What Color Is Your Panic Button?

Tyler Cowen suggests the sort of thing Obama 2012 ought to be contemplating - take TARP abroad and bail out the Spanish banks, multilaterally of course.

I will Boldy Predict that the use of US taxpayer dollars to bail-out Spanish banks would be even less popular than the bail-out of US banks. And the economic impact will probably be in damage avoided and jobs saved, not jobs created prior to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

And even if the Treasury and Fed can sneak this off-balance sheet somehow, we do have another debt ceiling scuffle down the road, and El TARPo would surely spill over into that debate.

Still, who knows? My favorite story today (since updated into oblivion) is that European markets were up today on expectations that the European Central Bank would leave interest rates unchanged and fulminate about the importance of a more vigorous, sustained and credible political process. A flavor remains here:

[ECB President] Draghi generally isn’t expected to unveil any fresh policy moves—such as an additional dose of long-term liquidity operations—at his news conference. But the euro, equities and other risk-oriented assets managed to rise in earlier activity on hopes the ECB chief “will offer clues about forthcoming easing in the months ahead,” said Ilya Spivak, currency strategist at DailyFX, in emailed comments.

...

“The ECB may reiterate its willingness to support Europe’s banking sector if credit dries up in future, but we think it will stick to its guns and resist calls to step in to directly help governments,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com in London.

“We will be listening out to any reference Draghi makes to Spain’s banking sector, but we believe the ECB will leave the recapitalization of some weak Spanish lenders up to the EU authorities,” she said, in emailed comments.

Keeping hope alive!

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

Fed swap lines are open. Call Now!

[maryrose]

First!
If you keep enabling people and bailing them out they never suffer the logical consequences of their erroneus actions. Accountability has to re-emerge as a virtue.

[matt]

what he will do is fund U.S. banks buying Spanish debt. The Fed and our government have already proven to act surreptitiously under such circumstances.

[Sue]

take TARP abroad and bail out the Spanish banks

If TARP wasn't already hated enough, that would be sage advice.

[jimmyk]

I agree, there are ways of doing this surreptitiously, in which case Barry can claim credit in the unlikely event EUtopia is still standing come November, and stay clean if there's a collapse.

[Thomas Collins]

So the ECB won't directly help governments. But the ECB will prop up banks that are a prime source of financing for these same governments. Meanwhile, the Euro and US poobahs refuse to address the regulatory, tax and incentive structures (such as inhibiting projects such as Keystone but providing government financing for the Solyndras of the world) that inhibit economic growth that is a necessary condition to getting out of this long term balance sheet stagnation. The poobahs also ignore the Austrians while doubling down on their version of Keynes. The March of Financial Folly continues.

[NK]

Accountability? There is NO WORD in the EU dialect that defines acoountability. JimmyK and MelR have it right, the Fed will facilitate trades of Euro sovereign debt and Eurobank credit facilities that will avert overt (say that 3 times fast) defaults between now and November. That's wrong of course, but that's what Fed Chairmen do-- especially in a POTUS election year. After the election POTUS-Elect Romney will send U-Haul's DC-Princeton rate sheet to the Bernanke household in DC.

[NK]

TC said: "The March of Financial Folly continues." Alas, that's true, it will continue until it can't. That 'can't' comes around November 8th.

[Rick Ballard]

"The March of Financial Folly continues."

TC,

Right past the precipice. They'll be looking down in a moment or two. The EUtopian ACME Express is driven with the same skill as that exhibited by the President.

[narciso]

I was struck with Bankia, Rick, how they created it, so even the banks that were relatively solvent, were contaminated.

[Thomas Collins]

From the Cowen article TM linked:

"Just to make the comparison biting, what if we postponed the costly benefits part of ACA for a year (it may be struck down anyway) and send $200 billion directly to Spain and its banks?

I think it would be a better bet for the US to wire 200 billion to one of those Nigerian accounts those African spam emailers tell us about.

[NK]

RickB-- in financial terms the Euros have already driven past the precipice. They are already looking down, but the ECB/Fed's sleight of hand act will keep them levitating until November. When the political support for the levitating act dries up (in Germany and the US), the Euros all fall into the pit. China buys up the wreckage for pennies, ze Germans go their own way currency wise. It's all good-- or not. It will happen either way.

