ah, but the writer (or editor) was able to print “blagojevich” only ten words away from “obama” – and we all know how that worked with “saddam” and “911.”

whether the nyt is trying to smear obama or suck up – they are diluting the real news and making themselves look like idiots.

While everyone was busy talking about Blagojevich yesterday, a report was issued by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The Congressional report: FCC chair abused power. Paul Martin seems to like to do things his way; not the right way.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10119069-38.html

‘Tis weak tea.

BBC reports a World Bank “No-Sh*t Sherlock” prediction, for those so inclined:

World Bank predicts global gloom

The World Bank has forecast a significant decline in global economic growth in 2009 for both developed and emerging countries.
In a report assessing economic prospects, the Bank has predicted that the world’s annual economic growth will slow to 0.9%, from 2.5% this year.
The rate of growth for emerging economies is expected to be around 4.5%, down from 7.9% in 2007.
The Bank said a deep global recession could not be ruled out.
And its forecast suggests that, on a per capita basis, world growth would be negative in 2009.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7774199.stm

NY Times, Isikoff Time, all concern trolling. idiots. and these are the smart ones.

anyway g’morning to everyone and now to work.

And accountability is where?

The Guardian reports some brilliant news, just as teh gloom and short winter days are upon:

Magical and real: García Márquez is writing new novel, says friend

Fears that Colombia’s Nobel prize winning author, Gabriel García Márquez, had put down his pen forever were allayed yesterday when a close friend confirmed that the 82-year-old master of magical realism was working on a new novel.

García Márquez’s next book will be a love story, though his friend and fellow writer Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza said that the author was struggling to come up with a version that he was happy with.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/book…..-new-novel

And accountability is where?

i’m sure it was a sternly worded report. /s

Good morning, pups. It’s Egan and Friedman in the NYT today. Mr. Egan gives us “Roll Over, Abe Lincoln,” in which he says Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois even used financing for a hospital as leverage points for a shakedown. Abe probably did a triple lutz in his grave. Mr. Friedman, in “While Detroit Slept,” says someone is already developing an alternative to Detroit’s business model. I don’t know if it will work, but I do know that it can be done — and Detroit isn’t doing it. MoDo is off today.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got apple walnut muffins just out of the oven. Our cold snap is over for the moment, and it’s going to be rainy and in the 70s here today. Have a great day.

The Guardian suggests not inappropriately:

Better to hand us all a grand than hurl billions at banks
Call it unsophisticated and crude, but the best way to stop a slump is to shower people with cash and make them use it

One prediction about the recession is for sure. It will end. Every recession in the past century (roughly 20 of them in all) did exactly that. It ended. It ended when demand stopped falling and began rising.

Those of us with old economics degrees lurking in the mental attic recall that credit bubbles turn into recessions when they lead to a collapse in demand. People stop buying goods and services. Businesses lose profits, lay off staff and are refused bank credit. Unemployment rises, and the vicious circle proceeds. That is what is happening now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…..on-jenkins

Didn’t mean to step on your morning offerings. ;-(

hmmm…. apple walnut muffins.

if you haven’t seen it already, you might like stiglitz’s article that will be in january’s vanity fair”

Capitalist Fools

Behind the debate over remaking U.S. financial policy will be a debate over who’s to blame. It’s crucial to get the history right, writes a Nobel-laureate economist, identifying five key mistakes—under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II—and one national delusion.

i especially liked this bit at the end:

The administration talked about confidence building, but what it delivered was actually a confidence trick. If the administration had really wanted to restore confidence in the financial system, it would have begun by addressing the underlying problems—the flawed incentive structures and the inadequate regulatory system.

Was there any single decision which, had it been reversed, would have changed the course of history? Every decision—including decisions not to do something, as many of our bad economic decisions have been—is a consequence of prior decisions, an interlinked web stretching from the distant past into the future. You’ll hear some on the right point to certain actions by the government itself—such as the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to make mortgage money available in low-income neighborhoods. (Defaults on C.R.A. lending were actually much lower than on other lending.) There has been much finger-pointing at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two huge mortgage lenders, which were originally government-owned. But in fact they came late to the subprime game, and their problem was similar to that of the private sector: their C.E.O.’s had the same perverse incentive to indulge in gambling.

The truth is most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal. Looking back at that belief during hearings this fall on Capitol Hill, Alan Greenspan said out loud, “I have found a flaw.” Congressman Henry Waxman pushed him, responding, “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right; it was not working.” “Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan said. The embrace by America—and much of the rest of the world—of this flawed economic philosophy made it inevitable that we would eventually arrive at the place we are today.

Blaggoabamavitch

BBC Reported yesterday ago this forecast, FYI:

US faces deep problems, OECD says

The US economy is still facing “sharp downside risks” to growth, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Paris-based organisation warns that the credit squeeze has been spreading to other forms of lending, and other financial firms could become insolvent.
It says that another fiscal stimulus could be needed if things get worse.
But it warns that longer term problems, including health care reform and the US budget deficit, must be tackled.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7772794.stm

away

Alan Greenspan said out loud, “I have found a flaw.”

