February, 2009 archive
Barbershop Duet 2
I couldn’t put off getting a haircut any longer, even though I come from the generation that believes that hair should be long and skirts should be short.
There’s Always the Sunday Breakfast Mission 0
Cookie Jill has more.
Hope He Pays His Taxes 0
Possible Secretary of Commerce nominee, according to the Left Shue.
Both Ends. No Middle. 0
The Booman points out why Republican Economic Theory brings only failure. Read the whole thing:
(snip)
What this really amounts to isn’t just a failure of imagination. It’s a life lesson in the non-rational nature of Republican ideology in general. It works in good times to a certain non-idealized degree, but it completely lacks situational flexibility. It becomes bankrupt and bankrupts the institutions it controls at the same moment that conditions make its basic irrationally manifest.
“First Nationalized Bank” 0
Bonddad looks at the “stress test“:
How is a big issue. The markets are already reeling from the threat of nationalization. Every time it gets brought up, the markets tank. This was cited as a primary reason for last week’s market instability. In other words, the actual process of shifting from private to public ownership is an issue.
Now enter the above plan. I would personally use the remaining TARP money to make one big bank. Then I would stress test all the money center banks at the same time and come out with a report on all of them at the same time. Force them to sell their good assets to the one good bank and let the dregs remain in the old banks. If you do this over a short time period — say 2-4 weeks — you can end this problem pretty quickly.
The main reason I like the idea of one big bank is there is only one bank to monitor.
I think that the reason that “the markets are already reeling from the threat of nationalization” is that, despite the fiction that “stockholders own the company” (and, for all practical purposes, it is a fiction), neither the companies nor the managements which have destroyed them want to pay the financial price for their misdeeds.
Too Stupid for Words 0
And quite willing to pander.
Pay to the Order of . . . 0
I wonder whether I should just make my next mortgage check payable to the United States Treasury Josh Marshall on Citigroup:
Forgiveness 0
An interesting post on forgiveness over at Straight, Not Narrow. Among other things, the poster said
I think there is a piece missing: Many of the persons who claim to know Jesus also
get a “glazed over” look when you talk about forgiveness.
They say the words, but they do not act the acts.
I am so tired of those who practice hate in the name of the love.
The Safety Net 0
Why Republicans hate Social Security (remember, only one of them voted for it). Thom Hartman explains:
Via Susie.
Drinking Liberally 0
Tuesday; Triumph Brewing Company; a hop, skip, and jump from Front on Chestnut; 6 p.
Come George your Soros.
Body Count 0
The Glorious and Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.
From the Left Shue:
A Modest Proposal 0
Steven D:
Not to mention unemployment benefits. Which Steven D did mention.
Leveraged to Death 0
The Journal-Register Company, holder of a number of local newspapers, files for Chapter 11.
I think we would all be better served if the fancy three-syllable word “leverage” were retired in favor of the short, pithy, accurate word, “debt.”
The fancy-smancy “investment bankers” have made a trade of buying companies, mortgaging them to the hilt, keeping the money, and leaving the companies in an Addams Family episode the lurch.
The “investment bankers” get rich, the companies, their executives, and their employees get screwed.
Witness the Chicago Tribune.
All that debt was not there until Sam Zell purchased the company and sucked it dry.
And then tossed it out the back door onto his trash heap.
Without his Zellmanship, the company would not be in the trouble it’s in. It would be in Little Trouble, not Big Trouble.
In the Olden Days, when I was a young ‘un, a company in overwhelming debt was a bad thing.
So now it’s called “leverage.” That way, no one but the cognoscenti will know it is, in fact, crippling debt.
Bipartisan Redux 0
Only one Republican Congressman voted for Social Security.
On the Media explores the historical reality. From the website:
Listen:
The transcript will be posted Monday.
Redutio ad absurdum 2
nam vere est.
