Since this article and this link put me in serious depression, I needed a pick me up.
These pictures of Barry O chillin as a 19 year old lifted my spirits slightly. His hat is pretty P.I.M.P.
If anyone out there wants to know how our economy imploded and is on a fixed path of utter misery that none of us have ever experienced in our lifetimes, read this insightful article.
It is authored by respected Economist Joseph E. Stiglitz.
He was one of the few wise smart people not blinded by ideology and engaged in only wishful thinking for analysis. Stiglitz predicted in real time that our housing bubble would pop and the US financial markets would collapse, sending the world into a financial free for all of epic proportions.
For a nation that loves winners, I am amazed the number of people that still have credibility in our public media discourse after being WRONG about the two biggest issues of this current generation, the Economy and the Iraq War. Before any of my GOP friends jump all over this statement, it includes several pro war and Corporate owned Democrats as well. Complicit Democrats were guilty in these destructive policies too.
I wish that I could be more cheerful around Christmas and post more funny stuff because it sucks dealing with reality and we all need our release from the BS of life but I am genuinely scared for the financial well beings of my friends and family, along with all struggling Americans, who are losing their homes and jobs every single day in droves.
( A good friend with a wife and 2 small boys just lost his job last week. He is a big Republican too but now is not the time for me to score political cheap shots at his beliefs. I empathize with his troubles and think about the stress that he is going through quite often.)
I just hope we understand what caused this meltdown and see the genuine failure of this 30 year free market ideology run amok so that it never happens again. I have my doubts because of the strangle hold of Corporate owned media and the perpetual propaganda campaign of disinformation by the Fox "News" channel.
Our citizen's small attention spans and thirst for simple answers, propelled by an idiotic sound bite driven cable news culture, only hinders us from realizing the truth in complex situations.
Anyway, I will get back to bitching about sports, life, and highlighting hot poon in future posts. word, Mac G.
Here are several links to items that have given me a serious case of the blues.
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which got $10 billion and debt guarantees from the U.S. government in October, expects to pay $14 million in taxes worldwide for 2008 compared with $6 billion in 2007. Bloomberg
- The Darwin Depression: Time To Say Goodbye To How It Should Have Never Been. James Boyce at Huff Po
- Capitalist Fools by Joseph Stiglitz at Vanity Fair
- The news media is happily parroting the official government pronouncements and those of its minions while ignoring my tragic story of love lost, and so they all join together to report that unemployment is 6.7%, while just up the street, the McKinsey Global Institute says that it estimates that the unemployment rate in the United States is actually 16.25%, and here's John Williams at shadowstats.com putting it at 16.5%! Booman Tribune
- 60 Minutes report: Second wave of mortgage meltdown coming in wake of "real-estate orgy." Cajun Boy in the City
- ZIRP!aka, zero interest rate policy. Paul Krugman
- Sean Hannity: Media Matters' 2008 Misinformer of the Year. Media Matters
