Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktOne more piece of the picture of the Obama Administration as routinely practicing all the forms of impropriety and graft of which Democrats used to accuse the Bush/Cheney Administration is this story about the WH pressuring an Air Force General to change his testimony to be more favorable to a large Democratic Party donor’s business interests.
Speaking of Ponzi schemes. [While this blog is still private, I’ll note that I was born and raised not far from there and know this community pretty well. This comes as no shock to me.–QB]
Speaking of Michael J. Fox (which we were, earlier today), do you folks know that Nike has made a limited run the Nike Mag shoes from 2015 that Marty McFly wore in Back to the Future II?
They are being auctioned off for a good cause. If you have $2000 or so to spare for a pair of shoes, you should buy some.
[What? It’s the end of the day.–KW]
[Answer: Dip into HTML mode and type <hr>. Then come on back.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
All Things in Moderation 
In case you missed it we have contributions from three people tonight. First up qb, then Kevin and last but not least michigoose. And I'm not sure I really understand how to put that line in there but I'll try to figure it out.Have at it everyone. Last night's open thread was pretty darn good and then I deleted most of my comments, lol. Hope you're working on a post for the weekend…………….I am, and it should be at least as provocative as qb's.
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Good evening, lms!I doubt I'll be writing a post this weekend (I'm closing on Monday on the house and will be working like crazy to get stuff moved over to the new place), but I'll try to drop in and out. Seems that most of the folks are over at the PL right now, but I'm packing and reading at the same time (pack a box, check the blog. . . lather, rinse, repeat!)This was a most excellent idea!
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Lms, I missed an update if you wrote one, how's the aforementioned appendix?
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Taroya (from earlier):I am totally in love with the idea of having fewer kids. Like, can you limit to just one, for a generation or two? Please?Not a good idea, for lots of reasons. But one should suffice…Social Security.
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Hi, Troll! How's it going?
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Troll, the title is mine. I just put that up this morning as a draft and the three of them filled in the blanks. I guess I'll have to check the plumline to see what everyone's talking about. Then I'm going to read all the comments I missed here today. I was really interested in the stuff on China and us, crony capitalism, free trade, fair free trade, etc. I worked against NAFTA all those years ago so I'm curious about what if anything we can do differently.michi, pace yourself.
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shrink (from other):Why does Geithner feel like he can lecture the Euros,Uh, perhaps because of this.
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I gotta admit that Noah must've mentioned my 'Cuda just for the page views since he didn't even bother to make up any connection between her and some company. Not even FOX News for goodness sake. It's like he's just phoning it in.
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lms:I worked against NAFTA all those years agoNow why would you go and do that?
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McWing, it ended up being a ruptured ovarian cyst with complications so they're keeping her overnight at least to start a big round of antibiotics. She'll be fine though and I have a cousin and a close friend checking on her in addition to her roommates. She was more worried about the date she was going to miss tomorrow night with a land management guy she met when they towed their raft down the Green River, lol.
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McWing…did you see the Palin/Glenn Rice thing?
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I'm posting to see if i actually can make my standard avatar show up, as it is otherwise hard to keep track of where my posts end up.
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Lms, I was referring to your daughters appendix. :-)Hey Michigoose, congrats on the house.Scott, did you read the link in the link dump about the WH Econ team? I'm guessing Orzag and Romer (along with a bunch of other women) were his sources. I'd actually like to read that one.
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Scott, no I didn't. Where is it at?BTW, I tried to do italics earlier and couldn't. What's the HTML for that?
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Thanks, Troll! Sold in six weeks at full price–amazing realtor!!Italics = <"i"> and close with <"/i"> without the quotes (if this posts OK).
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McWing:Joe McGuiness (the guy who moved in next door to Palin while trying to dig up dirt for his book) is apparently writing that Palin did Glenn Rice way back when she was a sports reporter out of college.
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Mich:Hi, Troll! How's it going?What am I, chopped liver?
