“Let me make it clear at the outset that I have no intention of following instructions.”
– Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, thanks to Economist’s View
Ditto. It’s the story of my life, and my ongoing commitment to myself and to you, my readers. I absolutely will not follow instructions.—Caro
U.S. Investing $250 Billion in Banks (New York Times)
The Treasury Department, in its boldest move yet, is expected to announce a plan on Tuesday to invest up to $250 billion in banks... The United States is also expected to guarantee new debt issued by banks for three years — a measure meant to encourage the banks to resume lending to one another and to customers... And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will offer an unlimited guarantee on bank deposits in accounts that do not bear interest — typically those of businesses.
U.S. Stocks Rally Most Since 1930s on Bank Plan; Dow Gains 936 (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks staged the biggest rally in seven decades on a government plan to buy stakes in banks and a Federal Reserve-led push to flood the global financial system with dollars.
So socialism makes the “free” markets happy!—Caro
Democrats dream of filibuster-proof majority in Senate (McClatchy)
Democrats, growing more confident of winning back the White House, are starting to whisper about another dream.
This is a real con, friends. Even with 60 Democrats in the Senate, there won’t be a filibuster-proof majority for progressive issues. There will still be some right-wing Democrats. And when are we going to recognize the fact that THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP IS NOT PROGRESSIVE, AND NEITHER IS BARACK OBAMA. All the hopey-changey rhetoric in the world isn’t going to change that. Nothing is going to change that. We will not pull out from under the iron grip of failed conservative ideology until we take over one of the major parties or push one of the minor parties forward. I don’t see any real movement in that direction. I just see people being fooled over and over again by promises no one intends to keep. If you are a progressive and you believed in and voted for Obama, you have been had.—Caro
McHoover against OHoover: Why you are just plain fucked this election (by Stirling Newberry at The Agonist)
John McCain's two big economic ideas are a freeze on Federal Spending, and a reverse robinhood plan to pay off the rich, and then stuff the poor. It's a pair of proposals so awful as to be nominees for the Smoot-Hawley award for fastest ways to tank the economy. Unfortunately Barack Obama's plans are cut from the same Hooverist mind set. John McCain, out of touch, flailing, erratic, and corrupt, is running on Racism, Rage and Resource Rape. Barack Obama is running on egoism and a demented Reaganite belief that the problem is that Americans are overtaxed. Here is a run down of the lastest joke of an economic plan from the man who is almost sure to be the next President of the United States, and who is already running hard to be the next Worst. President. Ever. His backing of the bail out bill was not an accident: he really is an economic idiot…
[In his latest proposals,] rather than real relief, real job creation, and shifting of taxes from states to the Federal government over the long term, Obama offers a failure in the making economic program which promises a continuation of the failed ideology of Reaganomics into another term as President of the United States.
Click through for details.—Caro
Click here for more political and media news headlines.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
- Caro's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Front page
Comments
2004 Redux
The forecasts this year are so, so reminiscent of 2004. I thought for sure Dems would win the White House and get 54 Senate seats and make the House close. Everyone was wrong in the early predictions. First, the GOP always comes home. In 2006, they voted in most districts at about 95% for the GOP candidate. In 2004, despite a pretty bad year for Bush, he still got over 90% of the vote. I saw one poll suggest that 6% of Dems voted cross-over to McCain and 14% of GOPers cross over for Obama. Not sure I buy that, but we'll see. Second, the voter registration stories were prevalent in 2004 the same way they are in 2008. The GOP still one despite the supposed gains in registration by Dems. The important numbers are not new registrants this year, but new registrants since 2004. Dem gains in 2004 registrations was more than offset by GOP gains from 2000-2003. Also, first time registrants are much less likely to vote, especially if they are registered in the last 6 months. This year could be the exception to the rule, but I'll wait until I see it before I believe it. I'll have more on the latter in a later post.