Mainstream Media Knows the Crimes Have Now Cost Taxpayers over $170 Billion. Where’s the Outrage?
There’s no need for long, complex explanations about mortgage securitization and mortgage backed derivatives. These subjects are now flotsam/jetsam of the financial crisis. But when I hear an apologist for big government solutions to every human challenge say that the government had no role in our current financial crisis, my question is simply “how do you explain the FACT that taxpayers have now lost $170 Billion to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?” The $170 Billion may end up being $250 Billion before the housing crisis hits bottom, and unlike the other bailouts, we will never see this money again. How do you explain this? If they had nothing to do with the financial crisis, then why have they cost us $170 Billion?
This question must be asked of every federal government official until we get an honest answer. It’s that simple. Answer the question Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. Answer the question.
Of course, the inconvenient truth is that this Fannie and Freddie Big Government solution has been a big drag and big pile of you know what on the American economy since 2007. The only way to avoid this truth is to tell a Big Lie, which the mainstream media is only too happy to help with.
A Quick and Easy Recipe for Apple Sauce That You Will Not Forget
Apple Sauce made from scratch and Northern Spys
I love walking into our local orchard’s sorting and packing plant. The folks at Brookwood couldn’t be nicer, and the building is a throwback to the 1950s. Sometimes they leave the sales shop up front empty to return home for lunch, so it’s the honor system for payment.
The smell is faintly sweet with huge pallet cases of apples stored everywhere. I took a bushel of Northern Spy seconds, apples with a little blemish or two on the skin, and a couple of gallons of apple cider for $16.
Back home, I store the bushel in the garage where it is just as cool as our refrigerator, now. I love a good crisp apple to eat, but I also love apple sauce. When I was a kid I was often around the kitchen table peeling apples for apple sauce, but I found a better way that’s also healthier and better tasting. For my own apple sauce, I simply wash the apples and then cut into fours and remove the core. I put the quartered apples, skin on, into a large pot with a 1/4 Cup of water, put it on a medium fire with a cover, and let it go for about 8-10 minutes.
As soon as the apples are soft, I remove from the heat and work them through the large holed disc on my Victorian strainer. How simple is that? We have our homemade apple sauce with or after dinner several nights of the week. You can see from the photo that the sauce is a beautiful yellow color – I used Norther Spys for this batch – and it’s thick enough to hold up a spoon. If you use McIntosh or Courtland it will be pink. It has some texture as well, so stop thinking that apple sauce is only for the very young and the very old. What they call apple sauce and sell in a plastic cup or a jar is some other thing. This is the real apple sauce. Try it again and tell me it’s not delicious.
Red Cabbage braised with a northern spy apply and sauerkraut
There is nothing left from our garden save for beets, celery root and potatoes. Ate the last of the swiss chard last weekend. It may not officially be winter yet, but here in lower Michigan it’s starting to feel like it. The leaves are down, there’s a little snow from time to time, and a deep frost settles in every night. So what’s next? That’s always a question this time of year. I found the answer at Randazzo’s, our local fruit and veg market.
Red cabbage is a dish that I never think of during warm weather. It’s never been my favorite vegetable to be sure, but I met an
Bratwurst with red cabbage and fried potatoes
elderly woman at the market a couple of years ago who shared a recipe, and I am now a converted fan of braised red cabbage.
Start a pot of salted water on the stove, large enough to hold a whole medium red cabbage. Cut the cabbage in 4 and remove the core. Then cut it into strips. Drop it into the boiling water and wait until the water returns to the boil, then pour it off into a colander. Put the drained cabbage back into the same pan, with a norther spy apple in the center. Cover and place on a low burner. You may have to add 1/4 C of water if you let the cabbage steam for a long time after draining, but normally it’s fine. Add 2 Cups of sauerkraut and stir into the cabbage after a few minutes and finish cooking. covered, for about 10 minutes.
