Sure there may be neo-nazis in the new Greek government (see Naked Capitalism.com Nov. 23) but the real shocker was reading the NY Review of Books, Dec. 8th issue that outs George F. Kennan. The article by Frank Costigliola ties Kennan's extra-marital affairs to his frequent periods of illness over a long life. Christ, is nothing sacred! Did Dean Acheseson know? How come I didn't know? Well, honestly I couldn't care less. Still, I'm an old-fashioned guy who likes his WASP elite represenatives to be paragons of virtue. Okay, he wasn't born to the manor. Thus, he was the personification of the foreign policy intellectual, at a time when that actually meant something. So I'm just gob-smacked.
What about Hans Morganthau, Hermann Kahn (just gives me the creeps writing it down)Foster Dulles (nah)? Don't tell me. I can't live with the knowledge that Anne cheated on George Smiley. Sure, she was a fictiona character. What did LeCarre know and when did he know it? I mean about these other guys in the real world.
The above ravings are no more off the wall than the announcement by the police department of NYC , by a guy named Loeser, that the press were being protected when they were forcibly restrained from covering the police riots downtown.
The writers for the Daily Show need to catch up with the flacks for the cops...the true artful dodgers.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
They're rioting in Africa, the Borough of Manhattan and...
Perhaps Staten Island will fall to the Huns in due course. I must read Niall Ferguson's latest fairy tale about Western civilization to steel myself for the dark age to come. It is wonderful to see that the New york Press Corps are getting their asses kicked along with everyone else. This will help them gain some perspective that they may share with their editorial board colleagues...fat chance. Still, it is fun to read Michael Powell piece in today's Times "Gotham Reporters Meet the Fists of the Law."(NYT Nov.22) The Times is overflowing with turds of meaning such as the story on the hard times for young Wall Street types. I thought Tom Wolfe did the best job on I-bankers in his "I'm Charlotte Simmons." Kevin Roose tries to get us to sympathize with the plight of under employed or laid off I-bankers. Sorry Kevin. Read Kevin's touching tale in NYT, Nov.22 "A Blow to Pinstripe Aspirations." Roose does end this piece with an observation from a young woman , ex I-banker, who sees herself as having some sympathy for the masses she has recently joined. That should scare the crap out of Lloyd and Gary at Goldman. If serious, well trained people turn their energies to exposing the system that turned them out....well, you can understand why there would be gnashing of teeth on Wall Street. One Yves Smith is bad enough; imagine a dozen or more. I almost feel sorry for GS and its flacks. Still, they have a lot to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving: the cops are loyal for the moment and there is always the National Guard, the Army and private armies we created and armed for war in Iraq.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Beware of Greeks Being Democratic
Why oh why would the Greek Prime Minister want the deal he just cut with the EU, ECB, IMF to go before the Greek people for a vote? Possibly because he doesn't want to be lynched in his country; possibly because he can't depend on the military unless he has the backing of the legislature and a referendum of support from the voters. Who wants to be the next il Duce, swinging from a lamp post in downtown Athens?
The horror that greeted Papandreou's plan for a people's vote on the conditions of the austerity program and "financial rescue package" raises a question about who the bankers and their political hacks think they are dealing with: Greece is not a Banana Republic. Of course, there are some who miss "The Colonels." It was during the military's take over of Greece in the late 1960's-early 70's that the tax system was finessed so that the rich could escape taxation...fall out that is still with the Greeks to this day.
The Germans are shaking their heads, " We thought we had a deal?" The poor Wolfgang just don't seem to be able to see the Greek political situation as a mirror image of Angela Merkel's situation just weeks ago. Consent of the people and their representatives trumps the elite bankers needs to get this snow job over on the public.
Satyajit Das as a post on the blog Naked Capitalism that puts the current moves by the EU banksters and their political puppets in perspective (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/10/31/2011). Das has a witty title," Europe's Plan to End the Debt Crisis- Put the "Con" in "confidence" Part 1. Read it and weep or laugh if your a masochistic type.
Meanwhile everyone is looking at the Chinese to save Western civilization as we deludedly think we know it. The Chinese are fucked. How so? Well, they have close to a trillion Euros worth of public debt obligations from the Euro zone. If the EU craters into an uncontrolled meltdown and decade long depression, Chinese EU paper will be just that paper, good for burning. The Chinese are not worried about the moral hazard issues; they are very un-Germanic that way. They don't want to get stuck with putting hundreds of billions into a rescue plan that is not transparent. The EU has still not required the banks to put all their liabilities on the table. No way the Chinese want to show their hand too early. Makes everything so clear!
Would you want to be holding anyone's cards in this casino? The chinese remember what happened to the Japanes ewhen they bought into the American humilation of the 1990's. The assets sold to them lost value over night and the Japanese were taken to the cleaners when their economy went south. It this just plain fun or what!
The horror that greeted Papandreou's plan for a people's vote on the conditions of the austerity program and "financial rescue package" raises a question about who the bankers and their political hacks think they are dealing with: Greece is not a Banana Republic. Of course, there are some who miss "The Colonels." It was during the military's take over of Greece in the late 1960's-early 70's that the tax system was finessed so that the rich could escape taxation...fall out that is still with the Greeks to this day.
The Germans are shaking their heads, " We thought we had a deal?" The poor Wolfgang just don't seem to be able to see the Greek political situation as a mirror image of Angela Merkel's situation just weeks ago. Consent of the people and their representatives trumps the elite bankers needs to get this snow job over on the public.
Satyajit Das as a post on the blog Naked Capitalism that puts the current moves by the EU banksters and their political puppets in perspective (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/10/31/2011). Das has a witty title," Europe's Plan to End the Debt Crisis- Put the "Con" in "confidence" Part 1. Read it and weep or laugh if your a masochistic type.
Meanwhile everyone is looking at the Chinese to save Western civilization as we deludedly think we know it. The Chinese are fucked. How so? Well, they have close to a trillion Euros worth of public debt obligations from the Euro zone. If the EU craters into an uncontrolled meltdown and decade long depression, Chinese EU paper will be just that paper, good for burning. The Chinese are not worried about the moral hazard issues; they are very un-Germanic that way. They don't want to get stuck with putting hundreds of billions into a rescue plan that is not transparent. The EU has still not required the banks to put all their liabilities on the table. No way the Chinese want to show their hand too early. Makes everything so clear!
Would you want to be holding anyone's cards in this casino? The chinese remember what happened to the Japanes ewhen they bought into the American humilation of the 1990's. The assets sold to them lost value over night and the Japanese were taken to the cleaners when their economy went south. It this just plain fun or what!
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