OT hi Mod I seem to have a problem my latest Diary went straight to my page and never appeared at Oxdown?

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3421

Thanks BT.

In wingnut hack news, it seems that The Hair has parted with Rich Lowry and K-Lo.

I read the link no mention of K-Lo leaving or did I miss something?

What a great picture. Weren’t David Brooks and Byron York separated at birth?

Guess he wasn’t conservative enough for WaPo. Glenn does a good takedown of the WaPo neocon herd today.

Is this a sign like rats leaving a sinking ship that the National Review will be going under or at least cutting back?
Did I really over sleep today? Is it Christmas already? First Perris’s Diary on torture memos being released and now this:)

“Reflections”!?!?

As Annie Savoy said in Bull Durham, “The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self awareness.”

[sorry BT] looking into it.

Thanks Egregious, BT:)

This is the Agriculture hearing on derivatives first panel:

Mr. Tom Buis, President, National Farmers Union, Washington, D.C.
Mr. John Damgard, President, Futures Industry Association, Washington, D.C.
Mr. Michael Greenberger, Law School Professor, University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland
Mr. Michael A. Gooch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, GFI Group Inc., New York, New York
Mr. Sean Cota, President, Cota & Cota Inc., on behalf of Petroleum Marketers Association of America and New England Fuel Institute, Bellow Falls, Vermont
Mr. Terrance A. Duffy, Executive Chairman, CME Group Inc., Chicago, Illinois

Link to listen here: http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/audio.html

Gooch just made a case for naked derivatives in his opening statement. Good to see Wall Street has learned its lesson, not.

Howard Dean, please.

Weren’t David Brooks and Byron York separated at birth?

Probably more like Hitler and Ralph Steadman, according to Hunter Thompson in the foreward to “Gonzo: The Art.”

“-You are now worse that Hitler in my mind (he was a monster and so are you. You were twins perhaps, or born in the form of hyenas, then chased out of the tribe for weirdness.)”

Awareness has its price I would not want to be a sheep fed by the farmer everyday and taken care of only to be slaughtered.
I prefer to risk slaughter knowing the truth and making my own choices.
And if Sarah thinks that makes me an Elite then F her!

Great Taibbi link! i didnt know York before today, but i have a pretty good understanding of him now.

Interesting Hitler like Rush was not to well educated or successful in life but he blamed other people for his lack of success but never blamed big business.
I wonder how many other GOPers are low education, blame other types?
Does the GOP recruit from a certain personalty profile.
With GOP women the latest crop is all that and a pair of legs.
The GOP stopped recruiting moderates when?

Awareness has its price I would not want to be a sheep fed by the farmer everyday and taken care of only to be slaughtered.

You’re right, we are aware that we’re getting fleeced.

Should be ok now, refresh please. [again, sorry BT]

Basically, those who regulate or have an interest in the effects of futures want tight controls. Those who run or make a buck out of speculation don’t want regulation. No surprises but still I would have expected the fly-by-nighters would have been a little more circumspect but they seem as piratical as ever.

Thank You Egregious, BT:)

The GOP stopped recruiting moderates when?

When they hitched their wagon to the social conservative movement back in the ’80s.

Republican pols are no different than Democrats in that most who rise to the top excel at shameless self promotion and little else.

And there are more sheep getting aware every minute you can’t fleece the whole herd at the same time without the herd starting to catch on.
I wonder if real sheep herds have 22%ers who never complain or notice?

Well, Stalin is considered a case study in the Cult of Personality.

Is K-Lo out at the National Review? I’m still not seeing anything in the links?

There you go – talking about Schumer again. :)

You give them too much credit. Most sheep never notice but when they start getting locked out of their pens as a result of foreclosure they start to pay attention.

True but now thanks to advertising you really don’t even need that, you just need a PR firm to create an image.

I took “The Hair has parted with Rich Lowry and K-Lo” to mean that Lowry and K-Lo are staying and York is leaving.

He is a prime example.

Greenberger: Naked CDSs are bets. Money to AIG and Citi is going to cover naked CDSs. He says this has increased the size of their money problems by 3 to 8 times according to various estimates. Grossest form of moral hazard. Constituents don’t want CDSs only bankers.

