Home » The Watercooler for 11/05/09 9:00 AM
The Watercooler for 11/05/09 9:00 AM
DFA's home for a free form, open-ended discussion of what matters most to committed progressive activists.
Watercooler resets everyday at 1am, 9am and 5pm. Past threads can be found in the Watercooler Archive
Lots of good election results here in Washington State. Too bad the main stream media is not talking about them. Such as the approval of Ref. 71 reaffirming the law on gay civil rights of domestic partnerships. This also affects many couples that are not married. People emphasize older ("senior") couples, but it applies at all ages. While Burt and I do have legal paperwork in place to assure that we have legal rights to take care of each other we might get a domestic partnership certificate. We'll see. Our "health" insurance does recognize our domestic partnership. Washington is a pretty progressive state. At least on this side of the Cascades.
- the Iowa Governor's race next year may well turn on gay marriage
By Phil Specht on Nov 5, 2009 10:10 AM ESTbut if old pragmatist Terry Branstad runs against Chet he will face a challenge from the right and the opposition will divide
some wingnuts just don't get the whole concept of Equal Rights so essential to "domestic tranquility" on so many other fronts as well
the Constitution kind of goes right over their heads
good to hear about Washington State results
- between my last two posts I delivered a baby girl out of "Mina"
By Phil Specht on Nov 5, 2009 10:14 AM ESTand if anyone is in touch can tell Kimmy Cash she is a blog grandmother (hope that doesn't freak her out)
may get started on corn drying today as the usual schedule was all disrupted by wet beans
bbl
She also has a one year old or so named Jackson, in addition to Lo and.....other names escape me now.
Nice of you to remember her, Phil. She is loving Northern CA, living by the beach. And her hubby, Craig, is a KEEPER!
In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.
Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
<!-- story_feature_box.comp --><!-- /story_feature_box.comp -->Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.
"The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor "This is fraud and should be prosecuted."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/77791.html?storylink=MI_emailed
While AIG created the CDS derivative it was the investment banking houses that knew how to "win" with them.
More from Phil's article:
McClatchy's inquiry found that Goldman Sachs:
Bought and converted into high-yield bonds tens of thousands of mortgages from subprime lenders that became the subjects of FBI investigations into whether they'd misled borrowers or exaggerated applicants' incomes to justify making hefty loans.
Used offshore tax havens to shuffle its mortgage-backed securities to institutions worldwide, including European and Asian banks, often in secret deals run through the Cayman Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean that companies use to bypass U.S. disclosure requirements.
Has dispatched lawyers across the country to repossess homes from bankrupt or financially struggling individuals, many of whom lacked sufficient credit or income but got subprime mortgages anyway because Wall Street made it easy for them to qualify.
Was buoyed last fall by key federal bailout decisions, at least two of which involved then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Goldman chief executive whose staff at Treasury included several other Goldman alumni.
The firm benefited when Paulson elected not to save rival Lehman Brothers from collapse, and when he organized a massive rescue of tottering global insurer American International Group while in constant telephone contact with Goldman chief Blankfein. With the Federal Reserve Board's blessing, AIG later used $12.9 billion in taxpayers' dollars to pay off every penny it owed Goldman.
These decisions preserved billions of dollars in value for Goldman's executives and shareholders. For example, Blankfein held 1.6 million shares in the company in September 2008, and he could have lost more than $150 million if his firm had gone bankrupt.
"The critical moment when Goldman would have the highest liability and disclosure obligations is when they are serving as an underwriter on a registered public offering," he said. "If they are at the same time desperately seeking to get out of the field, that kind of bailout does look far more dubious than just trading activities."
Another question is whether, by keeping the trades secret, the company withheld material information that would enable investors to assess Goldman's motives for selling the bonds, said James Cox, a Duke University law professor who also has served on the NYSE advisory panel.
If Goldman had disclosed the contrary bets, he said, "One would have to believe that a rational investor would not only consider Goldman's conduct material, but likely compelling a decision to take a pass on the recommendation to purchase."
Cox said that existing laws, however, don't require sufficient disclosures about trading, and that the government would do well to plug that hole.
(really need to plug *that* hole)
I now have the energy to post that Tuesday was horrible, as if you didn't know it.
The Deeds campaign imploded, lost any message. The coordianted campaign was a joke staffed by kids with attitudes.
They concentrated on one thing, getting a local delegate elected, which they did, but we lost almost 6 seats statewide to right wing lunatics.
We now have a manchurian candidate as our governor with two lunies at number 2 and 3.
Our local delegate race, Gary West, was one of the best run ever. Bryan came down from DFA and worked non stop on the race with Jonas and Gary. Gary lost.
