Hey, remember Dubya and his beloved "Charge To Keep" painting, which turned out to portray a "horse thief fleeing from a lynch mob"? Well, it seems he’s done it again. Turns out that the song he parodied at the Gridiron Club, "The Green Green Grass of Home," is actually about the thoughts of a condemned man about to be executed. Oops.
Is Dubya trying to tell us something? Is there some tiny dying ember of conscience trying to claw its way out through his subconscious, steering him towards these strangely revealing mistakes? Or is he just rubbing our noses the fact that he’s getting away scot-free, unlike his kindred spirits of art and song?
My gut feeling is that it does signal some vestige of a guilty conscience. Consider one of my all-time favorite Bush gaffes:
There’s an old saying… that says, "Fool me once, shame on- shame you. Fool me- you can’t get fooled again."
At the last moment, he literally can’t bring himself to speak the words, "shame on me" – not even in the context of simply repeating an old (and very apt) piece of folk wisdom.
Or how about when he said he gazed deeply into Vladimir Putin’s eyes clear down to his soul, and liked what he saw? It was his own reflection.
Or when he confessed his desire to harm America?
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
And if that’s not enough, even Bush’s other brain is getting in on that act:
George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush are two pretty remarkable men. And I’ve learned a lot from them, learned a lot about life, learned a lot about character, learned a lot about loyalty and trust and honesty and straightforwardness.
‘Nuff said, I think.
(Thanks to watertiger for pointing out the parallel between "The Green Green Grass of Home" and "A Charge To Keep")
Related posts:
- George W. Bush, Apparently Unironically, to Unveil Public Policy Institute Today at SMU
- The Anti-Bush, Or Bush Lite?
- Memo to the White House: You Can’t Win an Unpopular War (And Stop Quoting George W. Bush)
- Flashback: Stockton, California Elementary Students Forced to Hero-Worship George W. Bush in 2002
- Jeb Bush: Stop Blaming My Brother for Driving the Country Off a Cliff
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Eli!
zed and fred are dead.
CTut!
*sigh* Another freudian slip, Eli…
oh stop it with this zed is dead stuff…
hiya Eli!
You wish! 8-P
aww c’mon Eli, your title suggests Bush HAS a brain, where’s the proof?
See, you need to stop listening to watertiger….
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
I think this is as close to the truth as bush has ever come.
Hiya, Biodun!
Well we know he doesn’t have a heart.
Hey Eli.
Heh heh. Oh man, these gaffes are going to be so much funnier when he’s finally gone. I’ll be able to laugh much more deeply after he leaves the White House.
Eli! You are a sight for sore eyes!
That and the myth that Cheney has a heart.
Hey eg.
Ya know, Eli, picking on Shrub for his Bushisms is like shooting fish in a barrel…!
Just don’t rub me on them.
A man went to the doctor with a strange complaint.
“Well, it’s like this Doc, when I drive to work in the morning through the country lanes I start to sing ‘The Green Green Grass of Home’. If I see a cat I bust out with ‘What’s new Pussycat?’ It’s so embarrassing, even when I’m asleep and dreaming. Last night I work up singing “Delilah’, and my wife was not amused!”
“Hmm. it would appear that you have the early symptoms of Tom Jones syndrome.”
“Well I’ve never heard of theat, is it common?” asked the man.
“It’s not unusual,” replied the doctor.
Ah, but I’m picking specifically on the Bushisms that are unintentionally(?) revealing, as opposed to the ones that are merely incoherent or moronic.
I actually did end up watching a whole bunch of Tom Jones videos after I found that one…
Heh, I’ll concede…! *g8
I like Tom Jones.
I just wish Bush would stay out of ladies’ undies… He’s got Freudian slips, teddies, bustiers, bras, garter belts…
I didn’t know Teddy was Freudian.
y’all: watch it with the organs: brains, heart, etc…*g*
I must say that KKKRove did learn it from them, how to evade it…!
Well, at least one of them is from SanFran… [HUGE grin]
Why, I oughta!
(”While Teddy is a Freudian, I am a Jungian – so there’ll be no blaming Mother today.”)
hey eg: you’re doing OK?
I know punaise has decided to keep a low profile for now…but I hope other FDLers in your new area are keeping you company when they can…
Ha! You funny tonight.
Calm down, Teddy. What would your mother think?
Bernanke is on C-span 1, discussing the sub-prime meltdown…!
and this doesn’t sound so great. From BBC News:
Remember not so long ago the media was instructing us not sell George W. Bush short? That he was a lot smarter than we thought he was.
OK. I’m going to straighten one thing out. There is nothing in Bush on the Couch about W being fetal alcohol syndrome. Such an argument occured here a week or more ago, but I was not where my book was so couldn’t check it out. (Can’t remember who was averring that it was in the book.) In any event, my copy of the book and I reunited and I checked it out. Not there. And if you google George W Bush and FAS, you get a bunch of real garbagey looking sites.
Which is not to say he isn’t, but merely to indicate that I can’t find a shred of respectible evidence to suggest he is.
Can’t those assholes get into big trouble cause the ceo said yesterday that everything was rosy. Today the stock tanks. How many people lost money based on what he said?
OT: Barack Obama is going to be on Hannity and Colmes (FOX) in a few minutes to discuss pastor Wright.
Don’t look at me; I just think he’s an asshole and possibly a psychopath…
Dang, Rose, ya like to be fair and balanced, eh? *g*
I heard the fetal alcohol thing years ago. He has some of the physical characteristics.
I never believed that, and I don’t think they did either.
George W. Bush is one dumb sob. And I realize the implications of the sob statement. I make no apologies.
