I highly respect and value mammary glands in general, and would never demean this most important piece of female biology, but these particular boobs didn’t get the message---the squash-headed, moronic dummies. Gagootz!

Writing in The New York Times this morning, Maureen Dowd puts it quite nicely:
"The former masters of the universe don’t seem to fully comprehend that their universe has crumbled and, thanks to them, so has ours. Real people are losing real jobs at Caterpillar, Home Depot and Sprint Nextel; these and other companies announced on Monday that they would cut more than 75,000 jobs in the U.S. and around the world, as consumer confidence and home prices swan-dived."

Virtually pricked in the ribs by an appalled Senator Carl Levin, Tim Geithner — even as he was being confirmed as Treasury secretary — instructed Treasury officials to call the Citiboobs and tell them the new jet would not fly.

“They woke up pretty quickly,” says a Treasury official, adding that they protested for a bit. “Six months ago, they would have kept the plane and flown it to Washington.”

These pests will never learn on their own, though. Consensus around Washington is that Geithner will have to flex his muscles and rein in the vermin using his new leashes.

“I have no confidence that they intend or desire to change,” Senator Carl Levin told The New York Times. “These bankers got away with murder, and it’s obscene that close to nothing is being asked of financial institutions. I get incensed at the thought that a bank that’s getting billions of dollars in taxpayer money is out there buying fancy new airplanes.”

Revolution, anyone?

Americans Are Too Depressed To Have Sex

 


So says the porn industry whose tongue-in...(averted gaze)-cheek request for a $5 billion bailout from the federal government is making waves all over the Internets and "old media" this morning.

Puh-leeaze, I've been saying this since last autumn. What with all the Ponzi schemes, CEO suicides, and the general collapse of capitalism, the lustre is gone! My daily visits to various fetish and Ukrainian midget domination sites have decreased from about 40-45, to no more than 5 or 6. All on work PCs, of course; I wouldn't want to infect my home machine with any kind of adware or spyware, I mean really. What am I, some schmuck on wheels?

According to porn magnate Larry Flynt and "Girls Gone Wild" king Joe Francis, the porn industry is not recession proof. TMZ website reports that the Dynamic Duo of porn will be heading to Washington to ask for a $5 billion porn bailout.

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt says. "It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America."

Francis sees his industry like the big three automakers, only BIGGER: "Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration."

And why not? According to an article in the Atlantic, video sales have been falling by 15 percent a year since 2005, and online content doesn't deliver the returns it used to, now that Web sites such as RedTube and PornHub basically give it away. Struggling companies need investors to help buttress their operations, and those that are thriving in a brutal market need funding for growth.

But don't despair, Nation's Pornographers: enter AdultVest, a hedge fund run by Francis Koenig that invests in porn-related assets. He sees the porn downturn as temporary and believes that technological improvements will trigger a turnaround.

One example: iPorn, a start-up in AdultVest's portfolio that is developing an application to deliver porn to the Apple iPod. Personally, I'm holding my breath until it's feasible to actually have intercourse with our iPods. I mean, why not? They do pretty much everything else.

"The industry's not going anywhere," Koenig says. "You've got 6 billion people on the planet," he laughs, "and they're all horny."

True that. Now let me get back to...work. I feel a slight tingle in my loins already. Things are looking up, my friends. Pun intended.

How Much Is Enough?

 
Hey! Good morning sunshine. Have you heard? The Man just announced we're in a Recession. Twelve months and counting, no less. Wake up! Up you wake. Do you see it all around you? Blink it into focus. You see? I don't. I look for it, but I can't quite grab it. Maybe The Man is lying. Not like he's got a great historical track record, this Man.

"...probably one of the top five Recessions in history..." is what I heard this morning from the brilliant mind of Joey "Da Mayor's Son" Scarborough. Really? People must not be hurting all that badly, seeing how they're willing to stomp a man to death in order to get their hands on toxic, plastic, Chinese shit discounted at Walmart. Some of my friends on the social network I recently joined boasted that they were out there at 3 a.m., wallets in hand, ready to go at it. How's that? Shop 'till you...
Yea.

In the 1930s we had soup and bread lines. In 2008, in the middle of a Recession, we have iPhone and iPod lines. Wake up! I am beyond disgusted at this time of year, watching B-roll of grinning, agitated consumers pressed flat against locked Walmart/Target/Macy's/Whateverthefucktheretailername's double doors, buzzing to get in. You've seen these hordes. News outlets cover them every year in the Ha-Ha Holiday Vibe and Cheer segments with which they jam the airwaves. These shopping machines have the same feverish, glazed with adrenaline look in their eyes the Hutu militia carried while chopping down the Tutsi with machetes in '94. I'm not reaching. Look at them. They're in a savage, weird shopping trance. Up you wake!

