Exhibit 4,285 in the Simple Charts and Graphs That Will Never Be Used for Messaging Purposes collection, courtesy of The Incidental Economist. US dead last in life expectancy at 65 among developed nations. Most expensive care by a large margin, though! At least we’re spending a lot more than anyone else in the developed world to get the worst outcomes. USA! USA! USA!
The investment banks didn’t mind buying up loans they knew were bad, because they considered themselves to be in the moving business rather than the storage business. They weren’t going to hold on to the loans: they were just going to package them up and sell them on to some buy-side sucker.
In fact, the banks had an incentive to buy loans they knew were bad. Because when the loans proved to be bad, the banks could go back to the originator and get a discount on the amount of money they were paying for the pool. And the less money they paid for the pool, the more profit they could make when they turned it into mortgage bonds and sold it off to investors.
Oh, and they withheld this information from the people and organizations they sold these products to.
I guess we’d better get together a blue ribbon commission. What, you think anyone will face trial over this? You think anyone will go to jail over this? You think any bank that sold these products will even have to pony up their own money to cover losses they created?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you need to reassess just what country it is you live in and just who is in charge. Because it isn’t who you think.
Truly a campaign based on ideas. Never fear, though: We have the facts on our side…
Effects of Replacing Most Federal Taxes with a National Sales Tax in 2005 (via)
But think of all the jobs it will make.
File under: yet another simple table The Democrat will never, ever use to make a larger point about GOP policies and those who would benefit from them.
… these potential savings can be realized if we are willing to make an honest examination of the cost, benefit, and rationale of the extensive U.S. military commitment overseas, which in large part remains a legacy of policy decisions made in the immediate aftermath of World War II and during the Cold War. Years after the Soviet threat has disappeared, we continue to provide European and Asian nations with military protection through our nuclear umbrella and the troops stationed in our overseas military bases. Given the relative wealth of these countries, we should examine the extent of this burden that we continue to shoulder on our own dime.
All I have to say about this is: Finally.
Naturally, the Serious People advocating harsh austerity are already heading to the barricades to put a stop to even a discussion about scaling back the Pentagon’s baseline, non-war funding to some remotely rational fraction of the national budget. Rest assured our potential GOP majority feels exactly the same way insofar as they even think about policy decisions such as these. They know who butters their bread, and it certainly isn’t the people standing in the bread lines.
It is a legal impossibility for someone without a mortgage to be foreclosed upon. It is a legal impossibility for the wrong house to be foreclosed upon, It is a legal impossibility for the wrong bank to sue for foreclosure.
And yet, all of those things have occurred. The only way these errors could have occurred is if several people involved in the process committed criminal fraud. This is not a case of “Well, something slipped through the cracks.” In order for the process to fail, many people along the chain must commit fraud.
That it is being done for expediency and to save a few dollars on the process is why the full criminal prosecution must occur.
Excellent rundown on the current meltdown in foreclosures. That these excesses (and the ones that preceded them) should be prosecuted is obvious. That they won’t be is both obvious and the reason our Republic is crumbling by the day. The oligarchs and their political cronies have established themselves as above the law. Until that system utterly collapses or a political will to clean it up arises, nothing will change.
And, psst: Democrats. You’re looking for a unifying and message that gets people to the polls in big numbers? You could do a lot worse than this one. Of course, delivering it means you actually have to, you know, back it up with some legislative action. So I guess that’s out. Back to the witchcraft angle.
Rove has spent his professional life engaged in political sleaze, so he’s accused Obama of adding “arsenic to the nation’s political well.” Rove ran a White House that embraced a “permanent campaign,” so he’s accused the Obama team of embracing a “permanent campaign.” Rove embraced the politics of fear, so he’s accused Obama of embracing the politics of fear. Rove relied on “pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted ” political events, so he’s accused Obama of relying on “pre-packaged, organized, controlled, scripted” political events. Rove looked at every policy issue “from a political perspective,” so he’s accused Obama of looking at every policy issue “from a political perspective.” Rove snubbed news outlets that he considered partisan, so he’s accused Obama of snubbing snubbed news outlets that he considered partisan. Rove had a habit of burying bad news by releasing it late on Friday afternoons, so he’s accused Obama of burying bad news by releasing it late on Friday afternoons. Rove questioned the motives of those with whom he disagreed, so he’s accused Obama of questioning the motives of those with whom he disagrees.
This article is worth a read on the basis of these two sentences alone:
“Elon has huge steel balls,” his ex-wife notes on her blog. “He truly does.”
His other main business, a rocket company called SpaceX, aimed to replace the space shuttle and eventually take people to Mars.
Apparently the section detailing his underground base of operations with sliding, stainless steel doors and a monorail was edited out. Likewise any information about his taste in jumpsuits. I’m guessing red with little lightning bolt logos.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that’s incredible.”
–Rich Iott (second from right), Tea Party and Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio’s 9th District, who likes to dress up in Waffen SS uniform and do Nazi re-enactments. Not just any re-enactments, but of one specific division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. Wonder if they re-enact this thrilling adventure of the 5th Panzers:
Members of the […] column, led by Obersturmführer Braunnagel and Untersturmführer Kochalty, assisted Einsatzgruppe A in rounding up Ukrainian Jews. Witnesses report that the Jewish victims were forced to run a gauntlet formed by soldiers who would beat them as they passed, and when they reached the end of the gauntlet, Einsatzgruppen officers murdered them and their bodies were pushed into a bomb crater.
Bound to be one of the more popular ones. But then, as we’re so frequently told, it’s irresponsible to associate the Tea Klanners with racism. Wouldn’t want to get shrill. This is just a grown man that likes to dress up like a Nazi and play war (crimes). Is that so wrong? Have the PC police finally come for the Nazis?
Jiminy. Can’t that guy get any closer? What will the terrorists think?
File under Friday Volcano Blogging.
Lemkin 