A. in your first post you said:
"If the US Fed wasn't lending the ECB incredible sums of money, the Eurozone would be imploding right now" which clearly implies that it is not imploding - correct? Then in the above you say
"Eurozone is NOT Imploding? [sic]
which negative usage aside means 1) you were wrong at the outset or 2) it is imploding - frankly its hard to tell.

B. If you had read my reply, you'd see that I indeed pointed out that some countries are seeing a housing bubble (largely of their own making) burst i.e. the UK, Spain and Ireland. Is that a "crisis" for all of Europe?
Not in my opinion. France, by example, has not experienced as marked declines as California, Florida, Nevada & Arizona which combined have lost about 35% of peak value in comparable population sampling. are European countries experiencing value deterioration and bubble effects? yes. As bad as the US? not yet.

C. Are you denying the roots of this problem originated in the US mortgage and unregulated paper markets? That would put you in a very small minority among economists.

I repeat, subprime lending in Europe is virtually non-existent compared to approximately $1.4 TRILLION in the US 2008. The only exposure to this uniquely US problem for European banks was the false rating of securitized subprime junk paper which was then exported (and multiplied by derivative gambling) worldwide.

You also seem to be woefully short on your facts: 17 US banks have failed with WaMu being the largest in history (passing the Depressions greatest). So far TMK only 4-5 European banks have failed/been acquired.

The EU has just ponied up I think US$1.3T in reserves to handle any more problems (higher than the US TARP), even tho European depository savings levels are higher and personal debt is lower than in the US. That, one hopes, should be enough to head off any further meltdown.

as for your Iceland example - it is grandstanding. It is a tiny country with a US$11B GDP and its problems are unique to a tiny island economy with few options on output.

No doubt Europe is battling many of the same demons but no one with a grasp of the facts would deny that had the subprime mortgage market not exploded in the US, there would not have been the domino effect we are seeing now. Is it the ONLY reason? no.
but it was the precipitating factor.

Will it get worse on both sides of the Atlantic before it gets better? No doubt.

A. in your first post you said:
"If the US Fed wasn't lending the ECB incredible sums of money, the Eurozone would be imploding right now" which clearly implies that it is not imploding - correct? Then in the above you say
"Eurozone is NOT Imploding? [sic]
which negative usage aside means 1) you were wrong at the outset or 2) it is imploding - frankly its hard to tell.

B. If you had read my reply, you'd see that I indeed pointed out that some countries are seeing a housing bubble (largely of their own making) burst i.e. the UK, Spain and Ireland. Is that a "crisis" for all of Europe?
Not in my opinion. France, by example, has not experienced as marked declines as California, Florida, Nevada & Arizona which combined have lost about 35% of peak value in comparable population sampling. are European countries experiencing value deterioration and bubble effects? yes. As bad as the US? not yet.

C. Are you denying the roots of this problem originated in the US mortgage and unregulated paper markets? That would put you in a very small minority among economists.

I repeat, subprime lending in Europe is virtually non-existent compared to approximately $1.4 TRILLION in the US 2008. The only exposure to this uniquely US problem for European banks was the false rating of securitized subprime junk paper which was then exported (and multiplied by derivative gambling) worldwide.

You also seem to be woefully short on your facts: 17 US banks have failed with WaMu being the largest in history (passing the Depressions greatest). So far TMK only 4-5 European banks have failed/been acquired.

The EU has just ponied up I think US$1.3T in reserves to handle any more problems (higher than the US TARP), even tho European depository savings levels are higher and personal debt is lower than in the US. That, one hopes, should be enough to head off any further meltdown.

as for your Iceland example - it is grandstanding. It is a tiny country with a US$11B GDP and its problems are unique to a tiny island economy with few options on output.

No doubt Europe is battling many of the same demons but no one with a grasp of the facts would deny that had the subprime mortgage market not exploded in the US, there would not have been the domino effect we are seeing now. Is it the ONLY reason? no.
but it was the precipitating factor.

Will it get worse on both sides of the Atlantic? No doubt.

Thanks for the enlightening post. My family is also covered under the French health care system and we are constantly amazed by its low cost, efficiency and high quality of care. I agree that it is not perfect, but it does provide pre-natal-to-grave service that no sane French person would trade for US coverage.

