Here comes the supply side cod liver oil,..."transaction fee's" - more fee's - you can bet there'll be screams from the entitled.

Want to kill a supply side party celebration?....then quote this topic....the IMF endorsed it, ..the game is changing,..and the US credibility is the game changer.



Yes, there's a focused effort overseas to try and trim the supply side excesses that always occur at the vaults. But here in the US, we've got Tea Party rallies that rail against straight thinking. Maybe its the diet, but the US is failing.

Supply side party gets busted in 07-08: Hank tells all - well almost all,...

The reviews are so far pretty favorable; a glib look at the high drama that gripped the Bush White house in its closing weeks. The human condition comes straight through Paulson's narrative.

Put this next to your copy of "The age of turbulence" and you will see that the first decade of the new millennium became one of the darkest in the American supply side tour de force. Is it cultural or is it genetic?...or as the banks say, "it is what it is."


The subtitle holds true: they threw gobs of money at the failing machine to try and arrest the carnage. Those on the inside would nod affirmative. Given the recklessness, it could be worse.

For years I swear, the BSJE should've hopped on this business in an advisory capacity; don't blink when you have a great financial idea - John didn't.

One of the sweet spots - or raw nerves - that is percolating through the empire's inner rumblings is this nasty little issue that really gets hot behind closed doors. It's too controversial and too thorny an issue to see daylight.

It has to be one of the coolest corruption scandals roiling through the empire and you can bet it touches so many: and therein lies the reason its behind closed doors. At the bleeding edge of large scale enterprise is the volatility of going under in so much pressure from the economic turmoil. So you need a very savvy investment banker to lock up those marginal capital gains and to fork them into accounts that Mr. Smith - your business banker -not your investment banker - does not have access to.

Offshore banking is one big sore spot - it bleeds across partisan lines but the real sticklers are a group of Democrats who are calling for reforms; they're message is basically shut out from the mainstream from the mainstream propaganda machines. Yes, we don't even have to quote names do we?

What happened to the USB holders that were sworn to come clean? They're within an amnesty program and well - its unlikely now you will ever see those names published. You see, the strains are there - the Summers/Geithner/Beranke team have to wonder how far they can toggle the nerves of their brethen. There is a revolt brewing in the legacy financial companies and they're responding to pressures from some of their largest account holders - well because they're complicit.

So the push back is subtle but its there: Wall Street invested in the new administration and is tormented by the straddle happening with the ex-banker reformists - Geithner, Summers and Company and the dangerous line they walk by courting the reform legislation that will govern offshore banking.

Not a headline - not much when you google it - but its there -lurking in the shadows - its' been pushed down now because the wrath it will raise gets some people scared. Imagine a country that invokes Tea Party rallies that learns that the 1% are cheating on taxes? Yes, that is scary.

But its no wonder the Tea Party people keep getting so much press - its the old diversion technique - keep em guessing and definitely keep em stupid.

I suppose you can't blame the tax evaders; look what they pony up to defense spending and medicare and entitlement payments? I guess crimes beget crimes. Our trickle down criminal nation at its best: tax evasion on a grand scale.

Now back up to John and his "Ascot Advisory Services". Damn what a ruse. We are so jealous John, no kidding. Need to shelter some money? Call John. John is going to tell you something like this - for 300 sterling, we will provide you a report and counseling on the best offshore tax havens. If you would like to enagage with us on a monthly basis (200 sterling) we will consult and advise who's who in the labyrinth of dodgy tax shelters - its a club membership you know - and we'll escort you to the right rooms.

We're with you John,...let them eat cake....!

Supply side magic challenged in the lab.

"A drag on the economy" - service sector jobs to protect the supply side legacy. Not for prime time - not ready for either party to embrace. Let the numbers do the talking. Cory D. picks up the mainstream label -"radical". I guess its radical if it debunks myth.





Economist Sam Bowles puts supply side elixir through the math. Its a relevant observation backed up by numbers - I don't know why it is received as provocation; but then again - a nation that cannot debate cannot fathom original examination of sticky economic issues.






Always adding my 2 cents.

"But their all federal jobs",....

I don't think we really have the lessons learned yet. The tragedies of the supply side bust aside, the media froth is not really working through the issues properly. Perhaps a McCain victory and a vigorous tax cut - balanced budget exercise would really be good therapy. As the Fed dumps money into Federal job creation - the mainstream press decries the fiscal tools that catapulted Roosevelt to four terms.



