I am really disgusted by this whole bail-out by the Federal Government. I strongly believe in capitalism, but I also believe that people are fallen and greedy and need to be restrained; that’s why in spite of Marx’s Utopian dreaming the State has not withered away. We need laws to restrain us, and we must have punishments meted out to us when we violate them; it’s the only way we learn to rein in our baser impulses. No company should be allowed to grow to the point where it is “too big to fail” and no appointed official, hell, no elected official either, should be given unquestioned, unreviewable authority to spend a trillion dollars (and you know damn well that once those…creatures…in Congress start handing out your money it will be well above that amount).
I’ve never missed a mortgage payment. Before we bought our house my Bride and I did our homework and budgeted very carefully on how much debt we wanted to assume and felt “comfortable” carrying. When we applied for our mortgage the company then offered us 2.5 times as much money, saying we could “afford” it. Say what? Look, I felt the Siren’s call as much as anyone would; the money was awfully tempting. I mean, hey, the Bank says we can afford it, so we must be able to, right? So I do have some sympathy for the folks who said “ok.” Some. I think there’s lots of blame on both sides. People who didn’t budget properly, people who ignored their budgets, people who lied on their applications and/or wildly over-estimated their earning potential got themselves into trouble. When you pair them up with mortgage brokers who didn’t do due diligence but who were in fact only looking to make the commission on writing the initial mortgage, because they were immediately going to sell the mortgage to someone else to deal with, well, who’s the chicken or the egg in this situation? This in turn encouraged them to inflate the amount they were willing to lend because they weren’t lending it but only getting a fee based on the size of the mortgage. I think a good place to start would be requiring every company that wanted to buy or sell mortgages to have to re-verify them; reduce their liquidity (the of the mortgage in terms of being bought and sold) and require companies that write the mortgages to service/hang on to them for at least, say five years to further encourage realistic valuations and mortgage sizes.
None of which is any reason why the US Taxpayer should bail out people who made bad loans and people who took out bad loans; neither the people who refinanced their houses 3 times and bought fancy cars and trips based on ever-rising property values nor the ones who made millions writing flaky loans deserve or are owed one penny of assistance from the Government on these deals.
As my Bride succinctly put it the other night, this bail out privatizes the profits and socializes the losses, and that’s just wrong. Oh, it’s great business for the banks and just what one would expect from a corrupt Congress and corrupt political structure, but wrong none the less.
…”Female genital mutilation is not necessarily a one-time event,” Mukasey said. He noted that the board in a previous case had granted asylum in to one woman whose “vaginal opening was sewn shut approximately five times after being opened to allow for sexual intercourse and child birth.”
…acts. Good for Attorney General Mukasey. Shame her liberated American sisters aren’t generally as concerned.
…that’s a shame.
…But the reality for Mr. Biden is that while running mates are second-fiddlers by definition, the phenomenon of Ms. Palin has rendered him something of a fourth or fifth fiddle. It is not like last month, when reporters swarmed Mr. Biden’s Delaware home and delegates swooned at the Democratic convention. He is now trailed by just a few national reporters, and struggling to break through in a race marked by historic firsts, political celebrities and charismatic newcomers — none named Joe Biden.
::winkwinknudgenudgesaynomoresaynomore::
::snicker::
Stop that now!!
…hit you in the caboose.
Muslim leader says 150 workers fired at Neb. plant
About 150 Muslims were fired from a Grand Island, Neb., meatpacking plant that has been embroiled in a prayer dispute, a Somali-American leader said Friday.
Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said 80 workers were thrown out after an altercation late Thursday. He says when they tried to return for their shift Friday, they were fired, along with 70 others.
Police said were called to the plant late Thursday amid reports of a riot or serious fight. But when officers arrived, the situation had calmed, said police Chief Steve Lamken.
Muslim workers have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts this week—not only from Muslims but from non-Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment.
… Hundreds of Muslim employees walked off the job Monday and Tuesday, saying they weren’t being allowed to take a break to pray during Ramadan. Break times were then altered on the second shift so the Muslim employees, mostly Somali, could make their fourth of five daily prayers at sunset.
Then hundreds of non-Muslim workers walked off the job in counterprotests Wednesday and Thursday morning. Later Thursday, plant managers did an about-face, saying the new break times weren’t working.
…for risky behaviour.
Hundreds of people whose beachfront homes were wrecked by Hurricane Ike may be barred from rebuilding under a little-noticed Texas law. And even those whose houses were spared could end up seeing them condemned by the state.
