“Who Could Have Anticipated That Banks Wouldn’t Regulate Themselves?”

Alan Greenspan had the gall to sit before Congress today and claim that he was in “a state of shocked disbelief” when confronted with the undeniable evidence that every idea he ever had is wrong. His whole world has just crumbled before his eyes and he has been forced to watch as his castles made of sand slip into the sea.

From the “librul” New York Times:

Facing a firing line of questions from Washington lawmakers, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman once considered the infallible maestro of the financial system, admitted on Thursday that he “made a mistake” in trusting that free markets could regulate themselves without government oversight.
A fervent proponent of deregulation during his 18-year tenure at the Fed’s helm, Mr. Greenspan has faced mounting criticism this year for having refused to consider cracking down on credit derivatives, an unchecked market whose excesses partly led to the current financial crisis.

We are watching the invalidation of the main tenets of conservative economic philosophy and if it wasn’t so tragic and offensive I’d be tempted to have me a big ole’ slice of that yummy, yummy Schadenfreude Pie. But this is no joke, and the damage will be too severe to joke about this anymore.

But in a tense exchange with Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the committee, Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

[...]

In his prepared remarks, Mr. Greenspan said he was in “a state of shocked disbelief” about the breakdown in the ability of banks to regulate themselves. He also warned about the economic consequences of the crisis, saying that he “cannot see how we will avoid a significant rise in layoffs and unemployment.” Consumer spending will decline, too, he said, adding that a stabilization of home prices would be necessary to bring the crisis to its end.

I find it interesting that every time there is a major crisis on the Republican watch, it’s rooted in something that we “could never have anticipated”. 9/11, Katrina, and now we can add financial malfeasance, greed, and corruption to that list.

Now that’s what my Russian grandma would have called “chutzpah”.

Yes We Carve

On Boy! Something to look forward to for Halloween.

Go here for pumkin stencils and lot’s of pumpkin pictures.

Grave Diggers

by Stephen Fleischman

I didn’t believe I’d ever see it.

Grave diggers at work.

It’s an honest profession, I know. Bodies need to be buried. Right now they’re working at a frantic pace. You can barely hear the moaning for the swishing of the shovels.

There are bodies lying all around. Lehman Brothers (both of them), Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and other familiar names we’ve seen on television. Some of the dying are trying to survive by clinging to each other. They can come up with all kinds of Byzantine arrangements. But most of them are too far gone. They need to be gotten out of the way before the stench of the toxic assets becomes overwhelming.

Spurred on by their foreman, Hank Paulson, who is only the Secretary of the Treasury, the diggers are working at breakneck speed. You’ve got Bob Rubin, one time arbitrage expert for Goldman Sachs, an old crony of Hank and a pal of Bill Clinton in whose administration he learned to swing a shovel. You’ve got Joe Cassano, formerly Chief Executive Officer of American International Group’s Derivatives Unit. Cassano’s business was underwriting a huge proportion of the global credit bubble – including the vast American subprime mortgage market. And as house prices in the US fell, the AIG books began to unravel. You’ve got Richard Fuld, Jr. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, one brokerage firm the government didn’t think worth bailing out. You’ve got John J. Mack, Morgan Stanley’s chief. The New York Times says Jack Mack, just “cannot catch his breath”. His bank was hit hard by the wallop of the market, its share price plummeting 26% to $12.45. Jack angered many hedge funds by getting regulators to restrict short sellers. It didn’t last long. Within twenty-four hours, regulators lifted the temporary ban. But Jack wasn’t out of the woods. His cohorts were at him again when Morgan Stanley tried a Hail Mary by fomenting a deal to raise $9 billion from Mitsubishi UFJ in Japan but with the way the market is there, it doesn’t look too promising. But Jack is pretty good at wielding a shovel.

Back in the middle of the 19th Century, a young man in Germany with a full head of hair and a bushy beard predicted all this would happen.. He made the most extensive analysis of the workings of the capitalist system to that time. He wrote a book called “Das Kapital”; its first volume was published in 1867.

When the authorities didn’t like what they read, they kicked Karl Heinrich Marx out of Germany. He spent most of the rest of his life in Paris, Brussels and London meeting with other budding socialists and making trouble. He participated in the organization known as the International Workingmen’s Association, otherwise known as the “First International”. He also finished writing the other three volumes of his book with his collaborator, Friedrick Engels.

They spent a lot of time at the British Museum in London.