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Thanks, Michi! Or should I say Thanks, Michi! Scott, I saw that. He said she was fixated on him but is still an inveterate racist. But he wasn't stalking her.I also think you'll see a softening of the media treatment of her is Perry maintains his lead or increases it over Romney. They and the Establishment R's really do not want to risk a Perry Presidency and figure that the 'Cuda, if she got in, would split the Conservative vote and Romney could slide by.
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McWing, I know I thought you were asking two different questions, one about the open thread and one about my daughter. Sorry, answered both though.Scott, at the time we were worried about environmental issues, minimum wage/safety net guarantees and the agricultural business in Mexico. Not to mention moving jobs south which took awhile but did materialize in the end. As a Californian I was interested in raising the living standards in Mexico and didn't believe NAFTA would actually accomplish that goal.
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Anyone else see Taibbi's piece on the so-called rogue UBS traders.There is a movement in the UK for a thing called “ringfencing” that would separate investment bankers from commercial bankers. Some people think this UBS incident will aid that movement, even though UBS can apparently absorb the loss without necessitating a bailout or endangering client accounts.The U.S. missed its own chance for ringfencing when a proposal for a full repeal of Gramm-Leach-Bliley was routed during the Dodd-Frank negotiations.That means we’re probably stuck here in the states with companies like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, giant commercial banks in charge of stewarding trillions in client bank accounts and consumer credit accounts who also behave like turbocharged gamblers via their investment banking arms.Sooner or later, this is going to blow up in our faces, and it won't be one lower-level guy with a $2 billion loss we'll be swallowing. It'll be the CEO of another rogue firm like Lehman Brothers, and it'll cost us trillions, not billions.http://tinyurl.com/6f3jdgjMy first ever tinyurl………..hope it works
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Hullo, Scott!I humbly beg your pardon–I think if the timestamps on the posts showed second rather than just minutes it'd show that we posted practically simultaneously. I didn't even see your post until after I refreshed it a few minutes later.I'd never consider you chopped liver, but, rather, a fine pate. 🙂
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Had a busy day mostly away from the nets. Nice to see some good new additions in MsJS and ABC. Hope we can get sbj, sold, and jnc4p on board. I did some commenting "over there" but have not seen any of them in a few days. Tao9 must come.We didn't end up with a lot of day-end content today, but I still like the idea of putting the Bits draft out early so people can drop items in for the end of the day. It should produce an interesting collection.Should we initial our sign our items on Bits? I don't know how to do the line, either. As I noted on the admin thread, my edit box obscures all but the top edges of the buttons.
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"There is a movement in the UK for a thing called “ringfencing” that would separate investment bankers from commercial bankers."That was the main element of Glass-Steagall. It's absence did not appear to have much to do with causing 08.
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Hi, qb!I agree with your thought on the Bits draft; I also liked the Joke of the Day to start the day off (thanks, Scott) as we all get out and rolling.BTW, do you (Scott or Troll)(or anyone, for that matter) believe/care about the Palin/Rice thing? I'm having a hard time conjuring up more than a "meh".
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qb, I think once everyone gets the hang of going in and creating and editing posts the bits & pieces thread at the end of the day could get interesting. Yeah, we need to have attribution I think and I could tell who they were from but not sure if everyone saw it. I was busy most of the day also and am still playing catch up. By the time I'm done everyone east of me will be sound asleep.Also, I'm relying on all of you to keep subtly attracting commenters from plumline. I'm still not ready to show my face there.
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QB, I forgot completely about sbj! He is fantastic and a indefatigable daytime poster. I still laugh whenever Ethan or Liam give him a nasty welcome and he responds with a "Hi Liam!". Every. Time.And Lms, let me propose that any sort of regulation that might have been implemented would have had little or no effect if those institutions still felt/feel that a bailout would be/is inevitable.
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Michi, I wrote a response to Scott's same question above. Less than meh. How could she have been interested in Rice while being an inveterate TeaBagging racist? But McGinnis WAS NOT stalking her for a hit piece so he at least still has his credibility.
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qbThat was the main element of Glass-Steagall. It's absence did not appear to have much to do with causing 08. You're kidding right? Wasn't one of the main problems as far as the mortgage industry that underwriters and loan officers were working (conspiring) together rather than competing against each other. The culture of risk and risk aversion under one roof, not a great scenario.
