The average Brit breaks the law about once per day. Given the U.K.’s slide toward a full-scale Nanny State, I’m actually surprised the number is that low.
Joe Biden don’t know much about history (bonus Daily Show link to reason here).
Everything you need to know about the mortgage crisis, presented in stick-figure. It’s pretty brilliant, actually.
Comcast rep weirdly invokes the PATRIOT Act to strong-arm a customer into giving up his Social Security number. Of course, when you have a government-abetted monopoly, customer service needn’t be a priority. I really, really hate Comcast.
How to turn a few pit-stained frat party t-shirts, a pint of Melon Liquor, and your old Howard the Duck comic books into a “derivative” package to sell to the government.
Is it me, or do they seem to be going out of their way to ensure that taxpayers get as raw a deal as possible in all of this?
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TheAgitator.com
Moneyquote from the Brit law-breaking article:
“‘And it’s an even bigger concern that many aren’t at all bothered about it. ”
Has it ever ocurred to the guy that the laws may be stupid and not “for a reason”?
He must, because he then changes the subject to stealing, something still not done by most.
And why quote the pollsters opinion, not those who passed the laws? Typical MSM article, could be from this side of the pond.
Is it wrong for me to hope that every person involved and responsible for this mess contracts rectal cancer, and dies a slow, smelly, painful death on the toilet?
Sithmonkey, it’s very wrong because these are exactly the people whose long slow smelly and painful death would prompt the government to nationalise healthcare to keep them from having to spend their own money on the problem.
I was wondering how buying the assets from the banks would recapitalize them. After all, paying market value for their assets doesn’t change their balance sheets. But Bernake has the solution, pay more than they are worth, thus adding value to the banks, and as a bonus, not diluting the stock in any way like an investment or loan would! Brilliant!
I loathe Comcast. I defended them while I was a customer, but finally, they just couldn’t provide worthwhile service.
As horrible as Verizon’s customer service is (and it really is a nightmare trying to get them on the phone), FIOS works, and is a far better product than Comcast’s.
And that list of the top 20 ‘laws’ that have been broken in the UK reads like an awesome list of ‘Things that the government should never be interested in’. Or at least things that have been set on some lame agenda by folks who aren’t interested in safety or humanity. Sure, most are things that people shouldn’t do, like littering, not cleaning up after your dog, not wearing seatbelts, but it’s certainly not ‘everyone’s a hardened criminal.’
Why would the banks sell at less than market value? They wouldn’t. So, the taxpayer is buying at market value or above. Where’s the deal for the taxpayer in that?
Maybe we should just use $60 billion and buy some bank stocks (instead of preemptively buying bad mortgages). At least those have upside and the capital raised by the buying of said stock would give them enough money to sort out their own mess.
Anyone start to see a trend in the Bush Administration towards preempting everything so long as it brings a profit to his buddies?
BTW, those stick figures are awesome!
Comcast is a massive black hole vortex of suck. What they call support workers are really nothing more than telephone operators whose only function is to insulate the few experts they have from the customers who need help. It’s inevitable that any problem in my service is going to take them weeks to resolve and in the end, they won’t even know what they did that fixed it.
On a lighter note, when I tried to exercise some stock options at the brokerage office affiliated with my “bank” (Alabama’s Redstone Federal Credit Union), they grilled me on a lot of personal financial information about my family claiming that the Patriot Act required it. Aside from the identification requirements, I have yet to find any such requirement in the Patriot Act.
They invoke the Patriot Act in order to get you to give up information you would ordinarily hesitate to tell them. There was a time when I thought there was such a thing as a scrupulous stock broker. LOL! I was so naive. If there ever was one, he must have quit.
Since Speeding is included in the list of laws that britons break once a day, I would guess that americans – who drive much more- break the law much more than britons.
Thanks for the link to the stick figure mortgage crisis explanation. Up until I read through that, I didn’t have a clue about the mechanics of this whole mess. The mainstream media should actually publish something like that, because (I could be wrong on this) there might be others out there besides me who don’t understand this financial crisis.
funny, that stick figure deck has been going around for at least a year now. i actually just sent it to my company’s CFO on Monday because I thought he’d get a kick out of it. yep, i’ve saved it for more than a year because it’s relevance has only grown.
Good Financial Blog I found.
Found it wading thru the comments at Balloon Juice (and it’s name has a nice ring to it).
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
Wow. Biden. Dumb as a brick. Breathtaking.
Z, keep making that point – THE FED IS GOING TO OVERPAY FOR THE ASSETS. Bernanke said so in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday. Be sure to tell everyone you know that the Fed is willing to pay par value for the assets, not what the assets were written down to. The banks are going to post huge gains if they sell these securities to the government at these prices. The tax payers are going to be left holding the bag. This is not like the AIG loan. AIG is a solid company and has real value. The taxpayers will probably make out like bandits on the AIG loan. This mortgage security bailout is an abomination and the taxpayers will be left holding the bag.
from the stick figure accountants:
“Blow Me”
Priceless.
