But he’s nonpartisan, Jane, so what’s not to like?

“Peterson and his posse are laying bets that Americans are too mathematically and logically challenged to notice the flaws in his reasoning—even though the holes are big enough to drive an entire generation of retired Boomers through.”—-and he may be correct when one looks at the populace as a whole.

I see he is not advertising on FDL…I think we are clear the hedge fund manager is trying to manipulate through fear.

It’s the reichwingnut motto:

Fear. It’s whats for dinner.

So Peterson is Summers’ friend but Peterson likes Geithner for standing up to Summers? Splain it please?

Peterson is a stopped clock, but the once in 24 hours that he is right has not happened yet.

I think the friend thing was being sarcastic.

A clock is right twice every 24 hours.

Billionaire gasbag — love it!

The Sky is Falling!

There is Wolf at the door!

Your Hair is on Fire!!

Nothing like fear itself, gets them every time!

Mr. Geithner told the story of having gotten his last job, the presidency of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, because Peter G. Peterson, then the bank’s chairman, saw him as the one who had been “willing to say no to Larry Summers.”

Yeah, like Geithner ever told or will tell Summers no. There is just something so dim, self-serving and incestuous about this.

A wolf at the door? Well, open the door and give him/her some food and water. A new friend.

Now you should know: a military stopped clock is right only once in 24 hours. (Is there any other kind in the U.S.?)

It’s the GOP/Blue Dog way: hire your friends, so you can have a social life while you’re at work, too. /s

Yes, contrary to popular belief, Naomi Klein was not the originator of the Shock Doctrine. Chicken Litte was.

psst… Happy Anniversary

Not if it is broken on military time. Then it’s right only once every 24 hour period. :})

And what is your beverage of choice?

Deep into a bottle of chardonnay, but thanks for the offer.

Can we Boomers ride through in Hummers?

In Louisiana the wolf is Booby Jindal cuz he don’t like people needing unemployment – Jindal Rejects $90 Million In Recovery Funding That Would Have Benefited 25,000 Louisiana Residents. Now you have to be way stupid or a compassionate conservative to treat your citizens like shit.

ecahn,

we need another NY chapter of the FDL to meet up soon!

Aww, Thanks!

Righto. How about a week from today? I think a Friday night might attrack some of those who live a little farther away.

Only one type on ships. 12 hour with 13, etc in smaller lettering under its counterpart. Made by Chelsea. Windy up. Got one on my wall. Made in the late 40s. Best made clock in the world imo.

Oh, I thought you meant the 4-legged furry kind. Never mind.

Heh. Got a school clock, wind-up, from the Buffalo public schools, dated around 1890s. My father taught phy ed in the school and salvaged it when the school was going to be demolished. Spent decades in my parents’ basement before I salvaged it to hang in my historic house. Also have a school fire bell from a similar source.

Naw, the four-legged furry kind have an important role to play in nature. The other kind, well not much in the way of redeeming qualities.

The thing about fear, though, is that there is plenty to be afraid of RIGHT NOW. And Americans are afraid, make no mistake: afraid their kid will get sick now that they are laid off, afraid they won’t find a job to replace the one they just lost, afraid the reason the landlord isn’t returning calls has something to do with the bank notice pasted on the door this morning.

These are real fears. Pete Peterson is, in the words of Rahm Emanuel, loathe to waste this crisis. So he’s packing more fear — about something we don’t need to worry about compared to our real problems in America.

Thank you, Jane, for continuing to call out this fraudulent billionaire. As if he cares about Americans who depend on Social Security for their retirement. If he did, he’d advocate for INCREASED benefits, like every other responsible economist who realizes that our pensions and 401ks have disappeared thanks to Peterson’s fellow privateers and pirates.

This is the closest I could come to one like I have. Mine doesn’t have the red hand or the dot/triangle above the hour. Plus it says US Navy. Water and dust proof case with screw knob cover on the left. Damn near bulletproof. 7 day clock. Got more jewels inside that thing. A beautiful piece of work.

