March 14, 2008
Paul Krugman: Betting the Bank
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, March 14, 2008
Four years ago, an academic economist named Ben Bernanke co-authored a technical paper that could have been titled “Things the Federal Reserve Might Try if It’s Desperate” — although that may not have been obvious from its actual title, “Monetary Policy Alternatives at the Zero Bound: An Empirical Investigation.”
Today, the Fed is indeed desperate, and Mr. Bernanke, as its chairman, is putting some of the paper’s suggestions into effect. Unfortunately, however, the Bernanke Fed’s actions — even though they’re unprecedented in their scope — probably won’t be enough to halt the economy’s downward spiral.
And if I’m right about that, there’s another implication: the ugly economics of the financial crisis will soon create some ugly politics, too.
To understand what’s going on, you have to know a bit about how monetary policy usually operates.
The Fed’s economic power rests on the fact that it’s the only institution with the right to add to the “monetary base”: pieces of green paper bearing portraits of dead presidents, plus deposits that private banks hold at the Fed and can convert into green paper at will.
March 13, 2008
Maureen Dowd: Ways of the Wayward
Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, March 12, 2008
FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa.– Just when I thought my head would explode from trying to figure out delegate math, I’m hit with call-girl math.
The arithmetic of procuring a prostitute who is both experienced and inspirational is even more complicated than the arithmetic of procuring a president who is both experienced and inspirational.
If you’re a frugal governor who doesn’t even like paying his political consultant bills, as opposed to an Arab sheik or a Vegas high roller, do you really need to shell out $4,300, plus minibar expenses, to a shell company for two hours with a shady lady? Aren’t there cheaper hooker hook-ups on Craigslist? It makes you wonder how sharp Eliot Spitzer’s pencil was on the state’s fiscal discipline.
And how does it add up that Steamroller No. 1 suddenly morphs into Client No. 9, a nom d’amour with the ring of an overpriced Gucci cologne for men, giving untold thousands for untold years to a prostitution ring that has hourly rates based on rating its girls on a diamond scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being $3,100, and above 7 in a special club for $5,500 and up?
Froma Harrop: Give Spitzer Credit for Targeting Bad Guys
Froma Harrop, The Houston Chronicle, March 12, 2008
A few good words for Eliot Spitzer. The resigned New York governor could be brutish, vindictive and, when it comes to sexual rectitude, a grand hypocrite. But in going after the depredations of Wall Street, subprime lenders and corporate looters, he was a rare crusader.
In its duty to regulate financial activity, the Bush administration has committed gross negligence. The result — a plunging dollar, terrified credit markets, mass home foreclosures — is a national humiliation on par with Mrs. Spitzer’s personal one.
Spitzer railed against the excesses as well as outright fraud. It’s true that many liberal politicians have stepped forward to condemn abusive loans peddled to the unsophisticated and the ludicrous pay bundles of CEOs. But Spitzer, rich himself, was a Democrat representing the Empire State, whose economy benefits from a lively Wall Street casino. He was thus going after members of his better-heeled constituency.
It was Spitzer who blasted the Bush administration for actually stopping states from passing their own laws against predatory lending. Mortgage companies, he recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal, were “making loans without regard to consumers’ ability to repay, making loans with deceptive ‘teaser’ rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees or even paying illegal kickbacks.”
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HOPE, CHANGE AND COTTON CANDY
Barack Hussein Obama, the name he was given by his white mother and black father. Is he ashamed of the name his parents gave him, that his father and grandfather bore? Why is he enraged and screaming “RACE” and “DIRTY TRICKS” when anyone mentions him by his full name? Is he really ashamed of his ancestry while using it to further his political ambitions? Why is Barack Hussein Obama screaming “RACIST” over everything Hillary says when everyone knows how long and hard both she and her husband have worked for equality for all races? And why are people who know better buying into it?
