Frontrunning: December 11
- Must read from Taibbi: the real Sellout (Obama's that is): (Rolling Stone)
- Ireland, Greece may leave Euro, Standard bank says (Bloomberg)
- IMF witholds $3.5 billion loan to the Ukraine(NYT)
- Do we really need a systemic regualtor? (WSJ)
- Even with fewer people spending, somehow more people are spending (Bloomberg)
- KKR: Omaha on the Hudson (BusinessWeek)
- Sarkozy plan bonus tax, saying France, U.K. "Show the way" (Bloomberg)
- Ukraine appeals to IMF for $2 billion loan (FT)
- Evans-Pritchard: Funds see Dubai contagion as chance to buy Gulf debt (Telegraph)
- Goldman hires 600 fewer entry level squids this year due to recession (Bloomberg)
- Additional stimulus spending could do more harm than good (Forbes)
(2 votes)
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on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:54
#159991
the retail numbers
http://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/download/text/advt1.txt
note the revision (downward for October) the following is an image of the unrevised October numbers
http://i48.tinypic.com/6fmwt2.jpg
here are the numbers adjusted for gasoline
($ millions) Month over Month Year over Year
Total Retail 1.29% 352,073 347,605 1.90% 352,073 345,508
less cars 1.23% 292,145 288,608 1.30% 292,145 288400
less cars and gas 0.64% 258,842 257,197 0.37% 258,842 257892
(I think I junked my own post)
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:28
#159997
Tabibi's article will make it hard even for the most 'Merican Idol -inured dolt to ignore what is happening to the middle class for the benefit of the bankstas.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:46
#160014
'Merican I-dolts will placate their own fears by turning to willful ignorance because it will be too uncomfortable to confront reality.
Has climategate changed many people's minds, or has it simply demonstrated how entrenched the global warming dogma really is?
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 10:24
#160046
I just read the article. Wow! Not that it comes as a surpise to people that lurk here, but I hope this goes viral to the masses. This from one of his supporters (I think Taibii was) and he just plain ripped him a new ass.
Good work Matt, keep it up.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:51
#160122
The smart, 'hip' college kids will actually read it. Everybody else in that age bracket is cannon fodder. I'm blown away by what he's pumping out - in RS!
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 14:11
#160280
As a recent college grad, I sadly have to agree at the lack of awareness within today's youth (in general, this is not a blanket statement), I am sending this to all my friends and encourage everyone else to do the same
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:31
#160000
A Polish writer once said that socialism's problems are capital, while capitalism's are social.
Never heard a more comprehensive or exact description of today's world put in so few words. We never seem to stop oscilating between the two systems of governance, and unfortunately, instead of combining the good sides of both, we compound the bad ones over the years.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:32
#160001
The Taibbi article is one of the most devastating descriptions of the corruption at the heart of the American political system I have ever read.
It seems now that there is no other way to fix America than another revolution. The ruling classes have lost all semblance of serving the people.
The only way to keep their boot from our throats is to make them fear for their necks.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:43
#160011
EURUSD breaks below 89 DMA for the first time since the spring. Dollar rally coming!
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:55
#160019
I've noticed over past week, the ONLY thing holding equities up is AUD/USD
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:45
#160012
Every person in the U.S. should be required to read Taibbi's article and there should be classes for anyone that doesn't understand it. Almost every person mentioned in his article should be in jail. Why don't people get it?? Because they have been systematically dumbed down and now only care about reality t.v..
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:53
#160016
"600 fewer entry level squids this year due to recession"
LoL. I thought it was all over, things have stabilized.
Gundlach sat through a fitting for an ink pouch...
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 09:56
#160020
The $64,000 question:
"How could Obama let this happen? Is he just a rookie in the political big leagues, hoodwinked by Beltway old-timers? Or is the vacillating, ineffectual servant of banking interests we've been seeing on TV this fall who Obama really is?"
