Audio Archive > Cabale News Service > [November 12 2008] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Post-Disaster Capitalism - I Took Economics In The Eleventh Grade And Learned A Few Things Like 'When Things Go Sour, People Go Shopping'... It's Time We Re-Learned That Economic Lesson
Travus T. Hipp - Cabale News Service[November 12 2008] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Post-Disaster Capitalism - I Took Economics In The Eleventh Grade And Learned A Few Things Like 'When Things Go Sour, People Go Shopping'... It's Time We Re-Learned That Economic Lesson (November 12, 2008)
In The News: The 'Wars' are not going well. In Iraq, where the insurgents have held off on attacks, the SOFA agreement is still hanging fire in the Iraqi parliament. Will our hunting license expire? More.
In a 2nd stage insurgency, the insurgents manage to organize planned coordinated attacks, and yesterday's attacks in the Khyber Pass, on the main highway, on the Afghan/Pakistan border, seem to indicate that the West's strategy for conquering the hinterlands is NOT going well. The NATO convoys were routed and supplies looted. Details.
President Bush and Barack Obama discussed the $25-50 BILLION dollar auto industry 'bailout' the other day. In return for his support of that, the Democrats will support his 'free-trade' agreement with the government of Colombia. More.
Da' Buffalo has something to say here... Save the auto industry? For what? Shouldn't we be retooling these factories and retraining the workers to build high quality commuter bicycles and small electric vehicles for the disabled or unable, reclaiming small community structure to create micro-economic environments where the people who live in an area don't need to commute literally hundreds of miles a day to accomplish the daily tasks and afford to live near their work? And NO LIP-SERVICE EITHER... Where THIS buffalo lives, the city is talking about re-creating itself as a 'telecommuting city'. The number of folks who live here with the skillset that would allow for that sort of work arrangement could be counted on one of my hooves. IF the city I live in IS going to 'wire' itself in such manner, it would seem more economically practical to create a 'call-center city'... Even a wino who sells rodeo tickets in some boiler room telemarketing operation could do an entry level call-center operator job.
The only problem... Call center operators don't make the wages needed to pay the local exorbitant rents... So my town continues to pander to commuters... and not-so-indirectly, the US auto industry. It's time (High Time... giggle) to change all that.
James Kunstler has a little bit to say about what's coming up shortly in the way of the old American industrial lifestlye:
Clusterfuck Nation
Presto Change-o
As the election campaign ground on like a 3000-mile race between a greyhound and an armadillo, the media kept harping on Barack Obama's vague promises of "change." We now know what the main promise was: regime change, right here in the USA, not in some place where the natives wear strange headgear.
Mr Obama's victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person self-made from a humble background - someone who has personally bought tube socks in the K-mart, worried about money, and made many trips in a subway car.
The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich...
...the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr Obama might choke on it.
The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead?
A case in point: the car industry. The Big Three, all functionally bankrupt, are now lined up for bail-outs from the treasury's bottomless checking account. Personally, I believe the age of Happy Motoring is over. Many Americans have already bought their last car -- they just don't know it yet... [In Full]
...and just in case you thought the 'brains of the outfit'... the ones who helped create this mess, know what they're doing (Some say "They DO!"):
US drops plans to purchase toxic mortgage assets 12/11/2008 16h15
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US authorities are scrapping plans to buy up toxic mortgages securities and shifting the focus of a massive financial rescue plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday.. . . . . The program approved by Congress was initially aimed at buying up so-called toxic mortgage securities that were clogging the financial system, but analysts had warned that such a plan could prove difficult to implement with prices hard to fix.
In the meantime, US officials had moved to emulate plans in Britain and elsewhere to tackle the credit squeeze by investing directly in banks. In Full, AFP via Google
Meanwhile... Despotism rears it's ugly head in the form of 'Hot Rides' for US Police Departments... Will the sales of police cruisers save the US auto industry? A 360-degree interior and exterior video surveillance system – with night vision, of course – monitors the car’s surroundings and keeps an eye on rear occupants. For the officers, there’s also a head-up display, biometric ignition and automatic number plate recognition equipment. [Source]
Quote: "It's really a homeland security machine, not a cop car,"
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A new technologically advanced police cruiser was unveiled to hundreds of U.S. police chiefs at a recent San Diego convention, experts say.
Carbon Motors Chief Executive Officer William Li said his company's Carbon E7 police cruiser was designed to enhance law enforcement efforts with automatic license-plate scanners and other advanced equipment... . . . The vehicle is equipped with sensors that can detect weaponry, a biodiesel engine and a drive-train that improves the cruiser's mileage. While its per unit cost wasn't reported, the company has touted the vehicle's available 300-horsepower. [In Full @ UPI]
Connecticut officially declares that same-sex marriage IS legal in that state. In California, Proposition 8 lawsuits and hearings will be ongoing.
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now." Travus T. Hipp - Cabale News Service
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