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Guest Post: Captain Fantastic And The Dirt Cowboy
Submitted by Sal Arnuk at Themis Trading
Captain Fantastic was Elton John’s 9th album released in
1975. Many consider it to be his best. If you like Elton John, you know
that 98% of his songs are collaborations between him and Bernie Taupin.
This album is a theme album that tells about their uphill battle to
make it in the music industry, against numerous odds. Elton is “Captain
Fantastic” and Bernie is the “Brown Dirt Cowboy”. When I listen to the
song I see my struggles to overcome obstacles in my career and life. I
think this is such a great album because anyone who listens can find
their own common-man challenges that they are trying to overcome, or
have tried to overcome.
The older I get the harder it is to stop myself from getting too
jaded, and too cynical. It is an even harder task these past few years,
as I am not only working against the natural cynicism of age, but also
the fact that we have all had a front row seat to the greatest
financial meltdown of our generation. Too many books have chronicled
all the insiders who have benefitted from this meltdown, and there are
no shortage of government officials whose hands are dirty (gander at
Fannie and Freddie’s lobbying recipients, and payroll lists).
Occasionally, though, we get a glimpse of something good. Genuine. Void
of self-interest. Today Senator Kaufman will speak on the floor about
financial reform in general. We were lucky to have met the man and his
staff, and to see raw energy and concern for the public good at work is
rare and inspiring. The Senator is not running for re-election. All
that he has done, and is doing, is because he feels it is right, and he
cares about America, and its proper priorities. Agree or Disagree? Not
even the point. Watching him and his staff in action makes me see how
harmful lobbying is as an activity, and how bad multi-term government
officials are. If we want change, maybe we should limit Senators to
serving one 6 year term, or two 4 year terms MAYBE. No exceptions.
Give ‘em Hell Ted.
Please read Ted Kaufman's full speech: "Wall Street Reform That Will Prevent The Next Financial Crisis."
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I'd suggest going back to having senators elected by state legislatures. That would remove the lobbyists from the equation (or at least remove them by one degree).
+1. The only way that we can bring federal politics back to the local level, within the confines of the constitution. This is the way that the people will be heard, and there are plenty of "squeaky wheels" out here.
I was going to post the same thing. Go back to the original constitution. The tendency towards pluralistic democracy is what has destroyed Western civilization.
I am amazed that you don't realize that state legislatures have agendas and special interests. The lobbyists flock around them also. I don't know what the answer is, but don't think for a moment that state legislators are above the corruption that is rampant in our national congressional halls.
Here's an incremental step. A legislative jubilee every 12 years (pick a term). Everybody has to go, new faces in the House and Senate. At the next election, you can run for your old seat back (not term limits, per se). I'll bet the election 2 years before the jubilee would be interesting, since no one would spend big bucks for a 2-year stint. Of course, that last legislature would be the most productive at solving problems.
Of course they do, but in that case, they would have to lobby the entire state legislature, not just one Senator.
State legislatures may be just as (or even more) corrupt than D.C.; however, it's far easier and cheaper to bribe 100 people than the multiple hundreds across all of the various states.
Repeal the 17th Amendment!
(and the 14th and 16th!)
And the 19th.........
Yeahy! Bring back slavery! Only this time whites too can be bought and sold (free market anyone?). DO IT! The new era of American Sweatshop economy demands it.
In Goldman we trust.
Bring it back? What rock have you been hiding under?
Ted has done a genuine job and is to be respected.
however, he was a lame duck fill in from the beginning.
wall street will get their own guy elected in Delaware.
nothing changes until the reins of power are removed from the financial oligarchy...sad to say, but true.
Thank you Mr. Kaufman for being an honest American who sees the problem and has fought the good fight. History will be good to you.
Mr. Kaufman is cynically used by the system to perpetuate the idea that someone out there is working for the common man. This builds false hope that maybe the end to the corruption, graft and theft is near.
False hopes bind us to impossible situations.
Thankfully, Beau Biden has nixed running to ride the media coverage of the prosecution of Delaware's own child-molesting pediatrician. Maybe his hedge fund failure bail-out case brother Hunter will step in? We can only hope that someday he will seek the limelight and we will be blessed by yet another Biden. You see, it is a family business with them. It is extraordinary that Ted has shown such resolve and conviction, as he was Biden's right-hand for so long and we all know how Joe was in the pocket of MBNA and the rest of the credit card establishment.
So now we'll get Mike Castle, who is a pretty good guy all things considered, and will undoubtedly beat Democrat Chris Coons, another decent guy in fact. No he will not be the voice of dissent towards Wall St that Cognitive Dis below would hope for, but he's a reasonable guy (Castle). And despite being a Republican, he never took as much money from MBNA as Joey "Bags" Biden. He won't be as dogged about the technical trading issues, but he'll come down on the right side of most issues.
'Hit the engine
but she ain't turnin'.
