and in a crisis
stop the machines

send in
the green eye shaders

to hunt thru the balance sheets

and

the frozen payables and receivables

to determine

who lost what they owed to whom

of ourse that ripples around

leads to pile ups

and hand to hand fraud

cheating

defaulting

and other such mass scale

disgraceful acts of

each man for himself ism

the shuting down
the laying off

the idling of productive capacity

missing for ever
the unique moment that is now

to be building something today

that now must be built if at all tomorrow

the squandor of opportunity

just to stop the paper loss
the flow of red ink

that is mine or ours

i stop u or you stop me

or the bank moves in and closes bot of us down

for benefit of creditors

sending cascades of non payment streams thru the r and p systems of n zillion firms

 each only tries to save his share
while the whole society loses

all this real production

as the system i sluffs off its  productive capacity

time lost is opportunity lost

the hunt thru the balance sheets
the payables and receivable

to determine

who lost what they owed to whom

credit lines dry up working capital shrinks 
and this brings social production down to yet a lower crawl

Posted by js paine at 08:12 PM

“The core CPI grew a more modest 2.4% compared to June 2007,
though that's still well above the Fed's long-term goal of 1.5%

to 2%. . …”

gotta love the absurd ignorance in that passage

”..more modest… ” but “..well above…”

if the silk hat anti inflation fiends
have hysterics

the media in its collective ignorance

has a loyal dog freak out

…
when

accelerated rises in the aggregate wage rate 

of the whole national economy

start to happen

the corporate system goes into convulsions

if not
if the price level acceration

is just …those damn fool volitile commodity prices

moving up faster then wage rates

its called
lowering real unit labor costs

if you want a free open full employment
job market

—-and since most of us live thru that market

maybe we oughta—-

then you gotta have tradeable rights

mark up caps

otherwise
jobs and wages get hit to cure

a vicious worsening tail chase

created by the present system's

corporate pricing power

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 17, 2008 at 09:34 AM

paine says…
i didn't even read the barnsters bit

i was captured by the evil premise

we can play harder price level ball
if the job victims have a better safety net

hope:

systems that irrationally and vicously
“solve” their episodic self created crises

at the exspense of some large hunk of the folks

eventualy get…. sublated

Posted by js paine at 07:56 PM

“I think the sheep are, at least, capable of hiring shepherds, and not wolves, to lead them”

WE THE SHEEPLE IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT FOLD …

trade in a pack of wolves for a bunch of collies

not without splashin'
a lotta blood on the wool

Posted by js paine at 07:34 PM

all this gibber about recap
is just that

the social function of a risk capital base
is prolly better served from a system wide view point

by an insurance policy

if if if if if

the risk premium is set correctly

recall a capital fund

is a transfer system in waiting

i'd prefer a more “socialized ” system

ie default insurance not equity buffers

i suspect its better over all
to have one mandated system wide premium structure

that deals with market failures from above

my thought some quasi public

virtual system

experience based risk assessed remuim and accounting system

—-in practice backed by just a credit line with uncle —-

conjecture:

like single payer health

single insurer default

will mean a lower total long run social cost

then maintaining

all these privately held

specifically targeted un mandated

pockets of voluntary

privately invested risk capital

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 17, 2008 at 07:37 AM

paine says…
de facto

an uncle backed Mortgage Resolution Trust

with a unlimited life span

and unlimited credit line

to buy up troubled mortgages and m backed paper

already exists…in spectral outline

but recall limited or unlimited its to publically
absorb private losses

translation buying the back up paper junk
to allow pay back to the buyers

of the up front paper junk

paying the thieves iou's

the thieves too big and powerful
to allow themselves to lose

“breaking firms up into smaller pieces isn't enough in and of itself to reduce the risk of massive financial meltdown. We also need to worry about the overall magnitude of particular classes of risk and how concentrated those risks are within particular sectors of financial markets”

exactly

the broadest empowered over view

the top down archetecture of some systems
exists not merely for tower troll abuse

