Just heard that loooongtime Eschatonian, recent WF cob-logger, & general all-around blog-genius extraordinaire Julia has landed a gig at the Village Voice Runnin' Scared blog: as per here.
Schweeeet.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Saturday Date Night
by Molly Ivors
Not the Eagles, alas, but thanks to all you fine Atriots for helping me suss this out. This is truly a fine community.
And here is where one can acquire this terrific song.
Not the Eagles, alas, but thanks to all you fine Atriots for helping me suss this out. This is truly a fine community.
And here is where one can acquire this terrific song.
Doing What They Do
Propping up the banking system might have been necessary, but it's difficult to see how propping up a dysfunctional banking system is, longer term, a recipe for success. Casinos sometimes encourage gamblers to stay and keep gambling, but that's only because the odds favor the house and they win when the gamblers lose.
Facts Are Stupid Things
And it's so hard to get the Villagers to be aware of them. Robust public plan is popular and cheaper.
A quarter of the American people (26 percent, to be exact), according to Friday morning’s New York Times/CBS News poll, believe that the health-care reform bills floating around Congress will create governmental death panels, while just 23 percent say they won’t. Another 30 percent believe that the bills will allow federal tax dollars to go towards the purchase of insurance by illegal immigrants, while just 22 percent say they won’t. The right-wing noise machine has evidently reached many right-wing ears.
But here’s the stunner: In the very same poll, respondents were asked whether they favored a Medicare-like public option for everyone. The right-wingers were out there in roughly the same numbers that they registered in answering the other questions: 26 percent of respondents said they opposed the public option. But a whopping 65 supported it.
Policy and Politics
These things do not always line up.
But I have been finding it very strange that the obviously good tactical political position ("People don't want to be forced to buy shitty, expensive health insurance") corresponds to the obviously good policy position ("Everybody should be able to get sick and not go bankrupt.") creates difficulties for our elected officials.
FWIW Joan has been great on this. The proper policy decision has been clear, for some time.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Playground Fight
Wonder how this stuff will play out.
Click through to read the rest...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Incsued Morgan Stanley on Friday for breach of contract, saying the Wall Street firm owed it $245.4 million for protection it bought on a loan.
Click through to read the rest...
We've Been Saying This All Along?
Public option is cheaper for people, businesses, and the government. I look forward to the Villagers pressing the fiscally responsible "centrists" on why they'd rather waste money.
CRE
While there are certainly CRE projects which were absurd and no amount of help will rescue them from failure, it is also the case that there are some projects which are near-completion but which are having a hard time finding that last bit of financing. I'm not interested in bailing out the developers, but it's probably not such a bad thing to try to bail out near-completed projects so that they can at least be completed.
My point is that letting developers go bankrupt is one thing, but having them go bankrupt and leaving projects 3/4 completed due to lack of financing is another.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday a government program intended to spark lending to consumers and businesses is still necessary even with other emergency lending programs winding down as the economy recovers.
''An ongoing need still clearly exists'' for the program, which also is aimed at making sure loans flow to the troubled commercial real estate market, Bernanke said in brief remarks to a conference here sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
My point is that letting developers go bankrupt is one thing, but having them go bankrupt and leaving projects 3/4 completed due to lack of financing is another.
Unpopular
From the few tea leaves I get to see, I'm getting the sense that people on The Hill are not even having the conversation about just how unpopular forcing people to buy shitty insurance they don't want is going to be.
End Of The Social Compact
For a time California was a model for a thriving middle class economy, and Arnold's just about finished up destroying that.
And The Crazies
Years ago, before I started blogging but after I started paying attention to politics on the internets, there was some Freeper freakout over something innocuous that happened at a school and they were getting a lot of harassing phone calls. This was in the earlier days of the internet, and I figured that the school officials probably had absolutely no idea where it was coming from. So I emailed and phoned the principal to let them know. They didn't have any idea.
Anyway, point is now schools probably know when these freakouts happen because they're fully mainstreamed.
Anyway, point is now schools probably know when these freakouts happen because they're fully mainstreamed.
And In That Other War
What are we trying to accomplish again?
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb and assault-rifle fire killed four United States soldiers and a Marine in three different attacks in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, where new American brigades are pressing offensives against a resilient and dug-in Taliban and other insurgents.
