Archive for February, 2009
Obama Defends States Rights
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama – who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana – will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.
Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy.
“What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing here in law enforcement,” he said. “What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”
Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging.
“I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue,” he said.
Change you can believe in.
Blueprints
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Roll on the floor hillarious.
Stilts
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Overheard on the interwebs:
“By the time they announce the next announcement of an announcement, the DOW should be 5000.”
Tea Party
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Policy-makers better listen up and do so soon. This, along with Rick Santelli (and by the way, CNBC ran a poll on the “TeaParty”, and over eighty thousand people said they would show up!) is tapping into what America feels about all this nonsense.
Let’s face the facts – 92% of Americans are either paying their mortgage or don’t have one. We didn’t use our homes as ATM machines. We didn’t lie about our incomes. We played by the rules and do not have bone-crushing debt loads.
The rest of America is a different story.
I was watching this video today of Nouriel Roubini, Paul Krugman, Suzy Welch and George Will. It’s interesting that the proponents keep making the point that this solution targets the “social problem” of people who lost their jobs and now can’t pay their loans. But this program doesn’t target people who lost their jobs, it targets people who qualify for the new lowered rate / principal loans. (i.e. people who still have a job.) The only folks I can think of who obviously wouldn’t qualify for their current mortgage, but do qualify for a reduced mortgage at taxpayers expense are the speculators who took out risky loans with balloon payments or interest only periods.
Also, in the interest of fairness, why is there no claw back in these subsidies so that when these owners sell their property down the road for a profit (assuming they don’t default anyway) the taxpayer gets paid back?
FED Balance Sheet
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
From the FED itself – the Credit and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet web site. A little light on numbers, they refer you off to official tables for most of it. But the graphs and general data are informative.
Sick and Twisted
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Mortgage bailout – It’s going to work.
Weee!
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
We’re definitely in new territory now.
Busted Citi
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
“Not only is Citigroup a black hole from which no taxpayer dollars can escape, but Geithner’s brain is a black hole from which no intelligent thought can escape.”
That’s some pretty cold sh*t.
Big Bears
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
I think we still have a ways to go. Futures currently show the market down again tomorrow.
Inflation?
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
CPI jumps – Econobrowser post. Definitely pay attention to this trend.
