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POPSJohn Maynard Keynes: Don't call it a comeback And yet today, you can't click your way three links through the econoblogosphere without stumbling into a flame war between reenergized triumphalist Keynesian supporters of government intervention in the economy and bewildered, angry market fundamentalists who have just watched their painstakingly constructed world crumble around them. Just a few years ago the heat of the debate would have been unthinkable -- Keynes seemed to have about as much relevance to current economic policymaking as Winston Churchill does for the Middle East peace process.
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POPSReport: ‘Death panels’ author worked with big tobacco to scuttle health reform Susie Madrak, in her blog at Crooks and Liars, cites key parts of the Rolling Stone article: W]hat has not been reported until now is that McCaughey’s writing was influenced by Phillip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco company, as part of a secret campaign to scuttle Clinton’s health care reform. (The measure would have been funded by a huge increase in tobacco taxes.) In an internal company memo from March 1994, the tobacco giant detailed its strategy to derail Hillarycare through an alliance with conservative think tanks, front groups and media outlets. Integral to the company’s strategy, the memo observed, was an effort to “work on the development of favorable pieces” with “friendly contacts in the media.” The memo, prepared by a Phillip Morris executive, mentions only one author by name:
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POPSGoldman Profits. Do We Lose? From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again. In a brilliant article that appears in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, "The Great American Bubble Machine" by Matt Taibbi, we can see in all its gory and horrendous detail what is so wrong with "the invisible hand of the marketplace." From the article: “any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”
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POPSGoldman Sachs Pumping and Dumping Our Economy An excellent article and video by Matt Taibbi, from Rolling Stone Magazine, about how Goldman Sachs has been systematically, repeatedly, "pumping and dumping" the American economy, creating bubbles, then positioning themselves to profit from the popped bubbles, then being in good position to help "fix" the inevitable recession.
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POPSGoldman Sachs The Wizard of Oz and primed to spearhead an assault on the mortgage banks, bringing suits against any suspected of practicing unlawful discrimination, whether on the basis of race, gender or disability." Goldman Sachs played a major hand in these Clinton-era financial policies through Robert Rubin, former Co-Chairman of the firm, who actually announced them on December 8, 1993. Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone: During his (Robert Rubin's) tenure at Treasury, the Clinton White House made a series of moves that would have drastic consequences for the global economy - beginning with Rubin's complete and total failure to regulate his old firm during its first mad dash for obscene short-term profits. Taibbi adds that other Goldman graduates played a major hand when the market crashed, including another Goldman-ex turned Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson: Paulson elected to let Lehman Brothers -- one of Goldman's last real competitors -- collapse without intervention...
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POPSWhose to blame for the housing bubble? Lenders! In my opinion, the housing bubble was caused primarily by one thing - greedy lenders who knew exactly what they were doing and how disastrous the consequences would be long term. This clip from Rolling Stone magazine says it well...
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POPSOnline peek at Peter Jackson's sci-fi movie more: They like to scavenge things, rip up train tracks. So the authorities shift them 200 miles away, into the African veldt. They've built a concentration camp. The residents of Joburg want them gone." Some of the visual effects for the film were done by Wellington's Weta Digital. " the aliens are so mundane and so part of the geography that you don't really focus on them at all," Jackson said. "The film has a documentary rawness to it. It's original, which is good because the film industry today only wants to remake every 70s TV show and superhero graphic novel." * Watch the trailer here.
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POPSRolling Stone Satire Led to Gitmo Torture
Among the things that it's illegal to do these days, add "reading Rolling Stone while Muslim." Better put down Mad Magazine too, just to be on the safe side. The piece tells us: "Unclassified evidence corroborates Binyam’s claims that he was threatened – at the time the White House was obsessed by the idea terrorists had access to nuclear materials," said Mohamed's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. "Binyam said that he told them about a website he had once seen on the internet called How To Build An H-Bomb. He said that this was a joke but they thought it might be serious. "I am speculating but I think this news was sent up the line to the White House, which is when the paranoia kicked in," Stafford Smith added. "This is how they made their huge mistake, thinking he was a major terrorist as opposed to a London janitor." Feel safer now? Never let it be said that the Bush administration wasn't paranoid enough. They were always willing to err on the side
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POPSRemember which party last stole and election Don’t worry about Mickey Mouse or ACORN stealing the election. According to an investigative report out today in Rolling Stone magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast, after a year-long investigation, reveal a systematic program of "GOP vote tampering" on a massive scale.
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POPSIs There A Skeleton In John McCain's POW closet? Excerpted From The Rolling Stone Magazine: In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches. Rolling Stone Link: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain Also On: http://www.thethinkingblue.com/MCPAIN.html
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