Thursday, October 29, 2009

SAR #9302

Man cannot live by theories alone, except for economists.

Stock Market Summary: This Market Needs Another Stimulus Package. The Dow is down, the NASDAQ is down, the S&P500 is down. It's time to give away another trillion or two.

Horse's Mouth: Goldman Sachs says that if they cannot deal in the shadows while forcing Joe Public to work in the center ring with spotlights, they wont be able to steal as much money. That's not quite a literal translation, but that's what they meant.

Short, Pointed: The headline: The Worst September For Home Sales Since 1981. Comes with a free chart.

Who Said, and What did they Mean: “The equity markets provide perhaps the best example of a highly evolved complex ecosystem, where care must be taken to preserve the benefits that have evolved from competition and innovation… “ Goldman Sachs, justifying keeping its activities secret.

Confusion: Reports are circulating that one of the Karzai brothers works for the CIA. Just the one?

Catabolic Collapse: Bridges at both end of the country – the San Francisco-Oakland bridge and the Lake Champlain bridge (NY/VT) both have been closed for urgent repairs. Too bad there wasn't any stimulus money left over from feeding Wall Street to put some people to work fixing up this countries rotting infrastructure.

Bonus Question: “Will the US Senate stand for the people or health insurance firms?”

Essay Question: Do US drone attacks on unarmed civilians in non-combatant countries violate international law? Assume for the purposes of your essay that (1) such attacks might happen (2) there are non-combatant countries, and (3) there are international laws that apply to the US.

Quoted:How bad does it have to get in the US before the people finally speak out? Wait and see, because it will be getting worse, a lot worse than you might imagine.”

His Master's Voice: Goldman Sachs now estimates GDP growth in 3Q 2009 to be 2.7%. Don't expect the market to rally anytime soon.

Term of Art: Strategic Non-Foreclosure. There is a growing disparity between mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure starts by the banks. Banks appear to be be foreclosing only about half the number expected by delinquencies. In September the number of house 90+ days delinquent was more than twice the number of foreclosures started. Why? Because the banks want to stick the homeowner with the taxes and maintenance.

Pot, Kettle: The reformed Mr. Gingrich criticizes the unredeemed Beck as "destructive'.

Surge Support Surges: A poll taken in the Pentagon parking lot shows growing support for an increase in troops, more combat command slots, swifter promotions, and more medals. Lots more medals.

Freddie Kruger Moment: Just in time for Halloween, Joe Lieberman (Idiot-Conn.) said that he’d back a GOP filibuster to put a stake through health care reform's heart. Lieberman doesn't want the Congress “to do too much at once.” Or even at twice.

Porn O'Graph: You are here, and wish you weren't.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

@graph:

And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing --- nothing at all.

Anonymous said...

Is the drone signatory to the conventions against attacks on civilians? I think not.

Is the drone sovereign? I think maybe. If the US chooses to recognize the drone as sovereign, then it is sovereign.

Can a sovereign drone attack civilians without violating conventions that is is not signatory to? Of course! Any sovereign is free of the constraints of "international law", particularly such constraints as it has not voluntarily become a signatory to.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

The stanza quoted by Anony 1024 is from Archibald MacLeish's "The End of the World", from the last page of the last section of his Streets in the Moon (1926). Thanks for improving the tone of the place.
ckm

Anonymous said...

Catabolic Collapse: ...put some people to work fixing up this countries rotting infrastructure.

Maybe infrastructure is not the economic panacea everyone believes. Maybe a bit of thoughtful consideration and analysis of infrastructure is in order. Certainly, much of America's highway infrastructure would not have been built but for the power of the OIL and AUTO industries. Now it appears it will cost mucho $$$$ to repair all of this, a lot of which was probably shoddily built in the first place due to political interference. Meanwhile, in the main, neither the AUTOS nor the OIL are produced here but must be imported.

For example, The Poster Boy for Depression Infrastructure, the Hoover Dam
http://www.lvrj.com/news/15581197.html
may have to shut down by 2017. So, that's a ninety year infrastructure project! Not very longlasting and not very well thought out or planned.

So, infrastructure with all its political porking and lobbyist influence is just more of the same economic damage inflicted by a rotten political system.

Time maybe for a Rotten Infrastructure Web Site which advises how one can live around America's Rot.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Anony 233 - Not all politically inspired infrastructure was shoddily built. Some states had, in the 50's & 60's at least, the cost-plus contract for things like roads. The more money the contractor spent building the road, the more profit he made. The bids were on the % and not the cost and once you got the contract it was in your interest to upgrade the materials and construction to increase the costs and thus build your profits, too. System got abused, believe it or not.

But most of our older stuff is decaying at a natural rate - it's the stuff that's but 20 years old that was shoddied together.

And yes, much of the decay is in the highway system which was a gift to the auto industry and oil folks from the happy taxpayers. We could have been more far-sighted, but then we really are not designed that way.
ckm.