…and this doesn’t sound so great either. From BBC News:
However if you are a homeowner with a bad mortgage or one of the many other ordinary Americans affected by the current credit crunch, my advice is don’t hold your breath for help.
BTW the Cushing spot closed today at $110.21. Hedge funds having destroyed the housing market have moved on to the crude oil market. These funds remind me of locusts and I wonder why they aren’t treated the same way.
That it’s insulting to SOBs?
He claims that market rumors became a self-fulfilling prophesy because BS found it unable to fund itself as a result of the rumors, which were originally baseless, according to him.
Not indicating I believe him, just reporting what he sez, so don’t attack the messenger. I would guess, however, that his story would protect him from liability, unless an examination of the books (not a condition of the bailout that I saw) indicates otherwise.
I’d have to perhaps agree with that. But to what end?
Oh… I’d never, ever want to insult anybody. ;0)
There’s plenty of bad stuff to emphasize without falling down rat holes. *g*
It is reminiscent of Ken Lay’s defense of Enron just before it went kerblooey (sorry for the technical jargon). If a CEO knowingly misrepresents the fundamentals of his/her business to stockholders that is a failure of his/her fiduciary responsibility to them.
Bush’s latest. To our soldiers:
No humor here. Stupid, unfeeling, insulting, head-up-his-ass idiocy.
I specificially wasnt pointing at anyone since I don’t remember who it was. But do you protest too much? *g*
The morning’s House debate on FISA is being re-aired… Rogers said we must head off the ‘frivolous lawsuits’… *gah*
nauseating
Rats. I am trying to Digg this post, but Digg won’t cooperate. It no longer shows me the box with the letters and numbers you are supposed to enter to demonstrate that you are human. When I use the audible function, the numbers and letters are unclear and ambiguous, and I can’t get them right. What’s up with that?
Eli, I dig your post, even if I cannot Digg it.
Maybe someone else could submit it so I can Digg it.
I’m fucking dyin, dodge the shit when you are the right age and then wax about it now. Where’s Lee Greenwood?
My guess is if one wanted to check for thought occurrences going in a GWB brain, you would have to set the multi-tester to micro-amps or volts.
Dang, then why did he pass on his chance for the romantic fighter pilot duty in Nam…? Hmmm…
shit
Re: W’s “economy” speech. I watched most of it after a friend called me to tell me what a train wreck it was. I found it so incoherent I couldn’t begin to artculate what was wrong with it. It left me speechless. I also noticed that he had a particularly petulant demeanor, with spittle trying to leak out of the corner of his mouth.
I’m hoping that he’s not equipped to deal with a congress that stands up to him, and that he self-destructs in the next 10 months.
And then Lucy took the football away.
And how far advanced a brain does Mr. McCain own?
ROFL … what a cerebral and funny line …
((( Eli )))
Nah, definitely wasn’t me. That theory really never grabbed me. To me his behavior is very well-explained by his upbringing (i.e., emotionally questionable parents, lots of connections and money, indulged and treated undue deference for his whole entire life).
OT: nasa tv is fly in conjunction with pi
hey Raven…gonna spend the evening with us? *g*
At least he’s consistent. Consistently an evil buffoon, that is.
That sums it up succinctly…! ;-)
Well, it looks like somebody bet Bear Stearns stock might tank:
I can’t take credit – it’s adapted from Frasier, the episode where Niles has to take over the call-in show when Frasier gets sick.
I think Little Boots is from the Ronnie Ray-gunz branch of military service where pretending to be in combat is just as good as the real thing.
Suffice to say, he got what he paid for.
Mr. McCain’s brain is in retreat.
I am deep into basketball but I may chime in. I sent you a fb message.
I liked picking up
again. Reminded me of several things I’d forgotten. (Though I will never forget the firecrackers in the frogs.) Wish I had time to read it again. But too many other books beckon.
Everyonoe was betting against BS, which is why they couldn’t finance themselves.
Happens with Chimpy most of the time. And hate to say this: this happens with Hillary too sometimes…
I think it’s going to take something like grabbing a kid and using it as a shield from an assassination attempt to truly expose Dubya for what he is.
(That’s sort of a movie spoiler, but not so much if I don’t say what movie it is – it’s not currently in theaters, however. Please don’t shout out if you know it, in case someone runs across that movie someday.)
I think you’re absolutely right about this. There are certain physical signs to look for in FAS, and Shrub doesn’t have them, at least not to my eye…
Major Garrett is absolutely grilling Barack Obama on his association with Pastor Wright on FOX.
If the last 7 years have taught me anything, it’s to never bet against BS.
Ach! try this to digg
Digg away.
Tweety is the champ though.
Poppy and Babs one day thought George needed a college degree so they bought him one. And one day they said George needed a business, so they bought him partial ownership of a MLB team. And then one day Poppy and Babs decided George needed a job, so they bought him the presidency
I swear McCain graduated from Annapolis solely because his pappy and grandpappy were Admirals…
please put my coke on ice, thank you.
…am watching Shoot the Moon, a wrenching film about a marriage (with kids) falling apart. Diane Keaton, Albert Finney, Karen Allen (as the other love interest ???!!!) Saw it when it first came out…in the 1980s when I was living in NYC with my now ex…
I think one of the signs is on the upper lip. He doesn’t have the folds or lines.
All out of Coke.. May I sharpen your shovel?
Heartbreaker
If you’d been an economist studying business cycles, you’d be aware that 7 years is not proof of anything.
Reminds me of the physicist’s proof that 12 is evenly divisible by all integers less than 12: 1 goes into 12 evenly, 2 goes into 12 evenly, 3 goes into 12 evenly, 4 goes into 12 evenly, let’s not get ridiculous.
