Friday, September 28, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein
Blah - I have had a cold for a couple days, and now Alex is sick.
Here is a interesting video by Naomi Klein. I saw her interviewed on Democracy Now! and it was quite interesting.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Rudy Giuliani: A Betrayal of Trust
Yep, the architects of "swift-boating" (ie the GOP) are now going to pay the price for lowering the bar.
Giuliani gives me the heebe geebees. The man is a authoritarian pariah.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Power v. Principle
From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
Alan Greenspan will be on The Daily Show Tuesday Sept. 18th.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan "says the Republican party to which he has belonged all his life deserved to lose power last year for forsaking its small-government principles," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Greenspan delivers the withering critique in his memoir, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.""In the book, scheduled for public release Monday, Greenspan writes that he advised the White House to veto some bills to curb 'out of control' spending while the Republicans controlled Congress. He says President Bush's failure to do so 'was a major mistake.' Republicans in Congress, he writes, 'swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.'
"According to Bloomberg, Greenspan rips Bush "for pursuing an economic agenda driven by politics rather than sound policy, with little concern for future consequences."
Friday, September 14, 2007
John Edwards - Response to President Bush
I have been pretty busy lately - so I giving some time to John. We do need to come down harder on Congress. Peace
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Petraeus: "I Don't Know" if Victory Will Make America Safer
Does it matter anymore when spin influences politics and beliefs more than reality?
How can Americans not be really, really pissed off?
*sigh*
Friday, September 7, 2007
Remember the late 80's?
When our parents were trying to pretend like nothing was wrong, walking around with a smile plastered on their faces, while inside they were shitting bricks and hoping the savings account would get them through?
Well, now its our turn:
Check out these two lovely articles from BBC online
US jobs data shows surprise fall
US employers have cut back on jobs for the first time in four years, Labor Department figures for August reveal.
The Department of Labor said 4,000 jobs were cut in August, prompting the Dow Jones index to fall by 141 points in opening Friday trading in New York.
Market alarm spread because economists had anticipated data showing an increase of 110,000 jobs.
The statistics undermined those hopes and confirmed that recent market turmoil is hitting jobs.
Financial services firms are already laying off staff in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage debacle.
Hirings falter
The Department of Labor also cut its estimates for the number of new employees hired in June and July by a total of 81,000.
It's dreadful...it seems to me almost inevitable we're heading for recession
Analyst Michael Metz
The last time the US economy shed jobs was in August 2003 when the total number employed fell by 42,000.
The figures come in the wake of former Federal Reserve Bank boss Alan Greenspan comparing current market conditions to those preceding earlier crashes.
Michael Metz, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co in New York, reacted to the latest employment figures with gloom.
"It's dreadful...it seems to me almost inevitable we're heading for recession", Mr Metz said.
The figures will add to pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has stated that he is prepared to act to prevent credit difficulties sparked by the sub-prime crisis from damaging the US economy.
and
Greenspan points to market 'fear'
Current financial turmoil is identical to that seen in earlier stock market crashes, Alan Greenspan has warned.
The ex-Federal Reserve boss compared today's situation to the crash of 1987 and the fallout from the near-demise of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998.
Anxiety over a global credit squeeze triggered by the US housing slump was driven by "fear", he said in a speech.
"The human race has never found a way to confront bubbles," he said, alluding to booms suddenly grinding to a halt.
'Identical behaviour'
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Greenspan - who headed the Fed between 1987 and 2005 - drew parallels in a speech in Washington with US financial panics down the years, driven either by a collapse in confidence in banks or land speculation turning sour.
The current turbulence is being driven by banks' unwillingness to lend until the full extent of their exposure to the troubled sub-prime mortgage market becomes clear, a situation which threatens to hurt the US economy and spread to other countries.
Fear as a driver, which is going on today, is far more potent than euphoria
Alan Greenspan
History of financial panics
The Federal Reserve has said sub-prime losses could total $100bn and is under pressure to cut interest rates later this month to make borrowing cheaper for banks and consumers.
"The behaviour in what we are observing in the last seven weeks is identical in many respects to what we saw in 1998 and what we saw in the stock market crash of 1987," Mr Greenspan said.
