Susan Estrich Openly Worries About ObamaCare

Surprising even for a strong Hillary supporter. I would question the timing, but I'm not in the mood for conspiracy theories.

GMAC is now Ally Bank. Hah.

That only took a week to the day from the Fed's brilliant insight (blogged three posts down).

Dark Market Checks and Balances

Obama admin to regulate derivatives - announcement coming.

Fed Orders GMAC to Raise 13.1 Billion More

Oh. I see. Just demand the banks get more money.  Simple.  Gee, why didn't I think of that?

Shale to the Rescue

Intensified by the price pressure and easy credit of the recent past, shale research and development finally pays off after decades of failure and half-measures, with the discovery of enormous, natural gas fields in Texas and Louisiana. Carbon relief within a sane energy policy just became far more feasible. 

"We would not buy them at any price."

Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway has substantial holdings in the Washington Post Co., holds forth on the future of newspapers and print journalism. 

It's over kids. PIMCO's Bill Gross spells it out.

For the benefit of the slow kids in class, PIMCO's Bill Gross, registered Republican and Obama voter, speaks slowly and enunciates the end of the era of libertarian capitalism:

If one had any doubts, a quick, even cursory summary of President Obama’s comments announcing Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing would suffice. “I stand with Chrysler’s employees and their families and communities. I stand with millions of Americans who want to buy Chrysler cars (sic). I do not stand…with a group of investment firms and hedge funds who decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” If the cannons fired at Ft. Sumter marked the beginning of the war against the Union, then clearly these words marked the beginning of a war against publically (sic) perceived financial terror.

Top Ten: States with Highest Tax Rates

California isn't there!  All thanks and peace be unto you, Howard Jarvis and Prop 13.

The Forbes' article seems to prefer forcing the reader through a million clicks, so here's the straight list:

1. Vermont
2. Hawaii
3. Connecticut
4. Minnesota
5. New Jersey
6. New York
7. Massachusetts
8. Washington
9. Wyoming
10. Pennsylvania

Simian Sex Trade Shocks Community

Female chimps engage in meat swap. No word on whether the females' lack of prowess in the verdant fields of honest labor was due to lazy opportunism or a hostile work environment as yet untouched by the benevolent hand of regulation.

Sorry, no video.

Disney Comes to Pedro

Some good economic news for the South Bay: Disney Cruises will move the Wonder cruise ship from Florida to the San Pedro - Los Angeles harbor starting January 1, 2011. Disney's series of cruises to the Mexican Riviera will create 2600 new state and local jobs, 130 of which will be reserved for the always powerful longshoremen's union, and attract an estimated $7 million in state and local tax revenue. (The article says $47 M, but two previous articles say $7M, so the realist in me says that's a typo editorial didn't catch.)

It is open to question how much of that tourist revenue San Pedro will retain as it is likely Disney will shuttle the boat's occupants straight to Anaheim, Land of Enchantment, before their merry little feet have had a chance to scatter any of that green pixie dust on local ground. San Pedro has been trying to gentrify the waterfront for at least a decade with local galleries hosting a Thursday night ArtWalk, cafés, and development projects like the recession-prone, near-empty Vue condominiums, but for now it remains a colorful, working class area of the port city, home to renters, not owners.

Maybe the Vue could get hooked into this Disney project and provide short-term accommodations more central to SoCal's other tourist destinations. An ocean view with a shuttle ride beats suffering in the alternately sweltering or gray and humid, stagnant atmosphere of land-locked Anaheim through which the aroma of highways and french fries has been officially mandated to waft at all times.

Is a Liberal a Conservative who has lost his Health Insurance?

From Andrew Sullivan's reader Dissent of the Day:

The key to Republican success in the last few decades has been getting people angry enough about crap issues like flag burning and gay marriage that they'll vote against their own economic interests. Now we're staring into the abyss, and one of the good things that's happening is that those largely irrelevant social issues don't have the punch they used to have. If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's lost his health insurance. At that point, you don't really care that much who's sleeping with whom.

Nightmare Eminent Domain Case

Truly ugly eminent domain case in which José Meza, who built a successful chain of auto paint businesses, chose to "give back to the community" and continue to reside in his generally run-down hometown of Wilmington.  Out of 40 other possible sites, less costly to the taxpayer in both price and lost property tax revenue, the near-insolvent Los Angeles Unified School District chose to seize his anomalous dream home for an expansion project.

Google Map of property in question:
View Larger Map

We're All Die Bitteren Now

A reader with a vivid sense of imagery writes in regarding the Job Fair From Hell:

Welcome to the New Economy and its "mobile workforce" with their "portable" skills. I get flashes of massed feedlot animals, slaves waiting to go on the block, naked Jews fresh off the cattle cars crammed into that big room waiting for the shower. Reminds me of my epiphany some years ago when I'd pedaled into darkest Silicon Valley for an interview, through that Hanna-Barbera Wonderland of condocomplex - minimall - officepark, over and over, getting more and more depressed. Stopped outside the glass box, said, "No way,  No more," and rode home by the scenic route. 

Peek into Caterina Fake's Hunch

Caterina Fake's new startup, still in closed beta, with invitations available.

Only if his cabin were in Big Sur.

SF Chronicle's harlequin Mark Morford wonders if the End Times are finally nigh after years of Bushian overreaction. This is why I suspect the Right can get so paranoid at times - like a girl who is forever hysterically afraid she has put on two pounds - keep those standards frantically high, do lettuce and elliptical trainer penance immediately, and you won't end up obese. 

Thanks for the link, Sully.

Andrew Sullivan, in his feature View From Your Recession, linked to my original post -  the reason I started this blog - to vent about the job seeking process in the current climate. 

And Now Krugman...

Paul Krugman and Frank Rich?  Bloody Sunday for the still new admin.

If all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail Dept.

N.Y. Times Frank Rich comments on Larry Summers' chances of successfully hawking the plan to buy up toxic assets with the assistance of hedge funds after he both helped kill derivatives regulation during the Clinton admin and worked for the less-than-transparent D.E. Shaw.

Job Fair @ the Strip Club

More opportunities than the L.A. Career Fair at least...

Just as Las Vegas is designed to have more losers than winners, at the lower limit the economy is structured to turn men into soldiers and women into sex workers - and the house always wins.