This bit of insight from the New York Times: The banks that helped Greece hide its debts also bet that it would default on the debts they helped hide.
As one insider describes it: Imagine you are able to take out fire insurance on your neighbor's house. It gives you profound incentive to burn it down at some point in the future.
Damn! I wish I'da thought of that one! I wuz raised to think that sort of behavior was, well, fraudulent and harmful to my neighbors. Sunday School teachers kept drilling that 'Golden Rule' thang into my head. Little did I suspect, it's actually a business plan! And it works! And it's legal!
Damn!
Invest in premiums, gasoline, and matches...all you need is a compliant insurance agent (with whom you share the proceeds). Write the policy, pay the premiums, bide your time, wait until the owner is on vacation.
Hold a house barbecue.
Collect the payoff.
Now, in the spirit of Bill (It's the economy, stupid!) Clinton, we'll just waive any discussion of ethics.
Ethics, Shmethics. It's about making money, honey.
(Of course, this makes me wonder if someone's insured MY house! Maybe I should put off that vacation, after all...)
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Brighton UK Tea Party--SRO And More
Dan Hannan (the man we need to lease for eight years), reports an SRO turnout to the UK's kickoff Tea Party.
Let's hope they have time to rev things up by the May election. One thing working in their favor is the relatively small geographic size of the UK--about the size of our state of Illinois.
Wishing ya'll well over there. Take courage. The citizenry have the US Congress sweating bullets in anticipation of November 2010. A lot of them have bailed out, including the Democrat congressman in this district. This guy wouldn't even announce meetings with constituents in advance last summer, he was that afraid of what he would encounter.
Make your voice heard. It's OK to get a bit loud, just can't be violent. Loud, vociferous, with a sense of humor works well. Laugh those fools out of office.
And this will give you a bit of ammunition...
Let's hope they have time to rev things up by the May election. One thing working in their favor is the relatively small geographic size of the UK--about the size of our state of Illinois.
Wishing ya'll well over there. Take courage. The citizenry have the US Congress sweating bullets in anticipation of November 2010. A lot of them have bailed out, including the Democrat congressman in this district. This guy wouldn't even announce meetings with constituents in advance last summer, he was that afraid of what he would encounter.
Make your voice heard. It's OK to get a bit loud, just can't be violent. Loud, vociferous, with a sense of humor works well. Laugh those fools out of office.
And this will give you a bit of ammunition...
Friday, February 26, 2010
Green Shoots Nominee: Llewellyn Peter
Wednesday night, the local NBC affiliate broadcast the late news between segments of Olympic coverage. It's been a slow news week in Tennessee, just the usual murder and mayhem, corruption and ineptitude that increasingly characterize life here in this place OldSouth loves so much.
Then along comes this story!
Sorry, the video won't imbed, you'll have to hit the link.
A high school choral teacher, in a tough tough neighborhood in the shadow of the State Capitol, doing an inspiring job with kids who need someone to look up to.
So, after a week of sleazy governors, sleazier bankers, financially bankrupt Greeks, morally bankrupt politicians, and general idiocy, OS hopes you find Mr. Peter inspiring.
Here's an exercise: View the video, and then surf over and read about Governor Paterson.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Betcha that numb feeling you've had since September 2008 will leave, and you'll get in touch with your inner sense of outrage.
When that Gibralter of Far-Sighted Virtue, Bill Clinton, ran for President in 1992, he had a key advisor who kept hammering home one point: It's the economy, stupid.
Nothing else matters, just keep the cash flowing. Nobody cares about all that ethics shit, anyway. Ethics are for fools. Ethics are something you dredge up when you need to beat someone around the ears. Ethics are for other people. You just concentrate on the money-and-power-thang, ok?
That model does not seem to have served us well.
It's the Culture. And OS respects his readers too much to call them 'Stupid'.
Llewellyn Peter, Green Shoots nominee.
Then along comes this story!
Sorry, the video won't imbed, you'll have to hit the link.
A high school choral teacher, in a tough tough neighborhood in the shadow of the State Capitol, doing an inspiring job with kids who need someone to look up to.
So, after a week of sleazy governors, sleazier bankers, financially bankrupt Greeks, morally bankrupt politicians, and general idiocy, OS hopes you find Mr. Peter inspiring.
Here's an exercise: View the video, and then surf over and read about Governor Paterson.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Betcha that numb feeling you've had since September 2008 will leave, and you'll get in touch with your inner sense of outrage.
When that Gibralter of Far-Sighted Virtue, Bill Clinton, ran for President in 1992, he had a key advisor who kept hammering home one point: It's the economy, stupid.
