Bernanke offers some sympathy for Wall Street protesters

Yeah, he's probably worried they're coming after him next. Still, this is interesting. The protests have moved from "oh those crazy kids" to "seriously credible" in a matter of days. And it may all be due to one NY police officer who thought it would be neat to pepper spray in the face a bunch of peaceful young woman just standing there doing nothing.  That caught the world's attention. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Little girl weirded out by, then warms up to, fake puppet dog

Adorable.  And the puppeteer is simply amazing.  This was filmed in the La Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina (a wonderful city, and country, if you ever get the chance to go - amazing food, among other attributes).

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GOP’s stunt in Senate today, still refusing to have a vote on Jobs act

This is why people hate Washington. Because Republican members of Congress think they're too dumb to understand the difference between an actual vote on a bill and a stunt. And in the case of GOP voters, they're sadly often right. The Republicans aren't interested in fixing the economy, and certainly not doing it before the election - that might help the party in power, and the only thing that matters to the Teabaggers running the Republicans party is power. After all, they're simply conservative Republicans using a new name.

The White House should respond to by telling the American people that Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell are lying. Call them on it. It will create a brouhaha that frankly would be healthy, and cleansing. We're not dealing with normal people here, we're dealing with a Republican part that is now far out of the American mainstream. They need to be exposed, not to help the President get re-elected but to stop them from being elected. America can't afford a teabagger in the House, the Senate and the White House. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Michele Bachmann bad lip-sync

Funny as hell (once you get beyond the incredibly annoying background music).

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White House weighs in on #OccupyWallStreet protests

I agree with Greg Sargent's analysis:

The story here is not what the White House said but that it was asked to weigh in on the protests at all — another sign of the remarkable speed with which it has grown from a crowd chanting at police two weeks ago. As for the substance of the White House response, it would have been a mistake for it to go any further than it did here — registering an understanding of economic frustration. Because if there’s one thing that’s growing clearer by the hour, it’s that this is an entirely organic effort, one that’s about nobody but the protesors themselves. In this sense, we’re seeing a replay of the Wisconsin protests. Those ended up falling just short of what activists had hoped to achieve, but their months-long showing was still important — it demonstrated that left wing populism is still alive and well and sent an important message about the mood of the country. The key was that it grew organically with little to no involvement from Beltway Dems and the White House.

If anything, Occupy Wall Street’s lack of outside encouragement from bigfoot Dems has been a strength, rather than a weakness. As major progressive groups debate how they can contribute to strengthening the movement — and how to give it specific direction and a specific agenda — the need to preserve its grassroots nature will remain paramount. Who knows where this will end up, but for now, this is another reminder that the Tea Party isn’t the only voice of popular discontentment over the economy. We don’t necessarily live in Tea Party Nation, after all. [emphasis added]

One thing the Teabaggers learned early, it takes a little mouthing off and speaking up to get heard. Read the rest of this post...

Goldman economist: Recession chances 40%, unemployment to rise

Only 40%?

Odds that the U.S. economy will enter recession are now close to 50-50 as unemployment heads on a path higher and pressures from Europe intensify, Goldman Sachs economists said.

Jan Hatzius, Goldman's chief US economist, pegged recession chances at 40 percent and said the jobless rate is likely to surge to the mid-9 percent range in 2012.

While that still jibes with the firm's forecast that a recession — or two consecutive quarters of negative growth — is not the most likely scenario, the warning signs flashed Tuesday underscore concerns about European debt contagion on an already fragile US economy.

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Report: Government knew of mortgage modification failures and did nothing

Paul Kiel at ProPublica reports on the failures of the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program to conduct oversight and hold banks accountable for following the program's rules. A snippet:

Documents obtained by ProPublica — government audit reports of GMAC, the country’s fifth-largest mortgage servicer — provide the first detailed look at the program’s oversight. They show that the company operated with almost no oversight for the program’s first eight months. When auditors did finally conduct a major review more than a year into the program, they found that GMAC had seriously mishandled many loan modifications — miscalculating homeowner income in more than 80 percent of audited cases, for example. Yet, GMAC suffered no penalty. GMAC itself said it hasn’t reversed a single foreclosure as a result of a government audit.

