Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktDeMarco flatly rejects Geithner’s offer of (TARP) funding:
Today, I provided a response to numerous congressional inquiries as to whether the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) would direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to implement the Home Affordable Modification Program Principal Reduction Alternative (HAMP PRA). After extensive analysis of the revised HAMP PRA, including the determination by the Treasury Department to begin using Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) monies to make incentive payments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FHFA has concluded that the anticipated benefits do not outweigh the costs and risks. Given our multiple responsibilities to conserve the assets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, maximize assistance to homeowners to avoid foreclosures, and minimize the expense of such assistance to taxpayers, FHFA concluded that HAMP PRA did not clearly improve foreclosure avoidance while reducing costs to taxpayers relative to the approaches in place today.
I have also previewed for Congress several housing-related initiatives to strengthen the loss mitigation and borrower assistance efforts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as improve the operation of the housing finance market. These initiatives include new and consistent policies for lender representations and warranties, alignment and simplification of the Enterprise short sales programs, and further enhancements for borrowers looking to refinance their mortgages.
DeMarco acts like a man doing the job he was hired to do, while both Congress and POTUS now think there is another job to be done. I admire DeMarco for this, although I do not fault the political branches for wanting to do something else.
Filed under: Economy |
All Things in Moderation 
” If the mortgages were refinanced, that’s a substantial amount of money that each of the 30 million families with Fannie or Freddie mortgages would save on their payments every month. Hubbard estimates (pdf) that the average borrower would save $2,800, and that the total savings would come to $70 billion”
Exactly how crazy is this? Hubbard was the Bush Chariman of the Council of Economic Advisors that created the disastrous tax cuts!
I’ts like promoting a human rights program designed by Mao.
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In order to make such a program actually effective, you have to cast the widest net with the fewest restrictions on entry, however in order to make it saleable politically, you have to do the opposite.
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With regards to the issue of DeMarco, I’m reminded of this quote with regards to President Obama:
““He grew frustrated because the economic team didn’t have that magic combination.” Or as another adviser put it, “He was really frustrated that there weren’t solutions on the cheap.” ”
Note also that President Obama could have replaced DeMarco with a recess appointment at the same time he did the appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and Richard Cordray in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, if this was an actual priority for him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/31/barack-obama-can-absolutely-replace-ed-demarco/
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It’s the Magic Multiplier Effect, the same reason we cut the payroll taxes to boost the economy . . . ahem.
It’s a creative writing formula, not a mathematical one, so the results can be whatever you want them to be.
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“bannedagain5446, on August 1, 2012 at 7:51 am said: Edit Comment
In order to make such a program actually effective, you have to cast the widest net with the fewest restrictions on entry, however in order to make it saleable politically, you have to do the opposite.”
I disagree. I continue to believe that bankruptcy cramdown is the correct solution here in that it helps to filter out those who would truly benefit and have few other options from those who would game the system and also addresses the debtors debt situation comprehensively, rather than just disadvantaging the mortgage holder to the benefit of other creditors, such as auto loan holders and credit card companies.
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Bankruptcy will vary from state to state in property rights however which makes it the worst possible vessel for carrying the President’s water in this case.
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Quote of the Day:
“@BCAppelbaum: The key point: DeMarco completely rejects the WH argument that shifting costs to TARP means he needn’t care about those costs.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/01/wonkbook-principal-reductions-are-nixed-again/
This is what happens when you substitute bullshit for a substantive solution.
At the risk of beating a dead horse:
The administration clearly believes that with enough multiplier hand waving they can cover up that fact.
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For instance:
“Which Exemption System Can I Use?
The answer depends on the laws of the state where you reside (called your “domicile” in bankruptcy law). Most states prohibit their residents from taking advantage of the federal bankruptcy exemptions. If you live in one of these states, you must use your state’s exemptions. However, some states allow their residents to use either the state exemptions or the federal exemptions. If you live in one of these states, you must choose one system or the other (you cannot mix and match from the federal and state exemptions).
