Obama & OPM

photo and collage by marguerita(excerpts of unpublished book)

For Brandeis, regulation was not supposed to be a restraint on innovation or the entrepreneurial spirit, but rather a check on unbridled greed.He believed in a free market, but one in which the government enforced rules of fair competition so that the most talented could succeed.Louis D. Brandeis

SOME things never change. When President Obama spoke last week of “shameful” bonuses for bankers and the financial community’s “irresponsibility,” he echoed charges leveled nearly a century ago by Louis D. Brandeis. Brandeis, a commercial lawyer, leading reformer and future Supreme Court justice, described a dangerous combination of avarice, lack of accountability and poor oversight in “Other People’s Money, and How the Bankers Use It,” one of the best-known exposés of the Progressive era.Published in 1914, the book was based on the revelations of the House of Representatives’ Pujo Committee about the predatory practices of J. P. Morgan and other big bankers. “Other People’s Money” influenced both Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom agenda and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. It also offers valuable lessons for today.Op-Ed Contributor - The Value of 'Other People's Money' - NYTimes.com

Hamas and Israel to accept an immediate cease-fire!

drawings by marguerita
Hamas and Israel to accept an immediate cease-fire!

What's love got to do with it ,happiness is more contagious than previously thought.

collage by marguerita

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav'nly Muse,that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]from Paradise Lost by Milton


YouTube - What's love got to do with it Tina Turner

Obama & the Yes Effect

drawing by marguerita
While the first telephone exchanges between Mr. Obama and foreign leaders were limited to pledges of future cooperation and invitations to visit, those leaders and their aides have also been contacting Mr. Obama’s advisers and their surrogates with suggestions on how an Obama administration should conduct, and change, American foreign policy.
The foreign efforts to sway the new team are normal during any presidential transition, but they are accelerated in this case, foreign policy experts say, because of the historic nature of Mr. Obama’s election and the significantly different course that world leaders expect him to pursue in American foreign policy.
But until Inauguration Day, Mr. McDonough said, the Obama team will be in a listen-only mode.
Diplomatic Memo - A World of Advice for Obama on Foreign Policy - NYTimes.com

Obama- The Enchanted Frog ?

drawing by marguerita- first published in Op Ed page - NYTimes 1976


In hard times — and we can all agree the economy is not making life easy — people take refuge in fantasy and derive hope (or at least relief) from satire. These ingredients have historically resulted in anthropomorphic depiction in art and illustration - SH
“We have talked about this.”
“It’s important that everybody understands that this is not going to happen overnight. There has to be a realistic expectation of what can happen and how quickly.”
President-elect Barack Obama has begun an effort to tamp down what his aides fear are unusually high expectations among his supporters, and will remind Americans regularly throughout the transition that the nation’s challenges are substantial and will take time to address.
Obama Aides Tamp Down Expectations - NYTimes.com

Tell me Why and Let's XChange

drawing by marguerita AND so: just how far have we come?
What’s happened to America? Why is it so heavy-handed? Why won’t it sit down, eyeball to eyeball, with its enemies and try to work things out?
“the way she (he)looked me in the eye, the way she(he) wasn’t on a pedestal, but one of us.”

Victor Pelevin: Who are you, Monstradamus?

drawing-collage by marguerita

Organizm (-:
Who are you Monstradamus?


Monstradamus
xxx. I live in xxx and I'm a xxx.


Romeo-y-Cohyba

Perhaps you ought to try something more original ?

Monstradamus

I've read all messages on this thread. I'm in the same situation, the same room, the same fancy get-up.And I don't remember how I got here, either.

Nutscracker
So now we are four.That's nice.

Organizm(-:

Maybe more will turn up soon.The more heads we have, the better our chances of coming up with something.

Organizm(-:

And what if we simply died?

Nutscracker

Don't panic! Dead people don't hang around in chat rooms.


Organizm(-:

We don't know that for a fact.Maybe that's all they can do.

Romeo-y- Cohyba

If this is the afterlife, then I for one am disappointed.

Nutscracker

Let's discuss the situation.I suggest we don't take Organizm's hypothesis about the afterlife into consideration.

Organizm(-:

Then maybe it's a dream?

America's Self Portrait: Food for Thought

drawing by marguerita Principle 8. Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

Japan’s failure to respond urgently and decisively to its banking mess caused the country to endure a “lost decade” of economic stagnation. If America wants to avoid Japan’s decline, the House should follow the Senate’s lead and approve the bailout — immediately.

Just as in the U.S. today, most Japanese did not initially appreciate how devastating a banking crisis could be to the real economy. Banks and real estate tycoons in Japan were corrupt, profligate and unsympathetic figures, and no one wanted to help them. On corporate expense accounts, they sipped coffee with gold leaf and patronized “no-panties shabu-shabu” restaurants, which had mirrored floors and miniskirted waitresses.

In short, the businessmen involved were jerks. Op-Ed Columnist - Save the Fat Cats - NYTimes.com

This is what a credit crisis looks like.

It’s not like a stock market crisis, where the scary plunge of stocks is obvious to all. The credit crisis has played out in places most people can’t see. It’s banks refusing to lend to other banks — even though that is one of the most essential functions of the banking system. It’s a loss of confidence in seemingly healthy institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman — both of which reported profits even as the pressure was mounting. It is panicked hedge funds pulling out cash. It is frightened investors protecting themselves by buying credit-default swaps — a financial insurance policy against potential bankruptcy — at prices 30 times what they normally would pay.It was this 36-hour period two weeks ago — from the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 17, to the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 18 — that spooked policy makers by opening fissures in the worldwide financial system.

In their rush to do something, and do it fast, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. concluded the time had come to use the “break the glass” rescue plan they had been developing. But in their urgency, they bypassed a crucial step in Washington and fashioned their $700 billion bailout without political spadework, which led to a resounding rejection this past Monday in the House of Representatives.

As Credit Crisis Spiraled, Alarm Led to Action - NYTimes.com