With a McCain victory -his policy makers would trigger a rise in unemployment statistics; shedding more private business jobs while the nation re-tools. At this point, McCain would be looking at a Hoover legacy. Main Street would be engaging in forms of barbarism, as was the case in 32.



So as it goes with the myopia of the main stream press - the difficulties of accepting federal stimulus are evident. What's really driving the emotions of the mainstream media is the massive uncertainty in the legacy structural underpinnings - the transformation. Muroch's detestation over the "disruptive technologies" (google) and the uncertainty of the white bread class watching the massive cultural complexions change in the land of Yankee doodle is driving the news.




The despairing voices and the crude accusations from the Beck, O'Reilly, and Limbaugh are more about the complexion change in America - the departure from Reagan's "last hurrah".

So for the moment, supply side hangover defies treatment - not even rational coverage on economic policy and stimulus. Naturally, the Boston Herald, a cherished Boston comic book newspaper skews the argument in perfect knee jerk style.



Check this footnote: "In an odd twist, after education, the second biggest increase in government employment came to help the unemployed,...the department of labor and workforce development, which distributes unemployment insurance money to laid off workers, got money for 178 full time positions within the agency. An additional 337 private sector jobs were created by the labor department to work at career centers that help the unemployed."

The headline barks corruption while the facts reveal the raison d'etre of fiscal policy.



Peter Schiff who called the recession before it was the recession weighs in with more thoughtful analysis and yes, there is a careful argument to make about government job creation and the stagnation that trails it. Yet, there is another argument to make to counter that - and that would be the Chinese 8% growth model - a government that pushes its people into productivity. How does that work again?

The Chinese are unified - not entitled - this is the cultural divide between the American mindset and the Chinese mindset. There are no negotiated roll backs in America's entitlement fever (virus) - its a generational thing - the supply side generation will only yield under significant pressure.

The Myth of the rational market - from where else? Well its Harrvard Business School of course.

It's 2010 - yes, 2010 and "skippy" from Harvard Business School has just concluded that markets are not always rational - as evidenced by the recent stock market devaluations.

Cool. This text will fly off the shelves.

Legions, scores, millions and billions of dead - who gambled and lost may now roll and do 360's in your silk adorned boxes. Keep rotating; the people who walk the surface are beginning to see the light.

This just in: hey Democrats, I hate to say it but "your doomed".

Not on everyone's radar - but the irony of this could be astonishing.

Here's how it works. The democrats are handed the brunt of the downturn due to Republican supply side excesses - the Bush tax cuts, the war, and Greenspans money machine. It starts its' free fall in 2008 and the new administration picks up the the tab. Given the depth of this depression and the profound damage for the supply side party tab; the US is faced with either confronting its structural damage - its' runaway entitlements - and enacting very stringent reforms - and pain - a retrenchment of core values - or, and this is more likely - it continues the prolonged stonewalling that goes along with the painful political social reconciliations and nothing gets done and government is to blame.

We know the likelihood of the latter - like 1979 - the public doesn't have the stomach for reform. This generation will not roll back consumption; its' never had to - it doesn't know how to do it. The Democrats struggle for four years with the massive supply side Republican tab - they begin to own it - the press is already setting that up.


The Republican stalwarts start to court the money - the private money - through the duplicitous populist guise of strengthening America's resolve. In four years the Banks are ready to spend again - the venture firms have ginned up a new marketing campaign for a new energy economy and the Banks have sensed the shake outs and are ready to dive in. The Republicans take credit for this - its a proof of the supply side formula - the "free" (hedge fund - commercial bank) markets begin to loan and invest in the promise of tomorrow's technology - just like the high tech bubble - and yes, the public buys in - they love it, they see the tide coming back in.

Oh the irony of it all. The anti government rhetoric is vindicated - 2014 is a celebration - featuring a dark horse Republican ready to advance a mixed message of populism and the US resolve. The center moves right again, who can blame them - the government wasn't breaking any speed records for pulling the economy out of the ditch - it couldn't - it was restricted by partisan compromise (or stonewalling) - between 2010 and 2014 - so the solution again becomes supply side froth and the new energy markets. The banks are poised to consolidate the new energy markets - the risk were borne by the small business venture firms -its time for the big fish to clean up the scrum.

It's very likely - another one of the great ironies our our time. Will the kids - the i-generation - see through this? I doubt it - it's empire history - when right is wrong and wrong is right. If the country drinks the cool-aid again - the entitlements are off and running for several more rounds. What will that look like - the "our town" crowd will finally be defeated and ready to eat their young. Yankee Doodle is officially dead.

