We'll start off with a little humour from a transplanted Canadian and an official Ambassador for the Vancouver Olympic Games, Stephen Colbert, on an odd Olympic recession and the results:

A recent snapshot of the Olympics going on in Vancouver:

Olympic City Tries To Rise above Recession

“You have to predict the unpredictable”, says Dave Cobb, deputy chief
executive of Vanoc, the committee that has put together the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Were it not for the unpredictable, the games, whose opening ceremony
took place late on Friday, might be remembered as a model of good
housekeeping and environmental stewardship.

The sporting venues
were built on time and on budget. A new subway line links the airport
to the city centre. The athletes’ village, with a view over one of
Vancouver’s many picturesque waterways, sets high standards in energy-efficient construction.

However,
unforeseen events have taken the shine off these accomplishments. An
unprecedented economic boom pushed up labour and material costs during
the early preparations. Then the recession hit. Most recently, the
weather has dampened the Olympic spirit. Vancouver has had its warmest
start to a year ever, and rain has kept revellers off the streets for
the past few days.

The recession hits home for Team USA:

Michael Collins

"There
are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you
just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity
will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if
you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find
its way up and through every class that rests upon it."  William Jennings Bryan, 1896

Populism is broadly defined
as "political ideas and activities that are intended to represent
ordinary people's needs and wishes." The majority are  deliberately
held down by the financial elite.  Removal of the financial elite is
the vehicle to realize the "people's needs and wishes." (Graph)

The
statement from William Jennings Bryan is pure populism. It becomes less
pure as he proceeded with his speech. He used a metaphor of burning
down the nation's big cities since they were, he claimed, the
stronghold of the financial elite and support for the gold standard for
currency.

In practice, populism almost always entails anger and resentment.

promoted by roxy. Originally posted 2010-01-27 17:20:57 -1000

Michael Collins

Just a few cynics doubted the magnificent procession of then Senator
Barack Obama to the highest office in the land. He was the redemption
of our past sins, the proof that we were a better nation than we had
been. After all, race has been at the center of American politics since
Bacon's Rebellion was crushed in 1667 but we were  moving beyond that.  And we did.   Race was set aside for most of those who voted.

This is a front line report on the class war.   Edwin Girdle (The Colonel)
had an excellent business going until he needed a loan after the shock
of 2008.  The banks that got billions weren't lending and there was no
help anywhere else in the "safety net."  His story is compelling and
clear.  Noted at Jerome Doolittle's blog at SmirkingChimp.com who first posted this and reprinted with Mr. Girdle's permission. Michael Collins

For three years I owned and operated a mini-market/gas station in a
Cincinnati, Ohio suburb. I bought an already existing store using all
the assets I had, including my 401K funds, after being down-sized from
my middle-management career of 22 years (in one of the many industries
which the U.S. can no longer keep onshore).

Things went along fairly well and the business grew as I acquired a
large clientele of regular customers from the local construction
companies, other business owners, and the Ford plant. My girlfriend and
I worked 90+ hour workweeks and, along with help from a few part-time
employees, we operated 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
In other words, I was a real practitioner of the kind of
free-enterprise capitalism that our windbag politicians and business
leaders praise to the heavens while making sure it doesn’t apply to
them.

bailoutpeople.org

Citizens Respond

Michael Collins

PITTSBURGH
-- A new world order is emerging at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh with
a decision by the group to become the premier coordinating body on
economic issues.  Radio Free Europe, Sep. 26, 2009

The recent furor over the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG executives -- allegedly for "retention" even though 11 of 17 recipients are now no longer at the firm -- has resulted in a whirlwind of activity on Capitol Hill and from the White House, resulting in statements and claims that virtually every last dollar of those ill-gotten gains (the bonuses) will be recovered.

According to this piece on Reuters, U.S. to claw back AIG bonuses, lawmakers eye tax,

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration turned up the heat on AIG (AIG.N) on Tuesday over its employee bonuses, saying the embattled insurer will be forced to repay U.S. taxpayers before it gets another bailout of $30 billion.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner laid out the conditions in a letter to congressional leaders as irate lawmakers moved quickly toward legislation that would slap a heavy tax on $165 million in bonuses paid by American International Group Inc.

