Not All That Much Difference

clipped from pajamasmedia.com POLITICO: Inside Murtha’s ‘earmark factory’: Over the course of the past decade, Rep. John P. Murtha has earmarked millions of dollars for the Electro-Optics Center at Penn State University — money that has, in turn, gone to clients of the PMA Group, the Murtha-linked lobbying shop that was raided in November as part of a federal criminal probe. Founded in 1999 as a joint enterprise run by Penn State and the Office of Naval Research, the EOC promotes electronic research needed for state-of-the-art military equipment. But sources familiar with the EOC’s operations say Murtha has used the center as a “front” for PMA and other lobbyists and contractors with ties to the Pennsylvania Democrat. Some Democratic spokespeople are saying that earmarks don’t matter because the amount of money is small compared to the total budget. If that’s true, then outright bribes wouldn’t matter, either, because there’s not all that much difference . . . .

The Short List

clipped from business.theatlantic.com Well, that depends on what you want.  If you want a really nice chap who's spent a lot of time studying one fairly small aspect of the financial system, academics abound.  If, however, you define experience as having a broad sense of how all this stuff works, and an intimate knowledge of the broad US financial regulation system . . . well, where exactly do you get experience with the whole US financial system without, like, working in the US financial system, as either a banker or a regulator? So I suspect that the list of people who: Are US citizens Have never worked in any significant capacity for a failed bank or regulator Have made no substantial "errors" in their taxes or hiring practices Know enough about the global and especially the US financial system to hit the ground running Are prominent enough to come to the attention of Obama's vetting people  . . . is actually pretty short.

Oddly, It's Not Hyperbole

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Many of us who work in finance are even more horrified by what we see than the lay public appears to be. Some of us spoke publically for years about the dangers posed. Others published papers or books to spread the word. Curiously, however, our country's laws would not even permit average families to voluntarily invest in those hedge funds that profited from this crisis by, for example, shorting subprime mortgages. Accordingly, we don't believe that citizenship in the United States should now hurriedly be converted into forced participation in an unaccountable secretive national hedge fund which buys lousy assets at inflated prices from banks mismanaged for personal profit by multi-millionaires, and makes non-consensual capital calls on uninformed, captive, financially unsophisticated families. Oddly, that's not hyperbole. That's a description of what has taken place. It's the reality that's objectively outrageous.

Good Luck With That Analysis Camille

clipped from www.salon.com President Obama should yank the reins and get his staff's noses out of slash-and-burn petty politics. His own dignity and prestige are on the line. If he wants a second term, he needs to project a calmer perspective about the eternal reality of vociferous opposition, which is built into our democratic system. Right now, the White House is starting to look like Raphael's scathing portrait of a pampered, passive Pope Leo X and his materialistic cardinals -- one of the first examples of an artist sending a secret, sardonic message to posterity. Do those shifty, beady-eyed guys needing a shave remind you of anyone? Yes, it's bare-knuckles Chicago pugilism, transplanted to Washington. The charitably well-meaning but hopelessly extravagant Leo X, by the way, managed to mishandle the birth of the Protestant Reformation, which permanently split Christianity.

Umm. He's working to end our democratic system dear...

Orwell Would Be Proud Of Dhimmi Britain

clipped from www.independent.co.uk Last week, it was all smiles and handshakes as Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama put on a show of unity in Washington. But yesterday, Sir Gus O'Donnell, Britain's most senior civil servant, exposed transatlantic tension when he protested that Downing Street was finding it "unbelievably difficult" to plan for next month's G20 summit in London because of problems tracking down senior figures in the US administration. "There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is," the Cabinet Secretary told a civil service conference in Gateshead. The Cabinet Secretary's comments were removed from the website after the Government protested.

Not.

