OS believes in reading a wide variety of views, since he has the same bad habit as everyone else: Reading stuff that always reinforces what one already believes.
Bob McTeer is an essentially sober soul, with an impressive resume.
He takes the view that TARP, the extraordinary Fed actions, etc., were necessary and did avert a worse disaster. And, that the current course of governmental spending is unsustainable.
There's a lot left unsaid here, that OS wishes would be said, especially about the moral hazard baked into the culture--'If I'm a really big player, I can be reckless, 'cuz help is always on the way.' Think AIG...
But, still, perhaps his little piece of turf is something everyone could stand on while they work out the painful details of WhatHappensNext.
Showing posts with label Bernanke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bernanke. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Monday, November 8, 2010
Plain English, Black Humor: The Fed's QE2 Announcement Translated For The Rest Of Us
This, in OS's humble opinion, is eye-wateringly funny.
(You'll need to click the link to understand...)
An intrepid soul at Slate Labs has created a tool to allow the translation of obtuse, jargon-filled articles, designed to mask the truth from the reader, into Plain English.
The tool itself is called 'Plain English', it's still in development, and the possibilities are breathtaking, if it were to be employed widely.
It works like this: Each original phrase is highlighted. Click the phrase, and the Plain English version appears. Since OS doesn't have the tool, he'll have to just describe it:
(In this example, the latest pronouncement from WeimarBen and the Fed is translated.)
The original phrase is--Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September confirms that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow.
The Plain English version is--The economy still sucks.
The translation gets funnier from there.
A few days back, OS noted that candor comes with a terrible price to the one willing to exercise it. That's 'cuz the jargonistas have taken over, and have learned to use language as a means of confusion rather than communication. Then when normalistas (you know, people who have consciences and think that words have meaing) encounter this nonsense and melt down in frustration, the jargonistas calmly look over their glasses, chide normal people for being stupidly ill-tempered, and call security.
We may finally have a weapon with which to fight back! Plain English! Laughter! It's the secret of Mel Brooks' genius--Blazing Saddles and The Producers are both great examples of Plain English humor.
If nothing else, it can help relieve the stress. Hells-bells, ever'body! When the Fed just got through printing up 1.2 trillion dollars out'ta thin air to buy up damn-near ever' mortgage in the country, then decides to throw another 800 billion on the fire, just fer good measure, ya just gotta laugh!
It may well all end in tears, but we gotta keep morale up, one household at a time, 'cuz life will have to go on, on way or t'uther.
(You'll need to click the link to understand...)
An intrepid soul at Slate Labs has created a tool to allow the translation of obtuse, jargon-filled articles, designed to mask the truth from the reader, into Plain English.
The tool itself is called 'Plain English', it's still in development, and the possibilities are breathtaking, if it were to be employed widely.
It works like this: Each original phrase is highlighted. Click the phrase, and the Plain English version appears. Since OS doesn't have the tool, he'll have to just describe it:
(In this example, the latest pronouncement from WeimarBen and the Fed is translated.)
The original phrase is--Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September confirms that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow.
The Plain English version is--The economy still sucks.
The translation gets funnier from there.
A few days back, OS noted that candor comes with a terrible price to the one willing to exercise it. That's 'cuz the jargonistas have taken over, and have learned to use language as a means of confusion rather than communication. Then when normalistas (you know, people who have consciences and think that words have meaing) encounter this nonsense and melt down in frustration, the jargonistas calmly look over their glasses, chide normal people for being stupidly ill-tempered, and call security.
We may finally have a weapon with which to fight back! Plain English! Laughter! It's the secret of Mel Brooks' genius--Blazing Saddles and The Producers are both great examples of Plain English humor.
If nothing else, it can help relieve the stress. Hells-bells, ever'body! When the Fed just got through printing up 1.2 trillion dollars out'ta thin air to buy up damn-near ever' mortgage in the country, then decides to throw another 800 billion on the fire, just fer good measure, ya just gotta laugh!
It may well all end in tears, but we gotta keep morale up, one household at a time, 'cuz life will have to go on, on way or t'uther.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sweep Up The Confetti, Ya'll #2: The Morning After The Morning After The Night Before
OK, first and for the record, and for the convenience of OS's readership overseas:
Ben Bernanke's explanation of QE-Deux, or QE-Redux, if you will.