A cure for part of our ills would be to require the “elite” to spend time in the real world. Get out of Washington, go visit Detroit factories (if there are any left), work with a foreclosure lawyer for a time… in other words get out of the damn ivory tower and find out what the rest of us have known for bloody years. Grrrrr.

lol. don’t give them any ideas – they’ll be using that next. *g*

Thanks for that Selise, I will read the article anon, There have been several good reports from Guardian and BBC in the last several days, some linked above; information that may not be available there, concerning the ongoing economic crisis, this being the only time they get heard/seen in the political noise going on.

i listened to that hearing with greenspan. amazing (in a not good way)…

btw – TARP czar kashkari is going to testify before frank’s house finacial services committee today at 10am. details at oxdown. when kashkari testified before kucinich’s subcommittee last month it was kinda fun to watch – kucinich and issa teamed up (yes, hell did freeze over) and ripped kashkari up one side and down the other.

thanks t-bear. i’ve been trying to stay on it as best as i can.

Seems to me Gov. Blagojevich didn’t like Barack Obama too much, because on the tapes, he’s calling him the f-bomb and then says he realizes the lovely gift (Barack’s vacant US Senate seat) he has in his possession could make him rich.

Let’s hope now that Illinois will be in the limelight because of Barack’s presidency that there will now be a crackdown of that state….on Democrats and republics alike.

John Cass in the Chicago Tribune fumbles with the Obama-Blago thread
http://www.chicagotribune.com/…..umn?page=1
The funny thing is when him implicit deconstruction of the Obama=Kennedy meme, “This ain’t Camelot”, fails mainly because Kennedy’s heritage was as rough and tumble as Obama’s/
The meme succeeds because both men stood up and stood out of the political mire which bred them.

Good morning! That darn liberal NYTimes. I used the NYTimes search engine to see what previous articles McIntire and Zeleny wrote. Zeleny appears to write small bits and hit pieces against dems. The first few pages did not seem to mention McCain and his partner at all. McIntire did write about the Rezko case and I read this interesting piece… Mr. Obama’s name is likely to surface during the trial, if only because $10,000 of the money Mr. Rezko is accused of extorting wound up in Mr. Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign. There is nothing to indicate that Mr. Obama did any favors for Mr. Rezko, but there is ample evidence that Mr. Rezko did favors for Mr. Obama. So Rezko was paying Obama not to play?

Morning pups. Blizzard followed by ice-storm now going on in Canadaland. Salt on steps, to be followed by ice-picking.

Stiglitz is right on the button, as usual. But no one in economics to my knowledge, yet, has got down to the root of the matter, which is that the con game was predicated on the view that the market (and you!) can capitalize the future, sell it for a profit, and walk away with the money. That is the big con, and it’s the one that in one way or another has been making money off the rubes for millennia. It’s just that this time, the economics profession go in on the game,and convinced themselves as well as others that it works for real. I can’t count the number of seminars I’ve attended where a Chicago clone goes on to make some criticism based on present valuing of just about everything. ‘If markets are perfect’ (and we all know they are) … It’s not economics, it’s religion.

It is going to take a lot of work to break that habit. People in my profession have built their careers on the notion, and they aren’t going to give it up easiy or, in my judgment, at all.

Nice catch and good work. More of this and keep it out front. These guys are parasites.

I will definitely have to watch that. I wonder if Barney will get any information from csarikashkari, probably not but it will still be fun.

BTW Your Oxdown schedules are very helpful for determining my day time schedule. As a retiree I find the various hearings way too much fun and great exercise … throwing things at the teevee, jumping up and down while cursing, bending over backwards to believe anything… great workouts can be had. Maybe I will call it the “Hearings Diet” or “prevarication pilates”

MoDo is off today.

One can always be thankful for small blessings. *g*

What’s your weather like today? Drizzly rain here….yucky (altho’ we do need it).

Marion – 27’s yours.

Saw kashkari speak somewhere earlier this week and (to my ear) it was blagh, blagh, blagg without saying anything of substance.

Thankee for the heads up…..hope C-Span runs that one live.

You gotta spy camera in my house?

Yes I do so do not call me a mother ****er

C-span schedule
8:00 am (et) Chertoff on cyber security
10:00 am Tarp oversight hearing w/ Cash & carry testifying

Buenos dias, it’s downright Spring here — misty rains, all but 60 degrees out, just waiting for the robins…

here’s WJ for this morning
7:30-8:00 REP. VIRGINIA FOXX
R-North Carolina http://www.foxx.house.gov
Oversight & Government Reform Cmte Member

Topic: The former heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac testified in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday about their leadership at the two agencies. Congresswoman Foxx questioned the witnesses and can talk about the hearing. Also, the congresswoman can discuss her concerns with a potential rescue package for the automobile industry.

