chuck kottke

I recall we did have a national debt that was growing out of control right before Clinton took office. Enough changed in the time span of his administration to bring that back down, but it's been escalating again since the time when Bush took office. Oh well - there's 50-60 Trillion in the Derivatives market alone, so in perspective, it's not an insurmountable figure.. What is our economic output then - 12 Trillion per year? Gotta brush up on these things.. So where is this independent republic of Violet Hill?

Greetings and Welcome to the Land of the Coldplay Posters!:laugh3:

The Root causes of economic distress and market roller-coaster I'm pretty sure are mostly the result of the corrupting influence of big money in politics, as the big money buys results that often hurt us all in the end. So to fix it - I've added a few request to the letters I'm writing to Congressmen here in the US: >> No negative campaign ads. Campaign ads intended to be defamatory or intentionally misleading should not be allowed to air. To assure that campaign ads are honest, a body comprised of 12 ordinary citizens chosen at random, and selected in a manner similar to choosing jurists for jury duty, shall examine each ad in a rapid manner before it is allowed to air, and decide based on it's validity (honesty) if it should or should not be allowed to air. Given the inability of the courts to act in a timely manner concerning libelous or slanderous political speech & print, this seems essential. << >> In order to assure a free press, and a return to an open public square, media consolidation must come to an end, and anti-trust laws enforced to break up the current media consolidation. It is essential to our nation's trusted liberties and governance to have have a press that can operate independently enough from ownership, so that the news is as factual and unbiased in its content & presentation as is possible. <<

I was thinking if it would ever be possible for reform, now should be the time..

:cry::\Ouch! I had severely sprained tendons once, and it hurt like the devil for a long time, and took months to heal. Hang in there - it will just take time after the surgery - quite a while in some cases - but you'll get all better!:wink: Are you in much pain at the moment? How do you type??

Aliens are people too!:curtain::borg::square::mickey::biker:

spice Diversity is the spice of life!:)

Pigs in hyperspace If we started a lunar colony, then Emma could be the first farmer of Pigs in Space!!!:laugh3::jester:

sleep is good for all mammals! I'm thinking: " I'm reading a book written about the future, only that's today, since the book was written in 1970! It's spot on in some areas. and in others, it's pretty daffy!!

A good one-page synopsis of what derivatives are and how they work - http://Kookyplan.pbwiki.com/derivatives

Hey, Gweneth will be on PBS tonight - traveling around Europe or Italy! It starts here around 8PM CST It was Spain tonight!

This I ran across from a member of the Forbes.com Business & Finance Blog Network, posted by Andy Abraham: $63 Trillion Dollar Time Bomb: 1. Fact one: Derivatives are roughly 10 times the value of the entire world's output 2. Derivatives operate outside the grasp of governments, tax inspectors, and regulators 3. The domino effect which could be so enormous and scary 4. It is also impossible to establish their worth 5. Warren Buffett, the billionaire who made his money the old-fashioned way, called them "weapons of mass destruction." What do you think?? Truths or Falsehoods? Succinct or to Simplistic?

Perhaps I come off as an Obama supporter? Well, I think he is the better of the two front-runners, but only by a few percentages. I'm not out to prove his record of real change, but I look at the percentages of where his campaign dollars are coming from. Otherwise it is so hard, knowing the way politics works, of even discerning if someone was for or against anything, since the convoluted process of attaching riders to bills, the allocation of funds to the sector, etc. makes it difficult to see the true outcome of the legislation, or if he was involved in the process or not. I may vote for a third party candidate this time around - it's not that close anymore in Wisconsin. But one thing I do stand for is cleaning up the process so we can tell their honest differences - by making the candidate contest fair, and ensuring all citizens have the right to vote. All we get otherwise is greased skids on bills for those who least need the help.

The risk of loss would make those of us who are careful and not prone to the unnatural highs of extreme risk-taking make careful decisions. But I think there is a certain thrill in making/taking huge gambles, especially if everyone else is doing it, and maybe the interest rate wouldn't have even mattered much either way.. So, then the markets would correct - but after first a huge fall, and then an irrational panic. It's hard to un-do a train wreck. I'm squarely with Daffy Duck on this one - "Now look mister - Is this any way to run a railroad?!":P Well, maybe higher interests rates would have made it less tempting to try.. but then again, those same firms perhaps wanted the low interest rates for the very reason of trying to take bigger gambles?

:PObama is just a nice fellow from Chicago! & McCain is just a gentlemanly elder statesman from Arizona - I just can't understand where you're coming from on this, Jay...:laugh3:. It's clear that they just fall into typical roles to win at any cost.. Yes, their behavior at times is much less than civil or what one might ascribe to as being respectable as adults; but the mud always comes out at the end. Time to take the mud pies away.;) The block that's left at this stage are the undecided voters, so I find it sad to see the attacks and rebuttals going on and on and on.. Perhaps some voters reach for the Congressional Record or search out the facts on their true record, ideas, backers, etc., but I think most folks try and pick the person who "feels right", especially among those who decided in the last weeks of a campaign. Now, Obama says a lot of the right things on the Obama Channel, but will he deliver against the money of the wealthy contributors, some of whom led to the problems in the first place? Same for McCain - he has a lot of the same or similar donor corporations, banks, & PAC's (wall-street firms and the like). They didn't call it Goldman Snacks for nothing!

