Now I ask you, what other blog offers your choice of talismanic animal for the day?
“If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of one other than AIG,” Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee yesterday. “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system, there was no oversight of the financial- products division, this was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company.” So we expect you to pass tighter “adult supervision” of the financial industry, TreasSec Tim Geithner told House Ways and Means.
In WSJ, Harvard economist and Hoover Institute fellow Robert J. Barro reckons the odds of another Depression at about 20%.
David Gothard/WSJ
In yesterday’s Democratic primary (tantamount to the final election in Chicago), Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley beat out the competition running for Rahm Emanuel’s 5th District House seat; ChiTrib’s Dan Mihalopoulos explains how here, while James Fallows records that his, Kycol’s, and my favorite Tom Geoghegan came in 7th with 6% of the vote.
The German paper Deutsche Welle reports that Russian president Dimitry Medvedev
welcomed the “positive signals” coming from the Obama administration with which he said he hoped to reach “agreements” [on Iran and U.S. missile defense]. “Haggling,” however, was “not productive,” added Medvedev on Tuesday, March 3.
The Russian president also said Obama’s letter had not presented the issue in such a way.
Obama on Tuesday said the Times report did not “accurately characterize the letter” he sent Medvedev.
“What I said in the letter was that, obviously, to the extent that we are lessening Iran’s commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for — or the need for a missile-defense system,” he said. …
If I live to be a grownup, I’ll never understand the Miss Lege. I mean, I understand why voter ID died, but what can they have against early voting, sex education in public schools, property tax breaks for older residents, and selling a state plane?
At least House Concurrent Resolution 64 (certifying the state’s intention to request and use all of the stimulus money, with or without Haley Barbour’s approval) is for now still alive. (By the way, though Jackson and Hinds County so far have comparatively little to look forward to, MDOT’s list of “shovel-ready” projects to be funded from the stimulus amounts to nearly $200 million worth.) Note NYT’s map of U.S. counties’ unemployment rates, showing the northern half of Mississippi suffering some of the worst (several counties there at or above 15%).
The Sun Herald‘s headlines should sell a few papers today: George Schloegel’s running for mayor, Brent Warr’s not doing so, Cochran and Wicker’s earmarks, and — cheer up! — a pink dolphin in a pear tree Louisiana lake.
ABC News
Oh wow, if I’d seen this in time, I coulda offered you Icelandic elves, gnomes, trolls, and fairies too!
“I was planning to watch the match live, but instead saw the death of cricket in Pakistan” reads the lede hed in ToL. I wonder if this will finally be enough to separate the ISI from its terrorist friends.
You may remember that NMC and I love to read Michael Lewis. The Icelandic saga I reference in #1 is his, and I’m fairly confident it’ll be the best thing to read you’ll find this month. Little taste:
Looking at that unemployment chart I am glad I am not in Alaska.
Barry Ritholz puts it well:
“…This was nothing more than a giant scam, perpetrated by the people who were running the AIG hedge fund.
It was exempt from any form of regulation or supervision, thanks to the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. This ruinous piece of legislation was sponsored by former Senator Phil Gramm (R), supported by Alan Greenspan (R), former Treasury Secretary (and Citibank board member) Robert Rubin (D), and current presidential advisor Larry Summers (D). It was signed into law by President Clinton (D). It was the single most disastrous piece of bipartisan legislation ever signed into law.
As you might have guessed by now, this portion of AIG is the INSOLVENT half.
Here is the question that every single taxpayer should be asking themselves: WHY AM I PAYING $1000 TO BAIL OUT THIS GIANT HEDGE FUND?…”
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/solvent-insurer-insolvent-insurer/
Pink dolphin…recipes, NMC?
With respect to the Mississippi Legislature: While it is true that, in a State with an enormous teen pregnancy problem, they refused to authorize sex education in public schools, they DID pass a bill preventing teen use of tanning beds without parental consent! As Charley Brown would say: “Good grief!”
Or, as (“our”) Ben Cole would say, Forget It! It’s Miss.
ADP’s payroll data tells it that 697,000 lost private-sector jobs in February (their forecast had been 630,000, after January’s 614,000; it’s still accelerating).
Madoff about to strike a plea deal?
