ZOMBIE CONTENTIONS - Financial Crisis

Category Archives: Financial Crisis

“Gimme Money – That’s What I Want!”

To say that love of money is the the root of all evils in life is as much as to say that when the day dawns in which life has no evils, money will be unloved. That day is rather remote, I’m guessing. Conservatively. Mister Micawber famously claimed: Income 19 pounds, outgo 20 pounds, misery. [...]

¶ Posted 02 January 2010 † Joe NS § Climate Change ‡ Comments (11) °

The Rats are Jumping Ship — After It Sunk

To the growing list of mainstream journalists skeptical about Barack Obama’s Excellent Adventure, add my fellow transplanted Pittsburgher and Time columnist Howard Fineman. In a column published on New Year’s Eve, Fineman wonders aloud if Obama bit off more than he could chew in his first year as president. The column opens with an acknowledgment [...]

¶ Posted 02 January 2010 † Howard Portnoy § Barack Obama § Fiscal Policy § Media § Obamanauts § Sinistro ‡ Comments (16) °

Economics and O-care

Supplemental discussion thread on macroeconomics and fiscal policy both in their own right and as they bear on the the Obama program. Includes discussion thread moved from J.E.’s post on the Kind of Blue Dogs of the House.

¶ Posted 23 December 2009 † CK MacLeod § Economics § Fiscal Policy § Health Care § Macroeconomic Analysis & Forecasting § Monetary Policy § Taxes § Unemployment ‡ Comments (33) ° Tagged: Economics, Obamacare

RE: Smackdown from the Burbs

Under “Smackdown from the ‘Burbs,” we have our loyal home frog and a visitor arguing the “Tuesday’s elections mean nothing, the American troops will never reach Baghdad” line as applied to the political fate of one John Corzine. Visitor Thurman Hart sums up the position as follows: Corzine was defeated in New Jersey for three [...]

¶ Posted 07 November 2009 † CK MacLeod § 2010 Elections § Democratic Party § Politics § Republican Party ‡ Comments (21) ° Tagged: Corzine, Financialized Neo-Liberalism, Re-Alignment

GAMECHANGER WATCH: “It is Japan we should be worrying about, not America”

The savings rate has crashed from 15pc in 1990 to near 2pc today, half America’s rate. Japan’s $1.5 trillion state pension fund (the world’s biggest) has become a net seller of government bonds this year, as it must to meet pay-out obligations. The demographic crunch has hit. The workforce [has] been contracting since 2005. Japan [...]

¶ Posted 02 November 2009 † CK MacLeod § Japan ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: Bubble, Financial Crisis, Japan

Roubini on “the Mother of all carry trades”

I’ve mentioned the “carry trade” relating to US dollar weakness and equity and other asset bubbles worldwide, but I would expect that few readers understood what I was referring to. I understand it conceptually, but, like short-selling, futures and options trades and combinations, and so on, until you actually do them or see them done, [...]

¶ Posted 02 November 2009 † CK MacLeod § Economics § Monetary Policy ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: asset inflation, Bubble, carry trade, Roubini

“We don’t even know where the money went,”

Some news items just write themselves- months in advance. TARP was so necessary. We were “investing” in the automotive industry (Want the quote? Paragraph 6, here.) Last I checked, when you invest in something, you can expect a return on investment. That’s kind of the point of “investing,” as opposed to “giving away free money.” [...]

¶ Posted 22 October 2009 † Barbara § Economics ‡ Comments (39) ° Tagged: bailout, Barofsky, Down the rat hole, TARP

Obama’s “Inheritance” and All You Liars

Obama’s at it again—whining about the “mess” he “inherited” and accusing anyone who disagrees with him of being deceitful. He did a little of both last week, some of it on his own, some through his surrogates. As for the whining about his “inheritance,” here is the president himself, at a Democratic fund-raiser in San [...]

¶ Posted 20 October 2009 † Howard Portnoy § Barack Obama § Economics § Fiscal Policy ‡ Comments (14) °

You know those amazing Chinese skylines…

…you’re always seeing in photos illustrating blog posts and articles about the New Yellow Peril/Masters of the World? I’m referring to photos like this one (Shanghai): Night photos are usually most impressive – if sometimes a little Blade Runner-y (say that three times fast!). …or how about this one (Wuhan)? Ever wonder what happens [...]

¶ Posted 12 October 2009 † CK MacLeod § China ‡ Comments (11) ° Tagged: Bubble, China

Barack Hussein Obama: You Clean Your Room This Instant!

Yesterday, the panel on FOX News’s Special Report with Bret Baier devoted a segment to things that President Obama has done in his first 9 months in office that have pleased conservatives. The panel, consisting of Charles Krauthammer, Mort Kondracke, and Fred Barnes, seemed less hard-pressed to come up with plaudits than Obama and his [...]

¶ Posted 01 October 2009 † Howard Portnoy § Afghanistan § Barack Obama § Schools § US National Defense ‡ Comments (2) °

What would the Lorax say?

The law of intended consequences:

¶ Posted 22 September 2009 † nokarmahere § Cash for Clunkers § Climate Change § Energy & Environment ‡ Comments (2) °

CONTENTION – who needs trade when you have a bubble?

The bottom line: world trade has collapsed, shipping lines, once flourishing, have become graveyard archipelagos populated by rusting ship skeletons. Yet all of this is beyond the land, and thus far from sight. Of course, who needs trade when you have a speculative market trading in its own bubble, hitting yearly highs day after day, [...]