[NK]

BTW TomM-- real ballsy prediction there that US voters would like El Tarpo less than the money given to the Citi/BOA zombies in 2008-2009.

[NK]

The Tyler Cowen post TomM linked to yielded the following comment:

"charlie June 6, 2012 at 7:33 am
Ritual sacrifice of economists would be a public good."

I like that comment-- alot.

[Neo]

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian ChroniclesRay Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics — died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.

We've got confirmation from the family as well as his biographer, Sam Weller.

His grandson, Danny Karapetian, shared these words with io9 about his grandfather's passing: "If I had to make any statement, it would be how much I love and miss him, and I look forward to hearing everyone's memories about him. He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it's always really touching and comforting to hear their stories. Your stories. His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theater, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know."

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

Rajoy made a precipitating move by concentrating all the Zapatero prog sewage in Bankia. He may have shortened the EUtopian extend and pretend period rather substantially. I believe we're about to find out whether the bankster CDS suicide vests still function. I suspect they won't - I don't believe the Fed is any more anxious to double down on stupidity than is the Bundesbank.

[NK]

RickB said: "I believe we're about to find out whether the bankster CDS suicide vests still function. I suspect they won't"

No they don't work, and that's not a bug, it's a feature. The Eurobank defaults cascade without a floor, but that will be after November 6th. Then comes ze NeuMark!

[NK]

.... and when the defaults come, French, Spanish and Italian bankers jumping out of windows...

[narciso]

Are Central Bankers grown in vats;

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ecb-leaves-rates-unchanged-focus-on-draghi-2012-06-06

[NK]

Narc-- no they are not grown in vats. they are a form of fungus that is rooted out of the ground by specially trained pigs-- just like truffles.

[Tom Maguire]

BTW TomM-- real ballsy prediction there ...

Well,I had OKC *and* the Celtics winning on the road, so I wanted a layup.

[NK]

TomM@11:13-- shrewd hedge.

[Ignatz]

Let's keep in mind that central bankers play on a field they neither mow nor level.
Our own Fed has been given dual mandates which at times are impossibly contradictory and all central bankers are essentially enabling agents not usually causative ones.
The spend thrift governments they fund are considerably more at fault for the towering mountains of debt overhanging the world economy and absent that debt the central bankers would have nothing to enable. The bankers should have the guts to say 'no' but if one ever did he'd get canned by the government that he's supposed to be enabling.
And when you get right down to it, it is the citizens who demand free stuff and elect the kind of spineless creeps who will give it to them who are truly to blame.

[NK]

Ig- what you say about CB's is all true. Add to the mix the breakdown of 'moral hazard' that started in 1994 with the bailout of Mexican Sovereign Debt bondholders, and the 'Owning your Home is a Right Mania" that led to the fannie fiasco, and the Euro Cradle to Grave welfare state and there's little the CBs could have done against that tide of history. I still say they are rooted out of the ground by specially trained pigs-- look at Geithner!

[NK]

Speaking of CBs-- here's a link to one CB I do respect, Richard Fisher Dallas Fed Pres. he speaks the truth; monetary policy can't make up for bad tax and spend decisions by government. That's Ig's point above. The link quotes Fisher's speech, it's not the full text: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/cashin-fishers-fiscal-fortitude

[narciso]

There are somethings, even pigs won't do, NK.

[NK]

Ah- but they are "specially trained" pigs.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Memeorandum linked.

[maryrose]

Congrats to the daughters of CH and Marko! Way to go girls!

[Ignatz]

--and the 'Owning your Home is a Right Mania" that led to the fannie fiasco--

As you know NK, I lay that directly at the door of the Fed's imbecilic dual mandate.
The last twenty to twenty five years have been a worsening roller coaster ride of the Fed attempting to manage the business cycle far more than maintaining a stable currency and the result has been one asset bubble after another.
And that has political implications as fiscal and tax policies sometimes get the credit or take the blame for things the Fed has actually caused or exacerbated.

