Home equity continues to plunge

Those clever Republicans sure do know economics. As long as you close your eyes and just listen to them talk, everything will be fine and the market is working. When the GOP stripped the system of decades old common sense it fell apart. Phil Gramm, McCain's co-chair and architect of this new system, says that he never saw this coming. Is this supposed to be the "experience" that McCain is touting? It's not very impressive experience, is it?

The equity Americans have in their most important asset — their homes — has dropped to its lowest level since the end of World War II.

Homeowners’ portion of equity slipped to 46.2 percent in the first quarter from a revised 47.5 percent in the previous quarter. That was the fifth quarter in a row below the 50 percent mark, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.

The total dollar value of equity also fell for the fourth straight quarter to $9.12 trillion from $9.52 trillion in the fourth quarter, while Americans’ total mortgage debt rose to $10.6 trillion from $10.53 trillion.

A homeowner’s equity is the market value of a property minus the mortgage debt. And homeowners’ percentage of equity has declined steadily even as home values surged during the housing boom due to a jump in cash-out refinancing, home equity loans and an increase in 100 percent financing.

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Where does creativity hide?

Another of the TED.com series that Chris in Paris wrote about last week or so. This is novelist Amy Tan, who wrote "The Joy Luck Club," talking about the creative process. She's quite funny.

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Would you take free money from a stranger on the street?

Via Boing Boing:

[Representatives] wandered the streets this morning wearing sandwich boards offering a free £5 note to anyone who asked. Despite encountering over 1800 people, only 28 passers by bothered to take advantage of the offer.

The experiment also found a stark difference in the attitudes of men and women. On the streets of London and Manchester, all but 7 of the people who claimed the free cash were men and the research backed this up further. In a poll of 2000 people almost two thirds of women (64 per cent) said they would not claim the free fiver, compared to 41 per cent of money-shy men.

I'd take it. You? Read the rest of this post...

Consumer credit continues to go up

There is so much social pressure to keep up with the Jones' and spend, which may be possible during the best of times, but we're not exactly there right now. Think back to the early years of the Bush administration when the GOP was doing the dirty work for the big banks and instituted new legislation for bankruptcy. Consumers would have a much more difficult time declaring and would be stuck with that bad debt. Fine. Fair's fair, right? Not exactly.

The bailout of Wall Street - on the taxpayer's bill - helped Wall Street continue making bad decisions, forgave billions of bad judgment and allowed Wall Street to continue living their posh lifestyle, well above their means. The big difference here is that consumers are stuck with the bill while Wall Street gets a pass. Overspending and living beyond your means is a problem whether it's Wall Street or Main Street (or Congress) so why the difference in who receives a bailout? Read the rest of this post...

Did Iranian intelligence infiltrate highest levels of Bush administration?

We'll never know because the Bush administration shut down the investigation as to whether Iranian spies were in Vice President Dick Cheneys's office and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's office. The year was 2003. That's when we invaded Iraq. This is scary as shit.

Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday.

A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

Recommendation for further investigation? No, this is where Congress gets involved and we blow this story up. Read the rest of this post...

"I endorse him and throw my full support behind him"

Hillary just endorsed Obama. She suspended her campaign today (that's partly a legal thing so she can continue to raise money to pay off the campaign debt.)

She made a very strong case for Obama's presidency.

"Today, I am standing with Senator Obama to say 'Yes, we can.'" Read the rest of this post...

Custom agents may eventually scan your iPod for unlicensed music

See, when the Democrats do nothing about privacy while the Republicans keep pushing and pushing, this is where it ends up. It's no longer about illegally listening to your phone calls to supposedly find Al Qaeda, now it's about scanning your iPod to find music you may have gotten from a friend. Read the rest of this post...

Upending the norm, it's the Democratic candidate who has the financial upper hand

This is a key factor for the election. The GOP has always had financial superiority. Not this time. Obama will have more money for the general election:

Republicans have enjoyed a fundraising advantage in the modern era of presidential politics, and only Democrats backed by the power of incumbency, such as President Bill Clinton in 1996, have been in a position to compete.

In 2000, for instance, George W. Bush raised $95.5 million during the primaries, almost double Gore's $48 million. And during the general election, when both candidates accepted an equal share of federal funds, the RNC outraised its Democratic counterpart by almost $120 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. The pattern continued in 2004.

This year, that pattern has flipped. Obama has raised $265 million over 15 months, and he had $46 million on hand at the end of April. McCain finished the same period having raised $96 million. He raised another $21.5 million in May and finished the month with $31.5 million in the bank. Obama has not released May figures.

