Informed Discontent

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:57:00 +0000

FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - How to walk the fiscal tightrope that lies before us

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:57:00 +0000

Love me some Martin Wolf.

I know I haven't blogged anything in like, oh, 6 months, but look out, here I come!

FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - How to walk the fiscal tightrope that lies before us

Stunning number

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Ok, this one is really just too much.

Household wealth in the United States fell by $11 trillion in 2008.

I just checked, and in October 2008, the entire capitalization of the NY stock exchange was $10.1 trillion. Obviously the wealth number listed above includes all kinds of other assets like houses primarily.

$11 trillion GONE in one year. Just in the US! Total GDP for the entire world last year was roughly $60 trillion. 1/6 of total world output lost in one year, in one country.

My head hurts.

Posner jumps ship

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:47:00 +0000

A stunning admission from a conservative thinker

"...the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

Posner is an amazingly accomplished guy, and you would think his critique would cause some pause in Republican circles. But, since most Republicans have no idea who he is, I doubt that you'll see much about this on Faux News.

UPDATE#1: As I should have predicted, Republicans are already saying that Posner was never really a conservative anyway. This is like Dick Cheney saying "Gee, is Colin Powell still a Republican?" It's an easy way to marginalize their argument without addressing it on the merits. Both sides in politics do this so much it makes me nauseous. Don't call something "right wing propaganda" and expect that to make your case. Use facts to prove something wrong. Don't dismiss something that comes from "lefty bloggers", especially when those bloggers turn out to be right, and may even be among the few real patriots left.

Guantanamo closing

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:44:00 +0000

I think I've solved the Guantanamo/funding issue. They just have to put all these guys in Illinois.

There's already a maximum security facility at Marion (down south near where I grew up), and it would be hard for politicians in the state to go against Obama on much of anything. In addition, it looks like Dick Durbin is ready to get on board.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/quote-for-the-day-12.html

Doesn't this make perfect sense? We're only talking about a small number of guys. If people in this country think that a bunch of scrawny muslims are more dangerous that some of the guys at Marion, then they are seriously deranged.

I love Jesse Ventura

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Map test

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:57:00 +0000

View Grandpa's Navy Days in a larger map

Fun with the Patriot Act!

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:22:00 +0000

"It wasn't intended to drag your barely 16-year-old, 120-pound son out in the middle of the night on a charge that we can't even defend."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5049867

Fun with Republicans

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:44:00 +0000

Best summary I've seen of this pary:

"When they have a club in their hands, no one is more sadistic. When the club is removed, no one is more whiney."

Their big issue now is that they are worried that the government has too much power. This is almost as laughable as their concern about federal debt levels. The word chutzpah doesn't even begin to cover this.

You reap what you sow.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/14/surveillance/

Fuck Goldman Sachs

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Those bastards have absolutely gotten out of control.

First, they have absolutely raped the national treasury, and we're paying them BILLIONS in order to see them "not fail", but miraculously, somehow, they had a $12 billion quarter?

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/04/taxpayer-funded-gs-profits/

Second, they are suing bloggers who put up stuff about them they don't like

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/04/goldman-sachs-no-criticism-by-bloggers-allowed/

Fuck them. Here I am Goldman, come and chat with me.

Gaming the system

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:55:00 +0000

Sachs has a very interesting article about how banks will be able to "game" Treasury's asset purchase plan, and thus greatly milk taxpayers for even more money, while not wiping out the shareholders.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/the-geithner-summers-plan_b_183499.html

Pull out the torches and pitchforks, damnit!

NeoCons redeem themselves

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:13:00 +0000

April Fool's! That headline is a big joke. NeoCons are still a bunch of snake oil salesmen.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/03/neo_neocons_are_still_incredibly_dishonest.php

The Surge worked?

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Just to be clear, I supported the Surge in Iraq. I thought we had a moral obligation to them, and I still do think that. But, that doesn't mean I think the Surge has worked.

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/30/iraq_the_unraveling

Ricks' excellent book Fiasco is sitting on my shelf, and his second just came from Amazon. This guy is plugged in and understands Iraq in a way that no other American journalist has proven. Following his blog is a great way to keep up on what's really going on there.

My guess is this: This will be a bloody summer for America, both in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I have a cousin deploying to Afghanistan with the Marines in May, and I'm worried.

Relevance of the IMF

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Great new article that captures the heart of how America in the Bush years came to look more and more like a Banana Republic. This time around, let's talk finance. The crisis in America now is an old story, replayed every couple years in capitals around the world. But usually they are third world capitals.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

Leaving Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:11:00 +0000

I didn't like the invasion Iraq, but oddly enough, I thought the surge was a good idea.

Why? Mainly because I believed what Powell said to Bush. If you break it, you own it. We owe it to Iraqi's not to leave them with a miserable country split by civil conflict that could kill thousands. We have a moral obligation to stay. Mother Jones takes on the debate.

http://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2007/11/us-out-how

War crimes

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Can we please just prosecute these guys already and get it over with? What America needs to distract itself from economic news is a good old fashioned show trial. Oh, and it's the moral thing to do, since we tortured people in US custody, according to the Red Cross.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/compare-and-con.html

How is it that I still have to look at Cheney on television from time to time, where people interview him as if he's some kind of statesman? That is like interviewing Madoff for finance advice, can we seriously just put him in jail already?

Cookie Monster/Madoff

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:46:00 +0000

JKG

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:34:00 +0000

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. -John Kenneth Galbraith

Gervais meets Elmo

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Small confession to make, I love Elmo. I think it's his voice that cracks me up.

Anyway, Ricky Gervais goes to Sesame Street, hilarity ensues.

Geeking out

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:24:00 +0000

For those geeks, like me, who can't get enough of these "gee, was that a bus that just hit me?" stories about how - exactly - our financial system just blew up.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=1

Democracy in Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:53:00 +0000

I find this story very inspiring.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/world/middleeast/09karbala.html?ref=world

If a former Baath party member is this dedicated to his town, has so much respect from his community, and can move the government forward in terms of providing basic services, then I dare say that Iraq might remain a functional democracy in the Arab world. Which after all that has happened, would be nothing short of amazing.

Know hope!

NYC girls

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Women who used to live the high life, dating i-bankers, are having a tough time these days. Holy cow this is the funniest thing I've read in months.

Start with the NYT article, and then read some of the blog posts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/nyregion/28daba.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

http://dabagirls.com/

FSM lives!

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:59:00 +0000

So, religion is supposed to be all about faith. You are not actually supposed to be able to prove that Jesus ever lived, you're supposed to believe it without knowing. At least, that's my take about religion, that it's power is in helping to explain the unknowable.

Anyway, the bad news in all this is that my favorite religion, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is now doomed. Why, you ask? Because the Spaghetti Monster is real! We have pictures!

NSA Targeted Journalists, Snooped on All U.S. Communications

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:22:00 +0000

I've never been very clear about why it is that Americans don't seem to care about this. Seriously, the government is reading absolutely everything that you write, say, or think, and the response has been a collective yawn.

Thank god for whistleblowers

Post inauguration

noreply@blogger.com (Informed Discontent) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Oh my. I don't think I've partied this hard ever in my life. Let me think... college graduation, nope. March madness in Vegas, no way. The inauguration drinkin...er celebrating started on Friday night and still hasn't really ended. I'm exhausted, drunk, and might I add more than a little bit giddy. Today I woke up, tired and uninspired about going to work, and then I thought: Barack Obama is my president.

And then I went skipping out the door.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Changefest '09 - Obama's Inaugural Speech

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video