Eroyn Franklin at Fantagraphics

Wish I cd be there: 1201 S. Vale St., G-town, Seattle, 2009-08-22, 6-8pm; see also Franklin.

Obama: a Corporate Marketing Creation

John Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. You can see the rest of the speech here; remember to rate it up.



Please go rate this up on YouTube (click on the picture above). We cannot begin to hold them accountable, until we understand what they need to be held accountable for.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know . . .

• Is AIG still selling credit derivatives? (see, e.g., Timmeh, here.)

• Has Goldman Sachs bought any derivatives (from AIG or anyone else) since the AIG bailout (see, e.g., this)?

• If so, what are the terms (i.e., what is G-S betting for or against, and are those derivatives attached to any "insurable interest" of G-S – i.e., if they're hedging risks re- a commodity or whatever that they actually own, that's one thing; if they're simply speculating that, e.g., commercial real estate in general will tank, that's another)?

Bank Etc. Failures, Present & Looming

"Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- 'More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival. . . . '

"Excluding the stress-test list, banks with nonperformers above 5 percent had combined deposits of $193 billion, according to Bloomberg data. That’s almost 15 times the size of the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund at the end of the first quarter."

More great analysis here by Karl Denninger.

See also Bud Conrad at the Daily Reckoning ("the $4.8 trillion in deposits the FDIC is providing coverage on doesn't include the expansion that now extends insurance coverage from $100,000 to $250,000 for normal bank accounts. That likely brings the exposure of the FDIC closer to $6 trillion. But that's pretty inconsequential at this point: using any reasonable accounting method, the FDIC is already bankrupt and will require hundreds of billions of dollars in government bailouts just to keep the doors open.")

So . . . you might want to check on your own bank or credit union's financial status here.

Wealth Disparity Now Greatest in U.S. History

. . . since the collection of such data began in 1917 (per Emmanuel Saez via Paul Krugman).

Dr. Dean Does It

(He and his audience correctly answer pertinent questions re- healthcare reform.)

Isa Genzken

Plastinated children – yes!

At Museum Ludwig thru Nov. 15.

From Those Who Foresaw the Crash