Sometimes you even get up to 7. But that doesn’t necessarily make it so. And you forget BS funds that completely missed the subprime meltdown, which was what broke the BS image.
Of course we all know GWB was a flying ace during the ‘Nam war.
I think you may have mistaken my meaning…
(”Bear Stearns” is not the only thing BS stands for)
This sounds like not letting the markets solve all problems. It sounds like socialism for the uber rich.
It sounds like Bearn Stearns should be indicted, not bouyed.
I assume “ace” is some kind of Oklahoma slang term for “cocaine addict.”
works for me!
I duuno, this is where I get in trouble. I guess I’ll lay off.
I didn’t think Obama was especially effective, did you? Defensive. And, while I’m on the subject, he is spending waaay too much time putting out fires.
You got me!
FAS signs
* Attention deficits
* Memory deficits
* Hyperactivity
* Difficulty with abstract concepts
* Inability to manage money
* Poor problem solving skills
* Difficulty learning from consequences
* Immature social behavior
* Inappropriately friendly to strangers
* Lack of control over emotions
* Poor impulse control
* Poor judgment
Socialism for me, but not for thee. The law of the jungle only prevails up to a certain salary grade.
Why should the “Fed” bail out any bank? Bear Stearns was really pushing sub prime loans. These guys are crooks and probably all making 7 figure salaries and huge bonuses as the tank the company and screw home owners.
sounds like George to me.
of course, it sounds a bit like me, too.
Dang, check, check, check, check, check, check……! ;-)
I must say that this is the first time, I think, that I’ve ever listened to him without getting sick to my stomach. Perhaps it is because of thinking forward to being able to ‘missing’ him/Dick … if it will ever be possible in the face of the damage that they wrought on the world.
Thanks for this post.
I would like to see some of the men behind this sub prime scheme hauled into court.
Perhaps the sham of the banking financial and hedge funds will be revealed.
Some say the hedge fund speculation is responsible for 30% of the cost of a barrel of oil these days too.
Bubble Greenspan needs to go to the woodshed. He hasn’t a clue about what he did.
If you want to preach a gospel of “personal accountability”, it really does have to go *all* the way up the food chain, and not just apply to us peons.
We might get better corporate governance if failure were not rewarded the same as success.
The only time seeing George that won’t make me sick is seeing him behind bars.
My pleasure – nice to see you here.
I read that Bear Sterns is leveraged for 24 times their capital … looking for link … and Goldman Sachs is leveraged for 30 times their capital … all of these investment banks are in serious trouble …
Goodnight folks. We are having a party tonight and some of our friends have called and said they are about twenty minutes away. Everyone will be staying all night here. They will check their car keys with Lahoma. Cards, food and movies into the wee hours. I hope three litres of Cuervo Classico (Margaritas) and two cases of Mexican beer will be enough. I’m the bartender.
Agree. And the Uncle line is going to bite him in the ass.
man, I never really agreed with Freud and subconscious slips that much but talk about a Freudian slip there it is right there and well, I am now a believer
I couldn’t agree more with you. There is no accountablility in this country for anyone in management or above.
Laws are for the little folk to keep them in line.
Reminds me of the nightclub in Berlin that I used to frequent in those days…that was open only on dates divisible by 6…Name escapes mt at the moment–but is near Alexanderplatz…
Carlyle Capital still has ‘em beat, 32 times…!
Well? What other diseases have those indicators?
With the bet they made not paying off, it has become a big exercise in borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. The problem is that with the credit crunch Peter ain’t playing.
That is now making the rounds! Love it.;)
Aloha, OKK and Lahoma, have fun!
yea but I want him to have fas cause i am like that. me bad.
Facebook inbox…
To me, it’s the very core of democracy.
Accountability = democracy, impunity = dictatorship/kleptocracy/failed state.
It’s why I’m so upset about the way the Republicans have rigged the media, sunshine/FOI laws, the electoral system, the judiciary, and the law enforcement apparatus. Those are all mechanisms by which accountability and democracy are enforced and preserved.
The fed is trying to stave off a run on these “banks” where people want their cash out and they they have no operating capital and no “collateral”. Their fake financial instruments are not cutting it these days and so these guys are being revealed for the frauds they are.. selling empty promises. The kind of thing people get busted for when they sell stocks in companies that don’t exist. These guys sell paper that has no value and make huge transaction fees.
We would be in great shape if all these brokerage houses hedge funds and so forth went bust and banks acted as they were supposed to and ceased selling worthless paper to one another.
Eli, I never put all of the infamous Bush sayings together either. The fact that he couldn’t say “shame on me” is quite telling.
How can Laura stand to be in the same room with him?
I used to enjoy Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt…!
I’m watching in now on tape and I disagree. I think hey faced it head on, there is nothing wrong with the “uncle” metaphor, and there are plenty of black folks that feel like the rev. Hil steals this nomination and “we’ve only just begun”.
Credit crunch? Why do these big boys on wall street need “credit”?
Explain that.
Story about 12 being divisible is applicable in surprisingly many sitautions. Often it’s: one goes into 12 evenly, let’s not get ridiculous.
That’s my personal favorite.
;) I’ll never tell. It’s a good one, though. Guy who did it had Brush nailed to a T in advance!
I really have a differant take on what happened, I really beleive he was afraid he’d mess up the saying so he winged it {wung it?)
anyway, I think it was a cyo moment in his own head
He does. In a jar, in an undisclosed location.
