Ooh Nice Rant

Nobody does doom and gloom like this guy:

In this Fascist Business Model, the ruling elite have all the marbles, make all the rules, enforce those rules, protect their friends, collude with fellow agencies, abuse the power of government posts to further their cause of accumulation for wealth and power. For evidence, check the court decisions, the regulator actions (see SEC and CFTC), the lack of convictions inside Wall Street firms (see Enron, WorldCom, Tyco), the overturned convictions of minor Wall Street players (see Quattrone), the debt rating agencies sitting on their hands (see Fitch), the outsized short positions of gold & silver and other commodities like natural gas, the initial public auctions of Chinese banks (see ICBC). The gradually realized outcome of the Fascist Business Model, and why the elite love it, is that the Middle Class is drained, and the poor remain ever poorer. It is not a coincidence that the merger of the USGovt and big industry has occurred while the US Middle Class has suffered a tragic income reduction since the 1970’s. Pay no attention to official income statistics, which are a woefully concocted spew. They reduce nominal income by a grossly inadequate degree, greatly distorting any reduction from price inflation. A constant income over the past six years would have declined in real terms by 7% to 11% each year. That is roughly a 50% decline in real terms!!!

This actually sounds… accurate. I have to say the picture painted isn’t too far removed from the reality I inhabit, where most of US are pushed around, bullied, deceived, and pummeled into submission by the seven headed hydra I like to call big gummint, corporations with deeply ingrained fraudulent practices (ever have to have your grandparents phone service cancelled because of all the boiler rooms operated by Wall Street firms? I did) who have the appearance (pretense) claim legitimacy- but you and I know we’re undergoing a full frontal and dorsal assult (yes, they get us coming and going) and if you ever shake hands with one of these greasy ‘turds you know instinctively to count your fingers.

If you ever read any history about the “market,” you start to get a sense what shady slimeball characters Mellon, Carnegie, Morgan, Rockelfeller, Harriman et al were.

The fact that we had not one but two (2!) unqualified Bushes in the head office just goes to show you who is really running things.

In case there was ever doubt.

—

The sword cuts both ways, y’know
For fascicsts “conservatives” who have long awaited the edge in the Supreme Court that they now enjoy, take a moment and breathe it all in.

You shall reap your just desserts.

Similarities

Does anyone else notice the similarity between this blooming CDO crisis and the recent spate of Chinese manufacturers shipping contaminated product?

• Product was sold with known, but hidden, defects
• Both are in a sense victims of their own success
• “Investors” would prefer we look away and hold our nose
• Customers will ultimately be stuck with the bill
• Reaction by “authority” has been weak or perfunctory
• The root cause isn’t being addressed (perhaps being ignored)

Maybe it won’t get to the point of people dying. (Too late for at least one of us.)

It’s only money, so they say. Market players see the rest of us as suckers, that they have defined their particular role as being at the top of the pyramid/food chain, and therefore they get to be the “deciders.”

So we should just better learn to suck it up.

—

Realty Fealty

Well, up to a point, and that point would have been tipped earlier this year.

Angelo Mozilo (Tangelo Bronzilla to his frienemies) , the CEO of Those Cunts at Cuntry-wide ™ has, according to this, been a huge “seller” of company stock- 120 times since January 2007.

Along with other officers of the firm.

A quick spreadsheet calc put the grand total YTD at $318,469,436.

Are the rats deserting a sinking ship? Everything’s fine, is it not, Angelo?

(Oh well, can you blame him? It is better to dump it before the share price drops like Lennar.)

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Historical Perspective

A sane man comments on a Forbes article titled Don’t Buy That House.

The NAR doesn’t care a bit about how indebted we might become in our chase of the “American Dream”. There job is to sell homes so they can line their pockets with your hard earned cash. So they lull you to sleepwalk into buying a home which you really cannot afford . . . unless you become their girly man or dumb blonde who never questions their authority.

I really enjoyed someone writing what I’ve been thinking almost my entire adult life: homeownership is a ball and chain around your neck. Do you own the damn house (no, not really, the bank does and you pay rent to them) or does the damn house (represented by the bank, the Real Estate Industrial Complex, and the state) own you?

Contained within this fine essay is a nice historical perspective about how it all began… and how it all ended in tears and with the 1929 stock market crash.

Which was presaged by the 1928 Florida real estate crash.

You know, kind of like the conditions we are seeing today. Not that this exact same thing is going to happen all over again (gulp). But isn’t it interesting how this bubble was created, just like that bubble in the 1920’s, with access to easy credit, and subsequently blown margins?

The more things change…

—

Honestly

… it took six months to get here?

Criminy, what a bunch of wusses!

Can you hear me now!?!

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Bush Leaguers
It’s official: the man who is really in charge is not the one elected.

It is well known that Cheney is usually the last to speak to the president before Bush makes a decision.

He “helps” him to “decide.”

!

—

Ariel Bender
“You can bend but never break me, I’m flexible.”