Marx predicted that the clash, under capitalism, would come between the bourgeoisie and the working class. You don’t hear those words today—bourgeoisie—working class. No Siree. You hear entrepreneur—working families—working together as one big family, we are told. That’s because the bourgeoisie (establishment) doesn’t want you to understand the nature of the class struggle or to question where “profit” comes from.

That’s the question. What is the source of profit?

It was a monumental discovery of Marx. It was a discovery that ranked with Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and Sigmund Freud’s ego, super-ego and the id.

Profit, Marx proved, is the gain capitalists receive by paying workers less than the full value of their labor. Here’s how it works: In a free labor system, under capitalism, labor is a commodity like any other. You pay your worker a wage that represents only a part payment for the value he produces. You have only to extract the surplus value that the worker contributes to the making of the product. You call it profit and say it is derived from entrepreneurial skill, reward for taking risks, from the machinery, the land, or other such gibberish. Once you extract the surplus value the worker creates, let him be free to go his own way and the devil take the hindmost. There is always a plentiful supply of labor to be had.

What! Our revered capitalist system is based on out-and-out thievery! The capitalist steals the surplus value of the labor the worker puts into the commodity being produced! What a discovery!
Marx made another earthshaking discovery. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. “What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”
Is that what we’re seeing now in the USA?

We’re a long way from socialism even though we’re nationalizing part of our financial structure. Perhaps Socialism is sneaking in through the back door. It might not be such a bad idea!

Under capitalism, the assault on labor has been overwhelming, continuous, inhuman and destructive from the beginning of the industrial revolution to this very day. No wonder unions are dysfunctional and chaotic. So are most of their leaders. If they’re not coerced, co-opted or corrupted, they’re framed, jailed or neutralized in some way. Only when capitalism is in the throes of crisis, deep depression and near collapse can labor leaders like Eugene V. Debs or John L. Lewis emerge.

Marx believed that capitalism, like previous economic systems will lead to its own destruction. Capitalism cuts from under its own feet the very foundation on which it produces and appropriates products. What it creates, in the process, is its own grave-diggers.

Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, capitalism, itself, will be replaced by another form, be it communism or some form of socialism allowing for a public and private sector in the economy.

There are few parts of the world that were not significantly touched by Marxist ideas in the course of the twentieth century.

Late Night Music: Respondele a Obama!

h/t Daily Kos

What Is Our Plan B?

I had a bad feeling yesterday, and I need to write about it. I see the video above, and I worry about election day. I think we all know that there have already been massive attempts to suppress the vote by the Republican Party. And this morning The New York Times has a story about registration irregularities in the swing states.

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

The Republicans have already said that they will be challenging voters. I expect that there will also be attempts to intimidate canvassers and GOTV community organizers. And after watching the video I wouldn’t count out the possibility of mob violence at the polls, especially if McPalin keeps whipping up the racist frenzy. And if I really let my paranoid fantasies get the better of me I see mob violence leading to the shutdown of the election, Martial Law, the end of America. Now that’s just MY paranoid fantasy, but remember that you heard it here first.

Now, there’s another thing. We all know that the Republicans are going to try to steal this election. And I remember all too clearly the anger, hurt and frustration I felt in 2000 and 2004 when those elections were stolen, and I do not relish feeling those feelings again, but I have to consider this possibility and how I will react to it. So here is the question:

If we wake up on November 5th to find out that this election has been stolen from us, what are we going to do?

When I asked this question yesterday in a comment at dKos I was chastised for “hanging out the crepe”. I guess that means that that particular commenter thought I was being negative with my question, but I haven’t seen any plan of action for this eventuality. I think that this is something we should all be thinking about. What will we do? Will we sit at home and watch on TeeVee as another election is stolen? Or will we take to the streets the way the Ukranians did during the Orange Revolution?

In our excitement and joy at the implosion of the McCain Campaign and the prospect of a new progressive era being born with the presidency of Barack Obama, we need to also have a Plan B. And if, as I really expect, Barack is indeed elected and everything turns out all right on election day, then we can then turn it into a really big block party.

h/t: Blogger Interrupted for the video

UPDATE: From a commeter at dKos, where I cross posted this:

it wont be stolen

let me ask you a frank question: are you working in your area with the Obama campaign at all? I ask b/c i find that working closely with them gives me insight into just how together they are. They are anticipating all angles but you would’nt know it if you’re not working with them. I live in FL, BTW.

