COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

McCain on Fannie Mae in 2006...Obama on Fannie Mae Take




The United States Senate May 25, 2006


Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.


– Sen. John McCain
The Floor of the US Senate, May 25, 2006


103 comments:

  1. Commonsense will prevail and the bill will pass.

    The $700B investment should bring the treasury a profit. On the long term revenue stream, from taxes on the invested assets, there will clearly be a positive return for the treasury.

    Compare that with the alternative of several trillion wealth lost to a total financial collapse and it will be the investment bargain of the century.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fannie and Freddie were cash cows for Washington insiders.
    _________________________________
    If the taxpayers are going to be bailing out the crooks, and there's no way to value what we're buying, we need to ensure that we're only paying a fraction of what the bailees paid for the paper. The loss should be the seller's and the eventual profit should accrue to the taxpayer.

    The trick will be to find the price which will be acceptable to both sides.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One side needs to unload or in the current terminology, deleverage, and the other side which doesn't really want the paper, needs to get the credit system moving again.

    The problem is, we don't trust the bankers or the politicians or the regulators.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's not reassuring when Bernanke says we don't exactly what the eventual cost or the benefit will be.

    That may be straight talk, but my gosh, how do they expect to sell us a "pig in a poke?"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Let me state this from another perspective; Nature abhors a vacuum. If the US financial system collapses, the Chinese, the EU or some combination will reset the new system .I guarantee you that the setup will not take into consideration US interests.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have reviewed many a pro form financial plan and looked at many projected cash flows. A plan that honestly states that there are unknowns strikes me as more credible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Deuce, you can't post this kind of incendiary stuff.

    You'll embarrass Ash.

    ReplyDelete
  8. l can state this. Take out political correctness, idiotic white guilt and race hustlers like the CBC and there is no financial crisis. You will not hear that on NBC.

    ReplyDelete
  9. One Member of the CBC Is Under Investigation

    Unfortunately, it's the democrats doing the investigating.

    Good ol' Charlie.

    He and Obama making up the tax code ought to scare the balls off any man.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The real irony:

    affirmative action brought us here and the majority of US voters think the affirmative action candidate will fix it. No one has the balls to call the play.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Look people. No financial deals are getting done. The system is freezing up. There is no freaking alternative.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Pick a country:

    Market falls after Bank of Japan injects liquidity

    Tokyo (dpa) - Japan's central bank on Wednesday pumped 1.5 trillion yen (14.22 billion dollars) into money markets, the sixth-straight business day that it had injected money into the economy in the wake of the US banking crisis.

    The Bank of Japan's total now comes to 14 trillion yen after it agreed with five other central banks last week to work together to help stem a liquidity crisis that threatens the world economy.

    The crisis came to a head last week when turmoil related to the plunging subprime US mortgage market caused a US government bailout of the American International Group Inc; the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc; and the sale of another Wall Street titan, Merrill Lynch and Co.

    The crisis has prompted lending institutions to hold onto their money rather than lend it to one another, freezing up credit markets. The world central banks' moved are designed to free up credit.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Life isn't fair!

    Obama seems to be gaining from all this when the truth is the major fault lies with the democrats of which as deuce points out the CBC is at the forefront.

    I hope McCain's tactic of heading back to D.C. works out for him.

    President Bush up on TV tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's insane. Lars Larsen is talking about a case where a guy sold his $400,000 home to his gardener and maintanence man for $620,000, waltzing off with a $220,000 gain, leaving Freddie and Fannie to pick up the pieces when the gardener and maintanence man failed to, predictably, perform.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Why is McCain taking down his ads and letting Obama eat his lunch?

    Because McCain is a Senator who doesn't vote "present" ?

    In my mind's eye I can see Obama standing there at the debate in Mississippi, without McCain, silent, eating up prime time air time, while in Washington the Senators who vote yea or nay votes to save America (even though I believe the bailout is a crock...perception is everything).