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Hi, Michi! I have to go look up the Rice/Palin thing. I keep seeing references to it but have been too busy to read a lot. It's on my mental note list. I gather it is alleged they hooked up. Sounds a little far fetched, but I have no clue.I heard something else that caught my interest. Driving home, I was getting my angry on by listening to Mark Levin, and he was talking about various D Senators who are opposed to various parts of the (theoretical) American Jobs Act as proposed by PO (hey, I like that) and suggesting that McConnell introduce the bill to have Ds shoot it down. I have not heard a lot of discussion of Ds' position on, and reaction to, the AJA. All the focus has been on how badly the Rs will behave. Anyone think PO would really have trouble getting his own party on board the AJA?(Also, I'm not sure they can start the bill in the Senate anyway.)
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QB, in the link dump above, there's a story at HA about a meting Senate D's had today with the WH.
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McWing, I'm not just referring to the TBTF notion but the lack of separation between investment and savings institutions. I wonder if we agree that the banks should be split up or reduced in size so as not to threaten the economy again with giant sized bailouts. I think that otherwise it will happen again, the bailouts that is.Scott, are you looking for a joke for the morning? I agree with Michi, good idea. We could take turns. My husbands a great joke teller and has some really good ones but I wouldn't want to offend anyone? Do you guys know the one about the two farmers and the hooker?
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No, lms, do tell!And on a side note, IIRC the BLM guy is the "construction worker with a brain" guy, right?And to your point, yes, I think that there will be bailouts again unless the banks get shrunked and/or some people get prosecuted.
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lms,No, not kidding! We had some discussions of this on PL some time back, and I remember asking Scott to weigh in. I will try to find a couple of links, but there were some investigations and reviews that generally concluded that removal of the G-S wall was not the problem. (Bill Clinton said it probably helped limit the damage iirc.)Remember that the G-S wall was a statute with specific terms governing activities within a single institutions. It has been a long, long time since I looked at it in depth, let alone studied it, but the basic idea was that it prevented a single insitution from engaging in both commercial and investment banking (basically, taking deposits and underwriting securities). I'm not sure what you mean by underwriters and loan officers conspiring, but to my knowledge you are talking about people sitting in two different institutions, which would not have implicated G-S. Lehman and Bear Stearns, for example, were not commercial banking institutions. Anyway, will try to remember to grab a link or two tomorrow. I'm talking off the top of my head.
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People in their 80s shouldn't be flying high performance airplanes at air shows, that is really stupid. Is that ageist? how about 90s?I got out of my helicopter at 50, when I realized, I was not the same pilot I was, but I still had the exact same ideas about what I could and couldn't do, that I still had it. And I didn't feel like dialing it back, there is no point in flying if it isn't a mind bender.Plus, I wanted to save all that money for my kids.
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As for banks thinking they own the economy, idiots like Geithner, lecturing the world, as if he knew anything about anything. I wouldn't let that twit carry my jock strap.
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The Senate does not have to wait for a House version,As long as investment bankers can play with commercial deposits it is a bad system.Glass-Steagall worked for two generations causing no one material hardship and its repeal was anything but "conservative". It was more like pulling a cornerstone out of a wall.
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Also michi, I agreed with your thoughts on the "War on Terror". I think there have been what I hope were unintended consequences for all of us and many of them seem to be irreversible. Just the fact that the renewal of the Patriot Act sailed through Congress so easily was depressing I thought. One thing I've found confounding is I'm not sure the average citizen actually experiences all that much fear since the attacks. And not because taking our shoes off before going through the scanners or carrying around mini tubes of toothpaste makes us safe, I just don't think it's in our nature.
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he sure knows how to light up a room
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Mark, I don't recall saying repeal of G-S was conservative or not. It's repeal was bipartisanin terms of parties. I just said that it was not responsible for 08, and it wasn't. How it worked and whether it was a net plus or minus is another debate. But if someone can show how it would have prevented 08, I would be interested. I don't think it is possible.
