Koukla

She's my parents' dog. Drives me a bit insane as she has that yappy dog thing going on. She's certainly better than she was at the beginning, but still, the dog simply must be around people, or she loses it. She's part Maltese and part, well, I'm not sure - possible Yorkshire, and a year old. She's smart, and well-mannered, other than the barking and the incessant need to lick you, and also just a bit annoying with the constant need for attention. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln! My favorite trick of hers is how she drags her bed over to the center of the room, so she can look out the grate my parents put up (last photo below).



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55 missed TARP payments in October?

Just imagine how pleasant these financial companies would be if you did the same to them. That's OK though, because these businesses are more important than common people and get special privileges. Reuters:

Fifty-five financial companies failed to pay dividends in November on money they borrowed from the U.S. government, bank research firm SNL said on Wednesday.

That number swelled from 33 companies that missed an August payment on government funds, according to an SNL analysis of government data.

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Dogs gone wild

The dogs were not pleased that we locked them in the kitchen while we had a family dinner over Thanksgiving. Koukla is on the left, Carmela on the right. I love about 19 seconds in how they both get on their hind legs and do their begging trick. Then there's Carmela's impression of the velociraptor from Jurrasic Park...

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Yawn...another investigation into Wall Street fleecing customers

And surprise, surprise, another tie to the new Obama team. This same old story gets increasingly old during this administration that talked so much about change. It's the same old problem involving the same old people who are working as deeply with the Obama administration as they did with the Bush team. Maybe even deeper. Does anyone have much of an appetite for these horror stories? If Washington couldn't grasp the moment during the peak of the crisis, how can anyone have any confidence that they will take serious action now? Let's face the facts here: Washington - Republicans and Democrats alike - is owned by Wall Street and will consistently act in Wall Streets best interest over the rest of us. Until we see otherwise, let's stick with that assumption.


Ohhh, Wall Street must be shaking in their boots with this news.

While the investigations are in the early phases, authorities appear to be looking at whether securities laws or rules of fair dealing were violated by firms that created and sold these mortgage-linked debt instruments and then bet against the clients who purchased them, people briefed on the matter say.

One focus of the inquiry is whether the firms creating the securities purposely helped to select especially risky mortgage-linked assets that would be most likely to crater, setting their clients up to lose billions of dollars if the housing market imploded.

Some securities packaged by Goldman and Tricadia ended up being so vulnerable that they soured within months of being created.

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It's Christmas cookie time!

As we've done every year since the 1960s, last night was Christmas cookie making time. As I've written before, every Christmas we make cookies, using an old recipe my mom got in the 50s or 60s, to make Christmas cookies that we then decorate and hang on the tree. This year they won't be going on our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, as Koukla will likely pull the entire thing down.

From my Googling, it looks like the "hanging cookies on trees" tradition began in Germany a long time ago. And since I usually get asked, the recipe is at the end of the post.

Every year we like to ask you guys to share any particular family traditions you have this time of year. Feel free to share them in the comments.



More pictures, and the cookie recipe itself, following the jump.





cream together:
1 c butter or margarine
1 c sugar (regular old granulated sugar)

to the creamed butter and sugar add:
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

in separate bowl, mix well:
2 1/4 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar

Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients, blend well (on low mixer speed, otherwise it's a mess).

Now comes the hard part. Telling when you have enough flour. Some years, I've had to add a good extra cup (or more) of flour to make the dough the right consistency. Basically, and this is difficult to describe, but the dough should be a nice thick consistency, almost like play-dough (but not as thick as that). It should not be super soft and gooey, it shouldn't really be sticky at all. You want something that you're going to mold into cookies, so it has to be pretty firm to start with.

Once you get the right consistency, chill the dough in the fridge a good hour, to thicken it. Then take it out, spread some flour on your counter or wherever, roll the dough flat and thin (hard to say how thing, really depends on your cookie cutters, but don't go too thin) and start (you really need a rolling pin to do it right), then cut out your cookies. Transfer them to a baking pan (spray the pan if you like), decorate them with colored sugar, chocolate chips, etc. Move any excess sugar away from the side of the cookies, or it will melt and stick the cookie to the pan. Use a toothpick to poke a hole in the top of each cookie (and once it comes out of the oven, poke the hole again).

Then bake 8 to 10 minutes at 375F until slightly brown. Take out, let them cool a good ten or 15 minutes before you try to move them. They last for literally weeks, no kidding. Read the rest of this post...

Santa setting a bad example?

Say it ain't so! Read the rest of this post...

Obama on the health insurance bill

The President gave a speech after the health insurance bill passed in the Senate. Here's what he had to say:

In a historic vote that took place this morning members of the Senate joined their colleagues in the House of Representatives to pass a landmark health insurance reform package -- legislation that brings us toward the end of a nearly century-long struggle to reform America’s health care system.

Ever since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform in 1912, seven Presidents -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- have taken up the cause of reform. Time and time again, such efforts have been blocked by special interest lobbyists who’ve perpetuated a status quo that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people. But with passage of reform bills in both the House and the Senate, we are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful health insurance reform that will bring additional security and stability to the American people.

The reform bill that passed the Senate this morning, like the House bill, includes the toughest measures ever taken to hold the insurance industry accountable. Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny you coverage on the basis of a preexisting condition. They will no longer be able to drop your coverage when you get sick. No longer will you have to pay unlimited amounts out of your own pocket for the treatments you need. And you’ll be able to appeal unfair decisions by insurance companies to an independent party.

Sounds good, some of those "special interest lobbyists" earned their money on this bill -- and they were aided and abetted by Obama's staff (e.g. that multi-billion dollar sweetheart deal for drug makers. And, insurance company lobbyists aren't unhappy these days either. But, apparently, we're supposed to overlook that now.)

