Nothing on Backstreets about this yet.

Thanks for digging into this, Lisa. Great original reporting.

Okay, I’m dumb — what’s Backstreets?

Asian markets were down 4-5%.
European markets down 5-6%.
Dow Jones currently down 2 1/2%, 309 pts.

o/t

Mr Hugh,
did you watch last night’s 60 Minutes segment on Credit Default Swaps ?? and if so, how do you think they did in defining them and their impact ?

not dumb.

http://www.backstreets.com/news.html

bruce website

Sorry, missed it. I would guess that if 60 Minutes had a story on them, they must have decided that they are important. It often happens that the media “discover” an issue after the fact when it would have been more useful and certainly possible to report on it months or years before when it might have made a difference.

‘morning, all-
Are there any estimates of how many scalped tickets may have been sold, or how much money is involved? Any way to pre-empt the “campaign fraud” accusations that are sure to follow? There’s no way Mukasey’s DOJ doesn’t have someone on this-that’s what they do.

hey, maybe we can get the book salon guys from yesterday to explain how this is part and parcel of Obama being a liar and a corporate tool!

“…and the State will wither away…”

Yea, and if he were really black he’d have some rappers up in there and not these honky folk singers! Uptown girl my butt.

or Bill Whithers!

oh we agree about that

was curious as to your opinion as I believe it is probably the one place most americans are gonna get their 411 on this incredibly complicated subject

mr cbl was screaming at them for bandying the $60 Trillion figure about – me not so much, as I’ve heard Roubini use it in recent articles

Asian markets were down 4-5%.
European markets down 5-6%.
Dow Jones currently down 2 1/2%, 309 pts.

shit.

Waxman panel on financial crisis on cspan.

I’ve already heard that one on some late-night AM swervative talk-radio show.

Mr. Sunshine defined ‘em before the “expert” even got it out of his mouth — they were “insurance” on risky investments, only they couldn’t call them “insurance” because then they would have been subject to “regulation.”

Sometimes the insurance guy across the kitchen table is smarter than a whole lotta “experts” on Wall Street…certainly he’s better at cuttin’ through the b.s. I think I’ll keep him *g*.

Great story. Investigate the “scalping”

Was at the Springsteen event in Columbus Ohio yesterday on Ohio States campus. Was wonderful. Want to share with folks how many young and old folks are volunteering on college campuses and all across Ohio. I have not seen this many people volunteering in an election since the 70’s. Registrations and early voting is sky rocketing in Ohio for Obama.

Obama is riding the tidal wave of discontent and anger
——————————————————————-

At the Springsteen concert I had made up several signs “Every time Sarah Palin speaks Joe Six Pac feels smarter and harder”. I made a sign for a dear friend that I went with who is gay and and about as far from Joe Six Pac as one can get, but he agreed to carry it as I carried my “Soccer Mom for Obama sign” (I am) The sign that my friend carried said “Joe Six Pac for Obama”. Folks went wild with laughter. Lots of pictures and comments

I really think a JOE SIX PAC (political action committee) could take to the streets and blogosphere. JOE SIX PAC FOR OBAMA.

Can you imagine guys showing up at Obama/Biden or at Palin rallies (carrying six pacs if they like) with JOE SIX PAC FOR OBAMA signs? I am working on a group of young 20 something six pac kind of guys to show up at events in Ohio.

My other made up quote that was getting a great deal of laughs was ” A NOTE TO SARAH….JOE SIX PAC’S CAN THINK WITH THEIR OTHER HEADS”

Spread the word if you think it is a good idea.

oh good – when can we expect the strongly worded letter from Hank?

Last night was 60 Minutes season premiere, and both the report on chasing bin Laden and the report on swaps were strong…and long overdue. [and avail on the CBS 60 Minutes web page]

Listening for self-education, not because I think it’ll change anything the Ds do.

Dow below 10,000.

What! You didn’t like the story on electric cars? I did!

thanks. turning it on now.

First two speakers were good. This guy from Colorado State pension fund is a waste of time.

I liked the electric car story, too. Said years ago that transportation and energy solutions were more likely to come out of Silicon Valley than Big Oil and Detroit.

is this a good time to admit that Fargo is the birthplace of the GEM car? Yes, that [John McCain’s] GEM car….

no need. obama did that all by himself last week.

eCAHN, do you think it is correct to see this period as the end of the Second Gilded Age?

