Dealbreaker

Entry: No More Than The President Of The United States

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 03, 2009 10:05PM

Fresh off the wire:

"President Barack Obama plans to unveil a series of new pay curbs Wednesday, including limits to executive salaries.

Among the new restrictions being considered is a cap on salaries for executives at companies that receive a substantial amount of government aid. Such a move would amount to an unprecedented effort to limit executive pay."

Jeebus.

Entry: Deathmatch: Whitney v. Obama

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 04, 2009 1:10PM

@18 - W handed the mess over to O in the "I had it you got it" method of turnover. Blaming O is like blaming the pastor of a shotgun wedding for the bride being knocked up at the altar.

All I know is that McCain wouldn't have done any better, and Palin would have spent all her time on Investopedia before trying to open her beak.

@12 - Barbaric students generally come from barbaric parents who should have been sterilized.

Entry: Second Verse, Same As The First?

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 11, 2009 2:41PM

well, something I've said several times in different places:

The financial literacy of the average American is fairly poor.

The financial literacy of the average congressman is fairly poor.

They depend on their staffers to fan out and school up on the issues that their Representative needs to understand in time for that Representative to be able to talk about it. Staffers are generally policy wonks, not analyst-types.

Thus, what you're seeing is the cumulative attempt of last-minute cramming to make sure that certain statements get on the Congressional Record and occasionally, just occasionally, a real question pops out.

Did she just say "hist-er-onics" instead of histrionics?

Entry: Second Verse, Same As The First?

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 11, 2009 3:19PM

@34 - I'm not totally against the concept of privatization, but again, the devil is in the details. There are degrees of self management - there's handing the gas station guy an E*Trade account and a password, kissing him on the forehead and yelling "good luck!", and allowing someone to make regular contributions to a boring, conservative portfolio managed by a boring, conservative manager and phoning him up to rebalance it periodically.

@39 - I'm not going to put it all on the banks shoulders - underwriters, mortgage brokers, consumers who got starry eyed when they found out they could get in a McMansion with an interest-only and "forgot" about building equity... along the chain there are plenty who could have raised the "bullshit" flag.

Entry: CDS Death Bill Introduced In The House

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 12, 2009 3:39PM

My gut feeling: Grandstanding. It'll get hung up with amendments upon amendments upon amendments, and more amendments, debated until it becomes undebateable and gets put on the calendar to die.

Entry: We Thought It Was Absurd Too, But It Turns Out That Obama Really IS Going To Pay Your Mortgage

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 12, 2009 5:32PM

Equity Private, your clip is borderline intellectually dishonest and belongs in the Lou Dobbs/Keith Olbermann school of Journalistic Integrity.

Not having to worry about putting 1) gas in the tank and 2) paying the mortgage could very well have reflected her confidence that the economy would allow her to continue working at the job she currently holds, therefore alleviating her concern over her family and household obligations. Go dig up her credit history and W-2's for last year before using selective editing and base plays to racial sterotypes to prove your point. Come on...

The issue of moral hazard was very clear without stooping to YouTube tactics.

That being said, I am more than pained by what this plan is leaning towards, but until I see the thing, I'm not sure if it makes me sick to my stomach or induces projectile vomiting.

Entry: Ken Griffin Doesn't Need You, Ken Griffin Doesn't Need Any Of You!

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 19, 2009 3:39PM

nice rugby reference.

Entry: Movement From The Fixed Fortifications

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 19, 2009 3:50PM

The side pocket sounds more like a suppository.

Entry: Northern Trust's No-No

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 24, 2009 4:09PM

@ 17 - that's Chad Ocho Cinco to his closest friends...

Entry: The New Noels

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 24, 2009 4:34PM

@ 35 and @37 - I wouldn't crap on National Guardsmen if I were you, even the direct commissions. Just because he's with a 1) signal brigade or 2) a guard unit has no bearing on whether or not he'll be sitting in the Green Zone or not.

BTW Direct Commission Officers generally have a mandatory service requirement prior to receiving a direct commmission; you can't just show up at the recruiter and two weeks later they make you an O-3, and the rank is generally dependent on the professional education level of the applicant (doctors, lawyers).

Entry: The New Noels

posted by BlackSwan06

Feb 24, 2009 5:31PM

@50 - Um, he deployed with the Delaware National Guard 261st Signal Brigade, actually... Perhaps you'd benefit from speaking to a forward deployed JAG before deciding that all they do is hang out and rearrange paper. Sure, he's not a trigger puller, but that doesn't mean he's out of harms way. Mortars don't discriminate.

Entry: Breaking: Obama Called Equities Bottom

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 03, 2009 12:54PM

The Lou Dobbs school of paraphrasing strikes again... always entertaining EP.

Entry: Breaking: Obama Called Equities Bottom

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 03, 2009 1:13PM

@17 - and In General, you've just revealed yourself to be the type of Republican who guaranteed both the midterm thumping in 2006 and the results of the 2008 Election. Well done! Seems that spending your time under Rush Limbaugh's desk has not clouded your judgment one bit!

Entry: Breaking: Obama Called Equities Bottom

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 03, 2009 2:19PM

@41 - The headline says on Bloomberg says "Now MAY BE". EP's post reads that Obama said, "now IS the time". There's a difference. Bloomberg was at least making an attempt to be accurate... EP? Not so much.

@33 - You're dead wrong about the midterm flip. At that time, the issues most Americans were voting on were more driven by frustration about the course of ongoing activities in Iraq and spending gone crazy, mismanagement of Katrina/post-Katrina effort of the fraud/waste/abuse, and general wariness of the Rove-Rummy-Cheney triumvirate. Rumsfeld knew his days were numbered and his letter of resignation was on Pres Bush's desk the day after the election.

Pork is bipartisan. And if you think that PhRMA is going to stay silent while this budget moves through, think again. That is one of THE MOST POWERFUL lobbies in DC, and I would bet that they're already taking key members out to drinks and din-din to make sure that the current budget in its incarnation will not move through.

And by the way, I'm all for special elections for vacant seats. So save your got balls bullshit until you know what the argument is about.

Entry: The Obama Portfolio

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 03, 2009 3:53PM

Whatever happened to TheBlacktoneGroupie and his $1.99 portfolio?

Entry: CNBC Makes Daily Show's Shit List

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 05, 2009 10:30PM

Santelli is pure astroturf, and his job is to perpetuate his own brand. That's it. I look forward to his actually concocting an original thought.

@ Trojan - I concur.

@ 134 - If anything, he went FROM Barry (very common) to Barack (not common) later in life, and Barry would have sold a lot better than Barack in certain parts of the US as he embarked on the political track... Speaking of name-changing, did you know that Bobby Jindal was not born Robert, but PIYUSH? If you want to accuse political figures of selective name dropping to avoid negative ethnic associations/hide ethnicity, you might start there.

Entry: Wachovia Mans Up, We Throw Up

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 06, 2009 12:36PM

Are there Ritz crackers involved? Because everything tastes better on a Ritz.

Entry: Guess The Close

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 06, 2009 3:06PM

6469

Entry: Don't Be Scared, Children

posted by BlackSwan06

Mar 06, 2009 3:58PM

"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!"