[NK]

Ig@11:49-- I agree, I believe that is the fundemental truth of the past 20 years. Smart guys like greenspan and Robert Rubin believed they had disinvented the business cycle.

[matt]

The decision matrix seems to be frozen at the moment. Friedman bleats about the lack of leadership in the NY Fishwrap today.

The one thing no one discusses is the time factor. Like a grenade there is a fuse. Spain has lit the fuse. Cyprus, although small, is at the trough, and it is generally admitted that there isn't enough money available to bail out Spain. Belgium is right in there as well and the French banks are in deep trouble.

So the ratings agencies downgrade the banks, and the ECB then reduces their required assets and allows them to buy badly tainted assets.

All the while, in Greece nothing has changed.

There are simply too many dominoes ready to fall.

So here we are, weeks later with no plan in place except monetary easing, which no one will admit is in the cards except the markets, and the fuse burns closer and closer to the primer.

At some point, this time I believe much sooner than later, the primer detonates the whole thing. One also has to remember China is way down and Japan is a basket case.

A summer meltdown will change the dynamics of the election or of the economy more to the point; how I don't think anyone knows, but if optimum outcome is a 1 we're at about 9.5 on a scale of 10.

[rse]

In the Lord Monckton video I lnked to recently, it wasn't just Agenda 21 and climate change. He also addressed his belief that the world needs to get back to asset-backed currencies. Otherwise you get inflation to bribe the populace.

He got onto his interviewer from the Von Mises institute in canada for using the term elite. He said it was French for chosen and nobody chose them. That they were merely 3rd rate mediocre bureaucrats.

[Ignatz]

My only question, matt, is does this thing slide into the sea, as it has for several years now, like a glacier calving icebergs or at some point does the whole thing slide off the cliff in one fell swoop?
Opinions/predictions from matt or others?

[jimmyk]

Smart guys like greenspan and Robert Rubin believed they had disinvented the business cycle.

Not only that, they effectively convinced themselves that the dual mandate wasn't a contradiction--that by actively "stabilizing" the business cycle they would also help to stabilize prices. How convenient for them.

It seems like we go through these roughly 20 year cycles where the smart guys think they have it all figured out, and then it blows up in their our faces, and then 20 years later they really have it figured out, only the blowup is even bigger.

[Jim,MtnView,Ca,USA]

Matt's outlook 12:03 is scary, and I worry that things will get so far out of hand that ordinary families will face a food-on-the-table style of crisis.
Our leaders are so clueless and our citizens pay so little attention that problems fester.
Nonetheless, as we've seen with extend-and-pretend, the can be kicked down the road for vast distances. There is a strong, natural stabilizing force behind the scene.
I'll predict that we miss the worst case.

[Rick Ballard]

"That they were merely 3rd rate mediocre bureaucrats."

Princes of the credentialed moronacracy. Monckton is incorrect if he believes hard asset backed currency capable of restoring trust while the the bureaucratic champions of misfeasance and malfeasance retain the offices which they abuse.

It's rather obvious the EUtopians will attempt a one worlder consolidation of power without consent of the peonage, it's much less obvious they will succeed. Corpse reanimation has historically had very limited success.

[Melinda Romanoff]

matt-

Cyprus is the oligarch banking center of choice, FYI.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Rick-

Preecisely my thinking. Power first, then shut up.

[matt]

Not a lot of choices to hide money left with the way the Treasury has been swinging it's weight lately.

The $64 questions are when and how bad. Trying to time markets has broken great fortunes. In one way, the CB's are trying to avert a meltdown perhaps worse than '31.
In another, they are the root cause.

One of the key factors outside of these equations is that we are far more urbanized than in the 30's. There is no real ability to pullback, grow your own, and wait it out.

People need food transported, transport to work, and basic needs met in the context of modern society, which is dependent upon massive support systems. But if people and by extension, the systems themselves, are broke, what then?

This is why I believe that what has occurred with the phony government accounting of the past 40 years is so criminal.

When the giant sucking sound is heard government will have to abandon large swathes of the population to their own devices and will have failed utterly at the most basic levels.

