Saturday, December 17, 2011
And Then Maybe Painted By M.C. Escher
I remain cautiously optimistic that the ACA will offer a modest improvement in our fucked up health care system, but any attempt to explain how it's actually going to "work" makes clear that it's a Rube Goldberg machine fashioned out of Rube Goldberg machines.
And The Next Generation?
If the boomers have it bad, what about the next crop?
Not playing generational warfare here, just...things haven't gotten better. Some of those people at least remember what a defined benefit pension is. Need some, dare I say it, change.
Not playing generational warfare here, just...things haven't gotten better. Some of those people at least remember what a defined benefit pension is. Need some, dare I say it, change.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit
Nothing new here, just the usual. Every "serious" solution to our problems involves shoving free money down the gullets of the people who caused all the problems. We screech about family values and our awesome values as numerous kids live in poverty. And, no, having a teevee doesn't make them not poor.
Trends have been bad in this country for thirty years, arrested briefly by the internet bubble (which had some genuine boom aspects to it) and then the housing bubble. We shouldn't need a bubble for a bit of the additional income generated to trickle down to people who don't own private jets.
Trends have been bad in this country for thirty years, arrested briefly by the internet bubble (which had some genuine boom aspects to it) and then the housing bubble. We shouldn't need a bubble for a bit of the additional income generated to trickle down to people who don't own private jets.
Theoretically
So, theoretically (yes, not currently legally, but theoretically), the ECB could lend money to member states for cheap and we wouldn't be worried that high interest rates would increase the likelihood of default. Because they would be getting cheap money at rates set by the bank. That wouldn't be any fun, and more importantly it wouldn't involve handing over giant amounts of free money to the banksters, so what would be more fun is lending money for free to the rich banks and lettting them pocket the massive risk premium by lending the money to the countries at high rates. Of course the massive risk premium is there because... well, who knows, because we've all agreed not to let them default.
As usual, everything's coming up bankster. Poor people and middle class people will suffer with more austerity, while the banksters get subsidized profits. Huzzah!
That's because the European Central Bank may have already introduced roundabout measures that will solve some of Europe's big problems—it's making investing in peripheral sovereign debt a huge profit opportunity for banks.
Theoretically, financial institutions will be able coin money by borrowing ultra-cheap from the ECB and buying higher yielding sovereign debt.
As usual, everything's coming up bankster. Poor people and middle class people will suffer with more austerity, while the banksters get subsidized profits. Huzzah!
Maybe With Magic
The other guys suck but we won't really do anything different isn't really a compelling election narrative.
Mr Miliband has warned his party that its goal of social justice will have to be achieved by other means, that there will be no return to the "Blair-Brown era" of ever-higher public spending. Miliband allies dismiss the latest Labour grumbling, saying that in the long run one good joke by Mr Cameron will matter a lot less than the Prime Minister's flawed judgment on the economy and Europe.A very familiar one, however.
Precisely
The powers that be are bleeding the patient and then asking for another blood donation.
"We have an atomic bomb that we can use in the face of the Germans and the French: this atomic bomb is simply that we won't pay," said Pedro Nuno Santos, vice-president of the Socialist Party in the parliament.
"Debt is our only weapon and we must use it to impose better conditions, because recession itself is what is stopping us complying with the (EU-IMF Troika) accord. We should make the legs of the German bankers tremble," he said.
They Just Stole The Money
I'm sure nobody important will be held responsible.
And it seems we'll be running with the "I was told it was legal so it's not my fault" defense.
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- MF Global Holdings Ltd. used about $700 million of customer funds to “meet liquidity issues” in the days prior to its bankruptcy, according to CME Group Inc., which had auditing authority over the failed futures broker.
CME Group detailed its dealings with MF Global in documents released yesterday by the oversight panel of the House Financial Services Committee. Christine Serwinski, chief financial officer for North America at MF Global, and Edith O’Brien, a treasurer, told Mike Procajlo, an exchange auditor, at around 1 a.m. on Oct. 31 in Serwinski’s Chicago office that the customer money was transferred on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28 and possibly Oct. 26, according to a CME Group timeline.