Betcha some senators would love to have their vote back on reconfirming WeimarBen. I found a standard email response from Senator Bob Corker, who voted to reconfirm last February. Really, the good Senator wrote this:
Because he was the one who increased the size of the Fed balance sheet and has an intimate knowledge of the Federal Reserve's holdings, I believe it is important that he is the person to unwind it. In addition, the concerns about inflation are certainly well merited based on the measures the Fed has taken to address our most recent financial crisis. In my conversations with Chairman Bernanke, he made it very clear that he will use every tool at his disposal to avoid runaway inflation and get our money supply under control. That is why I supported Chairman Bernanke to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board during this uncertain time for the global financial system.
Well, that worked well...Bob, you got-a-lot-of-'splain'-to-do-Lucy. Really, it isn't like you weren't being pounded by your voters to fire this clown.
So, today: Gold soars, silver soars, oil soars, the dollar tanks. OS is making money by betting against the dollar, and hopes that WeimarBen won't totally tank the culture by killing the curreny.
Then, this jolly bit of news. OS has wondered why those clowns in Kuhlifornia act like people on meth, assuming that the rest of us will bail them out, no matter what.
Turns out, that's what's happening already. And we wonder why the HopeyChangies still control TheLandOfFruitsAndNuts. Obama and company have been buying them off, with our money. Or, with money borrowed from the Chinese in our children's names.
The world's biggest meth lab just may be located in Washington, D.C., ya'll. They don't even need to buy up Sudafed for their concoction.
Last night, Mr. and Mrs. OS took a break from it all, and enjoyed two movies over dinner and after: George Roy Hill's A Little Romance, and Billy Crystal's America's Sweethearts. The sweetness and optimism of the story of two children who run away to Venice for a kiss, and the dark cynical humor about narcissism were quite a contrast. It's hard to imagine the former movie ever being filmed these days...
We used to live our lives not wondering on a daily basis how TheClownCircus and DaBankers were next going to screw up our lives and futures, and how to best work around them, or defend ourselves from them. It is now a part of daily life.
OS writes to keep himself sane, and hopes that his scribble might influence a few hearts and minds in a righteous direction. It's what he can do today.
OS's vision of a recovery is when we can return to a life where the political/economic soap opera is on the back burner, and we can concentrate on our families, our homes, our churches and communities. A life that hearkens more toward A Little Romance, and less black comedy--tragically funny because it resembles real life.
Ben Bernanke's explanation of QE-Deux, or QE-Redux, if you will.
Betcha some senators would love to have their vote back on reconfirming WeimarBen. I found a standard email response from Senator Bob Corker, who voted to reconfirm last February. Really, the good Senator wrote this:
Because he was the one who increased the size of the Fed balance sheet and has an intimate knowledge of the Federal Reserve's holdings, I believe it is important that he is the person to unwind it. In addition, the concerns about inflation are certainly well merited based on the measures the Fed has taken to address our most recent financial crisis. In my conversations with Chairman Bernanke, he made it very clear that he will use every tool at his disposal to avoid runaway inflation and get our money supply under control. That is why I supported Chairman Bernanke to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board during this uncertain time for the global financial system.
Well, that worked well...Bob, you got-a-lot-of-'splain'-to-do-Lucy. Really, it isn't like you weren't being pounded by your voters to fire this clown.
So, today: Gold soars, silver soars, oil soars, the dollar tanks. OS is making money by betting against the dollar, and hopes that WeimarBen won't totally tank the culture by killing the curreny.
Then, this jolly bit of news. OS has wondered why those clowns in Kuhlifornia act like people on meth, assuming that the rest of us will bail them out, no matter what.
Turns out, that's what's happening already. And we wonder why the HopeyChangies still control TheLandOfFruitsAndNuts. Obama and company have been buying them off, with our money. Or, with money borrowed from the Chinese in our children's names.
The world's biggest meth lab just may be located in Washington, D.C., ya'll. They don't even need to buy up Sudafed for their concoction.
