Morning Links

Monday, October 6th, 2008
  • A gallery of congresscritters who switched votes on the bailout–as well as information about their opponents in November. You know, in case you wanted to express your feelings about their vote financially.
  • Man freed from jail after two months when “white powder” in his car turned out to be deodorant. Amazing how those field tests keep returning false positives.
  • Here’s a condensed YouTube video of Mayor Cheye Calvo’s speech at Cato on the botched police raid on his home. Good for posting on bulletin boards, in forums, on your own blog, etc.
  • Alan Reynolds says the credit crunch scare is exaggerated.
  • Execs at an AIG subsidiary party up at a five-star resort just two weeks after the federal government bails the company out.
  • Finally . . . Rachael Ray food porn (link is safe for work).

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  • 25 Responses to “Morning Links”

    1. #1 |  Bernard | 

      Perhaps they government were right about the bailout. There are certainly few direct ways to stimulate the economy better than a $700billion party.

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    2. #2 |  Nando | 

      It seems that none of my representatives here in Virginia changed their vote. Now I have to find out if they voted for or against twice and adjust my vote accordingly. I’m voting for the opponent of anyone who voted FOR the bailout.

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    3. #3 |  Ben | 

      I don’t suppose we can post pics here, so I won’t try. But this is pretty interesting:

      http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/7999/rescuechart2ok4.jpg

      When do we start the revolution? Before or after the ‘election’?

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    4. #4 |  Danno49 | 

      #1 The Parliament Of Whores is alive and well, lest we thought it was ever going to go away.

      #2 I’m sure the man was guilty of something. Remember, people never end up in jail unless they deserve it for one reason or the other.

      /sarcasm

      #3 ¡Viva Cheye Calvo!

      #4 Alan Reynolds deserves major kudos for taking on all the knee-jerk scare-mongering with cold hard facts.

      #5 How do these assholes walk around with balls that big? Just unbelievably audacious attitudes from these clowns. Hey fellas, my family is going to have to have more than it’s fair share of mac and cheese for a couple of years while you show your unwillingness to cut back on your corporate lifestyles. Care to kick us down a lobster tail or two? Fuckers.

      #6 Almost as sexy as Rachel Ray’s Maxim sessions. And take from that what you will. Personally, I don’t see how someone with such a great smile and interesting features can be so unattractive.

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    5. #5 |  Danno49 | 

      Nando - if you want to know how any Senator or Congressperson voted for any bill, simply go here:

      http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

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    6. #6 |  Andrew | 

      My congressperson, Lincoln Diaz-Balart voted against the bailout, which leaves me torn. He’s aggravated me as he’s one of the reasons the US ban on everything Cuban continues to this day. But he’s okay on economic policy outside of that. And the guy he’s running against is a criminal.

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    7. #7 |  Honeyko | 

      > Alan Reynolds says the credit crunch scare is exaggerated….

      Then he’s a fucking moron.

      There are $54 *trillion* in poisonous credit-defaults-swaps and other mortgage derivatives that must be written off world-wide.

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    8. #8 |  Edintally | 

      When I emailed and called my reps, I felt like I had done at least a little something when the House didn’t pass the first 700 billion.

      Of course, when they passed the 850 billion dollar bill, I felt like a schmuck for not taking the first deal. LOL

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    9. #9 |  freedomfan | 

      Honeyko,

      What Reynolds said is that some in the media have been hyping a crippling dearth of lending and there hasn’t been one. I don’t see any evidence that he’s wrong about that.

      Either way, I don’t see where what Congress has done is going to address the issues with poorly backed derivatives, which I consider to be a legitimate issue.

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    10. #10 |  Collin | 

      My congresscritter, John Tierney, voted no initially, for which I even wrote him a nice ‘thany you’ letter. I wonder what he got to make him switch?

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    11. #11 |  Brandon Bowers | 

      My Congressman is Ron Paul, who seems to have voted against the bailout. I’m torn. I have a representative who is honest and has proven to be true to this country’s ideals (Liberty, not universal Christianity, for those who are confused), but it would be so satisfying to help deliver an electoral smackdown on any of the whores who voted for the bailout. Oh well, there are still two whores in the Senate from Texas, so I’ll do what I can about that.

