cognitorex

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2006 Wall Street bonuses; $25 Billion. 2007 Sub prime losses: $25 billion.

As the big boys on Wall Street direct trillions in capital flows to derivatives, rank speculation and the latest hot packaged products like sub-prime mortgages they wet their beaks, like the mob, at every turn.
Why not place a one one hundreth of a per cent tax on these flows to fund the financial and social dislocation costs caused by the the financial industry's recurring greed driven excesses?
It would be a manifest boon to American workers who toil at multiple jobs to create this capital and certainly smooth out a glaring economic pratfall.
The banks and major financial institutions go on binges as a matter of their nature. REITS, Latin American lending, S&Ls;, hi-tech bubble and now sub prime loans have each wiped out an enormous amount of the financial industry’s equity capital. To rebuild equity, subsequent financial instruments such as car loans, mortgages and credit cards must carry higher profit margins. Thus Jane and John Doe have to pay a penalty to rebuild this equity base.
We know these binges occur and have a deposit insurance mechanism in place (the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp -FDIC) which forces the bankers to set aside emergency money so that the deposit base of banks and their customers will not evaporate.
Likewise we need a Federal Credit Insurance Corp so that when these binges wipe out financial equity there is a source of credit (i.e.loans) available.
Banks do two things. They hold deposits and they offer loans. We insure that these bingers will not take American’s deposits with them as they go bust from time to time. Why not extract a minuscule fee from each credit offering in order that the availability of credit will not be so totally hemorrhaged as to affect gross interest rates, the dollar’s standing, prices and inflation?

ps. I mentioned this idea to a bright staunch corporate conservative friend who said that the idea is 100% valid and worthy; but without a guaranteed mechanism that the dreaded Dems could not keep increasing the tax, for him it was dead on arrival.

Labels: fdic. FCIC, sub prime

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A cunning, brilliant, spectacularly amoral solution.

(Opening thoughts on the US Executive Branch signing an agreement for a major long term military presence in Iraq.)

As Malaki accepts the Honorary post of Shah of Iraq once promised to Chalabi, the Iraqi nationalists and the Iraqi fundamentalists are sold down the river.

Who said that two wrongs could not make a right or that a continuous pattern of incompetence as in BushCo arming proscribed elements..."other terrorist groups, as well as all other outlaw groups, such as criminal remnants of the former regime;"....(the Sunnis) could not make the Shia holler Uncle ("Sam").

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you just gotta love it.

Wait until the coming Democrat executive cum majority tells our Iraqi co-signors that they have to inaugurate women's rights to keep our support.

Have I just been transmigrated to Doonesbury World? Hello! Hello!

((I imagine a cartoon:: (1)Malaki, sitting in front of a large mirror, pulls a mask away from his face revealing that he is in fact Ahmed Chalabi. (2)Standing behind him are Dick Cheney and Richard Perle high fiving with vigorous enthusiasm (3) A view of the mirror shows all three men, each a likeness of Chalabi.))

Labels: amorality combined with hubris equals Bush country, Iraq Peace Accords

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This is the Bush enviromental plan at work.
Increase deficit and off-the-books' war spending to create record level obligations to the Chinese, eventually whacking the dollar. Oil prices soar to $6.00 US (Franc and Euro no increase) and hybrids, walking and bikes come into vogue.
Our McDonalds fat kids' crisis beautifully abates as a cunning benefit of the process.
Ta da! One man's incompetence is another man's silk ear.

Labels: Bush, Dollar decline, eat up America, global warming abates

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What I have never understood is how red state Bubbas, both those with guns and pickup trucks and their metaphorical kin, the socially angry anti gay working folks, could have voted into office a guy who participated in the manly arena of organized sports as a cheerleader.
Rah, rah,"Give me an A", all neatly gussied up in matching outfits. Come on guys, give me a break.
Now we have Rudi who all Bubbas know is the epitome of water-boarding, bring-em-on toughness. His 911 machismo has been sold and shouted and dramatized from sea to shining sea. Given that he adores and glitters amidst drama and pathos, it is of course consistent that as an opening act of this fearsome charismatic leader he would form and lead an opera club as his great social engagement in high school.
Consistently, perhaps, he disclosed to the world that he was seeking to divorce his wife (she hadn't been informed, oops) while the enticing cameras and microphones captured his news. Consistently, perhaps, he withdrew from the potentially world changing opportunity to serve his nation on the Iraq Study Commission to lined his pockets while delighting audiences eager to hear the dramatic hero speak.
I mean guys, enough with the performances.
And I'm not saying that belting out librettos with large women in clanking armor is not particularly manly but it does set my dog a howlin.