Last night, Mr. and Mrs. OS took a break from it all, and enjoyed two movies over dinner and after: George Roy Hill's A Little Romance, and Billy Crystal's America's Sweethearts. The sweetness and optimism of the story of two children who run away to Venice for a kiss, and the dark cynical humor about narcissism were quite a contrast. It's hard to imagine the former movie ever being filmed these days...
We used to live our lives not wondering on a daily basis how TheClownCircus and DaBankers were next going to screw up our lives and futures, and how to best work around them, or defend ourselves from them. It is now a part of daily life.
OS writes to keep himself sane, and hopes that his scribble might influence a few hearts and minds in a righteous direction. It's what he can do today.
OS's vision of a recovery is when we can return to a life where the political/economic soap opera is on the back burner, and we can concentrate on our families, our homes, our churches and communities. A life that hearkens more toward A Little Romance, and less black comedy--tragically funny because it resembles real life.
Friday, January 29, 2010
'Scuze Me, But We Seem To Have Misplaced...$500 Billion In Currency Swaps
Dave in Denver, who is a hard-money militant, shares this tidbit with us today:
A reader has asked me to comment on the announced unwinding of the $500 billion in currency swaps that were implemented by the Fed between the U.S. and the British, Japanese, EU and Swiss National Banks. It's a really good question and given that Bernanke issued a statement, under oath in front of Congress, that he doesn't know how that money has been used or the specifics of where it went, then we have to assume that even Bernanke can't answer that question. Let me make it clear that I believe Bernanke lied under oath.
O.K., I'll discount that last sentence, since there's no way to know. What is recounted before that is disturbing enough.
$500 billion, and Bernanke can't tell us what became of it. He's chair of the US Federal Reserve Bank, it's his business to know, is it not? He was chair of the economics department at Princeton, so no one can claim he's stupid. He remembered his car keys that morning, 'cuz he made it to the hearing.
$500 billion sloshing around unaccounted for could, well, destabilize things. His job is to keep things stable, is it not?
And the Senate confirmed him, anyway. At least thirty Senators had the good sense to vote 'no'. It's a little progress.
A reader has asked me to comment on the announced unwinding of the $500 billion in currency swaps that were implemented by the Fed between the U.S. and the British, Japanese, EU and Swiss National Banks. It's a really good question and given that Bernanke issued a statement, under oath in front of Congress, that he doesn't know how that money has been used or the specifics of where it went, then we have to assume that even Bernanke can't answer that question. Let me make it clear that I believe Bernanke lied under oath.
O.K., I'll discount that last sentence, since there's no way to know. What is recounted before that is disturbing enough.
$500 billion, and Bernanke can't tell us what became of it. He's chair of the US Federal Reserve Bank, it's his business to know, is it not? He was chair of the economics department at Princeton, so no one can claim he's stupid. He remembered his car keys that morning, 'cuz he made it to the hearing.
$500 billion sloshing around unaccounted for could, well, destabilize things. His job is to keep things stable, is it not?
And the Senate confirmed him, anyway. At least thirty Senators had the good sense to vote 'no'. It's a little progress.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Things That Do Not Make Sense
We read, we write, we talk with our family and friends every day. One reason we do this is to attempt to make the world make sense.
Every week, events happen in our lives, for good or ill, that don't easily make sense. How come, for instance, despite all his obvious failures and shortcomings, does this insignificant guy at his laptop enjoy such a wonderful (if modest) life? Why is the twenty-one year old life of an old family friend tragically ended in a car wreck less than a mile from her home? That's just a couple of questions from this week. Every reader has his own Things That Do Not Make Sense list, updated often.
There are other, even more horrible Things That Do Not Make Sense. The ongoing tragedy of Haiti is one, brought to bear upon our consciences by the recent earthquake. The death toll may well top 200,000 souls before all is said and done. The imagination has a hard time taking it in: 200,000 people, mostly desperately poor, their lives cut short. Each of them a soul as fully human as any of us sitting here in our comfortable chairs, drinking our coffees.
For now, we send money. Short term to the Red Cross and our church missions on the ground--and there were a lot on the ground before the quake. Long-term to Heifer International, which seems to do a great job in the nitty-gritty of improving lives one family at a time. It's tough work, short or long term.