The documents also reveal that government auditors signed off on GMAC loan-modification denials that appear to violate the program’s own rules, calling into question the rigor and competence of the reviews.

Some of the auditors’ mistakes are “appalling,” said Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group. “It suggests the government isn’t taking the auditing process seriously.”

Via Atrios, who points out "the Obama administration had total control of this." Read the rest of this post...

GOP primary free for all as everyone starts moving up their dates

This looks awfully familiar. It's also awfully childish. No one wants to be last, and that's understandable. Why not just have all the primaries on one day and be over with it?

SOUTH CAROLINA GOP SETS PRIMARY DATE, BASICALLY GUARANTEEING EARLY IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE DATES - Because the state of Florida just HAS TO mess with the electoral process every so often (whenever Mercury is in retrograde, we guess), the South Carolina Republican party today was forced to announce that its Republican primary will be held on January 21st, ten days before Florida's moved-up date of January 31st. This will likely result in an Iowa caucus date shortly after the New Year's Day and a Granite State primary a week or two later. This sets up a potentially nasty confrontation with Nevada's Republican party, whose primary might be squeezed out of its traditional fourth spot by the recent scheduling changes. "We're not happy with them, period," Nevada GOP Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian told Politico. "We have what, 28 delegates? They have 99. So what do they care if they lose some? They didn't have to be bullies about this."

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Gallup CEO: There's a "potentially devastating global shortfall of about 1.8 billion good jobs"

Thanks to the always informative econ writer masaccio, we find this, from James Clifton, the chairman and CEO of Gallup (the polling people).

Yes, there's a huge jobs shortfall. No, it's not a U.S. problem, it's a global problem. And no, it's not going away soon (my emphasis):

Of the 7 billion people on Earth, there are 5 billion adults aged 15 and older. Of these 5 billion, 3 billion tell Gallup they work or want to work. Most of these people need a full-time formal job. The problem is that there are currently only 1.2 billion full-time, formal jobs in the world. This is a potentially devastating global shortfall of about 1.8 billion good jobs. It means that global unemployment for those seeking a formal good job with a paycheck and 30+ hours of steady work approaches a staggering 50 percent, with another 10 percent wanting part-time work.

This also means that potential societal stress and instability lies within 1.8 billion people, nearly a quarter of the world’s population.

Those are huge aggregate numbers, which means a lot of societal stress. Earlier the author gloomily notes:

If countries fail at creating jobs, their societies will fall apart. Countries, and more specifically cities, will experience suffering, instability, chaos, and eventually revolution. This is the new world that leaders will confront.

Clifton calls this "America’s next war for everything" and likens it to WWII in scale and importance. (For masaccio's take, click here. It's worth a read.)

I'm not sure I agree with jobs as a primary focus for civil unrest in the rest of this century, though there's nothing minor about this problem. The lack of jobs has a cause, which makes it a symptom as well. That cause is global corporate control of economic lives and resources. This includes banks and all industries.

So while lack of jobs is one ugly tentacle of this global beast, there are others. For example, "water is the next oil" is something I'm hearing again and again, and the anti-corporate fight over water has already been joined. (Imagine a third-world farmer not being able to drill a well on his own land, because the water rights under the entire province have been sold to Global Water, Inc (a subsidiary of Koch Industries perhaps) by a corrupt and bribe-able local government. That's the coming water world.)

The "last oil" of course — which is actual oil — is still with us. If the Oil & Gas Barons can keep a lid on the social unrest (no easy task), they're perfectly placed to sell the last drop of petroleum on the planet to the increasingly desperate at an astounding price (not including the price in pollution).

What do you call it when an addict will pay you anything for what only you have? Mission Accomplished, of course. Welcome to CorpWorld, new-century edition.

So you see, it's not just jobs, though that's a huge piece of the problem. There are lots of these tentacles. And at some point in this century that problem will have to be sorted, to the bitter end. If we're lucky, it won't happen in our personal lifetimes.