My sympathy meter’s pegged, as regular Swillers know. Apparently, so is the guy’s who wrote the law.
“We’re talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember and against every advice anyone has given,” A.R. “Babe” Schwartz said.
Is that it’s mostly empty and quiet. The disadvantage is that there’s no place to hide from a reporter and camera crew that want an early morning soundbite…
As an Ike survivor — one who lives WAAAY inland, where it was relatively safe to “hunker down” — I agree that the Galvestonites who stayed are a burger short of a Happy Meal. And worse is the PRESS who keeps lauding their “heroic” stories of what they went through (i.e. one family who had to WALK across the causeway two days after Ike. Hello — if you’d left 3 days earlier, there were BUSSES!)
The breaking point for me was two consecutive stories on a newscast Monday: the first showing the mayor’s press conference that no one was allowed to come to or stay on Galveston; the next was the announcement that FEMA opened a distribution center on Galveston. Why would you need a distribution center on an island that no one can live on?? Eleven distribution centers for millions of people and they waste one on a spit of land that was a mandatory evacuation zone.
And, by the way, where are our credit cards and gas cards like the Katrina survivors got? What are we, chopped liver?
Sigh.
Anyway, I posted an update in a comment on Ken’s Ike post, if you want to take a peek. Thank you sooo much for the prayers and good wishes. It is getting me through a very trying time.
Julie
We’re with ya, babe.
I guess there’s no place “safe” these days
Extraordinary events are piling up on Wall Street so fast, it’s hard to know where to focus. Forgetting the prospective bailout of AIG for a moment, since every media outlet is on that one, the most shocking development of the day for me is news that a $60 billion money market fund “broke the buck” on Monday due to losses in Lehman Brothers paper that it held. So much for the safety of “cash”.
The Reserve Primary Money Fund (RPFXX) has become the first money-market fund in more than a decade to lose money because its board was forced to write down $785 million worth of LEH debt to zero. The fund has reportedly seen assets plunge by 60% to $23 billion in the past two days after holders got wind of the fact that it would have to cut its net asset value to less than its usual $1 per share.
Read the author’s related article here; and note that it dates from last December.
For the next few months your mattress may give you the best rate of return.
The one thing that I want to insist on is that, as I travel around the country, the American people are a decent people. Now they get confused sometimes. You know, they listen to the wrong talk radio shows or watch the wrong TV networks, um, but they’re, they’re basically decent, they’re basically sound.
…mouths more mucilaginous mush. We’re confused, bitter clingers, who mean well, but continually get sh*t wrong because we just can’t keep our little pinheads from listening to the wrong stuff.
(Of course, he wouldn’t dare say that this year, but he’s come close…) To quote Mr. Levin:
“Gee, thanks.”
Via Ace.
…feel about that new “drill” bill?
…Calling the process “rigged,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) protested the less-than-24-hour period between the legislation’s unveiling and yesterday’s vote, during which Republicans could not offer amendments.
“The bill that’s coming to the floor is nothing more than a hoax on the American people, and they will not buy it,” Boehner said.
But, since Pelosi and her Democratic Congress bear NO responsibility for much of ANYthing at all, his opinion won’t make no never-mind.
I guess the lesson that we’ve learned from this is that if I lose a few thousand dollars I have to declare bankruptcy.
If I really screw up and cause my company to lose a few million then I go to jail and my loved ones are sold for medical experiments.
But if I show my brilliance by managing to lose billions; well, then magically I become “to important to fail” and I get bailed out by the US Taxpayer.
What a steaming crock of shit. Let these companies fail. If they’ve violated laws put them in jail. Publish accounts of every payoff they’ve given to Congressmen, every junket paid for. Let “We the People” really see what we’re paying for.
Update: I see Ed is happy about this too.
…a buttload.
…The Fed said in return for the loan, the government will receive a 79.9 percent equity stake in AIG.
Nothing like rock solid collateral.
…is now available for the discriminating pink patriot OR the patriot confident enough in his masculinity to wear pink. Like, for instance, major dad!
No less an expert than the Vodka Pundit, his OWN self told Bingley to quit being a p-word and let sister sell it to purchase toilet paper the volunteers* desperately need.
Bingley crumbled like a four day old Melba Toast.
Somedays you gotta call in the big dogs to get something done.
UPDATE: *A healthy portion of the SARAHcuda Collection
profits will benefit the Veterans for John McCain ~ Pensacola, FL office, and their ongoing scrabble for monies to purchase toilet paper, bottled water and fatty snacks for the hard working volunteers.