The oligarchs are building their walls and hideaways after having plundered what they could. It's difficult to think happy thoughts when one sees that "leadership" is both refusing to think 3 steps ahead and shirking their responsibilities.

[rse]

What Monckton said was the West is dying now. That it doesn't have to die but it will if we continue down the same path.

But people want to believe that what's going on has a simple explanation. That somehow you can separate ed from the economy and the US from the rest of the world. If it's been designed for decades to be a means to certain ends you cannot talk about what's wrong without understanding what is aimed for.

He has a limited govt view of what govt should be doing because it costs twice as much as private sector and you get half as much product. A very bad deal.

He proposes a fixed rate of taxation so no one pays a higher rate for working more. And a flat rate of benefits that's barely enough to get by on so it encourages living with others and not independently. He wants everyone to always be better off working and earning more money.

I see creating a sense of Rio into the popular domain and what is being done there as hugely important. There is so little content in where we are going in ed and so much activity goes into encouraging students to model new ideas for how people should organize themselves. Basically imagine new societies and ways to interact together as if there is no cost to gutting all that has come before. And to push the idea of the ecosystem where envmt, society, and the economy are all a continuous sytem and any person is just a cog in this much greater whole.

The level of notorious political ideology and theories that has just been renamed and introduced as a learning theory or research is sickening. The accreditors def of research based is piloting a theory in the classroom to see the effects. We cannot make it much longer with those attitudes as the driving approaches to education.

Where we are spending huge sums creating expectations for the future while making sure there's no solid foundation to build a real future on.

[GMAX]

Cypress is used the legal system of choice, by many lenders, because they got tired of being hometowned in local courts. French Borrowers running to french judges, Ukraine borrowers running to Ukraine judges and getting very favorable treatment. So lenders forced the borrowers to form Cypress companies subject to Cypress laws and lent there. And Cypress makes their money by having a fair and just system that makes everything work.

[NK]

This lovely conversation caused me to send an email to my 1.5%/year investment manager. he responded promptly (he's a very diligent manager and servicer) by saying Europe's a mess and will continue to be so until the defaults, and the USA is frozen until November elections when taxing/spending is resolved, Asia is treading water, and the Fed continues ZIRP like Capt Ahab searching for the great white equities rally. Basically he said "that's all I got." So in this JOM conversation I learned everything I am paying 1.5%/year.... Hmmm. Paging Dr. Maguire, Dr. Tom Maguire, can the commenters here do some kind of deal to front run financial advisor servicers?.... What? What do you mean there's an SEC and State Securities Regulators? Why wasn't I told about this!

[matt]

If this is how France responds to the crisis, they are well and truly screwed. LUN

[lyle]

I'll run your money for half that, NK. And I send out nice bottles of wine to my clients on their birthday.

[NK]

Matt@2:03-- it doesn't matter-- seriously. The Frenchies know those benefits will never be paid 62, 60 or 102yo. So let the poor schmucks think they are getting something for voting Socialiste! And the poor dumb schmucks know it doesn't matter, but they feel better because of the gesture. It's all very French somehow.

[NK]

But lyle do you do that whole SEC/State registration thing?

[Dave (in MA)]

My Panic button is the same color as Hillary's Overcharge button.

[NK]

Dispatch from the front-- financial advisor objects to me calling this the worst investment environment imaginable-- he says 1999 was worse. He also says the next decade will be better-- so we got that going for us.

[lyle]

Sure, NK! Already licensed in 15 or so.

[lyle]

financial advisor objects to me calling this the worst investment environment imaginable-- he says 1999 was worse

So he objects to the NASDAQ returning ~50% in Q4 1999? Yep...a single quarter.

[NK]

... and then in 2000 the NASDAQ??..... as Ig would say.... TIMBER!!!! Timing's everything in life.....

[Carol Herman]

Excuse me? We're in Carter territory, now.

Shows ya what happens when you lose your way and you keep turning left.

You can't even hire David Gergen at this time to make a replacement cameo.

[lyle]

Oh, I know what happened in 2000, NK. But 1999 was hardly a difficult investing environment. After Mar., 2000, yes. In '99? NO.

