Robert Rubin was President Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury. In that position he was instrumental in passing the bill that helped unleash the investment bank insanity that ruined the economy. After Clinton left office he went to Citibank, where for a paltry $20 million a year, he had sure the economy would crash.
In President Obama's worst move, he let Rubin and his cohorts continue the cozy Wall Street/Treasury/Econ Policy cabal after Bush. You would think with that sort of resume he would have the decency to quietly disappear to a cabin in the woods to write his memoirs. You would be wrong.
He's still pontificating and still talking shit. Today, both he and former Bush Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neil both said that a second stimulus might create uncertainty and undermine confidence.
All evidence points to a slowing of the tepid growth the economy has experienced over the past six months. Job growth has stalled and any hiring in the private sector is being more than offset by layoffs in the public sector.
O'Neill said that companies are concerned about demand and won't expand facilities or hire employees until sales have improved. Rubin added that things are bumpy bot not terrible. It's easy to say that when screwing the economy earned him something north of $100 million.
So according to these two clowns, businesses are not expanding because they don't have confidence that sales will grow but if we spend more money to stimulate demand that will undermine confidence.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. (This privacy policy is applicable to websites falling under the primary holder )
Routine Information Collection
All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.
Cookies and Web Beacons
Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.
Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.
Controlling Your Privacy
Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.
Special Note About Google Advertising
Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.
About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher’s website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
Contact Information
Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to Philip Cramer at frob22@gmail.com
We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. (This privacy policy is applicable to websites falling under the primary holder )
Routine Information Collection
All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.
Cookies and Web Beacons
Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.
Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.
Controlling Your Privacy
Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.
Special Note About Google Advertising
Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.
About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher’s website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
Contact Information
Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to Philip Cramer at frob22@gmail.com
Friday, August 6, 2010
Paul Krugman rips the newest GOP fiscal genius
The Flimflam Man
That will go over well. Then again, maybe not.
One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans. You might have thought, given past experience, that D.C. insiders would be on their guard against conservatives with grandiose plans. But no: as long as someone on the right claims to have bold new proposals, he’s hailed as an innovative thinker. And nobody checks his arithmetic.
And I do mean slash. The Tax Policy Center finds that the Ryan plan would cut taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population in half, giving them 117 percent of the plan’s total tax cuts. That’s not a misprint. Even as it slashed taxes at the top, the plan would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population.
That will go over well. Then again, maybe not.
Conspiracies are everywhere.
Denver has just introduced a bike sharing program. Funded purely by private corporations including the largest sum from Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit hospital chain, the program makes 400 bikes available at 40 stations for people to use. Membership fees keep the program cost effective and sustainable. Sounds good, doesn't it.
Not to GOP and Tea Party favored candidate for governor, Dan Maes. According to him, the program is part of a vast conspiracy.
First they give us bikes to use and before you know it, they'll be herding us all into camps and enslaving us and then they'll impose Sharia Law. It's so damn obvious, I'm surprised no-one figured this out sooner.
Not to GOP and Tea Party favored candidate for governor, Dan Maes. According to him, the program is part of a vast conspiracy.
It's "converting Denver into a United Nations community."
"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.
Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have."
"This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said.
First they give us bikes to use and before you know it, they'll be herding us all into camps and enslaving us and then they'll impose Sharia Law. It's so damn obvious, I'm surprised no-one figured this out sooner.
Terminally ill man faces eviction for prescribed medical marijuana use
A terminally ill man is facing eviction in Nevada where medical marijuana is legal. He has a prescription signed by his doctor but this isn't good enough for a housing complex where he has lived for 17 years.
Compassion is obviously in short supply.
Compassion is obviously in short supply.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Arthur Lee and Love
One of the great unappreciated bands. Arthur Lee died four years ago today. He led a tragic but brilliant life. His music lives on.
Shatton Angle is also a douchebag
Sharron Angle, the Tea Party favorite running to unseat Harry Reid in Nevada said yesterday that the media should only ask her questions she wants to answer.
What a chickenshit coward.
What a chickenshit coward.
Rand Paul is a douchebag
Rand Paul, the libertarian/Tea Party Senate candidate for Kentucky might just be a gift for the Democrats he seat, normally a safe GOP is in play. That doesn't mean he's a douchebag of the highest order.
A couple of days ago he argued that safety regulations in coal mines should be abolished because "no-one will work in a mine that isn't safe". Tell that to the families of the 29 miners killed in West Virginia in a mine that had a history of safety violations.
Kentucky is a large coal mining state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
He also argued recently that hilltop removal for coal mining is a good thing. He said it makes the landscape look better and you can build things on them. Hilltop removal also led to the largest inland case of environmental pollution, ruining thousands of miles of rivers in the south.
Oh, and by the way, since the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court that allows corporations unlimited political contribution, the coal mining industry has been pouring milions into supporting his candidacy.