Before the Prince can be feared, he must first be elected.

mr cbl was screaming at them for bandying the $60 Trillion figure about – me not so much, as I’ve heard Roubini use it in recent articles

CR has the 60 min video: 60 Minutes: Wall Street’s Shadow Market

i haven’t watched it yet, but if you think it’s worthwhile i’ll either find or rip an audio.

roubini from friday: Financial and Corporate System is in Cardiac Arrest: The Risk of the Mother of All Bank Runs

The suggested policy actions are extreme and radical but the times and conditions in financial markets and the corporate sector are also extreme. Thus, to avoid another Great Depression radical and unorthodox policy action needs to be taken now both in the US and in other advanced economies as the credit crisis and liquidity crisis is now becoming virulent even in Europe and other advanced economies. This credit crisis is both a crisis of confidence and illiquidity and a crisis of credit and solvency. But while the insolvent institutions should go bust we have now reached a point where many financial institutions and now non financial firms may become insolvent because of pure illiquidity; and this would lead to an extremely severe economic contraction similar to an economic depression rather than a mild recession. At this point the US, the advanced economies (and now likely even some emerging market economies) will experience an ugly recession and an ugly financial and banking crisis regardless of what we do from now on. What radical policy action can only do is preventing what will now be an ugly and nasty two-year recession and financial crisis from turning into a systemic meltdown and a decade long economic depression. The financial and economic conditions are extreme; thus extreme policy action is needed now to save the global economy from an ugly depression.

Dow currently down nearly 5%, 500 pts.

Too soon to say. But it’s certainly symptomatic of the end. IIRC there were several financial crises before the Gilded Age finally ended.

I just got up and already you have me laughing.

eCAHN – (if you’re still around)

What was your take on the AEI guy? *g*

I would really appreciate it if you refrained from speaking to me. I have no interest in what you have to say or what you think. Is that clear enough for you?

Before the Prince can be feared, he must first be elected.

that is not consistent with:

1) his role in last week’s sellout (to say nothing of the fisa sellout).
2) imo, his ability to pull the wool over the eyes of smart, well informed people.

without being elected potus, obama has done more damage that i thought possible.

Not as bad as I expected. Thought he might take a stronger deregulation tack, but instead he talked about better regulation. It’s a start.

OT: How the mighty have fallen: “No More Space Race: NASA To Rely On Russian Space Program While US Shuts Down Shuttle Operations”.

The are a bunch of “fuckers” around here that really annoy me.

There’s no way Mukasey’s DOJ doesn’t have someone on this-that’s what they do.

I doubt it. If running true to form, the Bush administration would view scalpers as “displaying the entrepreneurial spirit that made this country great.”

wow.

i will understand when you don’t reply to my comments then. but i’m unlikely to stop making them.

hope there will be a future day when we can discuss matters again – especially those over which we disagree.

hey, maybe we can get the book salon guys from yesterday to explain how this is part and parcel of Obama being a liar and a corporate tool!

Now, now, Obama is a corporate tool for championing the bailout of Wall Street gamblers. It is not his connection to the Boss but these bosses that makes him a tool.

It’s Machiavelli. The rulers are above normal rules of morality, and must govern by fear. I hate it, but I really believe if Obama had voted against the bailout, he would now have the label hung around his neck as the “senator who caused the depression”.

I can’t think of a ready justification for the FISA sellout, though.

I haven’t been happy with some of Obama’s positions, but I cannot believe all of the vituperation going on here, at the Book Salon yesterday, etc. I don’t comment much here, but increasingly I’m staying away from FDL altogether.

Would you all prefer 4 years of (probably) Sarah Palin?

thanks ! although I am registered at Roubini’s site, I often have difficulty getting in (switched security suites 10 days ago and now half my stuff isn’t recognized by my ‘puter !!!)

note to Senator Obama – Roubini should be Secretary of the Treausry – NOT Austin Goolsbee or whatever that little wanker’s name is

Not according to the “radical writer” Tony Steel. Check the book salon form yesterday and then vote for Mc Kinney for real change.

scalpers as “displaying the entrepreneurial spirit that made this country great.”