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've taken the McCalin bumper sticker off my blog, because they support this transfer of a trillion dollars of wealth from our children and grandchildren to the Freddies and Fannies and Goldman Sachses of today. Obama supports it as well, A pox on both their houses. I'm not political anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  17. President Bush, the dummy, invites Obama to Washington, giving him a soapbox. Obama accepts.

    ReplyDelete
  18. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

    Now imagine handing all the power over to Obama's Treasury Secretary George Soros.

    We are being rushed into this thing through fear, just like we were rushed into spending $860 billion dollars on Iraq over the alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction.

    ReplyDelete
  19. WaPo Polled 28% Pubs in their latest poll, in order to give Hussein a 9 point lead.
    Good Job Boys!

    ReplyDelete
  20. A Small Fund Manager's view.
    (800 Billion!)

    "The key, of course, is price, which is where an adviser to the Treasury would come in. Mr. Gross says much of the opposition to the plan stems from a misunderstanding that the Treasury would buy troubled mortgage bonds at face value.

    On the contrary, Mr. Gross said, he would advise the Treasury to pay closer to 60 or 65 cents on the dollar for the mortgage bonds."

    ReplyDelete
  21. WaPo Polled 28% Pubs in their latest poll, in order to give Hussein a 9 point lead.
    Good Job Boys!


    Was wondering about that poll, thanks Doug.


    Sure Looks Like A Warm, Happy, Optimistic Party

    ReplyDelete
  22. Folks, they're gonna do it; but, it ain't gonna work out like they're telling you it will.

    First off, Think about "Reverse" Auctions. Think about the "first" auction. Now think about the "second" one. Is the "price" higher in the second? The third? The fourth? You bet your sweet bippy it is.

    At some point it's like a Drunk walking into a Bar with a bag of money, and no brains.

    We're going to get fucked. And, that's before they get to the credit cards, student loans, second mortgages, lines of credit, and who in the hell knows what else.

    We're going to end up buying most of this stuff at the absolute top dollar. Bet on it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I'm gonna wait until I see what they finally come up with.

    I'm sure not goin' off the handle like Miss T.

    McCain/Palin is light years ahead of Obama on so many things, regardless of what happens on this.

    And, like I said in an e-mail to a friend today, maybe we'll have Palin as President sooner rather than later, luck, or the actuarial table working in our favor for once.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I must say my opinions are hardening on this Bailout issue. The key, and the question that seems to always be left begging is what the heck is meant when they say "the financial system will collapse"?

    I've never been one for ideology but I am keen on adhereing to rational thought. In that vein, how do you think financial markets should function? Should the government make the market? I've got a lot I could say but I know most of you wish I'd shut up which I'll do for now.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The deal has to be that we're paying a maximum 10%,15%, 20%, (whatever) of what they paid for the paper which has no value now. So, they can't hold out until the value rises because we can also sit on what we buy longer they can wait. It is no benefit to wait because we don't offer anymore than what is agreed to on day one.

    Essentially, we "smoke em out and get em on the run."

    When the market corrects, we start selling at 300%-400% profit less/plus the expenses.

    ReplyDelete
  26. whit, lovely business plan but do you really want/think the government is going to execute it? This is the government y'all so keen on now wading into business in a big Big BIg BIG BIGGGGGGGG way.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Gonna be a cold winter Ash. And it's coming fast now. Best buy some long johns is what I recommend, both for indoors and out.

    what the heck is meant when they say "the financial system will collapse"?

    Which is what I'm wondering.

    Whit might be right, could come out smelling well, like after the much smaller Chrysler bailout.

    With my usual disclaimer of ignorance.

    ReplyDelete
  28. We're being scammed, folks. There IS a problem. There is a BIG problem. That does not mean there's a "Crisis."

    Even if there IS a "Crisis" there's been NO Evidence presented that we have to give Paulson $700 Billion, TODAY!