This Black Friday cash-strapped consumers spent 7.2% more on things they didn't need than last year. $10.6 billion in just one day, according to figures released by RCT ShopperTrak, a research firm that tracks total retail sales at more than 50,000 outlets. It's hard to stand it when even my close friends drop the age-old excuse of having held out all this time...all these years until it was beyond necessary...to finally buy new shit. Because for being prudent and frugal, Bhasundara the Goddess of Prosperity is rewarding them with up to 75% off that plastic garlic press made in China. And don't even get me started on the futility of "stocking stuffers."

Please excuse the Scrooge-like rant. I am usually more level-headed and methodical in my pieces for this esteemed site. I'll try to calm down and stealthily exit stage left, eeeven. But not without leaving you with one of my all-time favourite scenes from cinema history. It can applied to everything:

Message!

Bailed Out Corporations Still Spending Millions on Sports

 
Despite billions in taxpayer handouts...uh, bailouts from the (averted gaze) Socialist government, Citibank and AIG will continue to flush down millions of dollars on big sports naming rights, logo placements, and sponsorships.

Citi, which recently axed 53,000 workers (you wouldn't know it from its gigantic "We're Hiring" sign on its building along Rt. 40 in Burlington, NC), and saw its stock price lose over half its value, is in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team's new stadium "Citi Field." And insurance giant AIG is paying the British soccer team Manchester United $125 million for the privilege of having its logo appear on Man U's uniforms. That, despite the fact the firm is standing largely thanks to a $150 billion lifeline from the U.S. Treasury.

From ABC News online:
"A spokesman for AIG confirmed that its sponsorship deal with Manchester United remains in place, but that the company is 'reviewing all sponsorships to identify any relationship that might be essential, to maintain the value of the business and service customers, so we can repay the [government] loan.'

Citicorp is not reviewing its deal with the Mets, chief financial officer Gary Crittenden said in an interview Monday. Crittenden told CNBC the contract was 'legal and binding' and 'not an issue.'"

Eeeexcellent!

This kind of business model warms the cockles of my almost lifeless, Mr. Burns-like heart. It's good to know these corporations are at least consistent in their awful decision-making processes and by now we've pretty much read the umpteenth version of the script, so we know how it's all going to end. Might as well leave the theatre now and skip out on the denouement in favour of a hefty pint at your nearest pub. Drowning your sorrows is de rigueur at HolidayTime.

And this brings to the table the issue of a bailout for the auto industry and what kind of decisions the Big 3 would make, given a hefty 25, 35, howevermany billions. As you well know, I am vehemently opposed to the rescue package, knowing full well that over 2.7 million jobs potentially stand to be lost (jobs that could be filled given the invention and inception of new technology for fuel-less, non-electric cars). But just last week I spoke with a colleague---a Michigan transplant and a former GM employee---whose father and grandfather are retired from a lifetime of work for the auto giants, and whose various uncles and cousins are still lucky enough to have jobs within the industry. She and her family are unequivocally against this rescue package, fully realizing that auto industry CEOs will mis-spend the loan and "regular blue collar people" (her words) will lose their jobs eventually, as GM, Ford, and the rest of them will move their operations overseas (see GM's new SUV plant just opened in St. Petersburg, Russia).

Just common sense from a family who would be impacted directly by the failure of the industry and who recognizes the bailout as merely a band-aid to a fatal, hemorrhaging wound.

The Green Buildup

 
One of my great hopes for the upcoming Obama presidency, coupled with the Democratic majority in both house of Congress, is a final turn away from the concept of "trickle-down" economics. Even Alan Greenspan admitted that he had underestimated the greed inherent in our economic system, a greed that has for decades prevented funds pumped into the top from actually reaching the bottom.

My in-laws are convinced that such a change in economic policy philosophy will mean the bankruptcy of their business, which has been in the family for 60+ years. Yet they provided to my mind the quintessential example of why trickle-down doesn't work the day they were showing us the photos and plans of a second house they were building on the sunny, dry side of our state while, without hint of irony, explaining to us how they had just cut the hours of all of their employees so as to avoid paying for health care benefits.

Anyway, the plan that turns away from trickle-down economics and make the most sense to me is the Green Buildup, a generic term I'm applying to the calls by Thomas Friedman and Al Gore among others for the government to dump massive cash into developing new clean-energy technology and infrastructure, and retro-fitting exitsting systems to mitigate current energy usage.