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 10:19
#160040
That's the quote that caught my eye. I don't see why, however, those are disjunctive questions. It's becoming clear that he's out of his depth, with no ideas of his own. But the other part of the problem seems to be that he has no principles either.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:16
#160096
That's really the most surreal part of Taibbi's article. Not once did he or anyone at Rolling Stone ever consider to actually look at Obama's record of accomplishment (there was none) or at his political connections (a product of the most corrupt political machine in the country doesn't have any skeletons or compromising associations? Yeah, right) and really ask, "Is this honestly the best person to change the political and social culture of this country?"
If RS went after Obama the way they do the average conservative politician or corporation, Obama wouldn't have made it past the primary, and probably wouldn't have even declared for the Presidency. They, and the rest of the media, were dazzled by him for the most superficial and irrelevant of reasons-- his skin color, his teleprompter-reading skills, and his ability to pander to three generations of American mediocrity by appealing to their individual egos.
Obama's the equivalent of a Third World petty potentate who just happens to be President of one of the most powerful countries in the world, and the corruption, double-speak, and sellouts are par for the course with individuals like this. Good on Taibbi and Rolling Stone for holding his feet to the fire on his acquiescence to the banksters, but they could have figured this out about four years ago.
Given Barney Frank's vote against HR 1207 a couple weeks ago, Taibbi's willingness to give that fat toad a pass in the same article is particularly galling considering the "reforms" Frank supported were merely window-dressing and wouldn't reform the basic structure of the bankster skim at all.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 13:50
#160251
Great comment. Thank You.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:04
#160131
I wonder if he's doing it to keep readers from thinking he's just bashing O - don't want to lose readership. Only zombies think O actually knows how to run the most powerful government (ever!) on the face of the planet - but that's part of the scheme: O is a celebrity.
Brilliant, too. If you criticize the god-"I've got this"-king you're a simple-minded racist, which is pretty much synonomous with 'tea-bagger'. Where the hell is the decency police now?
It's all to keep us fighting left and right, instead of angry-bottom to indifferent-top.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:15
#160094
Goldman hires 600 fewer entry level squids this year due to recession
They have bots making trades. Why hire more people?
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:38
#160159
They're actually doing us a favor by hiring people to pay giant bonuses to with our tax dollars, as they will go forth to buy copious amounts of luxury goods, therefore raising consumer confidence. Confidence up = economy saved.
Markets Rally! Thanks Lord Blankfein. Smartest guy in the room, I tell ya.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:28
#160097
I stopped reading after the attacks on deregulation and laissez-faire. These are the typical lazy explanations given by journalists to describe the situation. But if this whole thing was caused by deregulation and laissez-faire, then the people in charge simply don't matter. You're letting them off the hook to say it's unregulated greed. The answer is that the free market would not even have allowed the fed to exist. A free market probably would not allow the level of fractional reserve banking. And even a partially free market would have sent most of these companies into bankruptcy. I fail to see how a car csar is somehow laissez-faire. Or a pay csar. The problems were caused by abject incompetance (rewarded with influential positions in government), aberration of contracts and property rights, and the religious adherence to fantasy land theory of economics (Keynesianism). Lazy article.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:11
#160134
Agreed. I don't trust the guy - he's just filling the air with partial answers that the People want - we will still feel helpless. Kind of like the bashing Uncle Ben got - so what. Ya think something is actually going to change! The Fed is still the Fed is still the Fed.
End the Fed.
Even Greenspan was a sellout. The printing press can buy anything!
And here's the pervert Keynes, roasting in Christian Hell, I hope:
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:38
#160114
Taibbi really ought stop ragging tea party movement. Doesn't he see he has much common ground with many in that movement? He seems to only see the fringe element there.
Matt, you need to see the financial destruction in the health legislation more clearly. If you're so concerned with the country's finances, you need to be at least visionary enough to see that the eventual cost of governemnt run healthcare and the extreme versions of socialized medicine will cost many multiples of any Wall Street situation that occured in a defined period of roughly 1985-2010.
