Clean Up Shorters

fuckity fuck. She's back on speed. Wonderful. First some shorters I should have done last week, then some looks at some real stinkers from the last day or two. If I have it in me I'll look at the Krugman mess, too, if not you can head over to Susan's for coverage.

More on Dick Fuld:

Remember, if I tut-tut about the most blatantly obvious cases of misdeeds by the executive class it totally means I'm being principled when I excuse and enable them the rest of the time.
For example...

Those Wall Street leeches:

Sure, I worked in the Financial District, have an MBA, "cover" economic issues, and have lived a relatively indulged life, but that doesn't mean I couldn't secretly resent the people making more money than me while I kissed their asses.
(M. covered the coverage of this post below.)

GDP falls, deflation looms:

As a friend, another journalist, just told me, "I am slightly concerned that everything, here and around the world, really may go to some serious [expletive deleted] this year".

How many of Megan's flaws are encapsulated in this one sentence?

Media alert:

Felix Salmon and I were on Marketplace today.

First comment;

Say, isn't the idea to have the media alert before you're on the radio?
Posted by Rich in PA

The problem with bonuses:

is that most rich people totally deserve their money for the tremendous success that's been had across the board in the financial sector over the last year or so. Sure, maybe Dick Fuld doesn't deserve a bonus, but let's not go crazy.

How forward looking are we?:

My ability to get predictions wrong and choose the wrong side in near every issue makes me an expert in the field of expertise, dammit!

Damned if they do, damned if they don't:

The left is angry at banks for not managing their credit risks well enough, loaning money to people who couldn't pay it back. The implication is often that this was all some sort of scheme to get working stiffs into debt slavery.

No, Megan, the implication is that deregulation of the credit markets, or lack of sufficient oversight, led to credit card companies extending credit to people they knew couldn't afford it in order to charge them interest rates on that debt that would shame mobsters. It's not a new scam, you're just a willfully blind moron.

I never bought into the notion that expanding credit was bad for poor people (though I now realize it wasn't good for the economy as a whole). So the cutbacks make me uncomfortable and sad. But that's one reason I can't get too mad at banks for extending the loans in the first place.

Don't blame anyone who actually bears any responsibility in any of these crises, folks. They might have say about Megan's future employment.