We're the same sad story
that's a fact
One step up and two steps back.'
-Bruce Springsteen
'Better read it first, for if one drinks much from a bottle marked "Poison", it's almost certain to disagree with one sooner or later.'
-Alice
'Like strength is felt from hope and from despair.'
-Homer (not Simpson folks!)
'If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.'
- Thomas Pynchon
'The Black Swan is a sucker's problem.'
-Nassim Taleb
Addition through subtraction is a solution that ignores the problem.
Let's increase the 'inflation target', let's increase the 'optimal unemployment rate', let's increase the first-time unemployment claims threshold that, hope upon hope, represents underlying job growth...
Anything that falls under 'less bad is good' becomes leading, anything that falls under 'less good is bad' becomes lagging; tis easy to ignore the fleas on the dog if all you trumpet is the hopeful wagging.
Once upon a time, a nationally known smartypants on an island told me that THEY would keep the bulls and bears off balance as THEY went from room to room in the burning building putting out fires.
Truth that.
That is what the code word 'trading range' really means.
Analysts opining that we all will be 'surprised by the market's strength' is code for the Federales winning, i.e., these folks are embracing the tragedy.
Analysts that suggest a 'crash is inevitable' are pining for reason before farce.
Vice before virtue, farce before reason, the question vexing? Duck or Rabbit Season?
The answer both ... in due time.
Hobbes first law of nature is that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war.
The dollar is the bullet, the Fed is the weapon. The key to the gun cabinet is for Members Only.
At this point at the end of the trend - 2009 low besting the 2002 low breaking a line of lower lows from 1897 up- our prosperity is now in the hands of Fleck's battle of unarmed combatants (currencies) where the U.S. is the dealer (reserve), at least for the near term.
We speak of a mild outcome to all this, a new normal, as we stuff the pig on the scale of fate. We are so far down the rabbit hole Alice, so arse over tit, that it is quite plausible that the power law being applied here is masquerading mild as wild as well as its' converse.
What if the mild prognostication is deflation or hyperinflation with either A cascading to B or B cascading to A?
What if the Black Swan is just, hope upon hope, muddling through?
Tell 'em, Alexi:
I add that they will soon become incapable of exercising the great and only privilege which remains to them. The democratic nations that have introduced freedom into their political constitution at the very time when they were augmenting the despotism of their administrative constitution have been led into strange paradoxes. To manage those minor affairs in which good sense is all that is wanted, the people are held to be unequal to the task; but when the government of the country is at stake, the people are invested with immense powers; they are alternately made the play things of their ruler, and his masters, more than kings and less than men. After having exhausted all the different modes of election without finding one to suit their purpose, they are still amazed and still bent on seeking further; as if the evil they notice did not originate in the constitution of the country far more than in that of the electoral body.
It is indeed difficult to conceive how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal, wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a subservient people.
A constitution republican in its head and ultra-monarchical in all its other parts has always appeared to me to be a short-lived monster. The vices of rulers and the ineptitude of the people would speedily bring about its ruin; and the nation, weary of its representatives and of itself, would create freer institutions or soon return to stretch itself at the feet of a single master.
~Alexi de Toqueville
So that's were the saying, about men who can't govern themselves eventually needing the strong fist of government, comes from.
What an excellent synopsis of the problem and need for solutions. I especially liked the use of "fraud" and the failure of the regulators.
Kudos to this senator!
Kaufman IS on the right track....
But let me tell you this.....
..................................
The economy goes nowhere until there is tax structure change....
There is a lot of excess baggage ....and it is not as if the US is starting from 2007....it is starting from 2010....where the debt picture and govt. inaction has change the debt picture for 50+ years....
Also the new construct has to be one whereby new sustainable business is the number ONE priority.....whereas today it is the last priority...as there have been no meaningful announcements at all....to make required tax structure change....
True. It's the top and the bottom against the middle.
The source of our political corruption is the fact that government debt is the basis of our monetary system. The more the government overspends, the more it must borrow and the wealthier those lending the money are.
It would be a simple matter for the government to create an actual budgeting process that did actual budgeting. Have the legislature break the bills into their individual items and each legislator assign a percentage value to each one, then reassemble them in order of preference. The president would then draw the line at what would be funded. This would divide responsibility, allowing the legislature to prioritize, while giving the president final authority over total spending. Since making the cut would be graded on a curve, there would be much less incentive to trade favors and the percentage system would allow legislators to fine tune their granting of favors to other legislators and lobbyists. It can't happen, though, without collapsing our current financial system.
Tyler, the following link is to the actual language of the bill as posted on the Huffington Post (I am not endorsing them, I am just disclosing where I found the legistion. If you have already posted it an commented and I missed it, I appologize (you have to go to the bottom of the blog post to read the legislation)). I think that everyone that reads this site would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the language of the bill and what you think the loopholes are or how you would change it. I really hope that you respond to this request. Thanks in advance.