So, we attempt to make sense, and if wise, we step back and ask 'How did this happen? What can we do to head off the next Haiti? Earthquakes are a fact of life, but mass death doesn't have to follow, does it?'
David Brooks offers some thoughts worth consideration in last week's New York Times.
(OldSouth tripped across it because it infuriated someone in academia, always a good sign.)
In part, he says:
'....Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.
We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.'
Brooks doesn't just point fingers, but makes a couple of very good suggestions on creating real remedies.
He makes sense.
And, these days, this is a valuable commodity.
*****
PS--The Bernanke vote is tomorrow. If you are a US citizen, have you called your Senator yet?
Every week, events happen in our lives, for good or ill, that don't easily make sense. How come, for instance, despite all his obvious failures and shortcomings, does this insignificant guy at his laptop enjoy such a wonderful (if modest) life? Why is the twenty-one year old life of an old family friend tragically ended in a car wreck less than a mile from her home? That's just a couple of questions from this week. Every reader has his own Things That Do Not Make Sense list, updated often.
There are other, even more horrible Things That Do Not Make Sense. The ongoing tragedy of Haiti is one, brought to bear upon our consciences by the recent earthquake. The death toll may well top 200,000 souls before all is said and done. The imagination has a hard time taking it in: 200,000 people, mostly desperately poor, their lives cut short. Each of them a soul as fully human as any of us sitting here in our comfortable chairs, drinking our coffees.
For now, we send money. Short term to the Red Cross and our church missions on the ground--and there were a lot on the ground before the quake. Long-term to Heifer International, which seems to do a great job in the nitty-gritty of improving lives one family at a time. It's tough work, short or long term.
So, we attempt to make sense, and if wise, we step back and ask 'How did this happen? What can we do to head off the next Haiti? Earthquakes are a fact of life, but mass death doesn't have to follow, does it?'
David Brooks offers some thoughts worth consideration in last week's New York Times.
(OldSouth tripped across it because it infuriated someone in academia, always a good sign.)
In part, he says:
'....Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.
We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.'
Brooks doesn't just point fingers, but makes a couple of very good suggestions on creating real remedies.
He makes sense.
And, these days, this is a valuable commodity.
*****
PS--The Bernanke vote is tomorrow. If you are a US citizen, have you called your Senator yet?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Western Australia Wishes To Thank The US Congress, President, And Fed Chair
These guys are blowing and going.
They are mining, refining and selling gold.
That's okay, mate. Just keep cranking out those T-bills!
We're doin' just fine down here, thank you.
They are mining, refining and selling gold.
That's okay, mate. Just keep cranking out those T-bills!
We're doin' just fine down here, thank you.
The List! Senators Who Face The Voters In 2010
A little digging, and congress.gov tells all.
These are the Class III Senators, whose terms expire in January 2011. Their seats are subject to the voters in November 2010.
These are the ones who will have the most immediate 'xplainin' to do if they vote to reconfirm Bernanke this week.
Dodd and Dorgan have already bailed, announcing their retirements. More will follow soon.
Joe Biden's son won't even run for his dad's seat in Delaware this fall. Hard to gauge how devastating that would be, were he to fail to win his Dad's old seat. Ask Al Gore, son of Senator Albert Gore, who lost Tennessee by a mile in 2000, how embarrassing it is. His own zip code featured a 'Gore-Free Tennessee' sign in every yard.
No doubt about it, they're nervous, all of them. Today's take from the AP is here, courtesy of MSNBC.
Hmmm...MSNBC sounds like they're ready to throw these guys under the bus as well.
And if you think Hopey-Changey's not worried, why is he working the phones on behalf of Zimbabwe Ben?
Do your grandchildren a huge favor. Call a Senator, tell them you'll contribute to his/her opponent if he/she votes for ZB.
These are the Class III Senators, whose terms expire in January 2011. Their seats are subject to the voters in November 2010.
These are the ones who will have the most immediate 'xplainin' to do if they vote to reconfirm Bernanke this week.
Dodd and Dorgan have already bailed, announcing their retirements. More will follow soon.