And it seems we'll be running with the "I was told it was legal so it's not my fault" defense.
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., told lawmakers today that the firm’s back-office staff “explicitly” informed him that funds transfers made before the company filed for bankruptcy were legal.
By Who?
Ireland was only held up as a role model by stupid people and plutocrats. The unemployment rate is 14.5%!!!
DUBLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Ireland's economy contracted by 1.9 percent in the third quarter, far worse than expected, as global economic turmoil dented export growth, raising the stakes for its fiscal and debt targets under an EU-IMF bailout.
...
Held up as a role model for other indebted euro zone nations, deteriorating prospects for Irish growth threaten to undermine its efforts to become the first country to emerge from an EU-IMF bailout in 2013.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
That Would Have Solved Everything!
I'm so old I remember when it was a fun pundit parlor game to imagine What If Serious New President Obama were to "think outside the box" and give Mitt Romney a cabinet gig.
Poor Black People Get All The Good Stuff
The Daily Show deftly shows how Newt segues effortlessly from poor people to lazy black poor people.
Obviously one effect of equating poor people with black people is to promote stereotypes, but the other thing it does is suggest to poor white people (they exist!) that all the government focus is on strapping young bucks who get the free Cadillacs.
Obviously one effect of equating poor people with black people is to promote stereotypes, but the other thing it does is suggest to poor white people (they exist!) that all the government focus is on strapping young bucks who get the free Cadillacs.
Urban Sports Bar Theme Park
"Something" is better than "nothing" near the stadiums, but it's hard to see how this type of thing will really attract any significant business when there aren't games on. With four (main) sports that's not a trivial number of game days, but...
Make The Pie Higher
We're basically in an extraction economy right now, where the real money is in finding points to siphon off all of the income that people generate. Unregulated utility monopolies, rapacious health insurance companies and the medical industry generally, and of course Big Finance, are all devoted to increasing the slice of your life that they can steal from you, fair and square.
We have a hell of a lot of poor people in a country where it's really hard and really expensive to be poor, and getting harder and more expensive every day.
We have a hell of a lot of poor people in a country where it's really hard and really expensive to be poor, and getting harder and more expensive every day.
The Greatest Country In The World
Our Galtian Overlords are going to have to come to terms with our reality.
WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.
Baby Steps
I imagine there will be a few more shit sandwiches to eat before the end of the year, but here's something.
The Obama administration will propose new regulations on Thursday to give the nation’s roughly two million home-care workers minimum wage and overtime protections after those workers had long been exempted from coverage, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At Least The War Is Over
Sort of, anyway.
After all these years I still have no idea what it was all about.
Even at the time conservatives would occasionally admit that the WMD rationale was horseshit. It was as if each had their own individual Great Game reason for it. There were as many reasons for the Iraq war as there were supporters of it.
I suppose, ultimately, it came down to blowing up brown people and pissing off liberals. So it was quite a success, really.
After all these years I still have no idea what it was all about.
Even at the time conservatives would occasionally admit that the WMD rationale was horseshit. It was as if each had their own individual Great Game reason for it. There were as many reasons for the Iraq war as there were supporters of it.
I suppose, ultimately, it came down to blowing up brown people and pissing off liberals. So it was quite a success, really.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tom Friedman's War
They all sucked on it.
But the accounts are just as striking for what they reveal about the extraordinary strains on the soldiers who were assigned here, their frustrations and their frequently painful encounters with a population they did not understand. In their own words, the report documents the dehumanizing nature of this war, where Marines came to view 20 dead civilians as not “remarkable,” but as routine.
Iraqi civilians were being killed all the time. Maj. Gen. Steve Johnson, the commander of American forces in Anbar Province, in his own testimony, described it as “a cost of doing business.”
Waiting For The Revelation
Did MF Global steal money from their customers legally or illegally?
I'm almost hoping the answer is "legally." Would get it all out into the open.
I'm almost hoping the answer is "legally." Would get it all out into the open.
