Unlikely Words » talking points memo

Regulation vs Non-Regulation

aaron cohen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:17:15 +0000

I read this Newsweek Tumblr excerpt of Fareed Zakaria's column Obama's CEO Problem. To save you the trouble, Obama's CEO problem is too much regulation. If only there was less regulation, the top 500 American nonfinancial companies, who have $1.8 trillion in cash, would be stimulating the economy more themselves. $1.8 trillion is a lot of money and would go a long way. "The Business Roundtable, which had supported the Obama administration, has begun to complain about the myriad new laws and regulations being cooked up in Washington."

And then, about 25 seconds later, I read this Reuters' piece via TPM, which made the point that the regulations governing offshore drilling call for use of oil skimming material already being used in the BP oils spill, which means there really shouldn't be any more drilling or exploration until skimming capacity is increased.

So, I would argue that there really isn't too much regulation at all, and what there is isn't working.

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Good Example of Spite

aaron cohen — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:18:40 +0000

Via a reader email to Talking Points Memo: Regardless of which side of the political fence you're on, you have to admire this type of personal animosity:

My next-door neighbor is a life-long Democrat who has spent the last 20 years as a registered Republican. He switched his registration just so he could vote against Arlen in the GOP primaries. When Arlen switched to the Democrats, so did my neighbor. I have disliked many a politician but have never been tempted to switch parties to get another opportunity to vote against him an extra time.

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This is Going to Leave a Mark

aaron cohen — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:29:18 +0000

In the court of public opinion, Toyota is circling the drain. There's reason for them to have hope, though, because BP just plummeted below them. And rightfully so.

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Two Links from Two Weeks Ago

aaron cohen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:54:08 +0000

Two links from two weeks ago that you may or may not have seen, but I had saved to share and not gotten around to it yet.

The Yes Men sent out a hoax press release from the US Chamber of Commerce saying they had changed their position on climate change. Obviously the media was interested in this so the Yes Men rented a room at the DC Press Club and gave a fake press conference. Then it gets really awesome when a representative of the Chamber shows up and shuts down the presser. And now, they're getting sued for it

Via TPM.

If you saw the profits made by the big banks last quarter and wondered how they were doing it, Philip Greenspun has an answer:

Because of the Collapse of 2008 financial reforms, the big investment banks are able to borrow money from the U.S. government at 0 percent interest. Then they can turn around and buy short-term bonds that pay 2 or 3 percent annual interest. Now they’re making 2 percent on whatever they borrowed. They can use leverage to increase this number, by pledging some of the bonds that they’ve already bought as collateral on additional bonds.

It's all so awesome, isn't it?

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You Can Not Have A Reasonable Argument With Idiots

aaron cohen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:25:25 +0000

Via Talking Points Memo, a poll from Public Policy Polling drilling down into the nonsense regarding whether President Obama is a naturalized citizen of the US.

According to the poll, 24% of the population do not believe Obama was born in the US. That's not a huge surprise, because that's about the % of the country that supported Bush until the end of his presidency (though, it's obviously not certain these are the same people). More of these people (10% to 7%) believe he was born in Indonesia, rather than Kenya, which is weird because as TPM notes, everyone knows that Obama was born in Kenya, or at least that's what they say.

Most telling, tough is the 10% of people who acknowledge Obama WAS born in Hawaii. 6% of them don't think Hawaii is part of the US and 4% aren't sure.

Reasonable people can disagree, sure, but these people aren't reasonable.

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Roger Ebert Gives Bill O’Reilly Two Thumbs Down

aaron cohen — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:15:23 +0000

Via Talking Points Memo, click to read what Roger Ebert had to say about Billo while shaking your head at the horrible joke in the title of this post.

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Where Are They Now – Wall St CEOs

aaron cohen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:34:57 +0000

Still living the good life.

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Unlikely Words » talking points memo

Regulation vs Non-Regulation

Good Example of Spite

This is Going to Leave a Mark

Two Links from Two Weeks Ago

You Can Not Have A Reasonable Argument With Idiots

Top 10 Sarah Palin Videos

Roger Ebert Gives Bill O’Reilly Two Thumbs Down

Where Are They Now – Wall St CEOs