For the good of society, I hope that any deal includes serious jail time for Madoff. And for his own good, he better hope that it does. I wouldn’t give a plug nickel for his chances out on the street —– too many big dollar folks lost too much money.
Although it’s been a little cold lately, Spring has sprung here in south Mississippi. My daffodils have been blooming for over a week, the Japanese magnolia blooms have mostly come and gone, and the flowers and fruit on the red maples can be seen littering the otherwise barren forest. The buds on the azaleas are forming and should be popping out in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, crawfish prices are crazy right now but should be coming down a bit soon.
What’s blooming in your yard?
Plexix-12,
My Japanese magnolia is full of buds but they seem to be refusing to open…others in the ‘hood are in full bloom or starting to fade. Any ideas?
This is the sort of question that Felder Rushing views as a great imponderable.
Azaleas passing their peak here. Waiting for the magnolias and missing the stew out of daffodils, jonquils, and dogwoods (per usual).
I may post later on the reluctant mags.
We do not eat dolphins.
White wild animals are either leucistic like this gator
http://www.inetours.com/New_Orleans/Photos/Leucistic-alligator.html
with blue eyes or albino with pink eyes. I suspect that this guy is a true albino due to the pink skin which is actually his surface blood flow. As might be expected his survival is limited- easy predation. White gators can be sunburned and I expect he can also.
NL
I can’t say I like the image of a bull running off a cliff. The wall streett bulls are the ones still trying to make a living in the market. That’s exactly what the feds are being right now, bullish. Trying to buy up controling interest in businesses.
The pink dolphin cuter anyway!
Phantom @ 13: Maybe your Japanese magnolia blooms know something that we don’t and are hunkering down right now waiting for some currently-unseen cold front to come and go before making an appearance. Or, as NMC suggests, it is an imponderable. Well, I don’t know about that, we sure are pondering about it, we just don’t know the answer.
Lotus @ 15: There aren’t daffodils in your neck of the woods?
I was lucky enough to purchase an old home whose original owners planted a wide variety of trees, shrubs, bulbs, and other perennials all over the yard so that something seems to be blooming at all times. The bane of my existence are the small oak trees that sprout up throughout my garden and beds.
Naw, to my annual primaveral grief, Plexix, central Flordy is too far south for ‘em. We’re sub-tropical here (even though every winter we dip into the 30s, if not lower, once or twice).
Can’t tell you how I miss them. When I was a child, their aroma reminded me of 7-Up. Haven’t enjoyed that smell in decades.
Gosh, Lotus…..that’s too bad. They sure are purty. I have to admit I’ve never smelled a daffodil, I’ll have to put my nose to one this evening and see if I smell 7-Up.
AP: MS House CR 64 (bypassing Haley to get at the stimulus $$$) passed but will likely die in the senate.
Lotus, did I see a hat tip to you from Alan Lange today? I love it when yall have spats and patch up. It’s almost as good as when you and NMC get testy with each other then dissolve into remarkable affection.
You kidding me, 3dS — he did? I gotta run over there and see that for myself.
Hmm, he goes with my real name instead of my handle. “lotus” sticks in his craw somehow? Ah well, ’tis a credit in either case.
Coming Soon to a book store near you in the cooking section . . . All Bacon All the Time.
http://gawker.com/5164422/bacon-defeats-books
Remember from your local Nature Lover that the genus name for daffodil is narcissus. That must mean something today but what I am not sure. Ill try to make up some connection with Blago or….
NL
Ok, Lotus, surely Delta L. Mama’s 25 is enough to have a “All Things Hog” page…hog heads, pig ear sammiches, whole hog bbq, bacon infused adult beverages and now a bacon stuffed (and wrapped) sausage log?
NYTimes on the death of Alan Landers, the Winston Man:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/us/04landers.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries
You gotta love it! There’s new yard art on the White House lawn. A new swing and slide set was put up, as a surprise for Malia and Sasha, and it’s in full view of the Oval Office.
Geez! The End Days must be around the corner because Clarance Thomas and I have just agreed on sumpin.The Supreme Court, today, ruled that a drug company is not protected from injury claims in state court merely because the federal government had approved the product and its labeling. An opinion by Justice Stevens was upheld and Justice Thomas concurred.