Financial fuckery thread

[Triple Zero]

I think they are, surprisingly enough.  BBC seemed to imply it, anyway.  Still, 4 days....it don't look good.

I'm shocked, politicians putting work before their weekend?

Our economy isn't all that far from what greece's was and our government doesn't convene again until after the summer holidays (I think we are the only country that the government do this in).

summer recess? we have that too.

[Faust]

I think they are, surprisingly enough.  BBC seemed to imply it, anyway.  Still, 4 days....it don't look good.

I'm shocked, politicians putting work before their weekend?

Our economy isn't all that far from what greece's was and our government doesn't convene again until after the summer holidays (I think we are the only country that the government do this in).

summer recess? we have that too.

Ah right, I imagined only we could be that lazy.

[Cain]

Ours have a long summer break as well.  From July until September, pretty much.

[Cramulus]

I think they are, surprisingly enough.  BBC seemed to imply it, anyway.  Still, 4 days....it don't look good.

cats on NPR this morning said they expected it to be a weekend of colorful political theater

[BabylonHoruv]

On a more lighthearted note/tangent:
http://gawker.com/5825826/stephen-colbert-expands-on-john-mccains-tea-party-hobbits-metaphor

You know, I would have thought the teabaggers would have chosen Saruman instead of Sauron.  The one that seemed like an ally and a leader and turned out to be evil.

[Cain]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14340470

Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government.

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn).

Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn.

Obviously, the solution is to nationalize and liquidize Steve Jobs.

Anyway

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14344411

US President Barack Obama has said Democrats and Republicans must compromise to cut the US budget deficit and raise the debt limit.

He warned time had almost run out, as Republican leaders scrambled to save their deficit-cutting bill amid a House of Representatives conservative revolt.

The Democrats meanwhile announced they would put their plan to the Senate.

The fiscal fiasco leaves the US inching closer to a potentially catastrophic default on federal debt next Tuesday.

The US government will start running out of money to pay all its bills unless a $14.3tn (£8.7tn) borrowing limit is increased by 2 August.

'Last train leaving'

At the White House, Mr Obama accused House Republicans of pursuing a partisan bill that would force Washington into another debt limit fight within months.

He said: "There are plenty of ways out of this mess, but we are almost out of time."

"The time for putting party first is over," he added. "The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now."

In Congress, the arm-twisting continued on Friday.

House Speaker John Boehner and his lieutenants were working to whip Republicans into line behind their plan to cut the budget while raising the debt limit.

A vote on that bill was called off on Thursday night when it became clear Mr Boehner lacked support within his own party.

Senior Senate Democrats said the upper chamber would vote on a proposal at the weekend, and invited Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for compromise talks.

"Too much is at stake to waste even one more minute - the last train is leaving the station," Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

But Mr McConnell accused Democrats of wasting precious time and obstructing a deal by vowing to block Mr Boehner's bill, should it be passed in the House.

"Republicans have been doing the hard work of governing this week," he said.

Mr Boehner convened a closed meeting of all 240 House Republicans on Friday morning to outline tweaks he has made overnight to the legislation.

Mr Boehner and other Republican leaders spent all day Thursday arm-twisting dissident lawmakers, but they were unable to win over enough conservative hardliners.

Some Republicans - including Tea Party supporters who won House seats last year and oppose raising the debt limit under any circumstance - feel the Boehner bill would not cut enough from the US budget.

Mr Boehner's plan faces certain rejection by the Democratic-controlled Senate, as well as a White House veto threat, but could form the basis of an eventual compromise.

[Freeky]

Is it me, or are the senate people starting to feel like they're a bit panicked, too? Like, things aren't working out The Way They Were Supposed To, so they're getting a teensy bit desperate because they might lose their jobs?

Or is that just me wishing they knew and cared how badly the rest of us down here are going to get fucked?  I realize that they DON'T care, I do, really.

[Jenne]

I think some are on board with the "gameplanplay" of perpetual stalemate, and some are actually NOT pleased with how this is going down.  Because SOME have to run campaigns for re-election, whereas next year, SOME get to sit back and just point fingers.

[PopeTom]

Off the top of my head:

1) End the Bush tax cuts in their entirety.

2) Work to close loopholes in current tax code that let the wealthy and billion dollar corporations not pay their fair share of taxes.

3) End farm and oil subsidies (this includes the waste of time and money ethanol production currently is).

4) Leave Iraq. I'm not entirely sure why we went there but Saddam Hussein is dead so I imagine our goal is achieved. Let the people of Iraq figure out what kind of government they want.*

5) Leave Afghanistan. We went to war in Afghanistan because they were hiding Osama Bin Laden from justice. He's dead, mission accomplished. Let the people of Afghanistan figure out what kind of government they want.*

6) Over and above #s 4 & 5 cut military spending by 10-15%. The USA spends almost as much on its defense budget as all the other nations in the world combined. I think we can tone that down a bit.