The following states currently give you a choice between the state exemptions and the federal system: Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.”
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/which-exemptions-use-bankruptcy.html
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Adn the beauty of economics is that there is no penalty for failure.
If you’re a sportwriter that predicts the Browns will win the Super Bowl, everybody understands when you’re wrong and you become a disrepected sportwriter.
However even though Glenn Hubbard was tremendously wrong on the Bush tax cuts is no reason not to use him to promote THIS plan.
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That’s fine banned. You can’t move a house very easily to another state.
I’m not interested in carrying water for the President. I believe it’s the cleanest and most equitable way to solve the problem as it addresses each debt on on a case by case basis in an existing system in a Federal court that is designed to break and rewrite contracts where both creditor and debtor rights can be balanced.
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Steven Rattner gives the rebuttal to the argument for breaking up the banks:
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banned:
I’ts like promoting a human rights program designed by Mao.
That almost made me spit my coffee all over my keyboard! Thanks for the laugh.
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More bullshit from Krugman:
DeMarco’s staff concluded the exact opposite of what Krugman is asserting. Once you count the losses transferred to TARP, it’s a net loss to the taxpayers, even if you accept the “multiplier” effects on the economy.
Also, this quote “I’ve already emphasized, you should also take the positive effect on the economy, and hence on revenue, into account” is straight out of the Republican arguments for supply side effects of tax cuts and their justification for “dynamic scoring” of said tax cuts by the CBO to show that they actually generate more revenue than they cost.
Krugman’s post makes clear that macro economics is nothing more than a bullshit justification of policies that you wish to do anyway for other reasons.
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jnc
sorry to offend. I didn’t mean that YOU were carrying water for Obama.
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“We need a Dodd-Frank do-over to create the right oversight apparatus for huge banks.”
While I agree generally speaking that the eliminiation of Dodd and Frank from any actual legislation is bound to have at least some net positive effects,it’s hard to imagine why we would get something newly right only two years after getting something so obviously wrong.
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“bannedagain5446, on August 1, 2012 at 9:05 am said:
jnc
sorry to offend. I didn’t mean that YOU were carrying water for Obama.”
It’s impossible to offend me and I didn’t take it that way at all. I just find the piling on of DeMarco by Obama and Krugman as the root cause of the housing problems to be particularly despicable given the complete and utter failure of the administration in the area of housing and the administration’s total unwillingness to take any responsibility for their policies at all.
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“bannedagain5446, on August 1, 2012 at 9:08 am said: Edit Comment
“We need a Dodd-Frank do-over to create the right oversight apparatus for huge banks.”
While I agree generally speaking that the eliminiation of Dodd and Frank from any actual legislation is bound to have at least some net positive effects,it’s hard to imagine why we would get something newly right only two years after getting something so obviously wrong.”
Perhaps they could sneak it in as a “technical corrections” bill and let the better members of the staff write it. Also, Dodd and Frank will have both retired next session, so that should make it better right off the bat.
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jnc:
So does that mean we should stop the currently unfinished regulatory writing process under Dodd-Frank to use thsoe same experts on the “new Dodd-Frank”?
Actually that’s a question for Rattner, not you!
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From PL:
“With the House set to vote today on dueling plans for the Bush tax cuts, a group of approximately 100 wealthy progressives — all of whom say they are in the top two percent of earners — have signed a letter calling on Congress to raise their taxes immediately.
Notably, the wealthy signatories make the case for higher taxes on themselves by supporting Obama’s “didn’t build that” case, arguing that the role of a smoothly functioning society in enabling their wealth more than justifies the demand that they chip in a bit more to ensure that it continues to provide opportunities to others.”
Having about 25% of the signatories identified only by initials didn’t help and being able to indentify more than a handful of them by name might have worked better too.
