Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktAn open thread to end the day. Please use it to catch up with others and feel free to post whatever suits your fancy. Just so you know I’ll put this up tomorrow as a scheduled post and any of you “We’re all Administrators Now” can drop a link or comment in prior to posting.
Here’s my comment for tonight.
There has been much discussion of Social Security over the past several months and in particular the last few weeks. I think it’s appropriate at some point to remember why it was enacted in the first place and a quote from FDR seems appropriate.
We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.
I hope you’re all working on conversation starting posts for tomorrow.
I put this in early tonight since no one seemed to have a post going. Come on you guys, we need commentary to comment on, lol.
Filed under: Uncategorized |
All Things in Moderation 
We haven't really talked about the economy here yet but this is getting really old and depressing.(Reuters) – New claims for jobless aid rose unexpectedly last week and factory activity along much of the Eastern seaboard contracted early this month, bolstering the case for more action to support the struggling economy.However, industrial output edged higher in August and consumer prices rose more than expected, reinforcing expectations the Federal Reserve will offer only modest stimulus measures.The economy barely grew in the first half of this year and a bruising spending battle in Congress spooked consumers into shutting their wallets last month. With growth still limping along, the economy looks very vulnerable to an escalation in Europe's debt crisis."Business activity has slowed and confidence has fallen … but we haven't slipped into a recession yet," said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. "The Fed can still do some additional easing."The number of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment aid rose unexpectedly to 428,000 in the week ended September 10, the Labor Department said on Thursday.It was the second straight weekly increase, taking initial claims to their highest level since the week ended June 25. Wall Street analysts expected a modest dip.Despite the data, stocks rose and debt prices fell after a plan was offered by global central banks to reintroduce dollar liquidity into the strained European banking system.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/us-usa-economy-idUSTRE78C33C20110915
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Legislative leaders analyzing Oklahoma's tax code are looking at ways to phase out the personal income tax, while maintaining core state services.* * *But lawmakers realize they must offset some of that lost revenue, since the personal income tax accounts for about 35 percent of the state's general fund.The president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Michael Carnuccio, says much of the lost revenue will be made up for in increased economic activity.http://newsok.com/legislative-panel-eyes-abolishing-oklahoma-income-tax/article/3604460 Can anybody tell me how to post a link here?I wish this was a joke. Give up 35% of your general fund for a magical thinking (yes, I've read some of today's great comments) future hypothetical? We have had horrendous budget cuts the last two budget cycles. Oklahoma's early intervention program, once truly outstanding, has been decimated along with other valuable programs and services.
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"…a plan was offered by global central banks to reintroduce dollar liquidity into the strained European banking system."The language is pregnant with the implication that the Federal Reserve will do its QE in EUROPE. Does not seem just or equitable, or fair or practical, either. I have tried to contact jzap at PL but PL is broken, as shrink has reported.
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Send them Cheerios, Okiegirl.
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mark, wait . . . am I remembering your story backwards? Wasn't it Cheerios you thought gave you Super Powers? If so, I'm sending them Wheaties instead!We were overcast and drizzly all day (no real rain, but I'll take what I can get) and it was so chilly when I left work that I was still a little chilled even in a light jacket.
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"The president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Michael Carnuccio, says much of the lost revenue will be made up for in increased economic activity."Even as a tax-cutting conservative, I'd have to argue this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. Tax cuts may spur growth, just as water may help the grass to grow–if there's minerals in the soil and a sun in the sky. I think our economy is in such a state that phasing out the income tax is not necessarily going to inspire an immediate supply side boom. That requires investment capital, and credit, and banks to be lending, and entrepreneurs interested in taking risks, and . . . I dunno, man. I just dunno.
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"The language is pregnant with the implication that the Federal Reserve will do its QE in EUROPE. Does not seem just or equitable, or fair or practical, either." Not quite, they convert the euro debts to dollar denominated debts (by making loans in dollars to pay off obligations) and then those debt costs ride with the T bill auction rates and the dollar. It turns into the dollar backing the euro.
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Post a link: <a href="link.url">This is my link text.</a> . . .I have to use HTML entities to type that for instruction purposes, sorry if I got anything mixed up.
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And then there's this. He's the freakin' State Labor Commissioner. It's a bad time to be a state university employee in OK. And we are and always have been a right to work state. I wonder if this is going to be part of the way they make up the shortfall from the above mentioned eradication of state personal income tax.State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello seems to have set his sights on the state's public employee unions.The first-term Republican has set up a nonprofit advocacy organization, Parity for Oklahoma, whose primary purpose appears to be undermining state employee benefits and protections. "If we're going to turn this ship around … we're going to have to fight for it and realize the other side is going to be like feral hogs," he said Tuesday during an appearance at the Republican Women's Club of Tulsa County. Costello made several references to feral hogs. "I don't know if you know much about feral hogs, but they reproduce three or four times a year, they eat anything and everything, and I kind of think there is some comparison between bureaucrats and feral hogs," he said.http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110914_16_A5_CUTLIN290757
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kevin, thanks for the link tip. Do I need the quotation marks or was that just to distinguish in your example?