However, I have but one qualm with your post and that is in the use of the term "socialized healthcare". That indicates to most readers that the French system curtails choice, etc and makes it akin to Britain's vastly inferior National Health Service. France's system, among other advantages, guarantees both 100% choice of doctors and leaves medical decisions solely to the Doctor-Patient perogative.

A 2005 British report says it best:
"the French system is a pragmatic blend of consumer choice, professional autonomy, central regulation and a government-backed guarantee for the poor which exceeds the NHS standard by far... the French in their own way have discovered how to universalise the benefits of a competitive market. The NHS, by comparison, has universalised the drawbacks of public sector monopoly."
To those interested, for more on the report go here and for a full download of the study it's based on you can click for the PDF here

Indeed, the USA does not have a health care system, but a health care industry, and experiencing the benefits of the French system underscore that huge difference in every way.

I look fwd to your next post.

Cheers!

Drudge yanked the link to the true story by
Ben Smith at Politico

but it wasn't salacious enough so he rewrote his own bit of BS and innuendo, all off the record and on the QT of course.

Maureen Dowd has already refuted one of Drudge's assertions.
______________
"Obama spokesman Bill Burton confirms Drudge's report that two right-leaning papers, the Washington Times and the New York Post, have lost their seats on the Obama plane, along with the Dallas Morning News.

"We're trying to reach as many swing voters that we can and unfortunately had to make some tough choices. but we are accommodating these folks in every way possible," he said.

The Post and the Morning News are both read primarily in states that aren't in play, but the Washington Times is read in Northern Virginia.

Burton said the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times had returned to the plane, and confirmed that Ebony and Jet magazines have seats on the plane. (The Tribune has had a reporter on the plane for most of the cycle, but recently added a photographer.)

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd said in an email that, contrary to Drudge's suggestion, she won't be on Obama's plane."

That's a damned smart ad buy.

as for undecideds, one can safely assume most watching on Fox News were not decided Obama voters.

THE SPIN: "That's why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs, for the typical family by $2,500 a year."

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount.
____________________________

So Obama did not claim that which Woodward is arguing against and that's a big ole heapin of StrawMan pie.

Calvin (and you) must be confused.

would the Nazi outfit been appropriate in an Jewish Florida retirement home? No.
A mock dead sex doll at a battered woman's shelter? No.
Halloween, where there is the expectation of parody and sarcasm? Yes

Location also matters:
Liberal LA on a Halloween display - in poor taste but no doubt taken by any reasonable person aswithout actual intent of harm.
vs

on a University campus in a KKK state that still has CROSS-BURNINGS

Somehow not the same impression.

The media up there is peeling the onion now and every layer smells worse than the last.
People who lie and abuse power rarely do so once.
Given that she has already been proven to do the former several times in just a few hours, it is likely that it will be proven she has been doing the latter throughout her short tawdry little career in Wasilla.

She uses people (esp men) like a pack of Kleenex at a porn theater. I trust that along the way she has made a lot of enemies up there and it is only a matter of time that they speak out now that she has been defanged by the last report.

There is however an outside chance that she pulls a coup and gets her hands on Steven's Senate seat but I think her negatives have grown such that AK voters may see her as toxic.

My prediction? Next stop: OIL LOBBYIST

I think that the electorate should own up to the blame it shares in not doing its job, just as much as they excoriate those they elect for failing at theirs.

Likewise in the financial crisis, there is no denying the elite class's guilt, but that does not absolve the tens of millions of middle class Americans - who gleefully abandoned the more conservative economic values of their earlier generations and spent themselves into a deep hole.

And interestingly, to my knowledge, most genocides of the modern era have been carried out by those who would not justify the Elite label: Amin, the Janjaweed, Hitler, Serbian militias, et alia.

All that said, I fully agree with the statement:
"I don't want someone just like me to be President. I want them to be much much better than I am in every way."

Thanks for your comment.

The French Embassy just released the following statement denying the Haaretz report, which I assume you refer to:

The remarks attributed by the newspaper Haaretz to the president of the French Republic concerning Sen. Obama's positions on Iran are groundless. To the contrary, the in-depth discussions between the president of the Republic and Sen. Obama on Iran during their meeting in Paris in July demonstrated a broad convergence of views on this issue. President Sarkozy and Sen. Obama agree to oppose Iran's development of a military nuclear capability.