… Peterson’s fellow privateers and pirates.

Time for a plank walk, a short plank walk.

I’m Larry Summers and I approve this message.
And this.

And sharks with lazer beams!

Kewl.

This is similar to my clock, but don’t know why the photo is rotated 90 degrees.

this is great;

http://vimeo.com/3261363

I’m in.

Hmmmm. Seein’s how this guy’s a hedge fund dude how do we know this is only part of a scheme like that the famous Soros pulled on England in the early 90s? Krugman says that England actually benefited from his meddling in the long run. I doubt either one gives a shit.

Hmmm, great special effects in that idea!

ooooo, niiiiice.

That’s the thing about libertarians. They have a few good ideas but mostly they’re batshit crazy.

My #38 in response to allan at #30.

edit – this is isn’t only a part

Perview is mah fren

Hedge funds are typically for when things fail. I wonder if there isn’t a bit of that “if all you have is a hammer” psychology going on here. Project just about anything out long enough, and make enough pessimistic assumptions, and it will look like it’s going to fail. Peterson’s assertions are proof of that.

Peterson gave a big grant to PBS/Worldfocus too –

… In exchange for the grant, Mr. Walker said, the foundation expected “Worldfocus” to produce reports examining how other countries have dealt with the challenges facing the United States, like health care and Social Security reform. “Worldfocus,” he said, will have “total control over the content.” …

— http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02…..4wnet.html

I’d say i’m surprised he got Geithner his Fed job, but nothing these people do surprises me — i always expect the worst from all of them, and from the politicians who do their bidding.

What? You don’t trust billionaires? How unpatriotic of you. /s

Another Peterson mantra: open labor markets are your friend.
Whatever.

Sure I do. About as far as I can throw ‘em.

Irony of that first Summers article is, for all the talk about not interfering in the markets, everything he proposes is a change in how the market values things. It’s just that he’s doing it less efficiently if your objective is to create jobs.

Didn’t bother with the other article, BTW. Did I miss anything good?

I think Karl, of the Marx variety, would disagree with him.

Excuse please – first article was not written by Larry Summers.

NYC FDL meetup, next Friday. Let me know at rosannecahn at aol dot com if I don’t have your email and you’d like to come.

Oh, this is cute. From Crooks & Liars
Republican Bill Would Require Home Owners To Retain Internet Access Logs

Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

…

“While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said at a press conference on Thursday. “Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level.”

Joining Cornyn was Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who said such a measure would let “law enforcement stay ahead of the criminals.”

…

Plus they can make sure you are receiving your daily dose of Firedoglake.

Nancy Pelosi needs to smack this billionaire gasbag around.

And talk about old ladies eating cat food.

Will be there in spirit..)

Me too!

Color me surprised (not)…

Arlington, Virginia (Feb. 20, 2009) – ‘In a startling result, a new study published by the scientific journal Conservation Biology found that more than 80 percent of the world’s major armed conflicts from 1950-2000 occurred in regions identified as the most biologically diverse and threatened places on Earth.’
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_…..022009.php

Sometime around 30 years ago, I read that 14% of all pet food sold was consumed by elderly Americans. Then we bought the country house, discovered a dump on the property, with all kinds of empty cat food tins. Living in a shed on the next door property was a poor old farm worker with few teeth. My late husband got him a place in a home for folks such as him, and he lived happily ever after. That’s the short version. The details are even more distressing. It was a great insight into the role of govt for those who can’t do for themselves.

OK. Spiritual attendants at FDL NYC meetup must provide edrinks. With which we’ll toast y’all.

Thanks for that story.

His name was Emmitt. I never knew his surname. I was pretty naive at the time, but applauded my husband’s efforts to make sure Emitt got a decent place to live.

ELI!
Depressions Are Good For Us: New Republican Meme?

I’m sending two bottles – Summer Harvest and Geithner Gold. Drink ‘em, pee ‘em out and we’ll be done with ‘em.

