The current credit crisis is a tough concept for most people to grasp. It can't really be summed up in a sound bite or in a short blog post. The subject involves complex financial terms of art and a byzantine labyrinth of governmental regulation and politics. The average person simply does not have the mental scaffolding on which to hang all of these concepts to allow them to step back and gain a broad picture of how the crisis developed and what it all means.
Below is a fast moving ten minute video that lays out the causes of the credit crisis and who is to blame. It turns very political at the end so some may discredit the video based on that. Still, I think it is a great tool for gaining a firm grasp of the current financial mess we find ourselves in.

H/T to Powerlineblog.com for the link.

Note: yes I know this was posted on the sidebar but I think it deserves better visibility as a main post.

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:09 AM | Comments (48)
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He fought a long battle with cancer.

In addition to his legendary film roles and love of auto racing, Newman raised hundreds of millions of dollars for charity through his food products and other activities.

Newman, who shunned Hollywood life, was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive, according to one friend.

He also claimed that he never read reviews of his movies.

"If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks," he said.

Off the screen, Newman had a taste for beer and was known for his practical jokes. He once had a Porsche installed in Redford's hallway — crushed and covered with ribbons.

"I think that my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told Newsweek magazine in a 1994 interview.

In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.

RIP more...

Posted by: DrewM at 06:32 AM | Comments (51)
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There were so many things that I could pick apart about Obama on the debate. McCain, too, for that matter, had a few items I was thinking he should have picked up on and hammered Obama in the head with it.

However, my favorite line was when McCain hammered him about meeting certain people who are screaming anti-American tyrants without any pre-conditions. When Obama tried to claim everyone meets with foreign powers, McCain explained to him that there was a difference between some low level flunkies getting together in a room to exchange messages and sitting down to a tet-e-tet with the leader of a country that is a professed enemy of the United States and its allies.

You do not give that person or their crazy ideas any gravitas in public where the media can record you sitting there with your mouth open while the nut job lectures a sitting president about all the evils of your nation, your allies or the "rights" of a tyrannical regime to do evil things.

You. Just. Don't. Do. It. Period. End of story.

The entire damn world knows it. Even the French wouldn't be caught dead with a Chirac or Sarkozy having a photo op with Ahmedinejad.

McCain beat Obama with a two ton clue bat. The moment showed that Obama hasn't got a clue how foreign relations really works.

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Posted by: Open Blog at 11:41 PM | Comments (63)
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Look.

I'm not a psychic. I can't read minds, and I don't know the future.

Maybe we won't have an economic depression leading to a post-apocalyptic struggle for survival. Maybe you don't bear any not-so-latent hostility to your fellow man. Maybe your neighbors are saints. Hell. Maybe you never even cared a bit for properly aligned trunnions.

But I do know things. I've picked up some small bits of insight to how people tick, and especially, what motivates Ace's moronoshphere.

So I know that you, my febrile fellow morons, want this. You want this like a hobo wants the last drop of rotgut.

You want it like Docweasel wants to know what it would be like to have a man large enough to make her feel touched for the very first time again. (You didn't hear it from me, but word is that you have to rub up against one side, and hope the other side gets curious and comes over to check it out.)

You want it like Digerot's Dog wants to be boned by Andi Sullivan.

You want it as bad as Gabriel wants to be respected as a lawyer.

You want it at least as much as LauraW wants a mung-free hump. (Though probably not as much as her hump wants to be a LauraW-free hump.)

You want it like Ghengis wants a real job.

You want it more than Dave in Texas secretly wishes he were Roger Waters. Or Bob Geldof. Or at least Bob Geldof's smirk.

You want this more than Ace wants to successfully market his "One-Shot (of Val-U-Rite), One-kill" method for hobo-disposal.

Nay, I will go further.

You need this, this Mountain Howitzer Cannon.

And for 35 dollars, plus 7 shipping & handling, nature-lover Buck Stix will sell you his plans for one.