Simple Ideas
I became a smarter person when I understood that "good advice" about how to avoid campus date rape (and all rape) was, whatever its intention, ultimately victim blaming and social control of women through another means. The bits which aren't common sense amount to "don't ever be alone with a man, and if you ever are you're doing something wrong."
Republican Wonks
Such creatures exist, but it's important to realize that their purpose, aside from the usual taxcutsandkillwelfarestatebutfreemoneyforrichpeople agenda, isn't to come up with conservative means to achieve somewhat liberal ends, their purpose is to derail any attempt to achieve liberal ends. They don't want their crappy health care plan to pass, it just exists so they can propose a "serious" alternative and then regretfully torpedo the more liberal alternative.
Obama passed their plan, and they responded by deciding he was worse than Hitler.
Obama passed their plan, and they responded by deciding he was worse than Hitler.
Those Highways Don't Carry As Many People As You Think They Do
You see a lot of apples-to-bushels-of-apples comparisons with mass transit and roads. Often the ridership of a single line is compared to the ridership of the entire local road network. You know, "this will only be used by 1% of the population!" kinds of statements. Shiny new highways are seen as benefiting everyone locally, even if daily ridership isn't actually that high.
Might Not Be Such A Bad Idea
I still lean towards keeping the state liquor system, though improving it, but preserving their monopoly on actual liquor while letting other retailers sell wine might not be such a bad path. It would probably be the first step in killing the system, but at least it would wither much more slowly.
Dream A Little Dream
What's truly bizarre right now is that we're simultaneously the richest most awesomest country in the history of the universe yet at the same time we can't afford to fix any potholes. We really need a bit of "mars, bitches!" attitude from our leaders. You know, we can do this.
Cuts
Just to make a rather obvious point, government spending cuts aren't just about cutting the Free Cadillacs For Strapping Young Bucks programs that all nations have, but are about, you know, cutting jobs.
I don't know why people think cutting jobs in a recession is a good idea, but they do!
I don't know why people think cutting jobs in a recession is a good idea, but they do!
Who's In Charge
Numerous citizens being wrongfully held for extended periods of time because their citizenship claims weren't believed should be a tremendous scandal.
The Obvious Solution Is
You know.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate was 8.3%, up from 7.9% in the previous quarter.
Youth unemployment rose to 1.027 million, the highest since records began in 1992, beating the previous record set only last month.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
I've Been An Illegal
At least, I think I was. Actually I suppose I was legally a resident, but was illegally an employee. I was never quite sure. Anyway the point is... it's easy to overstay a visa. It's easy to do your best to comply with immigration laws and have the bureaucracy fail you. That anyone who is relatively well-traveled would not understand that calling someone 'illegal' was both a pejorative and demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues... well, I guess it's our current reality.
Sgt. Schulz Runs The World
Apparently the indispensable Masters of the Universe who are paid zillions for their brilliance and competence managed to lose $1.2 billion.
And they're still walking freely with every newspaper article about them printing some version of "They have not been accused of any wrongdoing."
um
And they're still walking freely with every newspaper article about them printing some version of "They have not been accused of any wrongdoing."
um
Too Cheap
At those prices I'm not surprised. Even the expensive (and it's expensive because it's in places with high demand) on street parking is probably cheap relative to lot/garage alternatives. If you want to price it high enough that there are always spaces available, you're going to have to raise the price even more.
Save Community
I know some people haven't seen a good TV show since 1957, but Community is pretty damn good.
Not Actually Declining
This isn't about anything specific, but in stories about urban American there's generally an underlying narrative about urban America that its problems are the problem of decline. And of course that's true of plenty of cities (and small cities and towns and rural areas), but it isn't universally true. It's true that most inner cities face the familiar decades-old problems, as the effects of decades of decline haven't been magically fixed overnight, but the 'fixes' for these problems are a bit different in a place with a potential for growth (population, economic) than in places without that potential.
License To Steal
My first thought when I heard about the natural gas discoveries in PA was, "uh oh, we're fucked."
In what is shaping up as a key victory for the shale-gas industry, Gov. Corbett and the legislature appear close to stripping municipalities of the power to impose tough local restrictions on wells and pipelines. Under a pending measure, wells and pipelines would be permitted in every zoning district - even residential ones - statewide.
