Re: Question
 

See, you've reduced it to something simple to understand.

Re: Question
 

I know Russia deals with terrorism. Beslam posts were all deleted, but I remember them. I meant specifically dealing with ISIS.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You're not looking at Trump's true base, which these days is far more likely to wave the stars & bars than they are the Mogen David.

Re: Question
 

Re: Question
 

A heavy dose of funk need not be obscure. You can go all Dick Clark and still feed the need.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

look. This is draggin on long enough.

You want to control banks? We already have them by the short and hairies.

American commercial banking is almost completely dependent on the fed's window to make money. It sets their cost of capital, provides them liquidity, and pretty much creates their entire business for them. Just condition access to the window on banks doing X and they'll do X. Whether X is blowing Roger Ailes or making funds available to poor people, though, frankly, they'd prefer to blow Roger.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

So, in other words, if the Fed were to say "start opening up syndications to bulge bracket banks on similar terms, it could be done?

Re: Question
 

I agree, and I have tried to alternate between more obscure funk 45s and more established artists such as James Brown, the Meters and the various P-Funk incarnations. That said, I have tried to avoid moving into the disco genre, although the lines are certainly blurred. Mainly, I have attempted to keep roughly within a 1968-75 time frame. What I think of as, for lack of a better phrase, roots funk.

Re: Question
 

I wasn't being critical. Your Con-Funk-Shun link just reminded me of that tune.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

They'd resell loans to Trump's casinos in exchange for chips if it was a condition of window access.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm confused, was Gretchen Carlson trying to open a bank?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

While not all of Trump's supporters are anti-Semites and white Supremacists, he is pretty much the exclusive candidate of choice for those populations. And he actively solicits their support. How many times can someone accidentally retweet a neo-Nazi? I and like conservatives are branded "Cuckservatives" by Trump supporters solely because we are not sufficiently supportive of the white race.

As much as I detest Kasich, I would vote for him in the general if the delegates were successful in the #DumpTrump/#FreeTheDelegates movement of being able to vote their conscience instead of the candidate to whom they are "bound". Kasich kills Hillary in the polls. I might even want him to come out of the convention rather than Cruz, if only because of the certainty of a win by Kasich. I could hold my nose and vote for him as I did McCain and Romney. Trump is absolutely not a lesser evil than Hillary. I am leaning towards concluding that Gary Johnson might be the least of the evils, but I still haven't decided what I am going to do.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Re: Question
 

All funk is good funk.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Yeah. This is tiresome.

You want a big bank to bid on a billion dollar financing in multiple tranches. $300 million at 4%, another $100 million at 3% with smaller banks, and $50 million at 2.5% with even smaller banks in the syndicate. Why would a bank do this for the same credit? Are we forcing Borrowers to structure the loans with different types of collateral every time to take that into account?

Whatever. This conversation is silly. Join me and Sidd and PLF over at the bar where we can all talk about Hank behind his back. Crap. Hold on. It's Moth night.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

:eek:

All I ask, don't tell anybody the secrets I told you.
 

I think that the whole email saga sums up nearly all of the concerns I have about Secretary Clinton.

1. Setting up a private email server was a bad idea, regardless of whether or not Colin Powell (and Condi Rice? Honestly don't remember.) used a private email account as Secretary of State. Why did she do it? My guess is that, based upon her 20-plus years of being under the microscope of hostile and partisan investigation, she wanted to stay in control of the information that would be used against her. Understandable, sure. Still a really bad idea. Surely people told her that, and just as surely, she rejected their advice not to do it.

This is probably why corporate litigators, who -- if I may use a stereotype -- are instinctually inclined to withhold all of a client's documents as is possible under the rules (or even somewhat beyond the rules) don't make good choices in dealing with political scandals and "scandals."

2. Not making sure that the private email server was properly secured - physical security and cyber security. Presumably she delegated this, but it's on her.

She's not always relied on the right people. Mark Penn. Dick Morris (IIRC, she encouraged Bill to bring him back into the fold in 1995-96 to help rescue a re-election campaign that was viewed as toast after the Gingrich Revolution.) Sidney Blumenthal.

3. Having shifting explanations and justifications for her use of a private email server.

Sigh. It's like it's 1997-98 all over again. And whatever one thinks about her explanations to the press and public, at least she (apparently) didn't lie to the FBI. Even if one sets aside the intent issue and the "this stuff wasn't really secret" aspect of the information that was found in her emails, this is what distinguishes her situation from the General Petreaus case.

Anyway. Carry on.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Another black man shot dead after a traffic stop for a broken tail light. I feel like I can say with complete certainty that more black males have been shot to death by police after being stopped for having broken tail lights than the entire universe of people who have been injured or killed as a result of someone driving around with a broken tail light. Do I know exactly what went down before the woman started shooting the video? No. But it looks really fucking bad. Watch the video. It is really disturbing. Today's Daily Dose is the Isley Brothers. Fight the Power, Parts 1 & 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZvoOqUkqw

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

It looks terrible.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

So Trump is going to stand by Article 12 of the Constitution.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Imagine that. To hear some tell it, you'd think that any change at all is near impossible.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Cruz is Trump with a slightly thicker veneer.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

They have spray for moths.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

"Every American should own a home..." Remember that? His "ownership society," or some crap like that? He doubled down on Clinton's silly effort to make shit borrowers into decent credit risks. But unlike Clinton, who had altruistic but naive aims, Bush knew better. At the time he was pushing for more home ownership, it was obvious people were cashing in on home equity to make up for wages they were losing, or to live beyond their means, or to flip homes. It was a lazy, risky, dumb way to to create economic gains and activity in an economy that hadn't been moving much since the tech collapse.