US cities will all look like London and Paris - hundreds of nationalities moving through cities in search of the meritocracy. Looking for gold - looking to party along the frilly payouts in the service sectors.

The US flirts with the new technology but never quite sheds the old corporatism - the marriage of special interests and government - and the US is left standing - a second rate power - an old parody of itself - the beating heart of the white bread interests - reminiscing about American glory while the new world emerges with examples of technical excellence. Cities like Dubai, Singapore, and Beijing all offer to help American mayors see what the future really looks like.

"I see people that philosphically oppose Obama's policies getting a lot more engaged:, said former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, who now serves as vice chair man of investment firm UBS Securities LLC. Phil Gramm - one of the leading figures to roll back Glass-Steagall so that Wall Street could engorge itself. Supply side cool aid vendor - Mr. Phil Gramm - buying the drinks for the next party. A redneck becomes a banker policy dealer.

Do you really think the average American is connecting the dots? Neither do I.

I am depressed. Send your check or money order to the BSJE.

Jefferson Democrats - you may now rotate in your tombs

NYT picks this up and has some fun with this notion.

On the other hand, corporate spokesman usually speak in direct messages with precision talking points - unlike the shills that currently occupy the Congressional seats - their messages are frequently duplicitous.

I would like to see Google file for application papers. Can you imagine if Goldman Sachs decided to run from the Manhattan district?

Krugman with Roger Aisles - ABC roundtable

Normally we don't accede to this crap but it's all over the net right now. Krugman tables comments to Roger Aisles about Fox news deliberate obfuscation of facts. It's a mild exchange even though you sense Krugman would like to explode.

Roger "dodger" of course plays a very common card right now,..the patronizing, "the American People aren't stupid" card. More untruth's used to succor the lost.

George Will occupies his suit and Ariana must be squeezing her cheeks. Maybe we're at the moment where demogogery goes into the ethnic meltdown - remember the Economist called it "the brew that foments unrest".

Winter time sucks.

Thus spoke the Fed oracle: main editorial in today's NYT.

Glass-Steagall might return. Paul Volcker knows its time to roll back the party gear and force,.....force the US into a production engine again - not a crude speculative service bazaar with gross entitlements. It will never take of course - the DNA is broken.




I can't imagine a population that hears this let alone knows who Paul Volcker is - its been thirty years of solitude. (synopsis: the community becomes disconnected).




Concessions by persuasion don't jibe with the American ju-ju. Concessions in the US come by way of symbolic force. That won't happen in today's America; old Yankee Doodle has heart disease.


"he should stop paying lip service to to the fantasy his Congressional opposition has serious ideas to contribute for the clean up. Better still, he should publicize exactly what those "ideas" are."

Strike One. Scott Browns first swing and a miss, or shall we call it lie #1.

We emphatically beg to differ. Naturally, you've got the victory glow but these untruth's don't speak well of your recollections of history and American studies. I don't think American Studies was in your curriculum anyway, but if your at all interested, we can fax you a reading list to dispel these grandiosity's - start with Melville, go to Twain, and definitely some Nathaniel West.



Here's some fun quotes from the BBC article,..."you vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever in our life times, workers have been stripped of power and CEO's are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining,.."


"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy." Cool.

The BBC takes a shot at this issue in more polite terms. Did Robin Lustig and Owen Bennet-Jones have something to do with this leftist propaganda?

Nice, a front row seat and the youtube introduction,...better than Avatar - but little mention in the press,....facing the music is so hard it seems,.

Greenspan, Cox and many others are expected to testify. Two weeks ago, Frank Rich cited the Pecora Commission of the thirties - and well, here's our own G of S moment. This video will have to be picked up by Colbert or Stewart at some point.

Mainstream media doesn't find this sexy I guess. I guess it is scary; prosecuting the fine details of the bust in the supply side revolution. So before all this inquiry - what's the summary? Supply Side generation party ends in 2008? C'mon, write the headline. I mean this is the G of S crucible, is it not?



Here's some press details - buried somewhere but unearthed for your entertainment.



The line of contract - the bottom line was to assume markets would self regulate. The roots of the cause for the apocalypse of the 20th century was the failure to modulate free markets. It's all about economics; its all about the pressure of economics.

Buried in the USA DNA is a grab as much as you can - zero sum poker game with winner take all stakes: it cycles almost every 5 to 10 year - because of memory lapses - (or as D. Brooks calls it the tyranny of the press cycle.) Americans will stop and fix your flat tire - the moral imperative is there - but when the market cooks up - they become body snatchers.

