Futures and Elizabeth Warren on Consumer Financial Protection
Submitted by
CalculatedRisk on Tue, 07/14/2009 - 8:48pm (160 comments)
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Intel Inside™
Damn you Nemo!
At least now I know your secret. Time to give the old AMD CPU the heave ho.
Nemo, yeah ... Maybe a CIT announcement before the market opens too.
best wishes
Note: My personal view is that in a financially literate world, almost all borrowers would pay off their credit card balances monthly (there are exceptions).
You are a subversive CR.
Interesting article at FT. Apparently a few folks in the investment management industry want a separate body to supervise systemic risk, not the Fed.
FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - Coalition to attack plan for Fed powers
Is she not a product of the same system that created bernanke, paulson, geithner, thain?
Warren is a law professor, Lucifer. Does she want a political career as much as Bair? Who knows.
JP, yeah - I support education!
I think the general idea here is very good.
best wishes
Is she not a product of the same system that created bernanke, paulson, geithner, thain?
she sat at the same table, but she ditched her Kool-Aid in the potted plant behind her chair when the others weren't looking.
To Elizabeth Warren if you're reading: LMAO @ the Gucci Loafer stampede image.
It is irrational to borrow money to purchase any depreciating asset.
(One reason I never got married.)
patientrenter,
She is a product of the same system.. a system in which dunces and sociopaths with connections pretend to be clever and lecture to the rest, while robbing them..
Look, any society that allows "wizards" to run their system deserves the system failures caused by their trust in such impotent charlatans.
From previous post..for Rob Dawg,
"Looks like Cali will lose a Congressional seat after the 2010 census...and Texas will gain. Outmigration the cause, sez LATimes.
The other 49 had better hope we don't break up. I've designed an eight State breakup solution that grabs 73 sets. and those 14 new Senators? 10+ Republican."
Hey, I'm sympathetic, NY is following right behind Cali, complete with clown show in Albany. But do we really want more republicans or democrats? Where is the Bull Moose party?
We need a Teddy Roosevelt to go medieval on the worthless sellouts in Washington.
"We need a Teddy Roosevelt to go medieval "
No, we need an Andrew Jackson.
Note: My personal view is that in a financially literate world, almost all borrowers would pay off their credit card balances monthly (there are exceptions).
CR - you over estimate the intelligence of 95% of the US. They can't read a 1 page form and interpet it or organize plans for 6 months ahead let alone be 'financially literate."
I find myself in an uncomfortable situation. I know the tricks and traps are unethical and usurious but they finance my aggressive and careful gaming of the credit system. Without them I don't get my percents back or extended warranties or float. One of the very few rational reward systems that isn't turned upside down.
well, you better pray for 'no change'.
i'd argue that we're more complacent than stupid. that is changing. the hard way.
No
Far different background.
Her specialties are bankruptcy law and commercial law.
Why do people bothr running their mouths about a commentator when they don't even know who the person is or what they have done?
She co-authored a book about why middle income two-income households are going broke. Very good on the data and case studies of cause and effect over the past 30+ years.
"My personal view is that in a financially literate world, almost all borrowers would pay off their credit card balances monthly (there are exceptions)." -CR
Yeah maybe about 30 million exceptions
AnnS, CR didn't claim that most people pay off their balances, or that they are financially literate. The fact that most people don't, but that CR thinks almost all rational people should, tells you that he thinks most people act irrationally. That's a polite way to say they are a little... stupid. No overestimation of intelligence here.
Why doesn't the gov-mint just pay my credit card for me? Kinda like CIT, too small to fail.
Don't you mean too small to survive?
The further circumstance go downhill, the fewer people that'll be worried about paying their credit cards at all.
Why don't all Americans just default all at once kinda like they did with home loans. Then the powers that be would be scrambling to lower rates... or not
AnnS. - I totally concede your point. I am 100% behind EW. All I meant to say was that she was definitely different than the afforementioned bureaucrats.
Thanks for the link patientrenter ... that was an interesting article. At the very least, that investor movement may shine a light on the undue influence banks have over the fed.
A nationwide jubilee and in 18 months pretty much everyone would be back where they started.
"Delinquencies on the value of all card debt soared to a record 6.60 percent from 5.52 percent in the fourth quarter as more cardholders relied on plastic to meet day-to-day expenses, the American Bankers Association said.
Late payments on home equity loans rose to 3.52 percent from 3.03 percent, and on home equity lines of credit climbed to 1.89 percent from 1.46 percent.
A broader gauge showing late payments on eight categories of loans rose for a fourth straight quarter to a new record, edging up to 3.23 percent from 3.22 percent. That rate actually understates consumer pain because it excludes credit cards. The ABA tracks loan payments that are at least 30 days late."
MSNBC (very limited) and bloomberg seem to have a truth edge over the other MSM
AnnS,
She is the product of a system that creates "experts" who lack any real problem solving ability or lateral thinking skills. She is where she is because of an accident of birth, not any innate ability.
Many of the people she criticizes have a very similar background to her.. socially and culturally. She does not offer any real change..
