I, for one, am not all that sympathetic

In the middle of a recession a federal judge from Connecticut is resigning because he can't seem to get by on his salary of $169,300; an income that, without any additions and I'm sure he has some, puts him well within the top 5%. Of course, he is a Republican!

America's real entitlement problem

The (not very) eminent bad comedian and worse columnist Ben Stein has penned a column that seems to ask us to feel sorry for those who shouldn't have any expectation that anyone should feel sorry for them; especially in a nation that prides itself on "hard work" and "self reliance" (whatever meaning either of them have in modern America). Whilst he eventually extols the virtues of "saving" he seems to miss the basic problem entirely, especially in the case of his first example.

His first sob story relates to a woman that he "has known since she was a teenager" without noting how long that may have been. Her terrible story is that she is living in a "house", and I use the word reservedly, on which she has a 2,200,000 USD interest only mortgage with payments of about 12,000 USD a month. She is scrapping by on 20,000 USD graciously provided by her ex-husband (10K in the form of child support and 10K in alimony). Fortunately she seems to have a sugar daddy of some sort who helps out by picking up the credit card bills and other incidentals that her additional 8,000 a month doesn't seem to cover. She has a bit of a shop that Mr. Stein seems to describe as a hobby rather than an enterprise. Suddenly because the value of her "house" is falling and her alimony is running out she is suddenly worried about money. I don't know how long she has been sucking at the entitlement teat but she has clearly, for reasons not entirely clear, been living well beyond her means.

There are currently, and there will be many more, tragic victims of the economic crisis in America and across the world. This woman is clearly not one of them. I don't mean to sound hard and unfeeling but is there any other option in this case?

Mr. Stein's other worry seems to be case of his handsome, if irresponsible, son who seems to have gone and got himself married even though his only means of support seems to be his father.

I haven't even crocodile tears for these Americans who seem to feel that not only does America owe them a living (without working or working very hard) but it owes them a living and a lifestyle that very, very few of the planet's 6,000,000,000 human being can even dream of.

Come the revolution!

Finally we know!

The credit crunch is not the fault of greedy bankers as those capitalism hating Euro-socialists would have you believe. It is the fault of Bromley and Beckenham local hero David Bowie; or at least that is what The Daily Mirror would have us believe.

I must be prescient

I had completely forgotten that, way back in July, I had reserved a copy of The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us Our Future before the Gods really failed! I've just picked it up. I'll let you know how it is.

Now if I could just pick horses!

Nil points

A Deutsche Bank analyst has set a target value 0f $0.00/share for the once lofty General Motors with predictable results.

Attention American "conservatives"

Progressive taxation is not income redistribution. This gift of of nearly $150,000,000,000 to America's banks IS income redistribution.

The economic climate sucks for almost everyone...

...but not everyone. 3rd quarter earnings are being announced in the energy sector and if you're Valero Energy (42% year on year), Murphy Oil (+190% year on year), Marathon Oil (+102% year on year) or Occidental Petroleum (+72% year on year) things are pretty good indeed. There there's Royal Dutch Shell, whose profit rose 71% to $10,900,000,000 for the quarter (or about $120,000,000 a day); British Petroleum whose profits rose 148% to $11,500,000,000 for the quarter (about $126,000,000 a day); and of course my old employer Exxon whose profits rose a mere 58% to $14,800,000,000 ($163,000,000 a day) to shatter its own quarterly profits record.

Life is good, eh?

If it walks like a mea culpa...

...and talks like a mea culpa it's probably a mea culpa. Former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the revered and beloved Alan Greenspan, announces that he is shocked and appalled that the unregulated markets he so vociferously promoted just don't seem to work.

Meanwhile in Cloud Cuckoo Land

The American Taxpayer is poised to pour $700,000,000,000 or more into the country's failing banking industry but the news of the failure of the banking industry hasn't yet reached the payroll departments of said banks as somewhere around 10% of that money is going to be immediately siphoned off into the bank accounts (probably off shore) of the banks' top staff. Money well spent I'd say.

Of course before we get to high and mighty about this on my side of the Big Water we should probably note that the bonuses are still bubbling up in The City.

I think I gotta get me one of these "jobs".

It must have been all that free checking

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is having a wee look at now defunct Washington Mutual.

And the Lord saw socialism...

...and decided that it was good. Elsewhere this year's Economics Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman decides that Gordon Brown wears his pants on the outside.

Hero of the day

Meet Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart who has refused to continue to carry out evictions under the current rules. Sheriff Dart found his staff often being ordered to evict tenants from rented accommodation, even though they had been faithfully paying their rent, when the owner's mortgage was foreclosed. The banks in general made no attempt to notify the tenants when repossession procedures were undertaken and left that to Sheriff Dart and his employees.

Would this be a good time to privatise Social Security?

In a word "NO" as news reaches us that retirement accounts have lost $2,000,000,000,000 over the past 5 quarters.

Don't worry your $700,000,000,000 is in safe hands...

...because if you can't trust a former executive of a company that couldn't make it as an investment bank with your money, who the hell can you trust?

"How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways."

Republi-dent Senator Holy Joe Lieberman opines that passing the "bail out" is important because it will help John McCain! Whatever happened to country first?

Even The Guardian has noticed...

...that Bill-o O'Reilly has lost his mind.



Having watched this again I am starting to wonder if Bill-o didn't lose a bit of money on Fanny Mae and her brother....

It must have been all that free checking

Washington Mutual has slipped into bankruptcy after the sale of its banking operations to JP Morgan with the potential loss of thousands of jobs. But at least one ex-employee won't risk financial disaster; the CEO of the failed institution Alan Fishman stands to get $13 million in severance after roughly two months on the job. Heartwarming.

Shorter US Treasury spokesperson explaing the $700,000,000,000 price tag on the free money for US banks

"Pick a number, any number, just make sure it's a bloody big one."

And they get (handsomely) paid for this.

An imaginary transcript of the emergency meeting between Captain Codpiece & his potential successors

"I've fucked it up big time; one of you is stuck with it. I'm off to ride me bike."

1,000 reasons John McCain shouldn't be President

Number 89: John McCain suddenly wants to postpone Friday's debate to concentrate on a subject he admits he knows nothing about. Seriously, what the fuck is he going to do? Stump up a bit of Cindy's fortune for the good of the American people. Unlikely I'd say.