Ponies & Unicorns for All

(Notice, all the little black dots are looking at you? {click on image to enlarge.})

Those Who Cannot Remember the Past are Condemned to What, Again?

“ . . . to repeat it.” — George Santayana, Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, p. 284. (Can you believe that's not in Bartlett's? Seems like hardly anything is, anymore.)



Per the person who posted this, "Richard Whitney, President of the New York Stock Exchange (emphasis supplied), warns of the risks both to country and to capitalism posed by government regulation in the form of the the National Securities Exchange Act. This [was] four full years before he was sent to Sing Sing Prison for embezzlement."

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provided in part,

"It shall be unlawful for any person . . . [t]o use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security . . . or any securities-based swap agreement . . . , any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors."

15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), Sec. 10(b). See also Wikipedia on the Glass-Steagall Act, another law passed in the wake of the crash of '29, esp. the section, "Repeal of the Act."

For historical perspective, see the "Timeline" section at Wikipedia on the '29 crash. However, some commentators think the current situation has more in common with the 1873 crash.

Marriage

Digital Conversion PSA

(Thanks, Ben!)

Optimist: "The age of Reaganism is over,"

Per Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and director of the Earth Institute at New York's Columbia University, as reported by Reuters. "'The no-regulation, low-taxes (philosophy) has broken the back of our economy. We now have to get serious about reconstructing normal government that pays its way and a normal financial sector that's properly regulated.'"

I hope to h*ll he's right; but there are a lot of obstacles.

Too fun:

costume contacts. They've got lots of others.

World Bank Under CyberSIEGE Since April

World Bank Under Cyber Siege in ‘Unprecedented Crisis'
By Richard Behar.

"The World Bank Group’s computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned.

"It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution’s highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank’s network for nearly a month in June and July.

"In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.

"In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank’s senior technology manager referred to the situation as an 'unprecedented crisis.' In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public."

More at the Media Channel -- and by the way, the Media Channel is fighting to stay alive right now; pls consider donating!

If you cd use a little eye candy

. . . compliments of the universe: "Cat's Eye Hubble Remix
Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat's Eye Nebula lies 3,000 light-years from Earth. The Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) represents a brief, yet glorious, phase in the life of a sun-like star. . . . . " (more here).