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That said it is a desperate move. There is no growth driver and this just kicks the can and puts us more deeply involved with the European banking system than we were. I can't believe we are spending as usual, the whole thing could come to a vicious halt. There is no backstop.
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I don't like Last Ditch Effort, it isn't a calming thought inducing phrase. It should be like, You're Brilliant Time, but not hokey, it should be a disinhibiting title, Happy Hour reminds people of alcoholic (brilliant!)yakety yak.
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Why can't we use HTML tags? Yesterday they worked, today, the post won't post.
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Kevin yesterday I posted links the ordinary way. Today I can't, did you change something?
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/us-usa-tax-swiss-israel-idUSTRE78E7PU20110915test
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hey, that was fine why the special instructions?
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Dollar liquidity is preagnant with something, all right. Isn't that what the breton Woods Conference set up after the Second World war? Every currency pegged permanently and rigidly to the dollar.
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You need quotation marks, yeah. You can post links, but they won't be clickable in comments without special html magic.Don't click on that link up there, BTW.
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what about HTML tags,I swear they worked yesterday
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Michigoose, welcome. I'm glad everybody is here. I don't know about you, but I think this is coming along nicely. It may not be as active as Plum Line but, to be quite honest, Plum Line (when I can see it) is actually a little too active for me.
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What about HTML tags? . . . they should work fine. Unless something has changed.
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Only certain tags are approved. . . . Strike doesn't work in the comments. I think you're stuck with bold and italic. And HREF.
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Earl not exactly, but it does not matter what was intended, the tulip bulbs could lose value so fast, you couldn't buy a house with two of them, or even four. And the country you live in used to matter a lot more than it does now.
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yesterday I could underline
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Shrink, instead of last ditch, how about: "Please disrobe". That's relaxing, right? Or how about "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."Soothing, I think.
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You can still underline in a top post, if that makes you feel any better. Just can't do it in the comments. Sorry, Charlie. Although a post-processor, ala troll hunter, would work here, unlike with Plum Line.
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Hi michi, glad you made it, you too cef(Earl).okie, feral hogs? Wow. I keep thinking that things must just be worse here in CA than everywhere else because I don't hear a lot of people complaining, then I read something like that and I'm not so sure. We were at 14% unemployment I think last month here in Riverside County, it's awful. Lots of empty buildings and run down neighborhoods etc. Every little city around us is in dire straits.
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And there's stuff in the "Compose" mode for posts that let you underline and bold like you would in a word processor, and define any phrase as a link, and then paste in your URL. Comments aren't nearly so fancy.
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lms, I'm glad somebody else finds "bureaucrats are like feral hogs" as odd as I do. The thing is, the recession still has not hit OK all that hard. But the way the Rs in charge of everything now are acting, one certainly would think otherwise.
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It's bad in California, but it's not great anywhere. I loved going to the Filemaker Dev Conference in San Diego. They had it at the Hilton Bayfront. Catered meals, fancy lawn party–a long with an excellent education in esoteric Filemaker data, it made one feel that the whole world was wealthy and abundance was everywhere. Then I fly back to Memphis and the bubble burst. But it was a wonderful couple of days that I will treasure always. Ironically, where I felt like everything must be all right was in California. Ain't that somthin'.
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kevin, while you're here, why do only 6 member avatars show to me in members list in the right sidebar? And why does the list of contributors keep changing order? Just curious.
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lms, I personally like having the open thread a little earlier. Maybe it's the time zone difference.
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I tried to comment over at PL and it seems to be a wreck. Also not much interesting content.
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There is a way to do recommends for blog posts, but it doesn't look right in this template, and doesn't work for comments. I'll look into other gadgets, see if something is out there.
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I posted a reply to Liam's question about supporting a nightly shutdown to work the kinks out. . .it took 20 minutes to load. Ick.
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Tomorrow Greg will ask if there were problems.I see there is no more mention of Hal.
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just took a peak at PL. Jeebus, what a mess.
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okie, it doesn't matter to me what time the evening open thread goes up and someone could still put up a new post afterward. I just know it's kind of hard to drag people away from an open thread and I don't want anyone later to not have an audience.I was thinking along the lines of just putting it in the new post file at a scheduled time and then during the afternoon people could go in there and edit with comments or interesting links. They can change the title too. Then it just pops up automatically. Ideas?