Joe Biden's son won't even run for his dad's seat in Delaware this fall. Hard to gauge how devastating that would be, were he to fail to win his Dad's old seat. Ask Al Gore, son of Senator Albert Gore, who lost Tennessee by a mile in 2000, how embarrassing it is. His own zip code featured a 'Gore-Free Tennessee' sign in every yard.
No doubt about it, they're nervous, all of them. Today's take from the AP is here, courtesy of MSNBC.
Hmmm...MSNBC sounds like they're ready to throw these guys under the bus as well.
And if you think Hopey-Changey's not worried, why is he working the phones on behalf of Zimbabwe Ben?
Do your grandchildren a huge favor. Call a Senator, tell them you'll contribute to his/her opponent if he/she votes for ZB.
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Monday, January 25, 2010
From The Weekend
It was a very good weekend.
Friday evening, OS encountered two nominees for the 2010 Green Shoots Award.
Krzysztof Penderecki and Barry Douglas
joined forces with the Nashville Symphony to present Penderecki's Piano Concerto, which dates from 2002. The composer conducted. OS bought tickets, expecting no more than to be able to say, 'I saw the great Penderecki at work before he went to his reward', since the gent is now seventy-nine years old.
He is still spry, conducts pretty stiffly, but managed to convey enough to the musicians for them to carry the piece off.
It was an amazing event. The Concerto is a long, complex, madly difficult, and utterly luminous piece of music. One long, long movement, and OS was saddened to hear it end. If Solzhenitsyn had written music, it may well have sounded like this piece.
Barry Douglas' performance was, well, amazing. The piece is fiendishly hard, with none of the usual mental landmarks a standard concerto contains, and was performed from memory. We sat in the balcony over his right shoulder, in full view of the keyboard.
Why, the reader asks, does this matter to anyone? Well, again, look at the header of the blog. We need the Pendereckis and the Douglases to keep reminding us of our better angels. Truth and beauty walk hand-in-hand, and moments like this remind us that the grim realities of economics, politics and power are not all there is. There is an Unseen Hand involved, actively at work in a lot more than our daily soap opera, and two of The Hand's emissaries showed up last Friday night in Nashville. If you view their bios, linked above, you'll see that these gents are not ivory tower 'artistes'--they're teaching, mentoring, building bridges across hostile real-estate, really contributing to the world. Contrast them with the narcissism of our pop culture heroes, and reality comes into focus a bit better.
It was a good night to meet up with friends, in the same balcony. One college professor friend at the LargeStateU was describing how the campus is literally being over-run with students, with kids parking themselves in halls and stairways of the aging building he teaches in, because there is no place for them to go. Of course, no capital projects even in planning now.
He is graduating bright kids to a world of no jobs, where previously there were always openings.
And Tennessee's in better shape than a lot of states!
At the same time, he reports good morale amongst the students. They're all happy to be there, working hard and happily.
OS has work to complete today, opportunities to meet, a loving wife, two thriving adult children.
He lives a blessed life, and every single day is a gift of grace, completely undeserved.
P.S.--If you are a US citizen, have your called your Senators yet? Ben Bernanke's gotta go. Strike a blow for the culture. We don't want to be Argentina. One is enough.
Even if he stays, he and the Senate need to know there are a ton of really really unhappy voters out there who daily wish him gone. Last week's moment of sobriety needs to be extended.
Remember, thirty-three of those guys and gals have to explain themselves this November.
Make them think about their vote this week, and yours.
Friday evening, OS encountered two nominees for the 2010 Green Shoots Award.
Krzysztof Penderecki and Barry Douglas
joined forces with the Nashville Symphony to present Penderecki's Piano Concerto, which dates from 2002. The composer conducted. OS bought tickets, expecting no more than to be able to say, 'I saw the great Penderecki at work before he went to his reward', since the gent is now seventy-nine years old.
He is still spry, conducts pretty stiffly, but managed to convey enough to the musicians for them to carry the piece off.
It was an amazing event. The Concerto is a long, complex, madly difficult, and utterly luminous piece of music. One long, long movement, and OS was saddened to hear it end. If Solzhenitsyn had written music, it may well have sounded like this piece.
