child-labor laws?Pinko, commie, muckraking liberals and progressives! - that's who... including socialist, God-hating labor unions!!!
the Pure Food & Drug Act?
the 40-hr, 5-day work-week?
women's suffrage?
the Civil Rights Movement?
The Palmer raids,I note in passing that our current Marijuana Prohibition is fueling the drug-wars in Mexico.
Prohibition,
McCarthyism,
warrant-less surveillance of U.S. citizens.
Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan: The Latest Converts to AestheticismPension insurer shifted to stocksW: the gift that keeps on giving.
Concern increases as losses mount; Failing plans could overwhelm agency
By Michael Kranish
Globe Staff / March 30, 2009
WASHINGTON - Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.
...
The agency refused to say how much of the new investment strategy has been implemented or how the fund has fared during the downturn. The agency would only say that its fund was down 6.5 percent - and all of its stock-related investments were down 23 percent - as of last Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year. But that was before most of the recent stock market decline and just before the investment switch was scheduled to begin in earnest.
No statistics on the fund's subsequent performance were released.
[emphasis added]
Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No PlotsLoyal readers will recognize the lead quotation ("Quaestiones sunt fallaces et inefficaces.") as reflecting the views of that pinko leftie liberal, Inquisitor General Nicholas Eymerich:
Waterboarding, Rough Interrogation of Abu Zubaida Produced False Leads, Officials Say
He was the first inquisitor to get around the Church's prohibition against torturing a subject twice by interpreting directive very liberally, permitting a separate instance of torture for a separate charge of heresy.True for the Spanish Inquisition, true still today:
[Wikipedia entry, Nicholas Eymerich]
"Torture is deceptive and ineffectual."Stop the madness!
Jobless rolls swell again as recession persistsRemember: this is W's Recession!
A great comedy, all around us. And we are the principals.No - I'd say, rather: a great soap opera all around us! - and, yes, we ARE the principals!!!
"It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."How 'bout six years?... and counting!
[SecDef Rumsfeld, 7 Feb 2003]
The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, the Occupation of Iraq, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force now led by and composed almost entirely of troops from the United States and United Kingdom.Cost to date?
[Wikipedia entry, Iraq War; emphasis added]
AIG CEO asks employees to repay some bonus moneyThese were advertised as retention bonuses, weren't they?
...
[AIG CEO Edward] Liddy said some employees had already given back their entire bonuses, and some had left the company after receiving their bonuses.
[emphasis added]
Wall v. Main: a disconnectI made a number of brilliant observations in that post, and encourage you to re-read it.
The company paid the bonuses, including more than $1 million each to 73 people, to almost all of the employees in the financial products unit responsible for creating the exotic derivatives that caused A.I.G.’s near collapse and started the government rescue to avoid a global financial crisis.I've got a coupla questions...
What does it take for an AIG executive to be fired?Seriously.
"My job is to take risks. If the risks pay off, I deserve to be rewarded!"... but I'd assume there was a downside as well - most "risks" are "risky" because, well - you might lose!
"If the risks I take turn out to be really stupid, I lose my job!"So far I've seen no evidence that ANYONE in the financial sector of our economy EVER loses his job for poor performance!
Mr. Geithner reiterated the Treasury position that lawyers inside and out of government had agreed that “it would be legally difficult to prevent these contractually mandated payments.”My question?
Outta the Cornfield... and each of them links to yet other "off the beaten path" blogs you might enjoy!
Captain's Log
Station Charon
finnsagain@aol.comHave fun!
Given the underpinnings of the current mess - with so many financial institutions deemed "too big to fail" - perhaps it's time to revisit anti-trust laws with an eye more towards practices "deemed to hurt" consumers. Among these I would today count practices that encourage entities to become "too big to fail".Others are exploring this territory:
[Re-visiting anti-trust legislation: "too big to fail"]
NOMI PRINS: Well, I personally believe they shouldn't be allowed to get too big to fail. That would be one way of helping to prevent this situation.Remember: you read it here first!