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And as a side note, it is absolutely fascinating that with IE, as long as you do not check "Stay signed in," th4e site works fine.Kevin, any possibility of having a "Link Dump" in the sidebar a la Ace, where we could write a short teaser? Or Like a Top O' the Blog Headlines post a la Hot Air? I see a lot of interesting stuff that is not necessarily "post worthy,(considered that a paraphrased Sienfeld reference) but might like to share with a sarcastic, er, cogent teaser.
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@shrink: yeah, now some poor woman named Bethonie is catching the heat. Although it sounded like Scott had already tried to contact her and it had fallen into a black hole.Re the Pat Robertson/wife with AD post. Wow. On the one hand, my knee jerk reaction was that he was being a total asshole with his advice. But then I started reading through the comments and realized that perhaps it was that the subject was a little too close to home with my recent experience and divorce (which, BTW, is final now). I can see that this blog is going to be requiring more introspection some times. . . thanks again to lms for the idea and all of you for carrying it out!
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lms, your idea about scheduling the open thread and everybody can edit throughout the day sounds perfect.
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I like the link dump suggestion of Mr. Troll. A lot of times, I feel bashful (unlike Bernie!) just posting link after link in a thread and yet sometimes, those are wormholes into really interesting places.
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michi, Bethonie is the blog nanny I got connected with when I was arguing the pinking. She's like communicating with a recording.
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Jerzy, I really like the link dump idea too. But it sounds like at least in the meantime we can use the draft open thread as a link dump. Unless you can't wait for the open thread to post and want the link published right that second.
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okie:re BethonieYes! Yes! A thousand times yes! She is exactly like talking to a recorder. An honest to God conversation I had with her:S: Why did you delete my post?B: It violated the discussion policy?S: How? I read the policy and can find nothing that was violated by that post.B: It violated the discussion policy.S: Yes, but in what way?B: It violated the discussion policy.Un-freakin-believable.
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Jerzey, (I think) It wasn't crowing about Breton Woods, but that was how Europe stuck us with lousy exchange rates 'til Nixon floated the dollar. If Europe is going to peg the Euro to the dollar it won't be to make it easy for Germans to buy Chevys.
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Earl/cef, glad you're here. And thanks for bringing us back to substance.
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I saw all the requests for a link dump section, so I added one right under the search box on the front page. It works the same as the "Sites To Visit in Moderation" section. Click on the tool graphic, add a URL and give it a description. I've set it up so only the last 10 will show. That way it won't start to push everything else down the page.
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Here's an article about Merkel / Fischer asking for us to borrow money from China to give to Europe.What is a cool Trillion between friends.
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Scott, Awesome!!!!!For you Michi, Troll is fine. For now.
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Fantastic scottSo I copy in my url in the new site url box and then just type whatever I want in the new site name box, right?
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Hi all! Just thought I'd pop in and say "hello". Between homework, music lessons, and tee-ball games, I've been offline most of the afternoon/evening. Looks like I've missed some good stuff. Trying to catch up, but not sure how far I'll get.BTW, what's up with ruk? Is he not planning on joining us?
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Correct.
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Michi,When I was in school I worked p/t in the "poultry lab," and had a friend who worked in a lab that studied cryptospiridium (I think that's how it's spelled). It was impossible to work in that lab and NOT have the, er, trots.
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McWing:You Link Dump link was broken, so I fixed it. You have to be careful when pasting the link in the URL box, because the box already has the "http://" in it before pasting, so sometimes you end up with two of them. I found that out the hard way the other day.
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Hi all, Long day. What did I miss?
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Evening, sue. Still under the weather or just busy?
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okie,Some of both. Feeling better, but what an energy drag this crud I have is. Plus we are getting ready to load the anagama kiln this weekend, and a few of the crew have ditched. Scrambles!
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sue, sorry about the kiln crew. How often do you fire it? Will we be treated to a gorgeous new avatar?
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Hi Michi!Thanks for the soup, it hit the spot!! The avatar is the answer to the question, "How do you know if your ass is too small?" If you click on my name in the contributors list, you can see a bigger image…. :o)
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Scott, thanks for the fix. I did it again and then read your comment, so I had to go and fix my new link. At least I know now.
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okie,Two firings a year, May & Sept. 800-ish pots per load. And yes, I hope a new avatar is in process. We'll know for sure on 10/2.Ims,About Greg, I hear you and agree completely.
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sue. . . *snort*!I, too, feel bad for Greg and have exchanged e-mails with him (although not during this most recent go-around). I suspect he's in new Dad mode and just trying to cope with daily issues rather than the meta-issue of WaPo's blogs' problems. To be brutal, qb hit it on the head: it's the Powell Doctrine.
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kevin, If you're still here, you've got mail!
