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."

Thursday, September 22, 2011

“Today, we really seem to be stuck in a negative spiral”


The Federal Reserve

Take that, Congress

Sep 21st 2011, 19:36 by The Economist online | WASHINGTON


IN THEORY central banks need independence to insulate them from meddling politicians’ demands for easy money. It is a sign of these strange, post-crisis times that the Federal Reserve is now fending off the opposite demand.
On September 20th, as its officials sat down to a two-day policy-setting meeting, they got an unusual letter from the four top Republicans in Congress urging them to “resist further extraordinary intervention in the US economy. [We] have seen no evidence that further monetary stimulus will create jobs.”
If the politicians had hoped to stay the Fed’s hand, they failed. Today, it announced it would purchase $400 billion of Treasury securities maturing in six to 30 years by next June, while selling an equivalent amount with maturities of three years or less. It also said it would maintain its mortgage-related holdings at current levels to support the mortgage market. Three of the ten voting officials dissented, as they did in August when the Fed said it expected to keep short-term rates near zero at least until mid-2013.
Buying long-term bonds by selling shorter-term issues is less aggressive than the Fed’s previous two rounds of “quantitative easing” (QE), in which it bought bonds with newly printed money. But the impact is similar. Lengthening the average maturity of the Fed’s $2.65 trillion portfolio reduces the supply of long-term bonds, nudging down yields.
Politicians have long bashed central bankers. In the 1970s and 1980s Congress men regularly threatened to impeach the Fed chairman. In 1981 one Republican senator told Paul Volcker, the then chairman, “you’re high on the hit parade for lynching.” Democrats, too, have sought to bar hawkish reserve-bank presidents from voting on monetary policy.
But the latest assault differs in several key respects. One is that politicians, especially those from Texas, have historically wanted easier policy from the Fed. By contrast, when Rick Perry, the Texas governor and Republican candidate for president, recently threatened Ben Bernanke, the current chairman, with rough justice, it was for providing just that. This is partly political opportunism: if monetary stimulus worked, the principal political beneficiary would be Barack Obama. But many Republicans genuinely equate Fed bond-buying with reckless government activism leading to rampant inflation.
The second difference is that past critics had a point: Mr Volcker’s tight monetary policy did tank the economy. This time, the hysteria over inflation has no obvious factual basis. Overall inflation has gyrated with petrol prices but is an unremarkable 2% when food and energy costs are excluded. Wage growth and inflation expectations are docile; nominal demand is barely growing.
Third, and most important, historically the Fed’s antagonists came from the fringes of their (usually Democratic) party. Now Republican leaders and presidential candidates are flouting the idea of central-bank independence. That has troubling implications. Mr Bernanke’s term ends in early 2014 and in the unlikely event he wanted another, a Republican president would not grant it. A new chairman in sync with his (or her) philosophy would presumably tighten monetary policy forthwith, the last thing the economy is likely to need.

70 comments:

  1. Rick Perry's Texas Miracle:

    Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal).

    Of newly arrived immigrants who took a job in Texas, 93 percent were not U.S. citizens.

    The share of working-age natives holding a job in Texas declined from 71 percent in 2007 to 67 percent in 2011.

    And Perry wants to take the Texas model to the federal level. No wonder he doesn't want the fence.

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  2. The emperor has no clothes. However no politician has the balls to tell it how it is, or accept what is happening and prepare accordingly.

    Flogging a dead horse again will only mean a bigger double dip when people wake up and smell the coffee.

    Time to prepare for a new world economy.

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  3. If the President was a leader, he'd mint a few coin, then take the Treasury out of the debt markets.

    A $1.2 trillion USD stimulus, without a cent of debt.

    Section 8 of the Constitution plainly states that it is the responsibility of the Congress to:

    To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, ...

    The Constitution never mentions the Federal Reserve. It has no intrinsic Constitutional authority.

    That for 100 years Congress has abdicated its Constitutional responsibilities, a cause for lament.

