Entries from February 2009 ↓

I also know that I never took out risky loans, diligently paid back three separate mortgages, saved for my retirement, and now pay more than half my income to the government … to give to those who gave in to greed, wishful thinking and recklessness.

Andrew Sullivan

Obama came to office with an impressive economics team. Just as Bush came to office with an impressive foreign policy team.

I wonder whether Barack Obama has not, in less than a month in office, already sealed his fate. Maybe the rest of his time will be spent trying to pay up the one trillion he spent in a couple of weeks.

It depends crucially on the bond markets, but if they normalise and US treasury bond yields go up (ie, the federal government starts paying more interest), then this could easily become the number one priority for the administration for the next couple of years. A big part of Bush’s mis-handling of the budget was due to the unusual tameness of the once fierce bond markets over the last 10 years (the rest was Bush’s irresponsibility, of course).

Charles Platt, clearly a shrill for corporate America, gives us this little piece of propaganda after having pretended to work at Wal-mart (but really having spent a week being brain-washed by the Man):

Several of my co-workers had relocated from other areas, where they had worked at other Wal-Marts. They wanted more of the same. Everyone agreed that Wal-Mart was preferable to the local Target, where the hourly pay was lower and workers were said to be treated with less respect (an opinion which I was unable to verify). Most of all, my coworkers wanted to avoid those “mom-and-pop” stores beloved by social commentators where, I was told, employees had to deal with quixotic management policies, while lacking the opportunities for promotion that exist in a large corporation.

As for all those Wal-Mart horror stories—when I went home and checked the web sites that attack the company, I found that many of them are subsidized with union money. walmartwatch.com, for instance, is partnered with the Service Employees International Union; wakeupwalmart.com is copyright by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Why are unions so obsessed with Wal-Mart? I’m guessing that if the more-than-a-million Wal-Mart employees could be unionized, they would be compelled to contribute at least half a billion dollars per year in union dues.

(Wal-mart bashing seems to have fallen out of fashion to be replaced by Wal-mart basher bashing.)

The touchdown before half-time was ****ing amazing.