Twas in response to 56 for the FDL NYC gathering.

That was a reply to me? Will ask the barkeep for the reserve.

You remember the joke about the drunk pouring a beer into the toilet in the bar? When asked what he was doing, he responded: just eliminating the middle man.

Every one of these clowns needs scrutiny. Right down to their ‘Peter’s!’

Jane, thanks for sticking the pin in this gasbag.

Has this gasbag been commented on yet?
**********

” Alan Keyes, a three-time presidential candidate, called President Obama a “radical communist” and a “usurper” and said with him in charge, America “is going to cease to exist” at a pro-life fundraiser Thursday.

When the reporter interviewing him apparently cracked a smile at this, Keyes angrily responded with “that is not a laughing matter. We’re going to find ourselves in the midst of chaos, confusion and civil war.” “

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0220.html

William Greider writes up Pete Peterson and his attempts to privatize Social Security and Medicare in the March 2 edition of The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/greider

KO ripped him tonight.

” Alan Keyes, a three-time presidential candidate, called President Obama a “radical communist” and a “usurper” and said with him in charge, America “is going to cease to exist” at a pro-life fundraiser Thursday.

When the reporter interviewing him apparently cracked a smile at this, Keyes angrily responded

Yeeeeah baby! Now this is more like it. We need more journalists who will treat these idiots and criminals the way they should be. Laugh at them or arrest them as needed.

Nice ad. But I was a little disappointed. I kept waiting to see sharks leaping out of the water with smiles on their faces, like dolphins, but no …

wow. that is a really nice timepiece!

good..

..both are in order..laugh..arrest..laugh, again..

The Vimeo video about the credit crisis is good, but somewhat simplified. However, the first thing which jumped out at me was the depiction of the sub-prime borrowers: more kids, both parents smokers, kids kind of bouncing around looking uncontrolled. Looked like a negative stereotype to me. Oh, and they were shown as buying a “big” house, bigger than those purchased by those elibible for prime mortgages.

The other thing was simplifying and leaving out what else was done with the Credit Default Swaps, esply the CDSs taken out on CDSs, kind of side bets with no material asset anywhere. These were bets on insurance being paid or not.

The tranches were shown as being neatly separate, with AAA sold to one customer, BB to another, the risky slice to a third — or at least, they were sold as discrete investments. My understanding is that the Big Banksters began not only slicing, but dicing, even pureeing the different levels of risk, then got the credit ratings agencies to give the difficult to break apart pate the AAA rating — and thus sold middling and definitely risky loans, now new exotic financial instruments, to unsuspecting buyers as good, solid AAA investments. Clearly a bad thing to do.

And it lead eventually to immense distrust of and among the Big Banksters, so no bank which understood what was going on, that the Banksters had toxic assets hidden somwhere off their balance sheets, but still on their books and possibly waere insolvent and unable to repay even overnight loans, no bank was going to loan to another. Many of big playahs knew that applied to their own situations, figured it applied to the others.

Smaller regional and local banks for the most part took part in little of these goings on — unless they were sold a bill of goods by some Big Bankster or brokers selling on things they didn’t understand (or maybe did?).

Also, as a commenter mentioned at the Vimeo site, when Big Banksters couldn’t sell items they put them “off book”, referred to as, iirc, SIVs or Special Investment Vehicles. (I may be wrong on that nomenclature.)

Please, more knowledgeable readers, correct me where I have this wrong. Or add things I’m missing.

The video gave perhaps too simplistic an idea of how this Big Meltdown came about, which is helpful if people then learn more about the whole Big Mess. It also implied that the purchasers of some of the strange new exotic mortgage loans knew what they were getting into, which I beieve has been shown to be incorrect and that some mortgage brokers simply lied to the borrowers, as well as lying about the financial status of their borrowers. What did it matter? They were selling them on to Wall St. The part about kicking the risk down the road was made in the video, not always how and by whom, however.