But kudos to Clifton for noticing the job numbers. A 1.8 billion shortfall certainly gets your attention.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Obama hits #2 GOPer in House, Eric Cantor, hard on opposition to JOBS bill

More of the new Obama.  This is good, keep it up.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2011

Excerpts of the President’s Speech on the American Jobs Act in Mesquite, Texas – As Prepared for Delivery

As Prepared for Delivery –

Dallas, that starts now. That starts with your help. Yesterday, the Republican Majority Leader in Congress, Eric Cantor, said that right now, he won’t even let the jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives. He won’t even give it a vote.

Well I’d like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain what in this jobs bill he doesn’t believe in. Does he not believe in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses, or efforts to help veterans?

Mr. Cantor should come down to Dallas, look Kim Russell in the eye, and tell her why she doesn’t deserve to get a paycheck again. Come tell her students why they don’t deserve to have their teacher back.

Come tell Dallas construction workers why they should be sitting home instead of fixing our bridges and our schools.

Come tell the small business owners and workers in this community why you’d rather defend tax breaks for millionaires than tax cuts for the middle-class.

And if you won’t do that, at least put this jobs bill up for a vote so that the entire country knows exactly where every Member of Congress stands.

Read the rest of this post...

Cantor won’t bring JOBS bill up for vote, but has time to vote on killing Big Bird

Because to the Teabaggers running the Republican party, their long time goal of killing Big Bird is more important than putting America back to work:

LukeRussert
Boehner on #GOP idea 2 defund NPR in nxt budgt bil: "ther hav been limitation amendments 2 these bils 4 as long as Cong has appropriated $"

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Numerous Chris Christie corruption scandals would re-emerge if he ran for president in 2012

UPDATE: More from the Post, he's not running.

Underneath all these concerned and principled "conservatives," it seems, there's an inner crony capitalist looking to enrich himself and his friends. It's now Chris Christie's turn to be revealed.

There are stories in New Jersey that are starting to make the rounds nationally, and they're not pretty — not surprising, but not pretty. From TPM2012 (h/t Cate Long via Twitter):

Chris Christie didn’t become governor of New Jersey the easy way. He first had to overcome a gauntlet of scandals in which he was accused of crony capitalism, big spending, and using his government title to get himself out of legal trouble.

And that's just the lede. Some of the details (my emphasis and paragraphing):

One of the most persistent stories that dogged Christie in his 2009 campaign was his unusual financial relationship with a top aide at his federal prosecutor office, Michele Brown. Christie lent Brown some $46,000, which he says was to help a family friend through a rough patch.

But critics argued that the move was an improper conflict of interest heading into a gubernatorial campaign since Brown was in a position to help Christie in a variety of ways. Her job included handling FOIA requests, including those from Governor Corzine’s campaign, for example.

And in one instance, she argued to colleagues in favor of wrapping up a major corruption probe before July 1, when Christie’s successor took over the US Attorney position, a move that ensured credit for the case would clearly flow to Christie. Brown resigned shortly after news of the loan broke and, according to the New York Times, she paid off Christie’s loan in October 2010.

It wasn’t the only allegation of conflict of interest that Christie fought off. The then-US Attorney testified before Congress on a series of no-bid monitoring contracts worth millions that he awarded to various law firms. One contract, worth up to $52 million, went to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Christie’s old mentor. Another former US Attorney chosen for a monitoring contract, David Kelley, had previously investigated Christie’s brother in a stock fraud case in 2005 — he was not indicted while fifteen others were.

So just in these two stories, Christie loans an aide in his US Attorney's office almost $50,000 — and she appears to returns the favor by helping to wrap up prosecutions early so Christie can get lots of tough-daddy cred for the convictions; she's also the point person on FOIA requests from Christie's 2009 election opponent, then Gov. Corzine, among others.

And that doesn't begin to cover the sweetheart contracts. They went to many more people than John Ashcroft, he of the anointed-by-Crisco incorruptibility. (Sometimes I think if it weren't for God's blessing, we wouldn't know who the good guys are.)

There's much more in the TPM article, and also more here (and here and here). It's a target-rich environment.

No wonder Christie is trying hard not to run for president. It would be uphill all the way.

GP Read the rest of this post...

NJ Gov. Christie announcing at 1pm ET that he is, or isn’t, running for prez

UPDATE: Politico is hearing that Christie will announce, again, that he's not running.