¶ Posted 16 September 2009 † CK MacLeod § Contention of the Day ‡ Comments (18) °

The Tea Party in Washington D.C.

I was tweeting this morning and caught a link to the traffic cameras at 14th St. and E: think the Iranian protests. There were tens of thousands of people. Twitter is down now because of overcapacity. The current cams show the crowd breaking up and traffic resuming at 3rd and Constitution. A friend of mine [...]

¶ Posted 12 September 2009 † Barbara § Barack Obama § Economics § Fiscal Policy § Health Care § Legislation § Stimulus ‡ Comments (30) °

Who Really Wrote Obama’s Stimulus Bill?

From the beginning, it was well established that the president had not gotten his hands all ink-stained writing the so-called American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill. In fact, it was pretty much common knowledge that Nancy Pelosi and her minions authored the bill, right? (Well, her minions maybe; I doubt Pelosi can find her way upstairs [...]

¶ Posted 25 August 2009 † Howard Portnoy § Barack Obama § Economics § Media § Politicians ‡ Comments (8) °

The New York Times — Then and Now

James Taranto at BOTWT takes a stoll down memory lane into the morgue of the nation’s newspaper of record to see how it covered an event back in 2001 and the same event eight years later. The event in question was/is the sitting president’s first summer vacation. First the 2001 version: On Friday, as new [...]

¶ Posted 24 August 2009 † Howard Portnoy § Barack Obama § Culture & Entertainment § Media ‡ Comments Off °

...WALL...

Latest on Tue, 05:42 pm
Zolt The Jew: I finished "The Israel Test" on the plane coming home from the beach, Colin et all my dear frems. I will try to email Colin a brief review tomorrow. It is a very important book, of just over 250 big print pages. I could write more on it right now but right now the blonde below is distracting my attention. There is something about blondes with that look and the puckered lips which drives Jewish men crazy, crazy, crazy, even after a full day of Shabbas prayer, oy vey!
CK MacLeod: The Blonde Below...
CK MacLeod: Stop distracting me... I'm conjoining universes...
narciso: Just to get it straight, you're talking about Lady Gaga,
fustidious: clean up on the recbrow aisle needed!
CK MacLeod: feh
fuster the never satisfried: I see that you've grown more fond of the menu on top thing. I liked it from the git, but wonder if you might to able to work on the eye-appeal of it.
Howard Portnoy: Wow, it's my first time here since your remodeled, Czar. Looks great! Kudos.
narciso: Moved on to the last of Larsson, the reason for Sljander's rather idiosyncraticpersonality, her father is a Soviet GRU defector protected by the evil Swedish state security, Sapo, Larsson's journalist background does allow him to expound on the 'national security state' hidden in Social Democracy

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- The Wall (4827)
  - narciso: Moved on to the last of Larsson, the reason for Sljander’s rather idiosyncraticpersonality, her father is a Soviet GRU defector protected by the evil Swedish state security,...
  - Howard Portnoy: Wow, it’s my first time here since your remodeled, Czar. Looks great! Kudos.
- Roman Polanski: The Other War (Culture, That Is) (35)
  - narciso: He’s printed up his whining statement, from the office of his chateau, no doubt, it’s hard to see someone more vile, then again he telescoped the water wars of the 00s,...
- New York City Announces that “Rubber Rooms” for Teachers Will Close (1)
  - Zoltan Newberry: It would be better if these hard working and badly misunderstood teachers were put to work, I say! They could raise money for education as targets in pie throwing daily fund...
- RECOMMENDED BROWSING (132)
  - narciso: You missed who that line was directed at Sully, it wasn’t Obama
  - Sully: @ fustotten: I didn’t like the baby campaign prop either, which actually caused me to wonder whether it was productive as a prop. And, on the subject of the presidency. There is...
Said in a Thread
- when you’re a designated shepherd or sheepdog…
  March 6, 2010 | 12:17 pm
  … (remember you can designate yourself) part of you is actually glad to see a wolf, because now you can prove to everyone how important you are, by bossing everyone around for their own good.
  
  “A doctor and a peasant know more than a doctor alone,” the Italians used to say. Self-appointed doctors everywhere are working to suppress this insight. Human societies can save themselves from the next wolf, if they are allowed to do so; but it is hard for them to save themselves from the shepherds.
  
  Margo @ Yet another global warming apocalypse.
- Archive for Said in a Thread »
Collected Poetry of Sully
- Telomeres
  February 17, 2010 | 6:23 am
  Telomeres of defined length,
  Were by his God in mankind bent,
  To make it sure that aged ones,
  Would pass to make room for their sons,
  Before they learn to mount the hill,
  They yearn to climb, their God to kill.
  
  New daughters too then see their day,
  As the used up old fair pass away,
  And the brighter young can in their turn,
  Seek their creator’s iron rules to spurn.
  
  One day mankind may beat the odds,
  And take on the powers of the gods.
  Sure on that day He’ll mold an image,
  And include within his toy’s equippage,
  A strictly limited telomere,
  To set for it a cliff that’s sheer.
  
  For once a former God is whipped,
  Displaced by his toy free will equipped,
  The former toy learns something odd,
  About possession of the mind of God,
  Namely, knowledge of the entire script,
  Makes the endless now a boring crypt.
  
  Mere mechanical beasts are not a cure,
  For their script entire a God knows for sure,
  To divert a toy must have free will,
  And at least a chance to climb the hill,
  There to displace its God, a bitter pill
- Archive for Collected Poetry of Sully »
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