Buffett Calls O A Partisan A--hole ...

clipped from www.slate.com BUFFETT: I think--I think a lot of things should be--job one is to win the war, job--the economic war, job two is to win the economic war, and job three. And you can't expect people to unite behind you if you're trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat. So I would--I would absolutely say for the--for the interim, till we get this one solved, I would not be pushing a lot of things that are--you know are contentious, and I also--I also would do no finger-pointing whatsoever. I would--you know, I would not say, you know, `George'--`the previous administration got us into this.' Forget it. I mean, you know, the Navy made a mistake at Pearl Harbor and had too many ships there. But the idea that we'd spend our time after that, you know, pointing fingers at the Navy, we needed the Navy. So I would--I would--I would--no finger-pointing, no vengeance, none of that stuff. Just look forward. ..[snip] ...

... and is promptly relegated to Siberia by the enemedia. Duh.

Botchmen

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And Perhaps We Can Teach The Iranians How While We're At It

clipped from tech.slashdot.org The US and the UK are trying to refurbish the aging W76 warheads that tip Trident missiles to prolong their life and ensure they are safe and reliable but plans have been put on hold because US scientists have forgotten how to manufacture a mysterious but very hazardous component of the warhead codenamed Fogbank. 'NNSA had lost knowledge of how to manufacture the material because it had kept few records of the process when the material was made in the 1980s, and almost all staff with expertise on production had retired or left the agency,' says the report by a US congressional committee. 'This is like James Bond destroying his instructions as soon as he has read them,' says John Ainslie, the co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, adding that 'perhaps the plans for making Fogbank were so secret that no copies were kept.'

On Avoiding Crisis Wastage

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com In the Telegraph, British columnist Janet Daley exposes the effort, on both sides of the Atlantic, to make an "opportunity" out of the present financial crisis: The story so far: some capitalists behaved very badly. While this was going on, the socialists didn't ask questions because they were too busy spending the receipts that flowed from that behaviour. Now, the socialists - who were happy to look the other way during the good times or even to delude themselves into thinking that they were responsible for them - want to use the ignominy of the capitalists to seize the kind of power they thought they had lost forever. ... In Gordon Brown's fantasy, this is an "opportunity" to exercise control over the whole world. Not just stricter regulation by national governments of their own economic institutions, but a wondrous new level of international regulation by supranational functionaries - to be appointed by whom? A World Government agency accountable to no electorate

Bus Headed For Timmy?

clipped from bosqueboys.com The Obama administration has not shown any urgency or even much inclination to concentrate resources on solving the banking crisis; in fact, they have disingenuously conflated the very serious banking problems with the much more familiar economic recession. The Obama administration has already forced Geithner to the forefront with a half-baked plan, and done essentially nothing to make his life any easier. As things continue to spiral downward, the Obama administration seems more and more prone to roil the waters with attacks on easy targets: fat cats, Rush Limbaugh, CNBC screaming heads, and the previous administration. In the coming days, at a moment of crisis, will Obama play the Geithner card? Fire the Treasury secretary and frame the move as the final break with the tired and bankrupt solutions of the past. No more Bush appointees. No more Robert Rubin acolytes. We need fresh approaches from the Paul Krugman-Robert Reich wing of the Democratic Party.

The Quick Result

clipped from www.realclearmarkets.com it is commonplace for prominent commentators such as the Financial Times' Martin Wolf, and MIT’s Simon Johnson to point to the upcoming G20 conference in London as the moment when the big nations must act effectively and collectively to stem the global financial depression. The London Conference of 1933 is correctly considered a failure that led to a widespread breakdown in national relations, to a helter skelter raising of trade barriers, to random and often sinister currency manipulations, and to a prolonged crushing of commodity prices. It is crucial to understand that the disappointment of the London Conference, the inability of the great powers to find common ground on trade, currency and prices, led to a sense of moral helplessness in Europe. The breakdown at the Disarmament Conference in Paris in the fall of 1933 was a quick result.

Barnett On SysAdmin

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It Doesn't

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com WASHINGTON -- To those who believe that Barack Obama is a different kind of politician -- more honest, more courageous -- please don't examine his administration's budget. If you do, you may sadly conclude that he resembles presidents stretching back to John Kennedy in one crucial respect. He won't tax voters for all the government services they want. That's the main reason we've run budget deficits in 43 of the past 48 years. Obama is a great pretender. He repeatedly says he's doing things that he isn't, trusting his powerful rhetoric to obscure the difference. He has made "responsibility" a personal theme; the budget's cover line is "A New Era of Responsibility." He says the budget begins "making the tough choices necessary to restore fiscal discipline." It doesn't. Like many smart people, he believes he can talk his way around problems. Maybe. He's helped by much of the media, who seem so enthralled with him that they don't see glaring contradictions.

