I have a small suspicion that the reason the "Optimus Chyme"s of the site are so angry and vocal is because so few around here fully appreciate the magnitude of this crisis, have little experience is the day-to-day, and aren't well versed in any of the solutions that are necessary. So you inevitably get the tirades of "they're stealing from all of us", "let's string them all up and ask questions later", and my personal favorite - "fuck Wall Street".... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 8:44 PM on November 25, 2009

The NYPD is taking just anyone these days, aren't they.

The fact that comments like these pass for humor strikes me as a good barometer for the devolvement of this site's ability to discuss this crisis.

Here's some BLS numbers. The financial services industry provides eight million jobs in the US. Now, an argument could be made that that's too high, which is fair. But a majority of the people working in this industry make far... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:24 PM on November 17, 2009

Yes, except that 99% of all the people in the industry had nothing to do with the crisis, and your suggestion that because he was well paid means he's automatically guilty is a disgusting use of class warfare to incriminate otherwise innocent people. If you actually knew how the industry worked, as opposed to simply having a strong opinion, you'd probably be slightly more empathetic. I love how making a good living is now somehow a crime, when this site is filled with well paid... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 8:23 AM on November 18, 2009

I've seen numerous actual lawyers shrug and say there is no chance even the Roberts court would uphold this, and I think they know a lot more about it than you.

Maybe these smart lawyer friends can teach you how to argue a point without resorting to an argument from authority.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 2:51 PM on November 15, 2009

Nobody on the Right called LBJ a Nazi when he passed the Voting Rights Act or the Great Society.

Nobody back then had the internet, where any idiot can have an opinion that's heard by millions across the globe.

To suggest that intolerance is higher now than back in LBJ's era is unbelievably insulting to our collective intelligence.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 10:15 AM on November 8, 2009

rr- because no one gets on the floor of Congress or an internet message board and says "how DARE men demand that insurance pay for giving them more erections! What if someone gets PREGNANT? Why aren't MEN making the appropriate decisions about family planning?"

You're a smart guy, XQUZYPHYR, but sometimes, you really make me wonder... How much of Viagra's ability to get covered by insurance has to do with "men ruling the world and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 12:30 PM on November 8, 2009

On the other hand, pushing them to new heights of crazy helps demonstrate just how crazy they are.

This is precisely the myth that hardcore leftists are touting when speaking of Obama's win in '08. And it's just that: a myth. You think the radical right, or even the moderate right, started to listen to loony leftists as they became louder, more obnoxious, and a potential Achille's heal to true reform (which always lies in the middle)? No. It's the fact... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:38 PM on November 5, 2009

a private system will outperform a public option run at cost, because of the innovation and incentive that a profit-driven company has.

Innovation and incentive have costs, which are then passed onto consumers, which is why, in a free market, only private competitors are included (there is no publicly funded competitor). One reason why private insurance companies fear a public option is that the government can always give service cheaper, because... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:02 PM on October 28, 2009

I'm also not saying that the government "can't" innovate. It absolutely can, as many speak about the VA medical system as an example. But the government isn't incentivized to innovate, as private organizations are, because the government doesn't have a profit motive. There's a big, big difference between increasing profitability and staying within budget.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:06 PM on October 28, 2009

Before this turns into a whingefest, my words weren't meant to be taken literally. I was just showing that the insurance companies' protest to a public option is very much based on economic theory.

This is precisely what I was talking about.

And if you consider current banking action taken by the government, markkraft, we certainly are going socialist.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 8:16 PM on October 28, 2009

There are market problems associated with healthcare. There's no doubt about that. And as I've already noted upthread, my argument wasn't meant to be a black and white refusal to accept government intervention as necessary at times. Social security is another government intervention, as is medicare, etc...

I get the feeling that people don't actually read what I write, but read what they think I believe, and argue it vociferously, as if creating a strawman will somehow... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:02 AM on October 29, 2009

geoff, if you think the medical or legal professions are somehow more ethical because of some "board", I've got a bridge to sell you.

Self-regulation is the biggest farce in the world - MetaFilter included. Once the system becomes large enough, and the profits become interesting enough, corruption and gaming are inevitable, which is precisely why a regulator that ISN'T a revolving door for the industry it regulates is necessary. When the SEC and Treasury were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 8:04 PM on October 20, 2009

Oh, and fuck Obama and his policies. He let the greatest financial catastrophe slip through his fingers so he could pass some shitty, watered-down, bullshit healthcare plan. He wasted his political capital on a bloated, pork-laden stimulus that's created no jobs, propped up financial institutions with no recourse (letting Goldman and JPMorgan pay off those warrants was particularly egregious), and if I'm right and Dems lose in the interim election, he'll be out in 1 term, going down as the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 8:11 PM on October 20, 2009

Parrot opposition's talking points? I don't need Republican crib notes to tell me that the stimulus is/was ineffective. And if you take my statement about zero jobs literally, I'm not sure that you're my target audience.