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“they chip in a bit more to ensure that it continues to provide opportunities to others”
they can do that now. pick a kid an pay for his college education. any kid. that’s one less that needs to take out a loan.
those 100 could make an immediate and measurable difference in someone’s life if they truly gave a shit. which they do not.
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Here’s the Federal Reserve date on mortgage debt outstanding for the last 4 years:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/releases/mortoutstand/current.htm
Here’s the national average mortgage rates:
http://mortgage-x.com/general/historical_rates.asp
I can’t find them anywhere on one chart but it would be very interesting to plot the numbers which would show that the lower the interest rates the less mortgage lending actually occurs. This is contrary to everything you normally hear, but which I have been saying for years and which the numbers bear out.
Now it’s not the ONLY reason, but it’s a part of the problem that is usually ignored.
Banks have no incentive to lend at 30 year rates which are negative real interest rates or which are projected to become so based on historical trends
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btw:
It was a real bitch to find that data from the Fed so the sound of at least one hand clapping would be appreciated! LOL
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Banned, I doff my top hat to you, sir
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I like the Dickensian aspects of that, like the head of Baring Brothers meeting the head of Rothschild’s on the street.
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Indubitably
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Jon Walker over at FDL (I know, I know) games out how Gary Johnson can affect the election. Maybe this is already obvious to most of his supporters but as I’m definitely not one I thought those who are might find the read worthwhile.
Johnson wants to fill a void in our political discourse. His campaign is focused on a few popular issue that are completely ignored by Mitt Romney and President Obama, including the wasteful nation building approach to foreign policy and, most importantly for its potential impact on the election, marijuana legalization.
Despite majority popular support for legalization both major parties are ignoring it. Obama has been very bad on marijuana reform, and Romney has taken his incredible opposition to marijuana to the level of a cartoon villain. Johnson knows this is his opening. It is the issue that garners him the most support and attention. With legalization on the ballot in Colorado, Washington and Oregon there is a real chance Johnson’s campaign can help elevate the issue of drug policy reform and get our nation political discourse to take it seriously instead of dismissing it out of hand.
Unlike many recent third party candidates, Gary Johnson is a proven politician who has won statewide office and remains relatively well known and popular in his state. Even if Johnson polls poorly nationally, he could have a regional impact by doing relatively well in his own state of New Mexico and in the neighboring state of Colorado, where a marijuana legalization initiative being on the ballot gives him a natural in. Both are swing states. PPP found Johnson polling at 13 percent in New Mexico. With Romney and Obama so close it is easy to see how Johnson could get enough votes in these two states to swing the result and possibly the entire election. Johnson taking just a few percent from either candidate could be enough in a close elections to make the difference.
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Banned, thanks for the Fed chart. So is the solution to raise interest rates?
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With regards to Gary Johnson, I don’t expect him to win but I would like to see him in the debates. I do agree that he is easily the most credible third party candidate ever run in terms of actual governing experience.
In fact, if actual governing experience was the metric, then he is dramatically more qualified than Romney and probably more than Obama was in 2008.
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And regarding the DeMarco letter and his refusal to follow the WH/Geithner prescription, not every liberal economist is in the bag on this one, regardless of Krugman’s rantings and ravings. Yves Smith has an interesting take.
As much as this blogger is firmly of the view that this is a poor economic decision (deep principal mods are a sound idea, as long as you have a decent approach for vetting borrower income and other debt payments to see if they are viable with a mod), I have to hand it to DeMarco as a bureaucratic infighter. He is effectively throwing the abortion of HAMP results in Treasury’s face. Recall that HAMP did not require borrowers to default in order to qualify for mods, yet many did out of misdirection by servicers. Now in fact, servicers are unlikely to play that game this time, since a principal mod reduces their servicing income. But the fact, as detailed by Neil Barofsky in his book Baiout, that Treasury was indifferent to how homeowners fared under HAMP, and merely saw this as a vehicle for “foaming the runway,” meaning spreading out the number of foreclosures over time, rather than saving borrowers, led to irresponsible actions (like ordering servicers to sign up people for trial mods initially without even qualifying them), numerous changes in program design (disastrous for highly routinized servicers) and lack of concern with the fact that many people lost their homes by virtue of HAMP who might have kept them, has produced some data (in particular, informed estimates of the number of people who defaulted to qualify for HAMP) against the Administration. And notice in its speedy rebuttal letter to DeMarco, Geithner concedes that DeMarco has the power to take this action: “…you have the sole legal authority to make this decision.”
