Apart from what it says about voters in South Carolina, the Sanford election says:

The Devil We Know wins over the Devil We Don’t Know.

And the Devil We Know excites South Carolina voters more than the sister of someone who makes fun of people like South Carolina voters.

Radar O’Reilly ? Fired?

I have been reading the work of Henry George. I am continually impressed with how he (in 1879 or so) properly characterized capitalism (and he was himself a capitalist) and how modern capitalists (which is most of them, but most prominently the Romney-Ryan variety) continue to substitute propaganda for it.

Ian Welsh often speaks of a rental economy and I never really understood what he was talking about until I read Progress & Poverty by George. I would encourage everyone to read that book. It is probably in your local library in its original form, but the edited form in modern english (by Bob Drake and available through the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation) is easier to navigate.

When UPS and FedEx fully fund their retirement contributions years in advance and charge the shipping rates necessary to do so, then I will believe “government should operate like a business”.

The idea of US Postal Bank is something I find interesting and attractive on its face. I would like to know more. I know for decades Japan had such a thing and it did offer services much needed by many of citizens urban and rural.

Tell me, is there any private sector corporation that funds its retirement plans 75 yrs out at 100%? Are there any human beings living on wages who do it on a 401K or self-directed IRA? My point is: if you believe in the Divinity of the Market Place and think UPS and FedEx do such a great job, can you point to a business that makes this commitment? When people want things “run like a business”–and especially when Congress-cretins say it–then I think they need to provide some models. I am certain this requirement on USPS is really backdoor way of saying “you don’t charge market rates” and if you did you could afford your retirement program. Except that I don’t think that is true–what couriers and shippers have rates that allow them to meet such a requirement?

Maybe a small point, but here it is. Most of the LIBOR coverage I see does not talk very much about the impact upon commercial borrowers–tends to focus on home mortgages. I used to have clients who borrowed money from Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo) that were LIBOR pegged in the early 2000′s. These borrowers built assisted living facilities and said they had much better loan terms via LIBOR than other loan instruments. At the time I didn’t know what LIBOR was and so I did a little investigation. I learned that the terms of loans based on those rates were considerably more favorable to clients like mine and while they had the potential of suddenly rising (as stated ‘on paper’), the banks would go on to show you they also had a multi-year history of remaining flat and predictable when US domestic rates were bouncing all over the place. That is why Wachovia was pushing them to their favorite clients I suppose. My clients checked the LIBOR rates monthly during periods of high domestic fluctuation and liked what they saw, borrowed heavily to develop and build. I learned a few years ago that they also converted their financing out of LIBORS as soon as they could (this would have been pre-2007 or 2008).

“Drafting error” cropping up now when the law was signed into effect in 2010?

I don’t think so.

The impact of these statistics might be heightened if it was also reported:

1. The profits of each company in each respective year
2. The number of people hired in by each per year
3. The number of people fired/terminated/laid-off by each per year

A $20 bil settlement is not even a slap on the wrists. It’s more a ‘dap’ of the fists between partners in crime.

I still don’t quite understand what you are saying with respect to MERS. My documentation says MERS was part of the mortgage process. My county collects property insurance from me and shows me on their books. How can you tell if the chain is broken if your county recorded your deed and is taxing you?

You could fix all this if someone was in charge,” Dimon said, tapping on the table for emphasis. “No one is in charge.

Jaime,Jaime,Jaime–tsk,tsk,tsk.

Themarket is in charge. Didn’t you know? Haven’t you been paying attention the last 10 years? This is the natural consequence of the market. You can’t want to change that now, can you? Com’on, Jaime. This is government run like a business. This is what you get, Jaime.