[...snip...]

Beyond the bonuses, anger flared anew on Sunday when AIG disclosed that Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and a host of European banks were the major beneficiaries of $93 billion in payments from the insurer -- more than half of the U.S. taxpayer money spent to rescue it.

The ongoing bruhahas -- which I strongly suspect won't be the last ones related to this burgeoning crisis -- are not completely unexpected. For some interesting reading regarding clawbacks and the "polluter pays principal" see the following Journal articles by Michael Thomas:

Use Clawbacks to Fund Wall Street Bailouts, by Michael Thomas
		Attorney Michael Thomas shares his insights from working with dot com and venture capitalists and witnessing first hand how they cleaned up the dot com bubble mess using clawbacks. He has some suggestions for the Wall Street One Percenters.
Read more...
Use Polluter Pays Principle to Fund Bailout, by Michael Thomas
		Michael Thomas recognizes that the Bailout bill that failed to pass in the House on Monday was at best, a compromise. Instead of a 700 billion dollar bailout, Thomas suggests that there is a viable alternative for funding the bailout through the concept of the "Polluter Pays" principle used in Super Fund Cleanup legislation.
Read more...

Check 'em out, and keep an eye open for more "good stuff" as it comes along on both the ePluribus Media Journal and over here, on our Community Site.

This is an Open Thread.

From March 20, 2008 -- an excerpt from a piece posted here by wade norris:

OK let's review. Last Spring, Bush said their was no recession. This summer, 'a few bumps in the road' - this fall, "Stormy weather", now, well their might be a depression, but my tax break will fix it. My opinion of these changes reflect that there is indeed a serious recession and possible depression occurring, but our news media doesn't cover the issues. At least BBC has covered the newest element of our spiraling economy - Bush's own 'Hoovervilles' are here.

A "few bumps in the road" appears to have turned into a highway to (or at least skirting) Hell. Even the magickally prosperous and ever-growing Dubai isn't immune:

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.

No talking? No facts or feedback if it'll hurt the government or reputation? Mmmm...maybe that's why Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, finds it a great place to retreat to. Of course, the voices of reality sometimes have a habit of catching back up with people -- and governments.

Click to enlarge. Attribution: xkcd.¹

It may not be a voice in the back of your head, but you can bet on the likelihood that someone is talking, somewhere. In this day and age, it's difficult to hide anything completely successfully.

No one knows how bad things have become, though it is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai’s major construction projects have been suspended or canceled. But with the government unwilling to provide data, rumors are bound to flourish, damaging confidence and further undermining the economy.

Instead of moving toward greater transparency, the emirates seem to be moving in the other direction. A new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country’s reputation or economy, punishable by fines of up to 1 million dirhams (about $272,000). Some say it is already having a chilling effect on reporting about the crisis.

Last month, local newspapers reported that Dubai was canceling 1,500 work visas every day, citing unnamed government officials. Asked about the number, Humaid bin Dimas, a spokesman for Dubai’s Labor Ministry, said he would not confirm or deny it and refused to comment further. Some say the true figure is much higher.

It's beginning to look like Dubai's little microcosm is also going to serve as a small-scale simulation of events that will play out if we don't get a viable handle on the current runaway economy.

This is an Open Thread.

For more information about past ePluribus Media stories, check out these taxonomy / "tag" / terms:

Note: there is a little overlap. 

Mesmerized by Melodic Rhetoric: Guns Versus Hope

Joel S. Hirschhorn

"I've been through Y2K and I've been through 9/11. I have never seen people so afraid as what we are seeing right now,” said gun shop owner Scott Moss recently.

Tax Solution to Wretched Greed

Joel S. Hirschhorn

Libertarianism: If Not Now, Then When?

Joel S. Hirschhorn

With the meltdown of the American economy, what better time to ask: Can libertarianism come to the rescue?