We need new journalists.....

Here's David,...

The deficits are the issue around which everything else revolves. The mounting deficits both symbolize Washington’s institutional dysfunction and genuinely threaten the nation.

If you get a deficit-reduction deal, you break through the polarized rigidities that encrust everything else. You wipe clean the special-interest barnacles that encrust the tax code. You force the country to think in 30-year increments and deliver a blow to the tyranny of the news cycle. You force the country to accept common sacrifice. This is the issue that unlocks everything else. So will you establish your credibility and offer to raise taxes on the lower 98 percent? Yes, you can!

If the setbacks of the last year haven’t radicalized you about the sickness of our current political system, Mr. President, I don’t know what will. Are you really content to spend the year lobbying for tiny tax credits for ineffective training programs?

I love it; supply side cheerleader decides to hit the brakes and reverse policy because, ..well because the mob is angry and God forbid they focus their anger - right David?

What Mr. Brooks is not saying - as one who happened to be mute back in 03,04,05,06 - is that he now advocates a deficit reduction deal - read my lips - tax increases - across the board now mind you - not for the upper 5% - to what else?..... balance the budget. Incredible.

That's nice David; no footnotes on recent history - Iraq, tax cuts and medicare boosts - that's nice. David, I think Ross Perot had more of a grip on your party's risks then you did. Hoover raised taxes in 1930. Guess what happened. We need new journalists in America, "to break through the polarized rigidities that encrust the tax code". Wow. Clearly, financial mechanisms like tiny tax cut training incentivies are too abstract for Mr. Brooks - too tedious and detailed - so his message is let's trash everything. Can you imagine the markets reacting to a tax code revision right now. More dogma from the hapless.

With all due respect David, Ross Perot actually built a business - and you my shrill friend have been handed a cushy career through hand pressing.

David advocates sabotage; and you know who he will blame once it happens. This is the Republican solution on the table. "The tyranny of the news cycle" - jesus, David go out and buy an IPAD and chill will you?

Woeful sentiments or profit taking: lets all start over again for 2010

It was a mild run up; at 10,500 things looked like this is where the Dow should be - not 14,000 nor 6500 - somewhere in the middle; 10% unemployment; a reset of the economy as it tries to shed the housing bubble (froth). January 09 was the freefall - Paulson, and Beranke - working the phones all weekend - before it bottomed on March 13th.

This is the market run up; not so much the indicators but the trading strategies expiring. The indicators would suggest its a moderate recession; that is until you get to Main Street and you see the structural damage.

30 years of supply side split the middle class in two - many rose -but the majority sank into poverty class - right into the arms of populist wrath. Who will explain this to them? Who will connect the dots?

Roosevelt shrugged,....and rolled over last night,....

Congress in 1932 was a rough house. In the years following 32, the populist rhetoric intensified. Four years into Roosevelt the populist rage was even greater.

Roosevelt had a Congress that was at total odds and then 6 years into it; just to add more fuel to the fire-the Supreme court played obstructionist - so Roosevelt had a scheme to water down the Supreme Court's 9 man vote by adding more members to the court. It didn't work. The nation remained at odds and then the war efforts kicked in; and the mob got jobs and got very busy again.

Tea parties are mere therapy gatherings for America's lovable wing nuts, Roosevelt had some real problems - like mobs of farmers walking into Courthouses and threatening bodily harm to judges. Armories were staffed, the military was on domestic alert and thousands of thousands of stories - crime stories began to fill the police logs in the massive economic meltdown that followed 1929.

That was the thirties in America. Today's meltdown -2008-2010 - the neo-depression - is increasingly shaking the status quo business landscape to its foundations - mimicking the thirties economic/political debacle. So what can you say about the state of the union? Watching the body language in the house last night might be prophetic. "A house divided can not stand."

Transfixed by events; stumbling over antiquated principles and very much in the way of progress - the lights shone a little on the face of Congress last night and it wasn't pretty.

The speech mentioned Europe and China with the Pres noting that they weren't waiting for something to start. This was followed by a cheerlead that the US won't be left behind. Any one betting on the US pulling itself out of this recession through technological innovation?

Germany and China are investing heavily in renewable energy technology and have pulled way ahead of the US.

Not to worry, there's a meeting in Davos coming up,....