Credit Clinton and Obama for not doing much economically while they were in office. Bubba knew he had a good thing with the tech boom and took a hands off approach. Obama was given a seriously awful situation and stayed a conservative, sensible course where a lot of people in his position, with progressives clamoring for more aggressive interventionist measures might've done a lot more. (It's odd the market should blame so much volatility on "dithering" by Obama. The actual facts show a cautious, nearly Republican approach. The only thing he did to fuck things up a bit was the ACA, and he had no choice on that, as he'd promised it as a centerpiece of his agenda.)

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The housing bubble was a bad idea. The equivalent of using the G's Master Card to buy a war was a worse idea and a bigger factor. The housing bubble could have been staved off sooner and to a greater degree if he hadn't already blown his wad on avenging Dad.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I don't think this would be true over the long term. First, should he become a serious contender, the markets will more aggressively price in his potential impact.

Anything can be priced in today. Everybody was flipping out about Brexit. It came, it went, all losses erased within five days. Trump would be more substantial, but after a few weeks of wild swings, things would normalize, the silver linings would be found, people would recall it's all a Fed policy driven joke anyway, and it'd continue its upward march.

The more crazy things happen with regularity, the less their impact.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Yes, Iraq was the single worst blunder, economically, in terms of foreign policy, and in every other conceivable regard. But I was just talking about tinkering with the domestic economy. Bush's signature move there was the "everybody gets a home" plan -- an obvious bubble creation machine if there ever was one.

I can't find a quote, but I recall a famous economist stating the bubble of last resort - something you see in every failing state - is a series of residential property bubbles.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You keep repeating this. It makes no sense. The market cannot account for a lunatic in the most powerful office in the world. Offending Putin into war, tossing out trade agreements at a whim, attacking an ally because they tweeted criticism--we can't even think of all of the things that psycho could affect if he were to hold office. I think you think he will act in a sane way (or will be controlled--by who, I have no clue) if he were to win. But your wishful thinking does not make it so.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Okay, but what did he actually do, other than express that sentiment? If I recall, Freddie and Fannie expanded their less than prime programs, but I don't think it was at W's direction (because I don't think he could direct it).

I'm also not sure it was a bad thing until the banks took it a lot farther. Although I guess you could say he failed to regulate the risks those banks were taking.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Britain left the EU - a huge event. The market dropped 800 points over a couple days and was back over 18k after a couple more. Putin annexes Crimea. Market shrugs it off. Job reports comes in shockingly low last month? To the market, it's just noise. Etc... Everything is a mere hiccup at worst.

The markets have had a year to watch this clown. Is he volatile? Yes. But is he such a loose cannon he can overcome the checks and balances designed to keep us from electing our own Caligula? No. And the markets wisely understand this. Trump will create turmoil, and the markets will not like it for a time. But much as they've throw a hissy fit at the notion of rate increases, checking Yellen from being more aggressive, the big market participants will demand that the inexorable climb upward be resumed, Trump Presidency be dammed.

I could see Trump as a positive for the market because he'd create enough turmoil to keep rates depressed for an even longer time than they're already likely to be.

Is he the market's preferred winner? Hell no. You're absolutely right they want Hillary. They like calm. But the markets would, in relatively short order, spin a Trump Presidency to their advantage. They will make lemonade from even rotten lemons. The march upward will be resumed. And everyone involved will continue to hate it, predict it will crash, and discuss how things like Trump and Brexit will surely crater it. The participants are so numb (and a lot of them robots) at this point, they'll climb a wall of worry higher than even Trump could build.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

He was a cheerleader for it because nothing else was spurring his economy. Recall his early tax rebate that created no activity?

No President ever actually implements his specific plans. He endorses them, or their predicted effects, and creates the atmosphere where the people who do the actual implementation are either mandated to or feel comfortable putting the policies to work.

Yeah, Clinton started the mortgage loan relaxation efforts. But Bush presided over, welcomed, and encouraged their expansion, which conveniently ginned up an otherwise lousy economy.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm sorry, but this is mostly nonsense based on nothing.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I don't think you're actually sorry.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

remember, the great depression was just the market pricing in the dust bowl.

no biggie

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

What makes you say such a thing?

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Three hours ago I would have disputed this. After meeting with Trump, Cruz, while not endorsing, has accepted Trump's invitation and agreed to speak at the convention. Unless he's speaking to accept the nomination from freed delegates (and he's not. I am not that delusional) Cruz is all but dead to me. Way to not actually kiss his ring, but still appear to submit, jackass.

On the plus side, I listened in to the Comey hearings today and learned that my Gmail account has way better security that Hillary's email while she was Secretary of State. So double yay for me!

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

If he becomes president the markets will be more like the deal that Negan and Rick work out in season 7 of TWD.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Half your stuff and you get to live is pretty much the best deal out there right now. Thanks for helping to resolve my issue of who to write in for President.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You forget one important aspect of The Art of The Deal:

http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forum...glen-death.png