[Ranger]

can the commenters here do some kind of deal to front run financial advisor servicers?....

Hey, I suggested we set up an open source intel shop a while ago and sell our newsletter a while ago... but no one seemed interested.

[Carol Herman]

Funny, not only is the european market in trouble, now. Where are the tourists? Did you notice the Japanese aren't wending their ways through tourist meccas anymore? Did you ever wonder why?

Did you know in Japan the 1990's were the "lost decade?" And, then, they had the tsunami. You want recovery? Look there and you'll see DEFLATION.

Basically, that's what lays ahead.

You can't have "successful" markets without irrational enthusiasm.

And, just like London's recent jubilee, you know it was a soaking wet affair. And, it at least hospitalized prince philip. You think he's the only guy that got sick exposed to all the terrible weather? And, stuff?

Actually, CNN, among others, used the Queen's jubilee, to cut off Wisconsin's disastrous recall results. Don't get fooled. There was a lot of advertising money that flowed into the old media's pocket. BUT IT DIDN'T SELL!

[NK]

actually I understand the guy's point. In repping long-term investors (like me) if you chased the 50% 4th Quarter nasdaq return in 1999 (a bubble), you wouldn't have any customers by the end of 2000.

[Janet]

David Gergen

Isn't he George Clooney's underwear jumpin' buddy?...yeah. Good times for a news reporter.

[lyle]

Believe me, your guy was chasing the bubble just like everyone else in '99. EVERYONE was chasing the bubble. Mainly because clients were demanding it. Greenie was right about "irrational exuberance." He was just three years too early. The guys who didn't "have any customers" were the value guys and even they succumbed to style drift if they could get away with it to pump returns.

[NK]

All true-- so let's hope the next decade brings better 'real' returns as the world climbs out of debt hell. I don't plan on giving up my day job anytime soon.

[NK]

BTW-- different strokes, the only specific instructions I've given in the last 14 months is no gold. That was smart, duh-- but I just refuse to buy into a bubble.

[Sue]

Janet,

That brings some horrific images to mind...

[Carol Herman]

DEFLATION

You can't escape this one. It's on a global scale. Where the PURCHASING POWER has dried up. Have you been inside stores lately?

I live in a very wealthy neighborhood. And, I remember how the public school district could always count on the locals to "give money."

To say thanks they'd hang wooden signs on your lawn. Only this time, all I saw were 3 signs driving back and forth through my neighborhood. It was so bad, the very next day, the one neighbor on this block with a sign, took hers down.

What does it sound like when pocketbooks slam shut?

There's something else I noticed. When gas went up above $3.50 per gallon ... there was empty spaces on the freeways! The usually crowded freeways have seen a drop in traffic.

Sure. It could be that people moved out of California. But there ya go, looking at the problem. Less people. Spending less money. And, a DEFLATION that's GLOBAL!

Who is gonna go bust?

Pick your country. And, also watch China losing exports.

How do you create bubbles in the first place? Well, first you need IRRATIONAL ENTHUSIASM.

Nobody's very enthusiastic right now. And, then there's the worst reality of all. We've over-educated our kids. (There was once a time in America that by the time a kid reached 18, they were married. And, having their own kids.)

Now? We've got a whole bunch of credentialed adults who think it's their due to get great paying jobs. No hard work attached. No scrubbing toilets.

Reality is a very hard teacher.

[Carol Herman]

Irrational enthusiasm. Coupled to low interest rates, and easy credit.

Like Noah's flood, we've sunk a lot of people. Swathes of the middle class are now underwater.

And, what I remember my mom telling me? (She was born in 1905.) I was born in 1939. All thru the years I was growing up, I was told about the hardships caused by the Great Depression.

Oh, back then? Women didn't become doctors. (Even Sandra Day O'Connor, graduating 2nd in her law school class at Stanford, says she wasn't offered anything but secretarial work.)

And, in today's world? Men answer their own telephones. And, they type. So a whole line of work has dried up.

Is this what's called "creative destruction?"

[daddy]

I need a David Gergen fix.

Anyone have a link to that lugubrious old fart commenting on the ramifications of Scott Walker's victory?