8:00-8:30 REP. MARCY KAPTUR
D-Ohio
Appropriations Committee Member http://www.house.gov/kaptur

Topic: Guest will discuss her desire to see federal assistance to the automotive industry. Her state has several key automotive manufacturing plants. She is a member of the Congressional Automotive Caucus.

8:30-9:00 Newspaper Articles/Phones/ Hotline

9:00-9:30 MIKE FLANNERY
uplink WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago
Political Editor http://cbs2chicago.com

Topic: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest yesterday on federal charges that he conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Later in the day, a federal judge in Chicago ordered the Governor released on his own recognizance, though he was ordered to relinquish his passport and his firearm owner’s identification car. Pres.-elect Obama said yesterday he had no contact with the Governor on the future of his senate seat.

9:30-10:00 STATE REP. CALVIN SMYRE
President, Nat’l Black Caucus of State Legislators http://www.nbcsl.org
D-Georgia

Topic: Later today the National Black Caucus of State Legislators will convene their annual legislative conference to develop the organization’s 2009 national agenda.

It’ll be a non-mast year where the trees attempt to manipulate the rodent population that depends on them for survival.

that cyper security conference could be interesting. Loathe as I am to listen to Chertoff

Homeland Security Sec. Michael Chertoff delivers one of the keynote speeches at a conference on Cyberspace and National Security. The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Assn. is holding a day-long examination of cybersecurity.–cspan

Geez, I knew the NSA was monitoring the Lake but this is gettin’ way out of hand. I *demand* you remove it immediately! *g*

The U.S. and an Obama administration will be well served by the NYT finally closes it’s doors. The Old Gray Lady is nothing more than a shallow, self-serving crone. From Jason Blair, to Judith Miller, to Adam Nagourney, to the dude that writes on military matters whose name escapes me the Old Gray Crone is nothing more than an organ of the status quo. The U.S. needs a real progressive newspaper.

check out the list of sponsors

swim’s up

The only mast in my area this year are pin-oak acorns, which are very small. No hickory nuts or regular acorns.

There was an article in the science section of the NYT several years ago that showed the cycle with mast, deer, ticks, Lyme diseases.

Our free market system .. I mean the ponzi scheme that our economy is based on is crashing and cannot be salvaged.

That is what all these slackers and I include Krugman in that lot don’t want to come out and say, even if they know it’s true. The more progressive economists and “librals” seem to think that if only we regulated the market it would not have come to this. But no, it WOULD have, just on a longer time frame.

Our system is based on extracting wealth from labor, spread between cost of production and selling price and capital has been driving labor cost down to nothing (if they only could). They have gone to basically slave market regions, used that to leverage labor down in industrialized nations, all the time extracting profit and putting it in the same pockets.

Labor has been weak in “fighting” back in this system and were it not for the fact that the money freaks uber wealthy zealots got exceptionally greedy and wanted sky high profits and unbounded wealth, demanded any and all stops be removed to their games, the Ponzi scheme might have gone on a bit longer than it is.

Now it can do nothing but completely unwind.

The uber wealthy will remain extremely wealthy and the down turn will turn billionaires back to multi millionaires effectively no change for them. But it will crush the middle class and lower classes.

And the real “test” will be how government – “the people” respond. Will the people take to pitchforks and storm the bastille? Will the government “see the light” and re distribute the wealth by taking the ill gotten accumulated wealth of decades and start a controlled/managed/regulated sustainable economy based on merit? Or will they allow the plutocracy/oligarchs to remain in their ivory towers where “we the people” go to them for “finance”?

The signs are that the same creeps who created this ponzi scheme are trying to save it by shoveling tax dollars and tax payer debt at the same players who were partying in the casino and calling it “finance” and “investment” and “risk management” and “mergers and acquisitions” and privite equity “funds” and “hedge funds” and derivatives financial products, and credit default swaps and collaterialized debt obligations. Have you ever heard such hooey pass off as “work” before?

I’d sentence Summers, Greenspan, Rubin, Geithner, Volker and ALL THE TOP MANAGEMENT OF EVERY MAJOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION to hard labor for a few years. Now that’s work we can believe in. Go lay some concrete you lying mendacants.

As for the auto industry, it should be turned over to the workers and creative engineers who can and will produce quality “green” products that we so sorely need.

Off with the heads of management in Detroit.

And have Greenspan’s wife cover the emergency room beat where she can see first hand the consequences of a health system where 47 million people lack coverage.

And your stocks>=? the ones you bought because you wanted to live off them in retirement? Sell them to the governement and receive US government savings bonds.

The stock market is another scam to extract “transaction” fees for selling useless certificates.

Everyone’s social security contribution she be based on the complete earnings AND wealth. The we could have a reasonable equitable livable retirement.

707!

You don’t cast out a demon with a demon

Attaturk, are you sure that you are authorized by the Church to do exorcisms? It seems unlikely on the face of it. And attempting an exorcism without express approval from a Higher Authority can be dangerous. Your invocation of the spirit of Jeff Gerth would seem to prove the point that perhaps you don’t know what you’re doing.