Shorters

it's not 2009 yet, so I didn't break my resolution by not finishing the catch-up last night like I said I would. Mhm.

Weird bailout rumor of the day:

I just heard a plausibly sourced rumor that Chrysler is changing its name. That sounds like a merger, but maybe they just want to put the past behind them . . .

One thing I don't get. If the big three have been so wrong, aren't they, according to Megan's twisted, self-serving logic, therefore best positioned to fix their mistakes?

Request:

Can we hold off excusing Clinton's egregious pardons on the grounds of Bush's pardoning all of his subordinates for horrible crimes until Bush, y'know, actually pardons some subordinates for horrible crimes?

More concern trolling of Obsidian Wings. Poor Hilzoy, though they bring it on themselves by taking Megan seriously.
Also, the probably illegal commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence like, totally didn't happen.

Hypocrisy, or rationality?:

Heh, heh, heh.

Freddie accuses me, again, of a double standard on Detroit and Wall Street. I don't know what not wanting to bail out Detroit is supposed to make me want do to Wall Street. I don't have any ideological interest in saving Wall Street jobs, no matter how devastating that may be for the local economy of my beloved hometown. I don't think the CEOs, or any of the financial workers, are entitled to a damn thing beyond two weeks' severance. I don't want to save the banking industry, except insofar as we can't get along without it.

Please believe her lies, folks. They're all she's got in these difficult times.

In my judgement--and the judgement of most economists--a massive banking industry failure has the potential to take down the real economy into a Great Depression like death spiral, and the failure of even a large single non-financial industry does not.

Is that a lie or just stupidity? Something like three million people are employed by the Big Three auto companies. Putting three million people out of work in one fell swoop is precisely the kind of thing that causes Great Depressions, you stupid asshole. Also, it kinda sucks for those three million people and their families, though that concern is erased by Megan saying "sorry".

We do not need an American auto business, and in fact old line industries have collapsed in America before (see Steel, Bethlehem and US) without wreaking the destruction that their CEOs also promised would inevitably follow.

Yeah, remember how in the late 70s things were so great Carter was reelected in a landslide?
She keeps going, but it's basically a long argument premised on the the idea that lead floats in air. Financial jobs are more important than industrial jobs, because she's been told so by people with financial jobs, who wouldn't lie and have never been wrong.

It's hazard, but is it moral?:

For example, if I am a bus driver, the negative externality of my suddenly jerking the steering wheel to the left and driving the bus off a cliff is much higher than the cost to me--many lives against my one. But my own life is very valuable to me. The threat of its loss is enough to deter such behavior 99.9999% of the time.

This is how she thinks, folks. Megan thinks self-interest is altruistic. It's one of her fundamental stupidities.

Bankers take risk in order to make money, and they control risk in order to avoid losses. But the losses they are most interested in are not to their shareholders. Rather, they are worried about the loss of their jobs. As long as the bank regulators fire any managers who put the bank in receivership, I can see no difference between an unregulated private system without deposit insurance, and a system with.

And I can see no difference between a bookie and a casino.

The kitchen gear that wins Christmas:

Dear everyone who had a rough Xmas thanks to the economy,

Megan got lots of expensive useless pieces of plastic crap, so it's ok. Maybe your kids can watch a video of her playing Guitar Hero soon. That should be fun.

Bad news for retailers, and credit card companies:

Retail sales plummeted in November and December.
...
But it seems to me that this is actually good news for consumers and, in the long run, the economy. Americans are massively over their heads in debt, and have been consuming beyond their means for a long time. The data shows them cutting back their spending to more reasonable levels, and cutting back the most in the most discretionary categories. I feel bad for Hermes and all, but we couldn't keep propping them up forever.

Bad economic news is good for the economy. People are saving the money they don't have, in Megan's world, and not being able to afford Xmas is needed belt tightening for the disposable non-Megans of the world. Can you imagine the whining if she'd had to forgo the slightest thing this season?
Lots of folk couldn't even afford to travel to be with family this Xmas, you selfish bitch, but of course you're worried about the airlines, not the people who would have flown on them.

Tall people are richer because they are smarter:

Megan can't quite give up on the idea of there being a God because who else could have decided she was so much better than everyone else and thus given her the appropriate superior qualities? Someone had to recognize she was deserving of the advantages she's had in life, otherwise it's just the random deal of the cards and she's an arrogant self-entitled piece of shit, and that can't be it. Megan likes herself.

That explains a lot:

Maybe if I pretend I was critical of the financial industry as it was destroying the global economy people will believe me, and I won't have to admit I was completely wrong about a major issue yet again. I'm still pissed at liberals for getting Iraq right, dammit.

Back later with her work from today.