What The Dog Is Doing: Holiday Edition

Travis Schlaht, Pierre de Ronsard, Oil On Canvas 12 X 14 (2007)

As a Dog capable of self-locomotion, I'm on vacation this week; post-Hanukkah, pre-Festivus, pre-Bill O'Reilly's Day. I haven't gone anywhere -- just relaxing and getting some actual work done as opposed to the Witless Labor™ I perform most of the rest of the year.

Today, I finally went downhill from where I live to the John Pence Gallery on Post Street in The City. While walking down the southern face of Nob Hill from the Mark Hopkins hotel, for a short time I kept passing members of the Bohemian Club, walking uphill from their Special Treehouse, most probably after lunch.

The Club's dining room is said to serve a decent repast, as you'd expect for one of the centers of power in the Western world. Can't have Our Lords eating like the Peasantry, can we?

The Bohemian Club was originally founded in 1872 in San Francisco by local journalists who wanted contact with the artists of The City -- writers, painters, actors; musicians and librettists. However, that changed quickly; as Wikipedia noted, Journalists were to be regular members; artists and musicians were to be honorary members. The group quickly relaxed its rules for membership to permit some people to join who had little artistic talent, but enjoyed the arts and had greater financial resources. Eventually, the original "bohemian" members were in the minority and the wealthy and powerful controlled the club.


Bohemian Club Building, San Francisco

And so it is today. The Bohemian is a publicly-known exclusive club for the wealthy, the powerful, the connected. The club's bylaws state that approximately a quarter of the membership are to be actual artists, but are only admitted after an audition or show of their work for the real members -- whose understanding of art is only that they can afford to purchase as much of it as they want. The artists are only for show; the real business of the club goes on with its 'real' membership.

A Who's Who of members attending the Club's annual 'Bohemian Grove' celebrations in Marin County would include most of the country's corporate elite, banking and financial organizations; old-money families; and politicians of both parties. Needless to say, over the two weekends each year when the Club hosts its revels, a lot of informal business is done and connections for future business created.

I passed the front of the Club, covered in dead ivy leaves, with its main members' entrance (which you might have seen in the film The Game, where Michael Douglas' investment banker character is [aber natürlich] a member, and meets his brother [Sean Penn] for lunch). A plaque around the corner on Taylor Street honors poet and writer Brett Harte -- who would probably vomit to see just where the accolade was placed, and the sort of characters hosting it. Not so strangely, the Bohemian's building is architecturally cheek-by-jowl with another, lesser San Francisco club, the Metropolitan.

Universally, the men I passed were white-haired Caucasians in their late fifties to mid-sixties, and very well-dressed: Camels'-hair overcoats over their houndstooth sports coats; shined, toe-cap Oxfords; and a bow-tie or two. That, and the demeanor of persons who take no one seriously outside their own class. They don't have to; they'll only engage you if they want their Jag tuned or their bathrooms cleaned, or you have something they want: Then you feel the not-necessarily discreet charm of the haute bourgeois, and you'd best know your place and snap to.

Finally, I made it to the gallery (with a side trip to a second, small display of student work at a branch of the Art Institute of San Francisco). John Pence, the gallery's owner, has been a major figure in the contemporary realist movement in American painting; a supporter of figurative, realist artists, like the two that have had shows this past month:

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Steven J. Levin
All Images © The Artist; Information On The Painter


Self Portrait, 2005


The Cloud, 2010


Tangerines and Water Goblet, 2010


The Rembrandt Room, 2008


Dirt Road, 2010

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Randall Sexton
All Images © The Artist; Information On The Painter


Dishrack #1, 2010


Cliff Shadow, 2010


The Cove, 2010


Nob Hill Stories, 2007

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On my way back home, I stopped for a moment of quiet in Grace Cathedral, the reinforced-concrete faux Gothic church on Nob Hill, and a stone's throw from another Club for The Elite, the Pacific-Union. Inside, silence almost visibly hangs in the air, the sense of a living presence (which was the point of much sacred architecture from the Gothic era; the soaring, vaulted spaces lifting the eye heavenward). The place was, thankfully, almost empty.

In one of the front pews, I sat for a while, and finally recited to myself a variation on a few lines from one of my favorite John Cheever short stories, "The Apples Of Heaven", where an old poet afflicted with an emblematic sickness of spirit says a prayer made of the names of writers he admired.

