What were they thinking?
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By Gegner
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February 8th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
History doesn’t necessarily ‘repeat’ but it sure as shit ‘echoes’. Which is to point out that tonight’s offering echoes last night’s post in a rather creepy fashion as the GOP invokes ‘the center’ (that they’ve laid claim to) as the basis for what is ultimately ‘minority rule’.
Sure they’ve bankrupted most of the nation, which only proves they are ‘unfit’ to rule! Why would the citizens of the US want to pay attention to losers that have been played for chumps at every turn because the ‘smart money’ has stacked both the legislative and the media decks?
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The Fictional 'Center'
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By Gegner
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February 7th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
What better day than Superbowl Sunday to have a, can’t really call it a discussion, I guess we’ll have to refrain from labeling this exercise…
Anyhoo, I’ve come across another article that raises the thorny issue of what politics has to do with economics (or, if you prefer, vice-versa.) A politician can’t force an employer (at least a specific one) to hire you or to pay you a living wage…(which casts the ‘minimum wage’ issue in a rather different light, doesn’t it?) So why are so many of us inclined to blame the president for a lousy economy?
Why are congressmen quick to stick a feather in their hat (take credit) for ‘bringing home the bacon’ (commonly referred to as ‘pork’ when the so-called bacon goes to another district…even if you got yours!)
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The Home Stretch
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By Gegner
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February 6th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Some things continue to amaze me and one of them is how some people can display such a firm grip on the problem only to reveal they are utterly clueless to the solution.
Sadly, tonight’s offering provides both as poignantly as imaginable. This piece is so spot on in identifying what is amiss with our so-called leadership and so clueless when it comes to the solution that it is a wonder his head doesn’t explode!
Um, when you get to the end of the piece you will be sure of one thing…one of us has a problem.
Without further adieu,
Welcome to tonight’s offering
Time Is Running Out
By BOB HERBERT
Published: February 5, 2010Palo Alto, Calif.
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Not now, not ever...
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By Gegner
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February 5th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
We were warned more than six months ago that 1.5 million people were in danger of exhausting their unemployment benefits by January.
Well guess what? January is here and what do you suppose the headline says? “Labor Market Shows Signs of Reawakening in New Data.”
How can they call this ‘new data’ if the information is more than six months old? Naturally, it is not the information that is ‘new’, it is the ‘spin’ that has changed…now dire news is being used to inspire more unfounded, baseless ‘happy talk’.
What you want to look at (because the figure is immune from the ‘selective banishment’ they use to dress up the unemployment numbers) is the labor force participation rate (see the graph at the bottom of the linked article.)
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Stray Animals...
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By Gegner
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February 4th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
The markets are off 200+ points and the trading day isn’t over yet. Word is this rout was caused by a ‘surprising’ under-performance in the job market. [Update: The market closed down 268 points! Um, you can ignore that exclamation point if you don’t care for it…]
Honestly good citizen, do you think even the liars who continue to insist the economy is recovering are actually ‘surprised’? Just because they pretend to be ignorant doesn’t make it so.
Of course, when one side of the ‘whip hand’ fails to deliver there is always the ‘fall back’ position.
As we see here in tonight’s offering [purloined from today’s Alternet]
Hightower: GOP Is the Party That Thinks Helping the Poor and Hungry Is Like Feeding 'Stray Animals'
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If it Quacks like a Duck
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By Gegner
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February 3rd, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
What do you suppose the consequences are for ‘bad information’? For the people dishing out the unreliable data, they lose credibility (first) but, if the bad information caused people to endanger themselves, the consequences could be quite extreme indeed.
Let’s suppose we take the middle ground and suppose the bad information only enabled the people who sign the information passer’s paychecks to make a fortune at everyone else’s expense…how dangerous would that be?
Not particularly, not at first anyway. Stock prices run ahead of an economic recovery and sometimes they even front run recovery’s that fail to materialize (sort of a ‘investors recovery’ if you know what I’m saying.) Now, who gets hurt by an innocent thing like that?
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Growth isn't Possible...
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By Gegner
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February 2nd, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Once again we are going to poke around in that dusty attic of yours to see what kind of nonsense has been deposited up there.
Anyone who has been paying attention knows the Fed/Government has been trying to ‘re-inflate’ the economy in an attempt to ‘re-start’ the engine. Sadly, what passed for the engine of our (the world’s) economy seized solid once the value of credit default swaps exceeded that of all the money there ever was. (Making it apparent that most of these securities weren’t worth the paper they were written on…)
Anyway, the point being is that the powers that be are working under the insane ‘assumption’ that if they can get the economy ‘growing’ again, everything will work itself out.
