If Music Could Talk

Unless I'm mistaken, that $700B doesn't count the $300B of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac buy out. Unreal. And yet all the fat cats will basically walk away from this just fine. None of them will be losing their homes or trading down their cars. In less cowed countries, men in suits would be strung up in trees.

Paul Krugman being interviewed by Bill Maher. Choice line: Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in a financial crisis.
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Interesting: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 68,00.html

dd_ wrote:Interesting: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 68,00.html

What a beautiful linguistic cockpunch to neanderthal Americans' egos. Bring back the Freedom Fries!

The always-great Glenn Greenwald reports on the growing Republican opposition to The Soviet America Bailout Plan®. Maybe this is the best way to do it- a strong popular Democratic executive and a militant Republican Congress. That way they fight each other so much the don't have time to screw us over too much. The Dems in Congress are Bush's lapdogs.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... 2/paulson/

Here's "Mr. Worst Case Scenario" himself on the present crisis: http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/ ... -kill.html

Read a piece—didn't note the url, sorry—about concern that all these banks, after being relieved of their debt thru the bailout, will buy it back at reduced rates in a few years once things settle down again (assuming that happens), thus turning a profit at both ends of the deal. That is so perverse and shameless that I can't imagine it not happening. But then my bias about modern finance colours my perceptions.

Dr. Medulla wrote:Read a piece—didn't note the url, sorry—about concern that all these banks, after being relieved of their debt thru the bailout, will buy it back at reduced rates in a few years once things settle down again (assuming that happens), thus turning a profit at both ends of the deal. That is so perverse and shameless that I can't imagine it not happening. But then my awareness of how modern finance works colours my perceptions.

Corrected.

Flex wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:Read a piece—didn't note the url, sorry—about concern that all these banks, after being relieved of their debt thru the bailout, will buy it back at reduced rates in a few years once things settle down again (assuming that happens), thus turning a profit at both ends of the deal. That is so perverse and shameless that I can't imagine it not happening. But then my awareness of how modern finance works colours my perceptions.

Corrected.

Corrected to sync our biases anyway. :D

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Hey Hooky, watching Colbert Report and Naomi Klein is on it promoting her book. A) I've been meaning to read the book, gotta do that one of these days. b) She's kinda hot.

Flex wrote:Hey Hooky, watching Colbert Report and Naomi Klein is on it promoting her book. A) I've been meaning to read the book, gotta do that one of these days. b) She's kinda hot.

I'm watching it right now—tape TDS and CR overnight, watch over breakfast. The book is very good—much better than I expected because I really didn't care for No Logo. I'm not yet persuaded to the mass psychology she suggests, but the disaster capitalism aspect seems spot on. She's one of those people whose attractiveness really is dependent on how they're shot. Sometimes she could crack glass, other times she's quite striking.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/evicti ... index.html

Lovely.

eumaas wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/evicti ... index.html

Lovely.

That's fucking ridiculously depressing. Sickeningly so.


Although, I'm kind of amazed the bank gave an 86 year old woman a 30 year mortgage...

I am 100% opposed to the 700 billion dollar bailout. I think it is time that individuals should NO LONGER be protected by the legal entity of "the corporation" when making detrimental mistakes. It is high time that executives should be held PERSONALLY accountable. I am even more sickened by the huge payouts these fuckers have been getting when let go from their company. If you do a shitty job, you do not deserve 20 - 40 million dollar severance packages! The average workers of these crap, large firms have to take the fall out both from customers (for decisions they did not make) and with the possibility of job loss. The public/tax payers have paid tremendously for this insipid greed. I think if I were an American now, I would be teetering on the edge of revolt.