First Read looks at the GOP lineup if Christie doesn't run (via Political Wire):

"We see essentially three scenarios. The first is that much of the GOP establishment -- after watching Perry struggle over the past few weeks -- begins to coalesce around Romney (just see David Brooks this morning). That doesn't mean Romney's a sure bet to stroll through the primaries, but he becomes the obvious man to beat.... A second scenario: The conservative vote coalesces around Perry (or another anti-Romney conservative), which becomes dangerous for Romney. Just look at the new Washington Post/ABC poll, which shows the combined Perry-Cain-Bachmann percentage (39%) beating the combined Romney-Gingrich percentage (32%). (Gingrich seems to be an 'establishment' placeholder in many of these polls, despite the TYPE of campaign he's running, so that's why we include him with Romney.) A third scenario if Christie doesn't run? Perhaps someone else tries to get into the race. But with most likely some 90 days until Iowa, that person's chances of impacting the GOP contest become less and less as each day goes by."

Read the rest of this post...

Durbin/Miller take swipe at greedy banks

From Huff Post:

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Rep. Brad Miller are going on the offensive against Bank of America after the financial behemoth cited Wall Street reform in announcing a new five dollar monthly debit charge last week. Miller, a Democrat from BofA's home state of North Carolina, plans to introduce legislation that would make it easy for consumers to switch banks and simultaneously swap their direct deposit, electronic bill paying and other automatic features that make moving money from one bank to another more hassle than it's often worth.

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, meanwhile, is encouraging consumers to abandon the bank's debit card. "My word to consumers across America is talk with your feet, look for a debit card that doesn't charge the Bank of America fee," Durbin told HuffPost, adding that the revenue from the new fee likely far outstrips what they'll lose to swipe fee reform. "It would be no surprise if we found out that Bank of America is overcharging consumers again. They've been found guilty of that in the past, but I really encourage consumers across America to look for competition that doesn't charge this fee, move their debit cards."

This is the most important part of the article:

On Saturday, the Federal Reserve instituted a 24 cent cap on swipe fees, estimating that running the card costs banks between 7 and 10 cents per swipe. The cap is roughly 20 cents lower than the average swipe fee had been previously.

So it costs banks around 7 to 10 cents every time a debit card is used. But the banks charge around 44 cents. If my rusty math is correct, that's at least a 340% profit in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression.

That's what the banks are complaining about. Durbin is "only" letting them have a 140% profit. And Bank of America just can't live with that. Read the rest of this post...

Video: The #OccupyWallStreet interview that Fox News spiked

I love how the Fox News guy responds to the protester, Jesse LaGreca, and his complaint that Fox News is biased by telling LaGreca that here is his chance to tell Fox viewers whatever he'd like.

Then Fox refused to air the video, evidently because Jesse is seriously smart and seriously good at TV.

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Tuesday morning open thread

Well, mom and dad visited me over a long weekend, and I can tell I'm getting old... I really enjoyed it.  While they've been to DC a lot before, it was the first time they'd seen my new (and first) condo (that I bought right before the economy crashed, still hanging on).  Mom amazes me.  At 80, she's still far more efficient at doing things around the house than I'll ever be.  I've been struggling for years to figure out how to create a home office in a one-bedroom condo with no obvious nooks, and voila, mom did it in one day.  What to put over that big empty space above my door?  Ask mom.  And what about that wall I've always been wanting to paint, but never really knew how?  Yep, she paints too (though I painted, she just directed).

Oh yeah, and she brought me taffy apples from  Chicago.

They say youth is wasted on the young.  Moms are wasted on the young.

PS Man, painting is hard.  This is my second attempt as an adult (it was much more fun the first time I tried it, at age 8).  I can do well enough with the roller, but those edges and corners.  Even with the edge tool,  I'm clearly heading towards another coat tomorrow.  Mom couldn't understand my frustration.  She says she finds house painting fun.  Of course she does. Read the rest of this post...

Bachmann thanks caller for saying he’d vote for serial killer over Obama

Add it to the list of things a Democratic presidential candidate would never get away with. Read the rest of this post...

Video: What happens when you put a camera on a helicopter blade

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