    Every Scam has as it's Vital element the, absolute, necessity of Acting Immediately!

    ReplyDelete
  29. House clears $25bn for carmakers
    By Bernard Simon in Toronto

    September 25 2008 00:36

    The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets.

    The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days.

    The industry’s case has been helped by the fact that Michigan and Ohio, the two states most dependent on the car industry, are key swing states in the November 4 presidential election.

    ReplyDelete
  30. That's why we gotta act now, Rufus, before it's too late!

    :)

    I'm keeping my leg up, ready to pee on the whole deal when the time is right. After I see what they do, and if it has any chance of doing some good.

    But I'm still pulling the lever for Palin. Remember the children, T.!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Remember Pastor Wright! Where are those G-damn America ads?

    ReplyDelete
  32. I can't help but feel that the truth here is the wealth in the nation's 401Ks was used as gamblin' money on the credit default swaps and derivatives.

    The subprime "mess" was 5% of all mortgages. If the other 95% was OK, then it seems that the 5% of bad ones could be covered.

    What I suspect is that the CDS market magnified the subprime liability 10,000 fold - i.e. traders traded air back and forth and made huge fees in the process - because they bet that nobody would default on their loans and were wrong.

    I think what Paulson and Bernanke fear is that when the American public figures out their 401Ks are nothing but air, a run of 2% will bring the whole thing down. Americans are realizing the financial system in the US has become as criminal as Russia's. They are going to want to put their money into something that isn't a steaming pile of bullshit.

    Since the fedgov has hosed our children and grandchildren on social security and medicare, 401Ks were the hedge against the 20% sunk-cost payroll tax of the entitlement programs of Lenin. At least it was our fucking money.

    When we all see our 401ks go up in smoke, 100 million enraged people will march on DC, burn it to the ground, turn left to Wall Street, decorate the lampposts with the corpses of investment bankers and level the rest of south Manhattan with the hole that was the WTC.

    Or so I can hope.

    ReplyDelete
  33. When we all see our 401ks go up in smoke, 100 million enraged people will march on DC, burn it to the ground, turn left to Wall Street, decorate the lampposts with the corpses of investment bankers and level the rest of south Manhattan with the hole that was the WTC.

    Great description, D-Day.

    A Little Like This, Perhaps

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  34. Before joining Skidmore in 2006 as the F. William Harder Professor in the Department of Management and Business, Paul Calhoun worked for more than 30 years for Mellon Financial Corp., one of the world’s largest money management firms and a major commercial bank. For six years in the 1990s, he was general manager of the Jumbo Mortgage Division of the Boston Co., a Mellon subsidiary.

    Q & A:

    Q: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are urging Congress to enact a $700 billion plan to rescue the financial services industry. What do you like about it?

    I like it because it addresses the root cause of distress at financial institutions, which is the large volume of impaired and hard-to-value assets that they hold. I also like it because it is not institution-specific, and because there is a successful precedent for this idea.

    ...

    Q: What don't you like about it?

    I don’t like it because the definition of impaired assets is too indeterminate at this time. I think it is difficult to judge whether $700 billion is enough, and mortgages are difficult to value.

    ...

    Q: What odds do you give it?

    One hundred percent that this will happen in some form, 90 percent that it will successfully calm the credit markets. It is a very powerful statement that the federal government is willing to intervene in this manner.


    Economic Climate

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  35. And the point is to keep that very un- happy moment from arriving, brother d day.

    Which is why these are the only serious Congressional hearings we've had since...well, it seems since dirt was new.

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  36. And since dirt was new, those "mean", "stoopid" free market, deregulation-loving acolytes at Cato have been urging the dismantling Freddie and Fannie.