Sorry, forgot to post the link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/10/senators-target-wall-stre_n_494...
"I try to be cynical but its hard to keep up."
Lily Tomlin
"The older I get the harder it is to stop myself from getting too jaded, and too cynical."
I'm done listening to assholes like you.
Hmmm. This is one of the anti-Themis guys. LOL
Deep breath. Exhale. Look down again. Maybe it has grown.
Or maybe not. LOL
First we do need to limit the terms of the retards in Senate and Congress to no more than 8 years.
Second we need to limit the age in those mobs clubs. When Senator is over 70 or 80- it may sound cute, but his mentality was pretty much formed during his early ages. Those people having a hard time to adjust to fast , dynamic growing environment.
While he nails the guts of the issues he fails to get at the heart of "regulatory forebearance"...ie the bank lobby and the political passthrough machine at FNM and FRE, that spigot must be shut off before anything substantive might be accomplished. Sure enjoyed the lucid prose from a politican though, quite refreshing...
Term limits! The name of the game is to expand government into every last corner of your life, forever. Bureaucrats don't have no stinkin' term limits. And once in place it can never be voted away. It never has been voted away. It ratchets up, up, up.
If Obabma's health care bill passes the government will inevitably control all health care just like they've essentially done with student loans - only 1000 bigger.
"Conservatives" and "Liberals" will fight over whether the VAT tax should be 19.5% or 20% just like they do in Europe. Now there's something to get out of bed for on election day.
Get ready to ready to prep your kids all through childhood for that one single day that will determine the quality of the rest of their lives:
The civil service exam
Better to make it so senators and all government officials have to wait five years before accepting work as a lobbyist or at a corporation. That way they can't be bribed with the promise of a lucrative job if they vote to benefit corporations over citizens.
Limiting terms to two would also be reasonable.
How's this for changing things:
www.fixcongressfirst.org
Harvard's Larry Lessig puts up a fantastic fight for his causes, I've noticed
Sometimes PIIGS fly. Sometimes, a senetor ights for the public good. Thanks for the hope, Kaufman.
I say we put the power back in the hands of the people by implementing confidence votes each year sort of like an assesment of their conduct and responsibilities. I would not want to wait 2,4,6 yrs. to find out that they have passed legislation and were disregarding the citizens in favor of their own interests. Before they vote on any legislation it has to be reviewed and passed by the majority of the people.
If we aren't involved in the process to this degree it will inevitably turn into what Big business wants. It will need our constant involvement just like raising a child. Right now we are blaming the teachers for our kids not having an education when we leave them alone after school and they don't do their homework, they need help but are too embarrassed to ask for it and instead of having a participating hand we leave it to the system.
This will never pass on a federal level but it would on a state and community level.
Term limits are a knee jerk response to a baffeling problem. You think things are bad now, wait until term limits are passed. We live in an extremelly complex ecosystem. It takes a lifetime of experience to get your hands around some of the problems we face. Do away with term limits and what you get is a Congress that understands a little about a lot, and a lot about nothing. That's when the unelected bureaucrats become the experts and start running the show by 'directing' their Congressman, who won't have a clue as to how the puppet strings are being pulled.
Congress will then become lemmings to their bureaucratic staffs. Look no farther than TARP. Congress and the people were adamantly against TARP. In the end however they succumbed to the 'expert bureaucrat' Hank Paulson who insisted the whole system would implode without the massive taxpayer bailout of the banks. Congress didn't have a clue so they deferred to the 'Bureaucratic expert' Paulson. Expect more of that crap with term limits when the lifetime government teet suckers actually start running the show because those in Congress are ignorant, wet behind the ears, and lack political experience.
If this was presented to the citizens of each state and voted on and then the congressman voted the opposite way. He would be subjected to a no confidence vote, then ousted. The taxpayers of that state should then have the right to opt out of the legislation thus having no obligations towards it. Or make it illegal for the politician to vote against the majority of his or her state.
The politicians already vote on legislation that they don't read or understand. I have many examples of this.
The Brits are very familiar with this, watch any episode of Yes, Minister to see how it works. Self-important MPs elected by their constituency in the sticks arrive full of plans, until their staff -- lifetime civil servants who know how the political machinery works -- get them under control. It's supposed to be satire but I never doubted a word.
It's a moot point anyway since term limits can only be enacted by those who are already in and plan to stay there. That will happen right after Congress votes itself a pay cut.
Rememer the Gingrich Contract With America? One promise was to vote on term limits. They did, and voted no.
End the fractional reserve ponzi with 100% reserve banking.
Term limits are not the answer - in fact they only serve to guarantee that an otherwise truly honorable politician will be limited to what he can do.
No, the answer is full (complete & transparent) disclosure of campaign donations and an informed, concerned electorate.
To "campaign" for term limits is misguided & misdirected and actually doing the work for the lobbyists, who can simply "buy off" or strongly influence the next eager candidate's election & voting on legislation.
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