This man can write!
And he is a voice of conscience that truly needs to be heard. His post from 14 October, 2009 'celebrating' Dow 10,000 is one of the best bits of prose I've read in years.
Most eloquently, he provides three charts at the bottom of his post, revealing the cold truth behind his warm words.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison
I'm laboring away, getting projects out the door, getting ready to travel tonight, the usual stuff.
One last check-in with Jesse, and I see this:
$140 billion for the Wall Street investment bank employees.
This time last year, they swore their backs were against the wall, and Henry Paulson demanded the right to raid the US Treasury to save them. After one final brave last stand in the House, he triumphed, and the feeding frenzy began. I don't wear a tin hat, honestly, but I remember this 'crisis' felt so contrived...
We now have 20% unemployment, and true poverty and misery stalk much of the world, made worse by our recklessness.
$140 billion for the Wall Street investment bank employees.
I'm no socialist, and believe in compensation and incentives for achievement, but this time last year, these folks held a gun to our heads, and told us the world would end if they did not get their way.
Average compensation per employee at investment bank Goldman Sachs, is set to reach about $743,000 this year, double last year's $364,000 and up 12% from about $622,000 in 2007, according to the Journal analysis....
If you are reading this from somewhere overseas, I plead with you to understand that average citizens here do not support this, in no manner approve of this. We have been hijacked by a consortium of politicians and business elites, and we covet your prayers.
Lord have mercy upon us.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Lord have mercy upon us.
One last check-in with Jesse, and I see this:
$140 billion for the Wall Street investment bank employees.
This time last year, they swore their backs were against the wall, and Henry Paulson demanded the right to raid the US Treasury to save them. After one final brave last stand in the House, he triumphed, and the feeding frenzy began. I don't wear a tin hat, honestly, but I remember this 'crisis' felt so contrived...
We now have 20% unemployment, and true poverty and misery stalk much of the world, made worse by our recklessness.
$140 billion for the Wall Street investment bank employees.
I'm no socialist, and believe in compensation and incentives for achievement, but this time last year, these folks held a gun to our heads, and told us the world would end if they did not get their way.
Average compensation per employee at investment bank Goldman Sachs, is set to reach about $743,000 this year, double last year's $364,000 and up 12% from about $622,000 in 2007, according to the Journal analysis....
If you are reading this from somewhere overseas, I plead with you to understand that average citizens here do not support this, in no manner approve of this. We have been hijacked by a consortium of politicians and business elites, and we covet your prayers.
Lord have mercy upon us.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Lord have mercy upon us.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thoughtful Words on American Sovereignty
JEREMY RABKIN is professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, having been for 27 years previous a professor of government at Cornell University. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a B.A. from Cornell. He has published widely in newspapers and journals, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Stanford Law Review, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, and the Claremont Review of Books. He has also written several books, including Why Sovereignty Matters, The Case for Sovereignty, and Law Without Nations?
Professor Rabkin offers sobering words in the latest lecture published by Hillsdale College. He details a bit of the hard slog undertaken to establish the idea of national sovereignty, and warns us show quickly it can disappear, to our harm.
Well worth reading and pondering, as it will become an active question in our lives, as the Obama administration seeks to use international law to supercede American law.
Professor Rabkin offers sobering words in the latest lecture published by Hillsdale College. He details a bit of the hard slog undertaken to establish the idea of national sovereignty, and warns us show quickly it can disappear, to our harm.
Well worth reading and pondering, as it will become an active question in our lives, as the Obama administration seeks to use international law to supercede American law.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Is It Just Me?
Woke up a bit earlier this am, with a long drive to make to a friend's funeral. Tim was a kind generous soul who left us way too soon.
Turned on the tube, to check weather while making coffee, and what do I see but Jim Cramer with Matt Lauer on The Today Show telling the world they oughta' be buying stocks, '...cuz 'we're gonna have a big recovery next year!', and 'All the banks that are gonna fail have failed already', and 'The Crash was last year. Anybody not buying now is missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime!'.
I was just stunned. How could any responsible public figure be doing this?
The PE of the S&P 500 is about 129, Mish tells us.
There are still some 460 banks on the 'troubled' list, and the foreclosure wave is just now hitting commercial real estate and higher-end homes. I lose count of how many abandoned new strip malls I've driven by. This morning, I drove by a vacant one, with another under construction 500 yards down the road. (This has to be the definition of optimism!)