The rest of the speech is after the break.

From your president:

If this legislation becomes law, workers won’t have to worry about losing coverage if they lose or change jobs. Families will save on their premiums. Businesses that would see their costs rise if we do not act will save money now, and they will save money in the future. This bill will strengthen Medicare, and extend the life of the program. It will make coverage affordable for over 30 million Americans who do not have it -- 30 million Americans. And because it is paid for and curbs the waste and inefficiency in our health care system, this bill will help reduce our deficit by as much as $1.3 trillion in the coming decades, making it the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade.

As I’ve said before, these are not small reforms; these are big reforms. If passed, this will be the most important piece of social policy since the Social Security Act in the 1930s, and the most important reform of our health care system since Medicare passed in the 1960s. And what makes it so important is not just its cost savings or its deficit reductions. It’s the impact reform will have on Americans who no longer have to go without a checkup or prescriptions that they need because they can’t afford them; on families who no longer have to worry that a single illness will send them into financial ruin; and on businesses that will no longer face exorbitant insurance rates that hamper their competitiveness. It’s the difference reform will make in the lives of the American people.

I want to commend Senator Harry Reid, extraordinary work that he did; Speaker Pelosi for her extraordinary leadership and dedication. Having passed reform bills in both the House and the Senate, we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law. And I look forward to working with members of Congress in both chambers over the coming weeks to do exactly that.

With today’s vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country. Our challenge, then, is to finish the job. We can't doom another generation of Americans to soaring costs and eroding coverage and exploding deficits. Instead we need to do what we were sent here to do and improve the lives of the people we serve. For the sake of our citizens, our economy, and our future, let’s make 2010 the year we finally reform health care in the United States of America.

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Health insurance bill just passed in the Senate

With Vice President Biden presiding, the Senate has passed its version of the health insurance bill by a vote of 60 - 39. A simple majority was need for final passage. Every single member of the Democratic caucus voted yes. The no votes were, of course, all Republicans. Senator Bunning (R-KY) didn't vote.

Now, it's on to the House/Senate conference. It won't be a real conference with each body officially appointing members (GOPers would filibuster that in the Senate.) It will be more of a mini-conference. Leaders from the House and Senate will hammer out a bill, in conjunction with the White House brain trust. As Brian Beutler reported, timing is still unclear. Negotiations will begin soon, but there's talk that it could roll into February. You can see where this is leading, right? The final package will be much closer to the Senate version than the much more progressive House bill, which passed in November.

Advocates for real reform support the House bill. Insurance companies like the Senate bill. Drug makers are pretty happy with the Senate bill, too. I have to say, I never expected insurers and Pharma to be the beneficiaries of Obama's agenda.

Yesterday, Rep. Louise Slaughter, who chairs the powerful House Rules Committee, wrote an op-ed laying her opposition to the Senate bill. Although, Greg Sargent talked to Slaughter's press secretary who "confirms [Slaughter's] not ruling out a vote for the final bill, even if it lacks a public option or other concessions sought by progressives." We'll hear a lot of this over the next few weeks. I'm sure a lot of House progressives are very angry with the Senate bill -- and the fact that Senators Nelson and Conrad have basically told the House to shut up and do what the Senate says. There are a lot of things that could and should be fixed in conference. As to whether we get a better bill from conference, count me in the skeptical camp.

So, the legislative session for 2009 is over. Health insurance reform dominated the disscussion, sweeping many other issues off the table. And, that will be the case for the start of 2010, too. Read the rest of this post...

Yule goat burns, again

Oh the humanity. Or something like that. Here's the cute goat in the town of Gävle, Sweden before the burning started. Maybe there's a Swedish reader or someone who knows more about the local culture who can fill us in on the history of the yule goat. Then they can explain why the goat keeps getting torched despite local efforts to protect it. Here's an unconfirmed filming of the incident. Seems a bit odd, but at least the local police haven't pulled guns on the arsonists, yet.

Arsonists set fire early on Wednesday to a giant straw statue of the Swedish Yule goat, a forerunner to Santa Claus in Sweden, defying security measures for a third year in a row.

Police in Gavle, north of Stockholm, said an unknown number of attackers had torched the goat in the early morning hours, leaving a blackened skeleton standing in the town square.

"It's a tradition to burn it down," Lofberg said. "It's happened an untold number of times since the 1960s ... it's been burned down more years than it's survived."

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Barclays hands out pay raises for investment bankers

Merry Christmas! It's as if the credit crisis never happened. This is what happens when you save an industry from complete collapse and fail to dictate the terms. The only people who are more nauseating than the bank management would be the politicians who allowed this to happen in the first place. Bankers continue to be the protected class on both sides of the pond despite the noise.

Up to 23,000 investment bankers at Barclays have been handed pay rises in the last few days in a move that may inflame the ongoing row about City pay. It comes as the bank revealed that high-profile board director Bob Diamond had sold £5m of shares.

Diamond runs the Barclays Capital investment banking arm which wrote to all staff on Tuesday to inform them of their pay rises. They are being granted just as the government is levying a 50% tax on bonuses. The move is certain to increase tensions with lower paid staff in Barclays' high street operations who represent the majority of staff and are the public face of the bank.

The pay rises, which have been calculated individually depending on grade, are being handed out ahead of what is expected to be one of the most fraught bonus seasons in memory because of the political interest in bankers' pay after the taxpayer bailout. While Barclays did not take government money, unlike Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, it has, along with other banks, benefited from the liquidity pumped into the system by the Bank of England.

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