THE ECONOMICS OF LIARS

A friend asked me today what I thought was causing today's roller coaster of market lunges.  He looked at the variation in the ups and downs and immediately assumed that the problem was with computer trading.  I told him I doubted his theory because reforms were put in place during the late '80s to help limit that volatility.  Then I referred him to Robert Reich's blog.

Robert Reich wrote:

It's not likely to do all that much good because no one knows how much bad debt there is out there. Even if the government bought a lot of it, investors and lenders still couldn't be sure how much remained. After all, big banks have already written down hundreds of billions of bad debts, and that hasn't restored confidence in the Street. As the economy slows, bad debts will grow.

Later my friend came back to ponder how long the markets would gyrate and what it meant to his 401k.  That's when things got interesting.  While my buddy was focused on assessing the true "mark to market" value, I told him he was missing the most important point Robert had made.  That point is that the bail out did nothing to restore confidence in the markets.

That is when the conversation turned to prudent regulations.  But I pushed back on that too.  I don't believe any amounts of regulations will fix the markets until we impeach and punish the administration I told him.  My friend was immediately put off by my comment and said I was too partisan to look at this clearly.  I smiled when he said it and asked for him to be patient enough to allow me to explain how my comment was not partisan at all.

I asked him to consider this scenario.  If he had $1000 in his pocket that he didn't need for a while when two people asked him for a $1000 loan.  Then I told him that he knew both parties were easily able to pay him back according to his terms and that he could name the interest rate.  I told him that one person had a record of always being trustworthy and his word was his bond, but that the other person may use the same words but couldn't be trusted to actually carry them out even if he had the money to repay the loan.  I asked him who he would loan the money to.  The answer was immediately obvious to him then.

Next I asked him if the world thought that our country was run by people that were trust worthy?  Did they obey the laws.  Were their words reliable.  He said the administration did follow the laws and could be trusted.

I pushed back.  Did they follow the law when waterboarding was allowed?  How about when Scooter Libby outted Valerie Wilson? Did they follow the laws when spying on Americans without warrants became policy?  Did they follow the laws then Monica Goodling helped load the Justice Department full of "good" Republicans?  Did they follow the laws when they fired US District Attorneys so they could install attorneys that would prosecute Democrats?  Did they change any laws when Enron stole the pension funds from their employees?  Are golden parachutes continuing to be paid?  He stopped me because he has heard me go on a rant before.

He answered no to all of my questions.  He didn't believe they followed the law and I'm sure nobody around the world sees it much different.  Then I asked him if laws or regulations matter in our country to the point that anyone would be confident in our system.  That's when he understood.

Absent justice we will continue to suffer diminished confidence in the American way of life.  We need to start impeachment hearings on this President and we must punish the people who have blatantly disregarded the law.  This must be done in the light of day for the world to see if we want to restore what it means to invest in America.

Aye

dios mio
Que maldad.
amor prohibido
amor compromisado
AMOR DESGRACIADO
because I miss Selena & her roots.

Eat my dust you insensitive fuck
WHAT?

SPACE COWBOYS

Ingredients: 1.0 oz. Shot of your fav' vodka Vodka 6.0 oz Use as little or as much as you think is good Tang.
Directions: Mix up some tang and while you do, think about the Apollo 11 crew getting trashed. Put in as much tang in a glass (use your own judgment, like 6oz) and then add a shot of vodka.

Beware government is inept:
"A review of the State Department documents reveals distressing ineptitude," CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan said in a prepared statement. "Countries were trying to donate desperately needed goods and services, but as a result of bureaucratic bungling and indifference, those most in need of these generous offers and of aid never received it."

Do not use  Tang and Vodka while under American Jurisdiction.  Blamed for countless numbers of ineptitude.

The report confirmed that al-Rawi, 39, was only held after MI5 sent the CIA a telegram, stating he was an 'Islamic extremist' who had a timer for an improvised bomb in his luggage. In reality, before al-Rawi left London, police confirmed the device was a battery charger from Argos.

Voter Caging  How secure is your right to vote? NOW investigates a secret Republican plan designed to disqualify voters. GO

h/t MMRules

RECIPE FOR DESPOTISM

'National interest' halts BAE arms corruption inquiry

BE HAPPY

Update: Blair brushes it off then Goldsmith gets uncomfortable.

9-11 FINANCIER AMBASSADOR TO US LEAVES

That's right, Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Prince ambassador to the United States, who Abu Zubaydah  fingered as a key 9-11 financier has left the country and quit his post.

This Texan says YEE HA!

I hate that worthless piece of work.

 

Reminds me of the evil scientist in "LOST IN SPACE", Dr. Smith.

You can still catch him on CNN Late Edition from Sunday December 3'rd here:

Play Video

His interview is at 31 minutees 30 seconds if you want to fast forward.

In the interview Turki-Al-Liar says:

BLITZER: Here's what Nawaf Obaid, who's described as an advisor to the Saudi government, wrote in The Washington Post this week: "The Saudi leadership is preparing to substantially revise its Iraq policy. Options now include providing Sunni military leaders (primarily ex- Baathist members of the former Iraqi officer corps who make up the backbone of the insurgency) with the same types of assistance -- funding, arms and logistical support -- that Iran has been giving to Shiite armed groups for years."

Is he right?

AL-FAISAL: Absolutely not. And there has been a statement that came out from my government negating these views of Mr. Obaid. Mr. Obaid did some consultancy work for the embassy. And in order to, as he explained in his article, that he was expressing his views on these issues and to make sure that nobody misunderstands where Saudi Arabia and the embassy stand on that issue, we terminated our consultancy work with him.

BLITZER: So he's no longer advising your government?

AL-FAISAL: So that his independence, as he expressed it the article, will remain 100 percent.

BLITZER: So there's no notion of Saudi Arabia doing in Iraq with the Sunnis what Iran is doing in Iraq with the Shia?
 

That was on the 3rd.  Today the New York Times says "Saudi Arabia has told the Bush administration that it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq’s Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq".  He has never told the truth as far as I know.

If you don't know the history of Saudi Arabia, you might want to read Wikipedia's condensed summary. You can also do a search for "Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar Rahman Al Saud" in the Library of congress site to help you figure it all out.  You will get a big dose of reality of how money and oil work when you read the history and see how it works in the present.  It's all a story about how democracies prop up despots who use the peoples of their country to set up slush funds in the quest for ultimate power and luxury.  It's nice being on the elite side.

WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?

Do you rant against the Corporatists? Do you feel like the masses are loosing their jobs through Globalization? Do you feel Democracies are supporting Despots to keep their wealthy happy while our own middle class collapses and poverty accelerates around the world? Do you worry about Global Warming? Maybe you feel enslaved to life sustaining drugs?

Visit the web site here.

Do you wonder what can be done? Can Gangster Capitalist greed implode through humanitarian desires? Are there any answers to the worlds massive problems? Is there any hope we can cling to? How can I get involved? Can we all succeed and profit too? How can we fight corporate greed?

Are there any simple answers?