The acid in the kraut brightens the cabbage in both taste and color. Cabbage will be tender and the apple well cooked when it’s done. Enjoy as we did with a grilled brat and potatoes, or any other roast or grill. Red cabbage is also a nice side dish for Thanksgiving.
Fannie and Freddie Lose Valuable Talent During Crisis
After crying for years, nay decades, about CEO and, in general, executive pay, Democrats have a real problem. They received a little of their own medicine yesterday in a House hearing on executive pay at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The facts of the matter are that talent will go to where there are rewards; the two Government Sponsored Entities that contributed so much to our financial crisis are in deep financial crisis themselves; and the housing market is now almost wholly dependent on the two to securitize the few mortgage loans made in today’s market.
Fannie and Freddie need talent desperately to steer them through the crisis and they are still taking on water; both have recently made new requests for additional capital, over $15 Billion, as the foreclosures continue across the country. The mortgage market is nearly frozen as most private banks and Wall Street have left the mortgage securitization market, and without an uptick in housing the whole economy suffers. But while desperate for talent, not to mention cash, the two mortgage giants are hamstrung by politicians eager to rip flesh from their ankles because of executive pay. This is not good and, if the hearing yesterday is any indication, it’s not going to get any better.
We don’t want to support Fannie and Freddie here, but in all honesty it simply does not make sense at this time to worry about their executive pay. There is a $14 Trillion economy to worry about; a few million in executive bonuses are not going to make a difference. If this sort of thing bothers Congress, they should have made hay when the sun was shining and Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines were walking away with exorbitant amounts every year for laying the groundwork for today’s financial crisis. Didn’t hear a peep, then.
Ryan spoke of his “disappointment” that “the politics of division are making a big comeback.” He accused Obama of using “divisive rhetoric” and of “going from town to town, impugning the motives of Republicans, setting up straw men and scapegoats, and engaging in intellectually lazy arguments.”
“Instead of working with us on … common-sense reforms,” Ryan declared, “the president is barnstorming swing states, pushing a divisive message that pits one group of Americans against another on the basis of class.”
Giving a speech like this is uncharacteristic of Ryan, Dionne asserts, and indicates that
We may be reaching an inflection point, the moment when the terms of the political argument change decisively. Three indicators: An important speech by Rep. Paul Ryan, the increasingly sharp tone of President Obama’s rhetoric, and the success of Occupy Wall Street in resisting attempts to marginalize the movement.
Left to unemployment -> Right to Populist Rhetoric and Better Poll Numbers
What Dionne wants to argue here is that Obama’s rhetoric is helping him to change the narrative, giving him a lift for re-election. As it turns out, on this one point Dionne is correct. The President’s poll numbers jumped over the past two weeks. Little bit less bad news probably helped as well, but there are a lot of angry Americans out there right now and blasting the well off is an easy way to cash in on the anger.
Unfortunately for Obama there is also a downside. The economy requires investment and risk taking for job growth. While he aims the guns at the investor class he may make some short term gains in the polls, but that will be offset certainly by a loss of confidence in job creators and their investors. If unemployment remains over 9% a year from now, Obama and a lot of other pols are going to pay a stiff price. The administration seems to know this which is why they are pushing so hard for another half a trillion in stimulus to create more public sector employment. At this point they will take anything that makes it look like the economy is moving forward.
On everything else Dionne was dead wrong, which is not unusual for him. The occupy movement is coming to an inglorious end with riots, violence and mass nonsense. It again will make a few headlines and make the Tea Party look like the drab, even keeled, middle class political movement that it is, but a year from now occupy will still be brandishing clubs and molatov cocktails and the Tea Party will be electing conservatives. The inequality argument, meanwhile, has been made so many times in our nation’s history that it starting to sound like the mourning dove; wistful and melancholy.
Our Lives Require Digging a Huge Hole in Sacred Gaia
Mining Machinery - Can't believe they left a tree standing
What does it take to build a modern road? It takes concrete or possibly asphalt, and both of these require surface strip mining for road materials.