The attacks on Thursday in Zabul and Nimroz provinces pushed the number of American military deaths in Afghanistan to 219 this year, already 41 percent more than in all of 2008.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I Suppose It's Good That They're Capable of Learning
But it is useful every now and then to reminder ourselves that plenty of people in Congress really just don't know anything about anything.
Slightly Good News
When I first read that Obama was pulling back on a preventative detention law I actually thought it sounded like bad news, as he was still relying on 9/11-lets-me-do-anything reasoning, but Glennzilla explains why it's actually sorta good news.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
530K new lucky duckies, down from the upwardly revised number from the previous week.
Number is very slowly decreasing, but still indicates rising unemployment.
Number is very slowly decreasing, but still indicates rising unemployment.
All Contracts Should Have An Amend At Any Time Provision
Whatever works.
And class conflict everywhere.
Today, like many other Sunbelt developers, Bonita Bay is being squeezed by debt and plunging sales. But its biggest problem is a dispute over the deposits homeowners plunked down for memberships in the golf clubs, a marina and other clubs. Many members want to quit the clubs and get their money back for reasons ranging from cheaper golf elsewhere to the desire for ready cash. Their membership agreements say the deposits -- up to $185,000 per member -- are refundable on demand, a relatively unusual stipulation homeowners say was a big part of the appeal of joining.
Yet Bonita Bay says the agreements also stipulate that the rules "may be amended from time to time," thus allowing it to cancel the refund policy at its discretion -- and that at any rate, it can't pay the money.
And class conflict everywhere.
Some residents say the issue of buying the clubs has created bitterness between the wealthiest homeowners, who often have golf memberships, and less wealthy residents who enjoy the landscaping but resent pressure to contribute to the purchase of the clubs.
Morning Thread
by Molly Ivors
From the front lines of pandemic preparedness: every classroom in my school now has its own ginormous bottle of Purell.
But I guess that's better than this.
Remember when we all going to die from Avian flu? Good times, good times.
From the front lines of pandemic preparedness: every classroom in my school now has its own ginormous bottle of Purell.
But I guess that's better than this.
Remember when we all going to die from Avian flu? Good times, good times.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Horrible Things Happen
And I think it's generally a mistake to jump to conclusions about precisely why they happen, but obviously one reason has been suggested.
The Spoils
We don't talk about it much, but to the victors go the spoils. The Republicans may not be very interested in governing, but they are looking forward to being in control of the goodie bag again.
From The People Who Brought You Big Shitpile
Credit card defaults hit new record, and the Fed extends its cash for trash program for a few more months.
Saving the banking system, particularly this banking system, isn't enough to save the economy.
Saving the banking system, particularly this banking system, isn't enough to save the economy.
The Al Franken Decade
Might keep things interesting.
Just in case he wasn't familiar with it, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) decided to read the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to David Kris, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's National Security Division, who was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee today to urge reauthorization of expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Franken, who opened by acknowledging that unlike most of his colleagues in the Senate, he's not a lawyer, but according to his research "most Americans aren't lawyers" either, said he'd also done research on the Patriot Act and in particular, the "roving wiretap" provision that allows the FBI to get a warrant to wiretap a an unnamed target and his or her various and changing cell phones, computers and other communication devices.
Noting that he received a copy of the Constitution when he was sworn in as a Senator, he proceeded to read it to Kris, emphasizing this part: "no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Afternoon Thread
I've got nothing to say, so I'll go forage for food around my urban hellhole instead.
Democracy
Backroom deals must be honored!
Not surprised he thinks it, slightly surprised he's brazen enough to say it.
Not surprised he thinks it, slightly surprised he's brazen enough to say it.
Flood
There is still a tremendous amount of homes in the foreclosure sale pipeline.
The joke used to be that everyone should just buy their neighbor's home in a short sale and move one house to the left. But you have all of these people who are now out of the housing market because they're trashed their credit. Low interest loans are great for those who have access to them.
It's not over...
The joke used to be that everyone should just buy their neighbor's home in a short sale and move one house to the left. But you have all of these people who are now out of the housing market because they're trashed their credit. Low interest loans are great for those who have access to them.
It's not over...
Nobody Could Have Predicted
I guess I'll always wonder whether Obama and his people really thought Republicans might be good faith participants.
Hopefully I won't have to wonder why the ultimate bill will be a complete "compromise" anyway.