Perhaps the most interesting statement in the Wikipedia discussion of libertarianism is that

Originally published 2009-01-07 09:33:07 -1000 - promoted by roxy

When I was young talk about millions of dollars impressed me. When I was older talk about billions of dollars dismayed me. Now, regular talk about trillions of dollars, especially government spending, nauseates me.

People never seem to learn that they control the fate of the American economy. It is far too easy to blame in bad times or thank in good times Wall Street, the government, or super-rich and powerful financial entities. In actual fact it is always the spending of money by the general population on consumer products and services, housing, cars, or investments that drives the economy.

Wearing 'almost homeless' sign, ex-executive seeks work

Paul Nawrocki says he's beyond the point where he cares about humiliation.

A few short articles from Reuters this morning touch upon the current health of the economy, and it's not great news.

• Buffett sees "long, deep" U.S. recession

  _____

  BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday.

  _____

  Buffet said that the US may not be in a recession according to the default definition of two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but the people are already feeling the effects.

  Side Note: Given this White House's propensity for changing the facts to fit the policy (and propaganda), it would be interesting to see what the ~actual~ growth and performance indicators are before saying we don't yet meet the formal definition of a recession.

• Tax rebate won't stem U.S. recession: Merrill
  

  _____

  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is in a recession and stimulus from a government tax rebate later this quarter will only temporarily stem a fall in consumer spending, a Merrill Lynch economist said on Wednesday.

  _____

• Tech execs plan for economic troubles
  

  _____

  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Technology executives around the world are preparing for economic troubles to deepen.

  Many hope that their products will prove indispensable for customers and see emerging economies as sure-growth markets.

  But low- and middle-income U.S. consumers are struggling, and the relative strength of U.S. corporations may not last, executives said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Tokyo, Paris and New York this week.

  _____

The news isn't as cheery as some would like.

This is an Open Thread.

From the poster Becca in the Delphi Forum Pulling to the Left there's this bit of glum news:

_____

If you go to the Financial Forecast Center, you'll find the current 6-month T-bill yield from the US Treasury. There are links to other forecasts on the page, so you can see how truly spectacularly (yes, that's sarcasm) this economy is chugging along.

_____

What does the Financial Forecast Center show? A rather depressing graph:

It's a good thing that the GOP, the Bush Administration and George W. Bush himself are telling us we're not in a recession -- acknowledging it might actually mean they'd have to take some responsibility for doing something about it, instead of leaving it (and the myriad of other disasters they've spawned) for the next Administration to clean up.

No wonder the Republican brand is in trouble -- it's true value is now plainly evident, and it's worth far less than the junk bonds it is printed upon.

If you listen to George W. Bush, we're not in any kind of economic recession. We're in a slowdown. Rising oil prices, rising energy costs, the arrival of peak oil, the reality of global warming, the GOP denial of economic and social reality -- it's all in your head.

And, apparently, it's also on the minds of those silly folks who are in charge over at WalMart Stores' Sam's Club warehouses:

_____

UPDATE 3-Wal-Mart's Sam's Club limits rice purchases, By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sam's Club warehouse division said on Wednesday it is limiting sales of several types of rice, the latest sign that fears of a rice shortage are rippling around the world.

[...snip...]

Food costs have soared worldwide, spurred by increased demand in emerging markets like China and India; competition with biofuels; high oil prices and market speculation.

The situation has sparked food riots in several African countries, Indonesia, and Haiti. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that higher food prices could hurt global growth and security.
_____

People are beginning to get worried. Nobody wants a loved one or an entire family to go hungry; add to the rising costs of gasoline the increased cost of transporting food to market, and people are finding that their relatively stagnant incomes are no longer stretching as far or buying as much at the local store.

It might be a good idea to invest in a small greenhouse or community-run garden project, folks. Not only would that provide a unique and interesting hobby, it could help offset potential shortages in staples as both the costs to purchase and the cost to bring them to market rise.

More on the rising costs of food and ways to address it tomorrow.