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  37. More Paulson [Rich Lowry]

    I've talked over the last few days to everyone I know who knows this stuff—conservatives all—and have found no one who says we don't need something big, even among the skeptics of the Paulson plan. Someone I talked to today with impeccable free-market credentials was very down on the Paulson plan—because he doesn’t think it’ll do enough. He supports pumping capital into the banks directly and temporarily nationalizing them instead. Needless to say, it's a crazy time. Yesterday, I was talking to a sharp Nevada banker who, like John Hood's friend, has no stake in this. He got out of the mortgage business three years ago because he thought it was so out of control and was absolutely scathing about the irresponsibility of Wall Street and the injustice of these people getting a bail-out—but stipulated that he supports it anyway as necessary for the economy.







    Or as it was put to me: We are shooting for something on the order of success of the Mexican bailout. Because that actually went well.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I have read the draft of the bailout plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and this administration's arro gance never fails to amaze me. Here is Paulson, under whose watch (and others') the financial system has come to a grinding halt, asking for $700 billion to purchase mortgage-related assets from financial institutions that obviously were incompetent in running their businesses.

    According to the draft, Paul son is the sole authority who decides where this money (our tax dollars) goes, whom he hires to carry out his plan, whom he enters into contracts with and how the mortgages will be disposed of. Then he demands that the decisions he makes pursuant to this authority not be reviewed by any court or administrative agency -- in other words, no accountability.

    Give me the money and don't look over my shoulder. What arro gance.


    Letters

    ReplyDelete
  39. According to the draft, Paul son is the sole authority who decides where this money (our tax dollars) goes, whom he hires to carry out his plan, whom he enters into contracts with and how the mortgages will be disposed of. Then he demands that the decisions he makes pursuant to this authority not be reviewed by any court or administrative agency -- in other words, no accountability.





    Yeah, well, that's not gonna be in the final agreement. There will be statutory oversight.

    Whether anyone exersizes it - that's always another matter.

    ReplyDelete
  40. It would appear that the market is going to drive this matter to an all too rapid conclusion. The following comes from the Financial Times:

    Peter Orszag, head of the Congressional Budget Office, warned lawmakers of possible “chaos” if Congress did nothing. “You would have a financial market meltdown that would cause very severe dislocations  . . . maybe on the magnitude of the Great Depression.”

    The flight to safety drove yields on three-month Treasury bills below 0.5 per cent, down from 1.45 per cent just two days before. The two-year note yield fell below 2 per cent. Brokers expected the benchmark three-month London Interbank Offered Rate would set on Thursday at 3.64 per cent after rising 26.5 basis points to 3.476 per cent on Wednesday.

    Demand for government debt and the rise in Libor meant that the two-year swap spread reached 1.66 percentage points above the two-year Treasury yield – its highest in history.


    My gut tells me that DR and Newt (my favorite politician as well - he is one smart and articulate dude) are right - from a political perspective, the way this is being done is wrong and will have negative consequences that will compound if Obama is elected.

    On the other hand, Newt doesn't directly and immediately address the financial market lockup. And those markets are dictating that something be done NOW. Let them gain too much negative momentum and there will be a financial avalanche. Next week will probably be too late.

    Finally, from a purely financial perspective, I would prefer not to take the other side of a bet/trade/deal made by Bill Gross or Warren Buffet. So, I guess that makes me an extremely reluctant supporter.

    By the way, Trish, I agree that "these are the only serious Congressional hearings we've had since...well, it seems since dirt was new."

    ReplyDelete
  41. Kinda refreshing, isn't it, willie?

    The prospect of concrete catastrophe seems to have a way of genuinely focusing minds.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Japan's largest trading house Mitsubishi Corp. slid 5.8 percent to 2,530 yen, while its rival Mitsui & Co. plunged 6.2 percent to 1,512 yen.

    Oil-related issues were weaker, with gas and oil developer Inpex Holdings falling 3.2 percent to 979,000 yen and major refiner Nippon Oil shedding 4.7 percent to 591 yen.