I’m a Pessimist damm it! When things are so bad people that call me an Optimist ( brrr room temp drops 20 degrees) Me a Proud Lefty and Tin Foil Hat club member…I get worried.

oh Blago has hired a new PR agent…

The traders jump on Greenberger. Speculation good. We must have this goofy speculation or the markets will stop due to lack of liquidity, blah, blah, blah.

Greenberger: Fed has guaranteed $6 trillion to financial markets and most of that is eventually to cover naked swaps.

Thanks my mistake I don’t keep track of the Righty nut jobs. Thats what Jane pays people to do

Greenberger: ratio of equity backed CDSs to naked swaps is 8 to one.

Hey unlike the entire Bush Administration Blago can tell a good lie! He needs PR only because he has to taint the jury pool.

Gooch has a really annoying British accent. Most Americans don’t pay taxes. Government should step in and pay its fair share. Should let naked CDSs be traded.

Explain what that means.

Sorry I got that ratio backwards. 8 naked CDSs to one equity backed one.

blago is the most crazy lying liar and I love laughing at him. charmed. he should be court jester, not king.

There are 8 bets with no skin in the game that say a group of homeowners will default for every CDS that actually is linked to the underlying mortgage.

press secty dodging questions re vetting process.

It’s rather like you take out an insurance policy on your house in case of fire. And 8 of your neighbors also take an insurance policy out on your house in case it burns as well. So if your house burns down not only do you get a payout so do they.

Yes compared to Bush a bad liar who just smirks

like yes I am lying but you can’t do anything about it

.
Blaggo is great entertainment mixing in just a shred of doubt like a good liar should.
He is a competent criminal.
After 8 years of Bush its nice to see competent criminals again. Its embarrassing to say you got taken by an incompetent Hack.

Ok this should be illegal.

Gooch: blaming the CDS is like blaming the messenger. He remains incoherent. Apparently CDSs, according to him and from which he makes a lot of money, weren’t the problem. Cheap credit was.

This is rather like an argument about heroin. No problem with it. The problem is with the addicts.

Or Bush saying about Rumsfeld after 2006 elections

I had to lie…

!!!

Financial institutions are addicted to transactions fees and interest.

very apt analogy. It’s your fault for taking that free sample of crack.

After all on what real assets is any of this based on? The house is not worth 8 times its value if it defaults or it does not default so where does this money come from?
Ponzai scheme! Sooner ot later someone won’t have the cash to pay.
Also unlike banks who gets hurt if everybody gets their money returned?

Other than helping to crash the markets CDSs are very useful.

OT-

Here’s part of McCain’s email sent out to his supporters. He’s asking them to sign a petition.

I appreciate the discussions President Obama is having with my Republican colleagues, but the time for talking has come to an end and we must now begin some serious negotiation. But as of yet, Republicans have not been given the opportunity to be involved. The House of Representatives passed a stimulus bill without a single Republican supporting it. In the Senate, the Democrat leadership is trying to jam the existing proposal through regardless of reservations from a number of members. With so much at stake, the last thing we need is partisanship driving our attempts to turn the economy around.

He continues to make an idiot of himself.

Yea. They have nicknames like Lambchop.

TPM

He is a competent criminal.

Competent criminals don’t get caught!

This is rather like an argument about heroin. No problem with it. The problem is with the addicts.

or lack of money doesn’t cause hunger; stomachs do.

There is a lot of confounding legitimate speculation which takes place in futures markets with the wild excessive speculation we’ev seen.

Buis from Farmers Unions. Prices went up and farmers hit their credit limits but this was because of the excessive speculation that was going on. And when the bubble burst, a lot of farmers got tied into higher prices and got burned.

Snark or do they have a use?

well he’s right about one thing. the time for talking has come to an end.

More people called in to our local radio to say “stop listening to these idiots!”

This is rather like an argument about heroin. No problem with it. The problem is with the addicts.

Good analogy, and explanation of credit default swaps.

Continuing with your analogy, add in the fact that those 8 neighbors got together and set your house on fire (sold your house short) just to collect the insurance and you have an idea what the hedge funds were doing to bank stocks last fall.

They are Lamb Chops!