A couple of days ago he argued that safety regulations in coal mines should be abolished because "no-one will work in a mine that isn't safe". Tell that to the families of the 29 miners killed in West Virginia in a mine that had a history of safety violations.
Kentucky is a large coal mining state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
He also argued recently that hilltop removal for coal mining is a good thing. He said it makes the landscape look better and you can build things on them. Hilltop removal also led to the largest inland case of environmental pollution, ruining thousands of miles of rivers in the south.
Oh, and by the way, since the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court that allows corporations unlimited political contribution, the coal mining industry has been pouring milions into supporting his candidacy.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Sharia Law - not in our back yard.
As I wrote about earlier, the new Iowa GOP platform includes their opposition to the imposition of Sharia law in America. The implication of including something that on the face of it, is an absurd impossibility shows that many on the far right somehow believe that this is a real possibility with a President who's middle name is Hussein and who spent a few years in an being educated in an Islamic madrassa, despite a complete absence of proof.
Including it in their platform is about as redundant as opposing sexual molestation of children or opposing the reintroduction of slavery but then any conspiracy on the right, no matter how far fetched never seems to go away.
It's an idea that has been floating around on the right for some time now. It's manifested in the opposition to the Muslim center being built, near, not at ground zero as most opponents suggest. The building of a mosque is also at the source of an election battle in Murfreesboro in Tennessee where one Republican candidate has described Islam as a cult, not a religion.
In Florida, a church has scheduled a Koran burning celebration while in Southern California opponents have come up with a new wrinkle. They urge protesters to bring dogs to a demonstration against a mosque because 'Muslims hate togs".
Over the weekend a mosque and educational center in the Dallas area was vandalized with offensive graffiti and fire, causing $20,000 in damage.
Imagine the outrage if the shoe was on the other foot and a church in a predominantly Muslim country was similarly vandalized or if a mosque decided to hold a 'a bible burning' ceremony.
To it's credit, the Bush administration did an excellent job in tamping down most anti-Muslim sentiment in the aftermath of 9/11. It seems that lesson has long been forgotten by the right.
The assumption among many on the right is that all Muslims are either Jihadists or potential Jihadists so offending any of or all Muslims is justified. The people doing the above will differentiate themselves from their fanatical Islamic counterparts by claiming that we don't fly jetliners into buildings or blow ourselves up to kill all those around them. We are civilized and they are not. The comparative levels of fanaticism. however, are far more difficult to separate absent actions of terrorism.
There is no doubt these anti-Islam protests and actions are getting far more publicity in Muslim countries. There is equally no doubt that this is giving Islamic militants more fuel for their hatred of all things Western. These actions will push moderates into the Jihadi camp.
Have we learned nothing from the past? The military and CIA in questioning prisoners in Iraq found that the atrocities at Abu Ghraib did more to help Al Qaeda's recruiting than any anything else. To quote Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."
Including it in their platform is about as redundant as opposing sexual molestation of children or opposing the reintroduction of slavery but then any conspiracy on the right, no matter how far fetched never seems to go away.
It's an idea that has been floating around on the right for some time now. It's manifested in the opposition to the Muslim center being built, near, not at ground zero as most opponents suggest. The building of a mosque is also at the source of an election battle in Murfreesboro in Tennessee where one Republican candidate has described Islam as a cult, not a religion.
In Florida, a church has scheduled a Koran burning celebration while in Southern California opponents have come up with a new wrinkle. They urge protesters to bring dogs to a demonstration against a mosque because 'Muslims hate togs".
Over the weekend a mosque and educational center in the Dallas area was vandalized with offensive graffiti and fire, causing $20,000 in damage.
Imagine the outrage if the shoe was on the other foot and a church in a predominantly Muslim country was similarly vandalized or if a mosque decided to hold a 'a bible burning' ceremony.
To it's credit, the Bush administration did an excellent job in tamping down most anti-Muslim sentiment in the aftermath of 9/11. It seems that lesson has long been forgotten by the right.
The assumption among many on the right is that all Muslims are either Jihadists or potential Jihadists so offending any of or all Muslims is justified. The people doing the above will differentiate themselves from their fanatical Islamic counterparts by claiming that we don't fly jetliners into buildings or blow ourselves up to kill all those around them. We are civilized and they are not. The comparative levels of fanaticism. however, are far more difficult to separate absent actions of terrorism.
There is no doubt these anti-Islam protests and actions are getting far more publicity in Muslim countries. There is equally no doubt that this is giving Islamic militants more fuel for their hatred of all things Western. These actions will push moderates into the Jihadi camp.
Have we learned nothing from the past? The military and CIA in questioning prisoners in Iraq found that the atrocities at Abu Ghraib did more to help Al Qaeda's recruiting than any anything else. To quote Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)