    The idea that some authority other than Congress is better suited to the task:
    To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin ...

    Cause for an Amendment to the Constitution, not a statute that formalizes the abdication of Congress's lawful responsibility and authority.

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  4. Last month, approx, 390,000 entered the labor force, and 330,000 people found jobs.

    That number of people that found jobs wasn't too sporty, on its face, but the really nasty part of the report was that the number of people working "Part-time" jobs increased by 440,000.

    Basically, the vast majority of the jobs that are being created are at the very bottom of the labor pool - Just think: McDonalds, part-time.

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  5. The Average job in that new Abengoa Cellulosic Ethanol Plant will be in the $77,000.00/yr range, it seems.

    About 2,000 more of those plants, and we'd be off and running.

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  6. As for the "New" economy, it goes hand in hand with the "New Whirled Order".

    Designed by the same folk.

    Folks that made "nationalist" a dirty word, rather than "socialist", after WWII.

    Back to our premier "Progressive", President Teddy, back to when the course was laid and has been maintained since.

    From the "White Fleet" not having Congressional authorization for fuel to 700 foreign garrisons, in just 100 years, and now that boys and girls is touted as progress.

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  7. We've known the Pakistani were working against US interests since 11SEP01.

    No change there, despite tens of billions of USD paid to the General-President and his replacements.

    Christian Science Monitor

    US officials say there is growing evidence that Pakistan's intelligence agency encouraged a Pakistan-based militant group, the Haqqani network, to carry out last week's attack on the US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.


    There are nation-states that still sponsor terrorist attacks against US facilities, Pakistan is premier amongst them.

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  8. Who should control the whirled's opiate production, US proxies or "others"?

    That answer to that is key to gaining a proper perspective on any question regarding the Pakistani and US, in Afghanistan

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  9. If Rat Had A BRAIN He Wouldn't Be So DUMB


    I like the use of the term science fiction in this presentation.


    bwahahahahha

    b

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  10. Opiates which to today flood Russian society. Their 2 million addicts consuming 21% of Afghan production.

    From Jun2010

    Russia's Afghan heroin issue has become the country's favorite crusade, and has allowed Russia to enter a global debate about Afghanistan that had previously left it on the sidelines.

    Its basic point is a reasonable one: NATO has fueled drug production by refusing to destroy Afghan poppy fields, which it stopped doing last year in the hope of winning the support of opium farmers. ....


    Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1996120,00.html#ixzz1Yh1AeKbh

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  11. SO, The Fed has finally noticed that things ain't lookin' so hot, eh?

    Simply Amazing.

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  12. You're becoming ever more petulant, boobie.

    Did you that diagnostician, like you said you would?

    It's important that you get treatment, even if it's not of the "early" variety.

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  13. Rat you are an absolute idiot.

    Just the other day you made this equation

    ZIONISM = NAZISM

    And now you are frustrated again.

    I going with my daughter to shoe the horse.

    b

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  14. Somehow, the entire NY/DC Elite, Power Structure convinced themselves that they could continue to destroy the lower middle class, and the country would prosper.

    How do you convince yourself of something like that?

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  15. consider the 76 million people who don't legally owe individual income taxes in 2011 (please, please note: does not include payroll, excise, state and local taxes). The vast majority of this group was poor. They didn't owe individual income taxes because they didn't owe a lot of money to start, and various exemptions, like the earned income tax credit, wiped out the rest.

    But among families making more than $100,000, there were also half a million tax units -- enough to replace the population of Tucson, Arizona -- that also paid no income tax.

    Even more surprising, 7,000 millionaires also paid no individual income tax.

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  16. They are equivalent in their goals, boobie.

    They both define Judaism the same way, using the NAZI Nuremberg Laws in that regard.

    Both want to eliminate the influence of Judaism in Europe. Moving as many Nuremberg Law defined "Jews" out of Europe as possible.

    Both use ghettos to control minority populations.
    Warsaw and Gaza exampling both.