Yahoo has a story on public protests against capitalism. Ok, so its from Brasil; that's a well respected tradition in that country where rainforest crunch is not associated with ice cream. A little bit of therapy as the world banking systems stumbles, but I would guess there's still an opportunity for some microlending if anyone is willing. E. Schumacher "Small is Beautiful" would apply here.



Then there's a story going round the news media about commercial institutions dumping bad assets if their underwater. I think this story sits well for those straddling foreclosure right now. The Investment banks think nothing of walking away from a bad loan: Hey, that's business.




Glen Greenwald from Salon takes aim at the US defense budget that sucks up a whopping fifty percent of the tax pie chart. Do you think there's any inefficiencies in there. Nah,..the US military and its new private contractors are extremely nimble. Has anyone measured how much was saved by privatizing the military - I didn't think so.




Oh just cut medicaid to zero and get it over with; its only the G of S.






Finally there's Paul Krugman disgusted at Obama capitulating to the balance budget crowd. I don't know Paul, the noise is so defeaning out there and besides a roll back in stimulus is just what the population needs; some more truth serum. As it boils down, a lot of the scrum rises to the surface and we can only hope it will evaporate.

The violence will intensify but so will the communitarianism.

Joe Schumpeter shrugged.

"Corporatism" - the merger of corporations and government and even unions.

Not much motivation for union busting in the government - always plenty of negotiations. Dismantling unions is one of the most difficult issues in Economics - look at what the GM union bosses conceded last year.

Again, representative economic democracy is very challenging. The union issue in the US is a straddle - there's got to be a bell curve chart somewhere on this - what's the spread on the standard deviation?

The downside of unions for the new economic models is the idea that the management and rank and file are at odds. Fix this and unions will survive.

Mort Zuckerman weighs in on the nation's woes

Mort offers a compassionate voice with a cheerlead toward infrastructure job creation. But Mort, it only happens with deficit spending right now and you admit there's no money from municipal taxation - just Federal deficit spending. What do we do?

No mention of the supply side divisions in the middle class nor income disparities - but that's all right, you've got a moderate voice unlike 80% of the rest of the screamers in the Murdock empire.

This might not be popular but it makes sense and helps to moderate business cycles

This also preserves jobs; helping to keep the pool of workers by lowering the payroll burdens.

We all take the same hit. Indexed to the inflation rate; it would seem only fair. But alas, it is not completely fair as the unions would argue given that contracts don't follow the same adjustments. Yes, I'm talking about the Wall Street bonus contracts that were honored on top of TARP bailouts.

But with some political pressure; maybe the IRS can step in and induce some incredible charitable contributions this year from the large hedge fund investment crowd.

And speaking of the IRS, what's the status on those Swiss bank accounts; naming names yet? 4,450 Swiss bank account holders - Americans - were tapped by Uncle Sam to surrender through an amnesty program. Come up with the money or its time for prosecution. So far we have no names and maybe under IRS rules there is no public disclosure. Too bad, the taxpayer cheats should be paraded in the press.

Sorry, Ed but Hoover was tax cuts and balancing budgets. Roosevelt was fiscal stimulus; try and keep those two concepts separate please?

Here's another writer failing to grasp how profoundly crippled the empire is. Another voice from the sidelines calling the plays - another observer lamenting the loss of 3% GNP and rising employment numbers. (I think we need more housing and malls to sustain our GNP numbers Ed). Ed, help yourself to some more cool-aid - your addicted it appears.

"Clearly Massachusetts voters were sending the Administration a message". Wrong. That isn't all that clear. Voters are reacting to the noise of the mass media; mirroring the mass media which in general sends alarmist and frenzied messages of pending disaster. There is no perspective delivered with the thousands of signals emanating from the media; perspective will not sell news.

As for Massachusetts, we don't mind at all saying that most of Scott Brown's constituents were the losers in the great fissure that split the middle class into two halves with the Scott Brown voters in the bottom half.

Blame it on supply side; as the smoke clears - its more a trojan horse.

Supply side did wonders to expand the economy under Bush, pushing up expectations for a few more rounds - pouring lots of money into the economy and even floating the boats of many economic regions (south) that could never keep up with the northeast. But it came with a price as any zero sum game does.

The fissure that split the middle class has been in the works for a long time - a very long time - the US went from manufacturing to services over the course of 40 years and the endgame was the last thrust of Bush Administration - Guns and Butter - supply side policy - was the final straw. Supply side - service based economy - inflated real estate - Fed policy and the money inflation and then the fee's: hundreds of fees to keep up with the inflationary cost of maintaining living standards. Come to think of it; I'm fed up to. But I don't vote with my emotions like so many Americans do.