Note, I also said that we propped up financial institutions with no recourse. That's not entirely true either, and yet you didn't point that out. My comment wasn't meant to be taken literally, and the fact that you'd point to the stimulus being... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 12:31 PM on October 21, 2009

The part where you accused me of parroting talking points. I will weight that insult far more heavily than any "I agree with you, BUT..."
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 1:17 PM on October 21, 2009

Replace the word "information" with belief, or trust, or faith, and you'd be right. To suggest that information alone is a stimulus is false. Information cuts both ways.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 9:36 AM on October 18, 2009

Tybeet, by that definition, disinformation has the same meaning as information, which is why I said that it comes down to belief, or faith. Information or disinformation, true or false, the underlying stimulus is the belief, not the data itself.

Point: at the height of the credit bubble, creditors believed in an endless refinancing environment. The belief in unlimited easy credit allowed for all sorts of valuations (which are based on the *faith* of future cash flows).
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 10:51 AM on October 18, 2009

You confuse creditor with bank, Artful Codger, and there is a huge difference.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 12:07 PM on October 18, 2009

Creditor = holder of debt
Bank = *could* hold debt (and traditionally has), but in the past decade has found it more profitable to basically do what you said: package the debt into securities, and sold to either a conduit (QSPE) or Fannie/Freddie or directly to investors.

What I meant by my comment is that insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, private equity firms, etc. all operated on the assumption that if something ever goes wrong, the debtor... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 1:47 PM on October 18, 2009

Anyone else doing WELL out there, and trying to do the same thing?

A short while ago I was in a Starbucks when the guy in front of me (everyday dude, worked construction) forgot his wallet. I ended up buying the guy coffee and had a 10 minute conversation about what he does (general contracting) and how he saw the market for his work. I do it for the look. Like when I gave some girl a $5 tip for making the perfect cappucchino. When I worked behind the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:14 PM on October 11, 2009

Oops, forgot to close the tag.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:15 PM on October 11, 2009

When I used to play GoldenEye with my roommates, I almost never picked the female characters. Does that make me anti-woman, or did I simply prefer to play characters that I most closely identified with?

I think a lot of video-gaming is about escapism and fantasy, and part of the fantasy is identifying with the character, so while I'm not anti-gay character, I don't closely identify with one. (Of course, I'm clearly not a gamer, so YMMV.)

Things... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 1:56 PM on October 6, 2009

Joe Beese, seriously, find some content that's actually worthy of the MeFi front page. You're two out of three for ridiculously thin, bullshit posts. HP LaserJet may actually make this thread worthwhile, but seriously, try harder.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 8:21 PM on September 26, 2009

Give me a freaking break. Bank debt is at the top of any capital structure, so when a company goes bankrupt, or is on the verge, banks are ALWAYS first to recover in a reorganization. That doesn't mean that they're secretly buying companies. It means that banks have access to the cheapest capital around (since they accept deposits and print it even if they don't have it), so they can offer the best deals on any debt-driven deals.

No bank is in the business of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:28 PM on September 23, 2009

So that means when the Us is insolvent - the banks will own the nation.

I hope you're kidding. Why would banks hold government debt, when government debt is considered risk-free, and therefore nearly completely unprofitable? If the government is ever declared insolvent, it would never follow the rules of US bankruptcy law; it would debase its currency, making the paper worth less, and leaving debtholders with less recovery. And Japan and China are the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 4:33 AM on September 24, 2009

.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:56 PM on September 23, 2009

I don't think anti-government terrorism is a subject that should be ignored

I'm curious...should we expect you to link to every hate crime in the US from now on, with the caption, "See! See! America still has racists/homophobes/sexists/etc!!!"

Or will you only link to crimes that fit your agenda?
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:16 PM on September 23, 2009

Trying to link Bachmann to this crime as an FPP is reprehensible. That there are anti-government fanatics on the right is well known. Timothy McVeigh didn't need a Congresswoman to tell him to bomb the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, as an example. The anti-govt fringe has always existed, and trying to connect Bachmann's comment to THIS SPECIFIC ACT is disgusting, bad form, and reeks of partisanship. There is absolutely no proof to this claim whatsoever, and wild speculation doesn't lead to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:08 PM on September 23, 2009

The brilliance of Faze's comment is that he turned an excellent post from kliuless into a "pile on Faze" pissing match, where each comment is more condescending, more snarky, and more off-topic than the next. Congrats. He pooped once. The rest of you followed his example.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 1:05 PM on September 7, 2009

society's desire to commoditize everything

Debt is not an instrument to "commoditize" anything. Society still plays an instrumental role in valuation, which has nothing to do with debt. Money and price are simply the lowest common denominator in the quest for value, and valuation. The fact that art is given a dollar value is simply a function of trying to exchange that good for other goods (food and shelter, for instance). The price put on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 4:40 PM on August 23, 2009

We are debating whether a "public option" to health insurance that is required to be self-funding is too socialist.