    Some banks turned higher, reversing earlier losses. Mizuho Financial Group gained 2.6 percent to 468,000 yen and Sumitomo Mitusi Financial Group rose 1.2 percent to 692,000 yen.


    Tokyo Shares

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  43. Well, we can be sure the Dems will not hold a Friday night vote.

    McCain will be painted as afraid to face Obama, in open debate.

    The MSM will tar and feather Maverick as less than competent to hold two divergent thoughts in his head, on the same day.

    They'll pass some type of Bill, Obama will get $700 Billion to socialize Wall Street.

    He'll be ready, willing and able to do it. A short term challenge will become a long term nightmare.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Worse than not letting the Iraqis vote, in June of 2003.

    ReplyDelete
  45. George Bush's legacy, letting the Democrats socialize the Markets.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Look at it this way, Rat.

    The most liberal, Progressive admin in US history is...soon to be behind us.

    That's what Martha Stewart would call a Good Thing.

    ReplyDelete
  47. No way the next guy, like this guy, is gonna beat LBJ in that department.

    ReplyDelete
  48. There will be no discretionary spending left to socialize much.

    There will be little foreign interest in loaning the US money to subsidize deficits.

    Consumption will have to be reduced.

    Savings will have to increase.

    There will be little demand for new labor, domestic or immigrant.

    With all that, it will not be any better anywhere else.

    Market bifurcation theory will be sent to the shit house.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I'd almost call that a coup d'etat.

    The accidental conspiracy.

    And more power to it.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Meanwhile, when can we focus on this cocksucker:

    "President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has signed a series of energy co-operation deals with China.
    He said oil exports from Venezuela to China could rise threefold by 2012, to one million barrels a day.
    Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil producers, is seeking new markets to reduce its dependency on exports to the United States.
    Mr Chavez has now continued to Russia, for his third visit to Moscow within three months."

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  51. The US will be forced into a trade surplus.

    The Chinese market will tank.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Obama would be tested by....I was going to name them but....everybody.

    If he's in I expect all hell to break out.

    It's a sad state of affairs. Worse, it might, probably will, turn into a really tragic one.

    Rejoicing in Putin land, Venezuela, Iran, you name it. Gaza, Syria, everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  53. I'll have to turn to religion :)

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  54. Chavez has dug himself a hole.

    And that Bolivian thing is going nowhere.

    Trying to figger who comes next. A more or less able technocrat, is my bet.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Chavez will not be getting a gold watch at a retirement party.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Just keep looking to the stars Bob. It is all there.

    ReplyDelete
  57. peterike:
    Apropos of nothing, Palin was terrible — terrible — with that sniveling little wretch Katie Couric. It goes without saying it was a load of “gotcha” questions, but she did not handle them well.
    Expect a firestorm around this.

    Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin pegs much of the mortgage crisis to illegal aliens. Indeed, that remains the scourge that must not be spoken.
    http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/24/illegal-immigration-and-the-mortgage-mess/

    Absent something huge, I think Obama’s got it won. The 24/7 all-O-all-the-time media is going to win it for him (plus massive vote fraud in key states). I’m verging on despair.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The Republicans can win this if they have the stones.

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  59. The voter fraud is worrisome because so many idiots don't vote.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Chavez will not be getting a gold watch at a retirement party.

    Thu Sep 25, 03:14:00 AM EDT

    Oh, fuck no.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Wed Sep 24, 11:14:00 PM EDT
    ==

    Bingo.

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  62. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  63. Buffett's time bomb goes off on Wall Street

    EASY MONEY

    When the credit default market began back in the mid-1990s, the transactions were simpler, more transparent affairs. Not all the sellers were insurance companies like AIG -- most were not. But the protection buyer usually knew the protection seller.

    As it grew -- according to the industry's trade group, the credit default market grew to $46 trillion by the first half of 2007 from $631 billion in 2000 -- all that changed.

