“I’ll try to find some and I’ll bring ’em to ya!”

September 25, 2008 @ 1:41 pm | Comment

FAIL

I got the spooky feeling that I was looking at Bush at the start of his presidency. The expression, the folksy language, the absence of a mind.

Perish the thought.

September 25, 2008 @ 2:15 pm | Comment

Yes, Palin is definately a “lightweight”.

But I’m not sure whether in the context of de-regulation terms such as “expert” and “lightweight” become largely irrelevant? In our system, basically anything that is not explicitly “illegal” is “legal”. So, in a de-regulated environment, even if you hire an army of “blue chip” lawyers and accountants to innovate and draft some new financial instrument (i.e., contract) whatever they draft will be “legal” even if it’s basically “shit”. Terms such as “competent”, or “incompetent” become meaningless. You just end up with lawyers and accountants that are “shit”.

In such an environment, expertise becomes largely irrelevant. No one knows what he/she is doing. The band just plays on as they hand out awards as the ship sinks.

Lehman Brothers Recognized in International Financing Review’s “Awards 2006”

17 Dec 2006
Lehman Brothers has been honored with several awards from International Financing Review (IFR) in the publication’s “Awards 2006.” Following are excerpts from IFR’s December 2006 edition:

Credit Derivatives House of the Year
“For its extension of synthetic trading to new asset classes and market-leading service in the form of idea generation and liquidity provision, Lehman Brothers is IFR’s Credit Derivatives House of the Year.”

“Lehman Brothers received high marks from hedge funds and other active users of credit derivatives for its service in all index and single name default swap markets globally. ‘They are good with ideas, trading, pricing and anything you need as a client,’ said one hedge fund manager… it was in product innovation that Lehman Brothers outperformed its peers.”

Securitization House of the Year
“As the securitisation universe continues to expand, so do the demands on lead managers. A top ABS bank has to show competence across asset classes, an ability to generate its own product, supply liquidity and a talent to rethink the product. Lehman Brothers has done all that, and as a model that other houses are chasing to copy, not least in the non-conforming sector, is the IFR Securitisation House of the Year.”

“From advisory through to principal finance, Lehman Brothers’ roster of deals demonstrates a real ability to meet client objectives through to final execution. But the breadth and innovation of its deals only tells a part of the story. Its global business platform also draws on its syndication, distribution, trading and research expertise.”

Lehman Brothers Associated with Five Additional IFR Deal-Related Awards
European Structured Equity Issue of the Year: Salzgitter/Vallourec
Joint bookrunner (€1.4 billion structured equity issue)

North American Securitization of the Year: Hertz Vehicle Licensing
Sole structuring advisor and joint bookrunner ($5.8 billion financing)

Subordinated Financial Bond of the Year: Lloyds TSB Group
Joint bookrunner ($1.0 billion perpetual non-call 10)

U.S. Equity Issue of the Year: New York Stock Exchange
Joint bookrunner ($1.77 billion secondary offering)

U.S. Structured Equity Issue of the Year: Amgen
Joint bookrunner ($5.0 billion two-tranche convertible bond offering)

The transactions herein appear as a matter of record only.

September 25, 2008 @ 2:44 pm | Comment

How embarrasing. Why not just deadpan “Yes, McCain has generally supported deregulation. Yep.” ? That would be less embarrasing that this load of bullcrap.

September 25, 2008 @ 3:36 pm | Comment

She has unwittingly displayed her thought process – leap to a conclusion then find evidence to support it. Maybe if she had found the evidence before the interview, it might have been a good idea.

She hasn’t a clue.

I agree with the comments below the video – the reason McCain wants to postpone the presidential debate, so the veep debate gets cancelled.

September 25, 2008 @ 3:45 pm | Comment

wow, that’s painful to watch.

i mean, people seriously support a ticket like this? i want to cry.

September 25, 2008 @ 4:30 pm | Comment

“Palin”—that name rings a bell, as they say. Isn’t Palin that English bloke who does travel documentaries for the BBC and fantasizes about the glory days of imperial British India?