We got NO support from the house caucus after calling them many times. The caucus took money that the unions gave to Gary and used in on other races. We got stiffed my Governor Kaine after he promised to come down and do an event with Gary.
There were so many mistakes on so many levels.
We are already getting to shake up the DPVA. Get rid of Cranwell and his cronies. Get rid of Ward Armstrong who is the House Caucus leader. He won his race, barely, so we have him to kick around.
Just to show you how hollow this campaign was, when Obama came to town, they said I had a front row seat. Well when I went to pick up my ticket they gave me a general admission ticket. After all the friggen work I did. I called Deeds campaign and they got me a VIP ticket.
They brought in high paid consultants after the primary, you know the Joe Trippi kind, and that is why we lost. NO message.
Back later.
We know you worked your tail off as usual.
Glad to hear this part:
"I called Deeds campaign and they got me a VIP ticket."
Take care and take some time off for yourself.
You were in our thoughts so much on Tuesday. We know you put your heart into it. Can't thank you enough.
Cc and Phil, thanks for the information. It sounds so complicated, so nefarious to me. I wonder do these people have any sense of tomorrow, of the country as a whole, of legacies, or strength of institutions? It seems so withuot ethics to me, so without any sense of the whole, of values, of perspective. But, there I go again being righteous. Thank you for summarizing and making sense of this for us.
Heard on NPR this morning that the dairy industry is suffering the worst depression in 50 years, that in order for farmers to make money, the price has to go from under a dollar where it is now to $1.79 per gallon? Anyway, awful news.
Lindab, thanks for going through all that, for your commitment. We sometimes get the biggest benefits from failure because we really learn how not to fail the next time.
Beautiful day here.
Again on NPR, so Orwellian. The Republicans are claiming that the Democrats have shut them out from any bipartisanship, that Obama is the most extreme liberal we've had so far and his agenda is totaly liberal. I'm amazed at the aplomb, the dedication to the lie that the Republicans have been expounding and repeating since Reagan. Just amazing.
Have a fine day.
"I wonder do these people have any sense of tomorrow, of the country as a whole, of legacies, or strength of institutions?"--
Pat, the primary and possibly only motivator on Wall Street is greed, plain and simple.
Most of us small money managers understand that and our goal is to assist our clients in achieving, ultimately, at least comfortable, if not affluent, retirement years.
See you all later.
Like a summer day here. Greed is a given. There may be people who aren't greedy, but it seemsto me it's one them there human attributes. But when did it become a good? I remember the old golden rules that seemed to be part of elementary school: Don't lie, Don't steal, Don't cheat; Don't harm anyone; Be kind, Brush you teeth, Wash your hands, etc.
I'm also thinking of all those retirement funds, institutions who invested. Our Colorado retirement fund took a several billion dollar hit. I'm also thinking of Brandeis University and other instututions that will hurt their people who depend on them.
I remember when GMAC was the financing arm of General Motors for buying cars. It went into the real estate/mortgage market. Someone remarked (here?) that as a country we've been living off money making money for 20 years and not making much that was real.
And, I've read arguments that we should become the lenders/ money people for the world as our GDP. I'm grateful I didn't have the skills or temperament for making money or managing it. I would have been terrible at it and so risk averse that I propbably would have lost money for clients. We need ethical people like you cC and business schools to teach ethics. And then there's the old idea of "Enough-ness".
Nicholas Kristof had an excellent opinion piece is yesterday's NYT entitled - Unhealthy America. He produced all kinds of facts that exposed the myths of our present healthcare system. While this was extremely important what I found most profound was the following comment by one of the readers:
Democrats may get a health care bill passed but it will take a few congressman who are willing to lose their seat to do it. It is something that is worth sacrificing for the greater good. It would transform America in all kinds of ways but more importantly it would show Americans that Democrats have the courage of their convictions.
That's it in a nutshell. The Democratic Party will probably have to make sacrifices to do what is right. I have already read some articles describing how some bluedogs in southern states or other areas that are vulnerable are using the results from Tuesday as an excuse to further question the necessity of health care reform. The question to them (and the Democratic Party) is whether their political future is more important than the lives of the Americans they claim to represent.
A true question of conscience, eh?
We know where LIEberman falls on the vote of conscience, don't we.
watching 'Ed' last nioght - he said that Terry McAulliffe would have been a much better candidate than Deeds - not a better legislator, a better candidate. even Ed would be happy to have one of the biggest dlc'ers in place as long as we 'won' the seat. some progressive he is - I'm VERY disappointed in him.
I wondered if it might be better to have a Dem in place who might vote with us *some* of the time rather than a Rethug who we know will never vote with us.