This just makes sense to me. It puts people to work, which can only help the economy as those people spend their earnings back into the system, creates opportunities for businesses, and works to solve our energy problems in a way that both addresses environmental concerns and strengthens our security position by decreasing dependence on a finite resource largely concentrated in some of the most politically unstable regions in the world.

What's the downside? That isn't a rhetorical question - I actually want to know what potential downsides or stumbling blocks could undermine this plan. Because, in absence of serious concerns, I'd put this on the agenda for day one of the Obama administration.

Stuff!

 
I miss George Carlin. No, this isn't a brain short-circuit moment---I do have plenty of those---but I'm going somewhere with this. You'll see.

Yesterday on Capitol Hill, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, told lawmakers that the “risk of a protracted slowdown” merited the introduction of new measures to help individual Americans gain access to credit. In Joe-the-Plumberspeak, basically Bernanke is thinking heavily of sending out another round of "stimulus checks." ("Cheques" for our Canadian readers). Mr. Bernanke, however, did not specify the size or scope of any plan.

From the effects of last spring's actions, I can safely say that, while I greatly appreciate "free money" from the soon-to-be Marxist/Communist/European Socialist government, I am extremely leery and pessimistic that this second round of band-aids will jump start the frozen credit market. Never mind Wall Street yesterday; the Fatcats-That-Be who control that whole racket are such knee-jerk reactionaries, they make Appollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens feel like a smoove, groovy ride in an El Dorado (does anyone drive Caddys anymore?).

A non-scientific, personal survey of (Joe Sixpack) friends and family who reveled in their newly-received cash infusion last May, indicated that none of the recipients actually paid down their debts or mortgage principal, but instead...bought more stuff. This went against widely-reported, disappointing results. The Treasury Department indicated that no positive movement had been seen in the economy as a result of the stimulus package because most people used the money (unwisely!) to pay for gas and food. But not the people I know. They did their patriotic bit. They got their flat screens, Wii or Playstation game systems, clothes, Ipods, Iphones. Stuff! This is exactly what the current administration banked on in its attempt to prevent the total economic collapse of the last couple of weeks: send the constituency money so it can trickle down the booty, thus resuscitating the retail sector. Some did that. But not enough. You see the Carlin tie-in now? Fine, here it is.

Yes, yes y'all; The Great American Way: when in trouble, spend more on Chinese-made shit and fuggetabout it. Everything is beautiful. And so, round 2: ding, ding.

The outgoing, lame-duck administration is under the gun to do more to help the economy. The Treasury Department, meanwhile, hopes to spur a new round of mergers among banks by steering some of the money in its $250 billion rescue package to banks that are willing to buy weaker rivals, according to government officials.

From the New York Times: While these efforts may provide some relief, the concern is that it may take time before they have a major impact on the economy. Loans are likely to remain scarce for many small businesses and consumers.

Credit is unlikely to flow freely soon, said Max Bublitz, chief strategist at SCM Advisors, an investment firm in San Francisco. “It’s going to be doled out in small pieces over the next few months,” he said.

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in mid-September, the credit markets entered a state of near paralysis, keeping many businesses and municipalities from obtaining financing.

For now, market watchers can celebrate that credit is being given out at all. Interest rates on common types of commercial paper — basically short-term I.O.U.s issued by businesses — fell to a four-month low. Joy!

But until we all get back on track, hell, I'll take another few hundred if they're doling it out. I am one hundred percent committed to do my bit for this country. There's a killer Macbook Pro I've had my eyes on for a year now. The hell with my fiscal responsibilities. Bring it, Ben!

Right-Wing Myths About ACORN & CRA

As the economy tanks and our country hemorrhages jobs, the Republicans have retreated to their tried and true tactics once known as the Southern Strategy.

The strategy? Blame the minorities and the poor for the country's problems.

The conservative crowd has decided to baselessly blame the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) for the country's mortgage crisis, despite all evidence to the contrary.

There are a lot of people a ton smarter than me to explain this (here, here, here, here, here) so I will just put out there a few basic facts that people should know and you'll need to have when you are trying to debate your crazy relative who keeps screaming that this whole mess is due to the CRA and liberals forcing banks to make risky loans.

First of all, the CRA does not force banks to make loans to people who can't pay them back. It made banks stop "redlining" minority neighborhoods and making it harder for people in those communities to get loans. The CRA has been chiefly responsible for creating whole new communities of home owners and responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households.

Second, it is estimated that only 20% or less of the sub-prime mortgages out there are ones covered under the CRA. Not only that, but most banks say that CRA loans have had a low default rate.