Examples:

1. when we register voters, we bring the registration forms FIRST to the campaign office. They log them into their OWN system before taking them BY HAND to the SOE office.

2. we just spend a week calling every single person in our county who registered on VoteForChange.com to remind them to send in their registration form. We logged if they said they already did.

3. we spent another week calling every single 18+ voter in my county who was NOT registered to vote. I have NO idea where the campaign got this info but it turns out that it generated a lot of new voters, once they were prodded.

4. behind the scenes Obama’s legal staff has gotten FL’s election office to publicly state that the driver license address no longer has to match the voter card address as long as the person is at the right precinct that is on the voter card. This ruling came down about 17 days ago and is a victory for us herein FL.

This is just a very small example of how tightly this ship is being run. I could easily give you many many more.

Obama has been very on it right from the start. What you’re feeling is the jitters. Its like preparing for the Boston marathon and suddenly ts TIME.

Relax.

And to make you really understand the position we’re in right now, here this from Lambros otherwise laughable article today:

As of this week, the freshman liberal senator led or held the edge in Iowa, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico and Colorado – eight states that can deliver 111 electoral votes to the winner.

President Bush previously won all these states along with a bunch of others that gave him 286 electoral votes to John Kerry’s 251. Mr. McCain can’t afford to lose any of these Red states, unless he can offset his losses by picking off a number of Democratic Blue states and that seems rather problematic right now (though polls show the race tightening in Minnesota and Wisconsin).

But with a little more than four weeks remaining in the presidential race in a brutal economic environment, the grim reality facing Mr. McCain is that his rival leads in more than a half-dozen Red states, while he cannot point to a single Blue state where he is ahead.

OBee-JoeBee ‘08

Whew! That helps, but I still won’t really relax until Barack Obama is sworn in on 1/20/09.

Landslide

A landslide will bring you down.

1000 Words

There is nothing more to say.

Update 1: DARN! The original photo was removed. Oh well. It was nice.

Update 2: Although the original photo that I had here has disappeared, this new one is almost as good.

In case you missed it, the original photo was also very moving. It was a picture of a 60-something white woman hugging Barack Obama at a rally in Pennsylvania. She was moved to tears as she hugged him, and all the camera saw was the side of his shoulder and the back of his head. It was all in the woman’s expression. It was the perfect picture of hope.

This new photo that I found today has many of the same qualities as the original. The woman is African-American, but the expression of hope is the same.

Vote For Obama, The Anti-Christ, And Fulfill God’s Plan For Mankind

It seems that Barack Obama really is the Anti-Christ.

God’s anointed spokesman, Clerical Error, explains it all, and it makes perfect sense to me.

h/t Jesus’ General

Late Night Music: Ode To Caribou Barbie

I’ve got to decipher this ode to Caribou Barbie, it’s going into my repertoire.

Hey Sarah Palin, do you tell them in Wasilla
That 4,000 years ago we roamed the planet with Godzilla
Is it true
I am so fucking scared of you
As number 2

Hey Sarah Palin, I think Alaska’s very pretty
But just 100,000 people more than Oklahoma City
Yes it’s true
Go look it up, Im telling you
Oh man, were through

Chorus
Oh, if you become VP, oh, its Canada for me (2x)
Its Canada for me

Hey Sarah Palin, did you really once inquire
Whether you could throw library books into a big bonfire
God, my eyes
This really might be our demise
This pack of lies

Hey Sarah Palin, just because you’re good at shootin
Doesn’t mean you have the ammo to negotiate with Putin
Are you on coke
This fucking country’s up in smoke
Oh what a joke

Chorus
Oh, if you become VP, oh what will it mean for me (2x)

Bridge
Just because I can see the moon
Doesn’t make me an astronaut, you loon
Your foreign policy expertise is pooh
Do you really think a woman commits
To a candidate just because she has tits
Please tell me that this ticket is not true
I thought that there could be no worse
Than Cheney, but here you are, I curse
The madman who would cast a vote for you
And McCain too

Hey Sarah Palin, is it media distortion
Or would you tell a girl whos raped that she could not have an abortion
Its a new low
Who knows just how far you would go
Id rather vote for Ross Perot
Hey Sarah Palin I dont know
Where can we go

Chorus

Friday Night Cat Blogging

translated title: The cat which fights with the enemy which is not visible*
translated comment: The cat which it tries to catch the wind which comes out of the exit cone of the air purification machine*