Thailand's red-shirts mark coup anniversary
Three years ago this week the Thai Army mounted a coup against the elected Prime Minister, Thaksin, who was then in New York preparing to address the UN General Assembly. Thaksin was a populist...
View ArticleTwentieth anniversary of becoming uninsurable
Twenty years ago today, on September 19, 1989, I was at work when I got a call from my doctor’s office. "The doctor would like to see you about your recent surgery.""Okay, how about next Tuesday, in...
View ArticleClara Foltz: enemy of progressive causes
Clara Foltz was a remarkable woman who, among her many other accomplishments, invented the public defender system. I have re-read the excellent Clara Foltz and single-payer legal services by DParker...
View ArticleYour Majesties, we thank you.
I write to honor His Majesty King Bhumipol and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand, and to honor my father-in-law, General Harn Paethai, Royal Thai Army (Retired).Let me tell you about the General.
View ArticleRepublicans worrying about the poor make me nervous (wonkish)
Republicans say we should slash spending in order to reduce deficits in order to fight inflation because, as everyone knows, inflation hurts the poor the most. Whenever I hear someone like Ron Paul say...
View ArticleRulle of flaw
Michael Rulle, a financial servicing industry veteran, says when he read "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%", Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz' take on inequality of wealth, "my initial reaction to...
View ArticleOrange jumpsuits for Maryland foreclosure fraudsters; here’s how
“We are tracking down every possible lead we can, and we’re working hard to get to the bottom of this,” said Ramon V. Korionoff, chief of staff to the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney.Angela...
View ArticlePretty-in-Pinstripes Prosecutrix
Angela Alsobrooks is the State's Attorney in Prince Georges County, Maryland. While campaigning for the job of chief prosecutor she endured the humiliation of being given the "Pretty in Pinstripes"...
View ArticleHistorical data suggest inflation hurts the rich more than the poor
'Inflation is a tax on the poor' is a meme often used to justify policies which hurt the poor. Is inflation really the cruelest tax?Most often it is conservatives and libertarians who invoke the...
View Article“It couldn’t happen to a nicer bank.”
The incomparable Yves Smith, whose blog, Naked Capitalism, is justifiably the number one financial blog, earlier this month started the Bank of America Death Watch (actually I think she means having to...
View ArticleTwenty questions about trustee certifications
According to a number of sources mortgage notes underlying securitizations were in many or possibly most cases not properly forwarded to the trusts as required by the PSAs and the REMIC regulations....
View Article"Do we want to wait for the time when the poor will rise up and fight?"
"Economics, society and politics are all tied together. Do we want to wait for the time when the poor will rise up and fight?" Mr Kittiratt asked.Kittiratt Na-Ranong, Thailand's deputy prime minister...
View ArticleOccupy Bangkok: 86 dead, 2100 injured
April and May, 2010, red shirt protesters occupy and barricade Ratchaprasong, a key intersection in the heart of the central business district. Tens of thousands of red shirts camp out there for almost...
View ArticleHistorical data suggest inflation is related to UFO sightings.
In a previous diary I tried, in vain, to persuade Kossacks that historical data indicates inflation is inversely correlated with income inequality. One commenter suggested inflation might also be...
View ArticleFor Tweety's Mom - a drug war story
Tweety's Mom was a divorced mother of two sons who lived and worked in PG County, Maryland. It was the Eighties, and for a brief time PG Co. was, arguably, the PCP and crack cocaine capital of the...
View ArticleWhy are Republicans throwing the presidential election? (with poll)
Four hypotheses: 1) Republican elites are satisfied with the policies of the Obama administration; 2) Republicans are playing eleven-dimensional political chess; 3) Republicans want to avoid being...
View ArticleWhere were the lawyers?
They were in the C suites and the boardrooms, and they were complicit in the control frauds in the FIRE sector, the MERS racketeering, accounting fraud, tax fraud, foreclosure fraud, securities fraud...
View ArticleBanksters: Is anyone keeping score?
Which TBTF bank is the baddest of them all? Which one leads the league in charging illegal fees, bid rigging, money laundering, mortgage fraud or securities fraud? Which one paid the most in...
View ArticlePlease surrender your rights as you exit the departure lounge
on international flights. If you travel or, like me, live outside the U.S., or communicate with those who do, you probably know that the American government can monitor the content, not just the...
View ArticleWSJ: FBI can turn on microphone in Android phones
I missed this last week but the WSJ claims the government can remotely hack your Android phone to turn on the microphone so they can listen to your private conversations. Not just your phone calls, any...
View ArticleMy Friend Stephen
In the late Fifties, when I was seven or eight, we moved into a new house on Aspen Hill Road in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. At the same time Stephen’s family moved in three doors down the...
View ArticleThe Day the Guy Got Raped on My Tier
I did everything wrong the day the guy got raped on D4. I was working D3, a third-level tier, which adjoins D4, a trustee-level tier where no officer is assigned. The trustees are supposed to look...
View Article
