The asterisks don't work anymore, alas. I was reduced to actually numbering my sarcastic footnotes, a situation up with which I will not put for long. Unless I really have to.
Anyway, the tragic beauty of the bailout rests in the fact that the numbers aren't even real anymore. The other day CNBC calculated that the total promises to that date totaled up on the wrong end of seven trillion dollars. Trillion. Million times a million. Then the next day Bernanke announced this abortion at 800 thousand million and the Dems said that the stimulus package the will send The Big O his first day may be another million million. If I didn't already drink I'd have to start. This is truly insane.
But in the spirit of fair play, I'll offer a third possibility for your list: the Fed and Treasury simply have no idea how to solve the current problem. They have diagnosed the problem incorrectly, and therefore they are implementing the wrong solution. They are frantically pushing buttons in hopes that one of them will do something good, and those looking for an overall plan will be sorely disappointed.
Actually, I suspect that it really wasn't a story until that oil tanker was hijacked. Audacity is one thing, but a certain level of success is also required before Fox News can name something the new face of terrorism.
Duplenty: "now they want to take his pension so some douchebag with an MBA can make that many more thousands of dollars a year?"
Only the lawyers are going to get paid. Not the shareholders. Not the bondholders. Not the retirees. Not the management. Not the millions who coughed up for extended warranties. There is nothing left with which to pay them. Hope they all socked something away for a rainy day, because drops are falling.
He and a million just like him going to lose pensions because this is the end of the line. This is where that train stops. The promises that were made cannot be kept, and the worst part is, they could never have been kept. But they were demanded and they were made and everyone pretended they were fine. So in a few months or weeks the lawyers will clap their briefcases shut and take one last limo ride to the bankruptcy court.
For years GM has been running on empty, borrowing its way to stay in business, borrowing to avoid hard choices, borrowing from the future so everyone could beat the math for the present. And when the day came they could not borrow any more, it was all over.
You know the old saying, "As General Motors goes, so goes America"? The irony will be that it will probably be for exactly the same reasons.
I said the same thing in 2005, back when a change in accounting rules made it obvious that after 75 years in business, GM was worth exactly nothing: http://elborak.blogspot.com/2005/12/w... There has been nothing but red ink since then, so I certainly see no reason to change that opinion now.
Sorry about the dots, all, they're supposed to be indents. It appears that our new layout has fixed a lot of bugs that some of us considered features ;)
In the weblogs section, it looks like the /weblogs/ and /weblogs/staff/ ("Latest" and "Staph Blogs" tabs) are exactly the same page, even if they have different URLs. I suspect you don't need two tabs there...
"If you cannot pay cash for it, you cannot have it. Period."
That is one lesson that's currently being taught, and to governments no less.
One article this morning http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081114/u... noted that "Because of the credit crunch, cities are essentially unable to borrow in the private capital markets to meet their pension obligations," and they treat that like it's a bad thing. It's a good thing! Cities should not be borrowing to to pay for current operations, nor should any company. If you cannot fund your current operations from your current revenues, then you need to change your current operations.
That politicians don't like that the market imposes discipline on them is not a shortcoming of the market, it is a strength of the market and a measure of the indiscipline of politicians.
Is anybody else feeling a cash grab?
The asterisks don't work anymore, alas. I was reduced to actually numbering my sarcastic footnotes, a situation up with which I will not put for long. Unless I really have to.
Anyway, the tragic beauty of the bailout rests in the fact that the numbers aren't even real anymore. The other day CNBC calculated that the total promises to that date totaled up on the wrong end of seven trillion dollars. Trillion. Million times a million. Then the next day Bernanke announced this abortion at 800 thousand million and the Dems said that the stimulus package the will send The Big O his first day may be another million million. If I didn't already drink I'd have to start. This is truly insane.
But in the spirit of fair play, I'll offer a third possibility for your list: the Fed and Treasury simply have no idea how to solve the current problem. They have diagnosed the problem incorrectly, and therefore they are implementing the wrong solution. They are frantically pushing buttons in hopes that one of them will do something good, and those looking for an overall plan will be sorely disappointed.
November 26, 2008 at 4:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Aaaaaargh!
Well, the press has been a little busy lately ;)
Actually, I suspect that it really wasn't a story until that oil tanker was hijacked. Audacity is one thing, but a certain level of success is also required before Fox News can name something the new face of terrorism.
November 24, 2008 at 2:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
They'll let anyone have one of these things.
Like there's any use in proceeding now that everything has been said...
November 21, 2008 at 7:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
They'll let anyone have one of these things.
Welcome aboard, OJ.
Hey, how long after that other Joel is gone do you get to be promoted to the referent and he gets to be the OtherJoel?
November 20, 2008 at 10:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Long on Hope, Short on Math
Duplenty: "now they want to take his pension so some douchebag with an MBA can make that many more thousands of dollars a year?"
Only the lawyers are going to get paid. Not the shareholders. Not the bondholders. Not the retirees. Not the management. Not the millions who coughed up for extended warranties. There is nothing left with which to pay them. Hope they all socked something away for a rainy day, because drops are falling.
He and a million just like him going to lose pensions because this is the end of the line. This is where that train stops. The promises that were made cannot be kept, and the worst part is, they could never have been kept. But they were demanded and they were made and everyone pretended they were fine. So in a few months or weeks the lawyers will clap their briefcases shut and take one last limo ride to the bankruptcy court.
For years GM has been running on empty, borrowing its way to stay in business, borrowing to avoid hard choices, borrowing from the future so everyone could beat the math for the present. And when the day came they could not borrow any more, it was all over.
You know the old saying, "As General Motors goes, so goes America"? The irony will be that it will probably be for exactly the same reasons.
I said the same thing in 2005, back when a change in accounting rules made it obvious that after 75 years in business, GM was worth exactly nothing:
http://elborak.blogspot.com/2005/12/w...
There has been nothing but red ink since then, so I certainly see no reason to change that opinion now.
November 20, 2008 at 7:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Long on Hope, Short on Math
Sorry about the dots, all, they're supposed to be indents. It appears that our new layout has fixed a lot of bugs that some of us considered features ;)
November 20, 2008 at 9:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Californiggedon
They see me rollin' ... Ridin' Dirty, whiteboy style.
November 20, 2008 at 6:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Sooo... whaddya think?
In the weblogs section, it looks like the /weblogs/ and /weblogs/staff/ ("Latest" and "Staph Blogs" tabs) are exactly the same page, even if they have different URLs. I suspect you don't need two tabs there...
November 18, 2008 at 12:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
What the heck just happened?
"If you cannot pay cash for it, you cannot have it. Period."
That is one lesson that's currently being taught, and to governments no less.
One article this morning
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081114/u...
noted that "Because of the credit crunch, cities are essentially unable to borrow in the private capital markets to meet their pension obligations," and they treat that like it's a bad thing. It's a good thing! Cities should not be borrowing to to pay for current operations, nor should any company. If you cannot fund your current operations from your current revenues, then you need to change your current operations.
That politicians don't like that the market imposes discipline on them is not a shortcoming of the market, it is a strength of the market and a measure of the indiscipline of politicians.
November 14, 2008 at 6:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
On Forcing Oneself From History
Sorry, I was momentarily stunned by your preposterous denial that you are the core of our greatness as a nation.
November 13, 2008 at 7:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )