Detail, Beverly Beach photo, courtesy MachineShedFred.






Excellent tunes -- free! And on your browser right now. Just click on Radio Bojack!

Meter updates every 30 seconds. Click here for
an instant update.
Our complete Portland debt series linked here.




E-mail us here.

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on November 23, 2008 2:39 PM. The previous post in this blog was We're sorry but it's time to go. The next post in this blog is Why a loaf of bread will cost $10 soon. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Links

Law
How Appealing
Bag and Baggage
TaxProf Blog
Mauled Again
Tax.com
Josh Marquis
Native America, Discovered and Conquered
The Yin Blog
OrCon Law
Ernie the Attorney
Conglomerate
Above the Law
The Volokh Conspiracy
Going Concern
myCorporateResource.com
World of Work
The Faculty Lounge

Hap'nin' Guys
Tony Pierce
Parkway Rest Stop
Utterly Boring.com
The Vig
Dwight Jaynes
Various Observations...
The Daily E-Mail
Saving James
Bob Borden
Dingleberry Gazette
The Red Electric
Positively Glorious
The Rural Bus Route
Another Blogger
The World of Today
Izzle Pfaff
Jeremy Blachman
Dean's Rhetorical Flourish
Straight White Guy
Furious Nads (b!X)
The Grich
HinesSight
Onfocus
AntSaint
Kevin Allman
Jalpuna
MTPolitics
The Naive Optimist
Beerdrinker.org
As Time Goes By
AboutItAll - Oregon
Jeff Selis
Quark Soup
Alas, a Blog
Whitman Boys
Worldwide Pablo
Misterblue
Tales from the Stump
Two Pennies
Scott Hendison
Sansego
The View Through the Windshield
Mikeyman's Computer Treehouse
Appliance Blog
The Bleat
Rosenblog

Hap'nin' Gals
My Whim is Law
I Count to 4 (Nth of Pril)
Miss in Your Business
Lelo in Nopo
Rose City Journal
Type Like the Wind
Linda Kruschke
Margaret and Helen
Kimberlee Jaynes
Evidently
And Sew It Goes
Mile 73
Frances de Florida
Rainy Day Thoughts
Ready or Not
Marchmoon Chronicles
That Black Girl
Posie Gets Cozy
Lao Ocean Girl
{A}
Cat Eyes
Chantel Williams
Kerianne
Melissa Lion
Gina Rau
Rhi in Pink
Althouse
Frytopia
Ragwaters, Bitters, and Blue Ruin
This Stony Planet
Heather Bea
GirlHacker

Portland and Oregon
Isaac Laquedem
StumptownBlogger
Rantings of a TriMet Bus Driver
Jeff Mapes
Our PDX Network
Stumptown Lunch
Amanda Fritz
PolitickerOR.com
O City Hall Reporters
RoguePundit
Guilty Carnivore
Metroblogging Portland
Old Town by Larry Norton
The Alaunt
Bend Blogs
Lost Oregon
Cafe Unknown
Tin Zeroes
Another Portland Blog
Mark Nelsen's Weather Blog
Oregon Media Central
Portland Building Ads
Portland Food and Drink.com
Dave Knows Portland
Idaho's Portugal
Alameda Old House History
MLK in Motion
LoveSalem
ORblogs Site News

Retired from Blogging
Portland Freelancer
1221 SW 4th
Twisty
I am a Fish
Here Today
What If...?
Superinky Fixations
Pinktalk
Mellow-Drama

Wonderfully Wacky
Dave Barry
Borowitz Report
Blort
Stuff White People Like
The Dullest Blog in the World
Worst of the Web
The Ultimate Insult
Scrabo's Mad World
Lancow's E-mail

Valuable Time-Wasters
My Gallery of Jacks
Litterbox, On the Prowl
Litterbox, Bag of Bones
Litterbox, Scratch
Maukie
Ride That Donkey
Singin' Horses
Rally Monkey
Simon Swears
Strong Bad's E-mail

Oregon News
KGW-TV
The Oregonian
Portland Tribune
KOIN
Willamette Week
KATU
The Sentinel
Southeast Examiner
Sellwood Bee
Mid-County Memo
Eugene Register-Guard
OPB
Topix.net - Portland
Salem Statesman-Journal
Portland Business Journal
Daily Journal of Commerce
Oregon Business
KPTV
Portland Info Net
McMinnville News Register
Lake Oswego Review
The Daily Astorian
Bend Bulletin
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Roseburg News-Review
Medford Mail-Tribune
Ashland Daily Tidings
Newport News-Times
Albany Democrat-Herald
The Eugene Weekly
Portland IndyMedia
Not the Oregonian, the Oregonion
Oregon's Future
Brainstorm Northwest
The Columbian

Music-Related
The Beatles
Bruce Springsteen
Seal
Sting
Joni Mitchell
Ella Fitzgerald
Steve Earle
Joe Ely
Stevie Wonder
Lou Rawls

E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Tell me on a Sunday

Announcing goofball rescues for big financial institutions that ought to be liquidated has become a Sunday tradition in Washington and New York. Today it's Citigroup that's going to be artificially kept afloat. The tax money will be transferred directly from our children and grandchildren to the incompetent swine who currently run that sorry bank, and to the shareholders to whom they pay rich dividends.

Details of the plan are still sketchy, but then again, details of how we're going to avoid another Great Depression are also still sketchy. Indeed, accounting for the hundreds of billions of dollars that Henry Paulson has already handed out to his friends is also still sketchy. Make that nonexistent.

Posted at 2:39 PM | Bookmark and Share

Comments (10)

Details of avoiding another Great Depression are still sketchy because they don't exist. Alas, we are going to experience exactly that. Except worse.

In 1929, we still hadn't peaked in oil discoveries, much less extraction. We grew enough food for all with almost no petrochemical inputs. We had topsoil measured in feet rather than inches throughout the Midwest. Salmon runs throughout the Northwest were still at the same levels as they had been through prehistory. The landmass was still drained by wild rivers that supported a fabulous array of species since lost. We had a financial crisis but, otherwise, were in pretty good shape.

Today's great robbery comes on the heels of the world's longest "live for today because tomorrow we die" bash in history, and all of the primary resources bases are on their last legs. Most of the oceans are now wet deserts, devoid of life. Even Iowa topsoil is now down to less than a foot, and the great mass of US ag land has been compacted into a cement matrix and saturated with chemicals. Our aquifers are so depleted that they are giving up, stranding century farms without water. We have liberated enough fossil carbon that, even if we completely stopped this instant, the global climate will still be trying to find an equilibrium point for another few centuries, and we may well run into a positive feedback trigger or too that causes us to have a radical climate shift into a wildly different state. We have created whole classes of superbugs who take front-line antibiotics like you and I take tea. And we have bred and bred and bred, all while making the poor the world over work like slaves to provide us with the wealth we squander so carelessly.

As Jefferson said, "I tremble when I think that there is a just God."

Friggin' AAAAAA-men!, George.

Notice most of the empirical destitutions relate to the land, proper. Whatever re-invigoration we accomplish in our coming Reformation among ourselves, as a pragmatic policy we must never again allow private interest, (greed 'profit'), as the superior or sole claim to the legal disposition of land use and abuse. No land is an island unattached to adjoining land; ALL land is a public interest in some degree -- the oil and gold (and water and air) and natural 'landed' resources belong to ALL of us -- and representative government, (the 'state') can NOT substitute as 'sheriff' agent relieving local land inhabitants of their duty and responsibility to maintain legal 'public condition' claim and accord on the land, by personal involvement, actions, and judgment. Every resident (citizen) to be informed of herself or himself as constituting a walking, talking, legislative-executive-judicious body, and consciousness.

'We live here, that's who says we own the land. We (locals) are the proprietors.'

I have noticed that in the last week, shoppers have been going crazy here in Salem. Every store I go to is busy and shoppers carts are full. I don't know if this is an anomaly or what, but retail is looking good right now anyway.

Wow, Tensk. Reminds me of catechism 101 class where I learned about the church's social teaching --the one that posits there is no absolute right to private property.
And yes, I know that doesn't get put into practice much and one church in particular has lost it's social teaching credibility by cynically using church law in a civil suit and evading responsibility by "hiding" its assets in plain view--claiming parishioners own the property--har, har.


mp--Retailers with a lot of product who are finding it harder and harder to get credit (think Circuit City) will gladly dump that product at or below cost just to get their hands on some cash. Buy it now if you can.

Rich dividends? Surely you jest.... I own Citi and I am skrewed. Got NOTHIN'.

Save yourself, and stock up on canned goods at COSTCO. This is where we are headed.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Citi have a Huge credit card bag?

Maybe the Feds will take title to those debts in exchange for 25 Billion in Real Funny Money?

Not to fear as the Prez Elect has promised to bring us the Change.

Citigroup has paid ever increasing dividends of between $1.10 a share and $2.16 a share over the last five years.

http://quicktake.morningstar.com/stocknet/StockReturns.aspx?symbol=C

Just in time for the morning editions:

Citigroup will get US guarantees for $306 Billion (Billion, not Million) of its troubled assets and other mortgages PLUS a $20 Billion cash infusion (this on top of the $25 Billion TARP money it received last month). In exchange, the US will get $27 Billion of preferred shares paying an 8% dividend.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=apUaIHxgott8&refer=home

The only measure i can figure out if these bailouts are working is the bank's stock price. I figure institutional and professional investors who are more knowledgible than me can judge if these are going to work and this will show up in the share price.

As of today, Citi jumped more than 50%, however this is still only about $6 a share, down from over $50 in 2007.

I don't think anyone is getting much of a dividend on a $6 share, but I could be wrong.

Aren't the Saudi's major owners of Citigroup? That might help explain things...

