Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Obama, the Mensch at Recovery.Gov



I just received another missive from Professor/President Obama tonight in my email. Not a day goes by that I don't hear from him. Much like my children, I am glad he keeps in touch.

I am sure that many of you received the same peppy note too. But this one was a bit of a jaw dropper because it is the very first time I have seen the mega billion money trail. Or the full stimulus bill. Or the information for how the money will be spent and tracked. The website is easy to navigate.

While the monkeying around to get the bill out of the house and senate seemed like a poor excuse for a root canal, it is finally signed, sealed and almost delivered.

It is, of course, not a perfect solution by any means, but it is a start. A good start. The frolicking up until the last minute by the Bickersons was worthy of a telenova. He said. She said. They said.

But in the end, it is about us. Our jobs. Our ability to obtain jobs, and the ability of the credit markets to start loosening up some so that lenders feel they can loan out money again.

And this time, it is quite clear that this President will make accountability a priority. We will know where the money is going. From the website they've set up we might even be able to talk about how well, or how badly it is working.

No matter what anyone thinks of the Bickerson's partisan tantrums, it is quite clear that the President is taking the high road. What a mensch.

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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Can We Get a Little Ethos with Our Bailout?


a little roast pork.....

Daschle, Geithner, Killifer. The list goes on with countless invisible others whose tax issues are not so much in the cross hairs of the media limelight at the moment. If you google "back taxes and elected officials" there are so many hits it can make your head spin.

Daschle knew in June about his tax problem and it only recently came to light by the Obama people? What happened to the 65-ish page application? We were under the impression that everyone applying for employment in the Obama adminstration would have to fill it out with full disclosure or risk being eliminated. Guess some people ran out of ink before they ran out of disclosures.

In 2008 Rep. Rangel, chair of the House Ways and Means owed 5k plus penalties in back taxes.

In spring 2007 it is alleged that over 450,000 federal employees owed back taxes. The total? About 3B. That is a pretty good chunk of change.

And just toss into the pot the number of other elected officials who owe back property taxes and personal income taxes. Factor that into the rest of the country.

Where's the ethos?

Never mind Wall Street. We've known for years and years that greed is a large part of that ethos. Let us look at the banks, primarily the larger banks who are failng rapidly and insist on blaming the consumer. They still refuse to look to themselves as the larger source of their problems. Never mind that they lent money like crazy to anyone who had a pulse with regard only to the how quickly they could make money on that loan by selling it, shanking it, or just by legal usury. The consumers kept up with the changing payments the best they could until they couldn't. The divisions of the banks were so badly managed that they actually didn't know that each was competing for the limited dollars from the same consumer. They never looked. They didn't care. One division could win. The other could lose. And it didn't matter until there were so many divisions failing that they began to rot the exterior and the bricks and mortar crumbled.

In order to make up those losses, the banks took on another practice. They decided that they would bleed the taxpayer/consumer from both ends at once. First, they would ask for a governmental (taxpayer) bailout and beg that they were only trying to help the consumer. Second they would send notices to thousands and thousands of those same consumers who owed them money through personal loans or credit cards and demand a hike in the interest rates just a tiny hair's breath from the legal definition of usury. And they are getting away with it so far.

Consumers, stretched to the limit with rising costs and shrinking paychecks, for those lucky enough to have paychecks, are coming home to find these notices in their mailboxes telling them that their interest rate increases will double and sometimes triple their payments. Multiply that and I do believe we might be able to fashion some $5 money chains around the globe and back again.

Taxpayers are paying the banks a double remedy. The mega remedy is the giant billion dollar bailouts - that the banks just sit and negotiate and swallow whole, through our governmental talking heads, and the other remedy is our nickel and dimes up their asses by our already depleted wages through their legal usury interst rate hikes.

Ethos? I think not.

Long live denial. It gets some through the night, and apparently through the day. We see it all over. Some people shop like they dropped in from another planet and didn't read the news. Merchants advertise and offer merchandise that makes you actually wonder who the heck is buying that stuff these days. Catalogs, while diminishing, still arrive with 3000 thread count sheets for $1000. The chances are more likely that the catalog itself will be used for bedding v. anyone ordering those sheets.

