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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Links 11/7/09

Three bald bears perplex experts BBC

Antidepressants and Violence EconoSpeak. One of my pet peeves is how psychoactive medications are handed out like candy in the US. Just go to your MD, say you are exhausted, and once they eliminate anemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and low thryoid, they assume it’s in your head and will offer you all sorts of mood altering goodies.

What does Google Suggest suggest about the state of humanity? CNet

Jon Stewart spoofs Glenn Beck Ed Harrison. Too funny.

Landing a job like getting into Harvard CNN (hat tip Felix Salmon)

A Tsunami of Red Ink Michael Panzner

Wall Street still overestimating the American consumer The Economic Populist

JRE Keeps You Entertained All Weekend: It’s not nice to make fun of Telstra Josh Reviews Everything. Two of my accomplishments when I lived in Australia were victories against Telstra. The first was getting Telstra to correct a large overcharge on my mobile phone bill. You have no idea what that entails. The second was, after I was told I would have to wait three weeks to get broadband (!) because there were no open ports in my local office, finding an open port on my own and using that info to insist they give me service sooner. This post is further confirmation that all the bad things said about Telstra are accurate.

“Demystifying Social Knowledge” Mark Thoma

Consumer debt drops for record 8th straight month MarketWatch (hat tip reader John D)

Report: 237 millionaires in Congress Politico (hat tip reader John D)

Bank of England says financiers are fuelling an economic ‘doom loop’ Telegraph. It is striking how the BofE is willing to take on the banksters, when no one in the officialdom here will.

Nominally misguided (wonkish) Paul Krugman

Barking Up the Wrong Tree Roger Ehrenberg. Today’s must read

Antidote du jour:

nutrias

Topics: Links

Email This Post Email This Post Posted by Yves Smith at 5:41 am

16 Comments » Links to this post

16 Comments:

  • Skippy says:
    November 7, 2009 at 6:31 am

    OOH NO YOU DIDN’T YVES

    Antidote du jour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBYV_7a0FQs

    Skippy…refrances to the White House, Bi-centennial and H. Kissinger

    Reply
  • cb says:
    November 7, 2009 at 7:32 am

    New Bill Would Keep Public In The Dark About Threats To Financial System
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/house-panel-may-keep-publ_n_348685.html

    “Members of Congress and the general public may not be told of “potential emerging threats to the stability of the financial system,” thanks to a Thursday vote by a House panel shepherding the bill that’s supposed to end “too big to fail.”
    An amendment offered by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and unanimously approved by a voice vote in the House Financial Services Committee specifically deletes a provision in the Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009.
    The two draft versions of the bill originally called for the proposed overseer of threats to the entire financial system to prepare an annual report to Congress describing, among other things, “significant financial market developments and potential emerging threats to the stability of the financial system.”
    But on Thursday, Meeks’ amendment deleted that language and instead compels the council to describe:
    “Significant financial and regulatory developments, including insurance and accounting regulations and standards, and assesses the impact of those developments on the stability of the financial system.”
    Thus, “potential emerging threats” was replaced by “financial and regulatory developments.”"

    Reply
  • attempter says:
    November 7, 2009 at 7:42 am

    The Ehrenberg piece is mildly heartening, in that I like to see the crooks scrambling to blame one another. It’s a sign that they’re not feeling completely confident.

    I do agree with him that OTC derivative crimes are probably “worse” than those occuring in equity markets, but that just means we need an ethical whirlwind to sweep them ALL away.

    Reply
    • i on the ball patriot says:
      November 7, 2009 at 8:36 am

      I agree, blame yes, but envy also. Its vanilla greed whining about pernicious greed cleaning its clocks … and the article is of course well salted with false rationales for shit behavior.

      Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.

      Reply
    • DownSouth says:
      November 7, 2009 at 11:59 am

      What boggles the mind is the lack of sophistication of the sophistries being peddled by the likes of Ehrenberg.

      No more self-serving argument has been made since Nero insisted that the Christians enjoyed being thrown to the lions because it permitted them to become martyrs.

      Reply
  • fresno dan says:
    November 7, 2009 at 11:12 am

    A Tsunami of Red Ink Michael Panzner: “U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said commercial real estate woes won’t set off a new banking crisis, in remarks to the Economic Club of Chicago.”