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Sky High!
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By Gegner
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February 1st, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Fearless Leader has once again come under attack by members of the ‘Party of Ideas’. No one knows why ‘Ideas’ is pluralized (because they only have one idea; that tax cuts can solve everything and anything.) Which leads us to a particularly disturbing conclusion…how the hell can you support the most advanced military on the planet if you are unwilling to pay for it?
It’s hard to find somebody more ‘patriotic’ than your flag-waving conservative, but somehow their loud and proud refusal to contribute to the defense of our nation doesn’t subtract from their patriotic fervor, or zeal for that matter.
Here we ride the ‘knife’s edge’ of the conundrum, how can conservatives be considered Right Wing, ‘Strong on Defense’, Hawks while refusing to fund the very flag they use to wrap themselves in?
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Wind Power
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By Gegner
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January 31st, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
There is nothing more infuriating than observing the kabuki dance of international ‘uncompetitiveness’ as it is played out against the backdrop of currency manipulation. In some respects, the chutzpah of the MSM to even run an article like this one takes the breath away.
Worse are the false claims of politicians that ‘alternative energy’ is the engine capable of returning our empire to greatness. (The fallacy here lies with the word ‘our’.) Investors in Chinese alternative energy will most certainly wax very wealthy indeed. Great for them, sucks for US. (Double-entendre intentional.)
I’ll jump on my ‘socialist’ high horse for a moment to condemn the irrational practice of placing private investment ahead of the public good. The ‘lowest bidder’ only benefits those who can play, everybody else gets the shaft!
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Friends & Family
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By Gegner
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January 30th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
In an interesting (and seldom reported) phenomenon, markets around the globe lost ground this week, making the already rich less well off than they previously were. Not that this ruins their day, the difference between them and you is literally millions of shares.
You may own a handful of this and a block of that in your IRA/401k and perhaps your maiden Aunt Tillie left you 100,000 shares of Acme Amalgamated when she passed away. (Sadly, the last time you checked, Acme was trading at less than ten cents a share…better than a sharp stick in the eye but your bed most certainly isn’t made.)
However, this brings us closer than usual to the topic of tonight’s offering , financial assistance - home style.
Jobless Turn to Family for Help
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: January 29, 2010Bookmark/Search this post with:
China: a line in the sand
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By loosecannon
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January 30th, 2010
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we all knew this was coming.
A showdown between the rising super power The People's Republic of China and the US. Tho many of us still think that because they buy our debt they are not really our enemies. Think again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012904113.html
U.S. sells weapons to Taiwan, angering China
That is damned near an act of war.
The Obama administration announced the sale Friday of $6 billion worth of Patriot anti-missile systems, helicopters, mine-sweeping ships and communications equipment to Taiwan in a long-expected move that sparked an angry protest from China.
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That's Incredible!
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By Gegner
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January 29th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Most of you know what’s on tap for tonight… What fresh Orwellian hell is this?
Earlier this week I cautioned you to read the offering with that catchy little tune that pops into our heads with most MSM reports, “Listen to the bull shit fly,” apparently they can’t get enough of it, or they really do think you’re so stupid that you’ll swallow anything!
Anyway, the markets have closed for the week and it appears that it was Europe’s turn to be ‘out of synch’ with the rest of the world. After spending most of the day in positive territory, US markets ended in negative territory. Which only adds to the ‘conundrum’ of such an, er, ‘optimistic’ GDP report.
U.S. Economy Grew at Fastest Pace in 6 Years Last Quarter
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
Published: January 29, 2010Bookmark/Search this post with:
Less than expected
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By Gegner
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January 28th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Much is being made of the weak jobs market as this morning’s report of ‘higher than expected’ new claims for unemployment sent the stock market 140 points into negative territory. (Not that the markets closed there but they did indeed dip that low during afternoon trading.)
I sort of ‘went off’ yesterday on the topic of things working in a loop-like fashion, how if people aren’t paid they can’t pay and so on down the line. Well, where do you suppose that conga line starts?
How about here, where the jobs AREN’T… have a gander at this news item if you’re still wondering why the labor markets are flat…
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A certain lack of focus...
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By Gegner
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January 27th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
We’re roughly halfway through the trading day and markets worldwide are bleeding to death…except the intrepid Nasdaq, which is up 2 points at the moment…whoop-de-ding-dong-dang!
[Update: We’ve had another ‘God Bless America’ close, where the markets turned positive an hour before the close, while the rest of the world sank like a rock.]
