The site is actually an anti-Federal Reserve site, so I'm not sure if you can trust the numbers, but they should be close. Some interesting trends exist from the graphs (oh, and there's a lot of graphs and tables, geeks rejoice). - xero
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interesting ... i was not paying any attention to the game 4 years ago ... - Gregory Lent
i do think the machine has its way no matter who is "elected" - Gregory Lent
No matter who wins, we are all screwed. - Brian Newman
no, greg, incompetence has given us these 8 years of failure. - David Lynch
What the last 8 years has given is precisely what the previous 80 years has given: a corrupt and gargantuan government that cannot be reformed, and to which we surely cannot look for solutions. - eggsy
"The iconic Kung Fu star's films were banned from Communist China by Chairman Mao. But now his legacy is being reclaimed with an epic 50-part documentary on state TV. His body, glistening with sweat, is compact and ripples with muscles. The fighter is impervious to the pain of the slashes that have been made across his midriff. Glaring from beneath fierce thickeyebrows at the unfortunate enemy who has foolishly crossed him, he tenses his fists before striking out at his opponent. Scores of villains are no match for his kung fu powers. Bruce Lee always prevails." - RAPatton
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RAP: I agree. That's not nearly long enough. - Steven Perez
I saw every single Bruce Lee movie, most several times, read his biographies - that was decades ago and probably the only time I was ever a groupie/fan of a popular personality. - Bora Zivkovic
"If you laughed, thank me by passing it on to two friends. If you didn't laugh, get revenge by setting fire to your computer screen.
~Leecamp" - Jason Wehmhoener
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"Congressional leaders in both parties — including those whose statutory duty was to compel compliance by the intelligence agencies with the law — were absolutely complicit in allowing all of this to happen. They knew for years that the Bush administration was breaking the law in spying on Americans without warrants and remained quiet and supportive. Then, this year, Congress — led by Jay Rockefeller and Jane Harman (and both major party presidential candidates) — acted to immunize the private telephone companies that broke the law by enabling this spying and to expand the President’s authority to eavesdrop on Americans without meaningful oversight." - Sean McBride
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You shouldn’t worry.
That was the attitude of the political and media establishment for years — our Government Leaders are Good and want only what is Good for us, and need not have their powers questioned, checked, or limited. Today’s disclosures are just the revelations of two low-level independent whistle-blowers. Just contemplate what we will learn — years or decades from now — the Bush administration was really doing as we collectively decided that they could seize and exercise powers, even illegally, and exercise it without limits. - TStowers
Sean, you should gladly give up your freedoms if you have nothing to hide. What are you, a terrorist? </sarcasm> - Alan Cheslow
The greater the ideological zealotry and fanaticism, the greater the obsession to construct totalitarian systems of police state control for crushing and eliminating cult outsiders. Stalinism, Hitlerism and Maoism provide the model. - Sean McBride
Observe that all of those mutants, Stalin, Hitler and Mao, came from the Left. - eggsy
HItler was a Leftist? Really? Must be why he locked up and killed all of those crazy intellectuals. [/not really sarcasm] - Steven Perez
An anti-American article from Salon, how shocking. [/sarcasm] - Robert Hafer
@Robert, since when is it American to abuse surveillance powers against US citizens? - Alan Cheslow
Robert Hafer - anti-American? Can you explain? By the standards and values of the AFF (American Founding Fathers), standing up to this kind of abuse of surveillance powers is highly pro-American and patriotic. - Sean McBride
"It seems there is a new threat to our country- an insidious danger that is seeping into our homes and everyday lives that must be stopped at any cost. That threat is intellectualism.