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No offense to the ladies? Just a warning you guys, don't even try that over here, lol, not that any of you would of course. I should go over there but I just can't conjure up the enthusiasm for it.qb, let's both do a little research on G-S and 2008 and revisit it one more time. I'm game if you are. If I'm wrong I'll let you post a joke on Monday, deal?
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Other than I'd promised ruk that we'd trade Army war stories on the weekend Open Thread, I think I'm going to have to lay off the PL until beach goes away. With his attention span that may not take long. . . Look! Squirrel!!!Which reminds me: sue, if you show up, do you read Kevin Drum's Friday Cat Blogging too?
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lms, sure, but you don't have to let me post a joke of the day. I'm not a good joke guy; I'm pretty funny in real life, but don't know a lot of jokes.OT: I'm probably staying off PL for a while. I went over, and certain folks just bring out my worst. Not good for me and not worthwhile.
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Heh, how coincidental is that that Michi and I were posting at the same time.Love the squirrel reference. True story: I was once on a conference call at my breakfast room table with a bunch of lawyers I've worked with for years. I was thinking intensely about what someone was saying and gazing out the sliding door, when a squirrel ran onto our patio. There was a brief silence, and for some reason I said, "A squirel just ran onto our patio," in what must have been a spacey tone. This was soon after Up was in theaters. I heard about that for some time afterward and thought one of my friends was going to die laughing.
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Golly, qb, would that be DDAWD by any chance??I really do hope we can lure tao over here to visit. I'm not sure that I always get him, but I like his take on life.{{{onelove}}}
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Good story, qb–I laughed out loud and bounced one of my cats off my stomach. She's fairly annoyed at me right now.
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qb, you're an administrator so you could post a joke any time you wanted, or not, that was supposed to a "heads I win, tails you lose" comment. I guess I'm not much of a joke teller either. Cute squirrel story though.
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Maybe I'll tell my farmer joke some night when only a few of us are around and then delete it in 10 seconds. "Mission Impossible"
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michi/lms,Has anyone shamelessly tried to lasso tao? He is over there now.
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Oh we just played a few poker rounds and the know when to fold 'em lesson came up. We play with monopoly money, but I reminded my men what it would be like if we played with real money. My 7yo, said, "you already told us, people bet their house, their kids." I think I've taught them everything I know. They're ready for the real world.
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QB do it. He'd think I was kidding.
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Go qb.
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Third, qb. I don't know him well enough to come up with a good opening. shrink, how did the poker thing get started? To teach the guys strategy?
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shrink, I love hearing those stories about your kids and poker. My grandmother taught me how to play poker, black jack and about ten different kinds of solitaire when I was about 7. She taught me lessons about gambling and money as well that I've never forgotten. She did used to take my allowance money though.
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I have fun, first. Kids who see parents having real, not faked fun competing with them grow up strong and secure and…It teaches tight interactions with other people, imagining why they are doing what they are doing, making them think they know what you are thinking and calculating, fractions, division, it is perfect for 8yo kids. But main thing it is fun too.They keep worrying we are going to play "for real" and we will. We'll start with nickels to quarters, maybe next week. There won't be quite as much bravura, like "Tres Gauchos!" I teach them all the slang. Full boat, aces are bullets, its all good. They love the flop, turn and river, as if all that makes perfect sense.
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They love the flop, turn and river, as if all that makes perfect sense.I've sometimes wondered about the etymology of poker. Who comes up with these terms and how (or why)? I've been watching "Star Trek: TNG" on Netflix and listening to the dialogue during the poker games is like a second language! No one in my family gambles (my Mom taught me at least a dozen different ways to play solitaire, though) so it's not something I grew up with. I suspect I'd be poor gambler; I'd be good at bluffing but abysmal at reading the other players' tells.
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I've been teaching my 5 year old grandson card games, but no poker yet. We're playing crazy 8's and next up is dirty 8's. He's almost ready for a game we call 99. Add the cards up as you go and if you go over 99 you lose your quarter. Jacks are reverse (clockwise vs. counterclockwise around the table), Queens are pass, 10's are minus 10 and Kings are automatic jump to 99. Everyone gets three cards and draws as you lay down. Kids love it because it's a really fast game. Everyone begins with three quarters. Last one standing wins the kitty.