I *always* thought that about the “Fool me once” quote, but the idea of some kind of repressed guilt finding creative ways to express itself didn’t click until he pulled off the doomed-criminal twofer.
One could ask the opposite Q. Laura doesn’t impress me as a person I’d want to have a conversation with either. And there’s that auto accident problem.
Too true. And every time someone talks about what it would take for Dubya to be truly revealed, that’s always the moment I think of.
when where what? how?
Bearn Stearns shares 47%, but they are still over valued. They need to come down another 30% and then perhaps the share value will align with their cash…
Banks are leverage 10x as well.
Citibank is going down too.
I always thought it strange that he would have started it if he couldn’t finish it cleanly. I guess it was foreshadowing…
The two versions could be the same thing. He probably couldn’t remember because of what that would have made him say.
((( Hugh ))) I can’t find that darn link from earlier this week …
Did you see what the new CEO of Citigroup got to sign up ?!!
sure sounds like fun…behave yerself now…y’hear?…*g*
Well, someone has to be at the bottom of the class… (I correct myself. I believe he was FIFTH from the bottom…)
well, I hate to call them favorites, they just piss me off, this is actually the president of the uniteds states of America
anyway, if I were to pick the thing he said or says that is most bothersome it’s the fact that he does like old QUElars
he only likes ”newQUElars”
oh man that drives me nutz
Um, the first paragraph of the post?
My impression of Laura is that she has been holding herself together since she ran over her old boyfriend. She is so stiff. Or she is really pissed at junior all of the time.
but did you go there alone at night?
Laura doesn’t impress me in the least. Imagine what she could have accomplished being in her position. Nothing but Christmas trees (which she had nothing to do with decorating) and little black dogs. But that’s okay, what I can’t understand is that she f*cked him. Gag me.
I’m still enjoying Scheudenfraude in Washington…!
Yeah, to me it looked like he had a little voice screaming in his head, “Abort! Abort!”, and he bailed.
He certainly doesn’t have the wide-set eyes.
bad memory issues.
Fifth from the bottom sounds like the exact resume needed for prez judging by contemporary standards.
Most intelligent people knew Bush was a idiot in the first campaign…a complete empty suit. He has proven it each time he opens his mouth and that includes all sorts of coaching.
The man is a clueless illiterate ideologue who has the emotional maturity of an 8yr old. I am not kidding.
and a thin upper lip.
Paper bag over her head.
Citigroup’s $216 Million Dollar Man … Link
pharmaceuticals
it is so revealing, really.
I have been known to say that W is good looking if you don’t like lips.
If citigroup goes under do I still have to pay my credit card bill?
No Obama did’nt seem that effective. He fumbled on the question of why he has not decided to leave the church after he heard about Wright’s statements/sermons. Hannity does’nt believe Obama about not knowing what Wright has said in the past. FOX is going to investigate whether Obama is lying about not being in church when some of those sermons were given. They are going to find the tapes of Obama’s wedding ceremony and children’s christenings to see if there is anything damaging for Obama.
but is it “winged it” or “wung it”?
WAAAY too many of which were set by his own party. That just ain’t right.
speaking of lips how come we have to lose ours as we get older? i hate that.
Isn’t that great to be paid that much to take a job!
Anyone here get a signing bonus?
LMAO
And how about his freaking tap dancing. The whole world laughs with us.
Somebody ought to write a song.
Wingerated?
Assumes facts not in evidence.
LOL
((((( Mary )))))
Not taking any strong position whether it should have been done, but it’s because they’re too interconnected to fail in a sudden and disorderly collapse. Those on the street who actually know something about it (not me!) are of the opinion that this isn’t going to, nor is really meant to, save BS, but just lets them sink into a neat pile without grabbing at everything in reach on the way down.
Get comfy. We live in historic times.
We get an occasional free lunch on the corporation, or on our boss…
Drat, I missed the rest of the last thread and a good protion of this thread…but I’m back as some of the guys came over early and have decided to play RISK. I have been ceremoniously uninvited.
That’s the least of my problems. It’s the wattle that gets me. *g*
If you’re lucky they fire all the staff and can’t process their CC payments.. hahahaha. They always fire the hard working grunts first.
Notice how the market responded to the Bush economic speech?
There was a pump and dump for some profit taking by brokers and the plunge continues.
hmmm
Wondering if I can time a huge cash advance correctly….
True. How could I prove such an allegation. Twins could have been invitro or of another sire altogether.
I think Bear Sterns is history. Going the way of Lincoln Savings and Loan and Countrywide and all these creeps.
What is the fed going to do with all those sub primes it took as collateral to lend BS all that cash? That’s gonna be fun.
OT Wild ass weather in Atlanta. During the last minutes of the Alabama MSU game intense winds hit the Georgia Dome and the structure in the roof of the dome started swinging and stuff started falling from the roof. Reminded me of the superdome.
Time for everyone to ask for limit raises!
might be a good idea to lease a beamer right about now, even if you have to pay it off, the dollar is gonna be worth next to nothing by the time the buyout comes and they might buy it from you rather then let you have it at 25% market value
Could be both, you know. Either has the potential to, shall we say, rob life of its brio.
IIRC, there was some fertility treatment involved in the conception.
in a word yes…
Have a grand evening! I’m sure we all wish we could be there too!
oh dear, was anyone hurt?
Can you imagine, Bearn Stearns employed 14,000 people involved in selling junk paper? What a scam!
shit fire.
WTF?
What did they say, “No girls allowed”?
The local news says some people on the street outside were. The game is in OT or there would have been lots more people out there.
March 14 (Bloomberg) — Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said financial markets are in “uncharted waters” and the government may need to take “substantial additional action” to help homeowners.
