Porn Industry Bailout: A line in the sand?

Excellent publicity play:

The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Owen Moogan speaking for Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt. CNN

As Mish Shedlock points out "once you cross the line and start picking favorites, it is hard to stop."

CNN Political Ticker via Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

It's Simple Economics.

Matt Bors @ Comics.com Via Campaign for Liberty Blog

Cameras At War

Korean TV via RFK Action Front

Kroszner: "It's not the CRA."

"we found essentially no difference in the performance of subprime loans in Zip codes that were just below or just above the income threshold for the CRA."

I've seen quite a bit of writing in the blogosphere, pointing to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) as the, if not one of the, causes of our current financial crisis. Ridiculous as it may seem, some are very adamant about the impacts of the CRA. Fed Govenor Randall Kroszner, today, spoke on the results of a study by the fed to investigate those allegations.

The findings clearly show that the CRA could not have had a significant impact.

"First, only a small portion of subprime mortgage originations are related to the CRA. Second, CRA- related loans appear to perform comparably to other types of subprime loans. Taken..."

Given the stories about lenders giving loans to whom ever they could without regard to standards, affirmed in my personal experience in mortgage origination, it's hard to see how anyone could blame a program like the CRA as been the root of the problem.

Our nation has been experiencing an economic decline since some time in 2002. We've shipped many of our jobs over seas to locations with lower, if non existent, labor and environmental quality practices. An expansion of credit made possible through accelerated regulatory liberalization in our financial industry masked a decline. We've now reached a point where the benefits of industry and production are exceeded by the levels of debt we've incurred.

This strong debt contraction is a necessary reaction to correct potentially 30 years of financial abuse. The idea that bailing out lending institutions so they can continue lending in the face of an already over leveraged economy makes little or no sense.

Given this idea, that we are facing the consequences of over-leveraging (or that we're just bankrupt) it seems impossible to point to something the size of the CRA, especially in light of the comparison of CRA eligible loans in default to non CRA loans, as the source of our current financial troubles.

[Kroszner's Speech]

Palin Bashing From Republican Insiders

From the Financial Times

even as the Alaska governor tried to keep her options open, some allies of Mr McCain were busy trying to trash her reputation with a series of allegations about her conduct during the campaign.

Perhaps the most startling involved fresh claims about Ms Palin’s shaky grasp of geography, with unnamed McCain aides telling Fox News that during preparations for the vice-presidential debate, it emerged that she did not know Africa was a continent rather than a country.

This is a very interesting turn of events. It seems as if there is some feeling that she seriously pulled the campaign down in the end. Palin still has strong support from a part of the party.

It's become clear that Palin has the potential to continue to be a phenomenon to follow, on the other hand she may not be able to garner support beyond some of the more diehard social conservatives.

President Elect Transitional Website

Check out Change.gov. A website for the president elect.

It's important to remember that government is not going to "fix things" or take care of us. We've got to continue to pressure our representatives and work to fix things ourselves. Get moving.

Hat tip Jessica Lee

Seattle Shouts.

From the Seattle Stranger.