but for effective efficient socially optimal

institutional design

rusty

we save the babies first
but whatever means necessary

even paying off the thieves

holding the badies —-thru the present system —-

hostage

then

set up a new socially optimal system

arrest the thieves

jail em

and confiscate their boodle

“moral risk problems become serious “

indeed
didn't mean to imply it's easy

only post private capitalist

a progressive sublation
of the present system's

society wide comparative irrationality

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 17, 2008 at 08:02 AM

paine says…
rf

from TR to Putin

th records show

these big trans nat outfits are paper tigers

i say uncle oughta take em on
not chop em up

corrupting money can be trumped
by bright lights a bully pulpit

and justified enforcement

rf

of course you are completely right

prime example
the modern corporate american empire

had no greater “overseas” sponsor or implicit champion

then TR

my point was a narrower one

if and when

if and when
the chief executive of america

mobilizes public support

while confronting

a bunch of wall street chiefs

ala FDR

THE BIG BOYS BACK DOWN OR LOSE OUT

the record shows this i think

that such an amercan chief executive
ready to subdue the giant corporate interests

does not now or even after january the nth

occupy the white house

is another broader deeper

far more troubling question

ps
rf

on this

as with much much else

we're on the same team

my friend

“if a company (whether its big or small) is too important to fail, it must be banned from engaging in risky activities “

the degree of risk
involved here is the degree that might trigger insolvency

if you figure uncle can pull off this reg

ie

determine this point beyond which its too risky

as well as the amount of risk it's allowed to underwrite

—btw i agree uncle can pull it off—-

then what is the pri sec cap for ???

why require “… necessary capital on hand at all times to survive tough times”

why not provide a credit line
and charge a periodic risk premium

based on a real time assessment

of the existing portfolio's risk ????

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 17, 2008 at 09:09 AM

paine says…
“What a ripe, lying sonabitch this fool is! “

bravo wild one

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 17, 2008 at 09:11 AM

paine says…
if “..the portfolio of families effectively bankrupt is near 70%… “

then “seen as a business…” its” …too big to fail”

perfect point bailer

it sure looks to me like banks did not have sufficient capital to engage in the kind of mortgage lending that they were engaged in”

and left to their owndevices
tey'll do t again….and again and again

eh bruce ???

leverage in its many incarnations
is king of wall street

too thin a capital base
the privateers of profit

will do it to ya

every time uncle lets em

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 17, 2008 at 09:44 AM

paine says…
“Poole is a fool”

or a knave

i prefer to assume knavery

until the bastard's proven a fool

“an industry broken into many smaller firms is likely to be less leveraged, right? For example, suppose there were no mandated reserve requirements. Individually, a large group of small banks could never rely on a level of reserves as low as a single national entity. Wouldn't this type of mechanism provide substantially greater protection against industry-wide systemic failure?”

a ton of little private risk baring equity pools
is an irrational and excessive

waste of time and resources

not in the long eras of calm

but come a crisis

when

the zillion little outfits

each looking only to themselves

all try to survive by selling off

their bad paper and then their good paper

ahead of each other

sounds like i'm trying to rely
on formalistic notions here right ??

like

to minimize socially necessary reserves

per se

but if they are just entries

they're in themselves

costless

lets lay aside the countering private incentive

to leverage to the max

to asume short run gains out weigh long run risks

the attack needs a real intrinsic justification
and

a reason the present system

blocks a further evolution toward efficiency

and lower real long run costs

so wat real cost reduction
does this socially beneficial

risk adequate

but equity min

process play proxy for ???

i have images
persuasion by analogy

like too many little family rice paddies
so mutually restricting

they block optimal productivity

optimal supply regulation …investment etc etc

blah blah blah

and there's always
the very useless catch all

transaction costs the plug word where a detailed explanation is lacking

as in
what is the socially optimal firm size

the socially optimal modal hardness of budget constraints etc etc

or costs ..real costs that are specific
to the institutional arrangement

i think of a crisis taking much longer to unravel and requiring much more intricate actions
to exit a systemic brake down

of a zillion little equity loss pots

in a thousand different solvency conditions

etc etc

i oughta make the effort
to bring this up to a far more concrete level …

needless to say

and i will

Posted by js paine at 07:31 PM

john v
in his cat bird seat

“I can have a friendly dispute with a Republican over Clinton and then turn and have one in kind with a Democrat over Bush”

he's like a mocking parrot
ready to perch

on either political econ con shoulder

whispering policy in the ear of power???

nope
he's strictly in the ” sorry for being a prick pal

but i'm in

the wise guy nails hubris biz “

deflatio pre-cox

not recommended company
except for ahabs

about to sail on long sea voyages

———-
anne

maybe u might give

your humanity insists

hex lines to better use

then trying to shoo off

the shafter

sure the nasty chap
has an agenda …much as u or i do

but
i'll read his stuff any time

over say

the tar traps of anal aggressives like ….

peter s is the bark e bark antedote

homeo-pathic cure department

takes an unselfconcious know it all
to skunk another unselfconcious know it all

main event
barkley r vs peter the shafter

may the bigger broader

more organized and cultivated

data base win

oooh
we'll need an index for multi D scoring

Posted by js paine at 07:25 PM

“mark thoma”

“Please let me know as soon as impostors appear.

