The Obama plan doesn’t say anything specific. So it might not mean $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[snip]

“Instruct the Secretaries of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to use their existing authority to more aggressively modify the terms of mortgages”

My take off from posts in this blog is that mods which reduce principle balances are viewed positively, while mods such as temporary payment reductions that do not lower principle balances are viewed as kicking the can down the road. under-Rugfeed.

It is not clear from Obamas plan _what_ terms of the mortgages are to be modified.

SO, this might mean suitcases of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and then again it could also mean just a few gunny sacs filled with nickels.

I liked this sentence :

“Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s plan provides direct relief to help America’s homeowners pay their mortgages, stay in their homes, and avoid painful tax increases while protecting taxpayers and not rewarding the bad behavior and bad actors who got us into this mess”.

sentence starts out ok:

“plan provides direct relief to help homeowners pay their mortgages”

and then ends with this :

“not rewarding bad behavior and bad actors who got us into this mess”.

Boil it down “Direct relief to homeowners while not rewarding bad behavior”.

To enforce that kind of ordnance, I envision some Orwellian named panel staffed up. candidates are marched down long sets of stairs into dimly lit basement where they step forward one by one, and stand in front of a long dark desk. No people sit behind the desk. Suddenly a voice booms out from a megaphone “You are a bad actor, you do not qualify”.

DOug

The world has never seen such freezing heat = GMT 16/11/2008

What about reading blogs? I doubt people reading Roubini are very happy (unless they’re also psychpaths).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLB.UucYt3xE&refer=home

In this unreleased Picasso version, which served as a model for other unreleased versions, Dora is hopelessly struggling at “working” in the cat house in hopes of making ends meet, so that she can buy her only friends (these two mangy flea-bag cats) more tasty protein snacks and meals, which are sold in bags and pouches which connect Dora to the fantasy of a better life. It is in this depraved, futile catch-22 setting we hear the words of Bob Dylan cutting to the bone of Dora’s misery, in the song, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

Although the cats are dancing and seemingly happy about the forthcoming treats, it is the juxtaposed reality of how Dora is actually being greedy and selfish, which makes this metaphor so challenging, i.e, both cats suffer from two independent, yet interrelated conditions, first, spinal injuries, which have come about as a result of too much dancing and second, Inflammatory bowel disease which came about as the result of eating too many high fat snacks.

The sad nature of this metaphorical image is compounded by the fact that Yves may have unintentionally linked the wrong jpeg file to this day, a time, which is generally used to focus on a less abstract matter relating to dinosaurs.

FYI: Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a “dinosaur” whose “day of reckoning” is coming.

It is in this statement of logical fact that ailing old men link themselves to an era of failure, where they also are aging dinosaurs that have no future as men, politicians and corrupt policy makers. The day of reckoning is not for just the symbolic auto industry, but for lobby groups like SIFMA and ABS, etc, that have used the conduit of Wall Street to destroy both democracy and capitalism around the globe.

FYI: Wall Street’s main lobbying group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, this week fired around 25 percent of its staff, sources familiar with the matter said — further proof that the financial crisis is severely hurting the U.S. brokerage industry.

That is a start, but hopefully, this time next year, SIFMA will be dead along with a wide spectrum of political dinosaurs and perhaps Obama will wake up to the fact that he is on the same path, and that talking about change has to be connected to the reality of actions, versus building another defective pool of nepotistic con artists!

3. DIRECT, IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE FOR HOMEOWNERS, NOT A BAILOUT FOR IRRESPONSIBLE MORTGAGE LENDERS…

change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda

What is this obsession she and others have with propping up the real estate market. God damn it, I’ve been waiting ~7 years for the real estate market to come crumbling down so that I can buy something at a good price, and all people like her want to do is let the irresponsible off the hook. I’m really sorry people are losing their homes, but really, tough luck, nobody forced these people to buy over priced houses, or take out second mortgages to finance speculation on more RE. give me a break, I’m tired of this.

Is Your Boss a Psychopath?

(Fast Company – 2005)

The Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R)