Go ahead. Saw off your arm and mount it to your stump. Make Ash Proud.
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Posted by: Open Blog at 10:48 PM | Comments (36)
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Andrew Sullivanesque, I know. I'm not posting this to gloat. I'm posting it because I thought the things Monty mentions here as having changed his mind were already widely known. I'd mentioned them enough (or so I thought). But perhaps I didn't. So understand that's the only reason I'm posting this.

This isn't a stock market crisis, it's a credit crisis, and without credit, many businesses will simply lay off all but a skeleton staff and/or shutter their doors completely.

That little ACORN giveaway in the bailout bill just convinced me all over again that my opposition is justified. Or at least it was. In the last few hours I've spoken with a friend who used to be a professional money manager, and the loan manager at my credit union (I was calling about an unrelated matter, but she's a very nice lady and we got to talking about the Economic Troubles), and I'm hearing some pretty scary shit from them.

First, the problem is not the stock market. It's the credit market. Specifically, the market for short-term commercial paper. These are the IOUs that big companies pass around to fund their daily operations. When that market dries up, businesses starve for want of short-term cash. They may be perfectly healthy in all other respects, but without short-term liquidity they suffocate and die. I always knew that, but I didn't understand how dependent both banks and corporations had become on this kind of finance. A credit freeze means that no only will banks not lend to each other, but neither will corporations offer these IOUs: not because they can't pay back the loans, but because the buyers are hoarding their own cash and aren't willing to put it at even minimal risk right now.

A lack of operating capital means that companies can't pay their operating expenses, including payroll. Banks cannot loan money because they are afraid of becoming overleveraged. A frozen credit market means that cash does not move: the ecomony grinds to a halt as the "gas" runs out.

There are lots of theories on how to break up this logjam. Paulson and Bernanke simply want to buy up the logjam and get it out of the way, thus undamming the river of credit. This Democratic "stimulus" is a (misguided) attempt to allow the river of credit to flow over or around the blockage.

I have become convinced that something dramatic needs to be done to loosen the credit markets -- I didn't realize how critical the situation was until I heard it directly from people who deal with it on a professional basis. It's bad. I am no happier about Paulson and Bernanke's plan than I ever was, but I find myself hoping that the Fed, the Treasury, and the Congress can cobble something together over the weekend. If they fail, the situation may go beyond bad to truly nightmarish. I only wish this was hyperbole -- it's not. This is a veritable tsunami of really bad shit bearing down on us.

Ace, I owe you an apology. You were right and I was wrong.

Posted by: Ace at 07:32 PM | Comments (220)
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Obama wanted to fight to a draw.

He failed.

Posted by: Ace at 06:54 PM | Comments (418)
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Posted by: Ace at 06:35 PM | Comments (111)
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I don't know anything, but I have been saying this:

A friend on Capitol Hill in a very dark mood thinks so. Last time, House Republicans got blamed for shutting down the government, this time they'll get blamed for shutting down the financial system. He also worries—did I mention he's in a dark mood?—that if nothing passes and the crash comes, the country may arrive at a turning point, moving irrevocably in the direction of a social democracy.

Hey, you know what this country needs? Since we can't depend on discredited capitalism any longer, maybe we need that guaranteed minimum income from the federal government -- a weekly stipend paid to all Americans to do nothing at all, except exist Iand not even that, if you can fool the system by creating alternate identities, and we all know how hard that is) -- that Nixon came within inches of proposing.

That way we'll all have a government-guaranteed safety net. And in trying times like these, isn't that the sort of thing we all need?

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Posted by: Ace at 03:11 PM | Comments (186)
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Yeah, I guess I'll be doing the Live Blog thing. Two hours from now. I'll bump this post to the top at 9 ET.

Some crap coming over FoxNews:

Major Garrett: Barack Obama only wishes for a draw.

Carl Cameron: McCain camp believes Obama has "telegraphed" his intention to try to bait McCain into losing his temper; McCain's camp has been "working hard" on trying to avoid this.
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Posted by: Ace at 05:00 PM | Comments (311)
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A beacon of hope to the world -- a working vid of Sarah Heath's swimsuit demonstration.

I think that just attracted more of those critical Israeli tourists than Bill Clinton's intense high-level negotiations with Shimon Peres ever did.

Via Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 02:47 PM | Comments (41)
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