September 25, 2008 @ 4:31 pm | Comment

@buck

yeah, he also used to be a comedian in some obscure comedy outfit called “monty python’s flying circus”. dunno if you’ve heard of it…

@everyone

democrat sneering cannot hurt palin – she has more powerful protection than you can imagine

http://tinyurl.com/4enqas

September 25, 2008 @ 4:52 pm | Comment

My eyes must be playing tricks on me, but I can swear that in the video Palin has pointed ears! Like Mr. Spock, a Vulcan. Or maybe a Romulan?

Everything now is just get’n too weird for me! I used to think that I’d seen everything, but now hardly a day goes by in which I don’t have to do at least one double-take. I wish that they’d legalize cannabis, so that I could open a hash bar somewhere and just laugh my way through the next 4 years, if we last that long. (I don’t do drugs by the way, at least not yet. I used to think that drugs would only make things worse, but now I’m starting to wonder.)

September 25, 2008 @ 5:10 pm | Comment

Thanks for that link, Si.

“Yikes” is all I can say.

September 25, 2008 @ 5:26 pm | Comment

I just saw 2 interviews with McCain and Obama. I’m definately voting for Nader. It’s either that or “drop out”, and I’m not going to “drop out”, even if that’s arguably the most rational thing to do. What I want to hear is that the next president is going to undo the security state that Bush created.

September 25, 2008 @ 9:46 pm | Comment

Yeah, Obama’s FISA vote was a real soul-crusher.

Meanwhile, here’s HRC’s “bail-out” proposal in the Wall Street Journal.

September 26, 2008 @ 1:50 am | Comment

Systems are inherently designed to perpetuate themselves, not to provide for change. McCain and Obama are products of The System. All that I hear from Obama is that he’ll generally do the same things as McCain/Bush, but only “better”. Now we’ve got this behind-closed-doors Wall Street bail out package that Bush/Obama/McCain/Paulson/Buffet cooked up. The mass media just ignores Nader. It’s all a scam. Bush goes on tv and scares everybody, and we all get fleeced. I’d almost be willing to live under a tyranny if the tyrants only had a modicum of quality and intellect. But they’re all so banal.

September 26, 2008 @ 2:36 am | Comment

I really admire Ralph Nader for his leadership on consumer protection. Not sure why he is running for president. He has a lot insight and expertise in the consumer protection area, but not the breadth of experience to provide broad executive leadership. With the dangers of tainted food and lead paint on toys his leadership in the consumer protection area is babdly needed again. Obama should ask Nader to lead a commission to readdress the consumer protection laws and regulations to figure out who dropped the ball and what should be done today to ensure consumer protection is still addressed in a common sense way in the era of 21st globalization and international markets. I don’t understand why the american company selling in the US is not liable for the products he sells even if he has the product manufactured in china, india or vietnam.

Bob Barr has volunteered to take McCain’s place at the debate friday, the conservative base should throw their weight behind Barr.

September 26, 2008 @ 2:45 am | Comment

Is Palin a secret plot to guarantee Obama´s victory in the comming elections?

Maybe the Chinese are behind this
(they may have a real good “Special circunstances” department…)
http://tinyurl.com/45659c

A new twist to the Manchurian candidate plot .

😉 😉

September 26, 2008 @ 11:16 am | Comment

From the description of SC in wikipedia.
“Interventions by SC usually take the form of covert operations (military or otherwise) designed to strengthen or weaken factions within less advanced civilisations. These interventions are not usually carried out by Culture citizens (Jernau Gurgeh in The Player of Games apparently being an exception), but are rather “contracted out” to third party agents or mercenaries (Use of Weapons), or else to advanced nanoform agents (see below).”

Less advanced civilisations…. Ha ha ha… That was a good one!

September 26, 2008 @ 11:28 am | Comment

You know—I don’t ask for much from my politicians (or anybody for that matter) except to be told the truth on significant matters. I give allowances for small, white lies, as I realize that sometimes one has to cut corners, and we do live in a commercial culture. I can’t figure out why The Creator made an absurd world where one can’t tell the truth. Maybe, it’s because this isn’t The Creator’s realm? Maybe I’ve died and gone to hell, and I just don’t know it? I understand that the Tibetans believe that the dead don’t know that they’re dead.

Look at These People who run everything! What kind of a place is this?!

September 26, 2008 @ 1:15 pm | Comment

richard – have you seen the news about china’s early space mission takeoff?