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sue, I'm looking forward to the new avatar.troll, I read the Euro link you put in comment above and in the link dump. What really happens for us here if everything implodes? I'm not an econ person.
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I got it, but it's my bedtime. I will wire it up, but everyone thank patron and benefactor Suekzoo for getting us an official-like URL: all-things-in-moderation.com . . . I'll work on wiring it up so that resolves correctly tomorrow, but hopefully that will let people who get blocked by blogger through (I worry you may still have trouble getting in the backend, sue, but at least you should be able to read and comment . . . I hope!)
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Sue's our ATM machine. Thanks sue. I hope it works for you during the day.Is everyone still working on their posts for tomorrow?
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cef, we'll talk tomorrowAn awful lot depends on this, more than people know. They say yeah, the crisis could really be a big deal, but actually, it could dwarf the 2008 disaster. I'm getting killed in no limit poker with my kids.No real money, it is all in or fold. A lot of money changes hands. But I have lost at least 5 kajillion. Now they're reading. Teaching them about monetary policy, or rogue trading.
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Okie, I dont know. I'm guessing continued recession but maybe some light at the end of the tunnel in that a lot of debt will be cleared. Its going to happen anyway and I'm kind of a "pull the bandaid of quick" kind of person. I'd like to hear what Scott and Banned (if he shows) have to say since though.
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shrink, we'll just keep trying, subtlety worming our way into their subconscious thoughts.We need someone to put up an economic post tomorrow that makes sense, shrink? We all want to understand what's going on and I can come up with some of it but not the whole picture. We can't wait for banned, anyone?
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Sue's our ATM machine.Ims, What can I say besides I have no expertise in this, so all I can do is throw money at it! LOL
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I'm off to bed, too. Night all.
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I forgot all about that.
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Lulu, I talk to bannedagain every day, we are tracking in a sort of code for over a year. I think I know what is going on, the macro part, it is political and it isn't a great mystery. But it isn't political the way we think of that word.Anyway, what we say always seems to become conventional wisdom a few months later and we don't like Keynes/Krugman and that causes blog problems. We're not political about the big picture in the partisan sense and everybody else is, they are dying to make the disaster a partisan game. But it just isn't anymore. Kevin what you said about Chris Fox doesn't need to be deleted, it is true and plain spoken, just leave it, imo. You won't go to hell.
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Bed for me also. Goodnight to all. But first I must say I won't be able to work on a post myself until possibly this weekend (if it rains and we're not putting up the new fence), although I have a couple of ideas. But I'm new at this and it may take me a bit of time.
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Shrink, I'd still like to go into more depth. I'm not a partisan when it comes to this stuff either, believe it or not. And I'm worried about what's going to happen. Maybe we can all take our political hats off for a day over the weekend or something and talk through some of it.
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Okay, I cleaned up my act and am now off to bed. That was funny scott.
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McWing:Not sure I have anything too insightful to say about the Merkel thing. But I will point out (not sure it has been mentioned here today) that the ECB announced this morning that it will be coordinating with the Fed to provide unlimited (!) $ liquidity for European bank borrowing for out to 3months. Not exactly a bailout (borrowing cost is high…fed funds plus 1%) and only 2 banks have made use of the facility even for the 7 day period, so it is mostly a liquidity confidence backstop. But it could be the first stage in what the article you linked to was talking about.
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Scott, explain the mechanics of the backstop, please.
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Thanks, Scott. Well, whatever can't continue, won't.
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OMG, I can't believe I almost forgot this:*stands at attention, saluting*SGT Dakota Meyer, USMC, Medal of HonorTo your fellow Marine, Troll. I couldn't be prouder or more in awe of what he did–five times into the Valley of Death.
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Hi, all.Just got here. Working on figuring things out. That's kinda ironic 'cuz I worked for Google for five years!
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Oh, and @Scott–you wish, Dude, you wish! ;-)(that was darned funny, your comment)
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Scott, QB. TMW, Kev, all who are interested – this morning had another typical exchange with the seething ball of unpleasantness. Begins at 5:39:21 AM CDT.
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I've been out of Plumline for a while. I had had an exchange with Apocalypse in the past, but did not realize he was Cao, Gold and Tanzanite, Cheopys. Until this morning. I asked tao9 to email me. Not subtle, but, I'm trying. : )
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Just testing. Dunno why my picture doesn't display. Just uploaded a new one (different size). Wanna see if that did the trick.
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I see the standard jzap photo.
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Yep, I see it now, too, after uploading a different photo.Above you'll see my first comment. The picture has an exclamation point in side a triangle.My conjecture is that my original Blogger photo (from five years ago) was too rectangular (height much greater than width), and the site couldn't figure out how to crop it. Maybe.
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I'm not seeing any avatars right now. Could be blogger, could be firefox. I'm casual about it.
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