One might wonder why DeMarco is being so intransigent. I am told that he is an old fashioned public servant (as opposed to the tail his opponents are trying to pin on him, that of being a Republican hack), which means he may well believe the strategic default meme (from everything I can tell, this is vastly overblown with primary residences, but is a real phenomenon with second homes. And even with a second home, the damage to one’s credit record alone is a substantial deterrent). What does appear to be different in this crisis is that people who are current on all their obligations will default on their homes. That is interpreted to be a strategic default. But the word from attorneys and mortgage counselors is that these are anticipatory defaults: borrowers who were already under some duress took another reversal, and could see that hitting the wall was now inevitable. Rather than default when they were totally out of money, they default when they still have enough left to at least cover moving costs and a rental deposit.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/why-firing-ed-demarco-is-no-solution-to-fhfa-refusal-to-engage-in-principal-modifications.html#kYDs8gZBwXdSSY8y.99
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Hoorah, Don. Applause.
Jncp – couple the TARP money to the bankruptcy cramdowns and you have a solution that bypasses screwing with DeMarco’s mandate to turn around FanFred.
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lms:
I wouldn’t go that far, but consdier the Cash for Clunkers program. Did it create an incentive for people to buy who had no disposition to? Probably not. Did it give a time impetus to those who already had some inclination to buy? Probably.
To the extent that potential home buyers understand anything about mortgage rates, they know there is no reason to buy today as opposed to an unlimited number of tomorrows.
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Also, if 30 year fixed rates were 6%, would banks be beating the bushes for customers AND trying to quickly get rid of foreclosed inventory that costs money in order to lend money at good rates?
My answer would be yes, others will no doubt disagree.
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Who is Don?
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lulu, “banned” is Don O’Brien.
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All this time I thought his name was John Marshall……………………lol. Is he sure?
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Anybody have perspective on this?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/swings-in-us-stocks-at-open-spur-computer-trade-concern/2012/08/01/gJQAPvsVPX_story.html?hpid=z2
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“my name is legion”
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mark:
re your piece
Think Three Mile Island to Fukushima. When we are being told that everything is under control, you know there’s a guy somewhere screaminig into a phone “What, but that can’t possibly happen”
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“What, but that can’t possibly happen”
I get it.
But how often can it happen, and at what cost?
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Knight Capital the principal OOPS market maker involved lost about 23% of share value today
I don’t know this guys’ work, but this column isn’t bad:
“The Ramifications Of Knight Capital Group’s Trading Technology Glitch”
http://seekingalpha.com/article/770631-the-ramifications-of-knight-capital-group-s-trading-technology-glitch
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“markinaustin, on August 1, 2012 at 1:13 pm said:
Hoorah, Don. Applause.
Jncp – couple the TARP money to the bankruptcy cramdowns and you have a solution that bypasses screwing with DeMarco’s mandate to turn around FanFred.”
Which is why bankruptcy cramdown should have been enacted in 2009 while the banks still had the TARP infusions to backstop the losses. Now they will have to come up with another way to deal with the resulting bank insolvency problem from writing down the loans. Once cramdown or another solution is adopted, Pretend and Extend will come to an abrupt end.
Also there was a good quip today on WonkBlog:
“The housing market is just another government program now”
With regards to the optics of the Obama administration vs DeMarco, it reminds me of an out of control CEO trying to bully his accountant into going along with cooking the books.