    An over-the-counter market grew up and some of the most active players became asset managers, including hedge fund managers, who bought and sold the policies like any other investment.

    And in those deals, they sold protection as often as they bought it -- although they rarely set aside the reserves they would need if the obligation ever had to be paid.

    In one notorious case, a small hedge fund agreed to insure UBS AG (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the Swiss banking giant, from losses related to defaults on $1.3 billion of subprime mortgages for an annual premium of about $2 million.

    The trouble was, the hedge fund set up a subsidiary to stand behind the guarantee -- and capitalized it with just $4.6 million. As long as the loans performed, the fund made a killing, raking in an annualized return of nearly 44 percent.

    But in the summer of 2007, as home owners began to default, things got ugly. UBS demanded the hedge fund put up additional collateral. The fund balked. UBS sued.

    The dispute is hardly unique. Both Wachovia Corp (WB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are involved in similar litigation with firms that promised to step up and act like insurers -- but were not actually insurers.

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  64. Merciless, obscene, gorgonic, unnatural--todays 'feminists'


    If you thought feminism was all about love and peace, now you know. Today's Rage of the Furies seems driven by envy for Sarah Palin's good looks, her infectious joie de vivre, and of course her popularity. A lot of people spontaneously love Sarah. It drives the Furies, well, to ever greater fury.

    Really nifty painting of a gorgon.

    I knew a Gorgon
    From Oregon
    From Portland the lass
    Rode merciless
    An obscene, unnatural
    Nag
    A marmoreal birth
    From an unholy earth
    A reeking infanticidal hag....

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  65. "We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself."
    ==

    Does this sound familiar to anyone here?

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  66. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that any lawmaker who votes for the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout package, which he called a "dead loser," will face defeat in November.

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  67. Ms. Badinter, (principal shareholdeer of Publicus) is well-known in France as a “feminist” philosopher and the author of numerous books.

    Even French Gorgons Attack Palin

    Creators of anti-Palin smear videos. Straight from 'gay Paree'.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Newt's a good guy(except for how he treated his wife), but wrong about the elections.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Priest and a Rabbi walking down the street spot a young boy:

    Priest: "Let's Fuck that kid!"

    Rabbi: "Outta What?"

    ReplyDelete
  70. Everything You Wanted to Know About the Credit Crisis But Were Afraid to Ask

    by Ben Stein
    Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008, 12:00AM

    .
    .
    How did it happen?

    Here s one big part of the answer. First, the alert reader will notice that Ben Stein said many times that the amount of money at risk in the subprime meltdown was just not enough to sink an economy of this size. And I was right...to a point. The amount of subprime that defaulted was at most - after recovery in liquidation - about $250 billion. A huge sum but not enough to torpedo the US economy.

    The crisis occurred (to greatly oversimplify) because the financial system allowed entities to place bets on whether or not those mortgages would ever be paid. You didn't have to own a mortgage to make the bets. These bets, called Credit Default Swaps, are complex. But in a nutshell, they allow someone to profit immensely - staggeringly - if large numbers of subprime mortgages are not paid off and go into default.

    The profit can be wildly out of proportion to the real amount of defaults, because speculators can push down the price of instruments tied to the subprime mortgages far beyond what the real rates of loss have been. As I said, the profits here can be beyond imagining. (In fact, they can be so large that one might well wonder if the whole subprime fiasco was not set up just to allow speculators to profit wildly on its collapse...)
    .
    .
    http://finance.yahoo.com/print/expert/article/yourlife/109609

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  71. I'll quess either Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke aor U.S Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, or both in unison, Mat.


    haha, Doug:)

    ReplyDelete
  72. From above:
    "As it grew -- according to the industry's trade group, the credit default market grew to $46 trillion by the first half of 2007 from $631 billion in 2000 -- all that changed."

    ReplyDelete
  73. Newt's a good guy(except for how he treated his wife), but wrong about the elections.
    ==

    Hmm,..