I live in Michigan, on the outer edge of the Detroit exurbs. It’s still pretty rural here. Road material supply companies came to this area a generation ago and purchased the worst piece of property they could find, just a few miles past where they projected future growth. It may take a while but eventually people come and they need roads, not to mention parking lots and lot of other concrete construction. This is how you plan for the future when you have smarts and money. Operating a gravel pit close to the construction sites saves transportation dollars and an enormous amount of gasoline. It takes a very long investment horizon, because it may be the next generation before you see a return on the initial cash outlay.
But when the demand comes, you’re ready. Your 20 acres of scrabble hides a goldmine of sand and gravel, which, along with cement, make concrete, for road building and construction in general. So you rip off the trees and brush, scrape off the top soil and then the clay. Eventually you find the sand and gravel. Tons and tons of it. You run the product through a number of processes until you have clean sand, small pebble, medium pebble…you get the idea.
Dredging Operations Created a Lake
We all use roads, and we all want roads. But how many people do you know who want to stand up and support mining? Anyone? How many residents of Ann Arbor or Berkeley will stand up and say they want a profit seeking company to strip a plot of land and then mine it for sand and gravel until they’ve created a little lake?
By the way, the operation I took these pictures at is now done with the mining. You can see the lake they dredged in the background. Now, this former “virgin wilderness” will be graded for residential development and before long they will be selling waterfront lots here. Pretty cool, huh? Also, the company that owns and operates this mine does not post its name or ownership anywhere. Is that because in our current economic environment they think they are only asking for trouble to name themselves?
Why bring all of this up? I simply want to bring home the point that our lives require enormous amounts of input. Tons and tons of input. It is now de facto appropriate behavior in our society to condemn the sources of the input. It’s easy to hate BIG OIL. It’s easy to hate coal mining. But how about sand and gravel? Do you hate the concrete they used at the new hospital?
We can’t build pipelines anymore, but how about roads and schools and hospitals? Can we still build those? Do you still feel all warm and fuzzy about them? Do you still consider them improvements?
Major College Sports Are Off the Tracks, You Know It, and I Know It
Hard to believe that five grown men (so far there are five but there will be more) knew that boys were being raped by a man with whom they were acquainted and they did nothing to stop it. How can you walk by a crime and keep whistling on your way? How?
The American economic tree has been incredibly fruitful. We have raised our standard of living beyond what anyone just 100 years ago could have dreamed possible. Like any tree, the trunk and main branches are strong, and so are several spurs. Major college sports is now one of those spurs. Who would have dreamed that after our great post WWII economic expansion that we would build a little empire of amateur college athletics where thousands work directly and indirectly, for no wages in some cases and very good wages in others. How many people are involved economically in Division 1 athletics? Well, there are 350 schools now and more all they time trying to claw their way in. Plus all of the conference people, the media people, the lawyers… Add it all up and there’s probably close to 200,000 people who derive direct economic benefit just from Division 1.
Quite a nice little economy when you think about it. In my career I once had the opportunity to work on a project at the NCAA HQ in Indianapolis. One thing I remember is that they had a terrible time trying to manage the applicant process because they received over 350 resumes for every opening. Who wouldn’t want to work for an ever growing, recession proof organization where the product is entertainment provided for educated, well off college students and alumni, and provided by unpaid, full time athletes (many of whom masquerade as students). The money sloshing around major college sports from this arrangement is unbelievable.
Can you imagine what it would be like to change NCAA major college sports at this point? After all of the scandals of the past year, you decide that there must be major changes to this sector/spur. You decide to reinforce the term student/athlete and declare henceforth that no scholarships can be offered to a student unless they have been previously accepted at the university based on they academic record, potential and ambition. Burn down the house. The firestorm would be tremendous. I remember when John Thompson walked off the court dramatically when the NCAA raised the bar on student academic achievement necessary for participation. You can just imagine what the response would be if we were to ask student/athletes to gain admittance to higher education like the rest of the student body.