“We are in somewhat uncharted waters,” Rubin, chairman of Citigroup Inc.’s executive committee, said in a speech in Washington. “The outlook for credit markets and the economy is uncertain” and he called for “substantial additional action in the mortgage area.”
are they askeered?
LOL. No, they’re just sour because every other time we have played, i have whooped their collective asses (I always pick pink just to rub it in even more).
Maybe she does have some small amount of good sense.
–probably…these things still happen…the men may also be smoking cigars and drinking cognac…*g*
And then there’s this:
Krugman avers to the Federal Reserve’s two previous big efforts since August to bail out the insolvent banks, insurers, and hedge funds with cheap loans as “slaps in the faces” of these wobbling corporations — “yo, wake the fuck up!” — as if narcolepsy was their only problem. (Try that with a wino on the sidewalk outside the Port Authority bus terminal and see if he immediately signs up for rehab and a high school equivalency program.) Krugman calls the club’s latest plan — for the Fed to just suck up their impaired and worthless collateral in exchange for more cheap loans — as a “third slap,” saying, with all the panache of a midwestern Rotary Club secretary, that “the third time could be the charm.” Had the monkeys already flown out of his butt as he wrote that, I wonder.
The line in Krugman’s column I love best, though is this one: “Last month another market you’ve never heard of, the $300 billion market for auction-rate securities (don’t ask), suffered the equivalent of a bank run.” He presumes that his readers go along with his pretense of innocence. We’ve never heard of the municipal bond market and it’s too complicated to explain so “don’t ask.” Is he writing for the “newspaper of record” or Highlights For Children? Maybe it would be a good thing if readers of The New York Times asked what the fuck was going on in these markets so they could yank their depreciating dollars out and deploy them elsewhere or convert them into something of value.
Well it was a bad week on the money scene in what is sure to be a worsening year. Paul Krugman and his fellow club members can pretend that the hallucinated finance economy is not really flying to pieces. After all, he / they are trying to avert panic. But, as noted previously in this space, the only thing we have to fear is not fear itself. We have to fear the consequences of actions by a banking leadership that has shown the grossest irresponsibility (and an American public that has been conditioned to expect a steady diet of getting something for nothing).
The US faces a pretty stark choice right now: it can let the losers take their losses — both the big institutions who created and traded in fraudulent securities, and all the “little guys” who borrowed too much money trying to get rich quick, or trying to live like the millionaires they see on TV. We can let them go down, and suffer the consequences of their bad choices (and maybe prosecute some of the culpable bankers and corporate executives), OR, in an effort to let these losers off the hook we can wreck the whole machinery of capital by making our medium-of-exchange worthless.
The people in charge — both in and out of government — can’t face the losses, so for now they’ve apparently decided to wreck the currency. The dollar has lost two percent of its value against the Euro just in recent weeks, as cheap loans from the Fed pour into the black hole on Wall Street (never to be seen again). Other soft-pedalers in the media claim that the financial markets have “already priced in” yet another expected .75-point interest rate drop by the Fed this week, but I’m confident that such a move will only accelerate the dollar’s vanishing act.
I’ll admit, it’s hard to believe what’s going on in the American finance sector. But incredulity in the face of a rare catastrophe isn’t the same as pretending that it’s not happening. A whole flock of black swans is flying in front of the sun. Don’t expect to work on your tan this month.
March 3, 2008
Campaign Blues
While it’s gratifying to watch Hillary Clinton melt back into her senate seat — in the process foiling the ascent of Emperor Bill the 1st — one can’t help but feel that that the contest for president is taking place in a different “world-line” (shall we say) than the melt-down of the US financial sector, and with it, the US economy.
Whoever wins on November 5 will wake up to preside over a different America than the schematic one he was debating about during the primaries and the election. The long campaign will beat a path straight into the long emergency. The new president will inherit a wrecked banking system, an economy in freefall, a wobbling world oil market, and an American public extremely ticked off by its startling, sudden impoverishment. (This is apart from whatever melodramas spool out on the geopolitical scene.)
The president-elect will quickly realize that the number one problem is not that Americans can’t afford health care — it’s that they can’t afford anything, because their income is evaporating in terms of both lost jobs and a dollar that is racing toward worthlessness. They’ll be hard put to pay for food and gasoline, nevermind Grandma’s emphysema treatments. They will be walking away from home ownership — or yanked kicking and screaming by default-and-repo — and any government scheme devised to abridge their mortgage contracts will only undermine basic contract law that has made mortgage lending a credible thing in the first place. And that too, of course, would redound straight to a real estate sector already in price free-fall, with no one willing or able to think about buying a house.
As Obama and McCain go at it through the next eight months, they will likely focus on our situation in Iraq. (Calling it a “war” now is imprecise.) As merely one commentator among thousands, I’m not satisfied that either one of the contenders has defined his position on this coherently. Obama is disposed to get the US military out of there as quickly as possible. He’s right that the sheer awful cost of the adventure is one big factor in wrecking US finances while it erodes our standing in the world. But with our Iraq garrison shut down, he’d better be prepared for a further breakdown in Middle East stability and the oil markets that depend on it — meaning, the basis of American life for four generations, dependable oil imports, will sharply end. That would accelerate the disorderly abandonment of our massive misinvestment in suburban living, and also ramp up the anger and resentment of the public grieving over its lost entitlements.
