The Full Explanation

This PowerPoint presentation is a cogent and amusing explanation of our current financial meltdown.

OVERHEARD:  My eleven year old came back from a soccer game with an interesting story from the financial trenches.  Apparently one of the soccer dads was a hedge fund manager who was railing to a sympathetic listener about how the government had changed the rules on Friday and was being totally unfair to everyone ("Something about how you can't sell banks if you are short" was how my son explained it, but I did not attempt to explain short-selling.)  Anyway, my son assured me that this hedge fund guy was Kind of a Big Deal - "Dad, he said he was the biggest trader out there of Bernie Mac bonds."

I bet he was.

Comments

[tom]

This was not a good year to be long Bernie Mac.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Josh Marshall doesn't have to be a Texan like Karen Tumulty to know how you "play up race".

Link

[Adam Smith]

"Josh Marshall doesn't have to be a Texan like Karen Tumulty to know how you "play up race"."

Of course, YOU have no problem pretending this whole financial debacle is the sole provence of just ONE political party.

'there are no innocent victims'

[clarice]

It would be wrong I know, but do you suppose we could wire your kid before the next soccer match to get more details?

[Semanticleo]

Make no mistake.......If you like the way Bush ran the country, you're gonna love John McCain.

The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut and Juliet Eilperin noted today that McCain's team is made up of staffers from Bush's team.

"When Gov. Sarah Palin flew home to Alaska for the first time since being named the Republican vice presidential nominee, she brought along at least half a dozen new advisers to conduct briefings, stage-manage her first television interview and help her prepare for a critical debate next month.

And virtually every member of the team shared a common credential: years of service to President Bush.

From Mark Wallace, a Bush appointee to the United Nations, to Tucker Eskew, who ran strategic communications for the Bush White House, to Greg Jenkins, who served as the deputy assistant to Bush in his first term and was executive director of the 2004 inauguration, Palin was surrounded on the trip home by operatives deeply rooted in the Bush administration.

The clutch of Bush veterans helping to coach Palin reflects a larger reality about Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign: Far from being a group of outsiders to the Republican Party power structure, it is now run largely by skilled operatives who learned their crafts in successive Bush campaigns and various jobs across the Bush government over the past eight years.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

If you like the way Bush ran the country, you're gonna love John McCain.

Good. I'm glad that's settled.

[tom]

This is not the thread for McCain-hating. This is the thread for trader-hating and Bernie Mac conspiracy theories.

I think it's all about Bad Santa. First John Ritter, then Bernie Mac. I am very worried about Billy Bob Thornton and the guy who played his elf.

[Bill in AZ]

tic: Make no mistake.......If you like the way Bush ran the country, you're gonna love John McCain.

Bush - The right man in the right place at the right time. Someday you'll be old enough to understand that.

[kim]

Thank God McCain has sense enough to take on Bush's team. They've done an amazing job in the face of a hostile press and a traitorous Congress.
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[RichatUF]

Charlie-

The "McCain as Bush" and the related "Bush Legacy Tour" is also an Axelrod astroturf special...

from a comment at another board (which might have some use digging back through the anti-Palin garbage)::

...a project of the "Bush Legacy Project" founded by Brad Woodhouse

Americans Against Escalation in Iraq

by way of Americans United for Change

A funny thing happened on the way down the rabbit hole. Brad Woodhouse is connected to the DSCC and Hildebrand Tewes Consulting (they are the senior ad makers for Obama's national campaign), which doubles back to Obama's campaign directly.

Also noticed that US Action (think they were the Obama union that organized the casino caucaus votes in Nevada) and an office or some such in South Dakota which I would take as an indication that former Sen. Tom Daschle has some sort of role in it...

[LindaK]

Unfortunately for the hedge fund guy the Paulson Bernanke bailout is changing every day. As of this morning, Morgan Stanley and Goldman are commercial banks.

[crazy]

The question for today is why do we have to nationalize the financial system to save 2 new commercial banks who are NOW operating under a completely different set of rules and requirements than the ones that left them "500 transactions away" from melting down the US financial system? I don't get it.

If the American capitalist system is in such danger that it warrants Chavez-style nationalization then how will it survive the next ___ days until the legislation is written, signed, and implemented? IT CAN'T. Therefore, it's NOT in such danger so SLOW DOWN the rush to become the LARGEST SOCIALIST Financial system in the world.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I don't get it.

I'll say.

[motionview]

Best Powerpoint Ever!

Comic Book Guy

[cathyf]

If you want to see it without owning powerpoint, click here