Hm, we don't have that tradition here.

And today (I'd hope) most EUropeans don't like executions, either.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

I'd appreciate if you changed that sig line to something else. We're not them.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Who are the "we" you're talking about there?

Don't put ridiculous and detestable words in my mouth.

It's not so much that there should or shouldn't be co-ordinated action. I'm certain that there is concensus on that by now, I think there is a real problem of what that action should be.

Mad inaccurate characterisations follow;-
The Brown/Darling (UK) plan has been described as a compromise between the Swedish bailout plan of the 90s (ie nationalise everything and start again) and the Paulson plan (give Wall St lots of money and hope they don't waste it - Doh !!). The problem is that there's not enough central control of markets for the europeans and it's too close to nationalisation for the Americans.

Both sides know it sort-of represents what their agreement should look like, but each wants the concensus to move a long way in different directions.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Goooood Morning Jerome!

I love the smell of roast chicken in the morning!

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

He's been a pretty effective advocate for the Dems on progressive taxation.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

The foxy old bastid. I watched that one after Rose's interview with Volcker last Thursday. I was ROTFLMFAO, and I guess you'd know why (while his GE shares were swirling 'round the toilet bowl). Rose actually asks Volcker to comment on this video clip (below) of Buffett. Volcker segment at Rose | Buffet segment at Rose

From the CNN transcript

Charlie Rose: Whatever, I'll take the deal, whatever you want to do.  There is this, though, I mean, in terms of alternatives, some people have suggested for example that why don't we -- why isn't America doing what Berkshire Hathaway is doing?  Why isn't that a better deal for America?
Warren Buffett: I don't think it would be crazy to have a model or an entity model on the Reconstruction Finance Corp.  That goes back to 1932, although it was really implemented in '33 under Jesse Jones, and it invested in mostly banks initially and preferred stock and that sort of thing.  So there are two things needed in the system, the one that's needed overwhelmingly is liquidity.  I mean, when people are trying to [unintelligible], there has to be somebody there to buy.  And they don't have to buy at a fancy prices, but to buy.  And then there's also a capital problem with some of the institutions.  We have provided capital here with a couple of institutions recently.  The Federal government did that in the `30s for the RFC and I think there could well be a proper role for government in that.
Charlie Rose: Would that have been a better idea today?
Warren Buffett: It wouldn't have been big enough today.  And it wouldn't have been -- you couldn't have -- if you'd set up at RFC today and you gave them $100 billion invested in the [spelled phonetically] capital, there'd be a very cumbersome type of application process and everything, these assets are getting shoved out day by day, and loans are coming to a commercial papers not being renewed.  I mean, the commercial paper market, when that dries up, you know, that's just like sucking the blood out of the economic body of the United States.  And that's happening.  So I would say that an RFC-like thing might make sense.  I probably would do it myself.  But I don't think trying to combine that with what's going through now, I think what is needed now is liquidity.
Charlie Rose: All right.  There are those who -- you just said you would do it yourself -- there are those who believe and it has been suggested, you know, that this is the time for Warren Buffett to answer the call of his government in a country that's been very good to him. I mean what are you prepared to do yourself beyond run Berkshire Hathaway well is this.
Warren Buffett: That's my job.  But any time I can be of help to the government in terms of giving advice -- I've given a little advice, actually.  [talking simultaneously] anyway, no.  I obviously am willing to do that. I'm here tonight talking about this for that reason. It isn't going to do anything for Berkshire Hathaway. Well, that isn't really true.

Volcker's response was kinda snide.

These gangsters are so obvious, so utterly unimaginative, coz they just, JUST can't do right. I started an ET post for Friday. But honestly. I said to myself, "To hell with it. People like surprises. Far be it from me to ruin their fun."

I've been listening to Motown all weekend ... absentee ballot came in the mail with homework: WTF are these state constitutional amendments?! This tune was HOT yesterday ...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Keep trying, Helen.  Get people off this financial shit.  What will it take.