Removing our focus from this very moment and looking forward to a time when our ‘economic barometer’ is much simpler to read/make sense of (did you eat today…do you have something to eat tomorrow?) Before there was as stock market, this was precisely how ‘social satisfaction’ was measured.
Full Stop! Throw that bad boy in reverse, partner! We have a considerable ways to go before things become that ‘simple’ again (although we’re edging closer with each passing minute.)
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False Alarm
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By Gegner
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January 26th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Like most MSM articles tonight’s offering should be consumed with that familiar little ditty, ‘Listen to the bull shit fly!’ Running through your head.
The original article has scrolled off the list so you’ll just have to take my (less than credible) word for it that consumer confidence is up…because they say it is! That’s all the ‘proof’ you’re given.
Just read the following article and note that the most prevalent sentiment expressed is ‘worried’…um, I dunno about you but the last time I checked ‘worried’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘confident’.
But don’t let this little ‘definition problem’ concern you, good citizen, Wall Street proceeded to use this (mis-information) as an opportunity to make the already rich, richer! (Although the markets haven’t closed yet so I may have to amend this later.)
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Predator Problems
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By Gegner
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January 25th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
It’s that day of the week again, that time when those who have someplace to call ‘home’ report there to do what they are paid to do.
How ‘blessed’ is Wall Street? On a day when every other market around the world is bleeding from the eye-sockets, Wall Street snapped a 3-day losing streak, narrowly, but they managed it. Although there isn’t a good reason why…but when you’re ‘plugged in’ to the nation’s treasury, you can pretty much engineer any outcome you want.
Which brings me to another topic I have yet to mention as I waited to see there would be any, er, ‘reaction’ to the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold ‘personhood’ for a legal construct... If ‘real people’ are pissed, they are keeping it to themselves…or the media isn’t reporting it, which is the same difference…
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Bark at the Moon...
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By Gegner
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January 24th, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
A mad weekend on top of a madcap week! The markets are repeating last year’s ‘swan dive’, this time wiping out trillions of dollars of taxpayer bailout funds…so what did Mr. Bernanke ‘save’, exactly?
I guess it depends on your political leaning as to whether you interpret Frank Rich’s Open letter to the President as a guide to alter the course of this administration or a trip to the political woodshed…
Me, I think it’s too late to ‘save’ anything, the quicker we accept that life as we have come to know it is gone for good, the quicker we can adjust to the, er, ‘new normal’.
Left to our imagination is just whose ‘version’ of ‘the new normal’ will be inflicted upon us?
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Run Government like a Business!
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By loosecannon
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January 23rd, 2010
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Those words have new meaning since the SC granted corporations the right to finance election campaigns with unlimited donations. Thus putting a price tag on our democracy.
The predictable result will be government of the people, by the corporations, for the corporations.
The big winners will be media who will be able to raise the prices for advertising during closing weeks of campaigns to whatever the market will bear. So don't expect an overload of media anger over this decision!
Our new rulers will naturally be Wall Street who already spends 10 times as much money on annual bonuses as our presidential election campaigns cost.
Fortunately for all of us with Wall Street owning our government they will be free to manage our government with the same skill with which they managed the economy!
Discuss!
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Is this the End?
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By loosecannon
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January 23rd, 2010
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Of liberalism? Of the Dem lease on the Capitol? Of our Democracy?
I can't answer those questions, I can only assert that they may in fact be real and pertinent, all of a sudden.
Between the victory of Brown and the loss of Kennedy's Senate seat, and the SC's most recent decision to elevate corporate rights and reverse a century of campaign finance regulation the political universe has suffered a pole shift.
And we have no idea where the new poles will align themselves.
So.... while the future is still unknowable it does indeed look like Obama and the democratic "leadership" in DC may have inadvertently driven a spike through the heart of their own ideology. And the Supreme Court may have driven a spike through the heart of the republic.
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Going Down...
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By Gegner
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January 22nd, 2010
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Greetings good citizen,
Wall Street (along with the rest of the world) bled red ink again today with another 200+ point downward move.
Um, in case you are unaware, this time the markets are bleeding taxpayer money, money that Wall Street ‘borrowed’ from the Fed at zero percent interest…the real killer here is what will happen if Wall Street decides it isn’t going to pay the money back?
We’re not talking TARP funds here, these are ‘regular funds’ that all, er, ‘commercial banks’ have access to via the Fed ‘discount window’.
Of course you remember that all (of the surviving) Investment banks were permitted to alter their charters to become commercial banks…well, paying back the TARP didn’t ‘revoke’ their Fed access.
If it did you’d expect investors to be a bit more careful of financial institutions that no longer enjoyed Fed backing, circumstances being what they are…
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