September 26, 2008 @ 3:12 pm | Comment

“Lightweights”—They’re not just lightweights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OTM8Y3a5zQ

“Honey Bunny, where are the bullets to my gun? I asked you never to lock up the bullets to my gun in case I have to shoot a corrupt politician in a hurry!”

September 26, 2008 @ 3:26 pm | Comment

@lensovet

at least the ccp can rest assured the taikonauts will say the right thing….

September 26, 2008 @ 3:29 pm | Comment

Lensovet, yes I saw it – I don’t think there’s much I can add to that story.

I am attending classes every day, including next week’s holiday, so I am not posting much, and I’m way behind in my emails, too (in case anyone’s mad at me for not responding).

September 26, 2008 @ 5:30 pm | Comment

lensovet – just like the lip-synching at the Olympics. Everything must be “perfect”.

September 26, 2008 @ 7:31 pm | Comment

If something is perfect it is not true.

September 26, 2008 @ 8:39 pm | Comment

If something is perfect it is not true.

That doesn’t seem to stop people such as these trying to reach perfection. They think if something is “well presented” even if it’s fake, it’s better than something real and more obviously flawed.

September 26, 2008 @ 9:23 pm | Comment

Cant say that I agree with many of these comments but for those who do some may find this following apposite (or about right)

http://tiny.cc/ZSa9k

September 26, 2008 @ 10:54 pm | Comment

They think if something is “well presented” even if it’s fake, it’s better than something real and more obviously flawed.

There you have in a nutshell the driving philosophy of George Bush, Karl Rove and karen Hughes. For them, backdrops and stage settings and image are far more important than any truths.

September 27, 2008 @ 12:11 am | Comment

“For them, backdrops and stage settings and image are far more important than any truths.”

Yes—it’s all packaging. They become obsessed with mind-control. Success is controlling the target’s mind without reliance on objective reality.

MI6’s Web site encourages mothers to apply and assures women they won’t be used as “honey pots” or seductresses. Disabled applicants are welcome. And a special search is directed at minorities who speak Mandarin, Arabic, Persian and the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto.

Could the future James Bond be a woman or a dark-skinned Urdu speaker?

September 27, 2008 @ 12:33 am | Comment

Could the future James Bond be a woman or a dark-skinned Urdu speaker?

No, because James Bond is:

a) a man
b) English
c) Caucasian

End of story.

Richard, my thought of Bush’s “Missioned Accomplished” broadcast springs to mind. Though I must admit that is, sadly, the remit of a politician – some might be envious that they didn’t think of/have the balls to do something similar.

Though at least it wasn’t pre-recorded or produced through use of a blue-screen background, which probably would have been the equivalent of what Xinhua did.

September 27, 2008 @ 12:43 am | Comment

Buck, in re: “Could the future James Bond be a woman or a dark-skinned Urdu speaker?”
Nah, Mate, I ran into her in Hanoi, Seoul, and Macau, and she’s from Cabramatta.

September 27, 2008 @ 7:56 am | Comment

Raj,

But what if one convinces James Bond (a male, English and Caucasian bloke) that he’s a woman, or a dark-skinned Urdu speaker?

September 27, 2008 @ 9:09 am | Comment

“For them, backdrops and stage settings and image are far more important than any truths.”

Once society starts to think in this way the social and political structure of society becomes tragic commic. Everything becomes self-destructive and divorced from reality (which is the very definition of psychosis). The objective is success, which is to create a facade which is very different from reality. Society then becomese self-destructive. We can see this in the current US financial bailout debacle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knv9CXZI6hc&NR=1

September 27, 2008 @ 10:26 am | Comment

“Well, I took care of that Englishman [Alex]; he ain’t gonna do no more business in the state of Texas!”

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“The day I start living by the rules my wife set for me will be the one when Dallas Cowboys make it to the SuperBowl!”

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“A marriage is like a salad: the man has to know how to keep his tomatoes on the top!”

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“Never interfere with a man who’s correcting his wife!” (J.R. to James)

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“Never underestimate the elderly!”

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“Never tell the truth when a good lie’ll do!”

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“I come home for love and support, and all I get is a load of crap!” (J.R. to Cally)

September 27, 2008 @ 12:45 pm | Comment