However, after watching these Dems against the public option I begin to wonder...I always thought it was that they are from conservative states so they're going to be conservative on the social issues, abortion, gay marriage, etc. But HEALTH CARE???? They couldn't sell the benefits to their constituents? Doesn't pass the smell test. Gotta be bought and paid for by lobbyists.
This is the dilemma of party politics. Do you support the party above all else or support the individual who best embodies what the party traditionally stands for? (When I say traditionally I mean since the early 20th century.) Neither is the wrong answer depending on your beliefs and ethics. I (obviously) fall one the side of individual, which is why I no longer belong to the Democratic Party.
But McAulliffe still would not have won.
Most of the base hated McAwful. I would have really liked Brian Moran because he is a progressive.
The last straw was when Creigh said he was against the public option. Why don't you just give us workers the finger.
Now Deeds is a fine man, I know him. He has done a lot for our state but the primary took the money and the manchurian candidate of pat robertson portrayed himself as a moderate.
We shall see.
Now to get rid of those turncoats at the dpva and in our city.
We are Democrats people, not rethugs.
It will if lindab has anything to say about it!!!!!
Interesting to note than in my small office (7 people) in Springfield that all are Dems and fairly progressive but only a few could muster the energy to vote for Deeds because quite frankly he was wholly uninspiring. (I live in MD in Chris Van Hollen's district.)
Rep. Steny Hoyer said House leaders expect to have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping bill, which would extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured people and ban insurance companies from turning people away.
{...}
The Maryland Democrat said language on abortion and illegal immigrants was still being worked out, but predicted those issues could be solved in time for Saturday's scheduled debate and vote on the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation.
"We certainly have well over 218 people who say they want to vote for the bill," Hoyer said in an interview with wire service reporters.
"The trick is making sure they have a comfort level with the provisions they are particularly focused on to allow them to do so," he said. "So I think that's what we're in the final stages of trying to get to."
Obama planned a rare trip to the House on Friday to try to win over wavering lawmakers.
{emph. mine and in the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt....BULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;) Come on Mr. President, slap backs, twist arms, get it done}
thanks for the uplift during a late breakfast here at the desk
heard a WOOT!
Good news, indeed.
Interesting essay by Arainna Huffington on her website, the Huffington Post. She met with David Plough. Even more interesting are the 9 or so pages of comments, for, agin, middle, thoughtful perceptions about Obama as President and all pretty civil. It's worth reading if that's an interest.
I imagine if Howard had been at the helm of the DNC on Tuesday ~ the Dems would have fared a whole lot better. I'm hearing this from a lot of Dem friends.
Let's hope the DNC goes back to Howard's plans or gets rid of Tim Kaine. The red state Dems were walloped big time on Tuesday (except for NC).
Here is how History has been done..., not on a blog..for sure!
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9005158
People of conscience, for sure. Lieberman will never meet with individuals who are in opposition to his positions. I know this from experience.
conscience over party
I've been using the phrase "principle over party." Let's hope one of the phrases catches on. :-)
**********************
cC, nice to know you believe in a bit of arm-twisting.
Because for the most part they have been on he right side of history. But since Clinton this has been less and less the case. I didn't vote for him ither in 92 or 96 and because of him, his administration's legacy (and some narrowmindedness on my part) I didn't vote for Gore in 2000. Don't have regrets, though. Never will as long as I vote my conscience.
And only voted R twice in my life because that candidate was truly liberal running as an R due to the fact that the Party machine did its best to prevent any real primary oppostion.
I heard that Deeds practically throw Obama under the bus by declaring that, as governor, he would opt out of any health care plan than had a public obtion.
If this was true, Virginia didn't need him anyway. Though I guess the Republican pretended to be a centrist, many say he is just more of the same ol' stuff.
We know you worked hard. But remember the successes you have in 2008. So carry on if you can. Things can turn around so fast these days.
if peeps *really* want a Republican, why should they pick a Dino? But McDonnell also seems he was pretending to be a Dem. . . . Krezzy politics in Virginia. . . .
lindab, our thanks to you for carrying on as Howard wants us all to. . . . You're one special chickie, yanno?
Just heard about Fort Hood ~ nine dead, 20-30 wounded, two assailants caught and one at large. Jeez.
(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 05,
2009 ) Fort Hood, TX - There has been a shooting at Fort Hood U.S.
military grounds in Texas this afternoon. Sources report two gun men in
military uniform have killed 9 and about 30 people are wounded.
Authorities have arrested one gun man and one still remains at large.
For breaking news about Fort Hood shooting, go to USGovernment-News.Com: http://www.usgovernment-news.com/united_states_military.php/.
Fort Hood is a processing center for U.S. military personnel fighting
abroad; it is the largest U.S. military base in the world -
EmailWire.Com.
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