or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 24, 2009
Memory Lane
Here's the New York Times story about the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act:
Congress approved landmark legislation today that opens the door for a new era on Wall Street in which commercial banks, securities houses and insurers will find it easier and cheaper to enter one another's businesses..."Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,'' Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. ''This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.''
The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation's financial system.
Thank God this Summers guy no longer has any power over American economic policy.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at March 24, 2009 02:59 PMNo, thank god some dimwit such as yourself has zero influence over anything, except your dozen or so dozey bint readers : )
Posted by: mln at March 24, 2009 03:31 PMSpeaking of dozey bints, I clicked on the "350 challenge" link. Man, what a dumb cunt JS must be - they buy 350 POUNDS of emmissions for putting their link on his website. Do you know what that is worth? under a ubck. Yep, less than one fucking dollar. In return, what does "Brighter Planet" get? A link to their scammy credit card site. It loathe people who whore out their websites, like Josh Marshall plugging degree mills t his idiot readers, but he at least egts something in return, a few hundred bucks or so. Whoring yourself for a buck, while pposing as a noble environmental warior, now *that's* fucking apthetic.
Posted by: mln at March 24, 2009 03:37 PMThe story so far: Rosamund's father has become ensnared by Mr. Shabby's extraordinary personal magnetism.
Posted by: wer at March 24, 2009 04:16 PMSenator Sanders Blocking Key Obama Nomination
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/03/hbc-90004606
I cannot support his nomination. Mr. [Gary] Gensler [CFTC nominee] worked with Sen. Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation...supported Gramm-Leach-Bliley...worked to deregulate electronic energy trading...At this moment in our history, we need an independent leader who will help create a new culture in the financial marketplace and move us away from the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior which has caused so much harm to our economy.
Mr. Gensler, coincidently, was formerly of Goldman Sachs.
I'm fucking Apathetic. Anybody want sloppy seconds?
Posted by: Duncan at March 24, 2009 04:34 PMAfter five years, they give me a brush!
Posted by: NomadUK at March 24, 2009 04:42 PMREGULATE 2BIG2FAIL DOWN2 2LITTLE2CARE, call Pelosi @1-202-225-0100, BANKruptcy Courts are for BANKruptcies.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at March 24, 2009 05:16 PMThis is tongue in cheek, right? Lawrence Summers is Director of Obama's National Economic Council. Forgive me if I just pointed out the obvious.
Posted by: texas_reader at March 24, 2009 05:51 PMThis is tongue in cheek, right? Lawrence Summers is Director of Obama's National Economic Council. Forgive me if I just pointed out the obvious.
Yep, yer right. But there are some--"mln" foremost among them--who will appreciate the hints.
"mln": please swallow a bolus and expire...
Posted by: Woody at March 24, 2009 06:03 PMA black blind governor, a rich white mayor
Man, this whole city ain't got a prayer
And Eraserhead is the Secretary of the Treasury.
Posted by: tim at March 24, 2009 06:12 PMAnybody check whether the New York Times has mentioned Glass Steagall since 1999?
Posted by: SteveB at March 24, 2009 06:54 PMHey! I didn't know I was a dozey bint. Why doesn't anybody ever tell me anything!
Posted by: empty at March 24, 2009 08:53 PMBuried within the 1999 NY Times article:
''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota.
Posted by: Brian Koller at March 24, 2009 09:06 PMBuried within the 1999 NY Times article:
''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota.
Posted by: Brian Koller at March 24, 2009 09:06 PMeerie. who knew senators learn anything other than bankers' and lobbyists' talking points?
Posted by: almostinfamous at March 24, 2009 11:38 PMYeah. Is this senator Dorgan still in office?
Posted by: Cloud at March 25, 2009 11:21 AMYes, Sen. Dorgan still represents North Dakota, and is a damned sight better than the other ND Senator, Kent Conrad.
Dorgan is more anti-corporate than most Senators, in a prairie populist way. He was a lot more vocal than most about the war profiteering by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For a straightforward account of how the repeal of Glass-Steagall is connected with the recent financial collapse, as predicted by Sen. Dorgan, see Matt Taibbi's recent article in Rolling Stone.
Posted by: Nell at March 25, 2009 02:47 PMI followed a link from FreeSpeechZone to this blog, and the number of actually hostile comments on this thread apparently isn't as large as it first appeared to be.
"Eraserhead is the Secretary of the Treasury."
Harharharhar!!!
Posted by: Jacob Freeze at March 25, 2009 03:07 PMBreaking the corporate media rule that those who got things right before it was fashionable must never be given an opportunity talk about it, Rachel Maddow had Sen. Dorgan on yesterday. He mentioned among other things a cover article he'd written for the Washington Monthly in 1994 on the dangers involved in unregulated trade in derivatives (via Steve Benen).
Maybe this kind of thing will catch on, and for the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war, the NY Times will have at least one one column by someone who opposed it publicly before it began.
...Naah, never gonna happen.
Holy shit, this is awesome. I am propagating this.
Posted by: saurabh at March 26, 2009 02:17 PM
