Lame Duck Dines on Quail

The world economy is in meltdown mode. People are losing jobs, homes, life savings, pensions and more. The backbone of the U.S. economy, the automobile manufacturer's Big 3, are tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, bankruptcies whose shock waves would ripple out to millions of households.

So, last night visiting heads of state of 20 countries met at the White House for a dinner held on the eve of a financial summit prompted by global economic distress. There was a "Full Plate at White House for G20: Economic Talk and Quail." (WaPo)

And quail? Is this a meeting of AIG bailout-billionaires?

No, it's a meeting of twenty world leaders, representing 90% of the world economy, meeting to discuss "global economic distress," who at their "working dinner" are dining on, among other delicacies: "... fruitwood-smoked quail, thyme-roasted rack of lamb and baked Vermont brie with walnut crostini, along with three wines."

The theme of the meeting is "Let Them Eat Cake."

These heads of state who allowed or fostered the deregulated "globalization" of the world economy have no shame. Especially the host, The Decider, who will happily dine on lame-duck until he dumps his eight years of garbage on Barack Obama on January 20.

AIG'S $85 Billion... Party Time!

What an outrage.... "U.S. Extends $38 Billion In New Loans to AIG." (WaPo)

That's after the $85 billion government rescue in mid-September.

They needed the money because their financial products division had made some risky and complex investments that had gone bad.... thus rewarding bad behavior not just once, but twice.

But, don't try this risky behavior at home, it can only be pulled off by professional corporate criminals with lobbyists in D.C.

And the second infusion came just a day after a House hearing found, among other things, that "AIG is paying one of the executives who led the company into some of its most costly mistakes $1 million a month as a consulting fee to help it unwind his bad investments.

"And just a week after the first bailout, the company treated some of its executives and some high-performing life insurance agents to a weeklong stay at the pricey St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Total cost for the spree: $440,000."

In Tuesday night's debate, Barack Obama called for AIG to repay the taxpayers the $440,000 and fire the executives who authorized this despicable boondoggle. But he didn't go far enough.

There seems to be an elephant in the room everyone is missing.... we got into this financial mess due to a lack of oversight. Now we're bailing out those who plunged the country into this financial disaster through their greed with an EQUAL LACK OF OVERSIGHT, still lacking PENALTIES WITH TEETH.

Why should white-collar crimes only amount to a justification for unaccountable corporate welfare? Who is watching the billions being sloshed into the maw of corporate coffers in the wake of their maleficence?

As a start, how about a few perp-walks, and then outfitting the AIG criminal CEO's in suits that aren't the pin-stripe variety.

November 4.

McCain's "Waldo" Economics

Where's McWaldo?

We used to find John McCain at the economic poker table with his corporate cronies, a high-stakes gambler betting on deregulation of financial institutions until.... well.... the markets collapsed as criminally reckless mega financial institutions committed subprime-suicide when left to their own deregulated greed.

So.... now you'll find McWaldo on his campaign soap box preaching the joys of federal regulation and calling for the firing of the unfirable SEC chief.

He also used to place his Wall Street-backed bets on privatizing Social Security... he was a BIG supporter of privatizing Social Security with stock market securities, advocating in 2004, "Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits."

Well.... this is over time. Hoping for voter and media amnesia.... McCain Denies Social Security Comments (Huffington). Yes, our elusive McWaldo said this June, "I'm not for quote privatizing Social Security, I never have been, I never will be."

As Eugene Robinson points out today in Flunking Economics, "John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn't his strong suit." (WaPo)

And, it seems a policy-wandering, clueless McWaldo proved his point this week.

On Monday McCain insisted that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," followed by rhetoric about AIG, the behemoth insurance company that was teetering on the brink.... "I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG, we cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else."

But, within hours, in the latest corporate-welfare move by the Bush administration, the federal government bailed out AIG to the tune of $85 billion.... so McCain quickly reversed himself, saying the government was "forced" to make this move.

Not even his own advisers have confidence in McWaldo's fitness for the job. As Robinson points out, "Adding insult to injury, one of McCain's most vocal campaign surrogates former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina - volunteered that McCain wasn't qualified to run a major corporation."

You probably won't see her on the stump for McCain again anytime soon.

Besides bad advice from his career-lobbyists campaign staff, it seems McCain's major problem is that he just wants the presidency too much. Voters used to think they knew exactly where McCain stood on the issues.... they could pick out their McWaldo in any political landscape.

No more. McCain has squandered the best thing he had going for him in his quest to get the presidency for his sake, not ours.... he squandered his reputation for standing on principal.

His Straight Talk Express is now careening wildly about the countryside trying to please voters by taking the latest popular detours on hot issues.

Would someone please send McWaldo a striped stocking cap so we can find him in the good ol' boy crowd....