The real unemployment rate is 20% or so.
The states and counties are sucking wind for revenue to keep the schools open, including my little county here in Tennessee.
Yes, when times are bad, there are some opportunities to invest, but given the sea-change in the culture and economy, having some 'guru' on a national morning show urging small investors to buy-buy-buy before it's too late is just, well...
Is it just me?
Am I just being overly grumpy?
Don't these people understand that real lives, and families, are at stake here?
Have they no sense of shame, of compassion, of prudence as they talk to millions of people on the air?
Is it just me?
Turned on the tube, to check weather while making coffee, and what do I see but Jim Cramer with Matt Lauer on The Today Show telling the world they oughta' be buying stocks, '...cuz 'we're gonna have a big recovery next year!', and 'All the banks that are gonna fail have failed already', and 'The Crash was last year. Anybody not buying now is missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime!'.
I was just stunned. How could any responsible public figure be doing this?
The PE of the S&P 500 is about 129, Mish tells us.
There are still some 460 banks on the 'troubled' list, and the foreclosure wave is just now hitting commercial real estate and higher-end homes. I lose count of how many abandoned new strip malls I've driven by. This morning, I drove by a vacant one, with another under construction 500 yards down the road. (This has to be the definition of optimism!)
The real unemployment rate is 20% or so.
The states and counties are sucking wind for revenue to keep the schools open, including my little county here in Tennessee.
Yes, when times are bad, there are some opportunities to invest, but given the sea-change in the culture and economy, having some 'guru' on a national morning show urging small investors to buy-buy-buy before it's too late is just, well...
Is it just me?
Am I just being overly grumpy?
Don't these people understand that real lives, and families, are at stake here?
Have they no sense of shame, of compassion, of prudence as they talk to millions of people on the air?
Is it just me?
Friday, October 9, 2009
No Lessons Learned Here, or Why I Feel Like My Hair Is On Fire
Calculated Risk quietly hits another homer, in that understated, laconic fashion.
He describes how we the taxpayer will be shoveling another 50 billion or so to the FHA, because of their losses, and then tells the tale of one homeowner who was just recently granted an FHA mortgage that will almost certainly swirl the drain.
No lessons were learned from the incredible fiasco we've been through.
All Congress seems to wish to do is find another way to keep the whole rotten mess going.
I see my children working so hard to build their futures. I mean, I can't tie these kids' shoes.
The older one is married, and her husband is stellar, the kind of son-in-law one dreams of.
The younger one will likely marry a young lady we would legally adopt in a heartbeat, a fabulous young lady.
I feel my hair catch fire when I contemplate how much harder they will have to work in order to pay all this nonsense off, in taxes, reduced standard of living, worse working conditions.
They don't deserve to inherit this from us.
He describes how we the taxpayer will be shoveling another 50 billion or so to the FHA, because of their losses, and then tells the tale of one homeowner who was just recently granted an FHA mortgage that will almost certainly swirl the drain.
No lessons were learned from the incredible fiasco we've been through.
All Congress seems to wish to do is find another way to keep the whole rotten mess going.
I see my children working so hard to build their futures. I mean, I can't tie these kids' shoes.
The older one is married, and her husband is stellar, the kind of son-in-law one dreams of.
The younger one will likely marry a young lady we would legally adopt in a heartbeat, a fabulous young lady.
I feel my hair catch fire when I contemplate how much harder they will have to work in order to pay all this nonsense off, in taxes, reduced standard of living, worse working conditions.
They don't deserve to inherit this from us.
Himself and The Nobel Peace Prize
Maybe this is why the chic left thinks The Beloved Leader deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
If he does not act decisively to push back against the monsters of the Taliban, it will be decades before there is a chance to confront the New Dark Ages the Muslim fundamentalists have planned for much of the world. Or, worse, we'll have to confront it much more up-close and personal, and at incredibly higher cost.
And we just might lose, you know.
And, for some perverse reason, that's ok with the chic left...
If he does not act decisively to push back against the monsters of the Taliban, it will be decades before there is a chance to confront the New Dark Ages the Muslim fundamentalists have planned for much of the world. Or, worse, we'll have to confront it much more up-close and personal, and at incredibly higher cost.
And we just might lose, you know.
And, for some perverse reason, that's ok with the chic left...
