Don't say I never gave you anything

Here it is folks. Now I know what you are thinking, you talked to your uncle Jamie about this and decided that you really didn't need it that in fact you don't want it! Well that is not only foolish but UNPATRIOTIC. Do you want to see this thing absolved in a dunking of dollars or not? Are you a believer or not? If not go ahead and get back to your cave with your goats because that's all you've got.

I agree with The Nation....

The Nation argues in this piece that the bank investment by the Treasury is an attempt to ensure the status quo of American financial power. I could not agree more. Not quite a six sigma event but shocking enough to make public.

Paulson's Bailout Beast

Bye Bye Wai Wai

While you were banalizing the hours reading about lasers emanating from The Superfish's manboy parts, there was something important happening in the land of raw horse ice cream. For as long as I can remember the greatest translator in the world, Australian Ryann Connell has been exposing the world of Japanese tabloids to the English speaking world. There was no better place to find out what pop starlet was dating what upcoming pachinko gangster or at what Love Hotel a cannibal jr. high music teacher had finally been caught. Today I belatedly found out that the unlikely news that Mainichi Daily, the newspaper that featured Connell's Wai Wai section, is claiming they are OUTRAGED that Connell has been depicting the Japoneeeeze as perverted violent psychopaths for the past decade. I want to believe its a joke but it would have to be pretty elaborate. Here is a link to how it all fell down, and for the truly adventurous, some (sadly sooo little) archived Wai Wai. And here.

Russia unleashes avalanche of credibility

In order to bring clarity to the crisis occurring in South Ossetia right now, pro-Kremlin news agency Russia Today has turned to internationally renowned foreign relations expert, former delivery driver and part-time Hemingway impersonator Joe Mestas to reveal the ugly truth behind the violence.

Spotlight On: Global Arrergy Suffering

This is way worse than Pearl Harbor.

In Praise of Love

It's easy to be cynical about love which is why it's so heart warming to come across this story. My vote for the most romantic couple of 2008.

Saatchi Gallery Online

The London based Saatchi Gallery has one of the ugliest user unfriendly websites I've seen in a while but they have some really great stuff lurking under the 1998 html. The Showdown section showcases 10 or so artists and allows you to rate them from 1-10. They pick the winners after a certain time period and the winners go on to compete against each other. The Stuart section allows students to upload their artwork(video, photography, all kinds of visual work) and get exposure and criticism from all over the place. I don't know how many artists have posted there but suffice to say you couldn't review them all in a year and keep a job. These are just two sections of a very extensive web site, enjoy!

Saatchi Gallery

GET ON TARGET AND GO WITH IT!

Next time you are walking your dog late at night, and you need a flashlight... and a defense against a squad of armed guerrillas, this might come in handy.

High Ike Takes Hike

No need to beat yourself up over the senseless cocaine induced death of legendary bad boy Ike Turner. He lived the exciting and fun(too much?) filled life of a music superstar. Who wouldn't trade a little of that for a couple extra years? What you should be freaking out over is that somebody out there is selling blow to 76 year old men! Selling twenties at the local elementary school looks positively righteous in comparison. So let me be the first to propose a mandatory minimum sentencing guideline of 12 years for trying to explode some old person's heart. Law enforcement, if we could get a van outside the homes of Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Keith Richards and Jerry Brown we may be able to prevent another celebrity aortal blowout.

Never, Never, Ever Sheikh A Bank?

TBP is back from winter holiday rested and ready to blow my reader away with ideas NPR will cover with extreme prejudice later this year.
One of the most significant developments in the flow international capital the last year has been the increasingly public behavior of Sovereign Wealth Funds. Hardly a week goes by without a multi-billion dollar oily cash injection to a major U.S. bank from some Arabian peninsular nation. In addition, some Asian nations, Singapore, China and Korea have also begun opening their hoards to a smaller degree. How will all this play out? The protectionist contingents are naturally/confusedly against investment by Arab nations on the grounds they, (a) are terrorists trying to destroy the companies from within or use them to launder money or blow us up, (b) are hairy, (c) will take control of our nation and turn our women into slavs, (d) are only in it for the money, (e) will somehow corrupt our beautiful economic system, (f) all of the above. Choice (a) seems odd because why would someone sink tens of billions of dollars into an economy just to blow it up? (b) is a legitimate concern and should be examined with an extremely fine tooth comb. (c), well from time to time gene pools just need to diversify themselves. (d), duh. (e), I really welcome all coherent arguments that by increasing the base of capital in our markets be it by a non-capitalist regime or some old Japanese lady who has been stuffing her mattress for the past 4 decades will affect the sanctity of our financial oceans. (f), I would not accept beer from someone making all of these arguments before midnight on a weekday. So how is this actually going to play out? Despite the money, our markets continue to falter due to a recession that lasts for an uncomfortable amount of time. This would mean that the value of the SWF's investments decreases, as they did not correctly choose the market bottom and will have to wait a while to recoup their money. No harm no foul, they knew the risks, hate the game not the player,we win, etc. Another possibility is that we are at or near the bottom and as markets recover their actions are rewarded handsomely with wealth and insight into how healthy financial institutions operate. The belated point I am trying to make here is how should this affect our discourse over investing Social Security into the markets? The arguments being made by protectionists, while not as loud have similar substance to those made by the left after Bush floated the idea of private accounts. I have a hard time imaging that these investments will not beat the return of our Social Security fund over the long run. Should we sit on the sidelines while others profit from our stability and transparency? Is it moral to do so? Were such a plan to be implemented, there would have to be the most stringent investigation of any possible fraud and subsequent indictment if found. We have to accept some fraud would creep in, though not prohibitively due to the large number of actors in the plan. Some individuals would be able to profit from relationships or bailouts as cronyism is a natural effect of life. But if Social Security is able to return market or near market results for the long run doesn't that greatly outweigh a minimal graft occurring? As we meander into the future let's try and not let stale ideologies dictate our beliefs but incorporate them with lessons unfolding right now.