Rachel Maddow and Elizabeth Warren.
Can someone tell Obama to get rid of Summers and Geithner and hire these two women.
You go, girls.
It will happen..
//Why don't all Americans just default all at once kinda like they did with home loans. //
She is where she is because of an accident of birth, ...
Intel saves us all, Amen!
Even among liberals, Prof. W is at the leftest edge.
I dread to live in the mommy state she is trying to set up.
The problems are systemic, not superficial.
//Can someone tell Obama to get rid of Summers and Geithner and hire these two women.//
TJ
Pleeze. Financial services inds needs Regs. badly. This is long overdue. May cut back on lawsuits and BK attorney fees down the road too.
I dread to live in the mommy state she is trying to set up.
barfly,
How does she plan to address
1] Sovereign Debt
2] US Household Debt
3] CDS, CDOs and all those wonderful financial instruments.
4] Creating jobs in post-industrial societies.
5] Laws and institutions that hinder innovations (not the financial kind, but real technological ones)
6] Demographic profiles
What we are seeing is one face of a much bigger problem..
Elizabeth Warren is what's called a minister without portfolio...
a waste of time IMO...
The problems are systemic, not superficial.
The solutions are individual, as in having the right individuals in the right positions.
Duke, someone give her a portfolio.
(Edit: actually, she does have one already. I would give her more.)
barfly,
If people in India or Africa do not obtain a western-type living standard soon, you will have to eat dogfood within a few years.
Who is going to play in your ponzi scheme.. new victims.. new consumers.. ??????
Lucy - how the hell should I know? The problems you reference do indeed seem insurmountable. How can any one person solve them. Does that make her complicit?
spill over from last thread... due to traffic latency? my apology...!
HollywoodHack,
Blaming Wagner for National Socialism is like blaming Tolstoy for the progroms. A fallacious argument. Or even blaming Pol Pot for instilling something into the Khmer that wasn't there before.
HH wrote: 'Simpson, of course, wasn't anything close in terms of historical impact, but he did create an entire aesthetic which defined an era and made everything previous seem small and boring. And, of course, it still defines our global culture today,"
......
Don Simpson produced movies:
Flashdance (1983) (producer)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) (producer)
Thief of Hearts (1984) (producer)
Top Gun (1986) (producer)
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) (producer)
Days of Thunder (1990) (producer)
The Ref (1994) (executive producer)
Bad Boys (1995) (producer)
Crimson Tide (1995) (producer)
Dangerous Minds (1995) (producer)
The Rock (1996) (producer)
....
up until now I didn't know one could use the word aesthetics in the same sentence with schlock, times have changed. but since obviously you are a product of your environment (Hollywood) where words have little meaning knock yourself out. my idea of aesthetics derives from the teachings of Aristotle. Simpson's movies fail miserably in four of the six elements of drama as espoused in his treatise Poetics; they being mythos. ethos, dianoia, diction (perhaps The Ref & Beverly Hills Cop make the grade), at least he did succeed in melos and opsis. Hey 2 out of 6 ain't bad.
Not only did I read the Poetics but I read them in their orignal Attic Greek.
....
" And, of course, it still defines our global culture today, whether we like it or not." Hack, you really need to get out more! West LA or the Valley don't constitute the world.
I think you missed the key point of Wagner's contribution to opera - that of Gesamtkunstwerk.
As for your claim of opera knowledge... given your location I suspect that to be quite true...
my own knowledge has suffered in the last 12 years but before that I was an avid opera go-er at the Met and was commissioned to write a libretto for a chamber opera based on a short story of mine which was produced in '92 in Bonn, Germany and incorporated ideas of Roger Penrose, and Dietrich's Der blaue Engel (1930) and Schrodinger.
barfly,
These problems require radical rethinking... she is a product of the old system.. maybe more honest than others. But that is all...
We will solve those problems eventually.. the rational way.. but only after we have no other options left
...you will have to eat dogfood within a few years.
Well, Elizabeth Warren strikes me as intelligent, articulate, quite political, relatively honest, and fairly committed to the left view of politics. Is that good? Better than some, worse than others. The weakness is the lack of political balance. Balance is very important when designing general rules for society.
she is a product of the old system
In what way? Because she has a law degree? Or what?
barfly,
How can the current system (or any replacement) hold together without new consumers? How can you create new consumers? Ever thought of that..
//hold the melodrama//
Sportsfan: I agree .. Prof. Warren is hawt, from this fiftysomething's POV, anyway.
And yeah, I know... she's born of wealth, and can't possibly solve all the US's financial problems. But, she's written extensively on personal finance, and in her consumerist attitude, she makes a lot of sense..... 'Far Left?' You gotta be kidding me. If all you're used to is the unsophisticated BS about 'Free Markets are GOD' , then rational regulation in ANYthing smacks of 'Communism'.
Ever wonder why Bloomberg doesn't use 'scare words' like Fox News does? Bloomberg's subscribers are wealthy, and PAY for the REAL story - even if there is more than ONE point of view.
