Monthly Archives: October 2008
California: We’re almost out of water
Reply
Calif. to cut water deliveries to cities, farms – Yahoo News.
The Department of Water Resources projects that it will deliver just 15 percent of the amount that local water agencies throughout California request every year.
This is horrible news. Rationing should have started with the drought, followed the snow level, and definitely followed the drier pumps. We had better all pray for a wetter than usual winter.
BTW: Agriculture accounts for about 80% of water used in California.
Video: Pop Culture VS. John McCain
Pop Culture: 1
John McCain: 0
This is based on the Rick Rolling meme.
BTW: The video in the background is the following:
Protected: laughing buddha
Is the Fed Now Losing Control?
I want to share this … found while researching for my tax policy paper. This chart is frightening. There is more on the post.
FT Alphaville » Blog Archive » Losing control.
“Itâ??s Bloombergâ??s chart of the day and has been reproduced by Paul Kedrosky on his blog, Infectious Greed. Kedrosky writes:
“The following more or less supports what some have been saying for a while â?? that major banks in the U.S. and the U.K. will end up being entirely nationalized before this crisis is over â?? but itâ??s still a striking way of looking at the data. The gist: Government recapitalization and other fund-raising has largely been in service of banksâ?? prior subprime losses, while corporate and consumer loans are just starting to hit bank balance sheets. It wonâ??t take much to tip banks over into insolvency again.”
This is frightening stuff. Not least because the Fedâ??s own balance sheet is not looking healthy.”
Protected: Scene I: bed
GOOD Sheet – It’s the Economy, Stupid!
GOOD Sheet – It’s the Economy, Stupid!
Interesting visual take on the economy – for you visual folks out there.
Video: War propaganda
Old war propaganda is entertainment. It appears old tax propaganda can be just as entertaining. “Taxes to beat the Axis! … Taxes to bury the Axis! … Taxes to sink the Axis!” Too bad our current wars are far from deserving of this sort of wide support and our current government does not care to collect enough to pay for the wars.
Some of the scenes remind me of Detroit Industry, a mural by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Protected: Ridgelines, peanut butter, sitting, running, sounding, and smiling
Didn’t we already know the bail out would just see us reamed?
Wall Street bankers in line for $70bn payout | Business | The Guardian.
Financial workers at Wall Street’s top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year – despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.
Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government’s cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.
I’m sorry, but you did not need to be a clairvoyant to know this would happen. Continued wasteful pay practices were to be expected and could be seen from the other side of the globe. Businesses that can pay this kind of money do not need bail outs. Or, better put, this bail out should not be directed to financial institutions whose pay packages are unreasonable. Leave it to Congress to not put greater controls on our money. I wonder aloud: would this qualify as a moral hazard, or a symptom of the moral hazard that exists with this bail out?
My feeling, if it isn’t already clear, is that it is irresponsible for businesses to pay such big bonuses, particulalry when those same businesses are at such high risk of collapse and losing gobs of money. It is likewise irresponsible for our government to prop companies up that have such irresponsible pay practices.