God bless Edward Hopper, I thought; God bless Georgia O'Keeffe, and Arthur Dove, too (though I don't like most of his stuff); God bless Jean "Moebius" Giraud; God Bless Alex Ross; God bless Michael Whelan and Donato Giancola; God bless Maxfield Parrish; God bless Fortuno Matania; God bless Henri Matisse, and Vincent Van Gogh, and Claude Monet; God Bless George Grosz, and Käthe Kollwitz; God Bless Albert York; and God bless Mark Rothko; and particularly God bless John Singer Sargent.

What gets me out of bed in the mornings is not the Witless Labor I have to perform for money; it's for whatever small mercies my days may contain, and to see things of beauty -- and if I have the chance to make a few of my own, es ist Besser so.

Now I am home, on my rug by the heater, having turned around twice before lying down: Happy Secular and Non-Secular Holidays To All, and To All A Good Night.

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The Truth Is Out There

For Most, This Is The Signpost At The Border Of Consciousness

Yet, Strangely, No One Gives A Damn

I'm not in the habit of reposting other people's work in full.

That said, Barry Ritholtz, financial investment analyst and a person of consistently-demonstrated intelligence, operates his own very successful site, The Big Picture, and is the author of a get-to-the-meat-of-it book about the 2007-2008 Crash, "Bailout Nation".

I have issues with what Barry does for a living, and have written about that before; however, that doesn't stop me from frankly admiring his intelligence and insight.

And that being said, I want to repost in full something which he noted on his blog this morning. It isn't laziness on my part; when I see a distillation of information that can help clarify a situation most politicians and the Mainstream Media have only helped to obscure...

Well, read it; learn something -- even better, do your own research.

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10 Questions for GOP Members of Financial Crisis Inquiry
By Barry Ritholtz - December 16th, 2010, 7:45AM

I never wanted to write Bailout Nation.

That only came about after Bear Stearns collapsed. McGraw Hill approached Bill Fleckenstein to do a follow up to his successful Greenspan’s Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve, about the end of Bear.

Fleck turned them down, but the publisher asked him who else was covering this subject. I was told he said “That’s easy, Ritholtz has been all over this story.”

I turned McGraw Hill down — repeatedly. But they cajoled and flattered and eventually I relented. I approached the subject from a blank slate, pragmatically, with no agenda. It was a problem solving exercise, I began by looking for data that led me where it would. Following the money was good advice for anyone researching this.

That data led me to numerous conclusions: I blamed Republicans, I blamed Democrats, I blamed the Federal Reserve, Congress, the ratings agencies, mortgage originators and lending banks, the biggest Wall Street firms, the SEC, borrowers and home buyers, the RE agents, the mortgage brokers, appraisers, and Collateralized debt obligation (CDO) managers. I blamed Greenspan & Gramm, Bush & Clinton, Paulson & Bernanke & Rubin & Summers, Even mutual funds, compensation consultants and crony corporate board members come in for criticism. (This is only a partial list).

Which leads to today’s exercise in willful ignorance.

The 4 GOP members of the FCIC have a document which purports to have questions and answers on the causes of the financial crisis. It is a silly analysis that could have been written by wingnut think tanks like the AEI or Cato BEFORE the crisis even occurred. It absolves Wall Street and the banks, blames the government — for everything — and ignores reality and the data that conclusively demonstrate otherwise.

To these people, I ask the following questions:

1. From 2001 to 2003, Alan Greenspan took rates down to levels not seen in almost half a century, then kept them there for an unprecedentedly long period. What was the impact of ultra low interest rates on Housing, credit, the bond markets, and derivatives?

2. How significant were the Ratings Agencies (S&P, Moodys and Fitch) to the collapse? What did their AAA ratings on junk derivatives affect? What about their being paid directly by underwriters for these ratings?

3. The Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 removed all Derivatives from all oversight, including reserve requirements, exchange listings, and disclosures. What effect did the CFMA have on firms such as AIG, Bear, Lehman, Citi, Bank of America?

4. Prior to 2004, Investment Houses were limited to 12-to-1 leverage by the SEC’s net capitalization rule. In 2004, the 5 largest investment banks asked for, and received, a full exemption from leverage restrictions (known as the Bear Stearns exemption) These five firms all jacked up their leverage. What impact did this increased leverage have on the crisis?

5. For seven decades, Glass Steagall separated FDIC insured depository banks from riskier investment houses. Prior to the repeal of Glass Steagall in 1998, the market had regular crashes that did not spill over into the real economy: 1966, 1970, 1974, and most telling of all, 1987. What impact did the repeal of Glass Steagall have on the banking system during the 2008-09 crash?

6. NonBank Lenders: Most of the sub-prime mortgages were made by unregulated non-bank lenders. They had a ”Lend to securitize” business model, and they sold enormous amounts of subprime loans to Wall Street for this purpose. Primarily located in California, they were also unregulated by both the Federal Reserve and the California State legislator. What was the impact of these firms?