That would be true if it were a Republican fund raiser. It being Democratic makes it campaign fraud.

The are a bunch of “fuckers” around here that really annoy me.

Yes, I couldn’t agree with you more, especially these guys who use invective rather than arguments or facts to make their points and instead try to browbeat those who disagree with them into silence.

New Ian post – Are states and cities running out of money?

do you think obama could have voted for the bailout without whipping the caucus to vote for it also?

I would like to remind y’all that what you are saying is strictly your opinion and those opinions are not facts, and that many others do not share them. It would be appreciated if all had more tolerance!

roubini from friday: Financial and Corporate System is in Cardiac Arrest: The Risk of the Mother of All Bank Runs

I love it. We have a crisis of confidence where bankers won’t lend to each other because they don’t know who’s solvent. So we try to fix it by letting them lie to each other, i.e., by dropping mark-to-market accounting.

Oh Hugh, as usual you are being waaay too rational.

I have you “facts” right here.

Would you all prefer 4 years of (probably) Sarah Palin?

hell no!

palin scares me more than mccain – she seems to me to be a true believer in the same way that bush is.

I’d missed this. Sarah Sez:

[US troops] “are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.

should probably mention that registration is free for much of the site’s content. if you continue to have trouble getting in, pls let me know and i will repost some of it.

Not really…then he’s vulnerable to the “…that’s not leadership, that’s watching from the sidelines…” charge. Also, I think the whole reason for leaving HRC off the ticket was to assert his singular control of the Democratic Party, and to do that he had to lead.

I could be very, very, wrong.

I would like to remind y’all that what you are saying is strictly your opinion and those opinions are not facts, and that many others do not share them. It would be appreciated if all had more tolerance!

What part of Obama’s efforts to get the Wall Street bailout passed is not a fact?

He did a lot more than simply vote for it. He was in there pitching all of the Dems in the House.

Don’t expend the energy. Come one up, we are talking about the financial state of the the states.

I can’t think of a ready justification for the FISA sellout, though.

we’ll know in just a few short months, but some among us have come to believe it was a cynical but necessary move to convince the Aristocrats in our Leadership that he really was one of ‘em . . .that he was their trustworthy man-child.

anyone who has read Dreams From My Father will recognize he did the same with urban ministers when he first arrived in Chicago

IOW, he was setting the hook. time will tell

The fact is that Obama supported it. The opinion is whether that is a good thing or a bad thing!

especially given the way mccain’s campaign seems to be imploding – i can’t see why obama felt he had to whip the caucus. unless he really thought that was the right policy to pursue. or he doesn’t care.

hope i’m wrong on that. but the fact remains that our best info is that he did whip the caucus.

do you think the bailout was a good policy? if so, i’d like to know why. thanks.

Yes. Very difficult to wade through shit without getting it on you.

And I don’t have the time nor the inclination to tell you. Moving on now…

I have screen captures of many ticket broker sites and the number of tickets they have, along with captures of the Craigslist sites, most of which linked to brokers. Some of the brokers are in FL, CT, and PA (ah the power of the internet).

I can’t tell how many tix they scored and sold before I found their sites, but I can say there are at least 100 tickets out there as of right now.

It is very hard to locate Obama’s site to get tickets using google to search. Instead all the scalpers come up, so I can imagine it is frustrating for those who want to go to the show.

do you think the bailout was a good policy?

I think it depends on one’s priorities. As pure policy, I don’t know anyone who thought it was a good idea, but I’m not nearly schooled enough in economics to have a competent opinion. If the larger goal of getting Obama elected is the critical goal, then I think it was necessary.
(((selise)))

IOW, he was setting the hook. time will tell

can’t help hoping, even as the evidence mounts against that interpretation.

Right, not an economist…a wall street exec…go figure

Official: Kashkari tapped to head bailout
35-year-old Treasury official – and former Goldman Sachs investment banker – to oversee $700 billion rescue package.
October 6, 2008: 10:13 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — An official says the administration has decided to pick a key Treasury Department official to be the interim head of its $700 billion rescue effort for financial institutions.
The official said Monday that Neel Kashkari, Treasury’s assistant secretary for international affairs, will soon be announced as the interim head of Treasury’s new Office of Financial Stability. The official asked not to be identified by name because the selection has not been announced publicly.
The 35-year-old Kashkari is a former Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) banker, the investment giant once headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The new office was created by the emergency legislation enacted Friday to fund the largest government bailout in history.

i think that take makes sense (even if i disagree) – maybe it’s a matter of one’s priorities.

