Poll: Americans Distrust Wall Street, but Not Sure about Government

Response to post 9: These so-called conservatives and free market capitalists certainly talk out of both sides of their mouths. To keep the conversation recent, the funniest example of it was during the Health Care debate. Many sounded the bell of letting the free market handle health care through competition. But when the proposal to lift the antitrust exemption enjoyed by the insurance companies was floated they all screamed. Competition indeed.
— March 25, 2010 8:03 a.m.

Poll: Americans Distrust Wall Street, but Not Sure about Government

Re: Post 2: I agree with your sentiment Don. But what we have today (and I'm sure there is no need to point this out to you or the very knowledgeable folks who frequent your fine blog) is NOT free market capitalism and I'm not sure that a real free market capitalist society is possible. There is simply too much special interest money involved for that scenario to ever play out. What we have now is crony capitalism--and I believe we are actually heading more toward a fascist system. If we had a true free market capitalist system, all those banks and car companies would have been allowed to go under. We are working our way to a very American version of fascism (especially when you take into account the frightening erosion of civil liberties in the past decade) and as George Carlin pointed out, when fascism comes to America it will not be wearing jack boots, it will be wearing smiley faces. That said, I like to think of capitalism as a game. To play a game fairly and properly, there needs to be rules. To make sure that those rules stand and are applied to all who play the game in a fair and equal manner, there need to be umpires or referees or officials with the will and the power to levy punishment if the rules are not followed (fines, suspensions, expulsions, forfeitures). Otherwise, there is no game. Just people running around in an anarchic circle clubbing one another. I wonder if there are many sports fans among those who advocate pure free market capitalism. If there are, I wonder if they believe that the games of the NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL or any other league could take place if there weren't very set rules and a firm and effective system, in tandem with a very visible and effective group of enforcers in place to punish those who broke them.
— March 25, 2010 7:24 a.m.

Local Lead Indicators Continue Rising

re: post 46 I don't think so. I'm almost certain the name was a shortening of Trolley-Dodgers. Brooklyn was chock full of them back in those days.
— March 3, 2010 9:25 a.m.

U.S. has too much debt

Response to post 37: "It takes two to lie, Marge: One to lie and one to listen." --Homer Simpson While I agree with a great many things that Surf Puppy has posted here in these blogs, I must heartily disagree here. The voters and the general public deserve more than a little of the blame. To be sure, there is no cut-and-dry, tidy little answer to what got us here, but the willful ignorance of the public and the eagerness to buy into whatever smoke-screen issue the two major parties threw at us while special interests had both hands in the cookie jar played more than a minor role. There were/are many who believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch. There are still many who believe that prosperity can be gained without a healthy helping of elbow grease, blood, sweat, and tears. There are still many out there who believe they're going to get something for nothing. Don's right when he writes that greed and gluttony and a sense of entitlement have been institutionalized in this country. It is now part of the way we think. The example and the lies may have originated with our politicians and their banking masters, but we as a society bought the lie whole-heartedly. We do have a choice/s, but change is not going to come easily. I don't know if it will take an outright revolt, or if a meaningful independent movement can get off the ground, but there are choices.
— March 2, 2010 7:25 a.m.

Local Housing Values Up, but Pace of Gain Slowing

You're absolutely right Don and there won't be any meat and potatoes until there are some real jobs created in this country. Unfortunately I just don't see that anywhere on the horizon. Maybe a few years down the line, when no one wants our debt, we'll start making things in this country again. Either that or people are going to have to remember how to grow, catch, and prepare their own food and make their own clothes. The Stuyvesant failure was very big news here in New York (headlines, top stories). I don't know if it made any headlines elsewhere in the country.
— February 25, 2010 7:04 a.m.

"Healthy" Expansion? For Whom?

re: 73, And I absolutely will not. I'm no republican. And I think that the republicans who are all of the sudden playing fiscal conservative in opposition to Obama are disingenuous at best. This are the same guys who, under GWB, said we needed to give Paulson a blank check. I agree, they can't have it both ways. Those republicans need to go every bit as bad as the democrats need to get rid of Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, et al.
— February 24, 2010 11:55 a.m.

"Healthy" Expansion? For Whom?

Oh, and a couple more things that made RP a more than one-dimensional candidate: He's anti-War on Drugs. He sees that for what it is--a costly disaster and failure that doesn't affect drug use in this country one whit. Same for prostitution. If people realized how much money was spent trying to fight these two things, and how little it actually makes a difference, we could save the tax payer billions upon billions of dollars.
— February 24, 2010 9:33 a.m.