If outright class war, pitchforks, and socialism are really afoot, Bloomberg, not the NYTimes will have the scoop first, and accurately.
Warren is good at what she does, and not dangerous at all.
Goodnight.
The system that tries to save people from their own stupidity rarely works and
it is very unpleasant. It can create its own distortions.
JimPortlandOR,
Has she suggested anything beyond the usual remedies? Do you think that the usual remedies will work?
Balance is very important when designing general rules for society.
So, after 8 years of ultraconservative, phony religious, paranoid warlike, science is only theory, let's steal everything we can, torture is okay if we do it, screw everyone not in our group, and those are the rules (if you disagree you are unAmerican), the balance would be . . . .what?
People consume. To live. New consumers are created every time a child is born. Their parents are driven to produce to feed their children. What level of consumption is necessary, in your view? How much is enough?
WASHINGTON --A group of minority broadcasters asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday for financial assistance akin to the aid that has been extended to the financial and auto industries.
"Minority-owned broadcasters are close to becoming an extinct species," the letter said. "Even in better economic times, minority broadcasters have historically had difficulties accessing the capital markets."
lol
I happen to agree with Elizabeth Warren... And I'm a closet libertarian.... (Small L)
F*cking people is not a way to run a company / earn a living.... (OK rant off... back to reading the comments...)
barfly,
The ratios of workers, consumers, retirees are screwed up in the west and some eastern countries.
Systems require ratios.. rather than numbers..
I agree with her perception of our current predicament too.. I also think she is much less evil than her colleagues. I just don't think that she has the answers..
//I happen to agree with Elizabeth Warren//
nades - Perhaps we should consider the new reality - there is no other way but to run a company unless you royalllly screw someone. Gawd forbid a unique idea should make or break a new company.
Lucifer, I know what your solution is. Incinerators. You know, to balance out the 'ratios'. Give it a rest, will ya? Unless you have something positive to contribute, how about cooling it for a while.
"Simpson's movies fail miserably in four of the six elements of drama "
that's the point. just like with Wagner. immersion and escapism trump all.
"incorporated ideas of Roger Penrose, and Dietrich's Der blaue Engel (1930) and Schrodinger"
sounds pretentious, obscure and deathly boring, though "blue angel" is a powerful and poetic piece of work.
in terms of his influence into matters of politics and ideology, I could go on for a bit, but the reality is that you're just totally wrong. Hitler & Wagner
sad that a wordsmith would have such a low opinion of the power of art.
you do, however, get points for differentiation of the valley and west la from the greater LA region.
"The weakness is the lack of political balance."
no, the weakness is a corrupt, opaque, unchecked and totally incompetent institution at the core of all of our economic policy and practice.
Beyond the usual remedies?
Like:
- eliminating corporate personhood, including 'speech through money contributions'?
- breaking up all financial institutions that have more than 1 billion in assets?
- outlawing derivative financial instruments?
- forcing hedge funds and private equity investor pools to disclose all activities and be regulated?
- limiting leverage by banks/others to no more than 10 times?
- making criminal offenses of failure to act as a prudent fiduciary?
- returning banking to 'nation-only' or state-only operation?
- forcing bonuses to be based on performance over 5 year period?
- limiting the number of financial industry lobbyists allowed?
I'd favor a good many of these. I suspect Warren would support some too. But how many congressional votes would any of them get, given their dependence on campaign contributions from Wall Street Writ Large.
If any of the above were proposed by Warren in her current TARP oversight capacity, she would be torn to shreds by the financial greedists and "conservative" legislators and media people.
Well, I hope you all backed the truck up to CIT today. Just sayin....it's a racket, but heck, the only way to make any money nowadays is to hit the buffet at the casino. It's open a little longer, but prices are goin up. Dont worry about the indigestion.
barfly,
Nope.. I think we should have an economic system that creates a minimum standard of living that is lower middle class or better for everyone. So you have some disposable income even if you do not have a job (but you must spend all of the basic amount + you cannot invest it or use it to pay debt). What you make above and beyond that is yours to keep and use/ spend as you like.
We also have to have a more transparent legal and adminstrative system.
Banksters and MBAs could certainly use a trip to the incinerators though..
Old engineering joke
.
Boss to engineers: We need to make the system idiot-proof.
Two weeks later.
Engineers: Well, we can make the system fool-proof, but we can't make it idiot-proof.
.
JimPortlandOR,
Most of those will HAVE to passed in a few years. We will have no other option..
But think beyond that.. how can a zero-sum thinking based system keep on working in the world we live in..
I find myself in an uncomfortable situation. I know the tricks and traps are unethical and usurious but they finance my aggressive and careful gaming of the credit system. Without them I don't get my percents back or extended warranties or float. One of the very few rational reward systems that isn't turned upside down. ~RD
Good to hear another libertarian in hiding has the same thoughts....
.................
Lucifer - I agree but, how far out are you looking to take the new paradigm? People have trouble with change... Short term it creates chaos....
.................................
Barley - if thats the case I'm moving to France, at least they dont lie!
BTW Happy Bastile Day, I was just at a party in the Liberty Hotel... Odd name... It was an old jail converted to swank hotel... Check it out.... Very very cool... Boston Luxury Hotels | The Liberty Hotel | Downtown Boston Hotel
Balance is very important when designing general rules for society.
So why are some powerful white men afraid of a middle aged Hispanic women sitting on the Supreme Court?
Some of what passes for 'political discourse' in this country just blows me away . . . day after day.
Most of what passes for 'economic discourse' in this country is in reality political discourse.
Well, we can make the system fool-proof, but we can't make it idiot-proof.
and we can't fix stupid. So we have to change it instead.
Evolution works through the creation of situations where those who adapt will survive, while those who do not will die..
//People have trouble with change... Short term it creates chaos...//
I think we should have an economic system that creates a minimum standard of living that is lower middle class or better for everyone. So you have some disposable income even if you do not have a job (but you must spend all of the basic amount + you cannot invest it or use it to pay debt). What you make above and beyond that is yours to keep and use/ spend as you like. ~Lucifer
Luci - I'll be honest I thought you were the Jas of chaos / incinerators.... Only negative observations with no solutions... This one truly interests me...
Clinging to a failed dream..
//So why are some powerful white men afraid of a middle aged Hispanic women sitting on the Supreme Court?//
Lucifer - I have to say, you are certainly an odd and interesting mixture of ideas, even though I detest your opinions on women. Please don't use this last as a platform to launch into your usual monopolization of the thread on this subject.
" in a financially literate world", now there's some wishful thinking. The system got gamed a long time ago, the final blow - NCLB.
sportsfan - tend to think she is a closet bigot or at least willing to extend preference based on race, which to me means you're a racist... please note i'm well aware of where i stand.... nothing to do with genetics or superiority but birds of a feather flock together...
Goodnight, folks. Have a good Wednesday.
nades, I don't even understand your last post.
nades,
But we will have to have a system where
1, 2 are easier than 3 and 4 (especially 4). But 1,2 and a partial 3 are a good start.
She's willing to extend preference to some given race and move them ahead of others because they are said race. Its wrong. The reference to myself was regarding the fact that I think that people tend to hang out with 'their own type'... It didnt make a lot of sense in hind sight...
Lucifer, I agree, lets wish us luck with #4 tho... Something about the "golden rule"
nades,
We will reach #4 eventually as a species, or we will become extinct within a couple of hundred years.
4 takes time.. but 1 and 2 must be done within a couple of years if ever want to come out of this.. confidence is very hard to rebuild.
//Lucifer, I agree, lets wish us luck with #4 tho... Something about the "golden rule" //
nades (homepage, profile) wrote on Tue, 7/14/2009 - 10:53 pm
Good to hear another libertarian in hiding has the same thoughts....
It's the paradox of the age. We aren't holding anyone to reasonable and voluntary contracts and either viciously screwing or lavishly rewarding the various parties to unethical and/or usurious arrangements.
I guess my lavish rewards are voluntary for both parties so I shouldn't be concerned even though I know the perks exist on the backs of people on the other side of those same rules. Sadly, I see the next chapter. My credit access will be drastically curtailed with the aggregate negative impact to the greater economy. Not me but everyone like me.
Lucifer,
wrote: 4] Creating jobs in post-industrial societies.
back around '93 while I was carrying water at E&Y as a management consultant in their international consultancy group (at that time E&Y had 8 groups jokingly called Snow White and the 7 dwarfs [international tax was Snow White] and paid a visit to my family in Indiana. Noticing
the changes since say 20 years before it occured to me that the American
Dream could not be sustained for the average Joe. I tried to convince others of this but
they all had been drinking the Kool Aid, greatest country on Earth, God shined his light on thee crap....
....
note: bwt art gigs which never paid much I had to whore myself out at time... at E&Y, Bankers, Chase... list goes on....
HACK: sounds pretentious, obscure and deathly boring, though "blue angel" is a powerful and poetic piece of work.
you need to look into a 2 week period in Schrödinger's life when he came up with perhaps the second most important
work in physics outside of The General Theory of Relativity in the 20th century & think of its ties to the Blue Angle and then consider what Penrose
believes in impossible to reproduce in a computer (aesthetics) and then mix that with a Stoppardian sense of love (borrowed
from Wilde) and then toss in a cat for good measure.
As prose the story worked nicely... and someday I'll do something more with it... the chamber opera was less successful, wrong composer!
nades, on commercial break from Jon Stewart. I thought his summary of the hearings so far was hilarious.
Sorry you can't see beyond the surface. Keep looking. Goodnight again.
Personally, I would like to see a fiesty woman on the Supreme Court, Latino, Asian, African-American or otherwise. The Court needs to represent the people. How could she be any worse than Clarence Thomas?