Nothing else matters, just keep the cash flowing. Nobody cares about all that ethics shit, anyway. Ethics are for fools. Ethics are something you dredge up when you need to beat someone around the ears. Ethics are for other people. You just concentrate on the money-and-power-thang, ok?
That model does not seem to have served us well.
It's the Culture. And OS respects his readers too much to call them 'Stupid'.
Llewellyn Peter, Green Shoots nominee.
If Only They Were Joking!
From JDA:
Convert Your Tax Refund into More Debt for the Treasury
Really, to quote Jeff Foxworthy, 'I can't make this stuff up!'.
As always, JDA gives the account of the latest folly of ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings with high spirits and fabulous humor.
Friends, if she's not a regular part of your reading, you're missing out.
Convert Your Tax Refund into More Debt for the Treasury
Really, to quote Jeff Foxworthy, 'I can't make this stuff up!'.
As always, JDA gives the account of the latest folly of ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings with high spirits and fabulous humor.
Friends, if she's not a regular part of your reading, you're missing out.
Governor Paterson Heads For The Exits
OldSouth had a long day yesterday, and broke his normal routine. It was a good day, but by about 6:00 he was an hour from home, tired and hungry. Eating in restaurants alone is no fun, but it was necessary last night. So, he grabs a copy of yesterday's YewNorkTimes to see what the latest MSM spin is, just for amusement, and finds his table.
Well, hot-DAUMMN!, up on the top left of the front page, in a separate box just to make sure it's not missed, with three writers listed as authors, the news of Governor Paterson's incredibly sleazy behavior as he apparently sought to intimidate a woman that his sleazy top aide has battered.
This is news. This is the second New York governor in three years to get caught in some seriously sleazy behavior. Paterson even makes Eliot Spitzer look relatively benign. Spitzer just had a case of 'The Joneses' for young hookers, and engaged in bank fraud to cover his tracks. Paterson intervened directly with the battered woman to intimidate her into silence. The State Police (who had no jurisdiction in the case) had also been by for a 'friendly visit'. This crosses the line into truly dark, evil behavior, smudging the line between governance and criminal gang leadership. This is overtly criminal, at both the State and Federal level. (More about that later!)
What stuck OS was the fact that the YewNorkTimes reported it at all. A few years ago, the YewNorkTimes would have actively participated in the cover-up of this criminality--after all, Paterson is a Democrat, black, and blind. A true liberal 'Three-fer' (Three 'misunderstood oppressed righteous minorities in need of our understanding and unqualified support, all in the same person. We feel three times as righteous for enabling his criminality. You know--a 'Three-fer'.)
And in today's web edition, news that Paterson won't seek re-election. Boy, that was quick!
Of course, what's needed here is a resignation. Or an impeachment, in case he needs some encouragement to GetOutOfDodge. If he had a shred of honor....but wait, he threatens battered women, so let's not seek what does not exist.
And, let us remember, the State of New York is on a trajectory toward almost certain bankruptcy. Good to know HizHonor had time to engage in a bit of official extortion on the side...
A few further questions come to mind, while on the subject:
1. This, on its face, is a Federal civil rights case. Gross abuse of power by a Governor to silence a battered woman seeking redress in a local court. Does AG Holder have the stones to allow Federal prosecution of a fellow black Democrat politician? (Don't hold your breath!)
2. Where's Jesse Jackson, 'speaking truth to power', or Al Sharpton? Or is it only white-on-black violence that interests them, as grist for the race-baiting mill? And, Jesse, Al and Paterson are pretty tight friends over the years, are they not? How much about behavior this did they know, and decide to sit by in silence?
Once again, the collapse of the YewNorkTimes' subscription base, directly as a result of their complete lack of credibility (and outright hostility to the United States at points), seems to have led to some sort of attitude adjustment somewhere on the daily editorial staff.
Of course, the editors of the Op-Ed page still think the country can spend us into oblivion without consequence, and daily drink the Obama Kool-Aid. Their conversion experience will have to wait until about the second or third week of November.
Well, hot-DAUMMN!, up on the top left of the front page, in a separate box just to make sure it's not missed, with three writers listed as authors, the news of Governor Paterson's incredibly sleazy behavior as he apparently sought to intimidate a woman that his sleazy top aide has battered.
This is news. This is the second New York governor in three years to get caught in some seriously sleazy behavior. Paterson even makes Eliot Spitzer look relatively benign. Spitzer just had a case of 'The Joneses' for young hookers, and engaged in bank fraud to cover his tracks. Paterson intervened directly with the battered woman to intimidate her into silence. The State Police (who had no jurisdiction in the case) had also been by for a 'friendly visit'. This crosses the line into truly dark, evil behavior, smudging the line between governance and criminal gang leadership. This is overtly criminal, at both the State and Federal level. (More about that later!)
