Debate Post Mortem

After watching the vice Presidential debate, one must analyze the debate in sections and conclude that there was no runaway winner. The following analysis discussed the debate and what was most noticeable about each part.

I. The opening questions/the economy:

The first two questions showed a very nervous Sarah Palin repeating talking points no matter how far they deviated from the question. For example she was asked about the bailout and talked about her time as mayor and cutting taxes, but never mentioned the bailout. Edge:Biden

II. Foreign policy:

Foreign policy questions were very friendly to Joe Biden, with him utilizing his years of foreign policy experience to talk about the governance in Iran, the prevention of nuclear proliferation, and the need to prevent more atrocities in Darfur. They both agreed on interventionism in Darfur, which seemed like a lot of hot air to me since we already have two wars going on and cannot afford a third. Edge: Biden

III. Personal questions/closing statements:

This area was where Sarah Palin had a chance to narrow the gap with her (whether it is real or not) folksy charm and references to being outside the mainstream of politics. Biden did his usual act of talking about his blue collar roots (whether real or not) and both did an admirable job. Palin came across as very likable with her references to her and her opponents sons both being in Iraq and the graciousness in ending the debate. Edge: Palin

Overall winner: Biden
Biden did what he needed to do, coming across as a seasoned veteran against a neophyte governor. Palin did her best to not hurt her cause, making no mistake and only showing nervousness as the onset and improving performance as the night wore on. Unfortunately when you campaign is sinking like a lead balloon, you need better than a tie if you plan on winning.

Caribou Barbie and The Big Debate

Tonight is the big night when Caribou Barbie debates with Joe Biden, it will be the beauty queen versus the foot eater, hockey mom versus blue collar mansion dweller. Hopefully this debate performance by Caribou Barbie is so bad that it dooms the McCain campaign so this endless election will finally go away.

I went down, down, down and the flames went higher

Today there is finally some positive economic news. Defeating the $700,000,000,000 bailout means that the greedy investment firm which still exist will be bought out by more liquid firms at fire sale prices and the world goes on. The alternative was borrowing nearly a trillion dollars from the Chinese to pay the bills, which would mean that we would be even less sovereign than our current state suggests. Hopefully the market realizes that the gravy train is not pulling into the station and money begins to flow to solid companies again. Either way Henry Paulsen should be fired.

Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Poor

If you have no been living in a cave for the past two weeks you have probably heard about how the fundamentals of the economy are not so strong, no matter how many times John McCain told us otherwise last week. The situation, minus double talk, is that greedy companies were given the authority by the Clinton and Bush administrations to lend to anyone with a pulse to encourage a society of homeowners. Naturally this drove demand for housing far above the market level, so prices rose at astronomic rates, which made investment in mortgages seem like a sure bet(which does not exist in this world).

Homeowners, meanwhile, borrowed against their homes on the belief that the value of the homes would continue rising like Michael Jackson at a pre school, so at the end of the day you could have a person with a mortgage for a home with a line of credit on the home based on a higher value than the house is worth, resulting on owing much more than the house is going to be worth for a long time.

Finally, the government has been largely responsible for the problem by keeping interest rates low, which allowed easy lending and less scrutiny for the creditworthiness of borrowers. One question nobody asks is, why is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs asking for nearly a trillion dollars to bail out his company?

Needing a rest from economics to get a good post

I am taking this week off as much as possible to detoxify after classes such as "Theory of Price" and Managerial economics where I mathematically compute economic theorems. I cannot find joy in economics at times due to the amount of studying required.

The Robber Baron is Riding High

Today is the day when any pretense of fiscal conservatism can officially be kissed goodbye. Today the US Taxpayer is made to pay for the incompetence of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac management to the tune of hundreds of billion of dollars. This paragraph sums the situation up best:

"But even after the government seized the mortgage finance companies on Sunday and dismissed their chief executives, the companies’ outgoing leaders could see big paydays — a prospect that angers many investors, particularly because ordinary stockholders could be virtually wiped out."

We are paying for golden parachutes with our tax money. Welcome to slavery

Mourning the death of capitalism

Just research the bailout of the mortgage giants to see why this nation is now a socialist nation for the wealthy