Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
| Last | Change | Percent | |
| S&P Futures | 1400.9 | -1.5 | -0.11% |
| Eurostoxx Index | 2435.3 | 12.1 | 0.50% |
| Oil (WTI) | 93.51 | 0.6 | 0.69% |
| LIBOR | 0.435 | -0.003 | -0.57% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 82.31 | -0.244 | -0.30% |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 1.66% | 0.00% | |
| RPX Composite Real Estate Index | 189.6 | 0.5 |
The dog days of summer typically bring markets with no real news and no real motion. Today is one of those days. The equity futures are flat, and bonds / MBS are more or less flat as well.
The big news of the weekend was the choice of Ryan for VP. Is this market-moving? Not in the least.
Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Zandi are endorsing Senator Jeff Merkley’s plan to establish a trust to buy underwater, but performing, mortgages and refinance them. Of course there are large questions unanswered: At what price will these mortgages be bought? And who will do the refinancing? If the plan envisions private lenders refinancing underwater mortgages, how does the government propose to deal with put-back risk?
Here is another idea: Collateral Substitution. If you want to move, you can substitute a house of equal or higher value for the collateral. Suppose you live in a rust-belt city, with limited job prospects and you want to move to North Dakota, where the energy jobs are. You would be able to sell your current home without having to repay the loan, and then use the proceeds to buy a new home in ND.
Of course, if housing has already bottomed, then perhaps the correct thing to do is absolutely nothing and let the market recover on its own.
We haven’t talked about Facebook for a while. Suffice it to say that the stock didn’t live up to the pre-IPO hype. Starting Thursday, the lockups start expiring, which means pre-IPO investors and employees who were restricted will now be able to sell.
Filed under: Morning Report |
All Things in Moderation 
Time to short FB? Facebook, that is, and not FairlingtonBlade — he’s taller than me, in any case.
Ryan for VP? I thought the news of the weekend was the Spice Girls reunion at the closing ceremonies … Guess that didn’t move the markets either.
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I haven’t followed the whole Facebook deal that closely but this has to hurt.
more exciting challenges………….ouch
Facebook has confirmed that four high-ranking managers are moving on from the company, news that will fuel speculation that the social networking giant may suffer a talent drain in the wake of its IPO.
Asked for comment, a Facebook spokeswoman said on Thursday that Ethan Beard, director of platform partnerships; Kate Mitic, platform marketing director; Jonathan Matus, mobile platform marketing manager; and Ben Blumenfeld, design manager, have all in the past week or so resigned from the company.
The spokeswoman declined further comment, but each official addressed their departure from the company on Facebook and blog posts. In those public posts, the officials indicated that, while they enjoyed their time at Facebook, they are ready for new, more exciting challenges.
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lms
From the last thread:
“Ryan has continuously voted in favor of measures to expand all sorts of intrusive federal power, including making the PATRIOT Act permanent, enacting the Military Commissions Act to provide indefinite detention with no habeas corpus rights, implementing the Protect America Act to massively expand the U.S. Government’s power to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants, supporting a federal Constitutional amendment to deny same-sex couples the right to marry along with a law banning the ability of gay couples in D.C. to adopt children and the continuation of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, a Constitutional amendment to criminalize flag burning, and almost every proposed measure to restrict abortion rights”
Except for abortion, how exactly does that record differ with the President? (I don’t know the president’ss prior record on gay adoption, but since he was against gay marriage I’m assuming he was against gay adoption)
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I love Joe Stilglitz, but I don’t see how the piece above is anything other than HAMP in a new sundress. Am I missing something?
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how soon will Harry Reid tells us that someone told him that Ryan had an affair with Ayn Rand, even though he himself doesn’t know if it’s true or not.
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Will somebody please explain to me the process by which we decide the days that we have many posts or not. LOL
Is it like the 70’s involving the last number of our license plates? (I’m an odd number, so I guess everybody else must be even)
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John
Except for abortion, how exactly does that record differ with the President?
I know, but don’t remind me.
Regarding the number of posts, I think it’s just when the spirit moves us. I probably would have put up a post over the weekend but I was indisposed longer than I thought. I’m still a little iffy today if truth be told.
I thought the Ryan pick was somewhat smart on Romney’s part as he’s someone who scares Democrats I think. I don’t think his budget ideas will go over very well though and Romney can’t seem to define his ideas so who knows what will happen. I still haven’t even decided if I can make myself vote for Obama or not, not that it matters that much.
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“I thought the Ryan pick was somewhat smart on Romney’s part as he’s someone who scares Democrats I think. ”
Given that he was able to work with Wyden makes me wonder if that is rhetoric or reality.
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banned:
Will somebody please explain to me the process by which we decide the days that we have many posts or not. LOL
You have to become an editor to know all the secret handshakes and stuff. We could tell you, but then we’d have to ban you. As it were.
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you know that jnc always says he was running as a generic Republican and that clearly wasn’t working for him, so the Ryan move definitely pushes him off that, for better or worse.
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lms:
So you here for practice today, even though you’re hurt? You didn’t have to do that. You’ve already got the team made! Go sit in the ice tub and relax.
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Given that he was able to work with Wyden makes me wonder if that is rhetoric or reality.
I bet they both walk that back in a big hurry………………….lol It may have already begun even.
John, I’m here for real, except that I do have work to do. No ice/hot tubs for me today.
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” Given that he was able to work with Wyden makes me wonder if that is rhetoric or reality.”
Ryan’s ability to work with Wyden on one issue does not absolve him of writing what dems think of as an excessively austere budget.
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It’s a very clear electoral choice of philosophies I think, however neither of which are grounded in current economic reality.
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“however neither of which are grounded in current economic reality.”
welcome to DC. the monuments are best viewed in the evening. less crowds, better temps.
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even better on a warm weekday in January, which if climate changes continues will be virtually any of them.
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My favorite is the Korean in the snow. It’s eeire
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Jonathan Bernstein decides to leave the earth as we know it:
“It’s the opposite: Picking someone unknown — and someone who is very young and doesn’t have the conventional credentials (whether reasonable or not) for presidential nominations — is very much a potential problem for the team. Specifically, if Ryan stumbles early on, he could easily solidify a reputation as unqualified or unready for the presidency.”