    MacCain will be running against the Bush/Pelosi/Obama bailout.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Protestant minister in Alaska--

    "Let's find that kid a decent home, a good job, and teach him how to snowmachine."

    No offense intended to Jews or Catholics. Just sticking up for my tribe.

    muzzie iman says--"Let's fit that kid with a suicide vest."

    ReplyDelete
  75. The financial chaos seems to be working in Obama's favor, Mat, people don't have the memory, analytical skills or attention span to realize who really caused it.

    And, everyone loves their own Congressman, it's all the other bastards that are at fault.

    ReplyDelete
  76. snowmachine
    ==

    Snowjob with a snowmachine. Sounds about right.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Working out just like I told you it would LaBob:

    Instead of unleashing Palin to take on the Dem's many transgressions, he talks of firing Cox, getting a bipartisan Commission for the good of the country, using good men like Dodd, Franks, and Obama.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Short circuit?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0O0wl_UaU8

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  79. How many medium priced homes would $700 billion buy?

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  80. Deuce:
    Given that the CDO Mess exceeds the value of the Mortgage Mess, how will the Pig come out smelling like a Rose to taxpayers?

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  81. $700 billion
    = $700,000 million
    x4
    = 2,800,000 homes @ $250,000

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  82. We used to have a parakeet named "Blinky" that could keep up with Pelosi.

    Cheney's got one hell of a poker face.

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  83. Finally blinked himself plumb to death.

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  84. The only real answer to all these money woes is to go back to a barter economy, which we may well do, one of these fine days.

    grrrnight

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  85. The only real answer to all these money
    ==

    No, Bob.

    Those that are kind to the cruel, are cruel to the kind.

    These fsckers should be lined up and shot dead.

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  86. John @ Powerline:

    "Well, I think. I don't know how many open-minded people watched President Bush tonight, but most of those who did must have thought he made good sense. When the current crisis hit, my instinct was to support the bailout deal, out of necessity. Over the past few days, though, there has been little sign of the threatened credit freeze-up, and I've wondered whether the taxpayers are being stampeded into a lousy deal.

    Most Americans clearly share those doubts, based on poll data, and tonight's speech may not have done much to dispel them. But if a buyout is crafted in Congress over the next few days and supported by both parties, a plurality of voters likely will go along with it.

    What annoyed me most about Bush's speech, as usual, was its bipartisan high-mindedness. He reviewed the history of the mortgage crisis without mentioning his own efforts to rein in Fannie and Freddy, the Democrats' frustration of those efforts, the Democrats' use of Fannie and Freddy as honey-pots, or other relevant historical details. It was a sanitized history, such as might have been related by anti-reform Democrats like Chris Dodd or Barack Obama.

    No doubt Bush thought that such discretion was necessary to achieve a bipartisan solution to the problem at hand, but we can be sure that he will get no appreciation from the Democrats, who will misrepresent the historical record for their own political gain at every opportunity."

    "

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  87. "there has been little sign of the threatened credit freeze-up,"
    ---
    Out of touch Lawyer, much?

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  88. Neither John, nor W will tell the truth about the Dems.
    Leading to the Demise of the Republicans.

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  89. What can you say about someone who won't tell the truth about his opponent, when the result is giving any chance of victory away?

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  90. "As it grew -- according to the industry's trade group, the credit default market grew to $46 trillion by the first half of 2007 from $631 billion in 2000 -- all that changed."
    ==

    There is a buyer and a seller for each of these transactions. Find out who they. Line them up. Shoot them dead.

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  91. Over the last eight years, the Bush Administration grown the government faster and larger than Clinton ever dreamed. $860 billion to bring democracy to Iraq. $1,200 billion for a prescription drug benefit. And now $700 billion more to buy up all of Wall Street's bad paper and preserve the status quo. What happens if Iran or North Korea attack, or Russia invades Ukraine? We won't have two cents to rub together.

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