The Sweet Songbun Of War

clipped from www.breitbart.com PYONGYANG/BEIJING, March 9 (AP) - (Kyodo)—North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it. "We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army as saying. If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out "a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the countries, it said. "Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it added.

Of His Choice

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com But that's because the tax rate for the rich guys is more than twice as high as the tax rate for the teacher. They get a bigger "break" because they pay more in taxes to begin with. The unfairness that the Obama administration perceives is built into a system of progressive taxation that includes deductions. In response to nonprofit organizations worried that limiting the deduction for charitable contributions will reduce donations, The Washington Times reports, Orszag "said Mr. Obama took care of that by giving charities government money to make up part of the difference." Orszag noted that "in the recovery act, there's $100 million to support nonprofits and charities." In essence, then, Obama plans to take money people otherwise would have given to the charities of their choice and give it to the charities of his choice.

"Smarter"

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com When Democrats voted for change in November, I'm not sure this what they had in mind: Officials in contact with the State Department said on Sunday that a new offensive would see a dramatic increase in Predator drone attacks on Taliban targets in defiance of Pakistani objections to cross-border attacks. "And so it's very important for us to reach out to the Pakistani government and work with them more effectively." But wait! That's exactly what the Bush administration has been saying for years, which is why it "reached out" to Musharraf's government to "work with them more effectively." Recall, though, that before November, the Democrats pretty unanimously condemned the Bush administration for "reaching out" to the legitimate government of Pakistan. So the bottom line is that, in these respects, at least, the Obama policy is the same as the Bush policy--except, of course, it's "smarter." Let's get Gordon Brown on the line and see what he has to say about that.

All Cashed Up

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Assumed To Be Independent

clipped from www.mudvillegazette.com I'm deeply concerned when I see troop rotations "adjusted" in what appears to be an effort to fool the American public. But I appreciate that the Obama administration can do that in plain sight, even providing press releases detailing exactly how they're doing it. I'm even more concerned that those efforts - and the ramifications thereof - are obvious to an American media assumed to be independent of the Executive Branch but apparently unconcerned about reporting its activities. Item two above was headline grabbing/TV news lead story material - item three indicates it was a fraud. One year ago that would have been a hell of a story, don't you think?

Not by me of course.

Today's D'oh

clipped from pajamasmedia.com TCF Financial Corp., the Wayzata, Minnesota-based bank that never made a subprime loan and hasn’t lost money since 1995, is asking why it should help clean up the mess made by Wall Street. “I’m kind of bitter,” said William Cooper, chief executive officer of the 448-branch bank, adding that over the years TCF has invested about $1 billion in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s fund that guarantees bank deposits. “We pay for the excesses of our competitor over and over again.” TCF is among more than 8,300 banks and lenders insured by the FDIC facing increased fees and a one-time “emergency” charge designed to raise $27 billion this year for the agency’s depleted coffers. Community lenders “are feeling like they are paying for the incompetence and greed of Wall Street,” Fine said this week in an interview.

But What If You Are?

clipped from pajamasmedia.com This semi-opinion piece from the AP is to my mind, less about the economy than it is about the MSM’s changing view of Obama’s economy. The gist of it is that Obama’s ability to pin the current woes on his predecessor declines with each passing day. There’s a line that will be crossed at some time in the future. How far are we from it? Although the administration likes to say it “inherited” the recession and trillion-dollar deficits, the economic wreckage has worsened on Obama’s still-young watch. Every day, the economy is becoming more and more an Obama economy. More than 4 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007 — roughly half in the past three months. Stocks have tumbled to levels not seen since 1997. They are down more than 50 percent from their 2007 highs and 20 percent since Obama’s inauguration. … “You created a situation where you cannot be wrong,” the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Montana Democrat Max Baucus, told Geithner last week.

