Showing posts with label america. Show all posts
Showing posts with label america. Show all posts
Jul 8, 2009
What rough beast is this?
Joe Mathews, formerly of the LA Times and now with the New America Foundation, takes a stab at interpreting the logic behind Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska and finds it shows a hyper awareness that America has entered the age of hyper politics. Mathews goes so far as to call the move brilliant, at least when compared with the sad displays Mark Sanford and Bobby Jindal made in their respective 2012 presidential campaigns. By contrast, Palin will be able to fortify herself financially and politically, unburdened from the distraction of governing, as the campaign drags into 2010.
Nov 20, 2008
Joe the Author
Joe the Plumber (whose name is Samuel) will write a book (that will be written by somebody else) just in time to be this year's favorite stocking stuffer (should be thin enough since it's set for release in 11 days). The book will be called "Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream" and I presume it will document Joe's fight to appear on television talk shows, his scrappy rise to become opening act (and disappearing act) at McCain-Palin rallies, and his brave resistance to the facts behind candidate Barack Obama's tax plan.Apparently Joe also fought off the big, elitist publishing houses to ensure his tome landed in the hands of an obscure publisher in Austin, Texas. From the NYT:
In an interview with Fox News Mr. Wurzelbacher said he could have signed a deal with a larger publisher. “But they don’t need the help,” Mr. Wurzelbacher said. “They are already rich. So that’s spreading the wealth to me.”
Feb 24, 2008
Credit cards are us
As the subprime mortgage crisis continues to reveal the weaknesses in our shoddy middle-class economy, more attention is being paid to the financial instrument at the heart of it all: the credit card.
If you want to know how countless families came to believe they could afford houses that they could not afford, and then refinanced these house to fill them with more things they could not afford, look no further than the economic lessons offered by the credit card.
The credit card isn't merely a mechanism with which we buy things. It is a part of the foundation of our economy and a touchstone of our culture.
The credit card has taught generations how to spend. It has altered our sense of value and influenced our understanding of responsibility. It closes the gap between the life we have and the life we want - the life we think we deserve. It is how we keep up with the Joneses; how we mask our poverty; how we keep up with inflation; how we keep realty at bay.
Credit cards prop up countless families. They make attainable that which cannot otherwise be attained. They augment stagnant wages. They reinforce the American ethic of instant gratification with a carefully structured repayment plan that masks the true cost of the bargain.
The devil should be so crafty.
TIME magazine has a short piece about the abusive penalties and fees credit card companies are charging customers these days (and have been for years). Congress, having spent decades giving banks a freer hand, now appears to be rethinking deregulation. But whatever Washington does, it will come too late.
The entire country is approaching its credit limit and the bill has come due. No one is blameless in this transaction - not the banks that made it too easy to get into hock, not the politicians who relied on this false economy to claim economic success, not the credit card holders who knew it was all too good to be true.
But what will we use to pay down our debts, since such a huge portion of our assets are on loan?
The entire nation needs to rethink the value of things and come to grips with how much it really earns. Otherwise someone else is going to buy up all of our debt and, like those credit card companies, start charging such excessive fees and penalties that everything we earn will go to paying them off.
If you want to know how countless families came to believe they could afford houses that they could not afford, and then refinanced these house to fill them with more things they could not afford, look no further than the economic lessons offered by the credit card.
The credit card isn't merely a mechanism with which we buy things. It is a part of the foundation of our economy and a touchstone of our culture.
The credit card has taught generations how to spend. It has altered our sense of value and influenced our understanding of responsibility. It closes the gap between the life we have and the life we want - the life we think we deserve. It is how we keep up with the Joneses; how we mask our poverty; how we keep up with inflation; how we keep realty at bay.
Credit cards prop up countless families. They make attainable that which cannot otherwise be attained. They augment stagnant wages. They reinforce the American ethic of instant gratification with a carefully structured repayment plan that masks the true cost of the bargain.
The devil should be so crafty.
TIME magazine has a short piece about the abusive penalties and fees credit card companies are charging customers these days (and have been for years). Congress, having spent decades giving banks a freer hand, now appears to be rethinking deregulation. But whatever Washington does, it will come too late.
The entire country is approaching its credit limit and the bill has come due. No one is blameless in this transaction - not the banks that made it too easy to get into hock, not the politicians who relied on this false economy to claim economic success, not the credit card holders who knew it was all too good to be true.
But what will we use to pay down our debts, since such a huge portion of our assets are on loan?
The entire nation needs to rethink the value of things and come to grips with how much it really earns. Otherwise someone else is going to buy up all of our debt and, like those credit card companies, start charging such excessive fees and penalties that everything we earn will go to paying them off.
Jan 13, 2008
Our gods kick ass, take names
I'm surprised it took so long after 9/11 for our action stars to re-emerge, but here they come.
Now consider why actors without much talent can portray heroes but portraying real human beings require actors with much more ability.
I'm surprised it took so long after 9/11 for our action stars to re-emerge, but here they come.
Now consider why actors without much talent can portray heroes but portraying real human beings require actors with much more ability.
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