Why Are We Running Minor Leagues for the NFL and NBA?
Let’s not leave out the MLB and the NHL who increasingly look to NCAA athletes for draftees. So why? Is it in the interest of our greater society to provide a training ground for the four major sports leagues? What other economic sector receives such lavish gifts? Do business schools or engineering schools provide this type of specialized apprenticeship to financial and manufacturing companies? Hardly. Students in these schools receive general education and most who end up in finance or engineering careers end up taking an additional 2-4 years of school to earn their masters degree.
Another Entitlement
Our society now has so many entitlements that it’s hard to keep up. Students at Penn St, even after the all the recent revelations, are upset that they are losing their football coach, and started a small riot. But you can hardly blame a bunch of college students for believing they are entitled to a first class football program as a perk of university admission when the adults are as bad or worse. Witness the alumni of any major university at any major sports event. I can’t stand attending University of Michigan football games any more. Hearing a wealthy 50 year old swear at a 19 year old because he’s not receiving the entertainment value to which he has become accustomed is simply unbelievable. You start to wonder if you have arrived on another planet where a black hole of stupidity warps reality.
It’s past time for some tree trimming folks. It’s time to cut off the spurs and rip the privilege out by the roots. We are not entitled to the highest caliber of college athletics that can be achieved by young men who do not participate in the intellectual life of the university. We are hurting the young men and we are corrupting and corroding our culture. Let what happened at Penn St smack you in the face, because that’s what our society needs, a hard smack in the face.
For a Day When It’s 38 and the Snow Flies Sideways
Venison and Black Bean Chili
I found myself with rake in hand, standing over a small fire of garden and vineyard remnants, remembering old friendships and places, when I noticed a few snowflakes scattering around the wind, never landing. That’s it, that’s a sign. I made short work of the fire and then headed straightaway to the kitchen.
My nephew took his first deer on the first day of hunting season in his first year of hunting. The unfairness of it all still makes me smile. But now I had found what I’d been looking for; namely, a recipe to do the venison justice. A venison shoulder can make a great braise or stew, I won’t argue with you. But ground venison is also an excellent meat for chili, tacos, pasta sauce, especially if you like deep, robust flavors.
For this recipe, I simmered a large, diced onion in olive oil, with salt and pepper. I added a diced poblano pepper from the garden (still have a few) and then a large dash of dried oregano and two tablespoons of Penzey’s medium hot chili powder. When the onions were soft I moved them over to the side of the pan and added the ground venison. Venison has little if any fat so it will need a little oil in order to brown. I guess I had about a pound of vension.
I cooked two cups of black beans the night before in a pressure cooker and added them and an equal amount of water to the pot when the venison was done cooking. I also added 1 cup of my crushed roma tomatoes that I put away this summer. An hour later after simmering on low heat the chili was done. Excellent.
To spatchcock a chicken, or any other fowl, simply flip the bird over on its breast and remove the backbone. This can be done with a pair of scissors or a sharp knife. Then, remove the breast bone and lay the chicken flat. Fold the wings back and if you want you can also make slits in the skin and tuck the legs through, but that’s not necessary.
We season the chicken with herbs, rosemary is good, and salt and pepper and a little olive oil. Let it come to room temperature and then place it skin side down on a hot grill. Meanwhile, place a pan with a little olive oil and some thick slices of potatoes on the other side of the grill over a low heat.
After you brown both sides of the chicken place it on a rack positioned directly over the pan with the potatoes. You can normally turn off the heat under the potatoes and turn the heat up to high on the other side. Like this everything cooks well but does not burn.
We have also made this dish with onions or fennel bulb as well as the potatoes. After the chicken is cooked you can remove the vegetables from the pan and deglaze for a little jus.
Sports Talk Radio Is A Useful Barometer of American Life
Is he mocking himself or the new Big 10 alignment
There is a little brouhaha currently in Michigan over the building of an additional bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario that’s being pushed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. Of course we already have a bridge, and that’s the issue.