If you want to discuss Obama's shady bait and switches, are there any bigger than this health care monstosity? He sure as heck never let on that he was going to devote 99% of his time, energy, and political capital to holding a gun to America's head on a healthcare takeover.
I know very few who would have voted for that.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:47
#160120
I went back to the US and attended the Inauguration (cold as a w***h's.... well you remember). I saw so many young people who had flown in from all over the country to be a part of it, and I waded through a few thousand of them in Dulles the next day catching my flight back to the Pacific Century. They were so hopeful, in a way I had not seen since the days of JFK. I thought maybe America had been reborn, naive old fool that I was.
These young people read Rolling Stone. They will read Taibbi's article. They will know it is accurate, even if they have not wanted to admit it up to now. They were hoodwinked and they know it. They were taken for fools. They were used. They will feel betrayed the way a great golfer's wife feels betrayed today. They are not yet old enough to have the thick skin necessary to forgive. They will begin to see clearly. The ones responsible for the election of BHO will be the ones who insure he will spend 2013 and thereafter in Chicago.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:29
#160150
The problem is, there is no shortage of gullible fools amongst the young. I do wonder what a few million, hopeless, jobless people will manage to do politically.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:55
#160128
I very much enjoy it when "liberals" like SS Taibbi finally have a what the fu** moment about the BAM and his party.
I give him credit for at least writing about it.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 15:26
#160403
...and to be fair, at least some of the Democrats are capable of criticizing their leaders...which is much more than we can say for the Republicans. I don't think there exists a Taibbi or a Greenwald on the right.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:23
#160146
Sort of weird how Taibbi's article goes off on a tangent at the end. He acosts some woman at an anti-healthcare rally and demands to know why she doesn't care about what he cares about, and then rags on her for not being well versed in Wall Street bashing?
Earth to Matt...Earth to Matt...That's not the issue she's passionate about, okay. Do you go rip people out of line at Pro-Gay Marriage rallies and demand to know why they don't share your passion for denouncing Bob Rubin?
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:28
#160149
"Goldman hires 600 fewer entry level squids"
Squids the old timers must have listened to Marla's "the speaker is mine" and decided not to share this year.
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:35
#160155
The Bloomberg article failed to mention the additional income zombies have after defaulting on their credit cards!
on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 12:39
#160161
The thing about Taibbi's article is he cannot decide what he is mad at. I understand being upset that the guys want to use government to protect wall street, but you cannot also be mad at the antithesis of that idea: free market capitalism, which would have punished them dearly for their failings. If you want to be mad at something, don't be mad just because they are rich. Pick a good reason and stick with it. Don't pick two conflicting reasons and just conclude that we should all stand here scratching our heads 'hey, son of a gun!?!?' That's what I got out of Taibbi. He's an angry populist and thinks anything short of raw redistribution of wealth is a miss. That being said, he does make a good point that Obama and company say one thing and do another. Not that I'm happy about what they say NOR what they do. Don't misunderstand me, I'm a free markets guy all the way. I think Mr. Taibbi correctly points out that we did not get what we expected, but we got another Bush league. They're not capitalists, they're corporate statists. If you're going to pull someone's card, make sure you know what's on its face.
on Sat, 12/12/2009 - 15:08
#160349
The problem with Taibbi is that the world has changed in ways he still has not figured out.
He doesn't understand that we have no representation in congress. And congress with the aid of the banks has purchased the Executive branch. And they no longer need to listen to anybody. Least of all the rabble in the streets.
The only question that remains is who owns the Judges..
on Sat, 12/12/2009 - 03:17
#161036
The article is appreceiated for the presentation of facts, and hopefuly it will make others aware of the fact that BO is a sellout, but the editorial content is the height of stupidity. The contradictions within paragraphs or even sentences are abhorrent:
Changing reform and giving bailouts is as far away from laissez-faire as you can get.