And the industry isn't stopping there.
Two pipeline companies are seeking the clout of eminent domain. While the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has yet to rule, it signaled this year that it was leaning toward giving firms condemnation power to gain rights-of-way for their pipelines.
Suck. On. It.
The way the carcass of MF Global, led by Louis Freeh, is going to deal with the people it stole from should be a warning to everyone. Your money is not safe with these firms.
So they stole a bunch of money, but another pot of money can't possibly be customer money, so suck on it customers.
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s $25.3 million in cash held at JPMorgan Chase & Co. is presumed to be its own, the bankrupt company’s Chapter 11 trustee said in response to customer objections to its bid to use the money.
MF Global Holdings should be allowed to use the cash collateral of JPMorgan, trustee Louis J. Freeh said in papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Customers of the company’s failed brokerage, MF Global Inc., had asserted that the money may have been part of the $1.2 billion believed to be missing from their segregated accounts.
“The customers have failed to provide this court with any actual evidence in support of their position,” Freeh said in court papers. MF Global Holdings owns the New York-based bank account with JPMorgan, and under New York law, it is presumed that funds deposited in an account belong to the account holder, the trustee said.
So they stole a bunch of money, but another pot of money can't possibly be customer money, so suck on it customers.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Can Somebody Hand Me The Keys To A Professional Sports Team?
I know nothing about running a big business, but I'm pretty sure I could (especially) run a major market team without major financial troubles. Also, too, minor market.
THINK OF THE POOR DOWNTRODDEN RICH
Oh Lord, who commissioned this one.
WASHINGTON—Hold the condolence cards, but the recession cost the rich.
The share of income received by the top 1 percent—that potent symbol of inequality — dropped to 17 percent in 2009 from 23 percent in 2007, according to federal tax data. Within the group, average income fell by about a third, to $957,000 in 2009 from $1.4 million in 2007.
Analysts say the drop largely reflects the stock market plunge, and most think top incomes recovered somewhat in 2010, as Wall Street rebounded and corporate profits grew. Still, the drop alters a figure often emphasized by inequality critics, and it has gone largely unnoticed outside the blogosphere.
I Dream Of A Bieberless Future
The amazing thing, actually, is that thus far Congress hasn't been too bad on intertube legislation, at least in terms of content-related issues. That could change.
And, no, the existing big firms won't be shut down. It'll be a tool to shut down startups and troublemakers.
And, no, the existing big firms won't be shut down. It'll be a tool to shut down startups and troublemakers.
Afternoon Thread
I guess I should be honest with the troops. Christmas is likely to happen again this year. Once again we will have failed to carry out the wishes of the dark lord, Soros.
Rest and regroup for next year's War On Christmas! Fox usually announces its beginning in June or so.
Rest and regroup for next year's War On Christmas! Fox usually announces its beginning in June or so.
The Game
I have a bunch of loans that are shit. You have a bunch of loans that are shit. They're stinking things up. Here's the cunning plan. You can insure my loans. I can insure your loans. Suddenly the risk is gone! Except it isn't, because you can't possibly afford to pay off on your insurance policies, and I certainly can't either, especially as the event that would trigger the insurance claims would mean that we're all destitute anyway. Such a system our Galtian Overlords have created!
Hey, at least this one gave out a big tip.
Still an asshole though:
Dozens of banks across Europe have sold large quantities of insurance to other banks and investors that protects against the risk of ailing countries defaulting on their debts, the latest illustration of the extensive financial entanglements among the continent's banks and governments.
Hey, at least this one gave out a big tip.
The City worker, who has not been named, is said to have bought a £1,860 bottle of vodka for all 24 tables at Rose in Marylebone.
The man, who was joined by nine friends at his table, also left a £10,000 tip on top of the £7,966 service charge on his bill for £71,000.60. The tip will be split between eight waitresses.
Still an asshole though:
"When the Ciroc Vodka came out, he began throwing £50 notes around. Dozens of girls began scrambling to pick them up off the floor."