McCain’s contrasting hundred-year plan does not take into account the severe impoverishment and exhaustion of the military itself, not to mention the overall purpose of the adventure — to keep suburban life and all its accessories running in the homeland — which is an exercise in futility under any terms. McCain would have to confront the terrible paradoxes of the war, namely that thousands of legs have been blown off for the sake of WalMart, which company will be hemorrhaging customers anyway, as incomes wilt, at the same time that WalMart’s own operating system — the “warehouse on wheels” — surrenders to the reality of five or six dollar-a-gallon diesel fuel. In any case, the implosion of the US economy during the next eight months will overshadow whatever we decide to do in Iraq, and that cratering will be laid directly at the feet of the Republican party. If the party survives that, which I doubt, it would a long time before anybody trusted it again.
Whoever wakes up as the next president on November 5 will have to preside over the comprehensive reorganization of American life. The big question is whether he can persuade the public to let go of its sunk costs, and all the sheer stuff that represents, and move ahead in a unified way that doesn’t end up tearing the nation apart. The danger is that the public will want to mount a kind of last stand effort to defend a way of life that has no future under any circumstances, and they will ask the president to lead that last stand.
To avoid that deadly outcome, the new president will have to be equipped with a realistic vision of what this society can actually do to survive the discontinuities that circumstances present. This will require him to confront the prevailing delusion that the US can become “energy independent” in the sense that we can run WalMart on something other than oil from foreign lands. The new president would have to carefully restate American expectations and goals — for instance, not to keep all the cars running at all costs, but to get us living in places where driving is not mandatory. I’m concerned that the American people will hate the new president if he tells them the truth: that an old way of life is over and a new one has to begin now. We’re about to find out how much “change” the public can really stand.
ROTFL!!!!
yep, we even played the Lord of the Rings version last time and I still kicked their butts.
game is in off-topic? *g* …well that was lame but what the heck?
me would like to see ecahns predictions on what that “substantial action” might be
lower taxes?
LMAO they are more the warm beer and peanuts crowd (Brits)
send a link, jesus
Heh. Sounds to me like they’re tired of being beaten! The last time I was “ceremoniously uninvited” from something it was because I turned out to be a better shot than the guys… I was told I could come along the next time, but to pick berries. I let them pick their own damn berries…
overtime, my god where am I?
Been googling. This seems to be the conventional wisdom.
Shoot the Moon:
the swimming pool guy, Peter Weller, has just kissed Diane Keaton…
http://www.kunstler.com/
It really is their own fault. I tell them every time that alliances are only good for one turn (for me) and they just get so preoccupied with trying to figure out what my objective is or clobbering the snot out of one another that they get their butts beat every single time. Okay, I’m just good at RISK
I don’t opine on economics or financial markets here anymore, owing to others with superior knowlege. I do sometimes report on such matters.
HAH!!! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Go girl!
My neice gave me a GWB sayings calendar and i took it to work. each day i would read a saying to a couple of people just to watch their expressions. Made my whole day.
Dramatic eye make-up is very good for wattles. No one will notice; they’ll be gazing into your eyes.
I’m kinda thinking there is a sperm donor because they both seem much more inteligent then dad or mom
The fed is basically throwing money at Wall Street because one failure will bring the whole house of cards down.
But giving these perps billions is precisely how they got into trouble. Selling worthless financial instruments. Why keep that scam going?
Explain to me what social function Bearn Sterns provide to this society?
I’m predicting lower taxes
tee hee
Self-delusion is good for wattles, too….;)
Cool he’s a dog person
There are some really smart people here and I wanted to ask:
JPMorgan and Bear Stears are public companies and would Not comment on the size of the initial rescue package.
How is that not a significant development? Shareholders have no rights?
The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE: BSC) is the parent company of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., a leading global investment banking, securities trading and brokerage firm. Since 1923, we have helped corporations, institutions, governments and individuals reach their financial objectives. Clients have come to rely on the breadth of our expertise, our commitment to client service and our innovative approach to problem-solving. Talented professionals join Bear Stearns because of our unique corporate culture. Based on respect, integrity, meritocracy, innovation and a commitment to philanthropy, these guiding principles serve as blueprint for the way that we do business.
To meet the increasingly complex needs of our clients and the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace, we have refocused our business, extended our geographic reach, and strengthened technological capabilities. As part of a new strategic plan, we have begun to look at our businesses in three core areas:
1. Capital Markets
2. Wealth Management
3. Global Clearing Services
This approach reinforces the increasingly interconnected nature of our various businesses. Thus private client services and asset management fall within the area of Wealth Management, while the Capital Markets area comprises all of our equity and fixed income sales, trading, research and investment banking businesses.
You into those funny cigarettes again?
Explain to me what social function Bearn Sterns provide to this society?
They make change for the laundrymat?
sh?t, ma’man is rolling tonight.
They do???
Also, Jenna looks *alarmingly* like Dubya, so I really don’t think there’s a sperm donor involved. Unless it’s one of his brothers…
another market you’ve never heard of, the $300 billion market for auction-rate securities (don’t ask)
“Municipal bonds” is not an adequate description:
1. Many entities besides state and local governments use them;
2. Instead of being sold as, say, straight discount bonds, or fixed coupon/interest rate bonds, or even variable rate bonds in the same sense as ARM loans, ARS have their rates determined by re-auctioning at regular intervals, which can be as frequent as monthly I understand. Note that this is different from securities trading on a secondary market, because with ARS, the city or whatever that issued them is on the hook for the new rate set at each auction.
LOL it’s cool and quite funny to have four brits beg you (american) not to kick their butts.
Why should the people bail out companies which lists wealth management as its #2 business purpose?
For a minute, I thought I read “Global Cleaning Services”!!
well, when the economy is robust, the answer according to this president is to lower taxes
when the economy is struggling, the answer is to lower taxes
I guarantee, he will say the answer to this problem is to lower taxes
I guarantee it
Heh, are ya kidding, with a buddy of course…!
jeb?
