Interests: the human animal, words, music, not movies, Portland, politics,...
MoreExcellent reporting from Kristof and more cautious words from Obama as another dictatorial U.S. ally slaughters its people.
From the page: You can't blame the voters. In 2006 they voted out the party of endless war and corporate bailouts. In 2008 they voted out the party of endless war and corporate bailouts. And in 2010 they voted out the party of endless war and corporate bailouts.
From the page: "The deficit hysteria aimed at Social Security is fraudulent (as Obama's own experts acknowledge), but the president has already gravely weakened the program's solvency with his payroll-tax holiday, which undercuts financing for future benefits. Obama promises the gimmick won't be repeated, but if employment is still weak a year from now, he may well cave. The GOP will accuse him of damaging the economy by approving a "tax increase" on all workers. Senate Democrats are preparing their own proposal to cut Social Security as a counter to the GOP's extreme version. In the end, they can split the difference and celebrate another great compromise."
The Sept. 1, 1952 issue of Life magazine with The Old Man and the Sea.
From the page: "Congress passed a law following the Exxon-Valdez spill in 1991 that restricted the liability of oil companies in these incidents to $75 million. There are estimates that the damage from this spill to the fishing and tourism industry in the region could exceed $100 billion. Would BP be as anxious to drill recklessly if it knew that it could be picking up this tab?"
In the first three months of 2010, a "total of 932,234 homes, or one out of every 138 households, received a default or auction notice, or were repossessed by banks, the Irvine, California-based firm said today. In March, filings rose 8 percent to the most in any month since RealtyTrac began publishing reports in January 2005.
âoeThe banks are finally working through it,â Rick Sharga, RealtyTracâs executive vice president for marketing, said in a telephone interview. âoeWeâre seeing a resolution for properties that were in foreclosure but where seizure was delayed.â
Unemployed and âoeunderwaterâ homeowners, or those who owe more than their property is worth, are driving foreclosures. The U.S. jobless rate was 9.7 percent in March, unchanged for a third month, the Labor Department reported April 2. More than a fifth of mortgaged homes were underwater in the fourth quarter"
From The New York Times, not The Onion: "In some ways, Tea Party supporters look like the general public. For instance, despite their allusions to Revolutionary War-era tax protesters, most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as "fair." Most send their children to public schools, do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost. They are actually more likely than the general public to have returned their census forms, despite some conservative leaders urging a boycott.
Their fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich. "
From the page: Representatives from the nation's leading flag producer claimed that as many as 143 million deaths in the past two centuries can be attributed directly to the faulty U.S. models, which have been utilized extensively since the 18th century in sectors as diverse as government, the military, and public education.
"nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) say they favor their state allowing the sale and use of marijuana for medical purposes if it is prescribed by a doctor, while 23% are opposed. Support for legalizing medical marijuana spans all major political and demographic groups, and is equally high in states that have and have not already passed laws on this issue"
From the page: "Fully 16% of Americans believe in the "evil eye" or that certain people can cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone."
The Vietnamese morning exercise.
From the page: The identification of securities in the document, known as Schedule A, and data compiled by Bloomberg show that Goldman Sachs underwrote $17.2 billion of the $62.1 billion in CDOs that AIG insured -- more than any other investment bank. Merrill Lynch & Co., now part of Bank of America Corp., created $13.2 billion of the CDOs, and Deutsche Bank AG underwrote $9.5 billion.
These tallies suggest a possible reason why the New York Fed kept so much under wraps, Professor James Cox of Duke University School of Law says: 窶oeThey may have been trying to shield Goldman -- for Goldman窶s sake or out of macro concerns that another investment bank would be at risk.窶
From the page: "The law requires [the Fed] to pursue the goals of price stability and high employment, which is defined as 4.0 percent unemployment. The Fed's own projections show the unemployment rate remaining above 5.0 percent for the next 5 years. With no serious threat to price stability on the horizon (the core inflation rate has been falling), there is no obvious justification for the Fed's failure to more aggressively pursue expansionary policy.
The NYT and the rest of the media should be running stories on the Fed's blatant violation of the law."
From the page: Long silences are nervous-making. After three days I start to feel like a kid at camp: worried that in my absence the rest of the family has moved away without telling me.