Barry Douglas' performance was, well, amazing. The piece is fiendishly hard, with none of the usual mental landmarks a standard concerto contains, and was performed from memory. We sat in the balcony over his right shoulder, in full view of the keyboard.
Why, the reader asks, does this matter to anyone? Well, again, look at the header of the blog. We need the Pendereckis and the Douglases to keep reminding us of our better angels. Truth and beauty walk hand-in-hand, and moments like this remind us that the grim realities of economics, politics and power are not all there is. There is an Unseen Hand involved, actively at work in a lot more than our daily soap opera, and two of The Hand's emissaries showed up last Friday night in Nashville. If you view their bios, linked above, you'll see that these gents are not ivory tower 'artistes'--they're teaching, mentoring, building bridges across hostile real-estate, really contributing to the world. Contrast them with the narcissism of our pop culture heroes, and reality comes into focus a bit better.
It was a good night to meet up with friends, in the same balcony. One college professor friend at the LargeStateU was describing how the campus is literally being over-run with students, with kids parking themselves in halls and stairways of the aging building he teaches in, because there is no place for them to go. Of course, no capital projects even in planning now.
He is graduating bright kids to a world of no jobs, where previously there were always openings.
And Tennessee's in better shape than a lot of states!
At the same time, he reports good morale amongst the students. They're all happy to be there, working hard and happily.
OS has work to complete today, opportunities to meet, a loving wife, two thriving adult children.
He lives a blessed life, and every single day is a gift of grace, completely undeserved.
P.S.--If you are a US citizen, have your called your Senators yet? Ben Bernanke's gotta go. Strike a blow for the culture. We don't want to be Argentina. One is enough.
Even if he stays, he and the Senate need to know there are a ton of really really unhappy voters out there who daily wish him gone. Last week's moment of sobriety needs to be extended.
Remember, thirty-three of those guys and gals have to explain themselves this November.
Make them think about their vote this week, and yours.
A Must-Read To Begin Your Week
I really hope Denninger is not correct about this.
Chin-straps on. This is beginning to look like the OK Corral.
Call your Senators. Bernanke's gotta go.
Hug your wife and kids extra-good this week.
Chin-straps on. This is beginning to look like the OK Corral.
Call your Senators. Bernanke's gotta go.
Hug your wife and kids extra-good this week.
Friday, January 22, 2010
A Simple Way To Help Your Nation, If You Live In The United States
Contact your Senators. Go to senate.gov. It will help you find the two senators from your state.
Contact the offices of each, by phone and/or the contact page.
Let them know, respectfully but firmly, just how deeply unhappy you are at the prospect of Ben Bernanke being re-appointed as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Tell them that if they vote for Bernanke, you will be contributing to, and voting for their opponents.
Do it today.
Do it Monday. And Tuesday, and Wednesday. Until the end of the month, when the vote comes up.
It's a small thing to do.
Your grandchildren's lives are at stake.
I just did it, both by phone and by email. It felt good.
In times past, I've had staffers for Lamar Alexander attempt to argue me down on issues.
Today, it was a muted and respectful tone on the other end of the line.
Things that make you go 'Hmmmmm..."
Contact the offices of each, by phone and/or the contact page.
Let them know, respectfully but firmly, just how deeply unhappy you are at the prospect of Ben Bernanke being re-appointed as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Tell them that if they vote for Bernanke, you will be contributing to, and voting for their opponents.
Do it today.
Do it Monday. And Tuesday, and Wednesday. Until the end of the month, when the vote comes up.
It's a small thing to do.
Your grandchildren's lives are at stake.
I just did it, both by phone and by email. It felt good.
In times past, I've had staffers for Lamar Alexander attempt to argue me down on issues.
Today, it was a muted and respectful tone on the other end of the line.
Things that make you go 'Hmmmmm..."
Things That Make You go 'Hmmm'
All of a sudden, a certain sobriety seems to have descended upon the frat house of Congress.
We have this Constitution that dictates that 1/3 of the Senate and 100% percent of the House have to face the voters every two years.
Suddenly, one-third of the Senate is having serious second thoughts about facing the voters and explaining why they confirmed Zimbabwe Ben Bernanke. They've already got to some 'xplainin' to do about TurboTax Timmy, who has help put us into unimaginable debt after arranging for the secret bailout of Goldman Sachs, after presiding over the worst banking abuses in memory as chief of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Even liberal voters know how to do math, and the math sucks, in each instance.