We have heard the some of the buzzwords of this political season- Folksy, Joe Six-pack, Elitist, and Arugula Eating. It seems the new "culture war" or wedge issue is intelligence. The Vice-Presidential debate only solidified the lines in this war. On one side, you had Palin- full of "folksy charm" and "you betcha" language. Then you had Biden, who had a command of the issues, but was called "boring" and (gasp!) "professorial" by the pundits." - Sean McBride
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Except it is nothing new - it's been an undercurrent of American politics and culture for a long time now. - Bora Zivkovic
Obama One Kenobi is our only hope :) But seriously, how does the US hope to survive. Our days as a manufacturing center are long gone. Seems that the way of the knowledge worker and technology are the right way. As such, can we convince Joe Sixpack that he needs to study more? Perhaps the greatest thing about Bush is that nearly no one likes him. If it weren't for Dubya, perhaps McCain or Romney would be more popular. - Mike Reynolds
Mike, I don't think this is as much to do with Dubya as many like to think. IMO that's symptomatic of a general trend. When I first came to the states, when Clinton was still the man, one of the first things I noticed was the lack of respect for knowledge and education (and this exists even in the tech community). I remain completely baffled by this. - Deepak
Agree with Deepak, he took the words out of my mouth - Sally Church
Maybe if you berate them, call them "idiots" and "morons," they'll suddenly start agreeing with you. - You Betcha Glen Campbell
I think the problem starts with the culture in our schools (which, at least publicly, are funded and "guided" by the government) which emphasizes complete submission to authority and elevates athleticism above academic performance. The whole "nerds vs jocks" thing... It's fortunate now that at least technology is changing that among the kids somewhat, if not among their teachers and school administration. It will take at least another generation before the tide really turns for intellectuals. - Lindsay Donaghe
I think it goes even deeper than that: the culture in our schools is really just the culture in our country. - j1m
Sorry to disagree about schools but they do not reflect much of our society. At best, some schools might provide a distorted view of someone's interpretation of our society. The best we can hope is that schools are freed from the trappings of society and an environment is provided so students may explore knowledge from many angles. - LPH™
I would stipulate that schools in many places are not reflections of society. Most of my respect for knowledge was fostered at home. That said, in the schools I studied in, excelling at academics was always given more importance, both in the public and private schools I went to. Since I did not grow up in the US, can't really claim to understand what the reasons are, but it's the kind of situation where it might be impossible to pinpoint one or two reasons - Deepak
Well, the culture 'which emphasizes complete submission to authority and elevates athleticism above academic performance' is a deep part American culture, and that culture also permeates American schools. The history of submission to authority is much, much older than the history of public schools, so I think schools are pretty much ruled out as the source. I don't know anything about the history of why athleticism is so widely revered, but I'd be curious to know more. - j1m
We see the aftermath everywhere. From the economy collapse, to Apple's stock dropping 10% from a silly rumor from an uncredible site, to politics. It's about time America woke up. THINK, people! - Mona N.
in a dumbed-down country, the majority will always be wrong - Gregory Lent
Define authority though. To me the ultimate authority is my parents, even today when I am not quite a young un. Probably true for many others from the subcontinent. Is that the problem, or part thereof? - Deepak
My pet theory: the key to making people care more about their own education is to make the rewards more apparent or immediate. If getting A's on tests earned more money than selling drugs, many people would probably behave differently ;-) (And of course there are many ways to make rewards more apparent/immediate that don't involve money.) - j1m
Deepak, I'm assuming you're probably from somewhere like India from the comments you've made (and please forgive me if that's a bad assumption)... The cultural relationship between kids and parents is somewhat different in the US and when I say authority I basically mean the government and its model in the school system, administration and teachers. Kids usually don't listen to their parents after they leave home, and sometimes they stop much earlier than that. - Lindsay Donaghe
@j1m - I agree... there needs to be some way to inspire kids by internal motivation, not just to get good grades but to actually LEARN things. The problem is they are given assignments that are much less interesting than the alternative ways they could spend their time... they finish them because they have to be done, not to actually LEARN the materials... We are missing something. I think it's because our school system is geared to produce factory workers and not knowledge workers. - Lindsay Donaghe