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“bannedagain5446, on August 1, 2012 at 1:40 pm said:
“my name is legion””
Whatever you do, don’t let it get back to Cao.
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Thanks for that link lmsinca. I think Smith is absolutely correct on this:
“But the fact, as detailed by Neil Barofsky in his book Bailout, that Treasury was indifferent to how homeowners fared under HAMP, and merely saw this as a vehicle for “foaming the runway,” meaning spreading out the number of foreclosures over time, rather than saving borrowers, led to irresponsible actions”
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jnc
I think you and I have discussed before how slow forecloures are more of a problme for everybody then fast ones havent’ we?
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jnc:
In my Fed link is the breakdown in the yearly growth of F & F mortgages. It’s a cool link.
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jnc
Once cramdown or another solution is adopted, Pretend and Extend will come to an abrupt end.
If cramdown or another solution is adopted. It’s been four years so I’m skeptical.
And, Whatever you do, don’t let it get back to Cao
Cao who? LOL I tried to start a conversation over there early this morning and he jumped in letting me know that Singapore wasn’t anti-gay because 20 years ago he was able to have so much sex his landlord or something was rolling his eyes. That was it for me………………………again. Although I did remind him that he used to bitch and moan every time beach_music brought up his sexual conquests. Sheesh
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I actually have knowledge that our QB is a truly first rate attorney, which does not preclude being a hidebound political theorist or an occasional SOB. So the other night when Chris Fox was ranting about QB and explaining why QB could not possibly be a lawyer, I mentioned my opinion and suggested Chris argue the merits with “Cyrus” without attacking QB’s bona fides as a lawyer.
Truly set him off.
He reminded me that I also thought JakeD was a lawyer. James Dort is a retired lawyer with a Stanford sheepskin who comments everywhere as JakeD. I have corresponded with him. He is wildly conservative, and like our QB is an aficionado of “natural law”. So I told Chris that I knew JakeD was a retired lawyer, as well.
Set him off some more.
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lms
And which is why my fiery explosion thread was true of course I just wasn’t bothering to write about it because ti wasn’t germane until he pushed me one too many times.
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banned (I can’t call you John anymore)
I don’t comment over there very often but when I do I generally wait until certain posters are not around, of course he’s just one of them. There’s only about two or three left that I have any respect for that don’t already comment over here so most days I skip the comments altogether. My explosions over there are more like sparks so I admired yours actually.
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“lmsinca, on August 1, 2012 at 2:48 pm said:
…
Cao who? LOL I tried to start a conversation over there early this morning and he jumped in letting me know that Singapore wasn’t anti-gay because 20 years ago he was able to have so much sex his landlord or something was rolling his eyes. That was it for me………………………again. Although I did remind him that he used to bitch and moan every time beach_music brought up his sexual conquests. Sheesh”
Saw that and the linked article on debunking libertarians:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/connor-kilpatrick-its-hip-its-cool-its-libertarianism.html
This was an interesting observation from the author:
“Thanks to our shitty constitution and the most violent labor history in the West, we never even got a social-democratic party like the rest of the developed world.”
For me, that’s a feature of our “shitty constitution” and not a problem.
Somehow, I don’t think this will be a winning platform, but at least he’s honest enough to espouse it:
“Burn the Constitution
By Seth Ackerman · In Spring 2011”
http://jacobinmag.com/spring-2011/burn-the-constitution/
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I would rather have boring conversations about interest rates though
John is fine because Don isn’t actually my real name either it’s an email name so I answer to almost anything!
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mark:
Blogging is a natural extension of being taught to be able to argue either side of a question, dontcha think?
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“markinaustin, on August 1, 2012 at 3:08 pm said:
I actually have knowledge that our QB is a truly first rate attorney, which does not preclude being a hidebound political theorist or an occasional SOB.”
QB gives as good as he receives and is more of an “eye for an eye” person when it comes to political debates on the Internet than a “turn the other cheek” person. My experience is if you are polite to QB, he reciprocates. If you aren’t polite to QB, he reciprocates.