7. These firms abdicated traditional lending standards. They pushed option arms, interest only loans, and negative amortization mortgages, all of which defaulted in huge numbers. Was non-bank, sub-prime lending a major factor in the crisis?

8. The entire world had a simultaneous global housing boom and bust. US legislation such as the CRA or Fannie & Freddie only covered US housing and lenders. How did this cause a worldwide boom and bust — even bigger than that in the US ?

9. Prior to the 2004, many States had Anti-Predatory Lending (APL) laws on their books (and lower defaults and foreclosure rates). In 2004, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Federally Preempted state laws regulating mortgage credit and national banks. What was the impact of this OCC Federal Preemption ?

10. Corporate Structure: None of the Wall Street partnerships got into trouble, only the publicly traded iBanks. Partnerships have full personal liability for their losses. What was the impact of this lack of personal liability of senior management on Wall Street risk management?

I can go on and on — but the concept is rather simple: If you cannot answer these questions, or adequately explain these facts, then how on earth can you explain the credit crisis?

-- Barry Ritholtz

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Salvato! Silvio Salvato Per Avere il sesso con più ragazze adolescenti!

Silvio! Acts Good, As A PM Should (Photo: The Age.au)

Stability

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Primo Pene l'Italia, has been given a serious wake-up call: A vote of 'No Confidence' in his government, which he barely survived.

[I have to admit at this juncture, as a Thinking Dog, I have to fight off a desire to explain what that, and differences between a Parliamentary system of government and the Rotating Clown College we use in America. From this point forward, if you're reading something and don't understand it, Tut mir leid. Please do your own research.]

He survived the vote in Italy's Upper Chamber of deputies by 3 votes. In the Lower Chamber of Italy's parliament, Berlusconi's National People's Fascisti Pizza Party has an approximate 25-vote majority -- but it was the vote Tuesday which, if successful, would have forced new Parliamentary elections and removed the tubby Oligarch Berlusconi from power.

In his defense, Berlusconi relied on the same argument which originally brought him to power: Italy, having gone through over 50 governments since 1948, "needs stability". In 2010, Silvio told the Deputies, with the world in an economic crisis, Italy needs continuity and stability, which only a 74-year-old hormonally-raging multi-billionaire with poor impulse control can provide.

Silvio!, as a multi-billionaire Oligarch who runs his own country, favors the 'New Austerity' measures which will force the populations of Europe to pay off debts incurred by corrupt banks (and billionaires), so that the Banksters won't lose a dime of their hard-earned loot.

I particularly liked the part in film from Italian television of Silvio! striding into the Upper Chamber, past the table with his government's ministers -- and noting how many of them were exceptionally beautiful women whom he has hired over the past few years. Their staffs, presumably, run the ministries -- because the appointed Ministers are former models and actresses.

One of these women Ministers (sadly, I do not know who) was interviewed by Agence France-Presse; she was asked point-blank if she found Silvio's! antics with, and demeaning comments toward, women as personally offensive to her. "The Prime Minister behaves like a typical Italian man," she replied. "And thank God he likes women."

And, the Italian people took it well: they demonstrated (some reports say rioted) in the streets.


Crowds Of Demonstrators Battle Italian Police (Video: UTube)


Public Reaction To Berlusconi's Continued Reign (Video: UTube)

I'd remind him of Romania, and what happened to little Nicky Chaucescu -- but I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.

Ha Ha Ha -- that Silvio!

---

New Normal

The New Normal (NYT, 12/08/10)

The 'deal' orchestrated by President Obama and his 'team' with the Rethugs is already being debated. Last night, Charlie Rose had four commentators in round-table discussion (more or less; only one was actually in the studio): U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D - Illinois) and Anthony Weiner (D - NY), Kenneth Rogoff (Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, and Professor of Economics at Harvard University), and Al Hunt, the Managing Editor for Bloomberg News.

Rogoff and Hunt were the Center-Right guests; Schakowsky and Weiner (who is one of the Democrats' most articulate and energetic spokespersons) were Progressive-Left. While Rogoff pooh-poohed it all with a well-so-what? attitude, Schakowsky and Weiner were absolutely clear: This 'compromise' adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the National Debt in order to provide tax breaks for billionaires (That, nearly a direct quote from Weiner).

Hunt noted that his reporters tell him the Republicans were willing to make more compromises, if the President and his administration had made a harder fight -- and were amazed when they received everything they wanted, allowing them to give Obama only one real concession: Extension of unemployment benefits.