Duke of Con Dao,
We have to destroy global wage arbitrage by making sure that everyone in so called poor countries can buy at a level of the US lower middle class. The best part is that once you jump start these economies, they will create more jobs selling crap to each other, thus reducing the need for the poorly paid US consumer to use debt to buy crap and keep counties like china going.
sportsfan - g'nite... i'm checking out too.... when you get a chance post a link to the JS if you've got it.... i dont like being naive / ignorant but it currently it seems wrong to me....
...................
RD - the miles / float / cash back wasnt all that good was it? actually the one to two percent back was pretty good IMHO... Check out that hotel / jail I posted... It was near MGH / Beacon Hill. Amazing reuse of a building that closed 19+ years ago... Much better than exurbanism
Yes.. If you can allow that guy to sit in the supreme court... alamost anyone looks ok by comparison.
Thomas believes that we should read the constitution as it was originally interpreted.. ironically that would preclude him for a non-plantation job.
//How could she be any worse than Clarence Thomas?//
How could she be any worse than Clarence Thomas?
barfly - you know thats not a logically acceptable argument...
......
nytol....
"If you can't explain your products to the person on the other side of the table in a way that the person can understand them then you should be selling those products." -Eliz Warren.
Sounds to me like placing higher responsibilities on the salesperson is in our future.
nades - you're right. That was a cheap shot. But I stand by my point. The court should be more representative of the people, and in that sense, perhaps Thomas qualifies.
Thomas believes that we should read the constitution as it was originally interpreted.
Scalia stated that the Constitution is dead simply because it's the only set of laws that somehow are allowed to change meaning over time. I would tend to agree.
A law is a law. If it needs to be changed to suit different times, then change it. There are no limits to the number of amendments. Oh, amendments are hard to get passed? Tough nuts.
signing off. Goodnight, all.
What about the 3/5 th person issue.. does it not contradict the "all are equal" part?
//Scalia stated that the Constitution is dead simply because it's the only set of laws that somehow are allowed to change meaning over time//
jillayne,
I was just bitchin' about a commercial on TV the other night. They're selling commemorative reproductions of Indian head $5 gold pieces, complete with certificates. They tell you the gold is pure, they tell you the coin looks & feels just like the original, but they conveniently insert the word "clad" in there. They're friggin' gold-plated, but their intent is to deceive so they say "gold clad" instead. ARGH!!! You just know their preying on people's ignorance.
what is Ms Warrens profession
Bernard Shaw: Mrs Warren's Profession
Luci,
I'm not saying the document is perfect, just that it ought to be enforced as originally intended. That alone would guarantee that any shortcomings are promptly addressed, as people wouldn't stand for such nonsense.
Undercutting the rule of law has all kinds of consequences.
Lucifer,
"We have to destroy global wage arbitrage by making sure that everyone in so called poor countries can buy at a level of the US lower middle class. "
/////////
careful, that sounds like magical thinking... an example from the ground, here in Cambodia they have I think about 6 or 7 political parties... right now
Hun Sen's CPP dominates (disclaimer: my friend here has known him since childhood and does not speak well of him), how does he do it? that doesn
Money, for one. He buys 200 black Lexus SUVs at a time and gives them to any village head who delivers that village...
when they found the possible new oil fields in Preah Sihanouk (Chevron as production leader) the money that started flowing
into the PTB, well... trickle down to the poor... here it's more like vaporization down to the poor...
.....
a point you made the other day about % of Chinese in prisons compared to USA, not an apt comparsion.
today there are about 2000 political prisoners in China yet that doesn't reflect the true extent of the crackdown
they have means in China and Vietnam that we don't have in America... they go after the 3 generational structure
of the family and threaten them... either you are an orphan and therefore impervious to this kind of intimidation or
a real nutter and put all in your family at risk (not sure if they have block committees in China but they still do in 'Nam
and that is one more tool to muzzle dissent....
Coming soon to a city near you.
BEIJING - Widening income gaps, corrupt local administrations and policies that seem to favor the well-connected few over the disadvantaged many are fueling spasms of violence that spring up in cities across China.
(From MSNBC)
What if everyone in that village was given enough to live a decent life, as long as they spent every last cent of it. It is far easier to bribe in a society that has many have-nots, than in one where people are living a decent lifestyle.
Unirealist
welcome to my world...
TJ and the Bear said:
A law is a law. If it needs to be changed to suit different times, then change it. There are no limits to the number of amendments. Oh, amendments are hard to get passed? Tough nuts.
You can say this about tons of laws. Why are there roads with 55 MPH speedlimits? This is why I think all laws should have a time period; if it is good it gets renewed; if it is bad well off the books it comes.
" tend to think she is a closet bigot or at least willing to extend preference based on race, which to me means you're a racist."
nades,
I agree. I am very uneasy about this woman. The Ricci case was disturbing...one of the firemen involved was dyslexic, and at his own expense, took extensive and expensive preparation to be able to pass the exam. I haven't seen any discussion of it, but there seems to be tension between disabled Americans protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act and affirmative action. I am also disturbed by the idea that there are to be no standards...just racial quotas...