    In Warsaw, like all the Ghettos in Poland, the Germans ascribed the administration to a Judenrat (a council of the Jews)

    In Gaza the administration is ascribed to an elected and militant administration, Hamas.

    Both examples where 400,000 or more people were held, based upon their religion and ethnicity.

    Both NAZI and Zionists used military oppression to gain political authority.

    Quite equivalent in both goals and methods, if not scale.

    The Zionist removing over 1,000,000 Nuremberg Law "Jews" from Russia and relocating many of them in the Occupied Territories.

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  17. The Zionists using those emigres as pawns in a geographic chess game.

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  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  19. Barack Obama and the Democrats are doing everything possible to firing themselves from their jobs working for the US taxpayers.

    They are making it abundantly clear how they wish to run the government. They are also making it abundantly clear that they want to continue to hold such extremist no co-operational views that basically nothing will be done while they are in office!

    They know this, especially Barack Obama knows this, as well as the American People.

    Barack Obama and the Democrats are telling the people that it's their way or nothing!

    Now, we all know what an ultimatum got a popular guy like Charlie Sheen. And Charlie Sheen I would venture to say is a heckofa lot more popular than Barack Obama and a few Democrats.

    Charlie Sheen gave the ultimatum and got the boot.

    Barack Obama seems to think he's going to bet the farm on raising taxes and not get the boot.

    We'll see!

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  20. This is beginning to look beyond the capabilities of any of them. This mess has been building since Lyndon Johnson, exasperated with the deficits by Reagan and the Democrats, worsened under Bush and the Republicans and the two critical first years of the Obama realm.
    The system is corrupt and broken. The middle class is hanging at the precipice. We are still poking our noses into everyone else's business. Of all the troubles and problems, we are still concerned about the Hatfield and McCoys in the lands of the chosen, promised, selected, and rejected.

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  21. Well, the Good News is, Gasoline's about to get a whole lot cheaper.

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  22. It is beginning to look like Romney to me.

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  23. Largest per capita user of Wind Energy; "Net" Exporter of Transportation Fuels.

    Mixed Economy; Manufacturer, and exporter, of its own John Deere Farm Equipment, and Wind Turbines.

    Reasonable Tax Policies, and cost of government.

    Topnotch k-12 system.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Any other time I'd rather have Palin; but, right now, I believe Romney would be better. He seems to understand the "oil/biofuels" thing.

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  25. QOTD:

    Why the hell are we teaching "French, and Spanish" in our middle/high schools, And Not "Computer Languages?"

    There will soon be "Two" kinds of employees in the U.S. - Those who talk to machines (through computers,) and those who talk to the lady down at the unemployment office.

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  26. Blogger Deuce said...

    This is beginning to look beyond the capabilities of any of them. This mess has been building since Lyndon Johnson, exasperated with the deficits by Reagan and the Democrats, worsened under Bush and the Republicans and the two critical first years of the Obama realm.
    The system is corrupt and broken. The middle class is hanging at the precipice. We are still poking our noses into everyone else's business. Of all the troubles and problems, we are still concerned about the Hatfield and McCoys in the lands of the chosen, promised, selected, and rejected.







    aka exceptionally dysfunctional!

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  27. I expect Romney to fade down the stretch, much like he did 3 years ago.

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  28. The only difference, Gag, is that Fox News was pushing hard for McCain that go'round. This time, they'll push for Romney (if he's up against Palin.)

    They would probably support Perry first, but it's looking, increasingly, like he's "screwed the pooch."

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  29. Where did he screw the pooch? Social Security? It becomes a football every 4 years.

    Vaccine on 12 year olds? I was forced to take a measles? vaccine when I was a kid and have the scar to prove it. I also took a polio vaccine by mouth via sugar cube. I had no choice on either.

    Border? He lacks the control or the power to change that or to put up a stupid fence.

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  30. Of course, if Palin stays out, and Perry can stop the bleeding . . . . . .

    hard to say, ain't it?