As we discussed yesterday, Ryan has 7.5 times as much experience in Congress as Obama had when he declared. Furthermore he is Chairman of the House Budget Committee, whereas Obama had literally never run anything in his life after leaving college. Some observors of Illinois politics think that the primary reason that Obama even won his Senate seat was because Jack Ryan tried to make a swinger out of Jeri Ryan (now THAT kind of stupdity really is disqualifying!) although you can make the case either way given Illinois history in the Senate
It’s easy to say that Ryan may fail on ideological grounds, and certainly this election now offers people an excellent contrast in that regard.
However JB is just being a complete idiot here
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banned:
Some observors of Illinois politics think that the primary reason that Obama even won his Senate seat was because Jack Ryan tried to make a swinger out of Jeri Ryan…
Ryan’s campaign was the first one to which I ever donated $$. I am proud to have opposed Obama before most people in the nation had ever even heard of him. And I do feel the need to clarify the “swinger” story, as I think Ryan got completely hosed by the Chic Trib, which was even then carrying water for Obama.
The story was that, at some point in the distant past, JR had taken his then wife, actress Geri Ryan, to a few sex clubs. She was uncomfortable, and nothing was alleged to have actually happened at the clubs. Years later, during a somewhat contentious divorce and custody battle over their son, GR presented this story in an effort to influence the custody proceedings. Being somewhat close to an extremely contentious divorce and custody battle myself, I know these types of stories get embellished and played up by the lawyers, so who knows what the real story was. But regardless, the divorce records were sealed, by consent of both parties, because of GR’s fame in order to protect their son.
Once JR announced his Senate bid, in stepped the Chicago Tribune, suing to unseal the divorce records in order to look for dirt. They got the records unsealed, found the sex club allegation, and made it public. JR’s campaign blew up, and Obama won the Senate seat essentially unopposed. (Alan Keyes stepped in as a last minute replacement for Ryan, but he had no chance.)
This all occurred during the 2004 election season. You might recall that John Kerry, the then Democratic candidate for president, also had sealed divorce records. Strangely, the Chicago Trib never bothered to attempt to get those records unsealed. Nor, of course, did it try to get Dem Obama’s even-now secret academic records unsealed. It was only dirt on Republican Ryan that it was after.
Anyway, who knows what would have happened without this story, but there is every chance that Ryan would have defeated Obama, and we wouldn’t now be saddled with him as our president.
(Full disclosure…my brother knew and was friends with Jack Ryan, which is why I donated to his campaign.)
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I like the Vietnam Memorial late at night when the lighting is eerie. Haven’t seen MLK yet, and i was a little discomfitted by the ramlbing nature of the FDR one.
The hands down worst of all time is the WWII memorial though.
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I actually think thart ruk is pretty close to the right POV here:
“FACT Ryan is not a fiscal conservative he’s a supply sider! There is a huge difference. He’s Jack Kemp, not Joe Scarborough.”
at least if I had to choose either or .
I would tell him so if I didn’t have to listen to dawd, cao, and liam call me names in order to do so. lol
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I’ve only been to DC once, October of ’06, and fell in love with the Korean War Memorial but the Vietnam one brought me to tears. The Air Corps tried to get my dad back for Korea, even offered him his own plane, luckily, I was born and so he had a good excuse to say no. He always felt he used up his nine lives flying over Germany.
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I don’t get the WWII one. For the longest time, I thought the Marine Corps War Memorial WAS the WWII one.
The FDR one is too much with the symbolism. it’s rambling. unlike the one to Teddy on Roosevelt Island that nobody knows about.
MLK makes him look cold. i also think they tried to shoehorn him in somewhere on the Mall.
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“I bet they both walk that back in a big hurry………………….lol It may have already begun even.”
My money’s on Wyden disavowing and Ryan/Romney campaigning on it. We’ll be seeing Corey Booker like hostage video from him before the week is out. I also expect Erskin Bowles to disavow the nice things he’s said about Ryan and blame the failure of his commission on Ryan.
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Here’s the Bowles comments on the Ryan budget.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/13/video-erskine-bowles-says-ryan-budget-sensible-honest-serious/
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scott
yes it is a dirty trick, yes it was stupid thing to do, presuming it happened, for anybody who contemplates a career in politics, (also yes it is a very stupid thing to do for anybody married to Jeri Ryan, but that’s just a personal gloss)
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“We’ll be seeing Corey Booker like hostage video from him before the week is out.”
That’s a funny line
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Way OT but my son just called and said the winery that bought his grapes this year just came by and decided to begin the harvest on Thursday. We’re kind of excited as this is his first experience growing grapes. All he really does is make sure the timer stays on for the water though………………………….hahahahaha. Don’t get too excited he only has about 5 acres of plants and a very small winery bought them but it’s a start. The picture below is from several months ago, the vines are much larger now obviously. I guess the hot weather has pushed them to harvest a little earlier than expected and the humidity is also a concern. They’ve been getting evening thunder storms for the past week. Grapes like hot, dry weather, not hot, humid weather.
Wine Party for the ATiM Anniversary next year……lol
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lms:
He didn’t grow them . . .
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He didn’t plant them………………..they came with the property. He just tends them which is essentially water. Otherwise, a little pruning to keep the canopy large over the grapes for filtered sunlight and to protect from rain, but the winery does that as well. The grapes actually belong to the winery. A lot of the smaller wineries out here do that. He shares in the profit though, assuming there will be one.
Edit; He’s kind of a share cropper except he owns the land.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2012/08/sen_wyden_says_romney_is.html
that was fast
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lms
You missed my sarcasm sorry, I was playing on the Obama you didn’t build that line.
So not for no reason don’t I actually have a job blogging anywhere.
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Ooooops, sorry. Usually everyone misses my little jokes. I can’t imagine blogging for a living can you?
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Given the state of the market . . . is there a paid position available at ATIM?
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is there a paid position available at ATIM?
Talk to Scott……………………………..hahahahahaha
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“bannedagain5446, on August 13, 2012 at 10:47 am said:
you know that jnc always says he was running as a generic Republican and that clearly wasn’t working for him, so the Ryan move definitely pushes him off that, for better or worse.”
Yep. More than anything else the selection of Paul Ryan makes the election more of a choice than a referendum on the President, for better or for worse.
I’d also argue that this shows that both sides view it as a low turnout election where motivating the respective bases is more critical than trying to reach swing voters, etc.
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He didn’t build that . . . either.
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“lmsinca, on August 13, 2012 at 10:43 am said:
John
Except for abortion, how exactly does that record differ with the President?
I know, but don’t remind me.”