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Hmm, maybe I should have my son teach me poker. Maybe that's my problem.
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Crazy 8's you only draw one card if you don't have a play, dirty 8's you have to keep drawing until you have a play. Sometimes you end up with 15 or 20 cards in your hand. I love to see little kids try that, because I'm a mean grandma and think it's funny. Haaaahaaaaaaaa
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Good job qb, let's hope he bites. We are soooo bad.
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You're gonna live forever with that attitude, lms! You sound like my maternal g'ma who's about to turn 97; we used to play Rook and she always used to laugh at me trying to hold the cards! 🙂
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"Shrink's got his six."Just right, then Chris Fox dropped in like flares and chaff, we'll see if we got him tomorrow.
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Tao said he'd email from work. Hope he remembers. I couldn't get a reply posted promptly because of the moving page thingy and slllooowww text.
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97, wow. I'm not sure I can even imagine that. I had a great aunt that lived to be 105 and drove until she was 95, but don't tell shrink. I was pretty close to her and used to drive the 100 mile round trip once a week to take her out to run errands just to keep her out of her car.
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I hated Rook growing up, loved Hearts, we had a big family, Minnesota winters. Poker was considered immoral, we were super catholics.
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Tomorrow, all.[Thinking: so this must be what a conspiracy feels like.]
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See Lulu, that makes me want to put helmets on my kids in the car. Don't push my buttons.
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Well, we just keep trying. I'm going to try to get to NoVA next week if I see him. I think I have the best shot with him as he's always talking to me about medicare. I just hope I will have laid low long enough by then.
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Tao never responded to my offer to share secret crabby patty recipes with him. Hopefully qb will have more luck.
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12BB batted clean up. Funny DDAWD was talking about what a great poker player he is, again, and how Brigade must not be because he's a conservative.
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I know shrink, that's why I used to go out there. No one could talk her out of it but we did convince her to stay within about a five mile radius and no freeways. I got both my parents off the road though before they were 80, but it wasn't easy.
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Okay, I'm out. Today was a long day and I'm tired. See y'all manana. Hopefully someone has a few good ideas for posts this weekend. I'm mulling something over and will try to get to it. Heading out to our sons tomorrow morning though for breakfast and a little horseback riding so it probably won't be until Sunday before I have something together.My daughter called a little while ago and is sooooo bored laying around in a hospital bed, what a character.
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Strong work is good work. Its only 2140 here but I'm going to run in the am before the kids wake up.
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He linked to a piece he'd written on the impact of ACA under his real name.I remember that. I think I archived it, I'll look too. He said, yeah, I'm kind of a big deal. That was funny. night
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michi, she's here off and on. I could email her but she knows we're here and what we're doing. I think possibly she feels bad that we didn't invite Chris, but I could be wrong.Hi Kevin, goodnight Kevin. ABC showed up earlier, thanks.
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12 Bar has joined us. She just hasn't posted recently. Good night, lm.
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Hey (I said I'm gone but I'm not yet), we do know ashot's identity. Michi is right.I looked him up when he posted his ACA article.
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I'm going to hang it up for the evening, also. Good chatting with you all without slinging arrows!Suggestion for the weekends: what if, rather than actual posts, we drop in links with minimal commentary if something catches our eye? Kind of like the Bits and Pieces. G'night!
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qb/lms/Mark:re Glass-SteagallThe merits of keeping investment banking and commercial/retail banking separate can be argued, but the repeal of G/S had nothing to do with what happened in '08. Just consider the failed institutions: Bear Stearns, investment bank. Lehman Brothers, investement bank. Merrill Lynch, investment bank. AIG, insurance company. The big commerical banks that also engaged in investment banking activities were largely OK, and indeed some of them took over a couple of the failing IB's (JPM/Bear, BoA/Merrill). In fact, remember that both Goldman and Morgan Stanley were converted into commercial banks in order to give them access to short-term liquidity that they otherwise would not have had, thus ensuring their survival. Again, the merits of G-S can certainly be debated, but the specter of 2008 can't really be sensibly used as part of it.
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