[Nomi Prins, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, she's author of "Other People's Money" and a senior fellow at the think-tank Demos. Bernanke Calls for Overhaul of Financial Regulations, The Online News Hour, 10 March 2009]
Well, except for the 'incompetent' part, I'd agree.This is quite plausible. Republicans believe government is the problem - it is ALWAYS in their best interests to govern accordingly: make it painfully clear that government (aka "Republican governance") is incompetent.
To have screwed the pooch as totally and completely and thoroughly as the Busheviks did couldn't have happened by accident.
... Their job was to render inocuous any and all means by which the people could petition for relief from the predations of capitalism, and they have succeeded past their wildest dreams...seems quite reasonable.
Monopoly is the name of the game in Mercantilism, not Capitalism.W: the gift that keeps on giving!
When there's no demand, how does cutting taxes create jobs?I also presented some arguments against Gov. Jindal's (and the Republicans') position.
"Personal consumption expenditures" (consumer spending) accounts for 70% of GDP.Admitting that tax cuts for lower income brackets are likely to be spent immediately - helping drive "personal consumption expenditures" - still: just how do tax cuts for upper brackets, on capital gains, and for businesses provide economic stimulus? - How do they contribute directly to "personal consumption expenditures"???
From Americablog. -[emphasis added]We knew good governance was never the goal. Now we know the goal is just pure politics... and destructive politics, at that!
GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key player in helping craft the Republican message, has offered an unusually blunt description of the Republican strategy right now.
McHenry’s description is buried in this new article from National Journal (sub. only):“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
A fog of know-nothing ideology, anti-intellectualism, cronyism, incompetence, and cynicism has, for eight years, enveloped the executive branch of the United States government.I wish I could write like that!
Recession on track to be longest in postwar period... you may find the following link helpful:
VEGETABLE GARDEN LAYOUTThis has been a public service announcement.
Jobless rate bolts to 8.1 pct., 651,000 jobs lostWhen do we start using the "D" word?
"I've a very limited memory for dance moves.I was cast in a non-dancing role.
You've now exhausted it!"
There is a name for a government that asserts unbridled executive power to arrest, detain, and spy on its citizens:I'm not alone!Police State!
George W. Bush’s Disposable ConstitutionI'll not claim psychic powers - Mr. Horton's article was published on the same day I posted my observation.
...
We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.
Police State!
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!In addition, I'll refer folks to Article II of the U.S. Constitution - it's very short. If you can find anything there supporting the Yoo/Bybee arguments regarding "Commander-in-Chief Powers", please let me know!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
[Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons; emphasis added]
Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.I'll note in passing that the President is the "commander in chief" of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
Lay tried to reassure the managers.Note: the citation, "METATHEATRE theory by David M. Boje, Ph.D.", looks like an interesting website - I hit it just to grab the quoted exchange.
"Well, we don't think we did anything wrong, but knowing what we do now, we would never do it again," Lay said, according to Robert J. Hermann, then Enron's general tax counsel.
Hermann had everything invested in Enron: his professional pride, his network of golfing buddies and his retirement savings, worth more than $ 10 million before Enron stock began to tumble.
Hermann raised his hand and said: "Ken, there is a big disconnect. How can you say we didn't do anything wrong, but would never do it again? Is 'what we know now' is that we got caught?"
[Document Title: Enron is Metatheatre by David M. Boje; emphasis added]
A very quick, back-of-the-envelope computation suggests that since the '70s, the largest percentage decline in DJIA has been just under 50% from previous peak.Today?
Using this as a guideline, the bottom would seem to be around 6000.
We're at 8500 today.
The 50% bottom is the WORST since 1970.
The range seems to be 25% to 50%. (Again, these are very hasty, eye-balled figures!!!)
If you bet on 40%, that'd represent about 7000.
30%? About 8000.
Wall Street tumbles anew as financials slideIf you believe we're in a meltdown like we've seldom seen, that 50%, 6000 number is looking not too bad.
By TIM PARADIS, AP Business
2 Mar 2009
NEW YORK – Investors' despair about financial companies and the recession has brought the Dow Jones industrial average to another unwanted milestone: its first drop below 7,000 in more than 11 years.