You know that there’s only one choice in the election if you actually are going to vote based on the candidates position on civil liberties, etc:
http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/front
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jnc
I have to decide what the most important issues are for me though. Everyone knows I agree that Obama’s record is atrocious on this issue as well as letting the financial geniuses survive virtually unscathed, but there are other important issues. Now that Ryan has joined the race I need to consider what a Romney/Ryan WH, R House and even R Senate might try to get away with.
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lms:
I meant to ask you about this yesterday, but got distracted.
Everyone knows I agree that Obama’s record is atrocious on this issue as well as letting the financial geniuses survive virtually unscathed…
What do you mean by “letting the financial geniuses survive virtually unscathed”?
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jnc:
What can I say? He isn’t going to be president. Look at how the votes for Nader in Florida may have made a difference in a bad way.
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“bannedagain5446, on August 13, 2012 at 2:07 pm said:
jnc:
What can I say? He isn’t going to be president. Look at how the votes for Nader in Florida may have made a difference in a bad way.”
Correct. I’m fortunate in that I’m indifferent between Romney and Obama. Both will sign whatever Congress ends up passing on the budget. Neither will do a veto on principle.
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Nova
We all predicted Wyden would back track a little. Actually though what he said makes a little sense. I like Wyden though.
Bipartisanship requires that you not make up the facts. I did not ‘co-lead a piece of legislation.’ I wrote a policy paper on options for Medicare. Several months after the paper came out I spoke and voted against the Medicare provisions in the Ryan budget. Governor Romney needs to learn you don’t protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments today sure won’t help promote real bipartisanship.”
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The first time I saw the Korean War monument I was out for an early morning run right after a snowstorm. . . I was just about the only person on the Mall for some reason, and I kept whipping around, sure that a guy in a helmet and poncho was following me. . . eerily, eerily realistic monument! The Vietnam one always makes me cry, and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve visited it.
The WWII one is generic war monument, and remarkably poorly placed. I thought the FDR and MLK ones are both too big.
My hands-down favorite is Jefferson’s.
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“Goose, do you read the two addresses in the Lincoln Memorial each time you are in D.C.? When I have the time, I go there, and to the ‘Nam Wall, and to the National Gallery. The NG is like decompressing from the first two stops.
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Governor Romney needs to learn you don’t protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments today sure won’t help promote real bipartisanship.”
Seems to me that Gov. Romney needs to learn that there are a lot of issues that aren’t best served by making things up.
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“Michigoose, on August 13, 2012 at 2:37 pm said:
Governor Romney needs to learn you don’t protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments today sure won’t help promote real bipartisanship.”
Seems to me that Gov. Romney needs to learn that there are a lot of issues that aren’t best served by making things up.”
I’d say this applies to President Obama as well.
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jnc:
“I’d say this applies to President Obama as well”
I’d say Obama has done pretty well making things up. He’s gotten further making things up than he ever would have gotten telling the truthe truth. Lots of people have voted, and will vote again, for him precisely because of the things he’s made up.
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I’m not sure what the WWII is a monument to, since the most prominent features are bizarrely enough the names of the fifty states. I understand the stars mean something, but I don’t think you should need a codebook for a monument.
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Worth a read:
Key Point:
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I’m going to beat jnc to the Matt Taibbi piece today. Of course I had to go back a ways to do it and I don’t think Taibbi anticipated Ryan as the VP pick.
The absurd thing is that Ryan’s act isn’t even politically courageous. It’s canny calculation, but courage it is not. It would be courageous if Ryan were, say, the president of the United States, and leaning on that budget with his full might. But Ryan is proposing a budget he knows would have no chance of passing in the Senate. He is simply playing out a part, a non-candidate for the presidency pushing a rhetorical flank for an out-of-power party leading into a presidential campaign year. If the budget is a hit with the public, the 2012 Republican candidate can run on it. If it isn’t, the Republican candidate can triangulate Ryan’s ass back into the obscurity from whence it came, and be done with him.
No matter what, Ryan’s gambit, ultimately, is all about trying to get middle-class voters to swallow paying for tax cuts for rich people. It takes chutzpah to try such a thing, but having a lot of balls is not the same as having courage.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/tax-cuts-for-the-rich-on-the-backs-of-the-middle-class-or-paul-ryan-has-balls-20110407#ixzz23SdptVmE
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lms:
I’m going to beat jnc to the Matt Taibbi piece today.
Why this obnoxious, ill-informed jerk keeps being linked to here is an enduring mystery. Perhaps we should change our name to Most Things in Moderation.
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scott:
yes i don’t demand virginity of any sort from a politician. Some things though are career enders (cue Anthony Weiner) even if the politician involved is a good man. If you can’t explain why the Patriot Act is very dangerous to the American people, you sure as hell can’t explain taking Jeri Ryan to a sex club.
forgive me if you think this is a non-sequitur. In Enter the Dragon the villain has what I thought was a great line
“It is difficult to associate these horrors with the proud civilizations that created them: Sparta, Rome, The Knights of Europe, the Samurai… They worshipped strength, because it is strength that makes all other values possible. Nothing survives without it. Who knows what delicate wonders have died out of the world, for want of the strength to survive.”
Who knows what masterful leaders we are losing today who won’t even run because of the level of scrutiny that will be subject to?
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banned:
Who knows what masterful leaders we are losing today who won’t even run because of the level of scrutiny that will be subject to?
Indeed. Although the level of scrutiny varies greatly depending on who you are. See Obama, ’08.
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lms:
Cue my column from the weekend about the dangers of “symbolic legislation” that as our friend Greg says is designed to contrast the differences between positions and box the other side (or sometimes your own) in
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jnc:
A global labor pool? Nah who would believe that? After all, just the thought of Chinese -made Olympic uniforms drove our Senate Majority Leader to bed with illness.
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jnc:
I’d say this applies to President Obama as well.
I’m not going to entirely disagree with you, but when Romney’s very first campaign ad was a lie (and the campaign admitted it and said that’s just how the game is played) he shoved his credibility right down the rabbit hole. There isn’t any equivalency–both sides are doing it, but one to a far greater degree.
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Mich:
I’m not going to entirely disagree with you, but when Romney’s very first campaign ad was a lie (and the campaign admitted it and said that’s just how the game is played) he shoved his credibility right down the rabbit hole.
It is just so amusing to me to see Obama supporters question the credibility of other politicians.
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I think TWS assumption here is ridiculous, but I do not believe for a second that Biden’s father told him that. Does anybody really believe this?
