A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She
lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below. She shouts to
him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an
hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consults
his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately
30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31
degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west
longitude. She rolls her eyes
and says, "You must be a Republican!" "I am,"
replies the man. "How did you know?" "Well,"
answers the balloonist, "everything you tell me is technically correct,
but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost.
Frankly, you're not much help to me." The man smiles and
responds, "You must be a Democrat." "I am,
replies the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well,"
says the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You've
risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise
that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem.
You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow,
now it's my fault."
This three-time Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and
producer whose music spans multiple genres has recorded six studio albums and
earned seven Grammy Award nominations.This
is one of the best songs I have heard in a long time. Brandi Carlile - the intensity and emotion is palpable.……
On this day in history only eleven short years ago the Federal
Reserve held its first emergency weekend meeting in 30 years. A few days later
the Fed announced that it would guarantee all of the bad loans found in the $10
trillion dollars of securities held by Bear Stearns.Additionally, pressure was brought to bear on JP Morgan to
purchase Bear and prevent a looming bankruptcy.It
was feared that if Bear Stearns failed those securities would become worthless
overnight and the global financial system would be brought to the brink of
collapse. On March 18 federal regulators
agreed to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase an additional $200
billion of subprime (junk) mortgages from struggling American banks.These secondary market purchases would then
be repackaged into mortgage-backed securities and sold back into the investment
markets.If it turned out that the
mortgages were sound – no big deal.If
the repackaged mortgages were bad then Fannie and Freddie would be liable for
the debt.The Federal Housing Finance
Board also authorized the regional Federal Home Loan Banks to purchase $100
billion in subprime mortgages.These
would also be guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This house of cards constructed by Fed Chair
Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was thought to solve the
problem and avert any continuation of the crisis.What Bernanke and Paulson did not know was
the enormity and pervasiveness of the subprime mortgage problem.Their actions actually were a contributing factor to a serious destabilization of the Fannie and Freddie. Just like a hurricane increases in force over
open water - the gathering shit storm continued to grow in force.Nobody knew what was about to happen when it
made landfall.......
On August 8, 2005 - President George W. Bush signed the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law. Part of the act extended Daylight Saving
Time starting in 2007 from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in
November. If you’re like me this semiannual switch
between Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time is maddening.Today I lost an hour of sleep and in November
I have to submit to the reverse.At
least this coming November I won’t be getting up in the dark and driving home from work in the dark.I’ll be retired and that nonsense will end. And it is a bunch of nonsense because of the troubles that these transitions
cause. Researchers
have learned that on the Monday after daylight saving starts, the incidence of
stroke, heart attack and traffic accidents increases.Judges hand-out tougher sentences and
employees are more likely to waste time surfing the Internet. Nothing but trouble. Daylight
Saving Time is associated with the Western world as most countries outside
Europe and North America don't observe the ritual.Proponents of Daylight Saving Time argue that
most people appreciate an increase in daylight hours after coming home from
work. It enhances public safety, makes
good economic sense and may improve our mental health.Personally-speaking I like the notion of
longer, lighter evenings, better health and a happier more prosperous United
States.I can get behind those benefits. Moreover, if it is such a good idea it should be made
permanent. Voters in California think so because they approved a ballot measure
last year to make it permanent. I happen to think that's smart policy - particularly if you are the sixth-largest economy on the planet.But the change still faces several hurdles –
including obtaining Congressional approval before it can be implemented.
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