George W. Obama

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Washington has spent the past couple of weeks debating whether Barack Obama's ambitious agenda and political strategy are more comparable to those of Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. Oddly, hardly anyone is talking about the ways in which Obama is beginning to resemble the man who just vacated the White House. Most Americans are eager to forget about George W. Bush. But just over seven years ago, Bush found himself in much the same position as the new president today -- leading the country through what was universally considered a national emergency. Then, according to today's established wisdom, Bush squandered his chance to lead. Three cardinal errors are commonly cited: The president failed to ask a willing nation for sacrifice, instead inviting consumers to shop and heaping on more tax cuts. Minutes later, Obama spelled out what he proposes this to mean for 98 percent of Americans: "You will not see your taxes increased a single dime. In fact, the recovery plan provides a tax cut

RTWT.

On Societal Collapse As Cover

clipped from article.nationalreview.com What Mr. Brown and the rest of the world want is for America, the engine of the global economy, to pull the rest of them out of the quicksand — which isn’t unreasonable. Even though a big chunk of the subprime/securitization/credit-bubble axis originated in the United States and got exported round the planet, the reality is that almost every one of America’s trading partners will wind up getting far harder hit. And that was before Obama made clear that for him the economy takes a very distant back seat to the massive expansion of government for which it provides cover. That’s why he’s indifferent to the plummeting Dow. The president has made a strategic calculation that, to advance his plans for socialized health care, “green energy,” and a big-government state, it’s to his advantage for things to get worse. And, if things go from bad to worse in America, overseas they’ll go from worse to total societal collapse.

Steyn rocks in this one. RTWT.

Escaping The Crisis

clipped from www.wikihowl.com So you lost your job because you were doing a little too much wheeling and dealing. It is hard to know what to do when you lose your job, especially if you still have teenagers living in the house. You can restore opportunity and prosperity. 1. Announce a Family Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jump-start job creation and long-term growth. 2. Create jobs by hiring your family members. 3. Pay your children to fix up your house. Hopefully you have a few children. 4. Go to the bank and borrow a few hundred thousand dollars. You are going to be using this money to pay salaries to your children. Yes, it is really that simple. Don't forget to set aside a very small portion of the money to buy a few condoms for your children. * If your kids are worried that their kids (your grandkids) are going to have to repay all that money one day, plus a shedload of interest, remind them that they are not going to have children! And that's why Nancy wanted you to buy those condoms.

The key word being "escape" of course. And you know that it's not a good kind of escape...

Missing "Stupid"

clipped from pajamasmedia.com OODA Loops. The ’stupid’ GWB got the US inside most of the OODA loops of the major enemies de jour (NK, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya) which, it is now clear, had established themselves as a loose coalition. While each had their own intentions, all had nuclear ambitions, and all sought to place limits on the US ability to respond in their area. One of the limiting tools they sought to use was AQ (9/11 & etc) and there were many others. Of these actors: NK - stymied Taliban Afghanistan - destroyed Iraq - destroyed Syria - damaged Libya - forced to abjure the game Iran - responded effectively and to a degree countered GWB, but very heavily defeated in its intentions for Iraq Others: Russia. Stymied, but finally capable of limited action on its borders in 2008. 2009’s regime change in the US has swept the board in favour of these enemies de jour.

Hope And Change Coming?

clipped from pajamasmedia.com I live in Northern California, in Sonoma County. The inference is, bastion of liberalism. This morning, I was speaking out front with the neighbors about all of this. Obama was being loudly mocked by the neighbors, and soon several other neighbors came out to share in the jokes. (None of us has ever spoken politics before; I fly the lone American flag on this street.) It was all about the economy, but I said “wait until he turns his attention to foreign policy; wait until he guts our Military. Then we’ll really be in trouble.” Everyone was in agreement, but it feels like even if folks are waking up and there will be a backlash of anti-obama sentiment that may lead to electoral change in 2010, it will be too little, too late. A few minutes ago I noticed that two of those neighbors have their flags flying. Real hope and change coming?

Truth Overcomes Spelling Once Again

clipped from pajamasmedia.com I recently read somewhere(Belmont Club?) that AIG insures the Congressional Retiement Trust, so AIG will never be allowed to fall.