    He can’t possibly be that incautious. I wonder if he actually resisted saying commercial real estate is contained.

    They must think the US economy is the Titanic. I want to say to them, “You know guys, don’t worry about instilling panic – the sinking ship, lack of life boats, and the freezing water will do that. How about you telling us how to at least salvage the women and children.”

    Reply
  • Justicia says:
    November 7, 2009 at 11:24 am

    Gordon Brown now supports Tobin Tax

    http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6907688.ece

    Reply
  • ronald says:
    November 7, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    Ehrenberg misses the point that the political class has created and nurtured financial innovation as the new economic order in response to their unwillingness to deal with the impact of continued rapid manufacturing automation combined with the multi-national outsourcing of jobs and plants to foreign lands. What has occurred instead is a financial Frankenstein creation of a unstable financial structure that shows little promise of becoming the alternative to our past manufacturing driven economy. The new financial products are acting strange but regulation is not on the table as it would be an admission that the new order has failed.

    Reply
  • Lavrenti Beria says:
    November 7, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Forty-four percent of the members of Congress are millionaires while that is true of only one percent of the general American population? One day, these millionaires and their associates might just wake up to the angry presence of a million unemployed non-millionaires on every street and mall in Washington, D.C. Then, perhaps after their detention and interrogation, light will be shed on precisely how such outrageous disparities can manage to develop.

    Reply
  • MyLessThanPrimeBeef says:
    November 7, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    Over 200 millionaires in Congress?

    I don’t really have a problem with that. I am more interested in seeing more diversity in Congress…I like to see more plumbers, shoe salesmen, peanut farmers, truck drivers and dishwashers and fewer lawyers, comedians, movie stars, technology CEOs, hedge fund managers in politics.

    My dream is to see a carpenter or even a carpenter’s son elected president of the United States…land of unlimited opportunities for men and women working in all fields.

    Reply
  • samb says:
    November 7, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    I don’t know if you linked to it at the time, but Colbert did a similar and I dare say even funnier Glenn Beck spoof a while back:

    http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/223279/march-31-2009/the-10-31-project

    Reply
    • Dave Raithel says:
      November 8, 2009 at 12:25 am

      I checked enough of it to remember it; and to be reminded why I think of Glenn Beck as the Teabagger’s Stuart Smalley …

      Reply
  • mock turtle says:
    November 7, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    i visited and red thee post at information arbitrage

    regarding the article

    barking up the wrong tree

    the authors defens of the equities markeet made no sense to me and i sumbitted a comments

    which may or may not get posted on the site

    pending administrative “approval”

    where i quiried the author as follows:

    you seem to be claiming that equity markets are level, open and fair

    furthermore you separate these markets from what you see to be more egregious behavior committed in other markets

    would you please responds to 3 of my concerns

    do you see any evidence that major brokerage firms making big profits by front running the buy and sell orders of their clients? for example goldman seems to have generated a plus 90% success rate in playing the market during Q3…a mathematically extraordinary event!

    consumers who are 70% of the economy are tapped out, no longer can get much in the way of home equity lines of credit, and are paying down debt and saving and in general consumers are pulling way back and yet the stock market booms while P/E ratios are way up over 125…does the fed use primary dealers to indirectly enter the equity markets and effect the market price of individual stocks and even entire sectors of the market such as banking? how can the equity market moves of the past 6 months be justified?

    even without a “pecora commision” there is evidence that the price of lehman stock was destoyed by people who purchased credit default swaps against lehmans demise an then those same people drove the stock down with naked short selling…is this you idea of a fair and balanced equities market? or do you dispute this happened?

    thanks in advance for your responses
    best wishes
    mock turtle

    Reply
  • Advocatus Diaboli says:
    November 7, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    Blankfein is channeling MLKjr..
    ____________

    From The Sunday Times
    November 8, 2009
    I’m doing ‘God’s work’. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs

    Reply
  • AndrewBW says:
    November 7, 2009 at 10:20 pm

    “One of my pet peeves is how psychoactive medications are handed out like candy in the US.”

    Are you kidding? That’s the best thing about it!

    Reply
  • ilandboy says:
    November 10, 2009 at 1:00 am

    “Three Bald Bears” sounds like a Japanese Candlestick Chart pattern.

    There must be a signal in there somewhere, I’m sure… Sell! Sell! Sell!

    Reply

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