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    12. #12 |  Jefferson | 

      My congressgrifter, Ron Klein, supported it from the beginning. But then again, he’s always been generous with other people’s money. And he has received $789,238 in campaign money from financial services companies, so there’s that.

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    13. #13 |  claude | 

      This morning i was reading where some of the protesters at the RNC (they were arrested b4 the convention) r actually being charged with advancing terrorism. This is frightening.

      http://www.startribune.com/local/30491189.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7EaDiaMDCiUT

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    14. #14 |  Steve Verdon | 

      Not sure I buy that Reynolds explanation. I saw something similar from Robert Higgs, but note the date, Sept 17th for the last data available. That is almost three weeks ago, the crisis didn’t really come to a head until about 2 weeks. I’d really like to see the data for the last 2 weeks before I sign on to that point of view.

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    15. #15 |  chsw | 

      So the world now has a new euphemism - “threading the corn.”

      chsw

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    16. #16 |  Marty | 

      good link on #13, Claude. I suspect over the next few years there will lots more ‘terrorists’ rounded up.

      I’m sure you’re now a suspect for questioning these actions!

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    17. #17 |  Honeyko | 

      > What Reynolds said is that some in the media have been hyping a
      > crippling dearth of lending and there hasn’t been one. I don’t see
      > any evidence that he’s wrong about that.

      Fallacy of the Excluded Middle: “Crippling dearth” and “hunky-dory” aren’t the only options.

      Companies all over the place are having difficulty meeting payrolls because they cannot borrow short-term credit, and banks world-wide are beginning to shun one-another. — This, not the CDS monster, is what caused world markets to crash last night. (The CDS monster is mainly a problem for financials.)

      – Do NOT attempt to look at this situation through a lens of whatever the administration or Paulson is saying; they don’t make it easy for you, you know, by lying 100% of the time.

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    18. #18 |  Steve Verdon | 

      Not only what Honeyko said about the fallacy of reasoning, but there are other measures of liquidity such as the LIBOR rate and the TED that indicate liquidity is a problem…or the lack thereof to be more precise. More recent data might show a rather different picture.

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    19. #19 |  Steve Verdon | 

      I’d also like to point out that credit is on a downwards trend from June (at least) using the weekly data and the total real estate number that Reynolds is using. It may not be an instant drying up of credity, but it is definitely moving in a downwards direction. Kind of an important thing to…neglect to mention.

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    20. #20 |  Steve Verdon | 

      Hmm, yeah 6/11/2008 is when real estate loans started to decline. So for the past 3 to 4 months the growth that Reynolds is talking about was for the first part of the year. Interesting thing he is leaving out. Lets put this in perspective. From October of 2007 to June 11 of 2008 the real estate loans grew by about 5%, from June 11 onwards real estate loans have declined about 1% from their June value. Another way of looking at it, from October to June the amount of real estate loans financial institutions had on their books increased by around $4.8 billion/week on averge. From June onwards that number drops to -$2 billion/week on average.

      Lies, damn lies and statistics.

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    21. #21 |  Dan Brown | 

      FWIW, STRATFOR reported that the “RNC Welcoming Committee” arrestees were charged with possessing Molotov cocktails. If the information in the (subscriber only, unfortunately) article was accurate, that group is to peaceful anti-war demonstrators as the Earth Liberation Front is to Sierra Club members.

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    22. #22 |  claude | 

      Shoot, that article was viewable when i pasted the link. Heres the same story at another source.

      http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_10645029?nclick_check=1

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    23. #23 |  JD | 

      #14

      Just checked the H8 site, the data for 9/24 is now out. Here are the numbers

      C&I

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    24. #24 |  JD | 

      #14

      Sorry about that - here are the numbers from H8 for 9/24.

      C&I 1555.0 +1.6% from 9/17
      Real Estate 3632.4 +0.2%
      Consumer 852.2 +0.6%
      Interbank 76.4 +5.7%

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    25. #25 |  Greg N. | 

      Reynolds also claimed there was no “housing bubble.” http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4243

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