(with a nod and a wink in the general direction of Martin Mull)

Breaking it isn’t necessary for certification, but Bair says the wing is so strong and flexible that there’s been talk that maybe it could be bend far enough for the wingtips to touch above the fuselage—or come quite close.

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If you Were Not Aware…

Flip This House on A&E has probably fueled a thousand sub-prime mortgages. There’s even another program on TLC entitled Flip That House.

Which is a funny co-inky-dink.

I’ve commented on the scam that is Flip That House before but now that there is a snip on Youtube, so enjoy.

I’ve found a humorous parody of these shows over on Youtube- enjoy.

I Think the Message is Clear

The Stern Bear

He is looking a bit glum.

It’s Monday morning, and inquiring minds are all wondering what’s the haps with Bear Stearns $3.2 billion bailout.

Jim of San Marcos makes an interesting observation about this slow motion debacle in the making at his The Great Depression of 2006 blog The Monday Morning Run. Will they or won’t they? Is it a ploy?

I began to comment over there, but as usual with me my view grew, so rather than take up his bandwidth, I thought I’d expand on it here.

—

ISTR a POV developing when Ronny Raygun took office. A “conservative” who ran on cutting taxes began an unprecedented expansion of the federal government (subsequently the current “Republican” administration evidentially considers deficit spending the one true way).

You know we’re in a topsy-turvy world when Democrats have become the fiscally conservative party (well, in comparison to the Reps).

Way back then an attitude developed as the federal deficit expanded. Eyes widened, but nothing broke. Folks began to rethink the whole idea of deficit spending, and whether there was even a theoretical limit to check kiting when you have the keys to the vault (empty or not). Morally, persuasion molded the CW that anything wrong with it.

Sure, if you and I wrote checks on a bank account that couldn’t be covered, we’d be in jail.

But somehow the very idea that there was no limit to spending- that because this nation was the biggest debtor- the big fish in the pond, the 500 lb gorilla- gave US a position of strength and vitality that nobody could match. We were at that time, the greatest, and nobody could FUCK with us, or they’d pay.

We were smitten with this new position we found ourselves in. Anyone attempted to reign in our expansive waist line would be ridiculed, marginalized, targeted in the media.

Some of us were big and bad with ‘tude to match.

Which for me explains the “what, me worry?” attitude of the street and the pols that cranky mentions.

This contrarian “view” dismisses the obvious signs of irresponsibility with “you aren’t capable of seeing the big picture,” and blithely pretends they do.

The scary part is, they are the ones driving this bus.

I’m not sure if I am bold enough to reach for the cord so I can step off at the next exit. Part of me wonders if I should stick to my guns and belief system that says you shouldn’t get something for nothing, even if you can. Another part of me wants to see the end of the line.

FWIW, I’ve rarely walked out on a movie- even a terrible one.

Sidenote:
It is interesting to me that Bear Stearns has “Bear” in the name, yet this is the first fund we know of that has started to tip in this long long bull market which appears to be coming to a screeching halt (or not, what do I know).

What’s in a name?

Mirror, Mirror

Not only has the housing market inventory been growing, upstream we have the bond market mimicking that exact same scenario: a forced sell-off in a buyers market.

—

That Bear Stearns nuclear wedgie hedgie is getting tight, tighter, YEOUCH and guess what, the stock market is not gonna like cleaning up the mess.

—

If I had any respect for John Edwards, it’s evaporated after reading this NYT expose on how he used a non-profit to fund his political campaign.

“So [potential candidate Edwards] set up a series of entities to finance his travel, to finance a political shop and to finance an issue shop. It all adds up to a remarkable feat of keeping a presidential candidacy alive without any of the traditional bases for it.”

What’s wrong with that? you ask.

It is dishonest. It skirts around limits on donations from individuals, because giving to a non-profit is not as restricted as giving to a political campaign. It also gives Mr. Edwards the appearance of someone who was collecting on behalf of the poor… and spent it on himself and his campaign.

What was he, on a mission from God? (take that, thieving xtian scum).

Jon Edwards is a wealthy man. This suggests to me he didn’t have the courage of his convictions, and had to commit a subtle act of subterfuge to enable his candidacy rather than fund it with his own money.

Trust me, I understand the typical “investor” idea of “OPM.”  But that’s a business scenario, and it’s based on borrowing for short terms (at high interest) until you can make a sale.

I don’t think I could ever support a candidate who didn’t play by the rules. Sure, creative solutions are always welcome- but not when they simply exist to make a rich man richer.

Leave that to the denizens of Wall Street.

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CIA to Air Decades of Its Dirty Laundry

The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency’s worst illegal abuses — the so-called “family jewels” documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s

If good as advertised, this should be good. Let’s see: MK Ultra, Che, USS Liberty, Tonkin Gulf, Allende, Pinochet, Operation Northwoods (no, wait, that’s DoD), Somoza, Chiang Kai-Shek, Marcos, that’s just off the top of my head.

I wonder what the chances are of bringing criminal indictments. Should I hold my breath?

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Make it All Go Away!

“It’s the right thing to do,” [LAT]

Sure, but maybe not the right thing to say after you get caught.