She's playing a nice poker hand, trying to distance herself from repeated quotes favoring her own racial group, no white candidate could have survived the inherent bias she's demonstrated.
And, as an ex-Catholic, I am very unhappy with another Catholic on the Court. Roe vs. Wade is hanging by a thread, and with it, privacy and reproductive freedom. She's dissembling about her ethnic bias, but what about her religious bias?
This is why I think all laws should have a time period
Yeah, I've thought much the same myself.
To continue that thought...
Legislative bodies are constantly writing new laws and almost never getting rid of old ones, therefore they can't help but steadily erode basic liberties. A time limit would go a long ways to keeping them busy on the basics without overloading us with micro-managing crap.
Ahhh... its the CR dead zone... everyone else seems exhausted from the perpetual doom (with bacon and eggs)... and here I am with time to participate... (plus its 3AM east).
I don't think they can justify bailing out CIT. How is it possible you justify bailing out CIT but you screw CA? Either one would probably end up being a band-aid anyway.
TJ, yeah; so let's get on that Constitutional Amendment! Oh wait; I think if anyone brought up that cause they would be branded a nut-job and people would point out "laws like murder would expire!!!!!" as if there wasn't recourse for fixing the problem.
I think more and more people are just ignoring DC and all the hot air that comes from it... or laughing at it with Jon Stewart. He's exposing them all as the frauds. 2 days spent wrangling over a Supreme Court nominee when everyone already knows the playbook for both sides? Hey, does anyone wanna bet on last year's Super Bowl?
tend to think she is a closet bigot or at least willing to extend preference based on race, which to me means you're a racist
Glad we could find eight other justices to counter balance this insidious hidden fault.
I am also disturbed by the idea that there are to be no standards...just racial quotas...
As well you should be, but reading about the case, it doesn't seem to be about abandoning standards. Just a city trying to avoid litigation from Affirmative action.
Well, YLSP, even though it is only past midnight here I'm checking out. G'nite, all!
Dawg food is necronomical and gnutritious.
I know both parties have to have a knee jerk opposition to the other party's candidates, but why do we have to suppose that the candidate has no regard for the law or the Constitution? That whenever the Supreme Court rules against our hopes, that they're idiots who don't understand? (That's "don't understand the law!") I've been disappointed several times by rulings, but I've never imagined that they've gone into a case without thinking about the legal ramifications.
OT/ read Seth Mydan's piece in the Times on the genocide tribunal which he implies is in Phnom Penh, about like saying Jersey City is Manhattan...
Times refers to Comrade Duch as Kaing Guek Eav
I on the other hand along with Wikipedia refer to him as Kang Kek Iew, in Khmer កាំង ហ្គេកអ៊ាវ (sorry about tiny script... from Wikipedia)
my dear friend who is a native speaker of Khmer (also speaks Thai, Chinese and French) said Duch's last name of 'IEW' sounds like the syllable in 'ouch'... and the middle name Kek sounds like 'keck' ... [ a quibble, perhaps, but Mydans is lazy and just glossed the
usage from the ECCC website.
Mydans writes:
“I send my respects to the soul of your wife,” he told one witness, Bou Meng, whose wife died in the prison and whom Duch (pronounced DOIK) had come to know when he pulled him from a row of shackled prisoners and put him to work as a painter.
Bou Meng put his face in his hands. Duch, his lips quivering, turned his back on the courtroom, and both men wept.
....
I was in court that very day, along with my 'security detail' and damn, did we make an entrance.
I did not see anyone from the Times that day including the young stringer videotaping. .
My guess is that he flew in from Bangkok last week and watched the dvd recordings and caught this weeks testimony. In all his rush he missed one of the the best lines in the trial. That's what you get when you skim or use Cliff Notes.
....
If given the chance I will call him on this. The byline reads Phnom Penh but he wasn't there for much of the time, didn't the
Times lay down some new rules on this after the Jason Blair scandal?)
{disclosure: Mydans' dad was a famous photographer for Look magazine who was held by the Japanese in Shanghai for about 2 years and was instrumental in getting Ed Whitcomb out of there and back to USA even though he was an escaped Japanese POW (Air Force) and was held there unbeknownst as a civilian miner., I have an option on his book Escape from Corregidor...]
just watched the Times video segment and my friend thinks the khmer man is just telling a story that he thinks interviewer wants to hear, she said there is no sense of conviction in his words...
"Just a city trying to avoid litigation from Affirmative action. "
Bingo. Ricci would be a nothingburger if Soto were white.
I find the level of invective directed toward Warren particularily high. Few criticisms of her argument, plenty of personal attacks. She must have struck a nerve. Perhaps most people agree with nades, but don't want to admit it:
"F*cking people is not a way to run a company / earn a living.... (OK rant off... back to reading the comments...)" (nades)
The credit cards industry didn't start out that way, but that's what they have morphed into.
