Henry Blodget (yes, that Henry of the you’re-so-fired-for-a-tech-bubble-scam) is now a cited blogger on business matters. He speculates that the SEC surprise, unannounced suit against Goldman was timed and framed to obscure a scathing internal SEC review of its failure to act or investigate documented ponzi schemes going back to 1997. Speculative. But such craven, self-serving actions are a commonplace in D.C.
Reuters doesn’t go that far but also declares the SEC is using Goldman. They note clumsy efforts to scramble after the meltdown and pursue firms have been swatted down by courts and judges. Some judicial dismissals of SEC’s after-the-act ham fisted enforcement are scathing.
Pundits intone that SEC’s Goldman suit will bolster significantly Dodd’s the toothless and greatly watered down ‘financial reform’ bill. Republicans didn’t get the memo and have better focus group research. There’s always a tension in cynical D.C. between doing something or doing just enough to keep an issue alive for the next campaign. In our current meme environment, it’s even more stark. Actual achievement in any legislation is irrelevant to the perception in hyper-real twit-like consumptions. Thus, the astoundingly weak Dodd bill is already being amped up like a HiWatt stack as radical, massive ‘reform.’
Of all the people forced to chow down on that thin gruel, how bitter it must taste to the Left [sic], Progressives and Others Who Know Better. Again.
Comment says
When this Intellivision came out – a friend got it and we spent a large number of hours playing football and baseball thinking it was almost realistic. Fast Fw to the early 90s and we happened to meet Plimpton in Elaine’s, of all places – He did not recall even making the commercial that was really influential
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDza6eTXGEY
Comment says
We got a Vic -20 when it came out and a friend soon insisted his parents bet the Commodore 64.
We recall getting a 16k memory cartridge and thinking it opened a world of possibilities – Then we sort of lost interest in PCs for a while following the Apple 11. By the time the PC clones came out and every dad had a floppy, we had really fallen behind after a good start –
Comment says
Shatner -Vic 20 ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUEI7mm8M7Q&feature=related
Dr Leo Strauss says
Ah, nostalgia. The VIC-20 – great because it was color, real keyboard and cheap. There was magazine back then call Compute! that catered to the Commodore 6502 market. There was only 2k of memory on the VIC (IIRC) and the cassette tape loading. So to program pong required the magazine to print 5 pages of 101010 binary code assembly language, and a user to type it in manually (hoping not to transpose even one digit). The cartridge programs more fun, naturally.
Other readers may disagree, but The Shat’s apotheosis may have come when he did his Priceline (?) ad singing Freebird.
Comment says
“The shock therapy of decisive war will elevate the stock market by a couple-thousand points”
~Larry Kudlow (2002)
Comment says
We think Obama deserves credit for this and that there is a good chance it would have all collapsed in fire sale if McCain won:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/one_year_later_autos_report.pdf
Dr Leo Strauss says
Dear Ed Rendell:
Stop stealing from this blog. Get your own material.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/21/rendell-democratic-party_n_545902.html
Dr Leo Strauss says
From the Dept. of You Can’t Make This Stuff Up re Dems and financial reform:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/will-dems-be-ready-if-gop-filibusters-financial-reform.php?ref=fpblg
Comment says
RE: Blodget – He is still of questionable cred -Even now -a lot of what he says seems to have an indirecr self interested angle – When Spitzer busted him we cheered because we saw many Blodget types over the years mock customers and odrinary people.Ev
Comment says
Luntz may have jumped the shark with this one.
anxiousmodernman says
I was a little surprised to see the suit at all. This post is appropriately filed under “Election 2012”, but also 2010. How soon can we expect dramatic readings on NPR?
As one on the Left [sic], I still find myself rooting for the Dodd effort, but it doesn’t have enough teeth, like you say. I’d serve proudly as a public servant in New Regulator that was actually empowered to do something, as opposed to the SEC.