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  31. A $1.2 trillion USD stimulus, without a cent of debt.

    Why not just give that $1.2 trillion in new coins directly to the 46 million Americans currently on food stamps. Think what a bonus of $26,000 would do for each family.

    Hell, why not just give the 14 million chronically unemployed Americans $50,000 a year in your new coins. Sure it would mean another $700 billion in new spending every year, but look on the bright side, it's not tacked on to the debt!

    Sheeze.

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  32. At:
    Thu Sep 22, 02:10:00 PM EDT
    Lib tells US that Obama has told America it is Obama's way or the highway.

    While I heard Mr Boehner and his cadre say much the same thing.

    I know I will not be voting for Mr Quayle come 2012, but the I did not vote for him in 2010, either.

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  33. You would not give it to the unemployed, Ms T, because it would not take the Treasury out of the debt market, if you did.

    That is the primary reason for the Treasury to make the move. Not only would the $1.2 trillion be added to the money supply, but an equivalent amount would have to find another home in the economy.

    A home that would provide for a market directed, not government directed, stimulus.

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  34. I don't know, Gag; it just seems like he might have gone a bridge too far, somewhere?

    One of these things, ehh. Two? uh.

    Three, or more, umh. Seems like a bit much.

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  35. If I were asked to pick the candidate, I'd pick the Governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad.

    Gov Branstad - Iowa jobs from Wind Energy

    Note how many Counties are involved in this industry.

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  36. Perry will retain the evangelical, rufus.

    They will rally to Mr Perry in the primaries and in the general election.

    They will come to avoid Mr Romney and his holy roller undershorts.
    Both in the primaries, but more importantly, in the general election.

    For those whom religion has become a core electoral value, Mr Romney's underwear speak volumes.

    ... in the view of former Church President Joseph F. Smith, the garment was to be held as
    "the most sacred of all things in the world, next to their own virtue, next to their own purity of life"

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  37. The Iowa unemployment rate is 6.0%.

    Pretty high "median family income."

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  38. .

    While I heard Mr Boehner and his cadre say much the same thing.



    Main reason for the debt limit crisis. But them you have to excuse Lib. He also said:

    Charlie Sheen gave the ultimatum and got the boot.


    Yea, poor ol Charlie. Reports over the last couple days suggest details are being finalized that will give him $25 million in arbitration on his contract lawsuit.

    He will also be starting a new sitcom, "Anger Management" soon.

    Charlie, like the dicks on both sides in OZ, may be a dick but like the politicos in OZ he will come out in fine fettle.


    .

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  39. Yeah, that is probably right, Rat.

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  40. I keep forgetting about that "Mormon" thing. I guess my brain just isnt wired that way.

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  41. I keep forgetting about that "Mormon" thing. I guess my brain just isnt wired that way.

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  42. This is beginning to look beyond the capabilities of any of them.

    And as the article Doom I posted the other day pointed out the Pubs may well have the wrong wrong prescription. WWII got us out of the depression. WWIII will simply end the problem.

    the lands of the chosen, promised, selected, and rejected.

    With all due respect that is quite gross. I've pointed out all groups in the world had felt chosen, promised and selected. The Jews had the genius to put it beautiful writing. And they certainly have been rejected, being wedged between competing world empires of the time as they were. Their flowering materially was when those were temporarily in decline. Even this they made into beautiful literature interpreting the meaning of defeats as a kind of chastisement with a remnant remaining, though there is nothing original in the idea.

    Even our great secular USA thinks of itself as the City on the Hill.

    The way just one gentile reads the myth, is that this small group of people(there must be some historical basis to this otherwise it wouldn't have come to birth) were enslaved under Kingship, somehow managed to get out, found the airy freedom of the desert, descended into the Promised Land, which was a fall as they ended up enslaved under another Kingship, their own. Finally two princes contending for the throne were at locks and one invited the Romans in, a big mistake, and we are where we are today with a restored Israel, a rise, back in the same insecure position, this time in a more modern democratic posture.

