when a bank is "too big to fail," and knows that taxpayers will be coerced into bailing it out, it is no longer subject to "corrective market forces"--that is, it can take the most absurd risks and never suffer any consequences

(it's like playing craps with house money and keeping the winnings but not suffering the losses)

in capitalism, the theory is that sound business decisions will be rewarded and unsound decisions will reap economic punishment

-ergo, whatever game G.Sachs was playing wasn't capitalism

looks more like corporate cronyism, or plutocracy, or neo-feudalism, or whatever fancy term you want to use to describe the great masses or ordinary hardworking americans having their pockets picked by thugs in fancy suits

and it's not especially good for notions like representative democracy, as we're collectively noticing

(even though economics is boring and we're supposed to be info-tained by the jackson/palin show 24/7)

even i know this, and i had to look up panglossian

**

as far a conspiracy theories go:

as Taibbi pointed out, the lunacy of complete deregulation

meant that there were more speculators than actual buyers and sellers in the oil market,

meaning the laws of supply and demand did not apply

-once again, where'd the capitalism go?

pay no attention to the bank behind the curtain!

if you can't see this, maybe your own tin foil hat slipped down over your eyes

or maybe you oughta trek down the yellow brick road and find yourself a brain or some courage

this is an old story with a "new and improved" globalized twist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

For my money, an even more interesting thing about Coburn is his affiliation with "The Family," an organization of "Christians" who believe they have been divinely chosen to lead, and that needn't abide by the same rules of morality as the rest of us.

They also believe in both military and financial empire.

[it's funny how Jesus of Nazareth's peaceful, altruistic, egalitarian message always gets perverted by greedy elitists]

Rachel Maddow did a good interview with the book's author if you're curious...

http://books.google.com/books?id=NVmcx-8zdGEC&vq=ISBN+0060559799&dq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(Christian_political_organization)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dox4jdW4UyQ

...I think McCain has pretty much jumped onto the NeoCon ship, though, and this ain't good for the country or the Constitution——power tends to corrupt; checks and balances and presumption of innocence aren't mere idealistic luxuries, but important safeguards against the inevitables abuses of unchecked power.

Permalink Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:14 AM

____________________________________________

what about clappe 3? or grippe 45?

my lord what the fuck weird alien boll weevil has burrowed its way into yer skull?

LOL (fer real tho)

get thee to a punnery

...and Obama is really clinging to/advancing these unconstitutional powers

(is preventative dention like preventative war?)

in order to protect us from very bad people, and even if he's holding on to the powers of an "Imperial" Presidency in order to advocate powerfully for the people against the corporatist elites...

...it still makes dependents of us all, forcing us to take his word for it, to have a goverment of (wo)men rather than a government of laws.

And one thing you can be certain about--whether at ground level or from 30k feet--in the real world, there are no infallible people, and everyone should be checked and kept honest...again, the Founders understood this vital truth about human nature very well, and nothing's changed in that regard.

yes, majority rule restained by minority rights.

It's very important, all right, not to have total mob-ocracy, but it makes me nervous that you sound so dismissive of democracy and the will of the people.

"I have observed firsthand the veiled and coded power struggles between still-privileged semi-rural ex-plantation-owner upper-class whites and still-somewhat-indentured blacks living marginal lives of casually enforced servitude. I have seen this. It is of course gravely rooted in political wrongs not just in the past but in the present, but each case is also a personal story of human beings working out what is acceptable and what can they get away with and what can they bear within the confines of their fate."

Also, the line about being born on third!