Login HereIt was one thing for the gambling addicts who stand around the CNBC water cooler to preach the gospel of Shock Doctrine capitalism when we were talking, oh I don't know, Argentina or Chile. Tax cuts, forced privatization, cuts to social spending and public services, deregulation and letting the free market be the ultimate arbiter all sound like a great idea when you're talking about somebody else, and you're the ones sweeping in and reaping the benefits with vulture capitalism.
But what happens when you're on the receiving end? Can you still pontificate with this quasi-religious bullshit when the markets are tanking you're the one taking the huge hit in the interest of a "clean slate"?
"Twenty-two, twenty-two, come on back to me, come on back to me!"
That seems to be the horns of the dilemma that the high priests of Wall Street are twisting upon at the moment. This morning the Dow is up by 300 points as a result of the Citigroup bailout, and they're all giddy as hell. But Saturday it was quite a different matter when Ben Stein talked to Neil Cavuto:
Stein: You are doing the classic post hoc ergo prop drop fallacy. You may as well say because there was a World Series, the market dropped 4000 points. The Federal government has to stabilize this economy.
Cavuto: No it doesn't, Ben. No, no, and by the way, we were pre-hocking on this ...
Stein: The Federal government is the only one that can stabilize this economy.
Cavuto: It is a slippery slope Ben...
Stein: Then otherwise we fall into a great depression. Maybe not a problem for you, but a problem for everybody else.
I've seen more reasonable conversations held between coke fiends fighting over the last line at 6am.
"Say it! Say it! Say 'I lost the nest-egg.' Go on, say it! "
In these dark times, it's comforting to know that someone will always be saving them a seat.
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In a boating pond:
“Number 91 come in please, your time is up!”
“You idiot, we only have 20 boats”
“Oh…Number 16, are you in trouble?”
Reality based reality is a bitch.
The MSM have lost their script, and haven’t found a new one. It probably doesn’t help that alot of the script-readers were hedge-funded over their heads, and lost a big share of their ill-gotten gains. It also probably doesn’t help much that the huge decline in advertising that is going to happen next year is going to affect their other bottom line — the over-inflated salaries.
As ECahn once set here, Schadenfreude is better than no freude at all.
“We’re finished talking”
The advertising on our local teevee is all car dealers and movies. What’s gonna happen to the teevee if car companies aren’t advertising any more? And the newspapers?
There isn’t gonna be any extra credit for noticing the ancillary effects of this shock to the American system, but the people on the teevee really, really aren’t paying attention. Thinking things through is not what they are paid to do, and it shows.
Stein oughta go back to being a permanent game show contestant.
When Fox cancels “Cavuto for Business” because its audience is standing in soup lines and Neil finds himself out of a job, watch Cavuto be first in line for jobless benefits.
You owe me a keyboard!
i love these shouting matches. check out squawk on the street and kudlow on cnbc for more of the same.
Stein makes me physically ill. Not many people do that. Tom Delay. Dick “Dick” Cheney.
Fuck the Bush tax cuts, we need to roll back the Reagan tax cuts.
Media stars, actors, athletes, bankers, CEO’s, lawyers, doctors, all of them; they all need to learn to live on less.
I think they’ll be able to handle it.
you mean no more hand made shoes? gawd!
Ari has posted a diary that so beautifully illustrates the depth of their denial
What a hilarious clip. The “simple minds” screaming “don’t you forget about me,” with Cavuto not knowing how to handle the changes to the script that he’s followed his whole TV career.
Not thrilled about seeing Larry Summers’ mug around again. Christina Romer doesn’t seem too bad, but some definite red flags in her views (Greenspan and Bernanke are great?!?!), along with some good stuff:
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/.....fm?id=4048
Obama certainly made a step in a positive direction on the domestic front today:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/.....ouncement/
The first few months of 09 are gonna be interesting.
1. They have garunteed contracts and barring a dollar collapse even if they lost it all they just need to increase their cash (and gold) position from their future checks.
2. They can make money even when times are bad (just like gun and alcohol sales).
3. The balance sheet of GE or any of these bigs is more than just what they put on TV. What’s losing a few million or even a billion on TV if you get a 20b military contract out of it? Net plus.
Yep… these guys are now starting to feel the tingling electricity as the shock doctrine comes home.
Watch them howl for the soothing balm of socialism before their family becomes crispy critters.
Wow, those brainless people are getting millions for that? Dang I wish I had a smokey voice.
Why all the hate for Ben Stein? He was actually advocating the responsible position.
PS. Obama going to allow Bush tax cuts to expire. So he will keep his tax cut in this congress, the next congress, and then maybe the one after that lets them expire.
Since after all POTUS and a super majority and massive support from the voters just aint enough.
I think its because he is jerky and was a massive pusher for everything that got us into this problem.
To listen to them now on the otherside (I assume part of this post was to point out they are trumping up some fear on one side and their religious right wing purism on the other - note sure though) does make one a bit sick to the stomach.
Kind of like putting together a team of advisors with experience and that knows what causes the problems (since they created them) as the only hope for change.
Yeah, maybe he’s not learning impaaired after all.
Fighting over the last line of coke at 6 a.m.? Wow, the Queen of Analogies has been identified. Great one!
I lived in Aspen through the crazy years. This happened a block from my house:
A 6 a.m. argument erupted after a long night of blow. Former Nam vet and owner of the local head shop (Dr. Feelgood’s), Keith Porter, had his manhood challenged by a trust-funder named Michael Hernstadt. Keith went home, put on his camo, loaded his AK, and headed up the ridge 50 yards from my house, where he layed in wait for Hernstadt to drive into town after the party broke up. Took him out with a single shot from a-hundred yards, right through the windshield…then proceed to walk down the ridge all the way to the car, firing all the way until he’d opened the door and emptied the clip. 24 rounds later, Porter had the last word.
Black humor was as abundant during those days as Coors Beer, hash pipes and tourists. The joke circulating through the bars the next day went something like this:
As for Porter, I think he still resides at Canyon City.
“I’ve seen more reasonable conversations held between coke fiends fighting over the last line at 6am.”
You really must quit the police department, find a new circle of friends, or just sleep in, Jane. *g*