Hunt related that the Republicans had instructions to give ground on everything except provisions in the Bush Tax Cuts involving the Estate Tax (of most benefit to only the wealthiest Americans with extremely large personal fortunes) -- that they would give Obama everything except that.

Rogoff concluded that there were many provisions in the deal that assisted the working poor and families; Representative Weiner responded that this was important, and that compromise in Washington is expected -- but, he asked, where was the President we voted for? He didn't define the debate for the country, allowing the Rethugs to do that.

Weiner asked, "People expected that [Obama] was going to roll up his sleeves and fight for America's middle-class working families." Why didn't he do that? Why does he say now this deal was the "best" he and his team could do -- when that is so obviously not true?

In the end, Weiner added, the people who benefited the most from the 'deal' were the 10,000 or so members of America's First Families, the top two per cent of the population. Legislation which allows them to protect their billions is long-lasting -- as befits the Rethug perspective that this is the "Owner" Class, the true source of jobs and prosperity in a trickle-down world.

For the rest of us, the 'deal' will provide short-term benefits; they are supposed to be a second 'Stimulus Package' without being openly labeled as such. But 'stimulus' is just that -- a short pulse, like using a defibrillator to restart the heart of a dying patient. Unlike the continuing fortunes of the First Families, it's disposable; it isn't meant to last.

Representative Schakowsky added that other Rethugs are now appearing in the media, crowing, on the strength of having gotten the Democrats to cave so easily -- and that now, they're announcing next year in Congress, we're going to vote on spending cuts. "They're going to take this momentum and go after programs like school tuition and help for families; programs that benefit the middle class."

This has always been their agenda, she added, and the President has given them every indication he won't stand up to them.

In looking at the New York Times this morning, what caught my eye was not the analysis in their main article about the deal: It was the caption below a photo accompanying the article: ...The unemployment rate, now at 9.8 per cent, is expected to be near 8 per cent by the end of 2012.

Please look at the job seekers in the accompanying photograph -- young and middle-aged black women, and an older white man. In most places in America, this is predominantly the face of unemployment: Young and black, or older and white.

8 per cent unemployment. With televisions blaring advertisements about luxury cars and vacations, sports and images of upward mobility for all; telling us everything is fine; just go back to sleep...

This is the 'new normal we're being asked to swallow. And this is acceptable?

---

Day In The Life

Still Missed.

Look at me
what am I supposed to be?
what am I supposed to be?
Look at me
what am I supposed to be?
what am I supposed to be?
Look at me
Oh My Love Oh My Love

Here I am
what am I supposed to do?
what am I supposed to do?
Here I am
What can I do for you?
What can I do for you?
Here I am
Oh My Love Oh My Love
Look at me,Oh Please Look at me, My Love
here I am - Oh My Love

---

Many Busy Executives Ask: What About The Job Displacement Market In The City Of The Future?

Comparison Of Depth And Duration Of Post-WW2 Recessions
(© Calculated Risk -- Click For Bigger Chart. It's Easy and Fun!)

Hey; some week, huh? Here's a little rundown, in case you may have missed some of the grosser points:

• Catfood Commission Chokes On Hairball: President Obama's Debt Commission had already released its final report, which essentially said that the future for ordinary Americans would have to be bleak and constrained, while those with large personal fortunes would hardly be affected at all. Forwarding their recommendations to Congress would have taken a 14 of 18-member majority; they didn't get it. Obama thanked them for their time, and then suggested we all move along; nothing to see here.
  
  However, fourteen current Democratic Senators sent a letter to the Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging that even though the Commission's ideas for effectively sinking Social Security and Medicare weren't approved by a majority of its members, that the President should still demand Austerity Now!.
  
  13 of the fourteen Senators signing this thing will still be in the Senate next year, and part of the Democratic majority of 53. Embarrassing for Obama that his own side wants to support Rethug ideals? Of course -- but, the Commission (another attempt to ask politely that the Rethugs be bipartisan) was his idea.


• Some Swedish-Based Thing Did Some Things; People Unhappy: Wikileaks released over 200,000 pages of U.S. diplomatic cables -- primarily those sent by embassy or consular staff reporting on the Hub Bub in their little part of the world. They showed that (A) Pakistan is an amazingly corrupt little tribal tinderbox with nuclear weapons and people that be hatin' us Freedom; and (B) That all those graduates of Yale and Haavaad in the Foreign Service are trying to use those B.A.'s in English by being witty chroniclers of Life On The Fringes Of Empire. Oh, and Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, promises a big dump of data about "An American Bank" next year; it's been known for some time that Wikileaks possesses some 5 Gigs of data from Bank of America corporation. A.P. Gianini is expected to rise from the dead, and throw up.