So I'd Recommend Putting Your Money In Your Mattress
Certainly don't let the big boys play with it. There's been some question floating around about how MF Global might have stolen their clients' money legally.
If I understand this correctly, while they're supposed to keep customer money segregated, they can offer part of it up as collateral for other bets. If the bets go bad, the client is out of luck and there's nothing they can do about it. So, uh, not so segregated after all.
License to steal. Or, more, specifically, a license to gamble with your money without your permission, and they keep the winnings while you eat the losses.
Fuck yeah!
If I understand this correctly, while they're supposed to keep customer money segregated, they can offer part of it up as collateral for other bets. If the bets go bad, the client is out of luck and there's nothing they can do about it. So, uh, not so segregated after all.
License to steal. Or, more, specifically, a license to gamble with your money without your permission, and they keep the winnings while you eat the losses.
Fuck yeah!
Where The Car Can't Be King
Not every place in the country is going to be like Manhattan, and certainly not everybody wants to live in Manhattan, but it really is the case that New York City can't be New York City without a massive reasonably well-running subway system, along with all of the other elements of the transit system. There isn't room for all the cars. It's fine if a New Yorker like Cuomo never uses it and isn't personally into transit, but he should get that the city can't function in anything resembling its current form without it. Stop taking the money.
And Over There
Maybe one day I'll get over the fact that all of the Very Serious People thought doing this was a wonderful idea, and very few have any of it weighing on their consciences or have suffered any career harm because of it.
We'll never really acknowledge the hell we unleashed.
As many as 2 million Iraqis — nearly 6 percent of the country's estimated more than 31 million population — are thought to have been forced from the cities and towns where they once lived and are housed in circumstances that feel temporary and makeshift.
More than 500,000 of those are "squatters in slum areas with no assistance or legal right to the properties they occupy," according to Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group. Most can't go home: Either their homes have been destroyed or hostile ethnic and sectarian groups now control their neighborhoods.
We'll never really acknowledge the hell we unleashed.
Actually A Serious Question
I'm reasonably sure that if I steal a bunch of money from a bank, and then given the money to someone else, once that person is informed that they've been given stolen money they're legally required to return it.
"A Romance With Risk"
If you're a rich guy addicted to gambling with other people's money it's romantic.
So will JP Morgan be allowed to keep stolen cash?
hahahaha
His obsession with trading was apparent to MF Global insiders over his 19-month tenure. Mr. Corzine compulsively traded for the firm on his BlackBerry during meetings, sometimes dashing out to check on the markets. And unusually for a chief executive, he became a core member of the group that traded using the firm’s money. His profits and losses appeared on a separate line in documents with his initials: JSC.
So will JP Morgan be allowed to keep stolen cash?
hahahaha
Perpetual Panic
I'm old enough to remember a time when the world, or at least the members of the world who bother their beautiful minds with this stuff, didn't wake up each day wondering if the financial system was going to completely collapse.
This has been going on for a few years now. Maybe something's wrong with the structure of the system?
This has been going on for a few years now. Maybe something's wrong with the structure of the system?
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Our media, not theirs
We'll have Culture of Truth and Dahlia Lithwick on Virtually Speaking on the hour. You can listen live or later here.
Signed,
Not Atrios
Signed,
Not Atrios
The Great Shirk
If we've gained one thing from the recent economic troubles, it's that more economists have finally come to understand that when the right wing economists asserted that there wasn't really any such thing as unemployment, just people choosing not to work, they actually meant it.
Assholes
I'm no fan of various aspects of the current state of air travel, but how much of a pampered asshole do you have to be to not understand that there are a few places where you just aren't allowed to be such assholes.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has Michele Bachmann and Steve King.
This Week has Huntsman.
Meet the Press has Ron Paul, Lindsey Graham, Gov. Branstad, and Dick Durbin.
Another week of the Republican reality show.
This Week has Huntsman.
Meet the Press has Ron Paul, Lindsey Graham, Gov. Branstad, and Dick Durbin.
Another week of the Republican reality show.
WON'T ANYBODY THINK OF THE POOR TRADERS?
And, yes, I know not all of these people are extremely rich but still...
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