Warren is right.
sdtfs,
I was just thinking that its a shame the Supreme Court has become an extension of partisan BS. Or perhaps its always been that way and I just noticed it. We've got red lawmakers and blue lawmakers... but don't we really want some righteous purple laws? On the bench we have the red interpretors and the blue interpretors. It should all be very disconcerting that our political parties waste time this way. The whole DC establishment is suspect as far as "hey there's a bunch of smart people there"... or "hey there's a bunch of people leading us in the right direction".
It's really scary to me that people don't believe the right to bear arms gets extended to the states. You mean we went through all this trouble to set up a Constitution and Federal government; and yet the states can stomp all over those rights without any incorporation of the Constitution? I learned today it's legal to ban nun-chucks, but illegal to ban firearms? Why aren't nun-chucks considered "legal arms"? Not to mention the fact that Sotomayor was talking about nun-chucks... "These are weapons, you swing them around and if they hit someone they can potentially kill or do a lot of damage". Hey; that sounds like fists too... I guess we don't have the right to ball up our hands in fists.
I also learned that there have been like zero rulings on the 2nd amendment and states; and a number of precedent rulings go back to early 21st late 20th century... I guess the SC has always punted on this (I believe they did so in Heller as well...).
One more thing: Sotomayor is basically an once divorced single Catholic, I think her religion is a strike against having a diverse Supreme Court? Although I suppose she does bring perspective as no family, which is a positive. Souter never married either.
I don't think I've heard anyone question whether another Catholic will make the court more diverse... I suppose there are reasons for that... can't quite put my finger on it but you'd think Graham / Sessions would be all over that... oh wait...
You mean we went through all this trouble to set up a Constitution and Federal government; and yet the states can stomp all over those rights without any incorporation of the Constitution?
The reason for the Constitution was to amalgamate a disparate set of states, each with it's own laws. States have all the rights not expressly over ridden in the Constitution. But I do agree that there is a lot of fancy foot work in the "right to keep and bear arms."
Personal rant: After 9/11 they confiscated my electrician's knife when I crossed the border on foot back from Mexico. I said "You know, I have ten bucks in my pocket and I can go buy another one from Sears." But I was wrong, Sears changed models to an inferior style. Of course, the Border Patrol lost funding for their idiot metal detector and within two years I could cross with a pocket knife again. (I could always have crossed with knives if I drove.)
Thanks for the rant. You reminded me that I had a pocket-knife in our baby bag and we're flying next week. I've been trying to remember to take it out so it doesn't cause a hang-up. A 2.5 inch knife. This causes me delays sometimes as I pack razors in my travel bag and am unable to carry-on if I need to. and I'm out...
Ugh; just reading your rant again. No problem taking people's small crap, little knives, etc... while the attention is diverted there's a shitload of guns coming in somehow... from across the border. But its better to harrass the American citizen. I always thank Osama waiting in the stupid security line. My biggest problem is that I don't have a decent travel belt... so I have to worry about my pants falling down while in the security line. Thanks Osama...
It's called "Security Theater"
I can't afford to have my pants fall down while I'm in the security line.
They'd arrest me for carrying a deadly weapon.
JP --
CR - Note: My personal view is that in a financially literate world, almost all borrowers would pay off their credit card balances monthly (there are exceptions).
You are a subversive CR.
Wow, people still carry a balance on their credit cards?
Even after how it has been proven over and over how it turns the user into an indentured servant. OK, shout out to everyone, buyer beware!
TJ, isn't that the general intent of ALL human systems? Leviticus and Leviathan. Adam ate that damn apple, and then had about ten million regulations imposed in short order. Traffic rules, financial regulations, fishing contest rules - Hobbes had something to say about this as well. It helps me to remember that human systems are just as mortal as their originators.
Judge Sotomayor adds diversity to the Supreme Court in many ways: woman, Hispanic, divorced, single, Catholic, dikey and dumpy.
We've never had that combination before.
She will help to balance out Clarence Thomas.
Judge Sotomayor adds diversity to the Supreme Court in many ways: woman, Hispanic, divorced, single, Catholic
Diversity? Catholic?
Before Souter's departure, the court was 5/9 Catholic. A protestant or agnostic would have represented diversity. The US is 24% Roman Catholic.
NZ is going to be doing the wave. A 7.8 earthquake followed by a tsunami at 9 sometime
People I've heard from in NZ said it was a 6.6 or so.
At some point middle managers will become midden managers.
Astroturf is grown by Plastic Man.
Morning All!
Another fine summer morning here in scenic South Carolina.
July 15 (Bloomberg) -- A warning of a tsunami generated by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake off southern New Zealand was cancelled after no major waves were observed for two hours, the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
If any of you get bored during the day, please check my homepage for the food/ travel blog of Mrs. Gnome.
Thank you and have a great day!
What does failure get you?
74K a year for the rest of your life.
Plus 8.2 Million
(AP) Former General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will retire Aug. 1 with a pension and benefit package the automaker valued at more than $10 million.
Wagoner, 56, who was ousted by the Obama administration on March 30, will get $1.64 million in benefits annually for each of the next five years, plus an annual pension of $74,030 for the rest of his life, according to company documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Morning all from the Marynam parapet.
