$700 Billion Dollars: Dr. Evil would be aghast

How can one deny that the U.S. Economy is in a shambles now? How did John McCain get to be nominee of his party with his lack of understanding of basic market fundamentals? Why did this all happen? At my other blog - Bringin' Gas and Dialin' 9 - I posted about this Perfect Storm in mid-July but only one person responded to the charge, a Brit with wit.
The idea of us going into a Great Depression was bantered about on March 14, 2008 as the fall of Bear Stearnes took place. That almost seems trivial as Lehman Brothers, IndyMac Bank and others visited Davey Jones.

But is $700 Billion to Wall Street really the answer? Dr. Evil would blush amid scornful reminders of his idiotic plan: "I will launch a 'Death ray' aimed at Wall Streeters, to sooth my pain...Nice pussy" (Petting his cat.)

It was interesting to watch Hillary Clinton on Today, whose husband signed the law that made this collapse possible (with Phil Gramm's urging), call this "The Perfect Storm." No shit. You suddenly are a writer using wit to score points amid this fiasco you call a market?

Frankly, if $700 Billion is available, I would suggest the following distribution:

1. Wall Street has access to a $100 Billion credit window. Only if they do the following:

a) the 50 largest banks in the world (if such a number exists) sit down daily between 1PM and midnight in New York (or via satellite) and discuss the bad debt they generated. They argue and discuss the whole problem everyday for as long as it takes to figure out whose got what, what can be salvaged and where does regulation of these exotic financial instruments go from here. I expect, no, require 2-3 weeks worth of hard work out of these $2,500 suits wearers.

b) set up reasonable terms with people making $50,000 per year and have a mortgage. Cut back their cut and tell their stockholders it is this or, "the government will let us collapse."

2. $200 Billion in infrastructure investments. Roads, Schools, Electrical power, storm walls and things that people need immediately done in their areas. This isn't rocket science, we know where the poor people are and what they are not getting.

3. 150 Billion in investments in energy and high-technology solutions to pressing environmental and energy crisis. The cars we drive are terrible on gas. Fix them. The analysis on global warming and farming concerns lack. Get'er done.

4. $100 Billion to people that can not get student loans, car loans, home improvements or other needed upgrades. 2% interest rates per annum. Guaranteed qualification for it. Must make under $50,000 per year.

5. $150 Billion in job retooling of America. The country needs more than fast food, retail outlets and government teets to suck on. It needs an industrial, technological might that kept us near or at the top.

6. Foreign aid. (Of the $700 Billion, 21 Billion should go to overseas development in Africa and other struggling countries. Somehow, I think we can get people to join the Peace Corps or other worthwhile endeavors if we pay the way for them to work on pressing issues.)

That's my plan. Wall Street doesn't get nickels for nothing.

Clinched!:Someday We’ll Go All The Way!!!

In eager anticipation of the 2008 NL Central title by your Chicago Cubs, I am posting the new and only theme song the Cubs will ever need again. As rock legend Eddie Vedder belts out the best (or the most recent best) song about baseball glory.

The Cubs are at the edge of greatness once again. The last time they appeared in back-to-back post seasons was nearly the time William Howard Taft was taking office. (Right) (His half-brother, Charles, owned the Cubs for a short time.)

In honor of these heady times, A video masterpiece by fahrenba with Vedder’s “Someday We’ll Go All The Way” supporting the pics is in order.



The Cubs are blessed to have such diehards.

In a world filled with greed, as Vedder states, and the videophotographer points out, while in the simple act of playing a child’s game to such excellence in front of 3 million plus fans yearly, makes up for that avarice seen in many, many folks. It has to, or else, the world becomes rather meaningless.

The 2008 Cubs year has seen many runs on history.

Winning more games than in a very long time. (1984)
Home dominance. (53-26, after today, 54-26.)
A trio of 15-game winners. (Hopefully…)
The resurrection of a career in Kerry Wood.
A no-hitter by Carlos Zambrano. (Milt Pappas, 1972. I was 4 weeks old.)

But to understand the Cubs, Vedder’s lyrics (below) tell you all you need to know. Good Luck, Cubs. See you in LA, twice, hopefully.

Someday We’ll Go All The Way
Yeah, don’t let them say that it’s just a game.
Well, I’ve seen other teams and it is never the same.
When your born in Chicago, you’re blessed and you’re healed,
The first time you walk into Wrigley Field.
Our Heroes wear pinstripes, heroes in blue,
Give us the chance to feel like heroes do.
Whether we’ll win, and if we should lose,
we know Someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we’ll go all the way.


We are one with the Cubs, with the Cubs we’re in love.
Yeah, Hold our heads high as the underdogs.
We are not fairweather, but foulweather fans.
Like brothers in arms, in the streets and the stands.
There’s magic in the Ivy and the old score board.
The same one I stared at as a kid keeping score.
In a world full of greed, I could never want more.
And Someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we’ll go all the way.

And Someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah!! someday we’ll go all the way.

And Here’s to the men and the legends we’ve known.
Teaching us faith and giving us hope.
United we stand and united we’ll fall
Down to our knees the day we win it all.
Yeah Ernie Banks said, “oh, let’s play two”.
Did he mean two hundred years?
In the same ballpark, our diamond, our jewel.
The home of our joy and our tears.
Keeping traditions, and wishes made new,
The place where our grandfathers’ fathers they grew.
The spiritual feeling, if I ever knew.
If you ain’t been, I am sorry for you.
And when the day comes for that last winning run, and I’m crying and covered in beer.
I look to the sky and know I was right today.

Someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way.

Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way.
Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way!
Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way!!
Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way!!!
Oh! someday we’ll go all the way!!!
Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way!!!
Yeah! someday we’ll go all the way.