However given the choice between QB, Scott, etc on one side and Cao and his ilk on the other, it’s an easy choice for me. Not even close.
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jnc, I mostly thought the piece was funny and would spark some debate but naturally cao had to jump in and change the subject. I was too chicken to post it here…….but now you have. I thought the coolness factor was hysterical but I probably wouldn’t agree on the Constitution stuff.
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jnc
However given the choice between QB, Scott, etc on one side and Cao and his ilk on the other, it’s an easy choice for me. Not even close.
I caught hell from some of my “friends” over there for even inviting QB and Scott over here and not Cao so I guess I’d have to agree with you. I remember one night defending banned’s right to exist over at the PL to Cao and Ddawd and it was literally some of the nastiest comments I’ve ever seen and then Liam hit me over the head when I defended Nova……………………..with friends like that….blah, blah, blah.
Creating ATiM didn’t go over very well with some of them so I’ve mostly stayed away from the PL anyway.
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Needless to say, I reject this:
For the record, I did and still do on occasion play Dungeons and Dragons.
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“lmsinca, on August 1, 2012 at 3:22 pm said:
jnc
However given the choice between QB, Scott, etc on one side and Cao and his ilk on the other, it’s an easy choice for me. Not even close.
I caught hell from some of my “friends” over there for even inviting QB and Scott over here and not Cao so I guess I’d have to agree with you. I remember one night defending banned’s right to exist over at the PL to Cao and Ddawd and it was literally some of the nastiest comments I’ve ever seen and then Liam hit me over the head when I defended Nova……………………..with friends like that….blah, blah, blah.
Creating ATiM didn’t go over very well with some of them so I’ve mostly stayed away from the PL anyway.”
You are always welcome on our side, just mind the guns. They are probably loaded.
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lms:
Regarding your link. I argued last week that the Constitution is a businees document written by businessmen and that the Bill Of Rights is the unbelievably “humanist” if you will add on, demanded by people not actually at the convention to protect themselves from those who were.
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“It is a measure of our current ideological morass that liberals, in their own enlightened and open-minded way, still masochistically embrace a throne-and-altar orthodoxy that subordinates the people’s will to a virtually unalterable diktat handed down by an ancient council of aristocratic, semi-deified lawgivers. At this very moment, when expansionary monetary policy and debt relief for homeowners are demanded by the Left to address the ongoing, grinding social crisis, it should not be forgotten that “a rage for paper money” and “an abolition of debts” were precisely the sorts of “wicked project[s]” that James Madison, writing in Federalist No. 10, specifically hoped his Constitution would rule out.
You would almost think Madison had been listening to Glenn Beck.”
http://jacobinmag.com/spring-2011/burn-the-constitution/
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If you read gold bugs they attribute 19th cemtury economic booms to the vast expansion of gold mining and gold supply and the current fiat problems of course to going off it.
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You are always welcome on our side, just mind the guns. They are probably loaded.
Did anyone ever determine what percentage of libertarians are women?
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john
Bill Of Rights is the unbelievably “humanist” if you will add on, demanded by people not actually at the convention to protect themselves from those who were.
Makes sense to me.
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jnc, do you know about the great rift between Madison and Hamilton over money and debt issues?
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I think I shall start calling banned/Hammilcar “Don John”. It has kind of a lady-killer-ish ring to it, and I picture him as a tall, handsome financier who wears a cape and top hat that he can doff to the ladies as he passes them in the street, much like NoVA.
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jnc:
Whatever you do, don’t let it get back to Cao.