Schools are too focused on test results and their rankings in the districts to be concerned about whether a child is actually getting the material or is gaining an appreciation for learning. Since it's easy to look at test scores as an indicator instead of judging a child's excitement and comprehension of the materials as the criteria for advancement there's a disconnect. We need to teach them how to teach themselves and reward them for going above and beyond the baseline curriculum. - Lindsay Donaghe
Lindsay, correct assumption. The reason this topic fascinates me so much is that most of the people I have met in the dozen or so years I've lived in the US do not fit the general "anti-intellectual" mould, which leads to the question about how they got to where they are today in a culture which seems to discourage that. - Deepak
I think it's the easy manipulation of the media. Anyone with a lot of money or tireless drive can hire a publicist/work the media garnering enough coverage/exposure to eventually create an impact or image, positive or negative. The barrier of entry to become an influencer is almost zero these days, sometimes not necessarily in a good way. We are what we consume, in a sense. If we raise the bar, we'll rise with it. - Patricia
one counter-argument .. partly the "war on intellectualism" can be supported because there is so little human heart in most applications of intellectual processes ... it ain't human sometimes, in shorthand ... thought the really smart are often very loving - Gregory Lent
This convo is evidence enough that the "intellectuals" don't get it. It's about popularity not IQ. Just look at Hollywood box office vs real art. Brad Pitt, Jolie, julia Roberts etc. bring in the big money and $$ mean power. There is nothing intellectual about it. - Alex Nesbitt
alex, good point, and why other intellectuals came up with metaphors like spiral dynamics to explain the differences in levels of consciousness .... the mainstream is the main stream, no doubt. ... intellectuals have only each other to talk to - Gregory Lent
I think this has been a part of US culture since the 1970s - Nixon was the first Republican politician to base his campaign on anger and bitterness directed against the country's intellectuals, and it's been like that ever since. - Alexander Carlill
lindsay: I'd be careful about scrapping exams. The UK has shown that the move towards coursework orientated teaching methods precipitate a collapse in the performance and engagement of males in the education process. A decline that is reversed upon entry into the competative environment of the university. Using exam results in order to rank schools is bad however. - alphaxion
It's like your whole country is subject to one giant instance of the Dunning-Kruger effect when it comes to choosing a leader. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... - Warren
"American International Group said on Friday that it had already drawn down $61 billion of the $85 billion emergency bridge loan it received from the Federal Reserve two weeks ago, an announcement that startled credit ratings agencies. The emergency loan was supposed to buy the company time to sell its troubled assets in an orderly manner. But the sell-off has not yet begun, and now the insurer faces the additional pressure of trying to sell the businesses at a time when potential buyers are having trouble borrowing money..." - Anthony Citrano
from the article: "A.I.G. has not released any information about whether additional ratings downgrades would lead to any additional collateral calls." ..... but you can bet they will. Which will probably lead to collateral calls in other financial institutions, and then others, and ..... - David HC Soul
they insure banks ... and other financial institutions, what would one expect? and the credit rating agencies are just good actors with their "surprise", everybody knows the dice are loaded, everybody knows ... leonard cohen just popped into my mind ... - Gregory Lent
this can't be real, can it? i didn't see this anywhere on the economist's site. i doubt a publication like that would publish something like this - Cee Bee
must be a joke, no way would they publish that - Susan Beebe
Fake! The copy I received says "Son of A...!" - Mike Lewis
fake fake fake … mine (in the UK) looks nothing like that. - dkb
Alas, mine arrived in the mail today and had a less dramatic cover ;) - Jennie Lin
fake, but really quite funny - I am curious to see how the endless cheerleaders of the free market economy will spin this meltdown - Nadine Schaeffer
Perhaps you can read the recent blog post of Prof. Gary Becker: http://www.becker-posner-blog...., it doesn't seem to me what is melting down is a free market economy, given the fact that majority of consumers in the market made their financial decision without fully understanding nor being well informed what it was. Or, in other words, fundamentally it is not free market mechanism that has caused the current problem. - Sophie Yip