CAUTION, LINK TO SITE OF KNOWN NEOCONS AND BERNIE’S CABAL OF THOSE THAT CONTROL WASHINGTON AND HENCE, EVERYTHING.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-invokes-paul-ryans-deceased-father-question-vp-candidates-values_649913.html
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Of course, Mark! I also like the Hirschorn Museum, especially the statue garden. For many years my Dad had a false-color image from LandSat on display in the Air and Space Museum, but it was taken down about five years ago.
I’ve been to the American Indian Museum but wasn’t terribly impressed. . . perhaps it was too early, because it had only been open about a month at that point. I’ve never made it through the entire Holocaust Museum–they say that your visit should take about two hours (I think) but at that point I’m only about 2/3 of the way through it. That happens to me in every museum, though! 🙂
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mark:
The amazing thing is that he wrote them himself (and he did it in less words than it takes Aaron Sorkin to have one character ask another what they want for dinner)
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george:
Biden’s father was an anonymous Bain investor.
(this doesn’t sound like a man who would make such a statement)
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It was probably Neal Kinnock’s father that said it.
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McWing:
It was probably Neal Kinnock’s father that said it.
Heh. That was a good one.
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Another key point from Pearlstein:
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bsimon:
Yes that makes sense too, but what we don’t know is there any reason to believe the workers elsewhere aren’t just as above average at a lower cost?
Forgive me for trotting this one out again, but I have literally told my children that the reason you don’t want to be a 7/11 clerk isn’t just how the smock looks, but because even if you are the best 7/11 clerk in the world the difference between you and the second best isn’t going to make the owner enough money to pay you well.
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“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” — Brillat-Savarin
Yes, I’ve watched too much “Iron Chef.”
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Who was your favorite of the classics? And who’s your favorite of the current bunch?
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Michi:
Sakai’s knife skills were frickin’ awesome. I wish I had Chen’s equanimity when the going gets busy.
I haven’t watched too much of Iron Chef America. I like Batali and Symon though. Every time I see the “Chairman’s nephew,” I think about American Samurai.
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Scott–
Well, at least I amuse you.
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Mich:
It’s a bit of a fool’s errand under any circumstances to play the “my side is less dishonest than yours” game. All politicians are dishonest to one degree or another. It’s the nature of having to attract voters, especially nationally…you have to make a wide array of people with disparate opinions all think you agree with them. But after four years of Obama, even for those who are going to support him in ’12 because they like his policies and don’t like the R’s, I would have hoped that the scales of ’08 would have fallen from their eyes. He’s just a typical politician and deceives at least as much as the average pol.
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Mike–
Sakai for me, also (I loved his eyeglasses with the golden chain) and I’m partial to Symon and Geoffrey Zakarian, although it took me a little while to warm up to him (too much watching him on “Chopped”, I suppose).
On ongoing pet peeve of mine is the way they overdub Morimoto. The man speaks perfectly good English, for pete’s sake! And they do it on every show that he appears on on Food Network. Enough!!
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That was comedy gold I tell, gold!
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George/Scott:
Just like Selma vs Frederick Hayek one of you is going to have to explain the Kinnock remark to me. . .
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Mich:
one of you is going to have to explain the Kinnock remark to me. . .
When Biden ran for the D nomination way back in ’88 he had a stump speech in which he spoke about his family background, their struggles, being the first one to go to university, yadda, yadda. It turned out that he had essentially cribbed the speech, or at least major parts of it, from a British politician, Neil Kinook. He even took liberties with his own family’s history (shocker!) in order to make it fit the speech.
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scott:
I’ve always wondered what they had on Mario Cuomo, though I have no idea if he would have made a good president.
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Banned:
I’ve always wondered what they had on Mario Cuomo
I know what you mean, though if there was something that big, it’s hard to imagine it not coming up in a NY gubernatorial race. I think he just missed his timing. He bagged out in ’92 because Bush I looked so unbeatable. Then Clinton got in and took over the party, and by 2000 he wasn’t a someone anymore.
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He’s just a typical politician and deceives at least as much as the average pol.
I suppose so, but my point is that Romney has elevated things to a whole new level in deceitfulness. I guess that would make him above average.
I will also say that, on Romney’s part, that isn’t a new characteristic. He lied a lot about things large and small when he was here single-handedly saving our Olympics.
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Mich:
but my point is that Romney has elevated things to a whole new level in deceitfulness.
In light of Obama’s ’08 campaign and 4 year tenure (to take just one politico for example) that is a near impossible thing to believe. I suspect you are simply more sensitive to Romney’s questionable claims than to Obama’s, since you probably want to believe Obama and you already don’t believe Romney.
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michi:
“AT BOSTON PRESS CONFERENCE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & MASS GOV DUKAKIS SAYS HIS CAMPAIGN MANAGER SASSO INFORMED HIM THAT HE SENT A VIDEOTAPE TO THE NY TIMES; DES MOINES REGISTER; & NBC SHOWING THEN-CANDIDATE BIDEN USING EXCERPTS FROM A SPEECH THAT MIRRORS A SPEECH DELIVERED BY BRITISH LABOUR PARTYS KINNOCK. ”
From Michi–ah thanks. The reason his first Presidential campaign fell apart. Now I get it. Yes, quite good, McWing! Pip, pip.
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Hey, Don Juan, did you happen to do any commenting over on Benen’s site today? I scrolled (without reading) through some of the comments just to see what Donna had to say and I didn’t see her avatar at all. Does she just come out of the floorboards when you appear?
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stalkers are always there when you need them
If you ever see 30 Rock they even had an episode about that when Jane Krakowski has her first Valentine’s Day without her stalker and the kid who is the page has to step in for him
I only had feedback from “slappy” today and sue of all people who challenged me on one thing I posted
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Forgive me for posting a few thoughts from the Happy Hour Roundup here:
“I’ll start with Brad DeLong on Ryan: It’s the arithmetic. Don’t take a politician seriously until he or she gets that part right.”
This from the guy who made the serious proposition that we should borrow one trillion dollars over 2 years to spend on infrustructure.
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“3. Ryan is a flat-out partisan, not a deal-maker. Jonathan Chait has the goods on this one.
4. James Fallows talks to political scientist Sam Popkin about the Ryan selection; Popkin leans to the “co-opting Ryan” side of the question.
5. So does Josh Barro, who points out that it would be useful to a President Romney to have Paul Ryan on board if he wants to defy House conservatives.”
So why would Ryan help Romney defy conservatives, if he’s a partisan and not a deal maker?
I think we can see that Ryan is going to be an all purpose devil. This is exactly why he never should have taken the nomination.
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banned:
I think we can see that Ryan is going to be an all purpose devil.