For months he has been hitting Hillary below the belt, using less than fair tactics in his “CLEAN CAMPAIGN”. He never once complained about media unfairness when the media was promoting him 27-7, or
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DR. LAURA, VOICE OF EXPERIENCE
Dr. Laura blames Spitzer’s wife
Excerpt:
In a segment called “Why do men cheat?”Dr. Laura argued that Gov. Spitzer
cheated because his wife failed “make him feel like a man”:
“When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings — sexually, personally
— to make him feel like a man, like a success, to make him feel like her hero,
he’s very susceptible to the charm of some other woman.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Is that why Dr. Laura got divorced? Because she was too busy “CHEATING” on her own husband and posing for obscene photos with her lover Bill B to “focus in on the needs (of her own husband) and the feelings — sexually, personally — to make him feel like a man, like a success, to make him feel like her hero?
Inquiring minds want to know! LOL
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THE CLINTON-RUSH TRANSCRIPT
Mrs. Clinton Threatens Rush
[Hillary to Rush on Crossover Voting:]
March 5, 2008 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT; 
RUSH: Now, Mrs. Clinton was on Fox News this morning with Steve Doocy, and Steve Doocy and Hillary had this exchange.
DOOCY: Let me ask you about this. Over the last week or so, Rush Limbaugh has been suggesting to his listeners – Republicans, conservatives, mainly — to go ahead in Texas and Ohio to vote for you. What’s your message to Rush Limbaugh today?
HILLARY: Be careful what you wish for, Rush.
WOMAN: Is that it?
HILLARY: I think that’s it.
RUSH: Whoa! Mrs. Clinton has thrown down the gauntlet to your host. (laughter) “Be careful what you wish for, Rush.” Now, we should point out, ladies and gentlemen, she was smiling. We were hoping for the cackle. We didn’t get the cackle, but she was smiling. (laughing) All right, you want to hear it again? “Be careful what you wish for, Rush.” Here it is again.
DOOCY: Let me ask you about this. Over the last week or so, Rush Limbaugh has been suggesting to his listeners, — Republicans, conservatives, mainly — to go ahead in Texas and Ohio to vote for you. What’s your message to Rush Limbaugh today?
HILLARY: Be careful what you wish for, Rush.
WOMAN: Is that it?
HILLARY: I think that’s it.
RUSH: Oooh! How do you interpret this, folks? She could have said thank you. She could have said thank you! In fact, I was expecting in her victory speech last night, to be thanked. I helped give Mrs. Clinton the biggest and happiest moment and night of the campaign season so far, maybe her life, and she tells me, “Be careful what you wish for, Rush”? Why, that sounds like a threat, does it not? I’ve got a Democrat presidential candidate threatening your host. Why, I am stunned! After all I did… (laughter)
END TRANSCRIPT ……………………………………
The complete adage is, ““Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.”
Evidently the long winded, know it all Rush ‘The Pigboy’ Limbaugh doesn’t have the education to be familliar with old sayings, saws and folk wisdom any more than his GOP idol Dubya. IE; “fool me once and… uh… uh.. fool..” You know the rest.
Anyway the KING OF THE DITTOHEADS is now saying on his website that Hillary has threatened him (Mrs. Clinton Threatens Rush) Smarter than a 5th grader??? I think not!
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Barbara Ehrenreich: The Fall of the American Consumer
Barbara Ehrenreich, The Nation, March 11, 2008
How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of a man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss–hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.
It could go a lot lower of course. This guy could start saving the little morsels he flosses out and boil them up to augment the children’s breakfast gruel. Already, as the recession or whatever it is closes in, people have stopped buying homes and cars and cut way back on restaurant meals. They don’t have the money; they don’t have the credit; and increasingly they’re finding that no one wants their money anyway. NPR reported on February 28 that more and more Manhattan stores are accepting Euros and at least one has gone Euros-only.
The Sharper Image has declared bankruptcy and is closing ninety-six US stores. (To think I missed my chance to buy those headphones that treat you to forest sounds while massaging your temples!) Victoria’s Secret is so desperate that it’s adding fabric to its undergarments. Starbucks had no sooner taken time off to teach its baristas how to make coffee than it started laying them off.
While Americans search for interview outfits in consignment stores and switch from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart for sustenance, the world watches tremulously. The Australian Courier-Mail, for example, warns of an economic “pandemic” if Americans cut back any further, since we are responsible for $9 trillion a year in spending, compared to a puny $1 trillion for the one billion-strong Chinese. Yes, we have been the world’s designated shoppers, and, if we fall down on the job, we take the global economy with us.
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