Please, I'm desperate...help!

[matt]

daddy, I believe he said harrumph, muffled, hem, haw, harrumpf...

[peter]

reading the words, "with Gergen nearly naked" has made me wish for a self-lobotomy kit.

[RichatUF]

NK-

When the political support for the levitating act dries up (in Germany and the US), the Euros all fall into the pit. China buys up the wreckage for pennies, ze Germans go their own way currency wise.

How so?

1. China's largest markets are tumbling into a recesion (and Europe something a bit worse).

2. Germany going its own way would send the NueMark to the stratosphere choking off the source of economic strength-exports (also all their trading partners wouldn't be able to buy the stuff they build).

May we live in intereting times!

[RichatUF]

And catching up. Congratulations to CH's and MarkO's daughters. It was also great to read Ann's comments on a few thread back.

[matt]

underlying Germany's success is the specialization of many companies in manufacturing very high complexity tools and machinery, where China happens to be their largest market.

If you want certain categories of machine tool that no one else builds, you buy German at their prices.The automotive industry is a huge market and even the competition find themselves buying German manufacturing solutions.

A Chinese slowdown would have a serious impact on Germany as well. The global economy is so deeply interconnected today that crises in any of the major markets will affect other markets seriously as well.

[SWarren]

Just catching up on threads.
O/T- Did anyone see Jeralyn's post at Talk Left on Corey calling Harvard ranting complaint about Dershowitz dissing her? Our cBoldt doing a great job.

[daddy]

Some Cable News Race Ratings posted at Drudge speak for themselves:

MSNBC SHARPTON 771,000
CNN COOPER 630,000
CNN MORGAN 591,000

Way to go CNN. Well deserved.

[Janet]

MSNBC SHARPTON 771,000
CNN COOPER 630,000
CNN MORGAN 591,000

Corpus Christi, TX has a population of about 300,000. That was the nearest big city to Kingsville....so over the entire United States only Corpus Christi & one other medium city are watching CNN Cooper? That is it?
What would these stations & newspapers do if every Conservative refused to link to them or watch their show or even their video clips on the internet.
What if nobody reacted to or mentioned Morgan ever again? No links, no quotes, nothing....

[daddy]

Janet,

Can you the imagine the immediate improvement in mental health and happiness that would occur across this nation if all the CNN screens in Airport Terminals suddenly went blank?

Personally I'd rather take getting patted down twice by TSA agents rather than having to ever hear another banal CNN broadcast in a Terminal that one is powerless to turn off.

[Janet]

Yep, I hear ya daddy.

[Ignatz]

--...so over the entire United States only Corpus Christi & one other medium city are watching CNN Cooper?--

Yeah and probably half of them are only watching to yell at the little creep.

[daddy]

Seriously, just imagine the choice going on in these folk's heads:

"Hmmm, Who to watch tonight? Reverend Al Sharpton or Anderson Cooper? Wow. That is one tough decision. Anderson Cooper is so serious and intelligent and insightful, but on the other hand, Al Sharpton has a sterling intellect and a marvelous gift of gab that really speaks to me as an American...Whew...Tough call..yep...tough, tough call...

Sorry Coop, tonight I gotta' go with the Reverend."

Now that I think on it, that is probably the choice I will be offered when when I die and go to Hell:(

"Welcome to the Firey Pit..."what'll it be sinner, Sharpton tonight, or Anderson Cooper?"

[Porchlight]

CH, did I miss that your daughter recently graduated too? I seem to remember a "Dr. Hatette" comment in the wee hours but it was hazy. Congratulations to her and to you! That is major.

[narciso]

Even Bender would have trouble with that choice, daddy.

[MarkO]

CH, if I didn't congratulate you on your daughter's accomplishments, I so do now with gusto. Congrats.

[MarkO]

"so we got that going for us."

Which is nice.

[Janet]

from Drudge - Pelosi: Ghosts of past women leaders spoke at White House meeting...

"“I realized that on that chair with me was Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Hall, Lucretia Mott, you name it, they were all there. Sojourner Truth. They were all there on that chair with me. And I could hear them say ‘at last we have a seat at the table,’” Pelosi said."

