Friday, March 20, 2009

Quote of the Day...

90% Tax? Now We Really ARE Screwed:
"The frantic passage of the Populist Rage Tax was a new low in the US government's response to this crisis. It shows just how likely we are to doom ourselves to a decade or more of misery--by choking our markets, closing our borders, turning our banks into tools of social policy, and wrecking what's left of our economy."

Lack of leadership? Just a bit.....

Charles Krauthammer - Bonfire of the Trivialities:
"It is time for the president to state the obvious: This recession is not caused by excessive executive compensation in government-controlled companies. The economy has been sinking because of a lack of credit, stemming from a general lack of confidence, stemming from the lack of a plan to detoxify the major lending institutions, mainly the banks, which, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, is where the money used to be."

If we are not at war (a real one) within a couple of years, it will be a miracle...

Coming Soon: Global Warming Trade Wars:
"Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday advocated adjusting trade duties as a 'weapon' to protect U.S. manufacturing, just a day after one of China's top climate envoys warned of a trade war if developed countries impose tariffs on carbon-intensive imports."

A Class Act...

Mob Mentality on Capitol Hill:
"Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) played Madame Defarge on Capitol Hill. AIG’s recently installed CEO, Edward Liddy, agreed to testify before a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee (which Frank chairs). Liddy was actually a poor choice for scapegoat as he has only been on the job since September. Additionally, he is serving as a dollar-a-year man hoping to rescue the company and our financial system from a downward spiral. These facts slowed the momentum of some committee members. But most plowed ahead. Here’s Rep. Gary Ackerman (D., N.Y.): “There’s a tidal wave of rage throughout America right now and it’s building up and it’s expressing itself at this latest outrage, which is really just the tip of the iceberg. And that rage is because the taxpayer knows that they are the ultimate sucker on the list of who pays for all of the greed that has been going on in the marketplace for years and years.”"

True, but....

Big Fat Deal:
"You wouldn’t say ‘duck-fat ass..."

The end of the love affair...

Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony:
"Maybe they'll let the newspaper people pass the award through the fence."

Let's get on with it...

High and Low Finance:
"As a society, we are not as rich as we thought we were. The Federal Reserve now estimates that American households as a group are poorer than they were four years ago, even before adjusting for inflation. That had not happened in any four-year period since the Fed began making those estimates more than half a century ago.

It is not an easy reality to adjust to. But simply assuming that we deserve to live as if it had not happened will only make things worse."

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Quote of the Day...

Larry Kudlow:
"We don’t need more TARP. We don’t need to take over more big banks. And we don’t need to have the government run things it simply isn’t capable of running."

Sorkin took a real gamble here...

The Case for Paying the A.I.G. Bonuses

And if you read the comments (of which there were over 300 of them already this morning) he seems to have lost.

The only thing that obviously has succeeded is the Obama Administration's decision to use class warfare to point fingers and deflect blame.... a tactic the FDR used quite well, also.

Maybe it should be a question...

Belmont Club: “Save the newspapers”:
"What we will never hear is that their editorial policies and news slanting were part and parcel of their demise. We will never hear about the willed insults, slights, and snubbing of fully half of their potential circulation pool. Journalists and editors write a lot about “taking personal responsibility” when it comes to others. You never hear them write that about themselves. There’s no mea culpa among liberal newspaper journalists these days. There’s only “The Internet ate my newspaper.”"

Monday, March 16, 2009

Self important douchebags....

Deceiver.com:
"“Taxes are good, you thoughtless little pig… except when they affect my livelihood.” It’s like he thinks individuals and private industries know how to spend their own money better than the government does. Sheah, right! Doesn’t he care about those who aren’t wealthy enough to write Gov. Paterson a big check?

There’s one thing Alec Baldwin will never tax: his intellect."

As always, Megan has a way of explaining things so that even I understand them...

What difference does it make to the recession if Citibank and Bank of America fail?:
"Good question. Here's a roundabout answer.

In some sense, all of history's progress from lives that were nasty, brutish and short to today's splendiferous buffet of iPhones, nine-month courses of physical therapy, and year-round fresh broccoli can be summed up in three words: gains from trade. We live better than a tribe of chimpanzees roaming through the primordial forest because we specialize and then exchange the fruits of our skills with each other. Trade, as the ecoomists say, increases the size of the economic pie to be divided between us.

...We are currently enduring the Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger of economic corrections.'

Read it all...

This is only the beginning...

Porkialism Under Assault:
"Anyone else getting a retro commie slogan feel off that, by the way? Whaddaya think. Soviet five-year plannish or more Cultural Revolution? I’m leaning toward Mao on that one. Whichever, if I were a reactionary counter-revolutionary kulak, I’d watch out. Hey, wait a minute … I think I might be a reactionary counter-revolutionary kulak. Off to the Gulag with me!"

Sunday, March 15, 2009

How predictable was this?

Europe Hedges on Guantánamo Detainees:
European countries that in recent months have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by possibly resettling detainees have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners who were described for years by Bush administration officials as “the worst of the worst,” according to diplomats and officials on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hell of a wake-up call....

Belmont Club:
"With these two cards in hand, Nasrallah can be reasonably sure that both London and Washington, having painted themselves into a corner, will sooner or later come, tail between their legs, to his door. There will be political cover; perhaps some fig leaf to cover the abjectness of it all; but the basic position is this: if Nasrallah believes neither Obama nor Brown are willing to cross him, he will spit in their face and know they will take it.

My guess? The Bearded One will get away with it. And oh, about Hezbollah’s pledge to destroy Israel? He never said it, and if he said it the sophisticates will never believe it; and even if they believe it they won’t consider that it matters. What matters is the illusion of the peace process. That must be kept going at all events. Even if Hezbollah declares itself out, they will always find a way to deal it in."