Warren Buffett was in Washington today, talking Ben and Timmy up, assuring Fox Business what a great job they are doing. It felt, shall we say, contrived. This guy owns insurance companies. And he has five billion bucks sunk into Goldman Sachs. If things go tits-up, he'll need Ben and Timmy.
Hmmm...
One hundred percent of the House is wrestling with how they would justify voting for a health-care bill that stinks to high heaven, that the country can't afford, and does not want.
Hmmm....
The Supreme Court weighed in today on the side of free speech.
If the law considers a corporate entity to be a person, then that person has the right to express its political opinion, whenever it wishes. The gloves will come off, and the Democrats will not fare well in the onslaught. Everybody, including unions, small businesses, big businesses--everybody--will be able to speak their mind this fall. Imagine how many small businesses, state by state, might decide to spend 5,000 bucks of their own money to tell the country what they think of Barack Obama and his minions? Hell, it makes OldSouth want to form a corporation, just for the joy of joining in!
Hmmm...
So, what happened?
Well, in great part, this is the crisis when people began seriously reading about what happened, and how, and who, and why. OldSouth began reading Robert Peston's thoughts in the fall of 2007, and the journey began.
And, they began talking to one another. Family, friends, neighbors, folks at church; and people they'll never meet, thinking out loud from their computer keyboards.
The frat boys in Washington never contemplated that would happen.
But they never contemplated a 30% drop in housing values. Or a 17% employment rate. Or that the details of the TARP scam would ever leak out. Or that the UAW would scam the country like it did.
Or... Or....(you fill in the blanks)
Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep talking.
The Congressional frat boys have shredded great parts of the Constitution, but short of a coup, they can't avoid the first Tuesday of November of every even-numbered year.
Hmmm...
We have this Constitution that dictates that 1/3 of the Senate and 100% percent of the House have to face the voters every two years.
Suddenly, one-third of the Senate is having serious second thoughts about facing the voters and explaining why they confirmed Zimbabwe Ben Bernanke. They've already got to some 'xplainin' to do about TurboTax Timmy, who has help put us into unimaginable debt after arranging for the secret bailout of Goldman Sachs, after presiding over the worst banking abuses in memory as chief of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Even liberal voters know how to do math, and the math sucks, in each instance.
Warren Buffett was in Washington today, talking Ben and Timmy up, assuring Fox Business what a great job they are doing. It felt, shall we say, contrived. This guy owns insurance companies. And he has five billion bucks sunk into Goldman Sachs. If things go tits-up, he'll need Ben and Timmy.
Hmmm...
One hundred percent of the House is wrestling with how they would justify voting for a health-care bill that stinks to high heaven, that the country can't afford, and does not want.
Hmmm....
The Supreme Court weighed in today on the side of free speech.
If the law considers a corporate entity to be a person, then that person has the right to express its political opinion, whenever it wishes. The gloves will come off, and the Democrats will not fare well in the onslaught. Everybody, including unions, small businesses, big businesses--everybody--will be able to speak their mind this fall. Imagine how many small businesses, state by state, might decide to spend 5,000 bucks of their own money to tell the country what they think of Barack Obama and his minions? Hell, it makes OldSouth want to form a corporation, just for the joy of joining in!
Hmmm...
So, what happened?
Well, in great part, this is the crisis when people began seriously reading about what happened, and how, and who, and why. OldSouth began reading Robert Peston's thoughts in the fall of 2007, and the journey began.
And, they began talking to one another. Family, friends, neighbors, folks at church; and people they'll never meet, thinking out loud from their computer keyboards.
The frat boys in Washington never contemplated that would happen.
But they never contemplated a 30% drop in housing values. Or a 17% employment rate. Or that the details of the TARP scam would ever leak out. Or that the UAW would scam the country like it did.
Or... Or....(you fill in the blanks)
Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep talking.
The Congressional frat boys have shredded great parts of the Constitution, but short of a coup, they can't avoid the first Tuesday of November of every even-numbered year.
Hmmm...
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