The voters of Massachusetts sent a vote that said - I'm fed up - a pure populist reaction based on the fact that the entire system - the marriage of government and special interests is a concentrated game that has shifted the tax (in total - all taxes and fees) on main street. (It's not just Federal and State Taxes; its the universal fee based service economy we now all live in).

I asked a few people last week on why they voted for Brown and the answers were garbled and indicated confusion and disgust at "everything" - the abrupt collapse of a mega financial system going into meltdown surpasses the routine pundit political analysis.

The typical response I found was I voted for Brown because I'm fed up with the status quo; I'm fed up with the government. The first guy I asked at work had a mixed response. I asked him why he was sending a vote to sabotage the health care initiative and he responded by stating that the government has no chance at reforming health care. Fair enough; I had to agree in parts. I asked him if he was happy with his health care "plan" -(he has one) and he stated he was outraged by it; he felt he was getting cheated by large insurance companies arbitrarily negotiating the cost of his medical services.

I then asked if he felt it was reasonable to introduce a public option to index the pricing of health care services. An index - like the gold standard - something that earmarks costs based on break even -absolute value of health care activities. That he understood; that was plausible and that the private sector could play off the index and introduce premium services or low cost services to compete at the index. I was alarmed to note that he understood this concept. But it didn't translate to the Congressional agenda of universal health care: poor communication I guess - strike one on Harry Reid.

He then went on to bitch about how everything is screwed up and that he was mad at politicians and democrats because he felt that somehow there weren't going to fix anything. That's why he voted for Scott Brown.

Is this the logic of the populist vote? At least this person was open to discussion - the other voter logic -slash -populist wrath stems from the emotional voters who just hate government in general and are looking for a silver bullet. These are the Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reilly constituents; profoundly ignorant of any details of American History. These people want the founding fathers - yes, that is their salvation and it usually stops there.

So the message Ed is; this is a very profound crisis; a transformational time - it defies fiscal and monetary policy tools right now; welcome to the world of structural economic failure. The underlying structure needs to transform; the GNP cannot rise based on the last thirty years of rising real estate values and consumption patterns. Americans have a big time out to think about what they want to do next.

The irony in America is that even if you fixed the American economy; the majority of Americans wouldn't understand how it happened. Should we talk about public school systems and why they fail - a whole other topic - we concur.

Americans need direction or they get anxious; such is the nature of a frenetic capitalist economy with constant cost of living pressure for the great majority. Handouts are a taboo, but direction is key to keep Americans occupied lest they turn into a mob. The Obama administration is on the cusp of mapping direction but it hasn't translated yet. The coming months might be about a government that enables business to get back up and go; a lot of work and a lot of cultural shifting and some regulation to reel in the crass entitlement. If this gets drilled into the electorate than it might not waste so much time spinning its wheels; if not; than the US steps further into a third world cultural war. As the cultural war intensifies, life begins to take on characteristics of fear and paranoia devolving into a unique American version of a police state.

Read this hypocrite and ask yourself why he gets ink. What kind of people would endorse this smear of facts?

Here's Karl Rove lecturing about fiscal responsibility. Unimaginable. The culmination of thirty years of supply side skew has crashed one of the largest economic systems in the world. The architects of the Bush administration hand the new administration a time bomb - it explodes and now they blame the new administration for the destruction. This is a kind 1920's political propaganda coming alive in 2010 - the same press bias's of a distant age.

The Bush/Rove administration handed the new administration the largest economic crisis since 1930. Rove goes on to accuse the council (Obama takes his cues from the graduates of Goldman Saks) of ginning up massive deficit spending outsizing the Bush deficits. Did Rove consult with Hank Paulson before he wrote this? Transparent hypocrisy; the Rove trademark - even his second wife of 24 years had to quit recently.

Alan Greenspan left the world stage bewildered and betrayed by a banking system that went into a casino feeding frenzy. He was at least contrite before Congress in 08 and recanted his faith in free market responsibilities.

So here is the Wall Street Journal publishing Rove's lecture to Volcker, Romer, Summers, Beranke and Geitner on fiscal responsibility.

Fanatical, delusional, corrupt, disingenuous, pathological. This is the voice of the Wall Street Journal; this if the Voice of the Murdock empire, this is the voice of Roger Aisles. They all stand together fully revealed for their stark hypocrisy, deceit and transparent agenda. Yes, you know what I'm talking about.