Even some Superbowl advertisers are still in the dense fog of denial. Yes, talking to you, Monster et al. Bored with your job? More like blessing the stars for being able to hang onto your job. Dead end job? Paycheck, and lucky to have one. Do your homework for crying out loud. And fix your websites. More than half the jobs you list are not even real jobs anymore. The don't exist except on paper. Those companies have shut the doors to new hires and aren't even entertaining resumes. They don't reply, they don't answer questions, and they aren't looking. Much of the recruitment teams are in the unemployment lines.

The credit markets are still as tightly locked up as they were when they put the padlocks on. The chains are still there. Just try to buy a car without a FICO score over 725. Don't even think about going to the bank for a loan. Venture Capital Richie Richs are sending around a fun little note to one another saying "oh oh, times are bad, sit on it, sit on it". Which makes them scared and over the top scrooge-like. So many small start-ups which are the heartbeat of new technology are folding their tents. Unless they got signed, sealed and delivered letters of funding, they aren't getting any. And there is cash money there. Billions of it, but like the banks, it isn't going anywhere.

Always in an ecomony that is sinking, and in a visibly stressed and depressed society, there are those who will always come up from bottom feeding for a bite of fresh meat. Those who can afford it the least, the poor, the elderly, the marginal who possess little common sense, these are the most vulnerable to these phishers. The numbers of letters, emails, phone calls from crooks is far surpassing the number of "change your phone service" solicitations ever recorded. People are getting all kinds of odd solicitations to "lower" their interest rates, "fix" their mortgages, "repair" their credit, "get" that car loan and more. This is the stuff that goes beyond greed to immoral in the worst way. But it is there, just like the roaches that take over when the lights are off.

Some recent articles have been saying that we Americans are quitting. We are giving up, mailing in the keys, shuttering the businesses all too soon. We aren't giving any remedy a chance.

How about it if we start with an ethos that ushers in integrity as the first layer? In the meantime I will take my 9 year old fat ass car in for another fix and tune.

Monday, February 2, 2009

We Will Pee On the Chaussure, Madam

The Pretend French Girls visiting Notre Dame

Not everyone is up on dog breeds. I do not mind at all when people ask what kind of dogs Lulu and Phoebe might be. Bostons are not all that common and outside of the United States, less so. It is fun to listen to people pronounce it - in France they would be Boostn Terreea, the last letter a long A. At least in France people had perhaps never seen a Boston and were very curious. Most of them. More on that later.

But as time goes by, back home, I am somewhat convinced that the dumbing down of Americans is getting worse than ever. Seriously. Let me begin with what Lulu and Phoebe are not:

  • Pitbulls
  • Nor twins (dogs are littermates, humans are twins)
  • Bulldog Francais (although at least they also have smushy faces)
  • Dalmations
  • Pugs (seriously?)
  • Minature Boxers (again, seriously?)
  • Brother and sister (take a good looky there!)
  • Mother and son (again.....)
  • Chihauhaus (too many Taco Bell commercials)
  • English Bulldogs

Sure, lots of people don't know much about dogs because it isn't high on their list of interests. I don't mind curious questions much. I just mind when they insist that we must be wrong and they are totally correct.

Phoebe is bigger than Lulu by about 5 pounds so people insist she must be the older one, and/or in fact, Lulu's mother. I would not have to worry about money if I got a nickel for every dropped jaw when I tell them that (little) Lulu is older than Phoebe by two years and both are spayed and will never be "mommies".

My other favorite is the Pitbull. Really? A 10 pound pitbull? Watch those ankles people!

In France there were several older citizens who had stories about Boston Terriers, or in their case, C'est Bulldog Francais that they might have had when they were children. Next up would be to exclaim how ugly they are and how much prettier poodles are. After the third comment like that I worked with Lulu who would already pee on command, to pee on their shoes. She did a masterful job of coming close to her mark. That sent them scurrying on their way. Nice? No. Necessary? Oui.

There are lots of dog breeds out there that I don't know anything about, and often identify them incorrectly. I have lots of sympathy for people who try and guess wrong. I don't, however, have much sympathy for people who insist that I am wrong and they are right - about my very own Lulu and Phoebe.

So to the lady today, who insisted they were Pitbulls and looked concerned for her very safety, I have this to say. Run. Run like the wind. Lulu just had a very big latte and she is looking at your shoes!