Snake oil salesmen? If that is the case, Obama ought to dump Bob Rubin forthwith. Either that or confiscate Rubin’s money. Rubin helped cause the Citi mess and now we are paying for his stupidity.

speaking of great news, i’d like give a pitch for democracy now! – the best daily news program. so much of the important news is covered there and nowhere else.

You see this today? Interesting, if only as a means to get a glimpse at the undercurrents of ego and policy disagreement among some of the folks trying to bend Obama’s ear. I always wonder how much of these articles are really these folks trying to up their public profile at the expense of any real relationship with the candidate — because I can’t imagine that public chatter at the moment does anyone any real favors with him personally.

The kabuki would be so much more fascinating if the consequences weren’t so acute at the moment.

Print media will say that they are suffering loss of revenue because people are turning to the internet. That’s only half true. People are turning to the internet because print media became a mouthpiece for the Bush administration and people wanted the real news.
They thought that they were looking out for their best interest by regurgitating Whitehouse spin. Ultimately, it was their downfall. No one believes them anymore and no one is buying their papers.

amy goodman had a bit of chomsky on this morning. was great to hear someone not pull punches. one of the things he said was that who obama was choosing for his economic team was like choosing OBL to run the WOT.

madness.

of course, given the plan to escalate the war in afghanistan and attack in pakistan i’m not sure that obama isn’t following the OBL playbook.

my very favorite comment though was about how by choosing biden to be his vp, obama was showing contempt for his antiwar supporters. that’s exactly how i felt this summer and was so glad to have someone say it.

I give you Fred Hiatt as Exhibit A on that one.

Need more coffee. Don’t know how the weather is for everyone else, but it’s freezing-ass cold here this morning. Our dachshund may never move from in front of the heater vent without severe prodding today…and treat incentives.

I’ve got news for Mr Obama. The peace/anti-war movement is still alive and kicking. Our main protest site, BayWalk in St Petersburg, seems headed into foreclosure. 6 Dec may be our last vigil there. Looking for a new venue to incite.

I do not know what to think about Bloomberg. Are they reporting accurately or are they just exaggerating the size of the Goldman Sachs Meltdown Rescue/Heist? Paulson and Bernanke could never give away $7.4 Trillion could they? That is ten times more than they have publicly pledged. The rich people would not lie about recapitalizing their rich friends, would they? Bloomberg stop scaring people and get your facts straight!

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.

The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the only plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.

the press can do a better job, of course. but, it is not their job to educate the american people. that is the responsibility of the collective gov’ts. we are more connected now than ever to the rest of the world and we just don’t get it. education..education..education. teach it, fund it.

I think Ian is working on something with regard to that for us a bit later this morning. Lately, the financial news just makes my brain hurt — nothing like pouring money on people who caused the problems in the first place, is there? Or at least it sure seems that way half the time, doesn’t it?

Jeebus, what a mess…

Couple that with education designed to teach independent thinking and not rote test-taking memorization, and I am so there.

i think it’s possible that there might be a real concern the people obama is choosing for economic advisors are all cut from a very narrow ideological cloth and are just the people who helped get us into this mess. the nyt, since at least early october, has been doing something out of the ordinary for them – they’ve been connecting the dots on the clinton economic team. don’t know their motivation of course, but the articles have been very good (if incomplete and not w/o a bit of white washing) and have apparently made it ok for others (the wapo, for example) to follow suit.

The only bright spot is that the portfolios of the “financial geniuses” who created this mess are worth less than half of what they were a year ago, and falling. Auto industry shares $1-3 a share. And nobody’s buying. Awwwwww…

one thing that has helped me tremendously is reading old hearing transcripts and reports from the ’90s. so much of what we are seeing now was discussed and predicted then.

Am not sure what to think re the numbers. I do, however, strongly believe that the financial markets/numbers are much worse than we have been told.

The problem is that these guys are not acknowledging the severity of the problems caused by CDOs and CDSs. Part of their unwillingness to be honest comes from not wanting to admit how dumb/what poor managers they’ve been. Also, they simply cannot afford to absorb the actual losses they would incur.

The last course I and all candidates for associate degrees from our local community college took before graduation was “Critical Thinking” wherein the college brought in teachers from six separate disciplines to teach and to get the students used to exercising their own ability to think through real world problems. Good course!

The problem is that these guys are not acknowledging the severity of the problems caused by CDOs and CDSs. Part of their unwillingness to be honest comes from not wanting to admit how dumb/what poor managers they’ve been.

i’m going to guess that another part is the bipartisan consensus that they shouldn’t be regulated.

One of the more depressing things about this is that so much of it was discussed back then, and instead of taking steps to shore things up or at least alleviate some of the problems, we did worse than nothing — we made things decidedly worse with the shock doctrine capitalism of the last few years. I keep going back to Naomi Klein’s book and feeling more and more disgusted…

in order to find someone you understands the system you do have to go to the belly of the beast for people. i don’t want to repeat the first two years of clinton right at this time, if you don’t mind. of course, it did give me a start when kudlow gushed over the new treas sec. i believe it will be all about the leadership of these strong types.