Idealists don’t get elected. Pragmatists do. Cynical, ruthless…of course. These are all necessary trait in anyone who even wants to play at that level, as they will have to step on some very powerful, cynical, ruthless people simply to get elected. Stepping on little people is easy.

Why would this be any different than any other Boss show?

The difference is that campaign finance laws are being broken by brokers using corporate funds and straw men to buy tickets for resale.

If a ticket broker uses his company credit card–or company funds of any sort–to obtain a ticket from the Obama campaign, he’s in violation of US Code Title 2 441b, using corporate funds to make a campaign contribution.

If a ticket broker gives someone company money to buy a ticket for him they both are in violation. The broker has used corporate funds to make a campaign contribution; the straw man has used “funds provided by another person or entity,” in violation of US Code Title 2 441f.

The ticket broker is making a contribution to the campaign, receiving a ticket in exchange for the contribution, and expecting to be reimbursed by whoever buys the ticket from him. The fan who buys a ticket from a broker has allowed a contribution to be made by another party–the ticket dealer or his straw man–in order to receive the ticket. The fan provides money to reimburse the ticket broker–or his straw man–for the original contribution.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go to the show with Bruce and Billy Joel? Even as old as I am, I’m a huge fan of both.

Why would this be any different than any other Boss show?

Buying these tickets is considered legally to be a contribution to Obama’s campaign.

The first $2,300 of each contribution from an individual will be allocated to Obama for America and will be considered designated for the general election. The next $28,500 of each contribution from an individual will be allocated to the Democratic National Committee, per campaign finance laws.

Sarah Palin weighs in on economic crisis for first time:

I know!!!! Let’s just print bunches of new money. then everybody will have all they need!!!!

She couldn’t run a successful lemonade stand.

but she has all that executive experience.

Sarah Sez:

[US troops] “are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.

You explained that in the post. I just don’t get if you thought somehow this wouldn’t happen?

It’s illegal here in Georgia to sell any ticket for above face. Check stub hub, craig, ebay on that too.

@Raven, sorry misunderstood your question.

I just don’t get if you thought somehow this wouldn’t happen?

Oh, scalping always happens, and I am not surprised.
In 2007 the Gov Spitzer changed the scalping laws in NY–before then legit brokers (basically the ones with websites–LOL) couldn’t charge more than 30% above face value. Now it’s completely deregulated.

However the violation of federal campaign laws is a huge deal. This problem has not been highlighted until now, and that’s the job of the press and media, to reveal wrong doing. And fans should know they don’t have to resort to participating in fraud and FEC violations, after the fact, in order to get tickets.

The Obama campaign had legal disclaimers in place–but people lied. And fans get screwed, Obama’s campaign could have a headache, and hopefully the ticket brokers will get their comeuppance.

And Robert Fisk says that the Taliban is in control of half of Afghanistan.

ROBERT FISK: Look, the Taliban now control half of Afghanistan, not just at night, but in the day—during the day, too. There’s no doubt that Petraeus has got it right when he talks about things are going to get worse.

Robert Fisk talking with Amy Goodman about Iraq (no one else is) and Afghanistan last week
http://www.democracynow.org/20…..ior_robert

I believe Fisk will be on Democracy Now again today

———————————————————————

I became very good friends with some Fulbright students from Afghanistan studying here in the states the last three years. One of them has gone back to Afghanistan and is now in the upper levels of the government in Afghanistan.

While he was here he would talk with his very large family who are still Afghanistan every week. They kept wondering what the hell was up with the Bush administration. My friends father who is a retired Brigadier General(who fought against the Russians) kept saying “it seems like the U.S. wants to create chaos in Afghanistan, that they really do not want to resolve the problems there) My friend often said that one year after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that the Taliban were on the run. But for the last six years since the Bush administration changed their focus the Taliban have been regaining control.

The friend who has returned there has said that the only way to deal with the Taliban is to be inclusive with those who are less radical.

According to these folks most of the people in Afghanistan consider the U.S. as an occupying force.