And this is different from how D’s have dealt with every other R in past elections…how exactly?
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Jusr rhetorically speaking, how can Democrats detail all the things that Ryan voted FOR like Tarp extended medicare benefits etc, as hypocrisy and then argue that he’s a partisan not a deal maker?
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how can Democrats detail all the things that Ryan voted FOR like Tarp extended medicare benefits etc, as hypocrisy and then argue that he’s a partisan not a deal maker?
Easy John, those were all under a Republican President. He hardly had to deal to vote for them, he just had to be willing to see the deficit sky rocket. Now, not so much, on both the deficit or deal making.
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Something I don’t get even though I’m a Democrat ( i swear I actually am)
I keep reading that everything is the fault of the Republicans in Congress. Now if we accept that as a given, Democrats are the still the majority party by at least 6 points I beleive in registration nationally. Why blame the other guys for electing their people when if your people turn out you’ve got the House, Senate and Presidency guranteed?
Did anybody expect they were going to lay down and die? (at least a few years before they do so literally)
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banned:
Democrats are the still the majority party by at least 6 points I beleive in registration nationally.
Not if you count independents who outnumber both parties.
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“During House floor debate on Sept. 29, 2008, Ryan said the TARP legislation “offends my principles.” But he added, “I’m going to vote for this bill in order to preserve my principles. In order to preserve this free enterprise system.”
Calling the vote a “Herbert Hoover moment,” Ryan added: “Just maybe this will work. And so for me and for my own conscience, so I can look myself in the mirror tonight and so I can go to sleep with a clear conscience, I want to know that I did everything I could to stop it from getting worse”
and
“In 2003, Ryan also voted to create the Medicare prescription drug benefit, whose cost — initially estimated at $400 billion over a decade, according to the Los Angeles Times — so rankled conservatives that House Republican leaders had to take extraordinary efforts to pass the legislation by a razor-thin majority. That included holding the vote open for hours in the wee hours of the morning.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79688_Page2.html#ixzz23TfFbbfv
He also voted for the auto bailout under Obama
I think socially, he’s more conservative than he is fiscally. This whole Ryan budget stuff is relatively new for him, as I proposed this weekend.
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John, I personally don’t know how to answer that question but I also don’t agree that everything is the fault of Republicans. I just think it’s rich when candidates seem more than willing to be deficit increasing hawks when Republicans are in power but suddenly find newly minted courage and conscience when Democrats hold the WH.
I also think Ryan has changed the dynamics of this race and it just got a whole lot more interesting. Romney/Ryan just might get me at least to vote for Obama/Biden again.
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scott:
Spitzer had reportedly used prostitutes for years but it never came up in the NY gubernatorial election, only when he started to be mentioned in P and VP lists. I think NY and LA have a very high tolerance for personal foibles, possibly more than anywhere else in the country.
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scott
they don’t register that way I believe but damn me if I can find a decent reference while watching the Cowboys Raiders game
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I’m bushed for tonight, see y’all manana.
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lms
Ice it down, and then heat tomorrow!
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lms:
Yay, vote, no matter for whom VOTE!
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banned:
Yay, vote, no matter for whom VOTE!
It’s interesting….whenever I hear laments about poor voter turnout, 50%, 60%, whatever, I can’t help but think to myself, thank God for low voter turnout. I think most people are low/no information voters. The fewer such people who vote, the better I think. (Unless, of course, they are voting for my guy, in which case I’ll take all the help I can get!)
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apologize to all for being a bloghog recently
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DJ:
Meh. You know we love you here. . . or at least will never call you a moron or a racist. Or claim that you’re a (gasp!!) Republican!
😉
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True, I will certainly never mistake banned for a Republican.
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Scott:
(Unless, of course, they are voting for my guy, in which case I’ll take all the help I can get!)
Another thing which unites us all across ideological lines!
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scott:
but like all unscrupulous attorneys I have no problem defending Republicans.
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“I think socially, he’s more conservative than he is fiscally. This whole Ryan budget stuff is relatively new for him, as I proposed this weekend.”
I know you’re defending your thesis here, but don’t forget he’s also a committee Chairman and as such, owes a certain amount of allegiance to the Leadership to have gotten and to keep that chairmanship. He could be a fiscal conservative (for the most part) and think he’d do more long term good as the budget committee chairman rather than a Paul like purist.
Further, why wouldn’t he take the nomination? he looses his Chairmanship next term anyway. Why not raise his national profile? His budget, contrary to another of your theories, has not yet resulted in his career suicide.
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Being wingman to Romney is not a good way to raise your national profile in my opinion. Being a failed VP candidate has never worked for anybody else but FDR, that I am aware of. The media will beat him with baseball bats for 4 months while Christie, Rubio, etc will say what a shame it is that they lost (snicker, snicker)
UNLESS of course the economy still goes to hell in the fall and then who knows
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So, it’s not his budget now that is career suicide, but the VP nomination by Romney? He was always going to be demonized by Mediscaring during this campaign anyway, at least now he can defend and counter that demonization. In that light, the only rational thing to do is beg for the VP nomination. Without it, he get’s shit all over by Obama et al and has to remain silent. Now, he can use his fairly effective rhetorical skills to counter it. His profile gets raised but now at least with some balance. Considering what the Democrats and the
Media did to Palin, it’s smart to be front and center. Look, it’s your narrative but I think you should really check your foundations on this one.
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Well, this startling exposé certainly sheds new light on Rep. Ryan! jnc will no doubt be thrilled to see that he’s really a Gary Johnson man.
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Just don’t read the link, then, Scott. Some of us enjoy Taibbi’s writing, whether we always agree with it or not.
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Mich:
Just don’t read the link, then, Scott.
I have to. When people here link to him as if he is saying something useful, I feel compelled to set them straight, and I feel obligated to actually read something before criticizing it.
I guess I just don’t understand what what could possibly be enjoyable about reading someone whose schtick is to be an obnoxious prick, especially when he is either unknowledgeable or dishonest about what he is writing about. I agree with a lot of what Ann Coulter says, but she is intentionally an obnoxious provocateur, and so I don’t really find her enjoyable. Taibbi is the same. He does little more than throw red meat to unquestioning true believers.
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I feel compelled to set them straight
Ah, but sooner or later you’ll have to come to accept the fact that you aren’t the final arbiter of what is correct.
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Mich:
Ah, but sooner or later you’ll have to come to accept the fact that you aren’t the final arbiter of what is correct.