Labels: divas, drama, opera, performer, Rudi Giuliani

"Have you got a million dollars in the bank? No? Half a million? NO? Then you're not a capitalist. You don't have a dog in the hunt. You're a worker.
Do you get richer when oil prices go up and trade deals are signed making it easier for foreigners to take American jobs? No? Then you haven't got a dog in the hunt. You're a worker."
"When the Republican Party comes after your social security checks and your Mom's Medicare benefits, trust me, you're in that hunt, only it looks like you're the hunted not the hunter."

Labels: bubba, entitlements, medicare, social security

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From "Innovations of the Paperless Age", Cognitorex Press.

Labels: CEO embezzlement, national health plan, what pensions

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Labels: clo(w)ning, dna, dumb-nuclar-assid, stemmed cells

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CNN seduces viewers with inane, sexist debate question

I thought Clinton's laughing response, "I know I'm sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice," "I want both." showcased the bright wit that insiders say she possesses.
That should be part of the story as well as the "MSM does Narcisism Part 386" bit, as the media makes the election discussions about itself, the media, and not about anything that, well, ...matters.

Labels: CNN, Hillary humor, media narcisism, MSM, wit

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Salman Rushdie's take on Pakistan is that you either get a dictatorship and rolling promises of future elections or massive corruption with the Bhutto family. Considering this, it dawned on me that this explained the oddity of continuously seeing hordes of demonstrators dressed in suits and ties, the lawyers in waiting.

(Notes from Rushdie lecture on "The Culture Wars" Nov 6, 2007, Gt. Barrington, Ma.)

On a more serious note, Sir Salman opined that Pakistan is really quite secular and should not be willy nilly thrown into the Islamo-Fascist WWIII right wing propaganda debate category. That the demonstrators are in Western dress might in this light be deemed a very big socio political favorable.

Personally, I'm hopefully optimistic that the Pakistani engineering class as well, the guardians of the Pakistani nuclear weaponry, also favors a Western motif over Talibanic fashion, scimitar optional.

Labels: Bhutto, corruption, Musharraf, Pakistan, Salman Rushdie

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Labels: dry cleaners and laundromats protest thongs, social change, veils and thongs

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Camel Thongs Don’t Cut the Mustard

(An old Western fable)

“Lookee here Mister Chief Native, I’ll trade you guns and firewater for the land you call “Gusher Canyon”. You know which area I mean, where we put up those oil derricks years ago.”
“Sorry, today is a Sacred Day, ’all praise to Mother Bear‘.”
“Look, screw a bunch of Sacred Days, we’ll throw in fifty aisles worth of jeans. Your daughters will love em, especially the low hippers so’s their little belly buttons can get some air.”
“Not possible, today is sacred day, ‘bless brother antelope.’”
“All right, for Christ sake, you’re killing us. We’ll give you guns, firewater, three Wal Mart’s of enticing jeans, a gross of Estee Bauder nipple and labia piercing Pierce-o-matic Pro Guns, ten tattoo parlors fully equipped and an era’s long subscription to Rap music from both the “Dysfunction Is Me’ and “Misogyny Rocks” labels. And you get bison and camel thongs. Camel thongs from “Allah’s Little Secret” label in every color under the sun. Now do we have a deal?”
“Today is Sacred. All praise our ancestors.”
“Praise your arse. I’ll be back tomorrow. We’re not going away, you know that.”
“Tomorrow is a sacred day.”
“Up your sacred days.”
“Everyday is a sacred day, kneel and bow to the East.”
“Bullshit on your every day is a sacred day horse pucky. You can stick Mother Bear you know where. There’s something you guys want and I’m gonna find out what.”
“Everyday is a sacred day. However.....”
“Yes, yes sacred, totally sacred, but ‘however’ what? You son of a sacred snake, ‘however’ what? What is it you’re considering?”
“Well, remember that line of fissionable material you showed me.... maybe just one more little peek.”
“Tex’, help, we done got us a problem. We’re gonna be here til the cows come home and listen to me for once, jeans and camel thongs are not cuttin’ the mustard.”
"Bubba, shut your trap with the mustard bullshit. These fucks don't eat hot dogs. Even I know that."

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Labels: fear is politics, kill the savages, mideast oil, nuclear aspirations