    Since much of our own culture comes directly from this, it seems to me one is complicit in the possible destruction of a part of one's own heritage by not supporting Israel.

    VDH points out today there is going to be a war, only question is when. I think he is right.

    And since one of our own true foes culturally is islam we ought to support Israel.

    b

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  43. Harry Reid is believed to be more of a devout Morman than Romney. But hey, it's ok, cause he is a union loving democrat!

    Romney and his Holy britches won't be an issue.

    I think Romney will fade as he did last time. I think he is boring, with no fresh ideas. I think the voting public will see it the same, come time to vote.

    He lost last time. Us Americans don't like losers.

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  44. Bob, I read Deuce's comment, and I didn't see the word "Jew" anywhere in it.

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  45. And the mocking of the use of G-D makes no sense because That Wherever It Is is hidden in a Shining Darkness that we might penetrate someday.

    The Unnameable is a tradition in so many groups I couldn't even begin.

    I used it mockingly the other day myself because I can't stand Allen and wish there were a perpetual Sabbath for the Orthodox around here.

    b

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  46. the lands of the chosen, promised, selected, and rejected

    That is like saying rat didn't mean kill because he used some other words or euphemisms.

    b

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  47. That is absurd, boobie, to conflate Zionism and Israel with "Western Civilization".

    The Roman Empire, and its' modern descendents in its established religion, Roman Catholicism having had much more influence than any derived from Judaism.

    The two religions only comparable in their common myths, but not in doctrine. No more so than Islam is comparable to both, united as they are by common myth.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Anyways,


    The US solar industry has created 6,735 new jobs across the country since August, 2010, a 6.8% growth rate, bringing to 100,237 the number of Americans working in the industry, according to a preview of The Solar Foundation’s “National Solar Jobs Census.” That compares to an overall nationwide job growth rate of 0.7% and a 2% decline in jobs in fossil fuel electric generation.

    Creating Jobs

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  49. What euphemism was used, boobie?

    What was the context?

    Find the quote, then we'll discuss both its' literal and philosophic meaning.

    If you cannot find the quote, you're just being petulant, again.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Yeah, gag, boobies guru in this area of study, Joseph Campbell, was a master of myth deconstruction.

    Claiming all religion to be a function of myth.

    boobie has described the Bible as being fictional literature, not a piece of non-fiction history.

    As for Mr Campbell, boobies guru as it were ...

    Joseph Campbell was a writer and teacher who detailed what all religions and mythologies have in common:

    1. The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect.

    2. The Cosmological Prospect.

    3. The Social Prospect.

    4. The Psychological Sphere.


    Joseph Campbell's Four Functions of Mythology

    ReplyDelete
  51. Someone makes the claim that they have an entitlement because their ancestors got a special deal from God.

    I have two choices. I can take it seriously or not. I choose not. I could shut up, It would be polite and marvelous if I agreed with them regardless as to the preposterousness of the claim and it would be OK for me to affirm their belief. However, I do not believe it and I choose to say so.

    My saying something about it goes no further than challenging an idea. The only thing I am against is someone's cherished myth. If it were about Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer there would be no harm, no fowl. But it isn't so benign.

    Two days ago some asshole heard from God and God told him to put a bomb under his turban and blow his head apart so that he could kill a rational man.

    You want to shut me up? Grab your turban.

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  52. .

    That is like saying rat didn't mean kill because he used some other words or euphemisms.

    Why don't you give it up b?

    If you want to accuse someone of something, go back and find the quote or post. You have already mentioned he didn't literally say he killed anyone. Most people here have stated they don't remember ever seeing anything like you allege.

    Just as Allen continued to quote me as saying "Bob, you're dead to me" even though I told him on more than one occasion I never said that.

    Give it up. You look silly.

    .