And you wonder why the US has fallen so far? Legacy media publishing propaganda and the deformation of facts. I think MIT, Harvard, UMASS, etcetera should invite Rove to lecture and explain himself.

Rove is the poster boy of the G of S; a prize winning blue ribbon sow.

Here's Howard Fineman connecting the dots to the leader of the Republican right wing? What's Kevin Philips take on this?

The only hope is for progressive republicans to real in the party again and discharge the radical right wing. If the California governor turns things around; he might be the catalyst to purge the right wing.

The Act of Contrition

Nice move Paul; you've been reading the history books and you know its time to get that footnote in there.

It goes like this, "Fed chairman overseeing supply side revolution recants assumptions about the purity of free market economics,.like Greenspan, he capitulates to the concept of New Deal regulatory structures."

Well something like that. If you haven't seen the beauty of the last thirty years precipitating the fall of the empire than your children certainly will. History has a way of providing perspective once the froth clears.

Blowback in Massachusetts-a new "American Idol" GOP star is born

Who knew so many voters in Massachusetts would sign on to the far right rhetoric?

A sign of the times we figure; frustration with government, status quo and gallons of cool aid will turn the beast on a dime. What's even more fantastic is to see the common people jump on the GOP ticket - now that's a poly sci seminar we'd love to engage in. (Communities like Weymouth and Middleborough pulled hard for Brown - speaks volumes doesn't it?)

The BSJE has been publishing and analyzing Massachusetts culture and politics for many, many years. Like the rest of the country, the citizens of Massachusetts passions about culture and self image run strong and when they get mixed up in an empire that has run aground; public anger and disgust register in swing vote protest uprisings.

This election is about people being fed up for many reasons; reasons unspoken and reasons that most people can't explain but connote anger nonetheless. People are pissed at government; pissed at status quo; incensed over the liberal schisms that can't reconcile party politics over pragmatics. And what's more, the average American has the damnest time connecting all the dots - they're hard!

In the Bay State, both houses in the Mass State government carry with it a certain baggage; one of the bags is corruption and the other bag is party nepotism and insulation - kind of a party tradition with Mass Democrats. The Mass legislature is so stocked with less than worthy democrats; it will drive a swing vote to the right regardless of GOP party insanity and it long line of nut job sycophants. Yes, we have to say that the GOP idea bank is as bankrupt as the Democrats rhetorical restraint.

Barbara Tuchman would see these events and smile. The great liberal lion of the Senate expires in the summer of 09; a country adrift from the errant policies one of the great moron scions of our time - George Bush - now in the deepest recession since the thirties; a nation packed with illiterates, a frothy agenda driven media empire that wants to take back the eighties through hollow messages of patriotism and self aggrandizement and a Massachusetts electorate ready to yield to the frenetic vitriol of America's loveable right wing. Now this is entertainment.

Ted Kennedy was a bear whose liberal bark resonated louder than the garbled subterfuge of Republican hijinks's; so we tip our flasks to Martha's people on their miscalculation.

Stay tuned; it's so entertaining to watch these abstract - meaningless - cultural/political imbroglios. The more sincere thinkers will just quietly return to the labs to reinvent tomorrow while the mob screams for vengence. Most voters don't read and don't think about history, politics or economics; this is what happens when they do; they turn over an election.

This should be fun; as soon as Scott trots out the GOP spin, he'll be shoring himself up as one of "them". Hundreds of GOP poster children will be showing up for photographs and if doesn't nudge the party back to the center then Scott will find himself on youtube as the special needs senator.

It's too bad the Chinese don't embrace this wild thing called Democracy - they would work less and bray more.

Congrats to Scott Brown, Eric Fernstrom and the thousands of dollar poured in from GOP pacs - you got your dream election victory - Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts. Let the party begin.

American idol hits the Senate. Maybe Martha should've posed for Playboy. OIA (Only in America & Italy).

BSJE submits their 2 cents on health care reform

Attention all application developers: there is gold in application software if you can team up with MD specialists.

My I phone (don't have one) is ready for this emerging development, and it goes like this.

Would I do my own blood pressure at home off my computer if I could? Yes.

Would I do my own stress tests at home off my computer if I could? Yes.

Would I do my own physical at home off my computer if I could? Yes.

Would I do my own blood work at home off my computer if I could? Yes.

Would I email the results to my primary care physician for some feedback to close it all out? (If he transacted these services outside the health care industry - would I mind? NO)

Would I keep all my health records on a digital file that had security protection? Yes.

Can I have a personal DNA map on my Iphone just in case I want to do some molecular modeling someday (tie die my genes perhaps).