But not for us peasants, I’ll bet.
This quote is right from their web page.
Why should we care a shit about these rich fucks who could care less about people without portfolios?
“At Bear Stearns, we have been helping high-net-worth individuals and families build and manage their wealth for over fifty years. Led by an exclusive group of 500 Investment Professionals, our Private Client Services (PCS) Department offers clients a broad suite of transactional, wealth management and investment advisory services. These Investment Professionals—among the most experienced and creative in the industry—excel at leveraging the resources of one of the world’s most admired financial services firms on behalf of our clients.”
She should have taken it as a sign. If I were a woman, I wouldn’t ovulate for that asshole, either.
In today’s global investment environment, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals face significant complexity in their financial lives as they attempt to strike an optimal balance between the principal goals of capital preservation, growth and income generation. Bear Stearns Advisory Services offers a process-driven, holistic approach that brings diverse investments and strategies together to give an easy, intuitive framework from which clients can view their financial lives.
LOL !
well, they will make it illegal to repair bridges and water works, they will sell your public beach to the saudis’, they will make it illegal to take out a book from the library and they will make it illegal for a teacher in public school to teach anything but magic
that will be how the tax reductions are funded
The Big Con by Jonathan Chait.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Con-…..038;sr=1-1
Bush protecting his “base” for future GOP campaigns.
Many of our individual and institutional clients come to us with the same pressing need: a disciplined process to integrate their resources, commitments, and risk parameters into a unified financial blueprint. Typically, this begins with comprehensive analysis and guidance on portfolio construction, including a focus on the tax impact of each asset class with the goal of optimizing after-tax returns. It may include complex issues relating to a family business and monetization strategies to facilitate liquidity and diversification for concentrated holdings. And where business interests are closely tied to family wealth, we may blend corporate and personal financial strategies.
236 Responses to “Bush’s Telltale Brain”
Dam Eli – sucks that nobody seems to wanna talk to ya, huh?
*wiping screen down* hehehehehehehe
Too big to fail. Why Trump et al will never go bust.
Heh. How many of them are financial/economic, though?
I don’t mind the OT so much as long as it’s not a pie fight, though.
VOT: Jump Around!
here’s the thing ecahn, lowering taxes CAN actually help
but they are not really tax reductions, they are tax investments, you target your tax reduction toward the industry you want to promote, a struggling industry or an industry that needs a push
but you knew that
Raven, CNN is saying that might have been a tornado …
Well, you just made me laugh out loud!
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A possible tornado swept through downtown Atlanta on Friday night, disrupting a college basketball game and damaging the building that houses CNN.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for the area, in effect until 10 p.m. The storm came through at about 9:45 p.m.
Inside CNN Center, water poured through damage in the ceiling into the building’s atrium. Glass shattered, and parts of the building filled with dust.
Next door at the Georgia Dome, the SEC conference basketball game between Alabama and Mississippi State was halted. The storm visibly rippled the ceiling of the dome and caused some damage, video of the arena showed. Scaffolding holding the facility’s scoreboard swayed 15 minutes after the storm hit.
Outside, construction cones and newspaper boxes were shoved into the street.
Reminds me of the wife’s speech in Bonfire of the Vanities about what daddy does for a living: “Little crumbs fall off the cake every time they pass it around and cut another piece, and daddy picks up the little crumbs every time….”
Yea, I mean it was crazy seeing the players looking up and fans heading for the hills. It was really scary. If the game had not gone into overtime there might have been several thousand people on the street.
by the way, as far as books go, everyone here should grab a copy of “the true story of the bilderberg group”
it is more telling and alarming then what we know about the pnac
http://infowars-shop.stores.ya…..fbigr.html
And, of course, that was Hot Lanta.
Anyone see Greg Palast today on the interface between Spitzer and his intention to take out these scam
lendersdebt leveragers, the Bernake bailout and such?We will also need to further reduce the stranglehold of regulation on American business.
oh yea, I forgot about that, that always does the trick too
quit that, google will pick it up!
bed
g’night all
eli, thanx for a great thread
I’m sure you just forgot to close that snark… fixed now…
I leave for the night with this;
please read
the true story of the bilderberg group
The reason I cited the book is because it’s the first thing I’ve read that explains to me how W et al think about economics, which had previously been a mystery to me because there is nothing you learn in economics that reveals anything about what W is doing.
Actually, I think the empirical evidence shows the economy is demand driven. So I would bail it out thru tax cuts middle & low income households.
Industry policy has been the key to development for underdeveloped countries. But we only read of the winners. I’m remembering that Brazil tried to protect their infant computer industry in the 1980s, which was particularly bone-headed, because Brazil was never going to have a competitive computer industry, and import restrictions on computers made all their other industries less competitive than they would otherwise have been. So industry policy must be intelligently implimented.
What else is new?
l8rs, dream the good dreams :)
rofl. gore == pepsi!!!111 ;)
Aloha, perris!
Interesting. That means she did it. *G*
I saw it. Spits was like a mosquito buzzing around the Wall street cheats. He was fighting the masters of the universe… the guys that pull the strings of the world’s economies.. the guys who gave you credit card interest of 29%,sub prime bait and switch and they didn’t want him raining on their parade.
He got caught for weird financial transactions? How cute. What a jerk. We need someone else perhaps or maybe this time they will self destruct on their own. Looks that way.
;)
[mmmm, seared salmon …]
I always worry about holistic approaches. Sounds religious.