Third, related to the above, the vast majority of sub-prime mortgages have been made by brokers not covered by the CRA or any real regulation. Many of these predatory lenders knowingly made loans to people they knew wouldn't be able to keep up with the payments and the high rates. But it didn't matter to them because they were going to sell the loans to Wall Street as mortgage-backed securities. Brokers make their money and take on none of the risk.

I even read somewhere (I don't remember the source) that an ongoing review of the sub-prime mortgages has found that maybe up to half the people that were given these high rate loans were really eligible for normal rate loans that they nay have been able to pay. There was some major fraud going on by the greedy brokers who sold these loans.

Anyway, there is more and it makes the brain hurt to learn all of this stuff. Check out those links I put in there for more complete info about this mess and the conservative lies about it.

And then there is the recent turning of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) into the new bogeyman of the election. Conservatives are accusing them of the serious crime of voter fraud.

ACORN is a pretty damn good organization overall and they have registered millions of minority and poor people to vote. The issue that has the right-wing all fired up is that there were a bunch of voter registration cards filled out by paid workers who filled in the names of fake people, people from the phone book and celebrities.

Is this a not-so-good-a-thing to see? Sure. Is it voter fraud? Not even close.

At best it would be voter registration fraud, which won't do one thing to effect the outcome of the election.

They are trying to make it sound as if ACORN is knowingly turning in fraudulent voter registration cards. This ignores two things:

One, ACORN pulled aside the fakes they caught and pointed them out to the various election commissions themselves.

And two, in most of the states ACORN was working in they can't discard the fake registration forms. They are required by law to turn them in.

This happens to all organizations that try to register voters by using paid workers. Not a big deal.

But the GOP will do their best to use this as an excuse to purge voter rolls in places where poor people and minorities will vote. Voter suppression is the name of this game.

There is also an attempt to pain Obama as some sort of ACORN stooge. Maybe that's what McCain was setting up when he referred to Obama's "cronies" in the last debate.

Just another blatant attempt to paint as evil anything Obama has ever touched and then exaggerate his connection to said person/organization.

Obama worked on their behalf when they were party to a lawsuit to force the state of Illinois to implement the Motor Voter registration, which was required by federal law. The League of Women Voters and the Justice Department were also plaintiffs in that suit.

Just another red herring for the Republicans.

And somehow in the minds of the kind of people that attend McCain-Palin rallies ACORN and CRA are the same exact thing and are to blame for our housing and financial crises.

I don't even want to get started on the preposterous claim that ACORN is so powerful they were able to force all those corporate banks into making bad loans.

As my Jewish friends like to say: Oy.

Take a point off the tally

One of the things I thought McCain likely scored a point with last night was his plan to buy mortgages and refinance them at their current value. It has a common sense ring to it, and one I imagine plays well to trouble Middle America. The fact that the homeowner won't be bailed out, but rather readjusted to a different expectation of repayment, appeals to their sense of fairness while also solving their individual problems.

But, as I sensed was possible last night before I had looked into it, it won't work. Or at least this is the opinion of Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin, as detailed in Salon's "How the World Works" column.

In fact, the basic premise of the "American Homeownership Resurgence Plan" belies a lack of understanding of the fundamental interconnectedness, or the Gordian Knot is perhaps more accurate, of financial markets. These mortgages aren't quaint notes on parchment stored down at the City Hall; they are complex financial products with complex ownership relationships.

But, I don't think that matters to McCain, because the plan is really a chit being played in a political game. His campaign knew it would sound good, and that would be enough for Joe SixPack. "Details are for elite sissies, or any other rube foolish enough to think I actually believe this plan will ever see the legislative light of day."

McCain's a flip-flopping, disingenuous hypocrite. He's rolling out a loose, detail-less "plan" that will hugely inflate government and demand giant piles of taxpayer money, shredding any notion of him as a conservative or even vaguely competent to help run this economy. Don't hesitate to disabuse anybody that spouts McCain's plan of the notion it is workable or sensible or coherent, and don't doubt this shows just how without ideals McCain is in pursuit of victory.

Salon: The fatal flaw in McCain's mortgage plan

It Sure Ain't Your Grandpa's New Deal

Sorry for my lack of words for the last few days, since the VP debate. Preparations for the imminent arrival of baby are really starting to take up a lot of time, especially on the weekends.

So we now have a $700 billion bailout plan. What I'm not clear on is if that figure is inclusive of the $150 billion worth of "sweeteners" they added on to win over more members of the House or if what we really have is an $850 billion bill.