Good News: He's Just In Over His Head

clipped from hotair.com After insulting Gordon Brown during the British prime minister’s visit this week by ignoring protocol and cheaping out on the traditional gift exchange, the UK media has erupted in outrage.  The Obama White House has now started to recognize the firestorm the new President created with our closest ally, and wants to assure the Brits that he meant no disrespect.  Instead, Obama apparently wants to assure them that he’s simply in over his head and floundering (via Radio Equalizer): Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest. I’m not sure which is worse.  At least if he meant to snub Brown, it would suggest a certain competence at this brand of diplomacy.  Instead, we’re told that the Obama White House and their staff are just a bunch of incompetents who got in over their heads.

Can we have W back now? He was just a moron as opposed to the new guy.

Americans Blew The Money (Part 2)

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Americans Blew The Money

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Innumeracy Update (Part 1,000,000,000,000)

clipped from www.pagetutor.com Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars... (And notice those pallets are double stacked.) So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.

Capitalism Without Bankruptcy (Part 29,240)

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Watch the whole thing! Note how absolutely clueless the anchors are.

Capitalism Without Bankruptcy (Part 29,239)

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com From Stephen Moore in the Claremont Review of Books: The[] bailouts did not create the financial meltdown, but it is a good bet that they have contributed to the depths of our current problems and the stock market sell-off. We have robbed healthy companies of funds to pour money down the rat hole of failing industries like General Motors. For the cost of all federal bailouts, we could have suspended the corporate income tax for a year, which would have been a powerful stimulant to growth. The election of Barack Obama and the fear of his across-the-board tax rate hikes on capital gains, dividends, and small businesses have created the most bearish policy environment on Wall Street since the late 1970s. Investors are forward-looking and they are seeing a tsunami of anti-growth policies. The proper response is to sell while you still can -- and that is what investors have been doing en masse.

Within Range

clipped from www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com 'Let us cut them off from being a nation' Leading a concentrated outpouring of venomous hate, Iran's supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Wednesday, March 4, that President Barack Obama is pursuing the same "wrong path" as his predecessor George W. Bush in supporting Israel – "a cancerous tumor" - and he saw no change. "Another big mistake is to say that the only way to save the Palestinian nation is by negotiations." Negotiations with whom?" he asked. "With an occupying and bullying regime...? or negotiations with America and Britain who committed the biggest sin in creating and support this cancerous tumor…? "The story of the Holocaust, a nation without a homeland and a homeland without a nation... are the biggest lies of our era." Alil Jafari, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards's contribution to the event attended by 80 delegations was this: "All Israel's nuclear installations are within range of Iranian missiles."

Frank To Jail. Now. Period.

clipped from www.ibdeditorial.com Oversight: Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted. And we couldn't agree more. First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Even by the extraordinarily loose standards of Congress, it takes some chutzpah for someone such as Frank to suggest that he'll seek prosecutions for those behind the housing and financial crunch and for what he called "a strongly empowered systemic risk regulator." It's hard to say why Frank did all this. It could be his close ties to the Neighborhood Assistance Corp., a powerful housing activist group based in Boston, which controls billions in loans. Or that he received some $40,100 in campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie from 1989 to 2008. Or that he has been romantically linked to a one-time executive at Fannie during the 1990s. If you're looking for a culprit in the meltdown to prosecute, no one fits the bill better than Frank.

I have a friend who argues that the only way to clean up Congress is to make it automatic that with election to a term, you are automatically signed up for an equal length prison term to be served immediately afterward. If you want another term you have to wait to get out of prison before you can run again.

Frank is the poster boy who will put a constitutional amendment to enforce this obviously needed rule over the top very soon now...

