So it has been some time since I have written anything here... From an economic perspective, we are in a sad state with the Central Bank continuing to print hundreds of billions of dollars to "be the market" as it will in mortgages and pretty much supplant any normal market functioning from recovering. I think several banks are still technically insolvent. Based on a Bloomberg article yesterday, Citi still has $171 Billion in "unwanted" assets that if sold at market would essentially wipe out their current reserves.
So the saga economically goes on and there is nothing new to add to that argument.
However I love this story about Senator DeMint going to the Heritage Foundation (where they "Mint" legislation in Washington)
First read here.
Yea, I have long said the power in Washington had been the think tanks not the government who routinely rubber stamps legislation written by the think tanks without doing much more then reading cliff notes prepared by their staff so they can BS their way through debates or Sunday morning talks show..
This power influences all levels and the think tanks are the revolving door of officials who are ousted in elections from time to time. They sit in their perches from the think tanks and routinely influence what happens in legislation and the administration. The think tanks hire the brightest out of elite universities to understand what is going on in the country while elected politicians and their financial backer appointees "play house" in their positions with little capability to do their jobs.
I often argued the strong right wing support for the Iraq invasion was all orchestrated from the conservative think tanks and it was those same bunch of conservatives that fed all the rosy information about how the Iraqi people would celebrate our triumphant defeat of their little dictator there... We all know how that went.
Anyway, it is quite unusual for a sitting elected leader of the most powerful body in the US with several years left on his term to leave and head to a think tank, but I guess after a while the "theater" of BS that is politics in Washington becomes to much for just about anyone who may really want to accomplish anything in the US government. I don't know much about Mr. DeMint but I imagine he is actually a smart guy who just could not put up with a US legislature that better resembles a pre WWI Polish stalemate.
Thursday, December 06, 2012
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