What stuck OS was the fact that the YewNorkTimes reported it at all. A few years ago, the YewNorkTimes would have actively participated in the cover-up of this criminality--after all, Paterson is a Democrat, black, and blind. A true liberal 'Three-fer' (Three 'misunderstood oppressed righteous minorities in need of our understanding and unqualified support, all in the same person. We feel three times as righteous for enabling his criminality. You know--a 'Three-fer'.)
And in today's web edition, news that Paterson won't seek re-election. Boy, that was quick!
Of course, what's needed here is a resignation. Or an impeachment, in case he needs some encouragement to GetOutOfDodge. If he had a shred of honor....but wait, he threatens battered women, so let's not seek what does not exist.
And, let us remember, the State of New York is on a trajectory toward almost certain bankruptcy. Good to know HizHonor had time to engage in a bit of official extortion on the side...
A few further questions come to mind, while on the subject:
1. This, on its face, is a Federal civil rights case. Gross abuse of power by a Governor to silence a battered woman seeking redress in a local court. Does AG Holder have the stones to allow Federal prosecution of a fellow black Democrat politician? (Don't hold your breath!)
2. Where's Jesse Jackson, 'speaking truth to power', or Al Sharpton? Or is it only white-on-black violence that interests them, as grist for the race-baiting mill? And, Jesse, Al and Paterson are pretty tight friends over the years, are they not? How much about behavior this did they know, and decide to sit by in silence?
Once again, the collapse of the YewNorkTimes' subscription base, directly as a result of their complete lack of credibility (and outright hostility to the United States at points), seems to have led to some sort of attitude adjustment somewhere on the daily editorial staff.
Of course, the editors of the Op-Ed page still think the country can spend us into oblivion without consequence, and daily drink the Obama Kool-Aid. Their conversion experience will have to wait until about the second or third week of November.
Revive Lend-Lease: Daniel Hannan For President
Back in the darkest days of WWII, when England stood alone, Roosevelt lacked the Constitutional authority to enter the war without the Congress(those were the days!), and Churchill desperately needed ships for the fleet. The US had spare destroyers, and the British had ports in the Caribbean and Canada. So, a swap was arranged. Destroyers for ports. As all such transactions that occurred between the US and England, it was terribly unequally weighted in the favor of Uncle Sam, but Churchill's back was against the wall. The program was dubbed 'Lend-Lease', and it proved helpful.
Well, OldSouth proposes we right that terrible injustice. We are as desperately in need of sane leadership as England was in need of destroyers. The UK has Dan Hannan.
We've got huge reserves of coal, natural gas, copper, and Disneyworld. Hell's-bells, we'll even throw in Bill and Hilary, a couple of disgraced New York governors, and half of the Screen Actors Guild. They're out of work anyway.
As this little snippet illuminates, Dan Hannan has a lot better understanding of the US Constitution than our PeopleInCharge.
We shouldn't let the fact that he was born in Chile and holds a UK passport be any sort of impediment...
Well, OldSouth proposes we right that terrible injustice. We are as desperately in need of sane leadership as England was in need of destroyers. The UK has Dan Hannan.
We've got huge reserves of coal, natural gas, copper, and Disneyworld. Hell's-bells, we'll even throw in Bill and Hilary, a couple of disgraced New York governors, and half of the Screen Actors Guild. They're out of work anyway.
As this little snippet illuminates, Dan Hannan has a lot better understanding of the US Constitution than our PeopleInCharge.
We shouldn't let the fact that he was born in Chile and holds a UK passport be any sort of impediment...
Taxation In The Land Of Fruits And Nuts
Just picked this anecdote from a recent Mish post. You may need to read it a couple of times, just to take it in:
Hi Mish
I just picked up tax documents from my CPA. California require me to pay 30% of my estimated tax for the year on 04/15/10 and another 50% by 06-15-10. The balance of 20% is due on 01-15-11.
They want 80% of my annual estimate after 6 months, taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year.
'Taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year....'
Siphoning off actual cash on profits that may or may not materialize.
Hmm...this should encourage business and job formation in California, whaddayathink?
Here's an idea: Have RBS open business lending offices out there on Planet Ahnuld, and use some of that UK taxpayer money to lend to start-ups. What could go wrong?
Hi Mish
I just picked up tax documents from my CPA. California require me to pay 30% of my estimated tax for the year on 04/15/10 and another 50% by 06-15-10. The balance of 20% is due on 01-15-11.
They want 80% of my annual estimate after 6 months, taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year.
'Taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year....'
Siphoning off actual cash on profits that may or may not materialize.
Hmm...this should encourage business and job formation in California, whaddayathink?
Here's an idea: Have RBS open business lending offices out there on Planet Ahnuld, and use some of that UK taxpayer money to lend to start-ups. What could go wrong?
The Mexican (Well, Scottish) Standoff: The Quandry of RBS
It falls to the droll Robert Peston of the BBC to deliver bad news, especially these days. He does it with as much 'stiff upper lip' as one can reasonably muster.
But, no doubt about it, the news is bad.
RBS, now a ward of the UK taxpayer, lost another £6.2 billion last year. Lessee, at $1.60 a pop, that's....(be right back, gotta use a spreadsheet for this one)...
$2,560,000,000. Two billion, five hundred sixty million. Dollars. Or, as we say 'round here: A sheeutload of money, bubba! Sheeut!
The British taxpayer, under Gordon Brown's unelected service as PM, has been forced to pony up £45.5 billion to prop RBS up. £25.5 just last fall, and £10 billion of that has evaporated already.
Peston continues:
So what are we as taxpayers getting for the fortune we've put into RBS?
What we're not getting is oodles of credit funnelled to businesses vital to the UK's economic recovery.
By its own admission, Royal Bank has flunked the government-set target of providing £16bn of additional loans to "credit-worthy" businesses.
It insists that's not as a result of bad faith on its part.
Royal Bank says the money is there to be lent, but that bankable businesses don't want to borrow - or, at least they don't want to borrow enough.
In fact, there has been a £12.2bn reduction to £151bn during the course of the year in the total volume of loans provided by Royal Bank to companies.
These are disturbing figures - not least in the context of the shocking official statistics released this morning on investment by British business, which showed that in the last three months of 2009 business investment fell almost 6 per cent to a level not seen since 1992.
It's a classic Mexican Standoff: The lender only wants risk-free loans, and businesses will be damned if they'll borrow a penny from these clowns! Or anyone else, for that matter. They're better off downsizing, deleveraging, and hunkering down. Someone else can stick his neck and get it chopped off.
On either side of the pond, who can set up any sort of projections of production costs/sales/revenue/profit etc. when the People In Charge don't seem to believe that unbridled spending into eternity creates instability? Then there are the tax increases that will hammer any profits. And as-yet-unanticipated regulations. And unions. And health insurance 'reform'. Makes you wanna go out and borrow a billion or two, huh?
If you make money, you're a villain, and the tax-man comes calling, to remind you Who'sInChargeByGod. If you lose money, you're wiped out. Unless you're a large bank, or GM, or Fannie, Freddie, or AIG. Then they give you more to play blackjack with.
Chin-straps on, friends and neighbors. It's going to be a rough ride.
But, no doubt about it, the news is bad.
RBS, now a ward of the UK taxpayer, lost another £6.2 billion last year. Lessee, at $1.60 a pop, that's....(be right back, gotta use a spreadsheet for this one)...
$2,560,000,000. Two billion, five hundred sixty million. Dollars. Or, as we say 'round here: A sheeutload of money, bubba! Sheeut!
The British taxpayer, under Gordon Brown's unelected service as PM, has been forced to pony up £45.5 billion to prop RBS up. £25.5 just last fall, and £10 billion of that has evaporated already.
Peston continues:
So what are we as taxpayers getting for the fortune we've put into RBS?
What we're not getting is oodles of credit funnelled to businesses vital to the UK's economic recovery.
By its own admission, Royal Bank has flunked the government-set target of providing £16bn of additional loans to "credit-worthy" businesses.
It insists that's not as a result of bad faith on its part.
Royal Bank says the money is there to be lent, but that bankable businesses don't want to borrow - or, at least they don't want to borrow enough.
In fact, there has been a £12.2bn reduction to £151bn during the course of the year in the total volume of loans provided by Royal Bank to companies.
These are disturbing figures - not least in the context of the shocking official statistics released this morning on investment by British business, which showed that in the last three months of 2009 business investment fell almost 6 per cent to a level not seen since 1992.
It's a classic Mexican Standoff: The lender only wants risk-free loans, and businesses will be damned if they'll borrow a penny from these clowns! Or anyone else, for that matter. They're better off downsizing, deleveraging, and hunkering down. Someone else can stick his neck and get it chopped off.
On either side of the pond, who can set up any sort of projections of production costs/sales/revenue/profit etc. when the People In Charge don't seem to believe that unbridled spending into eternity creates instability? Then there are the tax increases that will hammer any profits. And as-yet-unanticipated regulations. And unions. And health insurance 'reform'. Makes you wanna go out and borrow a billion or two, huh?