I'm so mad about this I can barely stand it. And not for the same reasons as the "fiscal conservative, free market" Republicans that voted against it. They think you should just leave the free market alone and let what happens, well, happen.

The problem with that mindset is that what just happened is what happens.

No, I hate this because it is nothing more than a big giveaway for the people who created this mess and does nothing to help the financial situation for most people in this country. The claims by politicians that the bill includes limits to executive pay is greatly exaggerated as nothing stops these companies form paying their CEOs huge salaries, just a limit to their severance packages.

We missed a great opportunity in this country to create a real economic recovery bill and we blew it. We could have done something to grow this economy from the ground up, as Obama likes to talk about but seems to not have any real proposals for such a thing. Like FDR rebuilt the economy during the Great Depression.

(I wonder if it will eventually become known as National Depression I, the same way that the Great War became World War I when there was another great war, after we finally admit that we will be in another depression just as big soon enough?)

We really had the chance to kill several birds with one stone by forming a new public works program. We already know that the infrastructure in this country is crumbling, or as I heard Rachel Maddow put it one time during the primary season, it is "made of sugar."

$700 billion could have gone a long way to fixing/replacing aging bridges, roads, fixing up our neglected national parks, building clean energy facilities like wind farms, fully funding and expanding Amtrak (including starting a real high-speed rail system), building new public transportation systems in cities without them as well as expanding and modernizing old ones in cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago.

We would have put people in the construction business to work almost immediately, one of the biggest needs right now with almost no new homes being built. So many more jobs would be created with all those people back to work and going out and spending their money in our economy.

This would help a lot of people, though not all, who are behind on their mortgages keep their houses. Combine that with something the feds should be doing, but the states have started to do themselves, forcing the banks to work out new lower mortgage rates for subprime borrowers.

Other primary benefits would be a modernized infrastructure that is not falling apart, cleaner energy sources and more transportation options in a time of higher gas prices and concerns about greenhouse gasses. All of these are things that we desperately need.

If we are going to add another $700 billion+ to our Chinese credit card, wouldn't this be a better use of that money?

I'm not delusional about the idea that this kind of bill would have actually gotten through a Congress with too many Republicans and a president who would have vetoed it and called it Socialism.

But I am disappointed that Obama didn't take the opportunity to call for something like this and instead supported the payoff to corporate America. We can't build the economy from the bottom up with just talk and no action.

And then there is John "as president I'll veto every pork-barrel spending bill that crosses my desk and I will make them famous" McCain, who had no problem voting yes on a bill that may actually be the most pork-laden one in history.


I'll be writing my next post, more than likely, about the dilemma, as a progressive, of whether or not to vote for Obama to expand on my statement of disappointment above.

I'm also planning on expounding on the issue of transportation soon, an issue near and dear to me and something I'm not hearing enough (or anything, really) about from any candidate. Stay tuned.

Poll Questions For Our Readers

So McCain has announced he will come to the debate, like anyone actually believed it was anything other than political grandstanding to begin with.

The order of topics in the three debates was decided about a week ago, or so. Both Obama and McCain preferred the first one be about foreign policy. Obama wants to prove his chops on something that many Americans for some reason believe him to be weak on, and McCain has delusions of grander about how awesome he is at it. Personally, I can't see how anyone could trust a guy who thought we should have done more bombing of civilians to win the Vietnam war over someone who thinks that maybe a war should be a last resort instead of a first option. But I guess that's just me.

Anyway, I'm curious what people think about the choice of topics tonight. So here are my questions:

Do you think, based on what is going on right now, that they should have moved up the economy debate to tonight, instead of saving it for the final debate?

Or, do you think it is the right decision not to go with that topic during a time when there is a lot of rhetoric and bombastic posturing from politicians in both parties?

Comments please. What do you think and why?

Now It's Personal

OK, maybe it's not really that big of an impact on me. But it is kind of eerie to be watching TV and see someone announce breaking news that the bank where I have my checking account and a credit card has collapsed and been seized by the federal regulators.

I imagine, with so many Seattle people reading (and writing) this blog, and that Wamu was the biggest bank in the country, I'm not the only one here who finds this a little unsettling.

I do tend to believe that right now my money and credit are safe, the creation of the FDIC after the Great Depression (thank god for one regulation not being struck down by Phil Gramm) is exactly for this things like this. And JP Morgan Chase has snatched the assets right up, they are saying that there won't even be a service disruption and branches will be open as normal tomorrow.

But still, is it possible that we may actually see something like a run on the banks, something that our whole lives has lived in the realm of our grandparents stories?

The ramifications of the current situation are becoming mind-boggling.