Demonstrators protest the proposed 700 billion USD Wall Street bail-out in front of the New Yoprk Stock Exchange in the Financial District in New York on September 25, 2008. In response to the global financial crisis, protesters, from a variety of activist groups, denounced the capitalist system, Wall Street and the administration of US President George W, Bush. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas ROBERTS (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS ROBERTS/AFP/Getty Images - Mark Krynsky
They're all mavericks. Mavericks can hang out together. How else would they learn new mavericky things? And they're probably about to open up a can of maverick on that 8th guy. - Aaron Krug
John McCain. no matter what he actually does, he is the maverick in the room. always. - Jeremy Toeman
So basically Sarah Palin was lying through her teeth tonight when she said that Obama's tax plan would raise taxes for the average American!! - Jeff P. Henderson
@Jeff, Yes. Although now his plan will have to be adjusted due to the Financial Crunch the US is in. - Christopher Welle
Jeff: Yep. It's not the first time the McCain campaign has rolled out that lie though - they use it all the time. - Alexander Carlill
this is the same inaccurate graph i see over and over again. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Even though I do better under Obama's plan, I still like it less. It's wealth redistribution. He wants to increase the taxes on the rich (who already pay way more than they should) in order to reduce taxes on the people who pay relatively less. McCain's plan makes the income tax less progressive, i.e. more fair. And then there's the issue of spending. Deficit spending = inflation = a tax on all of us big enough to wipe out any reductions here. - Mark Jaquith
“What would it take to goad Americans into the kind of Revolution we had in 1775? I mean, it just took some over-taxed TEA to push that one over the edge...”
I just wonder how much we're all willing to take. I really want to start over from the Constituition. The system we have doesn't work. - Lindsay Donaghe
You want a revolution? Easy... Take their TVs away, make ballgames illegal and you have your revolution right there ;) - Ray Metzen
Capital Hill Tea Party FTW! yeah, take away beer, sex, tv, guns and nascar shit and you've got yourself a nice little revolution goin' on - Susan Beebe
The thing is those are all things that the Repubs generally like... what would make the Demos revolt? And why haven't they already?? - Lindsay Donaghe
Tad is probably close. I dont think a single organized revolution can ever take place really. If one did it would be a massacre. Just think Boston Massacre with automatic weapons instead of the (what were they flint locks?). Yeah not pretty. It would end up being a horrible ugly bloody gorilla styled fight. - Not Not Geoff Schultz
Can't we call for a re-election of all the people in Congress? Can't we just send them all home and start over? - Lindsay Donaghe
It would take to long to corrupt 560 more politicians and send them to DC if we fired the lot of them. - Earl E Morningwood
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Ration electricity to 4 hours a day. That'd do it. - AJ Kohn
The revolution will commence once the government becomes obsolete. My prediction is in less than 40 years. One more war (Iran) plus China coming to collect its debts, plus another natural catastrophe or two all at the same time and you'll have the entire West Coast seceding with other states following soon. There won't be a violent struggle, just a quiet, pathetic dissolution of the Union. Hopefully we'll be living on the West Coast by then. ;) - Tad - the Fresh Maker
Then let's go back to what the Constitution said and make the responsibilities of the federal government much smaller... then it would matter less how corrupted they were. Or better yet, make it so that there's no way to gain any power from being in political office... make the job not glamorous or full of perks. Somehow make votes anonymous so there's no real parties and people can focus on doing what's right for people instead of their political constituencies. - Lindsay Donaghe
increase the price of gas to over 4 bucks a gallon. Oh wait never mind - Earl E Morningwood
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The problem is that it wouldn't be a revolution. It would be a civil war. - Victor Ganata
Contemporary Americans are relatively fat and happy. The people that came here in the 18th century weren't. - Jason Wehmhoener
lol @ rodfather. it's coming on oct. 14th .be there! ha - Cee Bee
We may be fat, but I don't think we're happy anymore... and if the economy keeps going further downhill we won't be fat for long either... - Lindsay Donaghe
Yeah...Americans these days don't have that type of spirit - Rahsheen™
we lack the vision, courage, initiative, mental tenacity, will power, and spirit required to even consider, let alone, launch such a civil war. We're screwed until that changes...we might as well bend over some more. - Susan Beebe
Speak for yourself, I have vision, courage, initiative, mental tenacity, will power, and spirit to spare! - Aaron Krug
They didn't have the internet, cell phones, and tv back then to pacify the masses... - Grant Bierman
