Monthly report out tomorrow. I'll take the under (<80K) bet.
...the under is under the supposed "consensus" forecast, which varies from month to month. It's like beating the spread.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Looking for Work
Josh is making a joke here, but it's actually kind of a serious point. It is true that cable news bookers will label you as a generic "[insert party name here] strategist" if they lack any better title to give you. It's pretty absurd. Still, who am I to question the standards and ethics of that noble profession known as "journalism.'
Nobody Comes to Visit Anymore
An important bit of context for this:
Is that the dollar has declined about 40% with respect to the pound and the euro and the loonie (very rough number).
The number of foreign visitors to the United States has plummeted since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington because foreigners don't feel welcome, tourism professionals said Thursday.
"Since September 11, 2001, the United States has experienced a 17 percent decline in overseas travel, costing America 94 billion dollars in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and 16 billion dollars in lost tax revenue," the Discover America advocacy campaign said in a statement.
Is that the dollar has declined about 40% with respect to the pound and the euro and the loonie (very rough number).
What They Do
Obviously we all understand why the Speaker of the House raises money for incumbents. It is indeed what they do, and it of course makes sense from their perspective. But the fact that it is the way things are done doesn't actually make it... right.
Rumor is Al Wynn is targeting another innocent kitten... no photos yet, but you know what to do just in case.
Rumor is Al Wynn is targeting another innocent kitten... no photos yet, but you know what to do just in case.
Foreclosure Issue Resonating
I'm not surprised. Anymore, anyway. I follow this stuff quite a bit and I was shocked a few months back at a presidential candidate forum hosted by ACORN when it seemed like literally every person in attendance was having serious predatory lending/bad mortgage/foreclosure issues. It's a problem for people. They don't know where to turn for help. I know various things are worming their way through Congress but they aren't going fast enough.
Plenty of people getting hit by this should have known better, but for understandable reasons most people didn't previously expect their mortgage brokers to act like corrupt car salesmen.
Plenty of people getting hit by this should have known better, but for understandable reasons most people didn't previously expect their mortgage brokers to act like corrupt car salesmen.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Market tanking despite all the money being showered from Ben's helicopter.
Will Citigroup go tits up?
Will Citigroup go tits up?
Oh Noez
You saved that kitten, but now this kitten has found himself in a financial black hole and will likely lose his house because Al Wynn made it impossible for him to get bankruptcy relief.
Help kittens everywhere.
Help kittens everywhere.
Save the Kitten, Save the World
If Donna Edwards doesn't get 41 more donors in the next 3 hours, Al Wynn will feed this kitten:
to this dog.
to this dog.
CNBC
For some reason I find cable business news to be fascinating and therapeutic. Anyway, I just learned that bank stocks are cheap and we should be buying them because "the banks can't all go bad."
Optimism!
Optimism!
Oh My
This could be fun.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office charged today in a civil lawsuit that the nation's largest mortgage and property services corporation, its home appraisal subsidiary and the nation's largest savings and loan giant conspired to inflate the value of home appraisals, earning higher profits for the bank but leaving homeowners holding potentially risky debt loads.
And the attorney general says his office has the e-mails to prove it.
According to civil court papers filed in New York City, at least 50 e-mails between executives from the mortgage and property services conglomerate, First American Corporation, its wholly owned subsidiary, eAppraiseIT, and Washington Mutual document a "raise the value" scheme.
Bad Democrats
Al Wynn claims that the horrific Bankruptcy Bill is good for you.
Al Wynn is a very bad man.
Donna Edwards is a very good person.
Give all your money to Donna Edwards.
Donna Edwards is kitten approved.
Al Wynn is a very bad man.
Donna Edwards is a very good person.
Give all your money to Donna Edwards.
Donna Edwards is kitten approved.
Cowardly Little Boys
Commenter fluffy writes:
But at least TR and Hemingway actually... did some stuff.
As I wrote before, once upon a time the Glenn Reynolds types wished they were Captain Kirk. Now they wish they could live on the holodeck.
TR wasn't masculine for the simple reason that he wasn't a man. He was a boy.
All "national greatness" types are essentially adolescent boys.
That's because they don't really dream of national greatness. They dream of personal greatness, with greatness being defined as being the star of their own comic book. I don't think you can underestimate the impact of the "Buffalo Bill" style popular culture of newspapers and pulp magazines in the second half of the 19th century, and their role in producing Hemingwayesque personalities like TR and, well, like Hemingway himself.
They wanted to grow up and have people write pulp stories about them, like the stories they read about Custer and Wyatt Earp. All of the rest of it is rationalization to that end.
But at least TR and Hemingway actually... did some stuff.
As I wrote before, once upon a time the Glenn Reynolds types wished they were Captain Kirk. Now they wish they could live on the holodeck.
Social Security
Josh's take is exactly right. There was something I was going to write the other day but the post got too long so I didn't. It was going to be something like this:
The one reason to "fix" Social Security, that is come up with some long term funding plan which closes the "actuarial gap" until the end of time, is too shut Fred Hiatt and the gang up once and for all. But we'd be naive to think that such a fix would do anything like that. As long as the social security haters argue that the trust fund isn't "real," adding more money to the trust fund does nothing to further that goal.
But, anyway, Josh put it better. So go read the link.
The one reason to "fix" Social Security, that is come up with some long term funding plan which closes the "actuarial gap" until the end of time, is too shut Fred Hiatt and the gang up once and for all. But we'd be naive to think that such a fix would do anything like that. As long as the social security haters argue that the trust fund isn't "real," adding more money to the trust fund does nothing to further that goal.
But, anyway, Josh put it better. So go read the link.
But Why?
People are unhappy.
My question isn't meant to be flippant. I don't really think the right answer is easy to tease out of the answers to various poll questions. People aren't happy, and I'm really not sure I have a handle on why. I can't certainly come up with various little reasons, but there seems to be an overriding national narrative which people don't like. I want to know what it is.
One year before Election Day 2008, most Americans are dismayed by the country's direction, pessimistic about the Iraq war and anxious about the economy. Two of three disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. Nearly a year after Democrats took control of Congress, three of four Americans say it isn't achieving much, either.
In all, 72% of those surveyed in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Oct. 12-14 say they are dissatisfied with how things are going in the USA while just 26% are satisfied. Not since April have even one-third of Americans been happy with the country's course, the longest national funk in 15 years.
My question isn't meant to be flippant. I don't really think the right answer is easy to tease out of the answers to various poll questions. People aren't happy, and I'm really not sure I have a handle on why. I can't certainly come up with various little reasons, but there seems to be an overriding national narrative which people don't like. I want to know what it is.
Early Morning Thread
Back to the stuff that is actually scary.
For those of you wanting a link...behold the Iraqi Army in training!
For those of you wanting a link...behold the Iraqi Army in training!
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