Are the people who benefit from a public option the only ones who are funding the option? No. So, it's not self-funding. Enter the argument that it's socialist. Now, I'm not arguing that it is socialist. But a reasonable argument could be made that it is. The joke is that you're using the language of self-funding. It's BS.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:37 PM on August 18, 2009

socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:55 PM on August 18, 2009

That's just one definition, subject to interpretation. It's funny how people can be strict constructionists when trying to defend themselves from the accusation of socialism. The idea of socialism, like the idea of capitalism, is a set of ideas that can blend. All I'm saying is that the accusation isn't completely unbelievable.

Dude, DU, self-supporting how? Where is the money coming from? Self-supporting means any insurance money I pay into the system is used to pay out... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:13 PM on August 18, 2009

What the fuck does that mean? You don't know the answer, but you'll go ahead and spout talking points to "win"?
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:22 PM on August 18, 2009

(comment was for DU)
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:22 PM on August 18, 2009

You know, years ago, there was a user here wno had a catch phrase, which I think is appropriate to this post:

shutup shutup shutup.

Oh, and Palin is the new Coulter.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:30 PM on July 20, 2009

You can't get elected to the office of POTUS with claiming to be a good Christian. I like how this fact surprises people here.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:51 PM on July 19, 2009

without, not with, sorry.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 6:52 PM on July 19, 2009

Open bookmarks. Copy, paste all. Dump.

Considering that the current financial crisis could be the greatest difficulty this generation's ever felt, perhaps you could actually read the links before passing judgment.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 4:01 PM on July 12, 2009

It's a simple connect-the-dots puzzle!

No, it's not. Which is why this post is lost on you. The fact that you need spoon-feeding could be part of the problem.
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 4:42 PM on July 12, 2009

Here's an interesting study I stumbled upon while thinking about education in the US. The WSJ article that covered it summed it up:

Closing the educational-achievement gap between the U.S. and higher-performing nations such as Finland and South Korea could boost U.S. gross domestic product by as much as $2.3 trillion, or about 16%, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co., the international consulting concern.

The report, which... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:05 PM on July 12, 2009

If they've mixed the deposit money in with the operating money that is really bad.

You mean like Social Security? Or most pension plans?
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 7:17 PM on July 2, 2009

When a corporation attempts to implement the same kind of changes, in the interest of keeping their costs down, you get a glowing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

What are you talking about? The CEO of Safeway wrote the "glowing op-ed". Of course he's going to sugarcoat it.

I get the fact that anti-corporation is a theme here. But you make legitimate arguments against corporatism look moronic with ignorant, snappy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 10:12 AM on June 21, 2009

Slarty, behind your rhetorical bullshit, I've yet to hear a real argument. You want to silence those CEOs who are ultimately responsible for healthcare decisions for tens of millions in the US; meanwhile, your own organization, the AMA, has come out against a public insurance plan.

And quite frankly, telling me to fuck off, and then running out of the conversation is just childish. Stand up for what you're saying, and stick around, or I repeat my original criticism: your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 11:54 AM on June 21, 2009

I would be unsurprised to find that spending money to reform our agricultural system (fewer subsidies to high-fructose corn syrup and more to vegetables) and our transportation policies (fewer freeways, more walkable communities) would actually save more money in the health system that it would cost. That's (unfortunately) not really a part of the political conversation around health care reform right now, though.

It's a great idea, but could you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 12:01 PM on June 21, 2009

conspired to push a certain minority population into loans that were bad for them but good for the banks.

If by minority you mean the tens of millions of white, black, brown, and all colors in the middle who ended up with subprime and Alt-A mortgages, and 2nd mortgages on top because they had no money down, then I completely agree with you.

If by minority you mean "black people", then you haven't been paying attention.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:06 PM on June 8, 2009

i'm sick of the understanding of so-called expertise of the misery of our world-neoliberal system being left to people who are at the top of it, rather than at the bottom (or at last the middle).

Even if a doctor is convicted of malpractice, I'd take his medical advice over a lay person. Just because he committed a crime, that doesn't mean his years of education, training, and experience is worthless.

And more to the point,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 4:21 PM on May 13, 2009

I think you and I disagree on what the problem is. I think inequality, and the growing gap, is a negative externality (to keep with the economic terms) of the current system. I don't think the system was explicitly designed to preserve violence and power. I also don't think that our system is purely capitalistic (or even close).

I do believe that your examples' insights are useful and relevant, but only in addressing the inequality, and not the system itself. They're... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 4:52 PM on May 13, 2009

I'm talking about the culture of Wall Street

But that's not what you said. You said: But a lot of financial expertise serves as a smokescreen for what amounts to gambling with other people's money...

So if you think these people are experts, but were asleep at the switch, then we have nothing to discuss. I completely agree with you. If you think that Wall Street creates a mystique, then we agree here as well.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 5:31 PM on May 13, 2009

Suggesting that Rush is guilty of treason is engaging in exactly the kind of dialogue you're denouncing. Why not just call him a terrorist? He's either with us or against us? Why does this sound so familiar?
posted to MetaFilter by SeizeTheDay at 12:26 PM on May 10, 2009