Reality is the final arbiter of what is correct. I just try to point out reality where it seems to go unrecognized. Like in most Taibbi pieces that get linked here.
The thing is, Taibbi doesn’t really try to inform or educate his audience. He rants and tries to inflame true believers. He is an evangelical preacher, not a real thinker. And he is a jerk about it, which makes the attraction even more inexplicable to me, at least for people here. I guess being an obnoxious prick is OK, as long as the target is the right target.
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Scott
I’m not going to apologize for linking a piece from an author that you don’t care for. I’m mindful of the things I say and the way I say them but I don’t think we have too many restrictions in what we read and then share here. I can’t always get through some of Nova’s or McWing’s links either but I don’t disparage their right to put them up. This would be a very sterile place indeed if we whitewashed all the political commentary out there and limited ourselves to a select group of media personalities. I thought Taibbi’s comments from a previous piece were interesting considering that Ryan is now the VP pick.
Regarding the Obama/Holder/Geithner record on prosecuting financial crime, some of us believe they have been less than stellar. It’s one of the issues that bothers my conscience, the other is civil liberty issues, and is why I’m having so much trouble attaching my vote to Obama/Biden this time around. I don’t like it when our elected and non-elected officials pick and choose which laws are important and which they can ignore for the sake of expediency or the ends justifying the means. I believe that’s what they’re doing and I’m not afraid of being critical of it because I lean in their direction.
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lms:
I’m not going to apologize for linking a piece from an author that you don’t care for.
No one asked you to or suggested you should. Are you saying I should apologize for wondering why you linked to him?
I don’t disparage their right to put them up.
No one “disparaged” your right to put anything up. Are you disparaging my right to question why anyone thinks Taibbi is worth linking to?
I thought Taibbi’s comments from a previous piece were interesting considering that Ryan is now the VP pick.
I thought Taibbi’s comments were typical of his obnoxious preaching, and I don’t understand why anyone finds him informative or interesting.
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I just try to point out reality where it seems to go unrecognized.
In your opinion.
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Mich:
In your opinion
It goes without saying that my perception of reality is the only perception available to me.
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Scott
I feel compelled to set them straight
Unfortunately, I don’t really need another daddy to set me straight. I had one already thanks. There’s a right way and a wrong way to criticize and it’s my opinion you picked the wrong way this time. I realize you don’t like Taibbi, you’ve made that clear but you seem to be suggesting that I, at least, shouldn’t put his pieces up anymore because you don’t approve in the spirit of ATiM. If I misinterpreted your meaning, I apologize.
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lms:
Unfortunately, I don’t really need another daddy to set me straight.
Daddy? Not sure where that comes from, but I do think that anyone who accepts what Taibbi writes at face value is generally being misinformed and I feel compelled to point it out.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to criticize…
Is Taibbi’s piece on Ryan the right way to criticize?
but you seem to be suggesting that I, at least, shouldn’t put his pieces up anymore
You should do whatever you want. I am just suggesting that the attraction of Taibbi to people here remains a mystery to me. He is not a voice of reason.
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It goes without saying that my perception of reality is the only perception available to me.
How very solipsistic of you! Can you agree that some of us might disagree with your perception and, in our own perceptions, be right? In particular, your comment to lms that
No one “disparaged” your right to put anything up.
seems to me to be directly contradictory to your statement here
Why this obnoxious, ill-informed jerk keeps being linked to here is an enduring mystery. Perhaps we should change our name to Most Things in Moderation.
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Mich:
How very solipsistic of you!
Not in the slightest, actually. Recognizing that one perceives reality through one’s own mind does not at all imply that self is the only thing that can be known. In fact, quite the opposite is implied.
Can you agree that some of us might disagree with your perception and, in our own perceptions, be right?
Certainly you may disagree with my perception of external reality, but you can only be right if I am wrong. And since I obviously don’t think I am wrong, I necessarily must think you are wrong if you disagree with me.
seems to me to be directly contradictory to your statement here
It may seem that way to you, but it isn’t directly contradictory. At most it might be said to be only indirectly contradictory, and then only if one assumes that my comment about a name change indicated a restriction on what people have a right to post here. But it didn’t. I think people have a right to post pretty much whatever they want here…including suggestions that obnoxious pricks like Taibbi are less than moderate.
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Here’s an “interesting” piece from a Country Wide whistle blower detailing just some of what I find to be this administrations failures regarding financial crime. It’s in Rollingstone so beware.
Years after the onset of the financial crisis, caused in large part by deceptive lending, not one executive has been charged and imprisoned – either for fraud or obstruction of justice. For comparison, consider that prosecutors cleaning up the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s sent more than 800 bank officials to jail.
In 2010, I was interviewed by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) and offered evidence of systemic fraud. Other whistleblowers have done the same. The Commission’s report concluded that fraudulent actions were systemic in certain financial institutions, and referred these practices to federal authorities. Not a single successful criminal prosecution has resulted.
President Obama’s DOJ claims that prosecutors can’t indict and convict financial executives just because they behaved badly; greed, they say, is not a crime. Together with other FCIC witnesses, however, I alleged fraud, not greed, and that is a crime. The DOJ needs to investigate our allegations, and prosecutors could start by contacting whistleblowers like me. We have a lot to say, but many of us are gagged by our former employers unless subpoenaed.
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You should do whatever you want.
Thanks and right now I choose to move on.
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lms:
I choose to move on.
Fair enough, but before you do, can you tell me if Taibbi’s take on Ryan is the “right” way to criticize?
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you can only be right if I am wrong
Not true. We can disagree without either of us being wrong. Or right, I suppose.
I think that your definition of both “disparaging” and “solipsism” are different than mine.
And now I must run. . . but this was an interesting philosophical discussion.
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Mich:
We can disagree without either of us being wrong.
Not about external reality.
BTW, solipsism.
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Scott:
whenever I hear laments about poor voter turnout, 50%, 60%, whatever, I can’t help but think to myself, thank God for low voter turnout. I think most people are low/no information voters.
Of course, low turnout doesn’t necessarily mean that the percentage of low/no information voters is different than in the population at large. They may just be motivated low/no information voters.
The non-Presidential primary for FL is today. 26/2075 voted in my precinct by 8 am, with about 9% overall early votes in Hillsborough County. Our school board is going to be elected by <25% of the voting population.
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Mike:
They may just be motivated low/no information voters.
That is a fair point. But I do suspect that if a person is not motivated enough to go out and vote, they are likely also to be not motivated enough to get informed about relevant issues. So I am more than happy to see them sit out. The notion that one should vote just for the sake of voting, and it doesn’t matter who you vote for or why, is I think a bad notion.