• Let North Korea Be North Korea: North Korea, The Funnest Place On Earth outside Robert Mugabe's Zimbawe or various parts of Detroit and Baltimore, fired artillery barrages at South Korean territory, in response to -- well, no one is sure. It may have coincided with a 'Hate Daffy Duck' campaign going on up there this week, or the annual joint NATO / South Korean military exercises being held. Several South Korean soldiers and civilians were killed, and it gave Little Rupert's Funnest Media Company On Earth the opportunity to sound Very Alarmed. Glenn Beck cried again, but really meant it this time.


• President Obama And His Team Begs Tells Rethugs: Can't We All Just Get Along? After the Catfood Commission issued its report calling for The Little People to Bear More Burdens and Pay More Prices, Obama announced a two-year pay freeze on Federal Worker's salaries. No matter that the salaries of all Federal employees equal less than 3% of the Federal budget); this was an ill-considered publicity stunt. It was meant as an olive branch by Obama to the Rethugs, who will be running the House in Congress next year. His administration held 'closed-door meetings' with the Rethugs, almost begging them to be bipartisan.
  
  I rarely read the burblings of Frank Rich, columnist at the New York Times, because he's often addled in his little head, but his scribble for the Sunday Times did make a point: After noting the in-your-face antics of New Jersey's new Republican Governor, Chris Christie, Rich said that polls show New Jersians "know what he stands for and sometimes respect him for his forthrightness even when they reject the stands themselves." (Note: Quote below paragraphed for emphasis and clarity.)
  

  No one expects Obama to imitate Christie’s in-your-face, bull-in-the-china-shop shtick. But they have waited in vain for him to stand firm on what matters to him and to the country rather than forever attempting to turn non-argumentative reasonableness into its own virtuous reward.
  
  It’s clear now the shellacking [i.e., the loss of the House to Republican control in the Midterms last month] was not the hoped-for wake-up call. For starters, Obama might have robustly challenged the election story line pushed by the G.O.P. both before and after Nov. 2 — that deficit eradication and tax cuts for all are voters’ No. 1 priority. Repeating it constantly — as McConnell and John Boehner do, brilliantly — does not make it true. But the myth becomes reality if there’s no leader to trumpet the counternarrative.

  
  And, it becomes what people accept as true when the media is effectively dominated by the Right, and few mainstream media outlets do more than echo whatever President Boner says.
  
  What is happening now has happened over, and over, and over again since 2001: Rethugs act like the worst schoolyard bullies you've ever experienced; Democrats cower and hand over whatever the Rethugs want, or compromise on legislation -- expecting, at some point the Rethugs will have to act like moral, conscious, principled adults and work for the general betterment of all Americans.
  
  But the Rethugs never will. They're arrogant, festering, greed-driven monsters, one step above child molesters -- every single one of them (in case you wondered). They should be stepped on like cockroaches; and for their part, the Democrats are spineless, with the tensile strength of a jelly doughnut when it comes to supporting the Constitution, or the country. As Digby says,
  

  ... I think they [i.e., the Democrats] simply want to make as few waves as possible while the invisible hand and "savvy businessmen" magically fix everything so they can run on "Morning in America" in 2012. I think that's been the plan from the beginning. I don't think they have a Plan B.
  
  In fact, the biggest irony of this administration is how much they have depended on the preservation of the status quo to fix the problems. (Ironic considering the "change" message they ran on. Fully expected from neo-liberal lawmakers.) And yeah, it's a problem.

  
  Our current President, in one Dog's opinion, has irredeemably fucked up and is now in the process of handing the nation back to the creatures which almost destroyed it just a few years ago. We need a leader of the moral authority of a Dr. Martin Luther King, the jocular popularity of a Franklin Roosevelt, and the take-no-prisoners attitude of the Rethugs themselves.
  
  Instead, we have none of that. Way to go, Barack. Thanks, pal (Full disclosure: I worked quite hard for the man's election; do I feel betrayed? Absolutely).
  
  The Rethugs listened to the Democrats whine for a while (it's fun, for them), then said Fuck You and took Little Timmeh! Geithner's lunch money. President Boner and President Yertle The Turtle McConnell looked really happy, and said they wouldn't allow anything the Democrats wanted to pass in the few sessions left of the current, 'Lame-Duck' Congress -- such as extensions of unemployment benefits, or tax cuts for Americans making less than $250K per year. They want to destroy the Democratic party. They want to run Obama out of Potomac-Town and put some stupid freak in the White House who will do whatever the Lobbyists and the Serious Wealthy want them to do -- Little Sarah Palin; Emptyhead Mitt, or Mikey I Heart Jesus Huckabee.
  