will never happen unless the army turns on the Government in support of the people. It's the killer (pardon the pun) factor - Duncan Riley
All of those things reside within people Susan. It just takes a threatened livelyhood to coax it out. - Not Not Geoff Schultz
Aaron - ok i wasnt' talking about you! ha, ha! :) Geoff - sooo true!! - Susan Beebe
Beings evolve because they must, not because they want to. We will not change unless we must ... and we have far too many enablers who ensure we don't get to that point. - AJ Kohn
I have always said, take away TV and beer ... but now, come to think of it, you would have to take away my internets too :P - Nadine Schaeffer
It took a little more than some overtaxed tea. - Peter Simard
every conspiracy theory put fourth since 1947 would have to be proven true. Then maybe a third of Americans get off the couch; whether or not they go outside is any ones guess... - J. Abdul-Qahhar
nadie that's what i've said too. i bet if there was a nationwide power outage on superbowl sunday, at least a good fifth of the nation might get a little perturbed. - Faboo Mama
Besides, how ridiculous is the notion anyway? Have you seen the kinds of weapons our military has available to it? We may have a second amendment, but last time I checked it's not exactly easy for me to buy an Abrams tank or an F16. - Jason Wehmhoener
as for a real revolt, well did anyone here get out and protest the iraq war before it started? across the internet, i saw the same thing, 'it won't matter, they're just going to do it anyway.' yes, but add your voice. don't grumble to me about it, but not contact your representatives and stand with your fellow citizen. instead i heard grumbling about the protests because it closed down streets where people wanted to eat brunch. - Faboo Mama
I protested the war. Millions of people did. Why didn't it change the course of events? - Jason Wehmhoener
Sometimes I feel when I'm listening to liberals and conservatives argue that we are heading towards a civil war. :/ Locally there are still protests of the war going on - weekly in some cities, for all that the government is listening. I'm not sure how well writing your representatives works, but I keep at it anyway. I think I read somewhere that each person that writes gets counted as 30,000 constituents? - Alix Whitmire
It would take a lot of people spending less time watching TV/on the computer. - Steve Lynch
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Rather than talking about a military revolution, shouldn't we be discussing economic shifts? Americans wield real power with their checkbooks. We choose to pay taxes. We choose how we eat. We choose our cars, our homes, and our jobs. Sadly, many people feel powerless even to make these choices, but if we made them consciously and collectively we could shift things. - Jason Wehmhoener
We choose to pay taxes? It's a choice? I had no idea... I thought it was only a choice if you didn't want the government to come point a gun at you and put you in jail for tax evasion... Maybe a choice but coercion doesn't make it seem that way. - Lindsay Donaghe
I think a coup d'etat stands a much better chance than a direct revolution against the government's vast martial powers as they currently stand, but I'm not aware of any coups that resulted in a constitutional democracy. Are there any? - Alan Cheslow
Take out everyone's TV and internet. - Steven Perez
Lindsay, you said "revolution" and you're worried about a gun being pointed at you? Let's ALL stop at once. Can they come for all of us? - Jason Wehmhoener
It would be nice to all stop at once, but how could you get even the majority of people to stop... and what's to stop the government from terrorizing people to keep them from organizing? - Lindsay Donaghe
If you can't get people to stop paying taxes, then you can forget about anything even remotely approaching revolution. Seriously, don't waste another breath. My suggestion is to enhance your own skills and be prepared for anything. If you can additionally manage to organize some small corner of society to reflect your wishes in some way, then I applaud you. But as for "America" as a whole, you're talking about 260+ million people. Just forget about it. - Jason Wehmhoener
What we need is some rich person who can spend money on tv ads to encourage people not to pay taxes and get the word out. But I guess rich people have so many tax shelters anyway they don't care... - Lindsay Donaghe
Wow, you guys aren't really patriotic in the loyalist sense. - Vez ৩
Loyalty to concepts, especially abstract and incontrovertible ones, is overrated. - Lindsay Donaghe
Well since the privately-owned commercial banking group known as the Federal Reserve does not represent the interests of the American people, and it creates what is known as the 'inflation tax', we in essence do have taxation without representation. Never mind that our Congresspeople who are *supposed* to represent us aren't doing a great job of it. - Alan Cheslow
" CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Congress has balked at the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Under this plan, the Treasury would have bought the "troubled assets" of financial institutions in an attempt to avoid economic meltdown.