*They can do this through diplomacy or shooting each other. Lets see how badly they want democracy.

Haven't given thought or examined what may be wrong with this solution.  I'm leaving that up to the Internet.

[Salty]

So, some jackhole told me that everything would run as normal if the US can't pay it's bills in a couple of days, nothing would change.

How inaccurate is that? What actually happens if these fuckers don't do something on time?

[Luna]

So, some jackhole told me that everything would run as normal if the US can't pay it's bills in a couple of days, nothing would change.

How inaccurate is that? What actually happens if these fuckers don't do something on time?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/07/what-happens-if-we-dont-raise-the-debt-ceiling/242728/

[Juana]

Wonderful. 

Off the top of my head:

1) End the Bush tax cuts in their entirety.

2) Work to close loopholes in current tax code that let the wealthy and billion dollar corporations not pay their fair share of taxes.

3) End farm and oil subsidies (this includes the waste of time and money ethanol production currently is).

4) Leave Iraq. I'm not entirely sure why we went there but Saddam Hussein is dead so I imagine our goal is achieved. Let the people of Iraq figure out what kind of government they want.*

5) Leave Afghanistan. We went to war in Afghanistan because they were hiding Osama Bin Laden from justice. He's dead, mission accomplished. Let the people of Afghanistan figure out what kind of government they want.*

6) Over and above #s 4 & 5 cut military spending by 10-15%. The USA spends almost as much on its defense budget as all the other nations in the world combined. I think we can tone that down a bit.

*They can do this through diplomacy or shooting each other. Lets see how badly they want democracy.

Haven't given thought or examined what may be wrong with this solution.  I'm leaving that up to the Internet.

As I understand it, if everything goes to shit in Afghanistan, then Pakistan has a good chance at following. Pakistan also has nukes, which they do attempt to protect (ie, from what I read, the only military folk with the key [or whatever it is] are from the eastern border, who are less likely to have ties to crazies from the west border), but everything's shot to shit, it's hard to control who gets what. I don't know enough about Iraq's current situation to say anything, but one through three and six, I totally agree with.

[Salty]

So, some jackhole told me that everything would run as normal if the US can't pay it's bills in a couple of days, nothing would change.

How inaccurate is that? What actually happens if these fuckers don't do something on time?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/07/what-happens-if-we-dont-raise-the-debt-ceiling/242728/

AH. So, in very pragmatic terms, we'll still be able to buy beer, it'll just cost a helluvalot more and the guy at the booze shop will give out money a dirty look, if he accepts it at all.

SWELL.

Well, swollen anyway.

[Cain]

Wonderful. 

Off the top of my head:

1) End the Bush tax cuts in their entirety.

2) Work to close loopholes in current tax code that let the wealthy and billion dollar corporations not pay their fair share of taxes.

3) End farm and oil subsidies (this includes the waste of time and money ethanol production currently is).

4) Leave Iraq. I'm not entirely sure why we went there but Saddam Hussein is dead so I imagine our goal is achieved. Let the people of Iraq figure out what kind of government they want.*

5) Leave Afghanistan. We went to war in Afghanistan because they were hiding Osama Bin Laden from justice. He's dead, mission accomplished. Let the people of Afghanistan figure out what kind of government they want.*

6) Over and above #s 4 & 5 cut military spending by 10-15%. The USA spends almost as much on its defense budget as all the other nations in the world combined. I think we can tone that down a bit.

*They can do this through diplomacy or shooting each other. Lets see how badly they want democracy.

Haven't given thought or examined what may be wrong with this solution.  I'm leaving that up to the Internet.

As I understand it, if everything goes to shit in Afghanistan, then Pakistan has a good chance at following. Pakistan also has nukes, which they do attempt to protect (ie, from what I read, the only military folk with the key [or whatever it is] are from the eastern border, who are less likely to have ties to crazies from the west border), but everything's shot to shit, it's hard to control who gets what. I don't know enough about Iraq's current situation to say anything, but one through three and six, I totally agree with.

Pakistan has already gone to shit.

In fact, Pakistan is destabilizing Afghanistan, not the other way around.  And that destabilization is, in part, due to the presence of foreign soldiers and the loss of Afghanistan's "strategic depth" so long as it remains friendly with the USA and India.

If we had really wanted to fight a war on terror, the first place we should have visited was the offices of the ISI, and hanged the bastards.

[Juana]

I stand corrected, apparently.