Hopefully I won't have to wonder why the ultimate bill will be a complete "compromise" anyway.
I Worry He's Right
I don't know enough to claim to really know, but I worry that Pearlstein is right. The Fed has swapped lots of cash for trash, and all that money has got to go somewhere.
Let's start with the $1.45 trillion that the Fed has committed to propping up the mortgage market -- money that, for the most part, was simply printed. Effectively, most of that has been used to buy up bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from investors, who turned around and used the proceeds to buy "safer" U.S. Treasury bonds. At the same time, the Fed used an additional $300 billion to buy Treasurys directly. With all that money pouring into the market, you begin to understand why it is that Treasury prices have risen and interest rates fallen, even at a time when the government is borrowing record amounts of new money.
As it was printing all that money, the Fed was also lowering the interest rate at which banks borrow from the Fed and each other, to pretty close to zero. What didn't change was the interest rate banks charged everyone else. As a result, "spreads" between what banks pay for money and what they charge are near record highs.
So who is borrowing? By and large, it's not households and businesses, which are reluctant to borrow during a recession. Rather, it's hedge funds and other investors, who have been using the money to buy stocks, corporate bonds and commodities, driving prices to levels unsupported by the business and economic fundamentals.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sausage
Occasionally I get tiny glimpse into how news stories are made, and to point out the obvious they're often made by journalists attempting to create a story...and a story with a particular storyline. This is obvious, but not something journalists usually admit. They're just reporting!
Maybe It's A Pretty Good Bill After All
And maybe we can wonder why the corruption of the military-industrial complex is much less interesting to our media than certain other things.
One For The Cyclists
I applaud the new bike lines on Spruce and Pine, which are real lanes and not some barely navigable or visible tiny strips. Actually took a car lane away, though I always thought these roads were more like 1.75 lanes anyway, not quite wide enough for 2 especially if you throw in a delivery vehicle or some illegal parking.
Hopefully True
The SEC previously cut a sweetheart deal with BofA, but a judge chucked it out.
The Securities and Exchange Commission says it will “vigorously pursue” Bank of America Corp. in court with allegations that the bank misled shareholders when it prepared to purchase Merrill Lynch & Co. late last year.
Land Use Rules
As I've written many times, despite my fondness for SUPERTRAINS in all of their forms I do agree that there's much less point in building them if land use rules along corridors/around stations aren't changed to allow more transit-friendly and denser development. Tempe land values around the new light rail system have been going up, while values in Mesa and parts of Phoenix haven't, because Tempe changed their codes.
Overhead Wires
I realized when I lived in California that some people think overhead wires of any kind are a capital aesthetic offense. Never understood it, but apparently it's so.
(not just Californians of course)
(not just Californians of course)
Seniors In The Urban Hellhole
I don't think my urban hellhole is optimally designed for senior living, but I think much more than people generally realize it's superior to other options. Mobility becomes a real issue with age, both walking and driving of course, and the city offers additional transportation options, including public transit, affordable taxi rides, and greater home delivery option variety. Obviously individual preferences matter to a great degree - not trying to force granny to move to Manhattan! - but with an aging population senior living is increasingly going to be a pressing policy question.
Data!
I did not know such a high proportion of foreign born in the US were from the Philippines and El Salvador.
Or You Could Walk Or Take The Subway?
This presumption of driving annoyed me, especially on WORLD CAR FREE DAY.
The Piazza is sorta interesting, not perfect but they're trying. Mostly I just linked to this because I do so love the haters in the comments!
Since the Piazza at Schmidts opened in May, the 80,000-square-foot plaza has "become a real neighborhood," said Avery Amaya, who moved here from Old City last year with his wife, Cheryl, and their bulldog, Nyla. "Everybody's just gathering. For something that was absolutely manufactured in what seems overnight, they did a really good job."
The first time is a shock to everyone. You park in a big, free gravel lot on the edge of some gritty North Philadelphia streets, follow a walkway between new high-rises, and find yourself in the midst of a European oasis.
The Piazza is sorta interesting, not perfect but they're trying. Mostly I just linked to this because I do so love the haters in the comments!
Monday, September 21, 2009
World Car Free Day
Never sure what I think about events of this type, and obviously participating will require exactly zero sacrifice on my part. But, what the hell, consider giving that SUPERBUS to work a try and see how it works, if such a thing is possible.
