November 26, 2008
Here? http://www.cnn.com/ Nope.Here? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ Kinda. A little bit buried in the business section. They do have a headline story on "Am I my avatar" though. Jesus Christ, the new Xbox Experience comes out and basically reveals the worlds aspiration to play with dolls of ourselves. Here? http://www.foxnews.com/ Not even a mention.Here? http://www.c-span.org/ Wow! Nothing! I've never ever visited C-span's webpage. Holy shit, what a boring space. They've really found their way to carry the un-impressive, un-biased high jinks of their broadcasting to the web. I have never been so completely under whelmed by news.Here? http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Damn! Not even the Brits?!?Here? http://www.guardian.co.uk/ There it is! "US pumps another $800 BILLION into Mortgage and Credit Markets"Hot damn! Coverage that makes me seize with anger! For real, have our attention spans gotten that short? Has anyone noticed that all the photos of Paulson are creepily reminiscent of that scene in Menace II Society with the Crack Head and the Cheeseburgers? (spoiler alert)Here he is begging for money:
And then:Not SIX weeks ago, we as a nation were draped in the news of worry and hand wringing that we couldn't handle a $700 billion buyout. And now today, only reported in the morning news and then passed on for more reviews of the new Guns & Roses album, we learn that we're going to throw another $800 billion at consumer credit and mortgages and students loans, with a smaller chunk going directly to any company in the nation with the surname Fae, Mae, or Mac. The Fed knows that more than doubles our responsibility to pay that back, right? Because their behavior reeks of 18 year olds with new credit cards. Have we forgotten the worries of just a few weeks ago? Is this a result of the 24 hour news cycle? I truly don't understand how the 700 package can freak people out, and then the 800 version can fly by with no notice.Basically, I have two theories on it:1. The Bitter (It's a cash grab for companies who have destroyed themselves through their own failed business models.) They sold student loans and houses to people that had no ability to pay it back, the bank's caught on and drove them out of business, so they're trying to get as much money as possible before leaving their post, to possibly retire and get out of the game. And we will be left, dick in hand, to ashamedly pay the tab.2. The Optimist (It's all just going back to before Bush, just click your heals three times and go home to the 90's version): Using This American Life's terms (see: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355)*, the global pool of money went from $35 Trillion dollars in 2000, that being humankind's total combined saving and spending, and then ballooned up to $70 Trillion dollars by 2006. Where did that money come from? Easy; it was imagined, and lied about. By swindlers, and security managers, and sinners from the lowest circle of Hell. The world is just simply deflating, literally, and we will be back where we started. In '98. Just with a lot more people learning how to rent. And Obama will be smart enough to not get fired for getting a blowjob. And Shutter To Think will release another record. And it will be good.I'm probably completely out of touch on this. I'm not an economist. But it seems weird to me, that we'll freak out as a populace for a few weeks about one buy out and then just completely ignore the other one. I literally brought it up to work people, and they had no thoughts about it, at least not at the moment. But I've been incensed about it, feeling like we're being fucked out of more money by the people that just failed to run their businesses responsibly. How am I mistaken about this? It makes absolutely no sense to me, so I simply must be mistaken, right? Because as it sounds, anyone could ask for money (except the homeless, or people that got wrecked in New Orleans, or 911 wives, or the people of Iraq or Afghanistan * ), and they would get it. I'm just saying, as long as people are throwing that money around, I have a existing loan with that salty old Madam Sallie Mae, so if they could throw me about $7,500, I'd appreciate it. You know, since they're throwing money left and right these days.-m@: Have you figured out that I haven't learned how to hyper link with coded text on the new page? Sorry for all the copy-ing and pasting, or if they link through anyway, the jump'n'git'ya links. Bear with us, we're becoming, ya know, current. * *: That being said; we're bombing the living hell out of those nations. But haven't they always... kinda... lived... shittily? I mean compared to us? If we were to ruin ourselves, as some of the people in New Orleans have been through, aren't we treating our own citizens worse than them? Because of adjusting your own citizens from one standard of living to another? Just throwing it out there.
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DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
The first 700 was solicitation, this 800 is lubrication, and we will have to quiver in anticipation for the actual penetration.
November 26, 2008 at 8:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
"...I have a existing loan (that I'm paying on...)"Chump. You are screwed just like people that are busting ass to pay their upside down mortgages. I know how you feel, though. I don't even have a big screen. We never learn.
November 26, 2008 at 8:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dolores2175 (April Fleming) says...
I used to think that Naomi Klein was exaggerating.
November 26, 2008 at 8:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says...
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 )
Shelby (anonymous) says...
Myself, I'm kind of curious about the new Guns & Roses album.
November 30, 2008 at 12:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )