Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

Fox News (the gift that keeps on giving) on Mr. Buffett:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201108150031

Can't believe how hard this story about an unemployed dad abandoning his 11-year-old is hitting me.

"There are no jobs for architects..."

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/128464413.html

that is depressing but that guy, assuming he is an architect, probably could have found work somewhere in the country; he sounds like he has some other very serious mental health issues going on.

Oh yeah, totally. It's not strictly economy-related, it's being a single caregiver, unemployed, home repossessed. Sending the son to the neighbor is the craziest part; he's either so depressed he's not thinking clearly -- or he's a complete asshole.

Morro Bay and Carmel? I note this guy is ending up in some reasonably high-flying areas.

he's either so depressed he's not thinking clearly -- or he's a complete asshole

i had typed a nearly identical post, so i'll just say otm

posted a link to dean baker's free (!) new book 'the end of loser liberalism: making markets progressive' already on the rolling US politics thread, and here's a repost

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/books/the-end-of-loser-liberalism?utm_source=CEPR+feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cepr+%28CEPR%29

since it's fundamentally an economics polemic about things like hiking inflation from 2% to 4%, weakening the dollar to boost exports (and job growth) and instituting more euro-style work sharing programs. since he called the housing bubble way back in 2002, he has credibility to burn. it reads like an econ 101 textbook/greatest hits of all the bad policy decisions by the federal reserve since the republican revolution of '94, without sparing democratic sins, either. a nice refresher for fans of our sweet and steady financial slide and a decent primer for anyone curious about why congress is arguing about deficits like a bunch of dumbshits instead of stimulating us back to decent employment rates. and it's free (!)

and it's free (!)

liberal academic elites don't know shit about making money

Maybe they have bigger fish to fry.

those goddamn hippies wouldn't fry a fish

Heed the old wise saying: Give a man a fish and he will have a raw fish. Teach a man to fry a fish and he will eat some fried fish.

Jimmy Buffet for Corpse

lately I been thinkin - I think I got it sorted - too much technology and iLife is making there not be the need to make products anymore like newspapers and batteries that arent rechargable and working from home - thats why the economy is in the badgerbox!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/the-fallacy-behind-tax-holidays/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html

The recession continued to push Americans to double up in households with friends and relatives, especially those ages 25 to 34, a group that experienced a 25 percent increase in the period between 2007, when the recession began, and 2011. Of that group, 45.3 percent were living below the poverty line, when their parents’ incomes were not taken into account.

“We’re risking a new underclass,” said Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Young, less educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless.”

According to Republican talking points, some of these folks are deliberately staying poor to avoid paying income taxes.

So Bank of America is getting ready to shed 30,000+ jobs. Looks like the primary reason is the mortgage mess they got into. I wonder how many of those jobs will be replaced by more robosigners?

awful for the people that are losing their jobs, but would be kind of awesome to interface with a robot to renegotiate a mortgage. or do anything. coz robots are awesome.

According to Republican talking points, some of these folks are deliberately staying poor to avoid paying income taxes.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, September 13, 2011 1:59 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The thing is Republicans have such a strong, irrational hatred of taxes that they can actually believe this.

That article is depressing.

If mo money equals mo problems, then less money surely equals less problems. Q.E.D., Republicans.

Some of the practicalities of unemployment never hit me until I heard an NPR interview with a I want to say Greek guy, in Greece, who talked about how he literally couldn't afford to marry his longterm girlfriend, because that would mean living together, expectations of starting a family, someone staying home with a kid, etc., all of which was beyond his financial means. It was kind of sad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/politics/in-granholm-book-cautionary-economic-lessons-from-michigan.html

“Everything that is hitting the country hit Michigan first,” Ms. Granholm said in an interview, reflecting on eight years in office in which the state’s economic crisis overshadowed all else. Her response to the crisis, she said, was to cut spending, cut government jobs, cut taxes — the very approach now being promoted elsewhere, particularly after Republican victories in statehouses around the country in 2010.

