- A Mea Culpa by the programmer who commoditized the software that enabled Wall Street to ruin itself, and the world's real estate market.
- What's this I hear? That Global Warming is a not a great problem with a strong consensus among the scientific community, and that Al Gore is just an opportunist and that (tax-payer financed) James Hansen is just an alarmist? Shucks, I thought this was about scientific evidence and not just ideology-based "values". What are those values again, exactly?
- Missouri has finally ceased distributing a memo that was being circulated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Clearly these citizens were representing a clear and present danger. (yes, that was sarcasm)
- The story of How Iceland Went Crazy.
- In some places, it's not just homeowners that are abandoning their over-leveraged house. The banks are also quietly walking away by simply not foreclosing. Now, some cities are faced with what to do with the abandoned areas.
- Has the finance industry captured the Federal Government? Ron Smith intros: The Most Powerful Oligarchy
- Oh, now they tell us to sell stocks!
- Is it capitalism that has failed? Louis Woodhill begs to differ: Sorry, but Capitalism Did Not Fail. Rather, what has failed is Congress's delegation entrusting the Federal Reserve with the stewardship of a unit of monetary value we commoners call the U.S. Dollar. Mr. Woodhill states the idea that the dollar should be a static unit of measurement. What a concept! But, let's be honest, in the face of the current oligarchy, does H.R. 835 have a prayer?
- Hey President Obama! Remember all that talk about transparency? Here's a piece of legislation that actually represents transparency: H.R. 1207. How about helping it get out of committee?
- It's time to follow the money on AIG's bailout.
- The tab for the bailouts now stands at $2.98 Trillion (last year's total collections by the IRS were about $2.8T) and the outstanding guarantees, interventions, etc. stands at $12.8T (last year's GDP was $14T). That works out to "$42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation."
- Promises, promises: President Obama signs into law a tax increase affecting all citizens, including those under 250k . (Of course, it's OK because they did it for the kids.)
- On March 26th, former SEC Chairman Richard Breeden testified before the Senate Banking Committee, trashing almost every premise behind Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's bailout plans. Mr. Breeden said: "It won't work to try to assign planning for every potential risk in the economy to a single agency unless we want a centrally planned economy like the old Soviet Union. . . . It is particularly hard for me to see a case that any single group of regulators did such a good job [in anticipating the current crisis] that they deserve becoming the Über Regulator of the country." Mr. Breeden added that the Federal Reserve "should be a central bank, not the world's largest hedge fund." (Nor should the U.S. Treasury, but don't think that won't stop them from creating an Über Regulator anyhow.)
- The Hancock Tower in Boston sells for $660.6 million, 49.2% below it's $1.3 billion sale price in 2006.
- Here's the new strategy for Global World Government.
- Which section of the Constitution authorizes extortion?
- How much does Barney Frank think you should make in your job? The Pay for Performance Act of 2009 may have an opinion. (What a great name ... "Son of H.R. 1586", would be more accurate) The bill passed the full House Wednesday evening by a vote of 247 to 171.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Pop-quiz: What do Barney Frank, Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke have in common? Answer: Harvard
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