I love the smell of roast chicken in the morning!

Helen, sorry to rely only on you, but any news about
Sassafras?

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

The weather here was nice this weekend, however, as I was working I could not enjoy it as much as I would have liked. The the weekend was a good one anyway.

A smoked blue cheese?

Whatever for?

No one could have predicted

Let us take part in analysts' fun.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

BBC NEWS | Business | Banks may get bail-out on Monday

The first banks to get money under the UK government's £50bn bank rescue plan could do so as soon as Monday morning.

The banks and the Treasury are working on announcements to be made before the markets open, according to BBC business editor Robert Peston.

[TBG's Crystal Ball of Doom™ Technology]

Just saw that I missed your comment, TBG. Thanks for the update, glad to know she is moving upward, even if slowly.

Good news indeed. I didn't know about the slip back, but so long as the trend line is good.

I'm hoping to nip in tomorrow or tuesday, depending on convenience. So another update then.

keep to the Fen Causeway

so much for the ' Mr.' Waterfield.  Glad somebody has the patience.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

Wi-max tower?

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

A windpowered radio mast. (Yup, I cheated)

Micro-wave relay station?

Exhaust tower for some kind of clean-burning power plant?

A marker for the place where lutfisk goes to die?  (A toxic dump if every I saw!  8-)

No one could have predicted

Sigh...

the prevailing rhetoric has not only been "if it's not against the letter of the law, do it for profit" but "changing the letter of the law is bad for business, because it creates an unstable environment for business."

Yep, that's t the heart of it - and it's certainly not over:

German plea for pause in costly EU laws

Representatives of German business have called for a moratorium on any European Union legislation that would impose higher costs on companies at a time when they are grappling with the fallout from the financial crisis.

Two of Germany's largest trade bodies said Brussels should think carefully about putting additional burdens on business given the potential of the financial crisis to weaken the "real economy".

"We've got to ask whether certain measures, including environmental legislation, are responsible given the economic outlook," Hanns-Eberhard Schleyer, general secretary of German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH), told the Financial Times.

We also have to fight the notion that regulation is a cost.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

That must have been - memorable.

There are very rare occasions when I think it's a shame I don't drink, and that sounds like one of them.

I'll try not to drool now.

In the same series, his post on the vice-presidential debate is a hoot.

We already played let's-put-the-idiot-in-charge. How'd that work out, huh? So it ain't funny that we are actually having a serious discussion about someone who is caught off guard when asked for a newspaper she reads. It's not funny. Not when the top of her ticket is Old Geezer Grumpy McStrokeEye.

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.

Hi Ted, nice to see you posting again and welcome back. Hope your reconvalescens progress will be speed. All the best for it.

It's good to hear you adding humor, Ted!  

The other 40% should be a piece of cake, I hope.  Just remember your equity ratio is higher
than any bank...   (;

Hugs!

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

Good to see you, Ted! And all the best for increasing the 60%!

Good to see you back, Ted. :-)

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

Well done. Cheers Ted.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

In order to cover dropping the "c" in Deutsche, and because this is all so serious, what's happening, i'll post a very beautiful song.  Very.  From perhaps the only Arab jazz-pop singer in Germany who uses a peddle steel.  The words are: he's not interested in whole host of things, but, "I only want to know if you will stand with me in the middle of the fire, and not jump back in fear."  Laith al-Deen.

Skennah Kowa

You can read and understand without too much trouble, sometimes there is some strange word you don't understand.

From a Swedish perspective, Norwegian is not hard to understand when spoken either, though Danish is.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

plutonium?

if so, i think it's healthy to be.

much fear is wasted on trivialities, but plutonium is more forever than diamonds.

you know you want to share, spit it out, we're all belted in and ready for the hit.

you don't post that much here, so i doubt this is a wind-up, why so cryptic at a time like this?

brrr

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do." Jim Hightower