Like tree hugging sister.
Look for even more bankruptcies
NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Oil prices plummeted Tuesday in Asia, falling briefly below $92 a barrel as investors feared the U.S. credit crisis that brought down brokerage giant Lehman Brothers will drag on global economic growth and restrain demand for crude.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery tumbled $3.59 to $92.12 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midafternoon in Singapore. It briefly fell as low as $91.54. Overnight, the contract dropped $5.47 to settle at $95.71, the first time oil closed below $100 since March 4.
A lot of hedge funds are getting slaughtered by the fall in oil, and I’ve got a bad feeling that so are far too many pension funds, whose managers got sucked in to the commodities markets that were such powerhouses this Spring.
It would not surprise me to hear that some state pension funds are seriously underfunded now.
…ride, judging by the futures.
09:18 ET Dow , Nasdaq , S&P : [BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -43.60. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -52.80. Futures are on the defensive, with a worse-than-expected economic reading not helping matters. Just hitting the wires, August industrial production fell 1.1% in August (consensus -0.3%) and capacity fell by one percentage point to 78.7% (consensus 79.6%). In deal news, Long Drugs Stores (LDG) confirmed earlier today that Walgreen (WAG) expressed unsolicited interest of $75.00 per share in cash for all outstanding shares of LDG. CVS Caremark (CVS) and Longs entered a merger agreement at $71.50 per share in August. Nasdaq at… NYSE Adv/Dec 0/0… Nasdaq Adv/Dec 0/0.
So, there we were, leisurely perusing the Sunday NYT when a name in the wedding announcement section caught my eye.
Serena Torrey, Theodore Roosevelt V
Having seen it before I, major dad confirmed that it was, indeed, that Roosevelt. I thought “Cool!” and continued reading. Being me, the first thing I noticed was:
The bridegroom, also 32, is a vice president for high-yield bond sales at Lehman Brothers in Manhattan.
Thinking “Jeez, I’d get that honeymoon over as fast as I could, and maybe not spend so much on drinks and pupus“, I read on. Considering what’s front page news on Drudge this very instant:
Wall Street Prepares for Potential Lehman Bankruptcy
…as well as EVERY other news site…
“Wall Street on alert: Lehman endgame”*“In Frantic Day, Wall Street Banks Teeter”*“Lehman looks headed toward bankruptcy”
…the staid paragraph ending the wedding announcement tickled a delicious sense of irony:
…He is the son of Constance Rogers Roosevelt and Mr. Roosevelt IV of Brooklyn….His father is a managing director and investment banker at Lehman Brothers in Manhattan; he is also the chairman of the firm’s council on climate change.
To paraphrase Johnny Cash,
“I hear the change a comin’“
…and it’s REAL.
“And a time to every purpose under Heaven.”
Really weird how that works.
…coming out of Houston. It’s been awful, but could have been so much worse and for that ~ and the safety of our dear friends ~ we are eternally grateful.
Now. A few words for the reported tens of thousands of MORONS who stayed on (barrier island!!!) Galveston:
Shut the F*CK up. They TOLD you to leave, your own natural human instincts should have TOLD you to leave, not to mention that Galveston’s TRAGIC hurricane history should have given you a clue YOU SHOULD LEAVE, if your intelligence failed you on its own. I am truly sorry for your material losses. I know it’s devastating and I grieve for you. But that’s what happens on a barrier island and is to be EXPECTED.
If this had been IVAN ~ and you should be thanking whatever higher power you talk to that it was NOT ~ you would all be dead. Right. Now.
Instead, you’re standing in line for supplies after endangering rescuers who had to haul you out of a soggy pile of lumber and complaining. As the woman did on NBC’s weekend news just now to an exhausted Sheriff’s deputy:
“There’s ants in my shoes!”
Ants don’t get an evac order. And be glad you’re still in those shoes.
…SUCKS SO BAD IT BLOWS.
That is all.
UPDATE: Well, bless their little pointy heads. The howls of outrage and gnashing of teeth actually got to someone, and my precious little green stat sheet is up and running and oh, so blessedly familiar.
Does this make me a bitter clinger?
…no bias and NObama. It’s all McCain/Palin on the home page tonight, scattered amongst the hurricanes and trainwrecks. Considering what they chose to report, maybe they felt it was time for a “theme night”.
If I was a betting girl, I might wager the line circled in green has something to do with it.
