Archive for December, 2008
Casualtor, Chief, Not Casualty
Alberto “Buttercheeks” Gonzales, unburdening himself to the WSJ: I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror. I would dearly love to have Buttercheeks recite a list of who some of the other casualties are. Gonzales also asked, straight from the heart: What is it that I did that [...]
Corporate Strategy In The Time Of Paulson
Chrysler and Ford have finance companies too. Does anyone know why they haven’t dashed into a phone booth and emerged as a bank, to join the Treasury Soup Kitchen line? It was a simple two-step. GM first successfully converted GMAC into a bank holding company (a process which just involves knocking at the Fed’s door [...]
Ponzi Ponzi Everywhere
Alleged scheme targeted Haitians, bilked $23M – AP 12/30/08: A man is accused of bilking thousands of Haitian-Americans of more than $23 million in an investment scheme where he promised to create a “nation of Haitian millionaires.” George Theodule used his Haitian background to urge Haitian-Americans nationwide to form investment clubs and funnel funds through [...]
He Said, She Said…Oops!
There was a little incident at sea: Israel denied Tuesday that one of its patrol boats deliberately rammed a civilian pleasure boat trying to deliver relief supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip. The 60-foot boat suffered damage in the encounter in the Mediterranean Sea, but made it to the Lebanese port of Tyre without assistance, [...]
Last Stage, By Another Name
AFP: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the four-day-old bombardment of Gaza was the “the first of several stages” of the offensive. And how, Mr. Olmert, will this end? That is to say, what’s the final solution going to look like? (Yes, I know. That’s in very poor taste. So is what Mr. Olmert [...]
So Hard to Understand What A Ponzi Scheme is
Continuing my lonely crusade against willful economic illiteracy in the media, another member of the TPM family repeats Josh Marshall‘s “Ponzi scheme” offense. This is Zachary Roth writing in TPMMuckraker: More substantially, Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme appears to have been based on using money provided by new investors to make payouts to existing investors. Dear [...]
Early Test
As Americans come to grips with what is certain to be the worst economic period since the great depression, they will no doubt be looking to Obama to act quickly and decisively from the moment he assumes the powers of the Presidency. Reports say Congress is aiming to have a stimulus bill ready for his [...]
Manfully Twiddling On
As far as I know, there is only one policy issue on which President Bush ever formally made a personal pledge. In November 2008, at the Middle East summit in Annapolis, he proclaimed: President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, I pledge to devote my effort during my time as president to do all I can [...]
Depends on the Definition of Facts
Until Hank Paulson came along, my favorite Bush cabinet member was undoubtedly Mrs. Mitch McConnell, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. The manipulation of jobs and cost data during her tenure has been breathtaking, and it allowed the administration to get away with happy-talking the economy for the first seven years of their rule. In addition, her [...]
Thank You, Thank You, George-You-Are
Condi Rice, Ph.D., tells us: I think generations pretty soon are going to start to thank this president for what he’s done. This generation will. And since Condi is so smart, and always right, and certainly never lies to us about anything, I figured I may as well steal a march on everyone else and [...]