Well, it's just a ploy to create fear and doubt and anger in the minds of certain voters. Personally they should just ban any ads that are misleading and cause defamation of any candidate. But I was disappointed that neither of them brought that up - they refused to address the underlying problem of misleading messages, and the money that gets used to try those tactics.

McCain's going home to Arizona. Now if only we can get Obama to make good on his honeymoon promises, we might get somewhere!;) I'm putting the bug in my Senator's ear as soon as I can to keep up the pressure for real reform. Let's see if Obama plays it safe since he's up by two touchdowns, or if he tries for a lateral reverse, and catches McCain off guard.:laugh3:

Oh, how funny! I like the quote - "move over Gwynnie, I'm comin for your man!":laugh3: Now, let's just say for example that Gweneth, Lady of the Loch, decides to descend upon your place in Oklahoma or Portland, then what??? Better not invite more trouble than a plains twister!:P Anyhow, glad to meet you Kelsey!;):hat: -I'm Chuck.

Frodo, a Hobbit, is introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring as the son of Drago Baggins and Primula Brandybuck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frodo_Baggins

The Real Problem - See the Men behind the Curtain! Jay, I have to say I think we need regulation of the markets to prevent excessive risky behavior, to prevent crashes and panics. Derivatives may be fine, but there is a need for oversight lest some of the riskiest and most unscrupulous behaviors lead to further bubbles and deceptions in the markets. Here's a quote from Common Cause - and I think it has a great deal of salience: "Wall Street routinely doles out large campaign contributions to members of Congress. In the current election cycle, the financial services sector (which includes insurance and real estate sectors) contributed more money to candidates for Congress, the Presidency, and political parties than did any other sector, totaling $339.6 million from 2007 through today. Both chambers' banking committees also benefitted handsomely. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, PAC's and employees of the securities and investment industry are the second largest source of cash for members of the Senate Banking Committee. During the 2008 election cycle, these contributors raised $11.7 million for the 21 members of that Committee. Banking Committee Chairman Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) received about 4.3 million since 2003, or half of all contributions to his campaign coffers. On the Broader Question: Does campaign cash influence legislation and regulation? When Congress last debated regulation (or rather, de-regulation) of the financial industry in 1999, a study by the Center for Responsive Politics showed that members of Congress who supported the Graham-Leech-Bliley Act received twice as much money from commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies as those who opposed the measure. The Gramm-Leech-Bliley Act was the product of many years of lobbying by the financial industry and allowed for the loosening of bank regulations that had been in place since the Great Depression. For further edification, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act

Well, perhaps you are right! I'm still holding out hope to go the grass-roots non-partisan citizen advocacy route, as it has proven effective in the past as well - but that's not to say that a 3rd party block wouldn't also be effective! Given the current roller-coaster economy, and the massive plunges we've seen, I would imagine there's enough voter anger to demand reform, and the pressure should be mounting for real reform. Here's something on the Common Cause site: "Gutting regulations that had been in place since the Great Depression, leading to a financial crisis that has us moving closer to a repeat of the Great Depression, all because of a 'pesky little' privately-funded campaign system in which Wall-Street used its financial might to keep Congress quiet (and I'll add this - to basically bribe politicians into letting it all happen). One bill being offered which might help: The Fair Elections Act -sets up public financing seed money to candidates -grants to qualified candidates -offers money for air time But will Congress mess with it, or pass it? Is it even the right approach? What about the excess powers of incumbency? Last time we had Campaign Finance Reform legislation it was severely weakened along the way through Congress, and allowed anyone with the money to run an end-game around it. Hmmm... - keep an open eye on your Senator and Representative! Watch them like a hawk, and remember how they acted on reform measures - keep tabs on their amendments and votes.

Greetings to you in Tiblisi ! :cool: How's the grid running in Georgia?

Coldplaying.com is wedged between the anc.org.za above, and achloan.com below! I love to see the names on some of the site rankings by Qauantcast - above is bunn.com:laugh3:, and below is baltimorepolice.org ;) Anything strike you as humorous sites (in relation) "out there"?

Well, I did watch the Libertarian viewpoint tonight on Link TV, and it is compelling. Although, perhaps a gold standard isn't the answer, because as the economy expands, and population grows, the gold is a very limited resource to tie things to, and obtaining it is making a mess of much of the land surface, creating some of the largest environmental messes in the world. But, it would be good to tie the paper money to something tangible - we could use an aluminum standard perhaps, or an energy standard. Somewhere we still have an old silver certificate or two, and I liked that - the idea that the paper was in lieu of solid something! I do think it's better to not go through another depression - those were horribly desperate times, and while citizens felt closer to one-another, those were pretty sad, stressful, and tenuous times - soup lines, picking coal along the rail-road tracks for fuel, lots of despair. When there's the means of production, and a work-force to do it, why let things slide into chaos? I think we can move ahead to a brighter future, but one thing that is essential is cleaning up politics! From Nixon to Bush, the path to success too often corrupts otherwise honorable men and women, and that process is where the best checks and balances must be applied. Noam is right - the business party runs it all, and while business is important, it should not preferentially trump the citizens' right to one man, one woman, one vote. Getting the influence out, and getting rid of those negative ads - to get the candidates to run based on ideas, platforms, teamwork, true leadership (by example), and honesty , means taking away the underhanded tools that currently dominate our political landscape.