If you make money, you're a villain, and the tax-man comes calling, to remind you Who'sInChargeByGod. If you lose money, you're wiped out. Unless you're a large bank, or GM, or Fannie, Freddie, or AIG. Then they give you more to play blackjack with.
Chin-straps on, friends and neighbors. It's going to be a rough ride.
Back In The Day(2005), When The Democrats Railed Against The 51-Vote Majority
Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Reid and the MSM are about put on the full court press to pass a health care takeover that this country clearly does not want.
Is there a need for some fixes to the system? Absolutely.
Is ObamaCare the answer? Absolutely not. And Obama and company know it. That's why they will attempt to ram this huge program through via the parliamentary maneuver known as 'reconciliation'. No amendments can be offered, and minimal debate allowed.
In 2005, when the Republicans were in the majority, some judicial appointments were under consideration. The Republicans contemplated changing the Senate rules to allow approval by simple majority, which by the way is what the Constitution specifies.
The Democrats screamed bloody murder, warning darkly of the 'tyranny of the majority'. Sadly, the GOP leader Bill Frist relented. It was the beginning of the end, as conservative voters decided they had been sold out by both Bush and the GOP.
But, here for your viewing, the protestations of the Democrat Senators in 2005, decrying the very thing they now proclaim as the only way forward.
They may just succeed, but they will blow the country up. OS has come to the conclusion that they just don't care, that the will to power trumps any ethical restraint.
Is there a need for some fixes to the system? Absolutely.
Is ObamaCare the answer? Absolutely not. And Obama and company know it. That's why they will attempt to ram this huge program through via the parliamentary maneuver known as 'reconciliation'. No amendments can be offered, and minimal debate allowed.
In 2005, when the Republicans were in the majority, some judicial appointments were under consideration. The Republicans contemplated changing the Senate rules to allow approval by simple majority, which by the way is what the Constitution specifies.
The Democrats screamed bloody murder, warning darkly of the 'tyranny of the majority'. Sadly, the GOP leader Bill Frist relented. It was the beginning of the end, as conservative voters decided they had been sold out by both Bush and the GOP.
But, here for your viewing, the protestations of the Democrat Senators in 2005, decrying the very thing they now proclaim as the only way forward.
They may just succeed, but they will blow the country up. OS has come to the conclusion that they just don't care, that the will to power trumps any ethical restraint.
You Must Remember This...
...a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is still a sigh;
The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.
It's a wonderful old song, made immortal by that scene in Casablanca.
And like most wonderful old songs, it is memorable because it conveys truth.
OS saw a few minutes of the Health Care Summit, brought to us by the Obama administration.
Millions of words have been spoken and written already, so no need to analyze more.
But OS hopes his readers 'remember this': Obama, Joe B, Miss Nancy and Mr. Harry would never have consented to sit in front of the cameras (as they so often dishonstly promised) and pretend to discuss health care, had the voters of Massachsuetts not elected Scott Brown. The Tea Parties and town meeting near-riots left a number of Democrat members in shock.
They were running for cover, pure and simple, as the plan is hatched to just pass Senate health care via 'reconciliation' is now quietly being put into place. They really think they can pass this turkey under cover, in the dead of night, without anyone taking notice! If they do, they will blow up the Senate, and the country with it. Obama will have a veritable tiger by the tail.
..it's sill the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of doe or die...
No matter what the future brings, as time goes by.
OS hopes this will lend encouragement to his friends in the UK, who have suffered so under their unelected Prime Minister.
The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.
It's a wonderful old song, made immortal by that scene in Casablanca.
And like most wonderful old songs, it is memorable because it conveys truth.
OS saw a few minutes of the Health Care Summit, brought to us by the Obama administration.
Millions of words have been spoken and written already, so no need to analyze more.
But OS hopes his readers 'remember this': Obama, Joe B, Miss Nancy and Mr. Harry would never have consented to sit in front of the cameras (as they so often dishonstly promised) and pretend to discuss health care, had the voters of Massachsuetts not elected Scott Brown. The Tea Parties and town meeting near-riots left a number of Democrat members in shock.
They were running for cover, pure and simple, as the plan is hatched to just pass Senate health care via 'reconciliation' is now quietly being put into place. They really think they can pass this turkey under cover, in the dead of night, without anyone taking notice! If they do, they will blow up the Senate, and the country with it. Obama will have a veritable tiger by the tail.
..it's sill the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of doe or die...
No matter what the future brings, as time goes by.
OS hopes this will lend encouragement to his friends in the UK, who have suffered so under their unelected Prime Minister.
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