And where were the editors letting him get away with that?

Well, he is the editor… *g*

my very first course in thinking was philosophy. what is the argument, etc. logic for everyday is completely missing in todays schools.

I think you’ve hit on a key point here and there have been some public “hints” about this in the past few years.

No one “knows/has known” how to untangle (much less regulate) some of the more arcane financial instruments that have been developed in recent years.

Let me do some math. Bloomberg says y = $7,000,000,000,000 to recapitalize the predatory capitalists. Or just give that amount to everyone. The population of the US is x = 300,000,000. Then y/x= $20,000 per person (to one significant figure). Or that is about $100,000 per family. That does compute, because if I got $100,000 I would be happily recapitalized!

rubin, summers, greenspan – they didn’t just do nothing they actively undermined, with help from congress and clinton, people who advocated for even the smallest bit of regulation (things like having to register deals so that the fed/sec/cftc would have a clue what was going on).

and these are the people obama wants to bring back? where’s my change?

Don’t you think, though, that was the point? I keep going back to Phil Gramm’s big deregulation push on the very thing that allowed AIG to build up it’s faux house of financial cards just at the time Gramm retired from the Senate and went to work for AIG. Coincidence, ya think?

Oh…hmmm. Now I really see your point.

No one “knows/has known” how to untangle (much less regulate) some of the more arcane financial instruments that have been developed in recent years.

except for the people in gov who’ve been advocating we do just that. by and large they have been forgotten. one thing i’ve tried to do for some of the recent hearings on the economic crisis is quote people from the ’90s. makes for a nice contrast, imo.

I do wonder how much of that is a front for the Village to keep them settled because they are “known quantities” while folks further down the chain do the real work — a sort of Village kabuki for the high Broderists, if you will. And how much influence those folks really have — or not. It’s really tough to tell from the outside, and I’m afraid we may have to wait for actions to speak loudly when they start happening.

As I said, Ian’s got something coming up for us in a bit that will suss out a little of this. It’s still an utter muddle to me as I try and wade through some of the more arcane econ bits — but the political swirling is fascinating to watch as a dance from the outside. Just wish I had a better handle on what all of it really means…and how much of it is show, but not tell a damn thing.

but phil gramm had allies – in larry summers for example. no way could gramm have done any of that without all the allies in the clinton administration. that’s why i was such a pain in the ass about blaming gramm wo looking at what the dems were doing at the same time. because we’re about to get the summer’s crew and i don’t think people understand what that means.

I didn’t say Gramm didn’t have allies. But Gramm’s singular jump to AIG fascinates me in that smarmy, self-dealing way that he and wife Wendy’s Enron ties does. Doesn’t it you?

one cannot simply deregulate and leave it at that. the trans need to be transparent so the market can adjust. rick santelli on cnbc said that cds trades are still happening right now. we have NO idea how to correct that. we be screwed. there is not enough $$$ to fix this.

if the 90’s is any example they have a ton of influence. as for the folks down the chain who do the real work – have you seen this: McCain and Obama Camps Coordinated on Building Staff Rosters for Next Government

A senior Obama campaign official shared with The Washington Note that in July 2008, the McCain and Obama camps began to work secretly behind the scenes to assemble large rosters of potential personnel for the administration that only one of the candidates would lead.

of course. just as rubin’s jumb to citibank does.

Thanks for mentioning Amanpour, Christie…she’s incomparable and the news of her pending show on CNN International just renews my frustration that that network is not available to us here. Listen up, DirectTV! I’d trade all the bazillions of shopping networks to have CNN International.

Cable news is over-infotainmentized and crossfired. Put news back in the news.

gramm was just doin what thugs do. i blame it on the lack of gov’t oversight. let’s face it. dems were not as smart as the thugs.

Your change has replaced the dollar bills you used to have in your wallet.

I confess I haven’t looked at all the links, so if this is redundant (my specialty, my specialty), please excuse.

Truthdig article that’s relevant.

I thought Graham went to work for UBS.

Unfortunately I think this is all kabuki right now (and yes, there is a special place in hell for people like Phil Gramm). My fervent hope is that Obama has the “you broke it, you own (fix) it” idea about the financial markets…. with some very strong government oversight/regulation during the process.

This mess is so unbelievably complicated (and its “fixing” so urgent) that even the perpetrators have to be involved. I don’t want them in charge of course but everyone needs to cooperate.

My guess is the PTB are now telling all right now because if they did, there would be even less confidence in the financial markets, even the day to day operation of banks.I can just imagine if one bank pulled out of of the nationwide ATM system — or of honoring others credit cards through its processing operations.