Perhaps He Should Send A Sternly Worded Letter?
Ignoring Congress isn't just for the Bushies anymore.
Saving The Internets
Elections have consequences, and one consequence is hopefully better rulemaking and regulatory oversight by the various agencies. Moving towards codifying net neutrality principles is good news.
Decisive
I really have no idea what is supposed to happen in Afghanistan that will make next year "decisive" or what the pony is supposed to look like.
Our Very Serious foreign policy community seems to think that "winning" a war involves leaving behind paradise, and then are a bit surprised when our Bombs of Love don't produce that outcome. The rationalization is that we have to stick around until the pony appears. Because.
Our Very Serious foreign policy community seems to think that "winning" a war involves leaving behind paradise, and then are a bit surprised when our Bombs of Love don't produce that outcome. The rationalization is that we have to stick around until the pony appears. Because.
Accelerating Pace
I don't know how we get past this problem.
Among U.S. homeowners with mortgages, a record 7.58 percent were at least 30 days late on payments in August, up from 7.32 percent in July, according to the data obtained exclusively by Reuters.
August marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase in delinquencies, and the report showed an accelerating pace. By comparison, 4.89 percent of mortgages were 30 days past due in August 2008, while in August 2007, the rate was 3.44 percent, Equifax data showed.
The Cost Of Dropping Out
For reasons I have never quite figured out, our media always seize on any excuse to tell pleasing stories about how women should quit work and live out some sort of fantasy version of the 1950s family. Dropping out of the workforce to take care of children has incredible long term career consequences, and can be financial devastating especially in the case of divorce or recession.
Major Important News Story
Through all the talk, I have yet to hear anybody actually explain what ACORN does or why this story has any relevance for the Obama administration.
Right wingers fling poo, media usually follow it.
Right wingers fling poo, media usually follow it.
Morning Thread
by Molly Ivors
Thers is heading off to visit the president here. I hope he watches his mouth.
Thers, I mean. Obama can swear all he wants.
Thers is heading off to visit the president here. I hope he watches his mouth.
Thers, I mean. Obama can swear all he wants.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
ARM Time Bomb
94% of option ARM borrowers have been making the minimum neg-am payments. Basically they're just paying the minimum rent necessary, since most of them are underwater they'll stick around until the loan rates recast and then just stop paying. California's going to get pummeled.
Bankruptcy cramdown would have helped, but nobody listens to Atrios...
Bankruptcy cramdown would have helped, but nobody listens to Atrios...
Paying Off Incumbents
Like Matt, I'm all for bribing current stakeholders to encourage better policies for future ones. Outside of but near the business district of Philadelphia, most neighborhoods have permit parking. Some spots are 2 hour parking meter spots and some, like ones on my block, are two hour free parking spots. But residents can get permits which allow them to park any time, and also temporary permits for visitors. These permits are absurdly cheap. They're $35 for the first year, and it's only $20/year after that. There are no limits on the number of permits a household can have, as long as the cars are registered to that address.
Discussions of all such issues are complicated by the fact that all such money goes to the parking authority, where the money seems to just disappear, but in fantasy world we should grandfather in all permits at current prices, keep the price on the first household permit fairly low, and then really jack up the rates on any additional household permits.
I don't drive much, so I don't personally give a crap about the availability of on street parking. But what I do care about are fears about lack of availability of on street parking leading to neighborhood groups demanding that all development projects come with their own massive parking lots. That's bad!
Discussions of all such issues are complicated by the fact that all such money goes to the parking authority, where the money seems to just disappear, but in fantasy world we should grandfather in all permits at current prices, keep the price on the first household permit fairly low, and then really jack up the rates on any additional household permits.
I don't drive much, so I don't personally give a crap about the availability of on street parking. But what I do care about are fears about lack of availability of on street parking leading to neighborhood groups demanding that all development projects come with their own massive parking lots. That's bad!
Sunday Bobbleheads
Estrogen free this week.
Meet the Press has Obama, Lindsey Graham, and Boehner
Face the Nation has Obama
This Week has Obama
All shows will undoubtedly address the very important question of whether Obama is overexposed, whatever the hell that means.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has Obama, Lindsey Graham, and Boehner
Face the Nation has Obama
This Week has Obama
All shows will undoubtedly address the very important question of whether Obama is overexposed, whatever the hell that means.
Document the atrocities!
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