A Few Words of Well Deserved Praise for Bruce Webb
I understand that emotions are running hot on the healthcare issue. That is to be expected. Thankfully, Bruce Webb has devoted a considerable amount of time to researching the various proposed bills. Bruce is one of brightest individuals I have encountered on any blogs. His efforts at Angry Bear on a number of subjects have been appreciated deeply by me. His analysis is spot on. Bruce’s command of subject matter is something to behold.
It’s true that I bugged him about a minor problem with this last healthcare main post. I suppose that I want Bruce to always provide his usual perfect main posts. When he doesn’t, it’s no big deal as the thrust of his messages are important and, as evidenced by the number of comments, appreciated by the readers of Angry Bear. He is very smart and he can write. It’s a powerful combination.
Bruce deserves considerable credit for his fine efforts. I wiish that he would post more often, and on other subjects as well.
Merry Christmas, Bruce. All the best.
PS: Rdan, I recommend that you, Bruce, or someone set up an open thread for the proposed healthcare bill. I would hope that Bruce would weigh in on the open thread and share his knowledge, opinions, and, yes, emotions. We might as well have it out on the whole issue from one end to the other.
It is especially heartening to read MGs comment, above. All too often the comments of others are facetious, fallacious and irritating, bearing little reasoned content. While Bruce can get a little testy once in a while, he show amzing restraint in the face of what is often sheer stupidity or intentional misrepresentation. His responses are too kind too often.
Some of the commenting needs to toned down anyway, and it would be a plus if new information could be brought to the table. I find some of the commenting on certain threads to be disturbingly unhelpful.
Bruce also puts the time in with real information, with original sources. It is very time consuming to do that. Cactus goes to the NIPA data, which is also time consuming. People who come here with tertiary information only need to be more careful in claiming truth. Tertiary is not as valuable.
To me the economic progressives are sitting here exposed with no political cover. We lost our majorities and we are exposed to the crazy whims of those that would impose global warming legislation and try to achieve socialism by nationalizing the healthcare system The good news is that we seem to be holding our own even after being delt a hand full of jokers. The encouraging thing is that the political situation is likely to reverse itself in the coming two election cycles. The scary part is that we wont have the votes until then.
An interesting piece exploring the dichotomy between what is expected of individuals and companies. Today a company must do a strategic default, if the economics of the default exceed the economics of the repuational hit involved, because the duty of the board is to maximize the profits of the company and can be sued if they don’t do so. Individuals are not so bound so that they are put on a guilt trip to pay their underwater mortgage.
I would expect a push in the 10 or so states that have non recource mortgages to make them recourse. An interesting question is can you make a mortgage recourse in a non recourse state by putting that in the documents? It was noted that there are a lot less walkaways in recource states. What a recourse state essentially requires that you go thru bankruptcy to cancel the remainder of the debt.
Courtesy of the Mausa Translation Service, and removing the loaded constructions, we have:
1) I think the economic progressives don’t have a lot of political strength.
2) We [non-progressives] lost our majorities, so we don’t have strength either; in fact
3) the progressives, who have more strength than us, have enough strength to pass global warming legislation. I disapprove.
4) I also think progressives will try to achieve government control of health care for citizens 5) by removing control of the [collapsing] healthcare system from the current controllers.
6) Although we don’t have as much strength as the progressives, who however do not have enough strength to make us think they are strong 7) I am happy we still exist 8) even after [person or persons unknown] dealt us a hand full of jokers
9) I believe that the political situation will return power from the not-powerful-enough progressives to the not-powerfuil-enough, joker-intensive non-progressives 10) in four years or so 11) however I am still afraid, because we won’t have political power until we have political power.
Now you’re just be Can-tab-tankerous. You know perfectly well that what you wrote is nonsense. The US (unfortunately) does not have have national healthcare and probably never will. Britain has national health. Canada has single payer. The US has a mess.
Imposing “global warming legislation”? Huh? I think you mean imposing “global temperature stabilization legislation.” Legislation that caused global warming is what the Republicans gave us. Cap and trade is a market based scheme for stabilizing CO2 concentrations and global temperatures.
“…we seem to be holding our own even after being delt a hand full of jokers.”
Sorry friend, but you’re hand of jokers is getting larger. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, Sen. DeMint, Sen. Imhofe, and that one Congresswoman from Texas (of course), and now the teabagger movement. The GOP is a clown show.
The constructions are not loaded. Economic progress is a progression away from authority. Moving back to FDR’s policy is reactionary and since global warming legislation is new but with the same goal of authority I think I’ll call it the new reactionaryism.
A thought I’ve had for some time is that the Obama thing had to play itself out. To this means he was never what people wanted and his election was a mistake but that the majority of people would have to come to that conclusion on thier own time. Ergo playing itself out.
I don’t buy you as an environmentalist. Enjoying a nice walk on the beach or in the woods does not make you one.