If Obama doesn’t begin taking a hardline against the obstructionist Republicans they are just going to steamroll him with the help of a corrupt and complicit corporate media.

house ag committee hearing.

buis:

things are not good on the farm and i think the lack of regulation by the cftc
prices not due to market fundamentals, tremendous amount of wall street money came in and gave false hope to farmers, ethanol manufacturers
then bubble burst – livestock, farmers all paid more for fertilizer (based on oil prices) they are all hurting

Greenberger: Credit has dried up because no one knows who will fail, and a lot of that failure is based on their CDS exposure.

Ponzai scheme! Sooner ot later someone won’t have the cash to pay.

That, my friend, would be a “Bingo”!

And that “someone” was AIG.

greenberger:

should you be able to bet if gm failing or mortgages failing?

if las vegas or the mafia had run this at least the books would have been kept.

Snark or do they have a use?

CDSs should be banned. OTOH they are an unregulated insurance. If it can’t be covered by regular regulated insurance it shouldn’t be covered. As naked CDSs, they are pure gambling, and as Greenberger just said, if you want to gamble, go to Las Vegas.

Greenberger: Credit has dried up because no one knows who will fail, and a lot of that failure is based on their CDS exposure.

if this hearing wasn’t live, i’d be wondering if “hugh” wasn’t greenberger’s screen name.

Gooch: I make 20% of my business out of CDSs so I am a disinterested observer.

Yeah, right.

He is a part of the steamroller. There is zero reason that he should have made the kinds of appointments that he has chosen…only one reason ultimately that makes sense to me…He is being “controlled” by the same Neocon elements that ruled the prior administration….same old stuff, different clothing…smoke and mirrors. So sad. Nothing will really change…we’ve been duped.

gooch:

not speaking about my own interest, i’m concerned about the credit markets.

me:

hahahaha

Everyone gets caught its like Gambling you might not get tried but you get caught. People know whats going on in Illinois and America we think its corrupt but Bush never standing trial does not mean he won’t escape attention or history.
Every Gambler I know says they make more money when they gambol than they lose.
Every politician thinks that just because they were elected deserve respect whether or not they did anything to earn it.
Some get away away with it but people do know!

LOL A lot of the Republicans want to keep the CDSs. Amazing but still in keeping with their other stands on tax cuts to get us to the depression as fast as possible.

They still think their rich friends can make them millions in this market?

duffy – if we don’t allow cdss someone else will trade them. some may need to be traded off exchange.

me – if the contracts are enforceable in the usa, so?

damgard – cdss are not going away.

greenberger – if they are not going to be banned, then must have transparency and need capital requirements. need collatoral requirements.

thanks for the live blogging. it helped me catch up.

imo the people who want to keep cdss are saying what they are told to say. no thinking required.

Hope you’re wrong but after just 2 weeks I’m beginning to have my doubts as well. He’s beginning to seem less transformational and merely more telegenic.

damgard – cdss users are institutional investors who know exactly what they are doing.

me – just speechless. getting some coffee.

jane has new post: Republicans’ Stimulus “Wasteful Spending” List: Is that All They’ve Got?

sorry it’s scarecrow’s post.

Gooch: US still has the highest standard of livingg

Member: Yes, but we are going the other way.

Gooch: Just contradicted this saying that AIG should never have been selling CDSs the way it did.

my jaw hit the floor on that one.

York has kicked himself to the curb. That’s where The Examiner is, after all. Drive through my neighborhood in Northern Virginia and you’ll see soggy lumps of The Observer in open-ended plastic bags littering the curbs.
Google a bit and you’ll see battles of entire neighborhoods trying to stop free delivery of The Examiner. The paper is given away to lots of folks who don’t want it…..so The Examiner can tout circulation figures to advertisers.
Google some and you’ll find homes in D.C.’s Georgetown and Capitol Hill neighborhoods with signs out front saying don’t leave The Examiner.
One former delivery guy commented at a blog that they’re not allowed to skip delivery to vacant houses because there are monitors who check behind them to make sure they deliver to every home. And they certainly can’t waste time picking up the ones stacking up at the curb-ends of driveways.
Some folks have taken legal action. I’ve succeeded thus far twice in the past two years by sending emails to their honchos saying that, unlike the WPost, I can’t put stops on delivery when I’m away…..so if I’m burgled while away and they’ve put a sign at the curb announcing my absence I will consider them liable.
Byron York has not gone on to a “must read” publication, to say the least.