Good Lord. It is something about San Francisco...aren't they the ones using a ouija board?

[MarkO]

They were all there on that chair with me. And I could hear them say ‘at last we have a seat at the table,’” Pelosi said."

This is a recognized side effect of a botox overdose.

[MarkO]

OKC learning that it is extremely diffcult to close out a series at home. You can look it up.

[Janet]

this is from that same link on Pelosi believing in ghosts -

"Bush, whom Pelosi called “really a lovely man” despite their disagreements, had discussed allowing individuals to invest their Social Security payroll taxes in personal retirement accounts, which Democrats dubbed “privatizing” Social Security.

Bush’s proposal was a “gift,” Pelosi said, adding that the key to Democrats’ success was resisting entreaties to offer their own plan to shore up Social Security’s finances.

Without a Democratic plan to confuse the issue, the attacks against Bush’s plan had more resonance, Pelosi said."

How lousy is this? Really, libs are just sickening people. I guess the Dems don't want to pass a budget cause that would "confuse the issue" too.

[narciso]

They must have gotten a wrong number, no way they would ever contact the likes of Pelosi,

[narciso]

WAit what?

http://www.openmarket.org/2012/06/06/twisting-the-law-to-punish-heretics-elane-photography-v-willock-and-the-imposition-of-progressive-orthodoxy-by-judicial-fiat/

[matt]

must have been a damn crowded chair with Nancy and all of them sitting in it....Pelosi is the strongest argument for "reproductive rights" I know of.

[peter]

so true, Daddy, Cnn stinks.

[Janet]

I know, Frau. Screaming headlines from the WaPo daily for months.
...and sharing a chair with ghosts???...if she was a Republican every news show would ask her about ghosts for the rest of her lousy life. She would never be able to talk about anything else except that one time she mentioned sharing a chair with ghosts.
Every article would preface her name with "The Disgraced Ghost Believin' Representative". But she is a Dem., so nobody cares.

[DrJ]

Devils 1, Kings 0 (Hockey).

[DrJ]

Devils 1, Kings 1. Powerplay goal.

[centralcal]

Per Mark Knoller, Obama speaking at a LGBT fundraiser in Beverly Hills:

Pres Obama drew snickers when he said his wife beat Ellen DeGeneres in push-ups but "she claims Michelle didn't go all the way down."

Just imagine any Republican running for office saying that.

[AliceH]

O/T: I think the marketing/pageview counters at the WSJ may be onto something here:

Jason Gay: Top 10 Most Adorable Kittens Ever (Plus The Stanley Cup)

This is hilarious, really! Be sure to read the captions.

[Walter Sobchak]

Here is a link to the article linked by Tyler Cowan (who now seems to have become completely unhinged) that is not paywalled:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0606/1224317367485.html

For those who really want to understand, your guru is Spengler:

http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/06/04/supranational-government-in-europe/

[Beasts of England]

Print more money! The seignorage alone is a fine ROI... Unless, of course, you actually wanna buy something with said printed money.

[Beasts of England]

Oklahoma 1, Alabama 0. C'mon ladies, let's pick up the pace!

RTR

[Beasts of England]

(Women's NCAA Softball)

[Ben Bernanke]

And even if the Treasury and Fed can sneak this off-balance sheet somehow

I thought you were paying attention, this has been done to death.

[hit and run]

Janet:
Good Lord. It is something about San Francisco...aren't they the ones using a ouija board?

It's not just San Francisco...

John Edwards stood before a jury and channeled the words of an unborn baby girl.

Referring to an hour-by-hour record of a fetal heartbeat monitor, Mr. Edwards told the jury: ''She said at 3, 'I'm fine.' She said at 4, 'I'm having a little trouble, but I'm doing O.K.' Five, she said, 'I'm having problems.' At 5:30, she said, 'I need out.' ''
...
''She speaks to you through me,'' the lawyer went on in his closing argument. ''And I have to tell you right now -- I didn't plan to talk about this -- right now I feel her. I feel her presence. She's inside me, and she's talking to you.''