They will be banned permanently.”

yikes the cretans attack !!!!

Posted by js paine at 07:23 PM

my my
even anne likes to play good emperor bad emperor

best possible outcome:

yip eeeh
BO

is ready to run

UNCLE SAM'S EMPIRE

by marcus aurelius rules

the line might be drawn differently…eh?

as in

come home america
close the foreign bases

for good or ill

rely on the security council

and its official forces for peace

not ad hoc vigilante posses

to punish international violations

of borders and peoples

nothing out there of an international nature
properly sized UN commanded forces

couldn't handle

as to
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS….

send in uncle ???

hey you don't empower

a known rapist thief and wife beater

to brake up a domestic fracas

“What you are saying, anne, is that you have no candidate and no Party in American politics”

capitulate to empire games bruce ???
just because the binary party cores

are now in-ex-trick-ably embedded

in trans nat corporate empiring

and btw

have been more or less after a few lost elections

ever since the maine

anchored in habana harbor …..

indeed we of the anti empire kamp
have our challenges …

but working with mutt the dollaration devil
as his nice pal jeff

is no solution not even

a worthy amelioration

only a squalid

whore of babylon type compromise

has it not occured to u
bin laden “real threat to amerika”

kinda hunters

that he may be…none other then..

former knick

and jersey senator

dollar bill bradleybruce

i think your choice of carter is perfect

there was a man ..a man much like harry truman..a decent man
in fact better then harry

because his policy was simple

reverse every kold war no holds barred

dirty bloody tactic that our gubmint

had made “hard and fast ” policy since …harry

but just like harry … jimmy's context
his world view

even his socially constructed instincts ..

only served to over whelm the better angels of his nature

and he became by 79

a man drenched in the swill of the great game …

obama may move away from same
reject the hot folly of imperial arrogance

but in the last analysis

he will still be an emperor

ya i know …the guy built himself
out of a bunch of improbable

spare parts

of this american life

and in the process built himself into

quite a fine minded chap

he's remarkable for that

but he can't deconstruct himself
not now … now is too late

he's the prez nom presumptive of the party of lesser evilism

a party that has not nominated

an open overt anti imperialist candidate for prez

since 1900

and even he lost his way very shortly there after

ps george mcg's splendid come home america

not withstanding

even george retained

the shadow of empire

across at least half his face

i submit we can only get off the imperial horse
even for a real decent intrval like the 30's

by leaping free of it

and now while its moving ahead

at full gallop

that would take a soul prolly beyond a lincoln

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 14, 2008 at 03:41 PM

paine says…
“Regardless, troops sent home from Iraq will be redeployed to Afghanistan where they could potentially issue a knockout blow against the center of terrorist organization”

talk about issuing knock out blows

feng sway
who knocked the common sense out of u ??

nobody “form outside ” wins in Afghanistan
btw

i suspect pakistan has long ben

the de facto

” center of terrorist organization”

George McGovern was an imperialist?

ultimately…yes

but i'll not hold it agin him
he's a decent fine gentleman

would have been better far better then carter

till ” they ” pointed up his ears
peaked his eyebrows

put bells on his toes

and just generally

made him look like more

of a god damn fool

then “they” made out of secretary of state

billy bryan

Posted by js paine at 07:18 PM

my father
a great one for price rationing

thought he could cut down on his family over eating

by charging us all for breakfast and dinner

on a very rigid piece by piece system

my younger brother god rest his soul

didn't make it to our final weight check

his piggy bank wasn't big enough to pay his full way

even though on non school days
and on weekends

we had a free lunch

Posted by js paine at 07:12 PM

what gives here?
a billion bucks more 'll do the rick ….

does herr peterson after 30 years of this dribble

still figure

a votin' majority of us

will never

tumble to his three card montee ???