I’ll be voting for Romney again if he runs in 2012. He was the best person for the job this time but they timing of the economic events did not favor him. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
Volker, of course, is probably too sensible and intelligent for contemporary America to pay attention to. “Let him sound off,” they say, “and then we’ll get back to fleecing the dupes. We have bought the government; we own the country, so who can stop us?”
The anger over the bailouts, health care, the climate bill etc. has served to focus the attention and energies of a lot of writers. In some cases (the whole gang at naked capitalism, in my opinion), it has caused writers to jump the rails into a land where rumor, speculation and innuendo rule and arguments are no longer necessary. But those writers who have remained calm, even handed and well-argued have been invaluable. Included in that group, in my opinion, are many here at AB, Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler, Calculated Risk, TED, Dean Baker, among others.
In that vein, I’ll second the praise for Bruce Webb who is a particular embodiment of the willingness to engage directly in the hard work of argument. He argues based on legislative language, data and logic and doesn’t insist on cherry picking evidence that confirms his conclusions. Nor does he write hit and run posts that feature a graph/chart and bold pronouncement on the corruption of modern politics.
There’s no writer whom I agree with entirely. (The only person who comes close is me, and my last blog post was an argument that Corey Patterson would never be an above average CF for the Cubs.) But I appreciate the good research and good writing provided by many here at AB. Thank you.
“Some of the commenting needs to toned down anyway,..” Rdan, I’d be less concerned with the inflamatory nature of a comment. It is the lack of validity to wither the data or the analysis that concerns me more. This site is open to all and it hosts, as a result, a handful of trolls, propagandists and out right fools. Fortunately the greater majority of the comments and all of the posts have value in their content. There are several commenters who seem to be reincarnations of others from the past who had the same mischievious intent to add little more than distraction to the conversation. I know that the best strategy is to isolate them through ignoring their commentary. Refuting a fool’s analysis has the collateral effect of repeating a fool’s comments. It also gives the fool some small measure of validity by implying that there is an argument to pursue when in fact reason is only being baited by the troll.
Cantab, have a Merry Holiday, what ever ideology or idolatry you follow.
Jack you have a nice holiday too. On the content of your post you might be surprised on what is backed by data and what’s not. I suggest you jump in more and offer challenges on the specifics.
A Few Words of Well Deserved Praise for Bruce Webb
I understand that emotions are running hot on the healthcare issue. That is to be expected. Thankfully, Bruce Webb has devoted a considerable amount of time to researching the various proposed bills. Bruce is one of brightest individuals I have encountered on any blogs. His efforts at Angry Bear on a number of subjects have been appreciated deeply by me. His analysis is spot on. Bruce’s command of subject matter is something to behold.
It’s true that I bugged him about a minor problem with this last healthcare main post. I suppose that I want Bruce to always provide his usual perfect main posts. When he doesn’t, it’s no big deal as the thrust of his messages are important and, as evidenced by the number of comments, appreciated by the readers of Angry Bear. He is very smart and he can write. It’s a powerful combination.
Bruce deserves considerable credit for his fine efforts. I wiish that he would post more often, and on other subjects as well.
Merry Christmas, Bruce. All the best.
PS: Rdan, I recommend that you, Bruce, or someone set up an open thread for the proposed healthcare bill. I would hope that Bruce would weigh in on the open thread and share his knowledge, opinions, and, yes, emotions. We might as well have it out on the whole issue from one end to the other.
It is especially heartening to read MGs comment, above. All too often the comments of others are facetious, fallacious and irritating, bearing little reasoned content. While Bruce can get a little testy once in a while, he show amzing restraint in the face of what is often sheer stupidity or intentional misrepresentation. His responses are too kind too often.
Jack,
Some of the commenting needs to toned down anyway, and it would be a plus if new information could be brought to the table. I find some of the commenting on certain threads to be disturbingly unhelpful.
Bruce also puts the time in with real information, with original sources. It is very time consuming to do that. Cactus goes to the NIPA data, which is also time consuming. People who come here with tertiary information only need to be more careful in claiming truth. Tertiary is not as valuable.
Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Me too,
CoRev,
It’s only the 18th.
To me the economic progressives are sitting here exposed with no political cover. We lost our majorities and we are exposed to the crazy whims of those that would impose global warming legislation and try to achieve socialism by nationalizing the healthcare system The good news is that we seem to be holding our own even after being delt a hand full of jokers. The encouraging thing is that the political situation is likely to reverse itself in the coming two election cycles. The scary part is that we wont have the votes until then.
An interesting piece exploring the dichotomy between what is expected of individuals and companies. Today a company must do a strategic default, if the economics of the default exceed the economics of the repuational hit involved, because the duty of the board is to maximize the profits of the company and can be sued if they don’t do so. Individuals are not so bound so that they are put on a guilt trip to pay their underwater mortgage.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/178593-strategic-default-and-duty-to-shareholders?source=article_sb_picks
I would expect a push in the 10 or so states that have non recource mortgages to make them recourse. An interesting question is can you make a mortgage recourse in a non recourse state by putting that in the documents? It was noted that there are a lot less walkaways in recource states. What a recourse state essentially requires that you go thru bankruptcy to cancel the remainder of the debt.
