n e u f n e u f: what a deplorable state of affairs

22 January 2010

what a deplorable state of affairs

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Yesterday morning, while trying to get my coffee happening and trying to confirm this ugly rumor about the Supremes I'd found in my email, I ventured over to Karl Malden's "blog" to get a fast headline, it being the perfect resort for the not-insentient-but-not-functional, which is a good approximation of me before I've had some coffee. There in blinking neon was the "news" of Obama's big fakeout in response to the drubbing he got on Tuesday night. Pfeh, sez befuddled me, the Supremes can't have done it if that twaddle is the headline... can they?

Well, yes, they could... actually... it was the next story down... Obama's feint, I guessed, following the maxim, "If it bleeds, it leads," or something.... That's too stupid to be borne and so I didn't. I went off to more reliable sources for the story of our entire lives and left the feint for the rubes. Nomi Prins, however, decided to go for our glib president's jugular, this banking debacle being her bailiwick, and I'm glad she did. We are going to have a long time suffering yesterday's biggest news:

The cliff notes from the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board chief economist Austan Goolsbee on yesterday’s press call were: A mandatory ban to prohibit proprietary trading (but not all trading) by firms that own banks. Regulators would prevent commercial banks from owning hedge or private equity funds, and limit non-client related trading. There would remain no limit on investment banks not designated bank or financial holding companies. Regulators could constrain the size of banks, but not break them up. Most important, there would be no return to Glass-Steagall, which divided commercial and investment banks.

Bless her. Bless her. Bless her for contributing to the clarity and better sense of the battered electorate.

Today, I'm actually sort of sorry I don't have a tv. I would have switched it on to get the images of my fellows out rioting in the streets or hold myself some sort of groggy wake upon not finding those images and throw an ashtray through the screen....
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No, really....
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Women really are the other half of the sky.
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