“We tried all of those prescriptions, too,” said Ms. Granholm, whose final term ended with the start of this year. “We did everything that people would want us to do, and yet it didn’t work.”

She added: “Laissez-faire, passivity, tax cuts, hands-off does not work. And, really, that’s the lesson from this laboratory of democracy which is Michigan.”

So Bank of America is getting ready to shed 30,000+ jobs. Looks like the primary reason is the mortgage mess they got into. I wonder how many of those jobs will be replaced by more robosigners?

exacerbated by the fact that they bought out Countrywide in early 2008.

Young, less educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless.

The more usual formulation of this sentence in the past replaced the word "jobless" with "landless". This shows how much times have changed. But, never fear; this situation will ensure an oversupply of cannon fodder for the Imperial stormtroopers, so what we lose in terms of a productive economy we gain in the ability to grab booty from less powerful nations.

post this on the politics thread just now -- krugman crediting the GOP's 'innovation'

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/new-developments-in-the-political-business-cycle/

It’s hard to see the GOP letter threatening Ben Bernanke if he does anything to help the economy as anything but an attempt to invert the political business cycle, pressuring the central bank to ensure a weak economy in the year before the election.

say it ain't so!

So the CR spending bill just failed unexpectedly in the house; the government funding expires Sep 30. I have no idea what this means beyond a vague memory of the "Shutdown" WW episode.

whoops.

lol America?

This situation is what whips (second in command to the speaker) are for. If Boehner can't or won't whip his members into line, then you may as well hang tinsel from his ears and use him as a Christmas tree.

philanthropy stories always make me feel better (just a little bit)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/09/21/george-kaisers-10-billion-bet/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA

this is going viral i think

it was suggested that it was a hoax?

where?

in the comments at least. i guess there's a rumor that he's a yes man but i don't think so.

guardian looking into it.

yeah the yes men are denying involvement and saying this guy is just "a trader being more honest than usual"

it doesn't even seem particularly controversial? if it is a fake, they shoulda gone beyond, well, "a trader being more honest than usual"

yeah i mean the outrage is kind of surprising me? like, i thought we already assumed this was how these slimeballs think

Yeah. There is nothing he says that is contrary to reality, as experienced by a trader. He exagerates when he says Goldman Sachs runs the world, but to a trader that perception is spot on. He could be wrong about the depth of the next crash, but he has probably placed most or all of his bets on that outcome and therefore believes in its truth and has expressed his faith in the most sincere way a trader may do so.

he was re-interviewed by another bbc outlet last night, and was if anything even more irritating/assholish. same basic points made tho.

it's definitely a "let them eat cake" moment

"you have savings in the bank you are worried about losing? you should be shorting stocks!"

This is where it comes in handy that goverments have reserved the use of force to their own province and people like this have no police or armies in place to back them up, unless a government loans them theirs. atm, the wall streeters feel smugly secure in their access to the US goverment's police powers for their protection. If they are not more careful, that reality could flip in a matter of weeks or months.

“Alessio Rastani, 33, is a London stock market trader of Italo-Iranian origin. He regularly visits his relatives in Tehran.”

http://observers.france24.com/content/20101006-iran-youth-flirting-tehran-cars-traffic-jam-boys-girls-iran-zamin

in the other interview he does a 2 minute rant on american consumerism, ignorance, and laziness. if anyone wanted to they could turn off the tv, spend a few weeks in the library, become a trader and protect their assets. kaufmann esque.

it's so easy, why doesn't everybody do it?

"poverty is voluntary"

im tryna find the audio, but i don't think it's posted. it was on bbc world overnight, the presenter was male. i was not aware of the earlier video interview, and dude blew my mind, by the end i was "lol, u trollin."

oh hey

http://www.leadingtrader.com/09/alessio-rastani-a-big-thank-you-from-alessio/

"I have had almost every major news television and radio station in the world wanting to interview me, plus offers for making films and documentaries. "

Just over the course of a couple of days? Quick, let's make a movie about this guy!!!!!!

What hath God wrought?