Another story from the Land of Irony

Anti-Kidnap Consultant Kidnapped in Mexico – NYTimes.com.

Odd and Very, Very Sad

Prices for sacrificial lambs skyrocket as Iraqis honor dead.

A simple question…

Why is every iconic figure in this election a man? A white man?

Just thought I should ask.

via David Brooks – Patio Man Revisited – NYTimes.com

Yes, Tom, it matters

(via Tom Friedman – Why How Matters – NYTimes.com)

Mr. Friedman, this is not just about mortgages.

Yes, many people borrowed more than they could ever afford. But this scandalous crisis is not just about those ill-fated borrowers who were following our cultural norm and basing their idea of the ‘good life’ on consumption fueled by debt. It’s about our financial-driven economy based on derivatives, futures, and flat-out gambling on things that have no actual value, like the likelihood of an airline route being used more often next year, or how many people may or may not attend David Bowie concerts. The fact is, this is so so SO much bigger than sub-prime loans. Our so-called economy, driven by computer-generated trades, has become nothing more than a shadow created by smoke and mirrors. Listen to NPR’s Planet Money to hear about how much of this crisis is based on ridiculous notions like insurance on insurance on insurance.

Of course, the traders are still making their cash — with every sell/buy they get their cut. Meanwhile, we get a ‘crisis’ and no real plan to fix it. If the system is corrupt, isn’t throwing money at it no different than throwing gasoline on a fire? We have no hope of solving this problem if we can’t even define it. Yes, it matters. We need to know what we’re dealing with before we sign over a prescription.

No.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (October 11, 2008) – They Drove Them Insane

The thing is we can’t have even four more years of this corrupt, immoral governance. They’ve got to go.

Just so we’re clear on this…

it’s not just about bad mortgages. It’s also about airline routes and the potential future earnings of the Thin White Duke, David Bowie. Talk about “special” products!

Listen to the podcast: NPR: Planet Money: You’re Buying Banks

Nouriel Roubini: The US has invented socialism for the rich

Like scores of evangelists and hypocrites and moralists who spew and praise family values and pretend to be holier than thou and are then regularly caught cheating or found to be perverts, these Bush hypocrites who spewed for years the glory of unfettered Wild West laissez-faire jungle capitalism allowed the biggest debt bubble ever to fester without any control, and have caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

They are are now forced to perform the biggest government intervention and nationalisations in the recent history of humanity, all for the benefit of the rich and the well connected. So Comrades Bush and Paulson and Bernanke will rightly pass to the history books as a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the USSRA.

via Nouriel Roubini: The US has invented socialism for the rich | guardian.co.uk.

Roubini predicted, step-by-step, our current economic crisis. And now he rightly names our new situation as ’socialism for the rich’. Welcome to the 21st century, Comrades!!

Another good blog…

NPR: Planet Money.

From the people who brought us (with Ira Glass, of course) The Giant Pool of Money and Another Frightening Show about the Economy.

Scared yet?

More evidence we are completely doomed…

Adding Sweeteners, Senate Passes Bailout Plan – NYTimes.com.

And you know this report of the final plan is inaccurate, hiding us from the sad truth of little oversight, etc. I especially like the little bit on page 2 about how in five years the Treasury has to come to Congress with a plan about how to pay back all of this new debt. Fortunately, however, the Congressional Budget Office is under no obligation to enact the plan. Phew! We wouldn’t want to pay back any debt now, would we?

Required watching…

Bill Moyers Journal with Andrew Bacevich | PBS.

I can honestly say that I have never listened to an entire one hour interview and agreed with the interviewee so often. Andrew Bacevich is exactly right.