Courtesy of the Mausa Translation Service, and removing the loaded constructions, we have:
1) I think the economic progressives don’t have a lot of political strength.
2) We [non-progressives] lost our majorities, so we don’t have strength either; in fact
3) the progressives, who have more strength than us, have enough strength to pass global warming legislation. I disapprove.
4) I also think progressives will try to achieve government control of health care for citizens
5) by removing control of the [collapsing] healthcare system from the current controllers.
6) Although we don’t have as much strength as the progressives, who however do not have enough strength to make us think they are strong
7) I am happy we still exist
8) even after [person or persons unknown] dealt us a hand full of jokers
9) I believe that the political situation will return power from the not-powerful-enough progressives to the not-powerfuil-enough, joker-intensive non-progressives
10) in four years or so
11) however I am still afraid, because we won’t have political power until we have political power.
You’re welcome.
Cantab,
Now you’re just be Can-tab-tankerous. You know perfectly well that what you wrote is nonsense. The US (unfortunately) does not have have national healthcare and probably never will. Britain has national health. Canada has single payer. The US has a mess.
Imposing “global warming legislation”? Huh? I think you mean imposing “global temperature stabilization legislation.” Legislation that caused global warming is what the Republicans gave us. Cap and trade is a market based scheme for stabilizing CO2 concentrations and global temperatures.
“…we seem to be holding our own even after being delt a hand full of jokers.”
Sorry friend, but you’re hand of jokers is getting larger. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, Sen. DeMint, Sen. Imhofe, and that one Congresswoman from Texas (of course), and now the teabagger movement. The GOP is a clown show.
Noni,
The constructions are not loaded. Economic progress is a progression away from authority. Moving back to FDR’s policy is reactionary and since global warming legislation is new but with the same goal of authority I think I’ll call it the new reactionaryism.
A thought I’ve had for some time is that the Obama thing had to play itself out. To this means he was never what people wanted and his election was a mistake but that the majority of people would have to come to that conclusion on thier own time. Ergo playing itself out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwsjPZgBOdU&feature=player_embedded# Keynes Rap
A little history and learning on a snowy day . . . Yves at Naked Capitalism had it on her blog.
Cab-tan-tankerous is a nice name.
For a nice guy.
Slugs,
I don’t buy you as an environmentalist. Enjoying a nice walk on the beach or in the woods does not make you one.
I’ll be voting for Romney again if he runs in 2012. He was the best person for the job this time but they timing of the economic events did not favor him. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
Volker, of course, is probably too sensible and intelligent for contemporary America to pay attention to. “Let him sound off,” they say, “and then we’ll get back to fleecing the dupes. We have bought the government; we own the country, so who can stop us?”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/article6962322.ece
The anger over the bailouts, health care, the climate bill etc. has served to focus the attention and energies of a lot of writers. In some cases (the whole gang at naked capitalism, in my opinion), it has caused writers to jump the rails into a land where rumor, speculation and innuendo rule and arguments are no longer necessary. But those writers who have remained calm, even handed and well-argued have been invaluable. Included in that group, in my opinion, are many here at AB, Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler, Calculated Risk, TED, Dean Baker, among others.
In that vein, I’ll second the praise for Bruce Webb who is a particular embodiment of the willingness to engage directly in the hard work of argument. He argues based on legislative language, data and logic and doesn’t insist on cherry picking evidence that confirms his conclusions. Nor does he write hit and run posts that feature a graph/chart and bold pronouncement on the corruption of modern politics.
There’s no writer whom I agree with entirely. (The only person who comes close is me, and my last blog post was an argument that Corey Patterson would never be an above average CF for the Cubs.) But I appreciate the good research and good writing provided by many here at AB. Thank you.
“Some of the commenting needs to toned down anyway,..” Rdan,
I’d be less concerned with the inflamatory nature of a comment. It is the lack of validity to wither the data or the analysis that concerns me more. This site is open to all and it hosts, as a result, a handful of trolls, propagandists and out right fools. Fortunately the greater majority of the comments and all of the posts have value in their content. There are several commenters who seem to be reincarnations of others from the past who had the same mischievious intent to add little more than distraction to the conversation. I know that the best strategy is to isolate them through ignoring their commentary. Refuting a fool’s analysis has the collateral effect of repeating a fool’s comments. It also gives the fool some small measure of validity by implying that there is an argument to pursue when in fact reason is only being baited by the troll.
Cantab, have a Merry Holiday, what ever ideology or idolatry you follow.
Jack:
ditto . . .
Jack you have a nice holiday too.
On the content of your post you might be surprised on what is backed by data and what’s not. I suggest you jump in more and offer challenges on the specifics.
Run,
ditto
Original.