Songwriter Eddie Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in Chicago in the north suburb of Evanston. He is the front man of 1990’s alternative/grunge rock, then Seattle-based, Pearl Jam. He won a Golden Globe award for his Into the Wild soundtrack. He is a lifelong Cubs fan. God Bless him.

Friday Music: Under my milky way tonight

The Church - Under the Milky Way



The Ramones - "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Live) Studio Hamburg


MGMT- Electric Feel

My Garbage Poetry: Love is Just A Word

Love is Just A Word
Between lovat and Lovecraft,
The plaid garb maker; with a horror undertaker.

Love comes in muted tones; and exuberant utterances.
At times, unconditional –
and often,
under the only condition we can't give into.

When we fall in Love –
it take our eyes,
our limbs,
our stomachs,
and twists them in knots.
The cure is: to never think a lot.

It spins our head, our body, our loins to passions unbelieved –
It drowns itself in sorrow, and thinks of make believe.

When between Lourdes and an a Love Song by Eliot
The tomb has cures; the writer – wishes on his mind.
As we pass through, this time, this enchanted faith-filled evening
We find Love is just not a word, but a world – our senses are reeling.

The meaning of such a word takes on profoundly tender passions –
To win love, we search the seas, mountains, the very air we breath.
Only to discover: that it can not be...

Between an Apex and a Zenith, two celestial bodies can be in the same.
They inhabit a moment of pure joy; the culmination of the game.

But is not a game –
Tender hearts, with wispy words, bring love down to nothing.

For to just say, “Love,” is meaningless.

But to love again – – is more than just a word.

Cross Post: McCain’s judgment in economics is inherently flawed

As the markets spin out of control, with wild swings based on calamitous events such as Countrywide, MBIA, Ambac, Bear Stearnes, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG, why do many insist that Bush’s administration, or his party’s nominee, John McCain, have gotten anything right at all?

John McCain’s former top economic advisor, ex-U.S. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, had a primary hand in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 that eliminated the firewall protections made by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 between investment, commercial banking, and insurance services during the Great Depression when so many banks failed. As a result of this deregulation, we are now seeing the enormous problems of integrated services spread like a plague throughout the market as many of these financial players mixed investments and savings and high-risk loans together and across various business entities.

McCain’s economic proclamations and company kept should be an albatross around his neck. You cannot expect change from a man that hires people that called Americans, “a nation of whiners,” during an economic crisis of their making. Meaning: Phil Gramm had his hand in your misery and now blames you for it.

Phil Gramm continues to be major cog in McCain’s campaign.

How is that change we can believe in?

Late Addition: (WaMu, another bank, is headed for sale....Yahoo Business)
A quote from the link:

But TPG agreed to waive the clause after concluding WaMu needs all the help
it can get.
"It became clear that it would be in the best interests of
Washington Mutual and our investors to waive the ... provisions," Fort
Worth, Texas-based TPG said in a statement. "Our goal is to maximize the
bank's flexibility in this difficult market environment."
The efforts to
find a buyer, though, were being complicated by uncertainty about the magnitude
of losses still lurking in Washington Mutual's home loan portfolio.
"No
one knows what's in their books," said a person briefed on the talks
between regulators and banks, speaking Wednesday on the condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Citing unidentified sources, the New York Post said the potential
buyers include JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings PLC., as well as Wells
Fargo. The banks all declined to comment.

Nice to see the whole financial system is in scared rabbit mode. Hopping up and down the road, looking for a way out while a Mack truck bears down on their position.

It won't be long now people. Look out below minimum wage workers. Get prepared for calamity you lower-middle class (under $50,000) per year people. Cut back considerably you upper middle class wannabes. The Rich: you'll go to your pile of bricks, lock you doors and come out when the getting is good again.

Good Luck All!

Economic Woe: I don't like Hurricane IKE or the U.S. Economy

Hurricane IKE path:

If you lived in the Caribbean this year, it has to suck. Haiti, Cuba, Turks and Caicos, all hit by the storms Gustav and now, IKE. Ike is heading into the Gulf, again, bearing down on New Orleans by this recent projection. My agnostic prayers are with you.

Today, my mother is seeing a bankruptcy attorney. Hopefully, he'll take the case. Because, folks, it is pretty grim for her (and myself) if she doesn't get the bleeding stopped. Unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who have the U.S. government taking over their affairs, I haven't the power to takeover my mother's or my aunt's yet.

On my other blog, I related that I would address The Perfect Storm, aka, the current financial crisis. I have flaked out only due to a myriad of other concerns. Like getting food, shelter and gas paid for or at least addressed. Assuming I can get the research back on track, I'll complete it. But, if not, here's a few highlights:

• Longstanding energy issue via the politics of the Middle East
• Changes in financial rules, going off the gold standard, and supply-side economics via Milton Friedman, former President Ronald Reagan and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
• Former Senator Phil Gramm's involvement in Enron and changing banking rules to allow Investment banks and Commercial entities to operate essentially under the same roof, sharing the same assets (and same liabilities) while being linked to the subprime mortgage maliase
• The degradation of the U.S. Dollar: Trade deficit, Balance of Payments and the China syndrome
• Engaging in the Iraqi war on dubious, and often, criminally wrong pretenses because it is about oil and Middle East restructuring. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran are all legitimately doing far, far worse to the United States. The crisis in Georgia may be a political trick to convince Americans to put McCain in office
• Globalization has made us a nation of consumers - not producers - undermining our status in the world as we are only 5% of the population, but use 20-25% of world's resources

Because of these and various underlying stories, there is a likelihood of a severe recession and possibly, the D-word.

People at the bottom will really feel it.

Good Luck riding out this Perfect Storm.