While McCain appears poised to accept $85 million in federal money for the general election -- funding that will kick in after he formally accepts the nomination in September -- Obama has not indicated whether he will honor an earlier pledge to do the same. His top fundraisers say they expect him to forgo the funds in favor of raising money with no upper limits.

Their confidence in Obama's ability to far exceed the federal amount stems in part from discussions with top Clinton fundraisers, who helped bring in $214 million for her bid. "I was talking to them all day yesterday and today," Berger said. "They're not difficult conversations."

Several veteran campaign strategists from both parties said Obama's potential financial edge could emerge as a significant barrier for McCain, particularly as the two candidates start to organize efforts in key battleground states.

It's a very good thing to see the fundraising types are already unifying. Very good.

Also, there's no way Obama should enter the public campaign system. On this issue, McCain has proven untrustworthy. He scammed the public finance system in the primaries. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, I forgot to link to the poem of the week last week, but it's back. This week's poem is a passage from Lord Byron with the classic line "I love not man the less, but Nature more..."

It'll be an interesting news day even for a Saturday as Hillary Clinton will speak to her supporters at noon her in D.C. -- and will endorse Obama.

Back in Chicago, Obama has a date with his Michelle and is overseeing a sleepover for a bunch of seven year olds. That last part sounds harder than anything he'll encounter on the campaign trail.

What's on your agenda? Read the rest of this post...

The view from France on Obama and the election

This year the Democrats Abroad did a really great job of organizing the vote for American expats. Overwhelmingly, Americans abroad supported Obama in the campaign with roughly 66% of the vote. After the Bush years, Americans abroad see first hand the impact of a president who thumbs his nose at the world and ravages an economy. The global good will of the Clinton years was all suddenly gone. I have met people in Northern and Southern Africa, Asia (including Vietnam, our former "enemy"), Europe and Central America who would start telling me about how much they loved Bill Clinton and how much times have changed under Bush. The ideal of America as a leader and a model had evolved into America the hated and America the war monger. Yes, it's clear there will always be haters, but the number of haters is beyond anything I experienced in the past.

Perhaps this is why Hillary was not as popular with Americans overseas. While people loved Bill, it is a different time and after years of negativity, people abroad were looking for something different. Americans abroad wanted someone that was a clear break from the slash and burn politics of recent years. Hillary seemed too associated with the old way of doing things. They wanted someone who could be a uniter in practice, not just in words. Obama seemed to capture this spirit for many of expats and obviously for many Americans at home as well.

So how about people here in France? Obama is quite the topic of discussion both in the media and at cafes with the French. In general people love discussing Obama and what this could mean for the future of America. However, I am still looking for a single French person that gives Obama a chance in the election against McCain. Everyone, right, left, center, men, women, you name it, they all think McCain is going to win. Is this because of 2000 and then 2004? Is this because they believe that America is a racist country? Is this because the French are racists and can't imagine such a thing in 2008? Is this because the French are negative and jealous? Hard to say, maybe a bit of all of the above, but it is somewhat surprising that there is such a strong belief here that the US will not vote Obama. I don't even want to think about how a third Bush term would received overseas but I have a pretty good idea. Read the rest of this post...

Vote Mugabe or starve

In a country that suffers 85% or more unemployment in addition to living on foreign food subsidies, the threat of going hungry is serious. Zimbabwe is a country which used to be the bread basket of the region. Robert Mugabe and his supporters have beaten, killed, tortured and now making these threats and there is every reason to believe they will be carried out. While Iraq and the region may be uninterested no matter how many US billions we throw their way, the people of Zimbabwe regularly put it all on the line.

The US ambassador in Harare accused government officials yesterday of blackmailing opposition supporters, by denying them food unless they surrendered their national identity card and thus gave up their right to vote.

Mr Mugabe is no stranger to using food as a political weapon in a country where many people are locked into a desperate struggle to put the next meal on the table. By suspending all aid groups operating in the country on Thursday he has once again concentrated crucial supplies into the hands of his cronies.

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Hillary supporting congressman says campaign offered racist strategy

I'm sorry, this is too juicy not to post.

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton throughout the primary season, disclosed he received a phone call shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary from a top member of Clinton's organization and that the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning over Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.

"There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me," Andrews said at his campaign headquarters in Cherry Hill Tuesday night after he lost his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.

"Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign ... that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing."

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