From a partisan political point of view, it obviously makes sense to make efforts to “get out the vote” among demographics most likely to vote for your party. But from a non-partisan point of view, I don’t think generic “get out the vote” drives are good for the system at all. They probably result in a lot of uninvolved, uninformed voters casting votes for candidates and policies they know little or nothing about.
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Scott, I’m not suggesting we adopt Taibbi’s rhetorical skills in criticizing our politicians, although it’s done here occasionally, I’m suggesting that I don’t appreciate being criticized for linking one of his pieces here. You can disparage him all you want, he’s fair game, but please don’t disparage me or try to suggest that I should be more careful in who I link or even read, which seems to be what you’re suggesting. As I said if I misinterpreted your criticism, I apologize.
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lms:
but please don’t disparage me or try to suggest that I should be more careful in who I link or even read
I didn’t, any more than you are disparaging me or trying to suggest I should be more careful about mentioning attractions to writers that I find inexplicable.
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” I don’t think generic “get out the vote” drives are good for the system at all.”
I agree with that. I also don’t like registration drives. The idea that you can set up outside a grocery store and fill out voter registration forms seems wrong to me.
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“Michigoose, on August 13, 2012 at 9:46 pm said:
Well, this startling exposé certainly sheds new light on Rep. Ryan! jnc will no doubt be thrilled to see that he’s really a Gary Johnson man.”
My favorite recent Onion piece:
And of course the best Onion article ever:
“Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In
July 14, 2008 | ISSUE 44•29 More News”
http://www.theonion.com/articles/recessionplagued-nation-demands-new-bubble-to-inve,2486/
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I of course am a prime Taibbi linking offender. He’s a classic muckraker, and I prefer writers who dispense with the false pretense of objectivity and instead make their biases clear up front.
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jnc:
I prefer writers who dispense with the false pretense of objectivity and instead make their biases clear up front.
One can be both honest about one’s biases but still attempt to inform/convince through objective reason. Taibbi does not try to inform/convince. He is a fire breathing ranter. All he is doing is trying to stoke up those who already hold his biases, and provoke/irritate those who oppose them. If he truly believes much of his spin on things, he is an ignoramus, and if he doesn’t he is a charlatan.
He is little more than a slightly less offensive cao. Again, I find the attraction to him here inexplicable.
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jnc
I of course am a prime Taibbi linking offender
I see you bought Scott’s framing that we’re the offenders………………………… 😉
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lms:
I see you bought Scott’s framing that we’re the offenders
I didn’t frame anyone as an “offender”.
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We’re all offenders.
the average American now unwittingly commits 3 felonies a day because of vague laws
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842.html
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Scott:
They probably result in a lot of uninvolved, uninformed voters casting votes for candidates and policies they know little or nothing about.
I suspect that the majority of voters know little about the policies and stances of the candidates for whom they have voted. Or they are misinformed about the candidates, through chain e-mails, word-of-mouth, etc.
Then there are those idiots who spend hours trying to find relevant information about each candidate so they can make an informed choice, knowing that their vote counts exactly the same as the person that just votes for the person at the top of the list. It’s not so easy to track down information on Florida judges and judicial candidates ….
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We’re all offenders
Haaahaaaahaaaahaaaa. You’ll have to excuse Scott and I, we’re like oil and water most of the time, I’m water. And it’s a toss up who’s the most stubborn.
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nova:
the average American now unwittingly commits 3 felonies a day because of vague laws
I’m probably committing theft from the FL government right now by posting a comment on a non-work-related website.
What laws are you breaking now?
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Speaking of dumb laws, I’ve been doing a lot of driving around the last couple weeks in the northeast, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and I’ve noticed that each state has different laws regulating the simple task of pumping gas.
In New Jersey, you are not allowed to pump your own gas. Only paid professional gas pumpers are allowed touch the gas pumps. In New York, amateurs are allowed to pump their own gas, but the lever on the pump handle that allows the pumper to pump automatically without holding the pump has been removed. You have to hold the trigger manually the whole time you are pumping. I guess Connecticut really doesn’t care about it’s citizens, since it not only allows amateurs to pump gas, but it also allows the auto-pump lever.
No doubt there was some safety rationale driving these laws, but seeing them just reinforces my opposition to the increasing role of federal power. Instead of dumb laws being inflicted on a small state population, they will end up inflicting the whole nation.
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“ScottC, on August 14, 2012 at 8:44 am said: Edit Comment
jnc:
I prefer writers who dispense with the false pretense of objectivity and instead make their biases clear up front.
One can be both honest about one’s biases but still attempt to inform/convince through objective reason. Taibbi does not try to inform/convince. He is a fire breathing ranter. All he is doing is trying to stoke up those who already hold his biases, and provoke/irritate those who oppose them. If he truly believes much of his spin on things, he is an ignoramus, and if he doesn’t he is a charlatan.
He is little more than a slightly less offensive cao. Again, I find the attraction to him here inexplicable.”
I find Taibbi varies by article. For example, I found the pieces on Jefferson County and the bid rigging scandal (not LIBOR) pieces to have more value than the regular political pieces.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-main-street-20100331
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-from-the-mafia-20120620
Taibbi is also calmer in his TV appearances than his writing would suggest:
http://billmoyers.com/segment/matt-taibbi-and-yves-smith-on-the-follies-of-big-banks-and-government/
I do get your reaction though as being akin to hearing fingernails going down a chalkboard when you see ill informed opinions stated as facts. I have the same reaction to the “facts” that are presented in the Aaron Sorkin HBO series “The Newsroom” on a regular basis, as does Steve Pearlstein:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lets-shatter-the-myth-on-glass-steagall/2012/07/27/gJQASaOAGX_story.html
I do believe you go too far to compare him to Cao. Cao wishes death camps on his political opponents on a weekly basis, and also behaves in a way that is consistent with that philosophy with those individuals that he interacts with directly . He’s the spiritual heir of Pol Pot, lacking only the actual means to carry out his agenda. Taibbi is no where near that. Comparing someone to Cao, should be treated like a Hitler comparison.
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jnc:
I found the pieces on Jefferson County and the bid rigging scandal (not LIBOR) pieces to have more value than the regular political pieces.