This bailout was a terrible idea. Here's why.
The current mess would never have occurred in the absence of ill-conceived federal policies. The federal government chartered Fannie Mae in 1938 and Freddie Mac in 1970; these two mortgage lending institutions are at the center of the crisis. The government implicitly promised these institutions that it would make good on their debts, so Fannie and Freddie took on huge amounts of excessive risk." - Susan Beebe
via Bookmarklet
I've been promoting this article anywhere I can. Very smart piece. - AJ Kohn
I have to admit, it has a lot of good logic in it... this is such a pickle to be in. I don't like it AT ALL. - Susan Beebe
so despite the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the american public to not allocate $700 billion to this fiasco, the whole back and forth/on and off thing between the republicans and democrats wasn't about the dollar amount at all but rather about the method by which this money is gifted as well as who wanted to get the ultimate credit for making this go through. this gov't is garbage - Cee Bee
I am so fed up with Washington. Garbage is too nice a word. - David Risley
It's all about confidence and it's fair to say that Fannie and Freddie had too much confidence. - Andrew Pass
He's not getting a pass from the commentators at CNN. Unfortunately, some folks cannot look past their immediate economic circumstances. Shame. - Mavericks of Troy, NV!
The arguments for this bailout are similar to those for attacking Iraq: "We've got to do something, right?" - Chris White
exactly. the news became "we have to pass this or else we look like idiots who can't lead the american public" over "we need to take a hard look at whether or not this $700 million gift will change anything at all." the seed of fear was planted when paulson/bush & co pushed to get this done as quickly as possible or else we would all be doomed. so republicans got tax breaks and democrats get the credit for "making it happen," but does anyone feel any better about what just went down? - Cee Bee
and who came up with this figure of $700 billion anyway? seems like it was an arbitrary figure just thrown out there and everyone went along with it - Cee Bee
There is no turning back, because there is too much evidence that must disappear. - Cee Bee
+1 @helen... short-term thinking is what created this mess in the first place. - .LAG
According to Keith Olbermann, a spokesperson at the USFO says the number was just "made up". - Mavericks of Troy, NV!
Let this high fragile lattice of society we've built fall? Wild stuff. - Ernie Oporto
is anybody willing to admit yet that our entire system, our method of doing business, our worldview, is wrong? - Gregory Lent
Hmmm, Gregory. I mean what should I say? I am a green anarchist (primitivist) who earns his money in the internet... When I am that scizo, how scizo must the whole world be? - ※Fu※
fu, congrats on a mature integration of opposites, a sign of higher consciousness ... i have been noticing a kind of public denial that i need to articulate more clearly .. we are upset because our comfort is disrupted, not so upset that we want to transform our lives .. to do this as a society, we have to 'fess up that something is truly wrong with our system, and with us, and take responsibility .. think differently .. the public seems to think this is an anomaly, and not a symptom of something worse .. - Gregory Lent
