“Top 10 banking stories of 2010 – in pictures” (The Telegraph (UK) – Finance, Feb. 2, 2011)

Hmmm … “Banker gets longest insider trading jail sentence” (The Telegraph (UK) – Finance, Feb. 2, 2011) { Angie does not look happy … }

It would be irresponsible not to point out that those figures aren’t even adjusted for inflation.
So make that 6.8 times more important .

and three times more important then the attack on our soil in spite of precise intel telling us when, the cities, the target buildings, the weapons, the perpetrators, the methods

that blow job was three times more important

my frigging gawd

but now I have no where to go, the democrats are as corrupt, as corporate influenced as their counterparts

there is nowhere to go marcy

Sounds like Ratigan’s doing a preemptive strike against the kind of bullshit Darrell the Car Thief’s likely to pull.

Wow, what a scary, dangerous blow job. Do you think Monica Lewinsky was secretly an Islamofascist(TM) or something? That would explain things, yessirree Bob!

Well, Deepthroat (ironically, in this discussion) apocryphally said “Follow the money.” In this case, not just the money, but the scale of the monies applied to a particular “problem,” certainly exposes the priorities of the PTB.

Ha! Funny stuff if it wasn’t so pathetic. Our tax dollars at work.

Honest, I’m posting this video not for obvious affinities I have for Dylan Ratigan’s argument.

Oh, Marcy, we know it was just because you wanted another opportunity to say “blowjob.” /s

1 more time

THE PERFECT BAILOUT: Fannie And Freddie Now Send Taxpayer Cash Directly To Wall Street!

THE PERFECT BAILOUT: Fannie And Freddie Now Send Taxpayer Cash Directly To Wall Street

Barry Ritholtz

As the terror of the financial crisis recedes, many folks have forgotten about the two huge taxpayer-owned mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

But they’re still there, money-manager Barry Ritholtz reminds us.

And they’re still sending billions of dollars of taxpayer cash directly to Wall Street, in what might be described as the “perfect bailout.”

How does this bailout work?

Fannie and Freddie got a “blank check” from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner at the end of the financial crisis. This blank check allows the housing giants to lose as much money as they want, with the taxpayer footing the bill.

Fannie and Freddie use much of this money to buy mortgages from Wall Street at what may be grossly inflated prices. This is a super arrangement for the banks, because they get to unload all their terrible mortgages at prices that won’t produce losses. And it’s fine for Fannie and Freddie because, well, because they have the blank check.

Can I just say –

Blow Job.
Blow Job. Blow Job.
Blow Job. Blow Job. Blow Job.

Weeee!!!

OMG. She said blowjob on corp media, which daily rapes the public without such much as a by-your-leave.

Good evening ew and all.

The problem with the Clinton blow job was that it was manufactured to distract from other crimes. When you come to find out that Kenneth Starr, Bill Clinton, and GHWB were all CIA, then you begin to understand that there was no investigation at all. When you find out that Bill Clinton actively blocked investigation into CIA drug smuggling and that Clinton was just a stooge for GHWB, then everything begins to make sense. Guess what? They used the excuse of “national security” for CIA drug smuggling. Much was to come out about this because of the FOIA Act, but then 911 happened which put that to an end. The same people who were involved in the drug smuggling are now in charge of Afghanistan that since we’ve been there is now growing more drugs ever in their history. These same people also threatened the 911 Commission not to go too far and did not even allow them to interview any of the suspects.

Never leave geeks unattended for longAn economist moves a step closer to implementing a new model for a (ahem)failed institution:

A New [Charter] City in Honduras, from Paul Romer’s (no relation to Christina Romer) Charter Cities blog.

The government in Honduras is convinced that a charter city could be the safe playing field, with new rules, where Hondurans of all backgrounds can come together and put their skills to work with the financial resources, expertise, and technology available in the rest of the world.

To implement this vision, the Honduran National Congress has already passed an amendment to the constitution that gives the government the power to create special development regions (which based on the name in Spanish, are abbreviated as REDs). …

So, these REDs would be municipal creatures of the Congress of Honduras. I don’t know the form that federalism takes in Honduras, but one might want to contrast the results of RED amendment with the situation in this country, in which cities, towns, and other municipalities are pretty much creatures of the various States in which they are located.

Of the particulars Romer lists, three stand out to me:

The REDs would be areas with their own legal personality and jurisdiction, their own administrative systems and laws. An RED can also negotiate international treaties with partner countries or organizations. Congress would need to ratify these international treaties with a simple majority.

Judges for its judicial system will be nominated by the governing authority in the RED but subject to approval by a 2/3rds majority in the Congress. The judicial arrangement would allow the use of an external body that acts as the court of final appeal for judicial decisions from the zone.

Laws developed by the governing authority of the RED require a ratifying vote by the Congress. This vote would be a simple vote to approve or reject. Approval requires only a simple majority. (This is similar to the BRAC rules that govern military base closures in the United States.)

Romer’s 501(3)c organization Charter Cities will serve as an advisor to Honduras in the implementation of the new amendment. The true compensation for this role is the part Charter Cities, and the charter cities built as a result of the RED amendment, will have played in abating the crisis of the thousands of Hondurans who migrate north each year, in search of better economic opportunities. These migrants often find themselves buffeted by woes whose depth of agony is the mirror reflection of the heights of Frankfurtian panegyric Romer achieves in commiseration with their plight, and celebration of the boldness of the Hondurans in signing off on his idea on such a large scale.

The passage of the amendment is a decisive first step toward creating in Honduras the kinds of opportunities that migrants seek up north, but in a place where families can stay together, be safe, and enjoy the full protection of the law. The specifics have yet to be determined, but discussions have centered on a site large enough to accommodate a city that could eventually grow to 10 million people. As large as this sounds, it is small compared to the annual flow of migrants from the region into the United States.

This bold step did not go unnoticed—several major international investors have already expressed interest in the project. President Lobo will soon travel abroad to build more public and private support. We hope that the rest of the world will respond in kind, working with the Honduran people to establish a new city—a city that could become an important hub for the Western hemisphere and a driver of growth and development in the region.

“Crash” implies an accident. How ’bout ‘demolition.’