The Jeff County piece is actually a good example of what I am talking about. His conclusions are driven entirely by his desire to demonize the bankers involved, not by an actual analysis of the situation. He drew several false inferences/conclusions for his audience which I was able to clarify and correct based on the information he had provided only because of my knowledge/experience of the derivatives market. The average person with no fixed income experience would have had no idea. And his carelessness with facts regarding things I do know about, in the service of his idiotic rhetoric and demonization, make me trust him even less with things I am less informed about. I confess that I don’t understand how you, of all people, can find him valuable. Like I said, his purpose is clearly not to inform or convince his audience. His purpose is simply to inflame, insult, and rile up the true believers.
I do believe you go too far to compare him to Cao
Well, I did say he was a slightly less offensive version. But given the bile he regularly aims at his targets, I won’t lose too much sleep over an unfair comparison to cao (about whom, btw, I share your analysis.)
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“lmsinca, on August 14, 2012 at 8:55 am said:
We’re all offenders
Haaahaaaahaaaahaaaa. You’ll have to excuse Scott and I, we’re like oil and water most of the time, I’m water. And it’s a toss up who’s the most stubborn.”
I’m a repeat offender. I will offend again.
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If we restricted ourselves to linking to only ‘moderate’ articles we would be limited to the range between Richard Cohen and David Brooks which would make for very boring discussion.
I find Tabbibi’s reporting very accurate even if his rhetoric is histronic.
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yello:
If we restricted ourselves to linking to only ‘moderate’ articles…
No one suggested such a thing. But I do find it ironic that the writer who is probably the most linked to here at All Things in Moderation is also almost certainly the least moderate writer to be linked at ATiM.
I find Tabbibi’s reporting very accurate even if his rhetoric is histronic
His pieces here that I have read have been routinely inaccurate, not least because of his framing of the things he is talking about. And to call what Taibbi does “reporting” is like calling a barroom brawl “boxing”. He is not a reporter. He is more akin to a propagandist.
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The New Jersy rule is designed to raise the price to equalize it versus neighboring states. Since so many refineries are in NJ they have a competitive advantage. Full service in NJ is still cheaper than self serve elsewhere.
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seems like Jersey residents should benefit from having refiners nearby.
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“yellojkt, on August 14, 2012 at 9:48 am said:
The New Jersy rule is designed to raise the price to equalize it versus neighboring states. Since so many refineries are in NJ they have a competitive advantage. Full service in NJ is still cheaper than self serve elsewhere.”
I don’t see evidence of that:
http://www.newjerseygasprices.com/
vs
http://www.virginiagasprices.com/
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Scott:
An abstract from a paper on rational voter ignorance for you:
“For decades, scholars have recognized that most citizens have little or no political knowledge, and that it is in fact rational for the average voter to make little effort to acquire political information. This article shows that rational ignorance is fully compatible with the so-called paradox of voting because it will often be rational for citizens to vote, but irrational for them to become well-informed. Furthermore, rational ignorance leads not only to inadequate acquisition of political information but also to ineffective use of such information as citizens do possess. The combination of these two problems has fundamental implications for a variety of issues in public policy and international affairs, including the desirable size and scope of government, the need for judicial review, the division of power within a federal system, and the conduct of the War on Terror. “
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I don’t see evidence of that
I should have been more specific and said ‘lower than surrounding states‘. In that table, remember that New Jersey prices incorporate the premium for mandatory full service. Nobody drives from New Jersey to Virgina to take advantage of gas price arbitrage. I try to never leave New Jersey with an empty tank of gas since Maryland is usually mch more expensive than Jersey.
State taxes are a factor which probably dwarf distribution costs advantages. Filling up in North Carolina once I noticed a large sticker on the pump listing all the taxes in the region by state as a way of apologizing for relatively high pump prices.
As for the advantages of self-pump versus full-service, a full service attendant is exposed to hazardous fumes all day as part of his or her employment while customers are only exposed for a few minutes every few days at most. The latter seems much healthier than the former.
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“ScottC, on August 14, 2012 at 2:08 pm said:
jnc:
I found the pieces on Jefferson County and the bid rigging scandal (not LIBOR) pieces to have more value than the regular political pieces.
The Jeff County piece is actually a good example of what I am talking about. His conclusions are driven entirely by his desire to demonize the bankers involved, ”
Given the actual bribery and payoffs to Goldman Sachs by Chase in the Jefferson County case, Taibbi didn’t have to work to hard at demonizing the bankers in the article. The facts did that for him, although he was happy to pour gasoline on the fire.
However, a careful reading of the article did tell you that, yes, the original impetus for the sewer system was a consent decree forced on the County by the EPA and that the root problem with the financing was the divergence between a municipal bond index rate and LIBOR. That’s more than you get from most mainstream media accounts, assuming they would ever cover the story in the first place.
I suppose at the end of the day I find the actual behavior in question to be more offensive than Taibbi’s characterization of it.
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jnc:
Given the actual bribery and payoffs to Goldman Sachs by Chase in the Jefferson County case, Taibbi didn’t have to work to hard at demonizing the bankers in the article.
I disagree. In my mind the bribery is actually a much bigger indictment of the politicians involved, and the people who voted them into office. If politicians demand bribes in order to do business with the government, businessmen don’t have much choice in the matter if they want to do business. A reasoned analysis of the situation would have focused at least as much, and I think much more, on government corruption as on the bankers. But Taibbi is not interested in reasoned analysis or educating his readers. So naturally, in his populist fury, he totally ignores the voters responsibility for electing corrupt politicians, and is satisfied with a couple of one-liner slams on the politicians themselves, so that he can focus his real wrath on his own blind obsessions.
As for the payment to Goldman, Taibbi spends no time whatsoever explaining it, giving virtually no details apart from a subsequent politicians’ characterization of it as a violation of antitrust laws against anticompetitive behavior. (What isn’t a violation of some part of the morass of contradictory antitrust laws?) He leaves it impossible for the reader to make his own informed judgement about it. That ought to be no surprise, however, as his goal is plainly not to actually inform or convince critical thinkers of anything, but is rather to throw red meat to his audience of rabid Wall Street haters.
I could go on. His “explanation” of the effects of fixed vs floating financing, and the role swaps played in the process, show that either he is ignorant of it himself or he wants his audience to be. He throws in market lingo in an effort to demonstrate that he really is in the know, but he can’t even get such little things right, referring to a “synthetic rate swap” when actually what he is talking about is a synthetic fixed rate bond, ie a floating bond swapped into a fixed rate. If you really want me to fisk his discussion of the swaps involved, I will. But suffice it to say for now, Taibbi is not one you want to be relying on if you are going to be drawing conclusions about the things he is writing about.
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