The remarks were made at a meeting in Washington organised by the academic journal Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
1987 saw the largest one-day peacetime fall in the US stock market, when more than 20% was wiped off the value of the Dow Jones index of leading companies.
The collapse was triggered by the widespread fear that the US economy was set to slow after a period of feverish expansion, in which borrowed money, some of it high-risk, was used to fund huge takeovers.
The financial problems of Long-Term Capital Management, which caused consternation in the global derivatives market, were triggered by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, which spread to Russia and Brazil a year later.
Stock markets in the US recovered relatively quickly after both upheavals.
But our generation is so disillusioned and ironically bitter that we will survive (just like our parent's did only with twice as many drug addictions).
All I can say concerning the possibility of a recession is
"Bring it on, Mutha-scratcher!"
Peace.
Well, now its our turn:
Check out these two lovely articles from BBC online
US jobs data shows surprise fall
US employers have cut back on jobs for the first time in four years, Labor Department figures for August reveal.
The Department of Labor said 4,000 jobs were cut in August, prompting the Dow Jones index to fall by 141 points in opening Friday trading in New York.
Market alarm spread because economists had anticipated data showing an increase of 110,000 jobs.
The statistics undermined those hopes and confirmed that recent market turmoil is hitting jobs.
Financial services firms are already laying off staff in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage debacle.
Hirings falter
The Department of Labor also cut its estimates for the number of new employees hired in June and July by a total of 81,000.
It's dreadful...it seems to me almost inevitable we're heading for recession
Analyst Michael Metz
The last time the US economy shed jobs was in August 2003 when the total number employed fell by 42,000.
The figures come in the wake of former Federal Reserve Bank boss Alan Greenspan comparing current market conditions to those preceding earlier crashes.
Michael Metz, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co in New York, reacted to the latest employment figures with gloom.
"It's dreadful...it seems to me almost inevitable we're heading for recession", Mr Metz said.
The figures will add to pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has stated that he is prepared to act to prevent credit difficulties sparked by the sub-prime crisis from damaging the US economy.
and
Greenspan points to market 'fear'
Current financial turmoil is identical to that seen in earlier stock market crashes, Alan Greenspan has warned.
The ex-Federal Reserve boss compared today's situation to the crash of 1987 and the fallout from the near-demise of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998.
Anxiety over a global credit squeeze triggered by the US housing slump was driven by "fear", he said in a speech.
"The human race has never found a way to confront bubbles," he said, alluding to booms suddenly grinding to a halt.
'Identical behaviour'
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Greenspan - who headed the Fed between 1987 and 2005 - drew parallels in a speech in Washington with US financial panics down the years, driven either by a collapse in confidence in banks or land speculation turning sour.
The current turbulence is being driven by banks' unwillingness to lend until the full extent of their exposure to the troubled sub-prime mortgage market becomes clear, a situation which threatens to hurt the US economy and spread to other countries.
Fear as a driver, which is going on today, is far more potent than euphoria
Alan Greenspan
History of financial panics
The Federal Reserve has said sub-prime losses could total $100bn and is under pressure to cut interest rates later this month to make borrowing cheaper for banks and consumers.
"The behaviour in what we are observing in the last seven weeks is identical in many respects to what we saw in 1998 and what we saw in the stock market crash of 1987," Mr Greenspan said.
The remarks were made at a meeting in Washington organised by the academic journal Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
1987 saw the largest one-day peacetime fall in the US stock market, when more than 20% was wiped off the value of the Dow Jones index of leading companies.
The collapse was triggered by the widespread fear that the US economy was set to slow after a period of feverish expansion, in which borrowed money, some of it high-risk, was used to fund huge takeovers.
The financial problems of Long-Term Capital Management, which caused consternation in the global derivatives market, were triggered by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, which spread to Russia and Brazil a year later.
Stock markets in the US recovered relatively quickly after both upheavals.
But our generation is so disillusioned and ironically bitter that we will survive (just like our parent's did only with twice as many drug addictions).
All I can say concerning the possibility of a recession is
"Bring it on, Mutha-scratcher!"
Peace.
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