  They collectively don't care if a Rethug President makes a mess of America's culture or society (or, even the rest of the world -- like Lil' Boots Bush, no?); they just want to keep the money and exclusive access to Fun and Stuff flowing for them. That's all -- they truly don't give a damn if people are dying, or hungry, or living in cardboard boxes. Truly, they don't.


• President Palin Says Lots Of Things On Twitter: The American Media Hearts Little Sarah Palin, Straight 'n Tall. They would publish photographs of the marks made on her toilet paper if they could -- and David Broder would praise their shape and tasteful lack of smearing. Someone (Read: Jonah Goldberg) would claim to see the shape of the Virgin Mary in the issue of Little Sarah's tissues.
  
  So long as the media pays attention to her, Little Sarah will stay popular, classy, and Make Lots Of Money, too -- which is what's she in The Game for. It's all so good, here in the Greatest Country On Earth, and if you don't love her and love Jesus you can go back where you came from -- and if you're really really patient, we may just ship you there.


• Acknowledged Unemployment Level Reaches 9.8%: In the sixty-two years since the end of World War Two, there have been 11 official Recessions. The current "situation" (again, by official edict) was supposed to have begun in 2008 and ended in 2009. Anyone who has a pulse knows this is crap, and that the crisis which began in the Fall of 2007 is in no way over. This is the longest loss of jobs in America's history since the Great Depression of 1929 - 1940 (But, not the deepest -- that benchmark, 10.8%, belongs to Ronald Reagan).
  
  The most recent unemployment report showed that 431,000 more people lost their jobs in November [this from the 4-week Moving Average of first-time applications for unemployment relief], while only 39,000 new jobs were created. The official Bureau Of Labor Statistics overall unemployment rate rose from 9.7 to 9.8%.
  
  Someone should remember to tell those 431,000 new Lucky Duckies applying for unemployment that, once their 26 weeks of "free money" runs out, that's it. If they haven't pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps by then, tough -- no more free lunches for you, Peasants.. Let them cry to President Boner, who doesn't care, or President Barbour, who will interrupt his fine steak dinner to observe that "Them people bettah get busy".
  
  And, hey! The average wage went up by one cent for the average worker in November, too. Spontaneous demonstrations in praise of Our Elite and our Wise Leaders were held in many cities, where workers demanded that higher salaries and bonuses be given to these far-sighted Ones, our National Treasure and Braintrust, for their selfless work on behalf of the People as they shepherd us through this crisis, which no one could have foreseen, and for which no one can be blamed.
  
  As a commenter on the site Grasping Reality With Both Hands noted, Thankfully, the average hourly rates for executives and Banksters went up considerably more than that. Soon, they will have even more employment opportunities for more groundskeepers, maids; butlers, wine stewards, valets, silver polishers, table attendants ... and more accountants and lobbyists.

[By the way; the title of this post is a line from an almost forgotten piece of Americana: I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus (1972), by the Firesign Theatre. "Ah, Clem" goes by bus to the Future Fair (A fare to all and no fair to anybody!), where he stands on line to meet an audio-animatronic President. In line ahead of him is 'Jim!', an African-American, who asks, "...Mister President -- Where can I get a job??"

The robotic 'President' replies Many busy executives ask me: What about the job displacement market in the city of the future? Well, count on us -- "Jim!" -- to be there! Because if we're successful tomorrow -- we won't have to answer questions like yours, ever again.)

---

Where'd Da Money Go, George?

The TARP, or Troubled Asset Relief Program, is also known as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, or Public Law 110-343, signed by George W. Bush on October 3, 2008, less than a month after the implosion of Merrill-Lynch and the resulting Crash of the Market. It allows the government to purchase or insure up to $700 Billion of "troubled assets", defined as

(A) residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008, the purchase of which the Secretary [of the Treasury] determines promotes financial market stability; and (B) any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability, but only upon transmittal of such determination, in writing, to the appropriate committees of Congress.

The banking sector screamed that this amounted to nationalization of the banking system, but that was never true. The government was supposed to be giving the banks money to purchase the bad loans and take the risk of the bad loans off their books, and on to the backs of the taxpayers.

Gimmie Dat Money!

This was the functional equivalent of FDR's 'Lend-Lease' policy to Britain -- the government gave the financial sector a fire hose. The Banksters would give it back; there was no time limit on returning the money. This assumes, of course, that the Banksters used the money for the reasons it had been given to them in the first place -- to stabilize their operations and allow them to begin lending money again.

You can already see where this is going, can't you?