So, I read on the internet last night that perhaps this $700 billion revolving line of credit is just a cash grab by the, for lack of a better word, oligarchs. Bush will be leaving office soon, and those fellows know that the shit storm they sowed they shall reap, so why not cash in now with at least $700 billion dollars administered by your old pal Paulson.
Hell, I am a pragmatist and I hate that I might have to invest in some tin foil hats. I am a pragmatist, I keep telling myself. In the turtle and hare fable, I identify with the turtle, in the ant and grasshopper fable I identify with the ant. I am not alone.
As the ancient Chinese philosopher said; ‘May you live in interesting times.’
All Comcast wants your SSN for is to make it easier for them to do a credit check on you. Their Customer Service people are told to use the Patriot Act bit to make you comply. I’m really surprised that no one has thought to sue these companies over their requesting SSNs.
The weird part about that is that Comcast doesn’t really extend people credit. Don’t pay your bill, they shut off your service.
The “How to turn a few pit-stained frat party t-shirts…” link has some definitely NOT safe for work sidebar stuff.
how ’bout now? can we point out that biden is profoundly, droolingly, quayle-ish stupid *now*?
1. Biden makes Quayle look like Einstein.
2. The stick-figure ends before the housing-collapse and stock-market crash. To pick up where it left off, go here, click Sept.14 on the calender, and read from there.
That last link from Honeyko makes the most interesting point I’ve seen so far in the final few paragrahs:
~~
Finally, we learned today that The White House was planning this little piece of financial dictatorship for quite some time:
“Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.”
What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.
If this was being prepared for “some time” then the “emergency” status was manufactured. Instead of bringing this before Congress “months and weeks” ago for consideration where it could be debated and passed, ready if necessary, The White House and Treasury instead back-pocketed their plan and then sprung it on Congress with an outrageous and ill-advised “bump in the night, Freddy Kreuger style” scare campaign at the last possible minute in an attempt to give Treasury dictatorial power over our entire financial system.
~~
Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT defending the administration if in fact, they’ve had this prepared for weeks/months. The fear tactics, as usual, are a dispicable way to get things done and seem to be their favorite way to make things happen.
However, pretending that Congress would have done a damn thing about this before it hit crisis level is making a huge assumption. This collapse has not been a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention for the last five+ years.
“…Finally, we learned today that The White House was planning this little piece of financial dictatorship for quite some time…”
1) It’s disappointing that the about the only way to get the left to pay attention to the financial swindle of the century is to appeal to their Bush Derangement Syndrome.
2) “The White House” in misnomer: i.e., Bush probably knew very little about this, and if he did, wouldn’t have understood any of the arcane gobbledegook anyway. Not many people on all of Capitol Hill do, and it’s being done right in their face, with their approval being desired to have it enacted!
– This is all a Paulson/Treasury/Fed/Goldman-Sachs plunder-run. That Paulson’s Treasury under Bush instead of Clinton or Obama or McCain is happenstance.
Addendum: Paulson & Bush will all be out of power in four months.
This is not about “power”; it’s about highway-robbery — Paulson and his cronies intend to loot the ever-livin’ bejeezus out of as much swag as they can, then skip town. I’m sure that, as far as they’re concerned, leaving Bush to take all the heat is fine with them. After all, if the *Democrats* in the Congressional committees approve it, they’re not going to turn around and spank themselves over it later. No, it’ll just be all Bush’s fault, and STFU and pay your higher taxes we just passed.
“Paulson and his cronies intend to loot the ever-livin’ bejeezus out of as much swag as they can, then skip town.”
Reminds me of when the Clinton Administration left office and took all the furniture and silverware with them. Oh, and I’m sure they pocketed a pretty penny in the Marc Rich pardon among others.
The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans seem to think bigger.
Is it a given that Paulson himself or some equivalent won’t be Treasury Fuhrer in January, especially if McCain is enthroned?
> The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that
> Republicans seem to think bigger.
I sincerely doubt that a guy like Paulson has a partisan bone in his body.
> Is it a given that Paulson himself or some equivalent won’t be
> Treasury Fuhrer in January, especially if McCain is enthroned?
Paulson is not stupid; he *has* to know that his bill will wreck the credit rating of the country, cause foreign bond holders to stampede for the exits, hyperinflate the currency, and turn a moderate recession into a for-real capital-”D”epression lasting for years. If him and his Goldman cronies get their $700 billion, I can’t imagine him even living here come Easter. No; he’ll be retired to tropical paradises far, far away.
Good points Honeyko.
And re-read Denninger. According to the text of the bill, $700bn is just a limit on how much bad debt can be purchased by the Treasury at any one time. After clearing the books of the initial $700bn, the Treasurer can continue the scam until all $5tn plus is cleared.
The $700 billion figure is meaningless, a smokescreen, a magician’s trick.
As far as Congress goes over the recent years, you can see who the good guys and the bads guys were right here.