Ahem. That means she is alleged to have “done” it. *g*
kooky religious *g*
The record suggests that you can absolutely rely on unregulated financial markets to self-destruct.
I must give Anderson Cooper credit, he’s airing Hagee’s and Parsley’s hate invectives…
No. I’d like to, though.
Amen.
& there will b fraud …
Did you catch Obama on Hannity & Colmes ? I’d like to see a clip of that online … I can’t stomach watching Hannity pretend to be a newsman …
well, he does handle his misinformation well.
Wish I knew of a study about the risk-adjusted (i.e., probability of being caught or not being bailed out) rate of return on fraud. Bet it’s pretty high.
“On top of Friday’s concerns, Wall Street remains anxious for Tuesday’s Fed meeting at which the central bank is still expected to lower interest rates. While Wall Street would welcome cheaper access to cash to help consumers and businesses, the freer flow of money would likely fan inflation concerns and could further weaken the dollar.”
Anyone one seeing lower rates on your credit card balances? Who are these “loans” helping?
My teevee is a virgin in regards to Faux Spew…!
NEW YORK — Two of the nation’s biggest airlines boosted round-trip fares by as much as much as $50 heading into the weekend, raising the stakes in their fight against rapidly rising fuel costs and putting pressure on competitors to follow suit.
See it’s helping business lower costs to help consumers.
Tony Perkins doesn’t impress me…!
Yes, Obama seemed nervous. This is big, and the “like an uncle” doesn’t cut it, I’m afraid. This is more than a one day story, even though the nuts McCain has been endorsed by are worse.
either way the bloc falls the noise is distracting.
Don’t know of any, but now that you mention it that’s a real gap in the lit. I know there’ve been studies on the returns to street crime…;) But so far as I know, there’s not been much follow-up along those lines to Akerlof’s “Looting” paper (know it? It was in Brookings about 1992.) or the findings from criminal referrals by the Colavita group or William Black.
Oy, I’ll come back with links.
But he’s such a convincing psycho!
DETROIT — Aretha Franklin could lose her home to tax collectors. The singer says an attorney’s mistake caused her $700,000 mansion in Detroit to slip into foreclosure over $445 in 2005 taxes and late fees.
The Detroit Free Press reports Thursday the Queen of Soul owes a total of $19,192 in back taxes on the property through 2007. She says she plans to pay up and reclaim it by a March 31 deadline.
A spokesman for the Wayne County treasurer’s office says the foreclosure judgment for $445 was entered earlier this month.
Records show Franklin owes $18,746 in back taxes and fees for the 2006 and 2007 tax years, but foreclosure proceedings on those debts wouldn’t begin until next year.
Franklin’s slate-roofed brick mansion was built in 1927.
oh, and one that I missed last night, before Suz shows up ta yell at me for the repeat or maybe just in general…*g*
John Prine and Bonnie Raitt:
vid kinda sucks, but the music’s there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St9RvdtvLeE
So you won’t believe a word I say, but here’s the evidence that I know.
When you ask consumers: Do lower interest rates help the economy?, 89% say somewhat or a lot. For higher stock prices, the responses are 2/3s. So interest rates stimulate the economy because people think they do, i.e., the expectations aspect, not because people actually pay lower interest rates. This is based on actual Qs my firm, on my direction, paid to have added to the University of Michigan survey of consumers. It buttressed my hypothesis.
China’s thirst for oil is causing bloodshed. So says New York-based nongovernmental organization Human Rights First, which on Mar. 13 released a report linking China’s rising imports of Sudanese oil with sales of Chinese small weapons to Khartoum, used to further the deadly conflict in the western region of Darfur. The report is part of a broader campaign called Made in China: Stop Arms Sales to Sudan, timed to coincide with the runup to the Beijing Olympics in August. “China’s huge appetite for oil from Sudan filled Khartoum’s coffers, enabling Sudan to buy Chinese arms,” says Betsy Apple, a Human Rights First program director and author of the report. “It’s a toxic oil-for-arms relationship.” Apple says the group is calling for China to halt arms sales to Sudan immediately.
I’m familiar with the work on the relationship between risk-adjusted ror on crime, so don’t bother to look for links.
This is rich. The Bush family taught Rove honesty.
*gah* I wanted to wipe that smug smirk of his face, sooo badly…! 8-(
The prob is no one is running out to spend like it’s 1999 and everything is hunky dory.
People are cutting back big time and those lower rates are not getting them to buy nuttin.
Retail sales are tanking, auto sales are tanking, home sales are tanking, housing starts are tanking, businesses are folding, gas is going thru the ceiling.
As W says.. it’s a rough time in the economy.
Of course it’s a rough time for the economy. But lower interest rates, through the expectations route, make it less bad than it otherwise would be. Mkes those without mortgage problems and with jobs more likely to spend.
Oooooh! Are we compiling all time faves? Here’s mine, ca. April 2004:
“Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.”
Why this wasn’t repeated in the MSM a la “I did not have sex with that woman” remains beyond me…
This surprises you?
Hey dawgs!
That’s not so much a gaffe as a total baldfaced lie…
But yes, it’s the sort of thing that any kind of halfway decent media would have been all over.
My point exactly, Eli. This should preface every Dem speech in opposition to retroactive telecom immunity.
It should also be evidence for impeachment, but why shout at the rain?
Hokay. Since it’s on my clipboard, here’s the Akerlof.
G.Akerlof and P.Romer, “Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit”
No abstract. From introduction:
They review 4 cases, including the recent S&L crisis, and present a model to show how a little priming can affect prices in a real estate market, but don’t try to estimate returns. I think that’s there for anyone needing a topic.