"Healthy" Expansion? For Whom?

In response the all the Ron Paul posts: Yes, he made some outrageous statements, but at least they were genuine and honest and not formulated by some marketing/focus group. I found that refreshing. Nader, by the way, made some gaffes of his own (not that I think less of him for that). I also don't think it's fair to characterize RP as a one issue candidate. I think he was one of the only (if not THE only) national anti-war candidate. And he was the only conservative candidate to not stand on the platform of the Moral Majority people. He actually came out and stated that he would be in favor of gay marriage (marriage essentially being a contract between two adults, and in Paul's opinion one of the obligations of the government was to enforce contracts). There's actually a clip of it on You Tube somewhere and I'll try to find and post it later. I love the fact that he was anti-bailout and I love the fact that he wants to put a stop to the financial chicanery at the Fed. And to the posts suggesting that somehow Hillary or McCain, or any one candidate, Ron Paul included, could have somehow averted this disaster we're currently wading through: That is absolutely preposterous. This storm has been brewing for a long time and developed quite a bit of steam under the presidency of Bill Clinton. Gore wouldn't have stopped it either (for all those who try to lay the blame at the feet of Nader supporters). And once we got through the nightmare of GWB, there wasn't any one person on the globe that could've stopped it. For the record, I am an independent.
— February 24, 2010 9:07 a.m.

Local Housing Values Up, but Pace of Gain Slowing

I know this is more from a national perspective than from SD, but from the Zero Hedge blog this morning: The housing sector just went back from critical to comatose - U.S. new-home sales plunged in January, setting a record low and erasing all gains made in the market during the past year. Well, if new homes can't sell now with all the current bells and whistles, they pretty much never will. One idea - lower prices. Oh wait, that would go against the first directive of the Federal Reserve. Equities still a little shell shocked, and unable to fathom that the double dip is now official. To read the rest(http://www.zerohedge.com/article/new-home-sa…. And this from the Wall Street Journal this morning: "Lending Falls at Epic Pace. U.S. banks posted last year their sharpest decline in lending since 1942, suggesting that the industry's continued slide is making it harder for the economy to recover." This simply confirms what I've been thinking since all this subsidizing and propping up began: 1.) These "official" numbers are totally getting goosed, and 2). What good are all the perks, bells, and whistles going to do if the banks simply aren't lending money? When this all started, everyone said the days of 5 or 10 percent down were over. You needed at least 20 percent to put down. Now, the banks won't even look at you if you don't have 30 percent to put down. I believe this is going to go up to 40 very soon. Home prices still have a ways to go (down) in my opinion. Here in New York, they've barely been scratched (moreso in the outer boroughs then in Manhattan). But I can tell you that where my wife and I live, in the Rockaway Beach section of the borough of Queens, there has been a ton of building going on the past 10 years or so and there are a WHOLE LOT of empty condos and apartment buildings. Still, the developers really aren't budging on their prices. Some have bitten the bullet and started renting. That's how we wound up with our current apartment. But many are still trying to hold out. Manhattan has not been entirely unscathed either. With the commercial real estate crash just beginning in earnest, a brand new building full of empty co-ops on Leonard Street near the Financial Sector has been repossessed by it's creditors and the largest real estate deal in history just went bust when Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were foreclosed upon when Tishman-Speyer couldn't make the monthly $16 million dollar payment. I think this is just the beginning (sorry for rambling on and on.)
— February 24, 2010 8:25 a.m.

San Diegans Leading Push for AIG Full Disclosure

In regards to the Rolling Stone article, Matt Taibbi has been doing wonderful work uncovering the shenanigans behind the bubble and resulting financial collapse and the speculation in commodities that drove the price of oil to record highs even as demand was dropping (all of which Goldman had a hand in). His blog, http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi, is required reading on these subjects (along with Mr. Bauder's). He did a great piece about how the runs on Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were basically carried out like Mafia hits and left Goldman without any real competition whatsoever (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/304815…). I sincerely hope that Mr. Aguirre forgoes any deal in his case and sees that by going to trial, he has an incredible opportunity to become a true hero by dragging these fiends into the light. Maybe then we'd see some real outrage. I'm still kind of flabbergasted at how so many either don't know, don't care, or simply shrug their shoulders at what has to be the biggest mugging in American history. By the way Don, long-time reader, first time poster here. Love your work.
— January 13, 2010 7:31 a.m.