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  53. When I was a boy, I was taught God always was, always will be, and will always remain the same. God was almighty , all knowing and all things came from God. I can assume, that being the case, God gave us a brain. God wanted us to survive. Doubting allows a man to survive. Trust will get you killed. I don't think God wants me to have some asshole blow me apart with his exploding head and magic turban.

    i came from God, my brain came from God and my ability to doubt as well. I don not believe that God's feeling will be hurt because I have my doubts. One day I will see. Wish me well. I will hope I was right.

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  54. I learned something about horse shoeing today. Sometimes you just shoe the front feet, kinda like front wheel drive.

    I'm out for the day, my daughter has something the antibiotics didn't get. She's going to the infirmary.

    b

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  55. Wish me well

    I do believe me.
    Don't see what it has to do with my argument.

    gone

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  56. .

    Someone makes the claim that they have an entitlement because their ancestors got a special deal from God.


    What people hasn't said this?

    The strange thing is that my god is telling the truth, all the others are false.

    Comes with the territory.

    .

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  57. "I going with my daughter to shoe the horse."

    Horses with shoes, and illiterate writers... WTF ?

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  58. Norm MacDonald tells a story from his youth, growing up in rural Ontario:

    He worked part time at a Massey Ferguson dealer while in High School. Shortly after graduating he met a new hire there and fell madly in love, to the point that he stayed on there for five more years.

    One morning he woke up and found she was gone w/o a trace.

    Norm was flummoxed, having no idea whatsoever why she left, nor where she might have gone.
    Then he received her John Deere letter in the mail.

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  59. Quirk said...

    "Just as Allen continued to quote me as saying "Bob, you're dead to me" even though I told him on more than one occasion I never said that."

    Your incredible discipline and self-restraint has not gone unnoticed.

    None of us dare think how he might react to the truth.

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  60. The market panic in a nutshell

    Want to know the root of all this market fear? Look no further than Morgan Stanley’s balance sheet.

    Although Morgan Stanley has been credited with de-risking and being one of the safer American banks, relative to Bank of America and the like, Zero Hedge took at a look at the bank’s financial statements. The exposure to French banks is shocking.

    n last year’s 10-K, Morgan Stanley disclosed an exposure of $39-billion (U.S.) as of Dec. 31. The next highest foreign exposure was $12.5-billion to Japan. (These “claims include cash, receivables, securities purchased under agreements to resell, securities borrowed and cash trading instruments but exclude derivative instruments and commitments.”) To see for yourself, check out pg. 114 of the 10-K.

    The reported French exposure is 56 per cent more than Morgan Stanley's entire market cap, Zero Hedge pointed out.

    Being exposed to French banks is particularly scary right now, because it has been well reported that they are extremely vulnerable to a Greek default. While it’s hard to tell exactly how much of the exposure is owed to Morgan Stanley, rather owed by Morgan Stanley to French banks, that’s kind of the whole point. The exact amounts owed by banks to other banks is very hard to pinpoint, and that creates a panic.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/the-market-panic-in-a-nutshell/article2176002/







    isn't it a joy playing "Who's got the button"?

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  61. .

    Your incredible discipline and self-restraint has not gone unnoticed.



    Gee, thanks Doug.

    You sure you didn't get this off a fortune cookie though?


    .

    .

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  62. Close.

    I hear it said all the time.

    What I don't understand is why they then start laughing.

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  63. Bob: Sometimes you just shoe the front feet, kinda like front wheel drive.

    Sometimes I break some steel
    Sometimes my leg hurts real
    Sometimes I change my wheels
    To high heels

    Deuce: I don't think God wants me to have some asshole blow me apart with his exploding head and magic turban.

    Life following art, I guess. A while ago the muzzies got all upset about a cartoon with a bomb in a turban.
    --
    Madita - Because

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  64. Newt Gingrich could wind up looking very attractive....

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  65. Newt Gingrich could wind up looking very attractive....

    Well I insist we don't do a shirtless Newt spread here on the EB.

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  66. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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