Considering who they’re working so hard for, I guess that WOULD qualify as a “disaster”.
(with apologies to Tom Lehrer)
The loveliest girl in Wasilla
The best shot with balls or a gun
Of moose and incumbents a killa’
She’s gutted both during her run
Granny-glassed Gibson derided
As he queried ’bout Anwar Sadat
She gleefully said “It’s decided”
“We’re drilling in ANWR; that’s that!”
Sarah Palin
Oh the Netroots are a’wailin’
Is it your frosted lipgloss
That infuriates Wonkette and Kos?
Andrew Sullivan’s having a hissy fit
(He’s risen to Top Bottom Feeder)
He wants to see the birth certificate
For one must take care with a Breeder
The Media chooses well said words
As they polish their “impartial” sheen
They ignored the tale of John Edwards
To focus on tort’ring a teen
Sarah Palin
Your intimate life they’re detailing
Seeking the Great Mother Lode
As their tilted heads jointly explode
Your speech wowed folks at the Convention
But the Minions of One started chidin’
“All the words were not her own invention”
Like the speeches of their glorious Biden
Her selection now threatened Obama
Who’s candidacy seemed heaven sent
He said “I’m the one true re-forma;
I’ve courageously voted ‘Present!'”
Sarah, Sarah
Is this the dawn of a new era?
Are women now free to be…free?
The “Progressives” are bitchin’
“Get back in the kitchen!”
“No Amazon for our VP!”
Gotham
(special thanks to Tim for posting this for me this morning until I could get home)
Hurricane Ike is hours away from landfall on the upper Texas coast, and is already generating huge storm surges in Texas and Lousiana. Although still of Category 2 strength, Ike remains larger and more powerful than Category 5 Katrina or Category 5 Rita. As I discussed in yesterday’s blog entry, a good measure of the storm surge potential is Integrated Kinetic Energy (IKE). Ike’s Integrated Kinetic Energy has fallen from 149 Terajoules this morning to 124 at 3:30 pm EDT this afternoon. However, this is still larger than the total energy Katrina had at landfall, and Ike’s storm surge potential rates a 5.1 on a scale of 1 to 6.
…According to the NOAA tide gauges, storm tides are running 6-8 feet above normal along the central Louisiana coast this afternoon. The nola.com web site is reporting that a 9 foot storm surge affected the Industial Canal in New Orleans. Extensive flooding of low lying towns outside the New Orleans levee system is occurring. Surge overtopped a St. Mary Parish levee near the town of Gordy, and a six-foot-wide breach was reported in a non-federal parish levee near the towns of Caernarvon, Scarsdale, White Ditch and Braithwaite.
The fact that Ike’s storm surge has reached such high levels 200-300 miles north of the storm is a very bad omen for the upper Texas and western Louisiana coasts. The latest forecast surge values from NOAA:
Shoreline of Galveston Bay… 15 to 22 feet
Bolivar Peninsula… 17 to 20 feet
Galveston Island… … 14 to 17 feet
Gulf-facing coastline from Sargent to San Luis Pass… 8 to 14 feet
I’ve given the mistaken impression that the Galveston sea wall will save the city from inundation. That is not the case. The wall merely protects the city from a frontal assault by the storm surge and the 20 foot waves likely to be on top of the surge. Ike will flood the city of Galveston.
Our hearts are with Texas.
…might they use my tax money to bail out these bastards
The investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. spent Thursday energetically shopping itself to potential buyers — among them Bank of America Corp. — just a day after insisting it had found a way to patch up its massive real-estate-related losses.
Given the firm’s deep financial troubles, a deal of any sort is far from certain, according to people familiar with the situation. In addition, prospective buyers, which also could include Barclays PLC, would likely want the U.S. government to help shield them from future losses from any such transaction, these people said, as happened in March, when Bear Stearns Cos. was forced into a deal to be acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. In that deal, the federal government agreed to absorb as much as $29 billion in potential losses.
The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have been working with Lehman to help resolve the bank’s troubles, including talking to potential buyers, according to people familiar with the matter. Federal officials currently aren’t expected to structure a bailout along the lines of the Bear transaction or this past weekend’s rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It ticks me off to no end that the Government (i.e. you and me) are bailing these guys out. Somehow I think that if my company made a boatload of risky business decisions Uncle Sam wouldn’t be standing there with a check for us.
But then again we don’t contribute millions to corrupt folks in Washington.
Silly us.
Nanny State | tree hugging sister | 
September 23, 2008 8:41 am | 
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