Nice if you could have done “the right thing” in the first place.

Sure, nobody would have know what a swell guy he was, brimming with personal integrity and all, but it would have spared him the spotlight of public scrutiny he, and his wife, are undergoing right now.

BTW, she sounds like a real peach.

“that he periodically allowed his wife Michelle to drive his city-owned GMC Yukon — a possible violation of city rules.”

“Michelle Delgadillo, 36, had a suspended driver’s license when she drove the city vehicle.”

“In 2004, she damaged the SUV by backing into a pole in a parking lot near her doctor’s office.” Hmmm, Doctor? Say what?

“The city attorney had the Yukon repaired at city expense.”

“Michelle Delgadillo also had a previous run-in with the law for driving without a valid driver’s license, car registration or insurance in 1998.”

BTW, the city we paid to repair the damage caused by Michelle Delgadillo to the city-owned our vehicle.

Now it has come to our attention that Rocky has been using various staff members as his personal handy men, day care providers, and go-fers.

The first two roles might require a license and payment for services rendered.

I guess we’ve be picking up the tab for all of that too. (Baby sitting? I wonder what Michelle does all day- buff her nails? Does she have a job? Someone, please tell me she is gainfully employed, and not a budget item on Rocky’s county expense account.)

What’s next for the wife, after ‘probation’… “rehab?” I hear it’s all the rage, that it’s a great public relations tool (rehabilitation of image, if not the underlying “issues”), and you come out of it all fixed, like nothing was ever wrong in the first place. Ready for a fresh start.

If that transpires, odds are we’ll be picking up the tab for that too.

So, after he was caught in the end Rocky decided the right thing to do was to go ahead and pay for the repair. He didn’t have to deal with an insurance company, didn’t have to shop around for the best quote, didn’t have to rent a car for a week while it got fixed.

He wrote a check. Three years later. And it’s all better now.

No it’s not. This has been an embarrasment not just for him, but to the public he “serves.” Like an episode of Leave it to Beaver, Rocky, in the role of “the Beav,” gets to learn a lesson about honesty an integrity.

Isn’t this a little late in life for our Rocky? He is an adult, it was presumed. The good people of Los Angeles wouldn’t knowingly elect a man-child who covers up his bad behavior like an embarrased ten-year-old.

He should at least learn to act like an adult. Here’s a suggestion: be a man and resign FFS. He can put this whole embarrassing episode behind him, and get on with his life.

Forget about being governor for the time being.

Grab one of those high-paying “consulting” jobs in the private sector that he probably has been cultivating during his tenure in the public sector.

YKIMS.

So for the future, Rocky, and other elected officials out there, at every level, just a reminder: Public funds are not your personal piggy-bank.

UPDATE
I offer this small token up for your general amusement.

UPDATE – this just in to the newsroom
L.A. city attorney’s wife’s firm had tax lapse [LAT]

A consulting business run by the wife of Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has failed to file state tax returns for several years and until Friday operated without a city business license — a type of offense her husband’s office is responsible for prosecuting.

Oopsy.

Also
Rocky’s wife cheated on taxes [DN]

Michelle Delgadillo, who has said she’s a stay-at-home mom, is listed as the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of CRD Inc.

CFO? Sounds like resume padding to me.

A Pattern Develops

The disgraced former Secretary of the Smithsonian (a government institution, i.e. funded by you and me (if you pay taxes)) had an interesting “management style:”

“Mr. Small’s management style — limiting his interaction to a small number of Smithsonian senior executives and discouraging those who disagreed with him — was a significant factor in creating the problems faced by the Smithsonian today,” the report concluded. “His attitude and disposition were ill-suited to public service and to an institution that relies so heavily, as the Smithsonian does, on federal government support.”

How similar is this to the reports of Paul Wolfowitz’s tenure at the World Bank?

Very.

Not to mention the secretive way our executive branch prefer to operate (“it’s in your own best interests”).

Or the way Wall Street engorged itself on Mortgage Backed Securities, without knowledge what kind of poison was mixed in.

Was Small the best man for the job? Contrast this:

“Former Smithsonian secretary Lawrence M. Small … was absent from his job 550 workdays while earning $5.7 million on outside work, according to an independent commission report to be released today.”

with this:

“The Smithsonian’s second-ranking official, Sheila P. Burke, was absent from her job as deputy secretary for 400 days while earning $10 million over six years on non-museum work.”

Who is the better earner here? And why was the piker in the top job?

When decisions are made behind closed doors, and those doors are publicly owned, there is an implicit trust that the “deciders” place the interests of the country above that of their friends, family, and most tellingly, their won.

And now that trust has been violated.

It appears to me we should all clamor for the “deciders” to open up and let us know what else they’ve been doing that we’re not privy to. These shenanigans have lost them any “mandate,” real or imagined.

In many strata of life in these here United States, Transparency needs to be placed first and foremost. And we should demand it.

Also: Real Heroes of Hypocrisy [LAT], Report Slams Small’s Tenure [WP]