The 'Me' Generation and Its Money
John Mason at Seeking Alpha offers good long-term insight on the relationship between governmental behaviour and economic (and societal) outcomes. The last three paragraphs are pretty chilling, if you are an American who loves freedom. His article is about the slow, steady, and inexorable destruction of the dollar.
He pegs the problem early on:
'The underlying problem is the fiscal irresponsibility of the United States government, with the exception of one administration, beginning in the 1960s.'
The exception he speaks of is in the 1990's, when after two years of Clinton, the electorate swept in a freshman class that was intent on restraining the growth and expenditure of the federal government.
At least, they did for a while. Then they succumbed to both the seductions of office, the outrageous behaviour of Bill Clinton(who should have resigned, by golly, out of simple decency), the blandishments of the bankers, and the myth that easy money would solve all.
But enough about them.
We, ourselves, are the problem. There was a sea-change in the culture in the 1960's, was there not?
We, the boomers, decided to throw off the shackles of our parents' restraints, and closed our ears to the warnings that busts follow booms, and all that 'wheels grind slowly, but grind they do' stuff. We were going to 'make all things new' ourselves, thank you very much, sans Marx or Jesus(to quote that book title from the 70's).
We decided to become consumers! And we were very, very good at it.
And Mr. Denninger shows us what resulted.
Don't skip over this link. Print it, frame it, and hang it in your children's nursery.
Ethics shape the culture. Culture shapes the economy.
(Disclosure: A position in UDN, and continuing to accumulate steadily.)
He pegs the problem early on:
'The underlying problem is the fiscal irresponsibility of the United States government, with the exception of one administration, beginning in the 1960s.'
The exception he speaks of is in the 1990's, when after two years of Clinton, the electorate swept in a freshman class that was intent on restraining the growth and expenditure of the federal government.
At least, they did for a while. Then they succumbed to both the seductions of office, the outrageous behaviour of Bill Clinton(who should have resigned, by golly, out of simple decency), the blandishments of the bankers, and the myth that easy money would solve all.
But enough about them.
We, ourselves, are the problem. There was a sea-change in the culture in the 1960's, was there not?
We, the boomers, decided to throw off the shackles of our parents' restraints, and closed our ears to the warnings that busts follow booms, and all that 'wheels grind slowly, but grind they do' stuff. We were going to 'make all things new' ourselves, thank you very much, sans Marx or Jesus(to quote that book title from the 70's).
We decided to become consumers! And we were very, very good at it.
And Mr. Denninger shows us what resulted.
Don't skip over this link. Print it, frame it, and hang it in your children's nursery.
Ethics shape the culture. Culture shapes the economy.
(Disclosure: A position in UDN, and continuing to accumulate steadily.)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Golly-Gosh, Beaver! If You Shoot Back, the Pirates Run Away!
This nugget from the BBC...
Seems some intrepid Somali pirates targeted a ship to hijack, only to find it was an armed French naval vessel.
Untypically of the French, this boat's commander decided to fight back, actually chased the criminals down and captured them!
Golly-Gosh! If you resist a bully, he backs down!
Criminals tend to be cowardly and lazy!
Stop the presses! This is news!
Now, to see if the French officer is court-martialed for defending his ship...
Seems some intrepid Somali pirates targeted a ship to hijack, only to find it was an armed French naval vessel.
Untypically of the French, this boat's commander decided to fight back, actually chased the criminals down and captured them!
Golly-Gosh! If you resist a bully, he backs down!
Criminals tend to be cowardly and lazy!
Stop the presses! This is news!
Now, to see if the French officer is court-martialed for defending his ship...
Monday, October 5, 2009
Pigs DO Fly, After All!
Three muted and belated cheers for Robert Reich.
Bill Clinton's former Labor Secretary once again defies the Conventional Wisdom of the Obama Administration (spend more on your buddies on Wall Street, political muscle groups like ACORN, and raise taxes on people who actually produce stuff).
First, unlike Obama and Geither, he understands we really really really have a problem on our hands. Timmy can assure us we are in a recovery, and the Fed can print and pump money to Wall Street all it wants.
The real, genuine, on-the-ground-sans-the-Democrat's-BS unemployment rate is about 20%.
Twenty percent. That's one in five.
(That's not counting all the micro-business contractors and tradesmen who were never on the rolls, like my buddy Ronnie, a small contractor in Tennessee who now travels to work on projects in IOWA, since work here has ground to a halt. And he's grateful for his work in Iowa!)
Reich lists several proposals, including an ominous one to use TARP funds to keep local schools afloat--a most ominous precedent.
But, he hits a home run with another--eliminate the payroll tax for one year on earnings under 20K.
I hear the simultaneous sounds of oinking and wings flapping.
He admits the obvious--the payroll tax is a huge drag on job creation, and on the economy in general.
And, finally, it's time as that idea is discussed, for the Ponzi Scheme of Social Security to be explored.
Of course, this is not likely to happen, as Himself and the Dems are trying to figure out how to federalize health care...with money from where?
A lot of what Reich proposes is wrong-headed, I believe. But he does have the courage to state clearly that things are amiss, and has clearly decided that the Obama Kool-Aid is definitely toxic.
And, what will the White House do about Reich? He was on their transition team, and teaches at UC Berkley! They can't dismiss him as more right-wing AstroTurf, amongst the other names they employ for any who dare disagree.
Oink, oink.
Flutter, flutter.
Tick-tock, Mr. Obama. We're one day closer to November 2010!
Bill Clinton's former Labor Secretary once again defies the Conventional Wisdom of the Obama Administration (spend more on your buddies on Wall Street, political muscle groups like ACORN, and raise taxes on people who actually produce stuff).
First, unlike Obama and Geither, he understands we really really really have a problem on our hands. Timmy can assure us we are in a recovery, and the Fed can print and pump money to Wall Street all it wants.
The real, genuine, on-the-ground-sans-the-Democrat's-BS unemployment rate is about 20%.
Twenty percent. That's one in five.
(That's not counting all the micro-business contractors and tradesmen who were never on the rolls, like my buddy Ronnie, a small contractor in Tennessee who now travels to work on projects in IOWA, since work here has ground to a halt. And he's grateful for his work in Iowa!)
Reich lists several proposals, including an ominous one to use TARP funds to keep local schools afloat--a most ominous precedent.
But, he hits a home run with another--eliminate the payroll tax for one year on earnings under 20K.
I hear the simultaneous sounds of oinking and wings flapping.
He admits the obvious--the payroll tax is a huge drag on job creation, and on the economy in general.
And, finally, it's time as that idea is discussed, for the Ponzi Scheme of Social Security to be explored.
Of course, this is not likely to happen, as Himself and the Dems are trying to figure out how to federalize health care...with money from where?
A lot of what Reich proposes is wrong-headed, I believe. But he does have the courage to state clearly that things are amiss, and has clearly decided that the Obama Kool-Aid is definitely toxic.
And, what will the White House do about Reich? He was on their transition team, and teaches at UC Berkley! They can't dismiss him as more right-wing AstroTurf, amongst the other names they employ for any who dare disagree.
Oink, oink.
Flutter, flutter.
Tick-tock, Mr. Obama. We're one day closer to November 2010!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Green Shoots Award Nominee--El Sistema
Surfing through the trash on Sunday afternoon TV, I tripped across Ovation TV's broadcast of the documentary El Sistema: Music for a Brighter Future. My bride and I are shed tears of joy watching the teaching, learning, and joy on the faces of the students as they learn. At about 1:40 into the two-hour documentary, the film shows a choir singing John Rutter's Candlelight Carol (translated to Spanish), with another choir of deaf children signing the piece with equal beauty. Utterly breathtaking, in a film filled with extraordinary moments.
The LA Philharmonic's hot new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, is a product of El Sistema. In watching the documentary, it becomes clear that he may be the most public face of the thirty-something year effort, but he is far from the most important accomplishment.
This must be seen to be appreciated. The DVD is scheduled for release this month. We'll be buying multiples for friends, students, and several un-named dolts we know in academia.
What if we could capture that joyful, hopeful, anything-is-possible spirit here? Again.
Moral values shape culture.
The culture shapes the economy.
The LA Philharmonic's hot new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, is a product of El Sistema. In watching the documentary, it becomes clear that he may be the most public face of the thirty-something year effort, but he is far from the most important accomplishment.
This must be seen to be appreciated. The DVD is scheduled for release this month. We'll be buying multiples for friends, students, and several un-named dolts we know in academia.
What if we could capture that joyful, hopeful, anything-is-possible spirit here? Again.
Moral values shape culture.
The culture shapes the economy.
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