The interesting twist is that Detroit was once such an economic powerhouse that private investors pooled their money and built the current Detroit – Windsor Ambassador bridge in 1927, the age of big industry and big projects. In fact, the sitting mayor at the time ran against the privately financed bridge because it would always operate at a profit, made from the users. He lost and the private span, the largest suspension bridge at that time, opened in 1929. It has been a private bridge ever since.
The current owners of the bridge don’t want a competitive public bridge. Even in the best of times this would be problematic, but currently the Ambassador, like many of the spans between the US and Canada, operates at about 35% of capacity.
So how does our fearless sportscaster Doug Karsch, seen above, figure into the debate? On my way home recently from a golf outing I heard Karsch on the radio talking about the bridge brouhaha and he was incredulous that a private corporation could own a public asset like a bridge. Karsch’s show is not one that I would go out of my way to listen to, but frankly it’s about the only thing on the radio in the later afternoon. It’s not an insightful or creative show by any stretch, and these same characteristics came out in the political discussion. Karsch was unable to specify why a private corporation could not own a public good, but he knew it was wrong. This episode serves as an excellent example of what happens to political discourse when people are not willing to question their assumptions. They simply stammer out opinions.
Listening to Karsch’s afternoon program came back to me recently as another brouhaha blew up: The Detroit Metro Airport severance pay and in-dealing fiasco. The airport is owned by Wayne County and there is a board of directors, appointed in parts by the Wayne County Commission, the Wayne County Commissioner and the Governor, that oversees contracts and other administration at the airport.
What we have learned is that there is an incredible amount of in-dealing between the Wayne County Commissioner’s office and the airport commission. You appoint me and I’ll appoint you; you fix me up with an excellent contract and I’ll make sure you get a board seat, on one board or another (there are now so many board seats around that a person can make a damn good living just sitting on boards). Now members of the board are under investigation for unethical practices. It’s pathetic to look at.
They are all public employees working for a public good and not a whiff of profit anywhere. They can’t even run the airport at cost; they are down almost 20 M this year alone. But they have three different entities that appoint directors, so no one can ever pinpoint the elected official who’s responsible for the nonsense. Taxpayer money down the tube. Why not sell a long lease of the airport to a private concern and let them manage it profitably? Well, no we couldn’t possibly do that. Meanwhile the bridge operates at a profit, has no self dealing controversies and has not been under FBI investigation. I’ll take a profit seeking enterprise any day.
Think about the history here for a moment. In the 1920s a mayor who opposes a bridge financed, owned and operated by private interests gets voted out of office. And here we are in 2011 and people cannot understand how a public asset could be owned and operated by a private concern, even with public assets causing a constant stream of ethics violations. So Mr. Karsch, how did we get from there to here? Maybe your t-shirt is upside down, dufus.
Update: Now the self dealing Chairwoman of the Airport Authority Board has resigned, and the there are several more resignations on the way. Excellent article by Daniel Howes. Here’s a snippet:
The incestuousness of it all — and the glaring lack of experienced business people more attuned to actual performance and potential conflicts of interest — speaks for itself. No wonder this board plumped for Turkia Awada Mullin, Ficano’s economic development director, to become CEO of the airports over more qualified applicants.
She’s one of them, an accomplished government climber who leverages a $200,000-a-year gig (plus a $75,000 annual kicker) into a $250,000 gig running the airports. In the process, she collects $200,000 in walking away money (until the ensuing outrage sparks a bonus clawback and her firing).
Time for Ficano — with an assist from Gov. Rick Snyder, if the opportunity presents itself — to reshape the airport authority board with business types who actually know how to run a business, to recruit and select talent, to avoid the county’s embedded culture of cronyism because their livelihood doesn’t depend on it.
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fannie mae, freddie mac, Senator Levin, Senator Stabenow | 
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