Sponsors



We accept advertising through Blogads. If you're interested, click the "Advertise here" link above, or go here to place your ad through Blogads. For assistance, e-mail me here; I'd be glad to help. Reach lots of viewers -- we're up to about 2,800 unique visits a day, and more than 44,000 page views a week (as of October 26). Our rates are dirt cheap for the exposure you'll get!

As a lawyer/blogger, I get
to be a member of:



In Vino Veritas

Dom Martinho, Tinto 2005
Chateau St. Jean, Cabernet, California 2007
Kirkland, Napa Cabernet 2007
Revelry, The Reveler, 2007
Joseph Drouhin, Chablis 2006
Altos Las Hormigas, Mendoza Malbec 2008
Alodio, Ribeira Sacra Mencia 2007
Charles Smith, Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2008
Kiona, Lemberger 2006
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Valley Merlot 2005
Paranga, Kir-Yianni 2005
L. Guigal, Cotes du Rhone Rose 2007
Gloria Ferrer, Sonoma Brut
Kirkland, Napa Valley Meritage 2006
Abacela, Tempranillo 2006
Woodward Canyon, Columbia Valley Red
Santa Margherita, Pinot Grigio 2007
Mas Donis Barrica, Celler de Capcanes Red, 2005
Three Rivers, Merlot 2006
Raptor Ridge, Pinot Gris 2008
Lezaun, Rosado, Navarra
Lezaun, Red, Navarra
Hedges, Three Vineyards, Red Mountain 2005
Raptor Ridge, Pinot Gris 2008
Vega Sindoa, Cabernet-Tempranillo 2006
Inama, Soave Classico 2007
Alois Lageder, Lagrein Rosato 2008
Broglia, Gavi 2007
Marqués de Cáceres, Rioja Rose 2008
Spaltagna, Riserva Pinot Noir 2008
Portuga, Rose 2008
Warre's Warrior Port
Lange, Pinot Noir 2007
Chateau Guiraud, Le G, 2007
Falset, Garnacha Rose, Montsant 2006
Castello di Bossi, Chianti Classico 2004
Domaine Chandon, Pinot Noir, La Riviere Sonoma 2006
Brazin, Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi 2006
B.R. Cohn, Silver Label Cabernet 2006
Casillero del Diablo, Cabernet 2007
Gentil Hugel, Alsace 2006
Mesoneros de Castilla, Ribero del Duero, Rosado 2008
Cor, Momentum 2007
Santa Margherita, Pinot Grigio 2006
Rubico, Lacrima di Morro d'Alba 2007
Gilstrap Brothers, Reserve Merlot 2003
Conundrum 2007
Chandler Reach, 36 Red
Santa Rita, Reserve Cabernet 2005
Marietta, Old Vine Red Lot 47
L'Ecole No. 41, Recess Red 2006
Dom Martinho, Red 2004
Beaulieu, Georges Latour 1994
Caymus, Cabernet 1995
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2005
Bergevin Lane, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2005
Savigny-les-Beaune, Les Lavieres 2003
David Hill, Reserve Merlot, Rogue Valley 2006
Educated Guess, Cabernet 2006
Maquis Lien, Red 2005
Charles Smith, Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2007
David Hill, Farmhouse White
Robert Mondavi Solaire, Cabernet 2005
Castello Monaci, Liante, Salice Salentino 2006
Ricardo Santos, Malbec 2006
Quinta da Espiga, Tinto 2006
Charles Smith, Holy Cow Merlot 2006
Charles Smith, Boom Boom Syrah 2006
Charles Smith, The Honorable Pinot Gris 2007
Santa Rita, Cabernet Reserva 2005
King Estate, Pinot Gris 2007
Gloria, Douro, Tinto 2002
Bogle, Petite Sirah Port, Clarksburg 2005
Cardwell Hill, Pinot Noir 2004
Silkwood, Red Duet Cabernet-Syrah 2004
Portuga, Vinho Branco 2006, 2007
Osborne, Solaz 2004
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Reserva 2005
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill, Shiraz Cabernet 2006
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2004
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Merlot, Horse Heaven Hills 2004
Hannah Nicole, Red 2004
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2005
Protocolo, Red 2005
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2006
Portuga, Vinho Branco 2006
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 1998
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 1996
Kirkland, Roogle Shiraz 2004
Garda, Classico Chiaretto
A to Z, Oregon Pinot Gris 2005
I Giusti & Zanza, Nemorino 2006
Treana, Marsanne-Viognier, Central Coast 2005
Fife, Syrah, "Stanford" 2000
B.R. Cohn, Silver Label Cabernet 2005
Marques de Casa Concha, Cabernet 2005
Santi, Sortesele Pinot Grigio 2006
Al Muvedre, Tinto Joven 2006
Layer Cake, Shiraz 2006
Gritti, Ca' Andrea, Umbria red 2005
Altos de Luzon, Jumilla 2004
Thomas Leithner, Zweigelt 2004
Cain Cuvee NV 3
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Merlot 2003
Meridian, Sauvignon Blanc 2005
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2003
Paringa, Shiraz 2005

The Occasional Book

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 64
At this date last year: 28
Total run in 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Clicky Web Analytics