Wikipedia which tells us that

The effects of the TARP have been widely debated ... For example, a review of investor presentations and conference calls by executives of some two dozen US-based banks by the New York Times found that "few [banks] cited lending as a priority. Further, an overwhelming majority saw the program as a no-strings-attached windfall that could be used to pay down debt, acquire other businesses or invest for the future." [Emphasis added] The article cited several bank chairmen as stating that they viewed the money as available for strategic acquisitions in the future rather than to increase lending to the private sector...

...The Senate Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the TARP concluded on January 9, 2009: "In particular, the Panel sees no evidence that the U.S. Treasury has used TARP funds to support the housing market by avoiding preventable foreclosures". The panel also concluded that "Although half the money has not yet been received by the banks, hundreds of billions of dollars have been injected into the marketplace with no demonstrable effects on lending."

... During 2008, companies that received $295 billion in bailout money had spent $114 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. Banks that received bailout money had compensated their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in 2007, including salaries, cash bonuses, stock options, and benefits including personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships, and professional money management... Graef Crystal, a former compensation consultant and author of "The Crystal Report on Executive Compensation," claimed that the limits on executive pay were "a joke" and that "they’re just allowing companies to defer compensation."

So Where Da Money?

So, there was a pool of almost $700 Billion dollars available to the financial sector under part (A) -- but part (B) meant the government could purchase "any other financial instrument" to "promote market stability". such as majority ownership in an automobile manufacturing company, say.

Pro Publica, launched as a Progressive, factually-based reporting site, provides a full list of all the recipients of TARP funds; you can see it here (found via Barry Ritzholz' The Big Picture). It will show you both who got what, and how much each recipient still has to return to the Treasury.

So, let's pick up our crayons with our soft mouth parts (Oh; sorry - you humans have hands) and do the math:

$607,822,512,238 was available.

(553,918,968,267) was disbursed to 938 recipients.

220,704,475,564 has been returned to the government;

(333,214,492,703) is still in the hands of recipients.

TARP was ostensibly created to purchase bad securities, stabilize their underlying mortgages, and prop up the housing sector of the economy -- homeowners might not fall into foreclosure in droves, and the investment of the large Real-Estate developers would be preserved. And there wouldn't be huge ripple effects through the rest of the economy. But the Banksters took the money, got fatter, and have Robo-Foreclosed on the homeowners anyway.

And this doesn't even begin to get into the Obama administration's $760-plus Billion-dollar Stability package, handed primarily to the Banksters in 2009; or the additional $1.3 Trillion in loans provided to the Banksters through the U.S. Treasury at practically zero interest.

That puts the amount of the burden we carry -- all to make sure that people like Little Lloyd Blankfein can travel between his five or six homes in safety and comfort -- at $2.4 Trillion Dollars.

That we know about.

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Желая Каждый Хорошее Ханука

A Note Being Brief By I. Rabschinski

So, it is time for the first night of the Hanukkah, where we are celebrating lights and days of gifts for SmallChild 01 and SmallChild 02 (also being children which are mine), and for Spouse, who plots to kill the Dog who makes this blog -- though we are trying to talk her out of this extreme of position, usually with distractions ("Hey! Spouse -- Be looking up there!"), and chocolate -- but, the Good from the Switzerland, not krumbly Amerikanyets шоколад which tastes like animal has wiped its back part across your shagging carpet, and then you must lick it.

Hey; you notice how Cyrillic for 'chocolate' -- шоколад -- looks little like "Wonka", maybe? Is deep with the irony, yes? No? Oh, Пожалуйста - получите жизни.

We also enjoy to make the celebration with my Great-Uncle Yehudi, who was wounded in the fight in Great Patriotic War, where he had to have his sense of humor amputated.

This is the actual okay, however: We got him another one many years ago (they are like big grafting of the skin), and so he can watch now the reruns of The Mister Ed and make laughing.

Speaking for myself strictly, a television programme with talking horse ("Oh; Vilbur! Do Not Be Touching Me There!") is like something made by demons. Or Polish people. But, as Uncle Yehudi reminds us, he make the fighting at Kursk and Berlin and we did not ("I did not see you there!") -- so that he could watch 'The Mister Ed' and 'Leaving All To The Beaver' and 'My Three Suns', which Yehudi tells me is science-fiction show. Why he like them, I have not a guess. But still we love him.

So, to all the Mankind, we are wishing is Goot season, Nize season for you and your own SmallChilds, and pets, and the home appliances also. Treat them well -- they watch you when you are not looking and really holding the grudge. So says Uncle Yehudi, and as war hero we must listen to him.

This is same reason why John McCain is, I think, occasionally the popular guy.

