Solarbird ([info]solarbird) wrote,
@ 2008-06-03 00:55:00
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Current mood:anger, contempt, exhaustion
Entry tags:economics

today's pile of financial insanity
Here, this is clever, by which I mean nauseating; banks are marking losses as profits in their accounting. This legal form of fraud is destroying the financial system; please enjoy it. But you're seeing more ratings-agency action, finally, after that horse is not just out the barn but somewhere a few counties over. Argentina appears to be following the US's lead in filing bullshit inflation numbers in what the Telegraph calls a partial repudiation of its debt.

Oh, and want to know why Saudi Arabia isn't pumping more oil? Because they don't fucking want to, assuming they even can, and aren't gonna. They now see what's left as an enduring economic legacy to be passed down over generations. So get used to this.

Meanwhile, in the "real" world, the Wall Street Journal has given its blessing to the idea that gosh, people seem to be kind of tight for cash right now. Gawsh! I guess it's official now! Mish doesn't think it's going to get a lot better real soon, either.

Finally, the idea that Metro could even have service cuts on its list - even if it's last - of options in dealing with rising fuel prices makes me want to go kick the general manager, Kevin Desmond, right in the head. How big a bullhorn do I need to get a NO into your brain, dipshit?


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[info]angharads_house
2008-06-03 09:28 am UTC (link)
Well, Metro's general manager may also be driven by the longer-range view of "I'm gonna be outa here, anyway, and my hireability as a manager will be increased if I can prove that I was a real tough-ass." Might could be just that -- goes with the general problem of agency execs being a tradeable commodity, almost.

We see a similar thing up here with the Post Office wanting to be, do and sell almost anything but postal services: their big focus these days seems to be real-estate trading and the stocking of (consigned) rack-goods such as plushies and greeting-cards.

Resource hoarding among OPEC nations? Well, we /will/ see more of that, although the temptation must ever increase (on the part of various Joint Chiefs, let's say) to dust off the old landing plans and simply occupy the oil-fields. I am sure that the prospect of that does not escape some observers: parallels with summer of 1914 are very sharply-drawn, indeed. I want all of /my/ family a lot closer to home, and ducks thoroughly enrowed, before Election Season this autumn.

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[info]llachglin
2008-06-03 03:08 pm UTC (link)
There's massive increased demand for transit. Metro should increase fares if they're having trouble paying for diesel. In the long run, we need a lot more of every kind of electrified rail--light rail, commuter rail, high-speed rail, streetcars.

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[info]solarbird
2008-06-03 04:48 pm UTC (link)
Shya. And yet, you get dicktards throwing this crap around. LOOK GENIUS PEOPLE FUCKING NEED STABILITY in TRANSIT. They need NOT to hear it could be going away just as they're finally realising they need it.

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[info]epawtows
2008-06-03 04:05 pm UTC (link)
Good chance that he intends to suggest a fare increase (or more money from other sources), but is trying to get political cover/support by talking about service cuts first.

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[info]solarbird
2008-06-03 04:50 pm UTC (link)
Don't care. People need to think of this service as reliable and continual, not subject to withdrawal at any fucking time. Wheeling this out at all is deserving of a facepunch.

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[info]llachglin
2008-06-03 05:32 pm UTC (link)
This is why "bus rapid transit" is such a joke. Buses are buses, and any system with its own right of way is going to require infrastructure investments that make it almost as expensive as rail, with much lower ridership. I don't mind taking the bus--I don't do it much right now, but I've used buses a lot in the past--but the fact is they never have and never will compete in service quality and efficiency with a good rail system. One of the biggest problems is that it's comparatively trivial to cut back on service when all of your infrastructure is in vehicles.

A lot of this is poor leadership--Ron Sims is exhibit number one, and while Greg Nickels puts out better propaganda he's personally responsible for killing the monorail and delaying the resolution of the Alaskan Way Viaduct problem. But it's too easy to blame them, when the even bigger problem is our culture of automobile-centered denial.

And the article you cited has the Metro director whining about $4 diesel. Hello? Has he looked at the current prices for diesel instead of the long-term contract he signed? It's closer to $5.

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report from the field
[info]oh6
2008-06-05 01:48 am UTC (link)
At work they're offering some "long-term care" insurance, and they've been pushing it really hard. After the third week of reminders in email and postal mail, it occurred to me that there may be a perception that medicare is not going to be sufficient.

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Re: report from the field
[info]solarbird
2008-06-05 06:14 am UTC (link)
Oh, you should always have supplemental before going on Medicare, if you can afford it. And long-term-care is a weird little subfield of its own anyway. So yeah, I'm not assuming anything like Medicare.

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[info]poodlgrl
2008-06-05 05:13 pm UTC (link)
"How big a bullhorn do I need to get a NO into your brain, dipshit?"

giggle. I like this one, I'm saving this one. I need this on a shirt.

Last week, I said "I suppose we're being judgmental though." And Mark said, "Yes, but if we don't judge these people, who will?" that was my favorite t-shirtable from last week.

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[info]solarbird
2008-06-05 06:14 pm UTC (link)
I like this one, I'm saving this one. I need this on a shirt.
^_^

...and if I designed a typeset version and put it up on Cafepress?

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