NZ quake reported locally as 6.6 - barely even trying. The Shaky Isles can do a lot better. Have to. That's the way they go up and down.
C
im in ur money
monetizin ur debtz.
Ben Berkitty
Talk about a mixed message.
Here are headlines appearing currently on Bloomberg.
•Global Confidence Declines as Unemployment Surge Counters Fiscal Stimulus
•Stocks Advance on Intel, ASML Forecasts; Commodities Gain, Dollar Declines
•Treasuries, Dollar Pessimism Wanes as U.S. Economic Recovery Outlook Dims
curious - that's because they're a) basically confused b) hedging c) have shite editorial control.
C
"Roe vs. Wade is hanging by a thread, and with it, privacy and reproductive freedom."
.......how many decades do I have to listen to this direction of prattle. The law won't be overturned, unless you figure it shouldn't have been anything but a state's right issue in the first place.
Judge Sotomayer I believe to be racist. I can't find any other rationale for the decision in the Ricci case.
SOLDIER REFUSES TO DEPLOY TO AFGHANISTAN ON ORDER OF FOREIGN BORN PRESIDENT, U.S. ARMY REVOKES ORDER RATHER THAN FORCE THE ISSUE IN COURT
Bombshell: Orders revoked for soldier challenging prez
Franklin Raines for being ousted after illegally "cooking the books": $30 million in stock and options and a $1 million-a-year pension.
Rick Wagoner ousted by Obama for not playing ball. Valued at more than $10 million. $1.64 million in benefits for five years, plus $74,030 a year pension.
Pretty simple to me, I'd rather be black in this case. Ask Judge Sotomayor if she agrees.
Shill - so they want a certificate of live birth. Does this mean the main concern is that the president was not born alive? That he's ... a zombie?
That would explain the approach to the financial industry.
C
good morning
interesting day already
iran jet crash - 160 killed
georgia now double digit unemployment @10.1
rained after midnight on st swithin's day,going to rain 40 days(thats what its supposed to do)
big earthquake in nz
Counterpointer said
NZ quake reported locally as 6.6 - barely even trying. The Shaky Isles can do a lot better. Have to. That's the way they go up and down.
sat at this very computer 160km east of epi and it was just a warm up, nothing fell off shelves
thought it was just the shock from NSW looking like winning a plate of oranges game....
Send some of that rain over this way, gabyjan.
Getting kinda dry here in scenic South Carolina.
Jeebus Kiewi - you have computers in (checks atlas) Tapanui?
C
But then you'd have to change your name to "White Star Ranch" and people would be leering at Belle...
O's approach to the financial industry can be summed up by this word:
"Bailure"
flu in Tapanui, cp
somewhere on a similar arc is Winton, where i is
(have to go and check the computer is still there before i send this)
GeoNet – Home
there was a bigger one at 9;22pm a 7.8
kiewi its trying
good luck
Geez, I used to think commentary here passed for intellectual discourse... Now? Mostly drivel.
Does CR have legs?
/frustrated
The miracle of googles tells me there's an interesting flu there. A love-you longtime kind. Yecch. Better not tell the army medical center up the road here in Rockville or they'll send a team to harvest your cellular property in case you're the vaccine they've been looking for. After they reverse-engineered the original virus, of course.
gabyjan - is that a Fib forward? Do they get like a 9 next?
C
After they reverse-engineered the original virus, of course.
This is what I've been telling people, C.
"They" recreated the original 1918 virus after sequencing it back in 2005.
So, was it released on purpose?
Escaped the lab?
Just a natural occurrence?
Inquiring minds want to know...
Well, thanks for that stunning contribution to the discussion.
V For Vaccine
@C
that's because they're a) basically confused b) hedging c) have shite editorial control.
Here's another article from Bloomberg.
Bair, Bernanke Push to Toughen Plan to Curb Biggest U.S. Banks
JPMorgan Strength
Size hasn’t always defined systemic risk. Bear Stearns Cos. had $399 billion in total assets at the end of February last year before it had to be rescued by JPMorgan -- a larger firm with about $2 trillion in assets that had the management capability and financial strength to absorb the investment bank.
Not to mention a loss sharing agreement with taxpayers!!! How can Bloomberg's editors allow this section of the article to be written without mentioning the role that taxpayer guarantees have played!
c
hopefully it calms down. never know with eq
gaby
same one, but in an area where early attempts at settlement were defeated by the local blackfly and unanimously voted a national park
guides say on fine days: you got lucky, it rains 350 days a year in these parts
last quake in the area, slightly smaller, caused landslips, but no deaths reported by blackfly or humans
this far away, wavy shake, worrying but no cigar
NSW smoking that, after winning the dead rubber
GM's Wagner got canned being the last CEO standing. He actually was pretty decent considering the decades of a mess to unwind. Time ran out, he got tagged. On the other hand the UAW boss Getelfinger did not get canned. They are a very big part of the failure as well. What does that say? He retires next year, probably with a nice walk away package as well.
Shreds?
How about child porn being found on her computer at work? I think it has been done before.