Kind Of The President

clipped from jimtreacher.com Obama: What? What is it? [LOOKS UP, NOT QUITE MAKING EYE CONTACT] Oh. It's you. Great. [RETURNS TO STARING AT PAPERS] Brown: Hurm. Yes. Well. Have a seat, should I? [INDICATES CHAIR BEHIND HIM, WAITS FOR SOME SORT OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT, FINALLY SITS DOWN ANYWAY] So. It's. Did you, did you get the gifts I brought? The pen set is composed of wood from the sister ship of the one that was used to make the very desk you're-- Obama: [STILL NOT LOOKING UP] Yes. Yes, I saw it. Alright? Jeez... [UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE] Oh yeah. Forgot. [DIGS THROUGH PAPERS, FINDS DVD CASE UNDER ONE STACK, TOSSES IT INTO BROWN'S LAP] Brown: Oh! Very, uh, very nice. [PICKS IT UP, PULLS READING GLASSES FROM SHIRT POCKET] It's, let me... Yes We Can! The Barack Obama Story. Ah. That's. Uhm. Well, I certainly-- Obama: [SIGHING LOUDLY, STILL NOT LOOKING UP] Will there be anything else? I don't know if you noticed, but I'm kind of the President?

And A Comment And A Half (Including Today's Innumeracy Update)

clipped from spectator.org And please point out these imaginary Clinton budget surpluses (hint learn what Intergovernmental Holdings are): National debt: 1993 - $4.411T 1994 - $4.693T 1995 - $4.974T 1996 - $5.225T 1997 - $5.413T 1998 - $5.526T 1999 - $5.656T 2000 - $5.674T 2001 - $5.807T Marc Jeric| 3.7.09 @ 12:53PM I escaped from a communist country in 1957; after 5 years in France as political refugee I finally came here in US. After a few years of reading American press I started calling the NY Times the New York Pravda, The Washington Post I called the Washington Izvyestiya, etc. So nobody should be surprised with that Time shody piece of communist propaganda.

Heh: Blah Blah Blah Ginger Blah Blah Ginger

clipped from spectator.org Stan Redmond| 3.6.09 @ 12:39PM Facts Shmacts. Facts don't sway democrats' endless quest to pin the blame on all the world's problems on George W. Bush and insulate the disastrous policies of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. And most democrat voters are just too ignorant of the facts and vote based on emotions and feelings. It reminds me of a cartoon from "the Far Side." A dog is being scolded by her owner and the caption says "what they hear" and all the dog hears is "blah blah blah Ginger. blah blah Ginger. blah blah..." It's the same with many democrat voters. "blah blah Bush and Cox blah blah Obama inherited recession blah blah Conservatives to blame blah blah blah lack of regulation blah blah blah Obama to save 6 billion jobs in all 57 states blah blah blah, Next on American idol!"

A Couple Of Comments...

clipped from spectator.org Ed | 3.6.09 @ 12:01PM Anon, sorry but Mary Shapiro is probably the SOURCE for the "Time" fairy tale. The notion that financial markets are "underregulated" is laughable. The "all knowing" government regulators tried to get Citi to buy Wachovia for $1/share until Wells Fargo offered $7/share. Government rules caused this meltdown. I could go on forever with examples of fools in government screwing up the financial system but I will end with this, THE GOVERNMENT IS RUNNING A PONZI SCHEME, RIGHT NOW, THAT MAKES THE MADOFF THEFT LOOK LIKE CHUMP CHANGE. Care to guess the name of this program? John| 3.6.09 @ 12:11PM I think Time magazine probably bottomed out with its asinine global warming cover piece back in April 2006. That's as good a date as any to mark the complete collapse of integrity among the mainstream newsmagazines. It seems that a degenerate education system, including corrupt schools of journalism, is now taking its ferocious toll on the larger culture.

Cox And The Oxymoron Of "Free Financial Markets"

clipped from spectator.org Now -- why is all this important? Because only by such misdirection, by finding a convenient conservative scapegoat to feed the narrative of conservative neglect and/or ideologically based obstruction, can the establishment media shift the blame for today's mess onto the whole idea of free markets and onto its advocates. What's at stake here isn't just Chris Cox's reputation, but the popular history that could shape economic decision-making for decades to come. Time's misuse of the Aguirre incident -- a gentle zephyr, not a tempest nor a Teapot Dome -- was just one example of how the magazine accomplished its smear. The whole Weisskopf article was rife with similar flagrant dishonesties.