maybe he's right

when i think of all the budget fetish types
out there swimming among us

in dire panic cause uncle's goin broke…

even some totally hip

to the econ con scam

folks honest dues paying folks that figure
uncle's budget in the long run

has constraints on it much like

your household budget or mine

or GM'S or

“the state of kalllyfoooornyazzz

“mainly a problem with rising health care costs”

indeed

so lets construct a market based

mark up cap for the sector

who's sez the sector can't have at least half
its rent trap type

needless whole sector incentiveless

producers surplus

drained out of it

by a farly well designed mechanism

that preserves relative price incentives and rationing

while pulling off

a relative sector size compression

idleness is a bad idea… given the nature of our culture “
cryptic super structure couched

but deadly accurate fred

ours is a job ethic based culture
why ??

of course all the better to make a virtue out of

our jobbled majority and its thrall-dom

its nice and charcter building
to let a corporation or two

exploit you

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 14, 2008 at 04:13 PM

paine says…
john v unmasked:

“don't you think it would just be better to leave the matter of how we occupy our time to …the corporations …

and not to government officials

fred

“Anyone who simultaneously calls themselves progressive and also calls for fiscal discipline right now is either a lying shill or a fool. The true progressive case is for opening the fiscal floodgates wide right now..”

u are out there leading the pack baby

toward the two trillion dollar deficit and beyond ..

let us boldly go where no babbitoid has gone b4

speaking of the babbitoids ..

we can leave john v
to play alone in his tar trap

muddled and perplexed

his mind

maybe blown to smithereens

by improvised explosive memes

of his own design

the only Rx for gunk dwellers
leave em far in the rear

fred

sprouts doc swift

out of the barrel of a gun

strawberry alarm clock economics at its best

“(the)…incentive structure encourages overuse of the system because the price mechanism is broken”

now john v
just to keep things as clear and quantificated

as possible

EXACTLY

what part of

our present semi private system's world record cost per capita does this broken price system explain ????

2slug

beware

u may not be a realist after all

but one who pays twice for what ought to be

a free lunch

lets agree u don't want
to get caught

smug-ly meowing at us thru jail bars…

a prisoner of your own ignorance

ps on a less rollish note
it might help to read some late bill vickrey

fred's hero
nobel winner

and

possible victim

— too shortly after his awarding —-

of a successful wall street pre-emptive hit

“Yes, there's some economic slack out there,
but not enough to soak up all of the grand plans

that some here seem to be expecting “

how tell u so
mein fearless leader ??

then again at least you grasp
the notion of slack

u give us a toe hold….

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 14, 2008 at 05:32 PM

paine says…
btw

why in hell must we weebly
job smurfs be realists

art of the possible types

when we know damn well the car can hit 90

we gotta get to the meeting on time

or lose out

and we're late

why not scream

“put the pedal to the medal gretel “

even if we also pretty well know

she won't listen to us

“a national job training system ”

i like the sound of that

better then community college uber alles

its danish right fred ???

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 14, 2008 at 07:03 PM

paine says…
“pick up an intro to economics book “

grand thought john v …will do….

have u a suggestion ???

the danish flexicurity system
is considered world class by social marketeers

it has a very deep jobs program

Posted by: paine | Link to comment | July 14, 2008 at 07:13 PM

paine says…
fred is of course completely right

some body has to borrow all that
tax cut produced saved shit

if mr and mrs householder
now can't borrow much of it

cause of tightening credit constraints

then its uncle's time basically
that is if we desire to

maintain our tepid macro gestures

toward non violence provoking

employment rates

and close our non oil trade gap

with substitution effects

not income effects

(just learned about those in a intro text
john v's advice is already baring fruit)

the plunging dollar export boom right mg

that's the ticket …eh ??

substitute substitute
more exports less imports

get that law of markets

working for us not agin us

again..thanx john v

john v's misson of tar trapping

“Well, here we are. Back at square one”

he's mr ” i'm not convinced not at all….
see we're back at square one “

what an ideal type he makes himself into
watch the orbits tighten like his very own ….

clinical baby clinical

Posted by js paine at 07:08 PM

no need to tend shop from the shop
tend it from home

with an easy portable camera/mic/screen/speaker system on wheels

set up to be controled from the comfort of home

no need for animatronics

the fish enters the show room
and gets greeted qualified navigated demoed thru selection

to a brutal knock out soft close

and all by

an a/v system in real time

a remote screen head seller on wheels
( showing sales professionals head and torso )

this is a way to maintain higher social productivity
by multi tasking home care chores

while minding the store

in time share fashion

Posted by pinky at 06:43 PM