Thursday, October 2, 2008

Bailout-rescue-big-tickect toxic paper plan passes on second try...

Ah well.  CONGRESS LET US DOWN. The depression will come anyway except to those rich folks the government expects us to save. Even if this bailout works somewhat - today I feel like the ultimate decline of the United States of America has begun. It wil fall apart under the weight of its own debt just the way the Soviet Union did.  Selah.

Had a 2nd place slam win - my songs as slam poems - weirdly it worked

At the Oct. 1 slam at the White Plains Library - which I had been promising to attend all summer - I tried a new slant to slamming. At least for me. 

When I slammed in 1996-97 I had a few signature pieces  that I used - Blood Brothers, and the Uses of Nature. I also slammed on occasion with Inverse Origami the title poem to my chapbook.
This year I thought I would try slamming with some of my song lyrics - which are more slam-like than most of my recent poetry. 

On Oct. 1, there were two rounds and I used "She Wouldn't Take Me Home" and  "Without You" which are songs of mine that I wrote long before I ever heard of slam...   It worked I guess, as I came in second in that evening's slam. Go figure.

Monday, September 29, 2008

NO BAILOUT!!!! CONGRESS VOTES NO!!!!

Note: of course looking back at this from June of 2009 - have we got a bailout....

Wow and the Dow tanks at one point down 700 points - that's more than Black Monday... The world is changing. Here it goes.... The Dow is now up and down one minute you look and its down 500 then down 659 then at 443 Yikes going up and down by a hundred points in seconds...... It's a wild roller coaster..... Ah well - let the card house tumble - here it goes -- hold on!

ADENDUM 5:46pm -- The Day ended down 777 points - I think that's a historical record for a single day. Mr. Cramerica says it could go down another 2500 points before it's done.... The holdouts were 70 Republicans and 90 some Dems. According to news reports, some were fielding constituent mail 100 to 1 against the plan.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sick of Politics for now - how about a brief cat lullaby?





]This is Miet kitty, filmed with a macbook. I sang a little tune and another then dragged them together and applied the delay effect.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Rainy Night Reverie - a poem from Inverse Origami

I am stained with streetlights
and rain-glazed mcadam

a damp changling in this vibrant night
As I wade, greyed grayed grasses give way tickling

Katydids converse, the pale arms of sycamore
scumble shadows around me

A culvert gurgles couplets, Hiaku
in the soft patter of droplets as wind stirs in wet leaves

Overhead the clouds burn by moon sparks
in the sultry mysterious dark.

 


 
from Inverse Origami - the art of unfolding
--- Mar (Mistryel) Walker, © 1998
Puzzled Dragon Press
/

Thursday, September 25, 2008

How many credit swaps can dance on the head of a bailout?

They keep blaming this on John Q public's bad mortgages rather than banks' questionable decisions in granting those mortgages to insolvent people followed by the bundling of those junk mortgages, sold and resold again and again, and the insuring instruments for those bundles the magic, indecipherable derivatives. 

I did a little calculation and if I have it right (and i might not) then 800 billion would be enough for 2o billion $400,000 houses at full price.... So we must have more than 20 billion people losing their homes since the gov will only pay some change on the dollar for this paper. There just can't be that many...

And Where are the properties that go with this paper? Who is going to check the properties, go to the foreclosure proceedings... Pay heat on the empty houses..... 20 million of em all over map.... Maybe these will be the jobs of the "PAULSON NEW DEAL" hahaha. I can barely believe there could be so many displaced persons. I am betting there are multiple higher ticket items in there - like builders who went bankrupt holding paper on an entire development project or condo projects.
This just seems like such a bad idea and there must be more stuff than just residences........

my dash board calculator stopped at 800 million..... .

JP Morgan will buy WaMu? Bye Bye Washington Mutual

Another surprise deal announced on CNBC did I hear that right?. Wish I could hit instant replay and hear that again... Things are moving fast - if you don't count legislators. But I want them asking questions. 11th-hour must-do deals worth $700 billion are always suspect...... Just heard it again on Larry King - JP Morgen Chase "has acquired" the assets of Washington Mutual. so WAMU must have tanked or been seized.... Then Larry King moved on to Palin. Who cares.
========
ADENDUM
PS At this moment (Friday evening 9/26/08) ABC news reports that 17 billion in assest had been withdrawn from WaMu in the space of a few weeks putting it in an untenable position. ABC said it was the largest bank failure in American History. WaMu's assest were sold to JP Morgan Chase at the firesale price of $1.9 billion.