Do you think its possible that many, many people feel the same way? What's more odd is that this capability isn't out there yet.

(Now if I could do my own dental - whose working on that?).

US industrial production

Total Industry capacity utilization chart.

This signifies for the most part an end of a run. A nation that is transforming; the empire is molting - sloughing off the old economic models of enterprise.

It's not much fun this painful process and what's worse, there's no one to explain it to the main street crowd in careful rational terms. This isn't new; we urge you to go to Border's books and ask for some books by Barbara Tuchman. She chronicled another generation of swine's performance at the beginnings of the last century. They blew it as well and the reason? Failed economics. Failing to plan. Planning; a fundamental of business - something to be grafted on to government policy; pretty simple logic.

Fortunately, this round of economic failure will probably recover more quickly than the 1930's - there's plenty of room for expansion in global trade - but can the US export something more than armaments?

How do you measure the benefit of supply side economics?

The average American doesn't know what supply side is; we'll bet all our REIT shares on that. Supply side economics is finally getting some long term perspective. If the financial crisis prolongs, then SS scores won't be stellar at all. It shows a pattern of status quo consolidation and financial voodoo; it split a middle class into halves and have nots; with cultural wars and the devastation of a manufacturing base. We are there.

The next round of supply side policy is not really going to work given the breakdown in core economic principals (like manufacturing and production) - the next wave of investment frenzy won't happen without direction - policy direction. The US is presently in the downward slope of the GNP curve, somewhere hopefully near the trough and hopefully looking up instead of down. Last years economic lending models will not be next years models; with the exception of some residual activity.

The status quo expansion opportunities that traditionally gets investors excited is suspect; housing prices are inflated; more housing starts on a grand scale are at best regional; and high tech has is vexed by lack of focus. "So I'm wealthy, flush with cash - so where do I invest?" The hope and prayer is technology; like it always is; the signs are there already, but its so risky.

Presently the US is trying to induce a demand paradigm again- by default- government induced-policy initiatives to spur investment in energy renewables and new materials. It is happening as we speak.

Supply side economics is a good read on the Wiki - touted as the successful panacea for the 70's stagflation - or was it a trojan horse? "Are you better off than you were ten years ago?" The answer is mixed given the sharp divisions in the middle class - either your boat floated up - or it sank. For the main street rank and file - many boats sank; and it is clear the confusion on these issues generates rage.

Look at what we call the second & third round of supply side policy.















Now look at that M1 under Clinton; when Allen pulled back on the money supply. There was still plenty of money fueling high tech into an enormous bubble.



Anyone who observed or lost money during the dot com boom knew there was something wrong when IPO's occurred daily under Dickie Grasso and shot up by 300% in a matter of days - something was wrong. Look at M1 again at 2000 and you will see the double dose; Greenspan was printing more money and the housing market quickly inflated. (Houses built 100 years ago were conflated in value by 200% in some cases). Add to that the Bush tax cuts, the War in Iraq and guess what happened? Supply side failure - on a massive scale.

It is amazing how all this is forgotten. This isn't ancient history; this is a generations legacy; what happened in the last thirty years - dot com booms, housing booms, S&L crisis', recessions, booms, busts, what is measurable in terms of gain? The ignorance of this composite history is staggering. What tangible gains has the US retained? Have you checked this with real per capita income numbers?






The next generation is getting an excellent education on the failure of the last generation.

NYT Frank Rich does your homework for you again. Ferdinand Pecora is not a household name.

The NY Times is prodding the Administration again to enact some Wall St. justice. Will it happen in 2010? More regulation? How will it shape up? If the double dip is coming; then the drama with the banks intensifies.

Does the OMB have any tricks up its sleeve? How do you force the guardians of the vaults to roll back to more staid and non glamorous banking transactions?

This could be the decade of generational change; a decade where its sexy to be an engineer instead of a finance wizard.

NYT on maneuvers this morning: let the bushwhacking begin for 2010

And so, we are waiting and waiting for the Congressional inquiry - circa 1931 - to get our friends out in the public eye. With the Dow at 10,500 - people are all but pacified. Maybe a giant tax cut and a 10% rise in unemployment will get people's attention again.

Chris Dodd's departure will mean what? The consumer agency will inevitably be dumped by the Republicans. Oh we long for classical theory and Main Street equilibrium, don't we Todo?

The NY times - one of the few that has a nose for a real story. It is so amazing that the WSJ doesn't wade into this issue - or is it?