Great Post.

The big threat to representative democracy is not OWS and people protesting in the streets, but the organized forces of plutocracy that currently control both parties. The next six months will likely tell the tale. Will OWS shrivel away as the fall chill turns to winter cold? Or will the snows of winter be like Valley Forge and forge the beginnings of a new nation.

The key for George Washington was drilling and preparation through the long cold bitter months. The key to civil rights protests was the months of preparation and training in nonviolent action. The same was true for Gandhi. In all three instances change took decades.

This is not going to be either quick or easy.

Sorry, I am not offering investment advice. Just stating that the S&P downgrade has the effect of reducing the value of all the securities in a money market mutual funds portfolio — potentially by an amount larger than the pathetic yield on the paper at the same time it may trigger redemptions forcing them to sell securities at a loss and thereby reducing the net asset value of the portfolio below a dollar for dollar level. Remember what almost happened when L. Bros. went under? Several MMF threatened to break the buck. Treasuries and all debts tied to treasuries much bigger deal. Fed backstop will potentially be required to prevent this.

Because of S&P action, Money Markets may break the buck on Monday without Fed backstop. Basic savings account better choice for safety.

Actually it may correlate with stock market returns which statistically are significantly higher (16.5%) under Democratic administrations than Republican ones. Pedro Santa-Clara and Rossen Valkanov published the results of their work in “The Presidential Puzzle: Political Cycles and the Stock Market,” which was featured in The Journal of Finance in October of 2003. It makes sense that better economic conditions as represented by stock market returns would lead to lower suicide rates.

Of course, if the pain gets bad enough we can always turn to “The Leader” (whoever that might be at the moment) and abandon the whole idea of representative government — substituting a popularly based military dictatorship for the dysfunctional Congress. A cynic would almost think that was the point all along.

Meanwhile, Congress is off on Summer vacation, inviting 74,000 workers on FAA contracts out to play without pay, Larry Summers plays cya, little Timmy is stuck in the well, and its time for another empty rhetorical pivot to jobs. Unemployment is on track to be above 9% on election day, but apparently the progressive base will turn out for the President because they have no where else to go (if they don’t turn out we can blame the loss on the left for staying home).

Amen.

Another word for government is civilization. Anti-government equals anti-civilization. I’m sorry, but I happen to like clean hot and cold running water, sanitary sewer systems, safe food, safe streets, emergency responders, paved roads, secure ways to save, hospitals, schools, and the internet. I like the idea of living in a society where no one goes hungry, where no one sleeps in the street, where no one has to choose between paying for heat or paying for medicine. I prefer living in the 21st Century to the 18th Century and I don’t believe I am alone. Want to see a state where the people have thrown off the shackles of the government — go to Somalia.

A phony crisis cooked up to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…. and still President Obama runs unopposed in the primaries.

Until someone in the Senate steps up and challenges the President in the primaries, then he is free to continue treating them like mushrooms — keep ‘em in the dark and throw dung on ‘em.

Nothing else really matters to the White House. Unless they have a primary opponent they really don’t care about the Democrats on the Hill or out in country. We must find an opponent to challenge him. Something always beats nothing and right now we have nothing so he runs unopposed.