Monthly Archives: September 2008

(Gloryhallastoopid) Pin the Tail on the Funky

“$700 billion dollars, a staggering number, but only a part of the cost of the failed Bush economic policies to our country, policies that were built on budget recklessness. When President Bush took office, he inherited President Clinton’s surpluses. Four years in a row — budget surpluses, on a trajectory of $5.6 trillion dollars in surplus. And with his reckless economic policies, within two years, he had turned that around. And now, eight years later, the foundation of that fiscal irresponsibility, combined with an “anything goes” economic policy, has taken us to where we are today.” That is basically what Nancy Pelosi said that upset the oh so delicate republicants.

As expected Olbermann and Rachel Maddow said all the things that Bill and I agree with. I did have a plan to go to McSwells and meet up with Thaler Pekar and give her, or lend her Naomi Klein’s book No Logo. But with my general mood yesterday all I wanted to do was go home. I’m sure she would understand. I requested Naomi Klein’s latest book The Shock Doctrine from the library so I should get that in a day or two.

Since the economic miasma yesterday it seems to be quite a popular book. After the Olbermann/Maddow shows Bill and I watched Heroes which was excellent once again. Bill went to bed and I soon followed. Woke up at 6:30 with Bill asking if I was going to work today. Apparently I didn’t hear the alarm clock and slept right through it. It felt good though.

I lumbered around the apartment, trying to avoid Bill. Two big guys weighing over 200 pounds can be troublesome. I jumped in the shower, Bill made some coffee for me then he was out the door. I once again soon followed. He caught an earlier bus, I was on a later bus. No Casey on this bus.

Finished the New Yorker from last week and since I finished Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories I knew I wouldn’t have anything to read on my ride back. I made a mental note to have something to read, but misplaced it somewhere on my mental desk.

Got to the office, the auditor was sitting on the floor with her lap top. She was nice, asked me a lot of questions about Hoboken. She too is also a bit nervous on the economy right now, and she’s more entrenched in the financial world than I am. She works for a government department that audits investment banks, as does her husband.

She was enjoyable to talk to, a definite change from the average auditor who generally lack personality and don’t talk to anyone. Perhaps with my being warm and outgoing, it could lend itself to a favorable rating from the audit. Who knows? Perhaps she and her husband will find an apartment in Hoboken and we’ll cross paths again.

Today was payday and with the dire warnings yesterday about small businesses not able to meet their payroll, I checked my account online. My heart stopped when I saw the same amount as yesterday. It seemed that the direct deposit did not go through.

I checked with Tom Chin who said that the payroll had gone through with no problem, he showed me my account as well as everyone else’s, and it’s true the payroll did go through and I do make a lot less than everyone else. I’m not complaining. I’m comfortable with my salary.

I checked again online with my bank and sure enough, there was my direct deposit. The bank had some glitch with it’s online services. Talk about bad timing.

The morning was going by smoothly when the bell rang. I went to see who it was and there was a guy in a nice suit with two other people. A real estate agent, asking for Jonathan. I told him the name was John and I didn’t have any record of an appointment to see the space. He also mentioned Vivek’s name and I went and asked Vivek to see if he knew anything about it.

Vivek said he didn’t and gave me the go ahead to brush the guy off. I went back to the now flustered agent and told him it was a bad time and gave him my card to make an appointment. He checked his iPhone and he was visibly nervous, with shaking hands. His clients were understanding and perhaps a little bit miffed but they left.

Vivek then walked up to me to ask how it went and that was when he remembered that they did have an appointment. I gave him the agents card and hopefully he apologized but he more than likely blamed the whole thing on me. I hate dealing with the real estate office space situation.

Had a nice Padron on my walk across town, no change for the homeless guy who nonetheless said my suit looked sharp. I’ll take a compliment from anyone, no proof of residency required.

Happy birthdays to Rita, Thaler and my nephew Earl who is now 18!!! Yikes!

Love for Tender

Well today was a day at work like no other so far. Panic basically. It seems that Nancy Pelosi made a speech complaining about the past eight years of right wing ideology and that just upset the right wing so much that they sabotaged whatever bailout was in the works.

Now because of their ‘hurt feelings’ my job is in even greater danger. Small businesses like the one I work for are in grave danger. A difficult year ahead is what they’re saying on TV right now.

The ‘hurt feelings’ is too reminiscent of when the Newt Gingrich philanderer was upset that Clinton had him sitting in the rear of Air Force One, which caused Gingrich to shut down the government for a few days. Not the best move as we learned and probably forgot since then.

Greg Stevens had me fax and overnight some documents, he’s taking his money out of Wachovia and putting it somewhere else. This week there are just four of us in the office, Vivek, Greg Stevens, Tom Chin and myself. Esteban got married on Saturday and is on his honeymoon.

Nervous jokes were made after the stock market plunged 777 points, jokes about how lucky we were that we didn’t have windows that opened. And if they did, we’re only on the fourth floor anyhow.

I felt the panic and dealt with it as best as I could. I did ask before I left whether or not I should come back tomorrow. Vivek asked what I was going to do next. It doesn’t look good and perhaps the end may be sooner than anticipated.

Once again, no one knows anything. It should make for interesting TV tonight, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. I am sick of the republicans and their tricks and lies and out and out greed. I’ve never seen such merchants of bullshit.

The day didn’t start out that way. Last night was rather cool too. I watched True Blood last night. Very good. A visit to the local Vampire bar, Fangtasia. And Sookie’s brother is still very much an idiot. Last night despite being warned to take only a drop of the drug V, a vampire serum to help him with his erectile dysfunction.

Being an idiot, he drank the whole vial and was in a priapismic state for quite a long time, causing him to go to the emergency room to have his penis aerated. And I was glad they didn’t show that. They did show the tent underneath his hospital gown though. And the serial killer isn’t a vampire it’s the owner of the bar, Sam. Saw that one coming before it was revealed.

Entourage was good, but not as good as last week. Little Britain USA was more miss than hit and had an annoying laugh track. It looked funnier in the commercials, that’s for sure. Woke up with Justin Timberlake in my head.

Specifically the song, Sexxyback. Not a bad song and I had it on my iPod anyway, Juan’s influence you see. The city isn’t under lock down like last week though. All the major players went back home.

Fasten your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

From Joe.My.God (blogroll on the right side of this blog)
Top Ten Bank Failures Of All Time

1. Washington Mutual, Seattle (2008)
Total assets: $307 billion

2. Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, Chicago (1984)
Total assets: $40.0 billion

3. First Republic Bank, Dallas (1988)
Total assets: $32.5 billion

4. IndyMac Bank, Pasadena, Calif. (2008)
Total assets: $32 billion

5. American S&LA, Stockton, Calif. (1988)
Total assets: $30.2 billion

6. Bank of New England, Boston (1991)
Total assets: $21.7 billion

7. MCorp, Dallas (1989)
Total assets: $18.5 billion

8. Gibraltar Savings, Simi Valley, Calif. (1989)
Total assets: $15.1 billion

9. First City Bancorporation, Houston (1988)
Total assets: $13.0 billion

10. Homefed Bank, San Diego (1992)
Total assets: $12.2 billion
The previous nine biggest failures together don’t equal WaMu.

all of the above happened during republican administrations.