And that almost made me spit a lovely gin dirty martini all over my screen! 🙂
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(Can you tell that I’m catching up after being tied up all day?)
mark:
I actually have knowledge that our QB is a truly first rate attorney
So do I; he and I have exchanged e-mails with our real names attached and I googled him; he’s got quite a nice practice from what I can tell. Luckily, my life has been largely devoid of lawyers in the first-person sense, so I have to go on what I see on web sites and such.
which does not preclude being a hidebound political theorist or an occasional SOB
Also true, which is why I’ve called him out on that last bit a couple times on PL. I think he’s better than some of the commenting he has done over there. Of course, he may just be blowing off steam that he doesn’t want to inflict on us.
I had no idea that JakeD is an actual lawyer. He honestly doesn’t post intelligently enough for me to have believed that, except that you say you know who he is. I do get a silent chuckle every time Chris insults qb; I also correspond with him via e-mail and I’ve told him that qb is, indeed, a lawyer and he doesn’t believe me, either.
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lms:
I caught hell from some of my “friends” over there
I totally missed that thread. . . although given what was going on in my real life at the time I guess that’s not too surprising. I wish I could have had your back, though!
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Michi
I wish I could have had your back, though!
Hey, no worries. It was worth it but it’s probably why I’m a little too invested in this place. Every time I think I’m just gonna quit with the blogging, I come back. I’d rather be here every day than over there. The PL is just too hostile for me, not that I’m a wuss or anything. And besides that I have trouble staying out of the fights, same problem here. I must have been a ref in a previous life.
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michi:
you have no idea!
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/419749149ee38bbc_large
That’s jnc on the left. He had just finished reading a Krugman column..
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lms–
It’s just plain impossible to have a conversation over there any more.
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Don John–
I knew it! I didn’t picture you with a beard, but . .
Too funny.
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Still pretty busy at work, and I know the quote is old, but I saw this Romnyy quote and had to share:
“I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that’s the America millions of Americans believe in. That’s the America I love.”
So have Scott and QB abandoned ATIM?
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ashot:
So have Scott and QB abandoned ATIM?
I haven’t…just very busy at work and at home. I’ve been trying to read every day, even though I haven’t commented. But I have to comment on this from jnc:
In fact, if actual governing experience was the metric, then [Johnson] is dramatically more qualified than Romney and probably more than Obama was in 2008.
If actual governing experience is the metric, and Johnson is “dramatically more qualified” than Romney, then there is no “probably” about it. It must be the case that Johnson is even more dramatically qualified than Obama was in 2008 because ex-governor Romney actually has chief-executive governing experience, whereas candidate Obama had quite literally none whatsoever.
The implication that Obama was more qualified in ’08 than Romney is now, particularly if governing experience is the metric, makes no logical sense at all.
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Ash
That was pretty funny from Romney but I still say Palin is the queen of word salad. Yello pasted a rather long Romney quote over at the PL and bolded the words free or freedom every time he used them………………..that was pretty funny also. I wonder what Obama’s word is though. That should keep someone busy for an hour or so this morning.
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“Did anyone ever determine what percentage of libertarians are women?”
Well, I know of one. Tonie Nathan. First woman to receive an electoral college vote.
If these trends continue!
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“ScottC, on August 2, 2012 at 6:17 am said:
…
If actual governing experience is the metric, and Johnson is “dramatically more qualified” than Romney, then there is no “probably” about it. It must be the case that Johnson is even more dramatically qualified than Obama was in 2008 because ex-governor Romney actually has chief-executive governing experience, whereas candidate Obama had quite literally none whatsoever.”
I was being generous to the President and counting legislative experience in government as the equilivent of executive experience in government. I’m well aware of the contrary arguments.
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I caught hell from some of my “friends” over there for even inviting QB and Scott over here and not Cao so I guess I’d have to agree with you
I feel the need to clarify this…………….everyone from the PL thought I was the one doing the inviting as well as creating the new site because I was the one whose email was out there. Scott was the first one to email me offering suggestions for an alternate site and I think he was the one who invited qb. Scott and Kevin first set the site up with okie and michi right behind them. I took the heat because I’m the bravest though…………………..haaaaahaaaaa.
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