In my more hopeful moments, I try to think of the possibility that Obama is following the strategy to “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” And that he has some master plan to genuinely implement a bold, progressive plan.

But the more cynical side of me realizes what a naive long-shot that is. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, I guess. But that doesn’t mean we don’t stay prepared to agitate.

dems were not as smart as the thugs.

i disagree. there were a v few dems (i’m trying to make a list) in the ’90s who tried to do the right thing (and no republicans that i’ve found so far). but the dems in leadership positions were on virtually the same page as gramm.

bipartisanship baby!

Oops — you are right — it was UBS. Mixed up my three-letter investment banks — but they benefitted from the same deregulation that AIG did. Sorry about that.

Re my #41, I meant NOT telling all (Preview is my friend. *g*)

707! and tears of laughter.

i am such a sucker for gallows humor.

perhaps i sould have said lack of dem spine instead?

Minor point: Gramm is with UBS, the Swiss bank that

sees no need for further infusions of capital after two separate, massive injections and Swiss government assistance.

My fervent hope is that Obama has the “you broke it, you own (fix) it” idea about the financial markets…. with some very strong government oversight/regulation during the process.

i would have more hope if obama was bringing back the regulators instead of the deregulators. :(

but it’s not too late – there are still lots of positions to be filled.

Well I have a basement full of firewood, a hen house producing about 3 dozen eggs a day, a fruit cellar full of organic fruits and vegetables and a freezer full of grassfed beef.

Of course turning off our electricity or foreclosing on our property could undermine all that preparation.

That is quite the productive henhouse you have there!

If I might make a suggestion: go back a little further to the Dem controlled Congress of 1987 wherein the deregulation of the banks allowed banks to participate in the profits of Real Estate developers and changed the rules for investment midstream. It resulted in the RTC.

whatcha do with all them eggs? big family?

And to put a finer point on the “who pays the penalty for avarice at the top levels” question, job centers are going to be swamped in the coming months.

eggzactly what I was wondering . . .

i think bama should capitalize on this opportunity and retrain to GREEN. now is way past the time to do it.

Jane has a new post up: “Time Magazine: News At The Speed Of Two Tin Cans And A Piece Of String”

We have a great book salon coming up in the next few weeks with Van Jones (on Dec. 6th) on this issue, btw.

What will also be fascinating to watch are the mechanics of the markets being fixed. Buffett and Soros have both been quoted in the past as saying they eschewed investment in these financial vehicles because they could not understand them.

Example — future SIL was interviewing with a NYC law firm recently. He was shown the initial “workup” document for one CDO — 250 pages. And the law part of this is relatively simple. It’s the computer systems that track it all that are a real mess.

This workout is going to require resources that boggle my mind.

thanks for the suggestion – much a appreciated. do you have any link to start me off (if not, it’s ok – google is my friend)

agree – the transition (if indeed there is one) to some kind of sane regulatory framework holds all kinds of dangers and difficulties.

My understanding is that those computer systems are also fairly easy to game and/or rig internally so that the calculations can show whatever you need them to show in the moment in terms of profit margins and solidity. Which makes them even more sketchy in my mind.

I may have misunderstood what someone was trying to tell me about them, though, when I was asking for an explanation. So if anyone has more experience with these, I’d love to know thoughts. This sort of amorphous, impossible to really track because of utter lack of transparency gambling mechanism always makes me suspicious and very nervous knowing how greedy people will do anything to make a buck regardless of the truth of it so much of the time. SIGH

Sorry, Selise. My only link is my memory, having been deeply entrenched in the real estate industry at the time as a researcher working for a land developer. I remember that you could virtually track the drop off in real estate sales of land to a specific date–Sept (15) 1987.

Sounds like binary fraud

You are spot on about this. One of the real traps is that many of the financial institutions have proprietary systems for their trading activities. The companies have made huge investments in this part of their business models and I question how cooperative they will be re real transparency.

I’m becoming a bit jaded on this issue. Feel like we’ll need to see someone frogmarched before they really get the message to fully cooperate.

Has anyone else seen Dennis Kozlowski (sp?) of Tyco fame whining about his being in jail when others aren’t?

Every time I see his name, I think about that toga party extravaganza. And I laugh out loud. Can’t help it. *g*

thanks,the only thing i have from my time line notes that is close to your date is August 11, 1987 – when greenspan was sworn in as fed chair.

will see what i can find – although this has turned into a much bigger research project than i first planned to do.

might even be simpler than that. i’ve been reading that some of the high powered models did not include the possibility of housing prices going down.

garbage in = garbage out

i think you’ve exactly hit on why this issue has grabbed me (like no other since fisa) – i don’t give a rats ass about the market high fliers. it’s the hardship that this is going bring. and as bad as it will be here, it’s going to be much, much worse in many other countries. the level of death and suffering may be greater than, for example, the iraq war.

That’s seriously frightening if so. Good lord — we are a nation full of short-term-itis and even shorter memories, aren’t we?