I, Rabschinski, say this -- to Moldavish Guy; you also.

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The Great Curmudgeon

Eschaton Screenshot; Saturday, November 27th, 2010
(Click On Image To Increase Size. It's Easy And Fun!)

There were a large number of blogs I used to follow when it was a new phenomenon -- Hey, you can hang out there and pretty much say whatever you want!. By now, as with any industry, for those bloggers who have continued providing analysis and entertainment to the Intertubes, they've developed into tribes, circles of mutually-supporting friends, each with their own sites.

Woe betide you if you bore them, piss them off, or are identified as a Troll. Commenting at their sites is a bit like appearing, the stranger, at someone's party and if you just don't quite fit in... Well, ostracization, 'Blackballing', 'freezing out', or simply "being asked to leave" is what it was once called; I believe the blogging term is they don't get to sit at the cool kids' table, and for the most part, that's pretty much the level where it's at.

I don't try to sit at the kid's table; I'm not a concise or especially original blogger when it comes to social commentary or Left politics, and even when I make jokes as a commentor it's as if I'd made a bad smell in the room.

But, if acclaim as a blogger, or 'getting a name' as a commentor on other blogs is the reason why someone posts, they should forget it. That's the functional equivalent of going into acting just to read the reviews.

Since Before Nine was launched in the Fall of 2008, after a hundred-plus posts and perhaps a thousand individual pageviews, I've had... five comments. It's nice for anyone to receive compliments about what they do, but that isn't why I write; I'd hazard a guess it isn't why the Kool Kidz do their blogs, either.

Eschaton, one of the original, Left blogsites (the Right has it's own, but fuck 'em) I still read for the Pithy, and the links to other things I ought to know -- such as The Irish Crisis (about to be played out in Your Town), and the reminder that the Top Two Percent of America's wealthy who we really work for, so they can live wonderful lives are doing all they can to profit from our collective misery solve these troubling 'bumps in the road' we're experiencing.

It may not help in a practical way -- but to know that there are others who recognize The Crazy as well as yourself, and are capable of expressing concisely and (hopefully) with humor that Yes, You Did Not Get This Wrong; We Are Fucked Beyond Measure... well, validation is incredibly important. And, we need voices to be raised when The Crazy comes -- as a testament, as a protest, as an assertion of our basic humanity.

As DailyKos is referred to fondly on Teh Left as The Great Orange Satan, I refer to Eschaton and its creator (who may or may not be named Duncan Black) as "The Great Curmudgeon" (If you read his site, you'll know what I mean; it's both a personal observation and a wry one -- somebody has to be the Blogger equivalent of the old man, shouting at the political Right Get Off My Constitution And Stop Fucking Us Over, Ya Damn Kids).

Anyway, Black doesn't need my poor Doggy seal of approval for his work -- he gets about a bazillion hits per week -- but if you don't at least occasionally follow his work, you should.

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IT'S OFFICIAL!! 'CLASS WAR' OVER!!

By The Way, We Lost (Village Voice)

[From Bob Herbert's Op-Ed column, "Winning The Class War", in today's New York Times online:]

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Even as millions of out-of-work and otherwise struggling Americans are tightening their belts for the holidays, the nation’s elite are lacing up their dancing shoes and partying like royalty as the millions and billions keep rolling in.

Recessions are for the little people, not for the corporate chiefs and the titans of Wall Street ... They have waged economic warfare against everybody else and are winning big time.


Spring, 2010: The Capo Gives The Soldiers A Taste

The ranks of the poor may be swelling and families forced out of their foreclosed homes may be enduring a nightmarish holiday season, but American companies have just experienced their most profitable quarter ever... the highest total since the government began keeping track more than six decades ago.

...On the same day that The [New York] Times ran its article about the third-quarter surge in profits, it ran a piece on the front page that carried the headline: “With a Swagger, Wallets Out, Wall Street Dares to Celebrate.”


'Wall Street Warrior' Parties Are Very Popular, These Days

...Families on the wrong side of the divide find themselves under increasing pressure to just hold things together: to find the money to pay rent or the mortgage, to fend off bill collectors, to cope with illness and emergencies, and deal with the daily doses of extreme anxiety...


(Photo: Go Here)

Extreme inequality is already contributing mightily to political and other forms of polarization in the U.S. And it is a major force undermining the idea that as citizens we should try to face the nation’s problems... in a reasonably united fashion. When so many people are tumbling toward the bottom, the tendency is to fight among each other for increasingly scarce resources.

...Aristocrats were supposed to be anathema to Americans. Now, while much of the rest of the nation is suffering, they are the only ones who can afford to smile.

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