Yesterday was a BAD DAY

I don't usually get political on my blog, however, the failure of the House yesterday to pass the financial legislation was idiocy at its height. Philosophically, I agree that this is socialist type of legislation and the market (in theory) should be allowed to fail at certain points and punish those who took on too much risk. My skin crawls though when this legislation is misunderstood as "bailing out" Wall Street because the effects of not providing liquidity and getting the toxic assets off of bank's books is not something I want to witness and experience.

My stomach was churning yesterday with the failure of the vote and the subsequent 777 point dive to close the exchange yesterday. If that was not bad enough, I had to listen to that drivel that Pelosi spewed just before the vote (save the opining until after you get the damn thing passed) and people reciting their philosophical arguments all of which is akin to fiddling while Rome burns.

What people don't often realize about the Depression is that it was made WORSE by the tightening of credit. Even though the market crashed in October of 1929, the worst year for bank failures was 1932 followed by 1933. This is because of a tightening of credit and liquidity that caused the dominos to fall and a downward spiral to snowball.

I read in the paper the other day that legislators offices were being flooded with opposition to this bailout - until they realized that their loans were being called and their credit lines no longer available. I'm trying to figure out if it is going to take people not getting their paychecks or being able to get a much needed car or home loan for John Q. Public to wake up and smell the coffee. And I will not get started on how poorly this situation has been communicated or not-communicated by Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, etc. as that is another soapbox entirely.

Yesterday when I realized that Wachovia was gone, over, done, etc., and then the vote failed, I couldn't help but think that if congress had acted a few weeks ago on this that Wachovia could have been saved. And they were worth saving if the bad assets could have been removed and the liquidity and credit been available. Overnight borrowings in the markets and short term debt is FROZEN right now. These are key elements of the banking system and the borrowings that occur each day between banks.

Legislators and others are talking about protection for the taxpayer (yes, I agree these should be there), but they are also talking about helping main street. Hello, McFly, if they don't get this thing done main street IS going to be badly affected and you have to have a job if you are going to pay taxes!!

Here is a quote from the Observer today about the loss of Wachovia from Hugh McColl, Jr. that I agree with wholehartedly:

Hugh McColl Jr.

Dismay was the initial reaction for Hugh McColl Jr., who built Bank of America into a coast-to-coast powerhouse before his retirement in 2001.

“I'm deeply disappointed for the city and for the many hard-working people they have,” he said. While calling the situation “very, very bad,” he cautioned against concluding the worst. “I expect we'll keep a lot of people here, so we shouldn't decide we're having a funeral.”

He touted the ease of doing business in Charlotte, including airline service. “It's a very serious and disappointing day for Charlotte, but we'll rally from it,” he said. “That's the nature of this city. It ain't going to be fun, but we'll make it work.”

He said he became concerned about 10 days ago that Wachovia might be in serious trouble, as other institutions toppled and merger speculation swirled. The industry has suffered multiple losses that would have been unthinkable even a few months ago.

“Nothing like this has happened in my lifetime,” McColl said. “I was born in the Depression.” He criticized congressional delays in addressing the historic credit crisis. “For them to be posturing in Washington is just a joke,” he said. “It means they don't understand. That's really frightening.

“The cost to the American public would be staggering if we don't stop the bloodshed.”


Well said. How about Hugh McColl for Secretary of the Treasury, or maybe Jim Cramer, or Buffet? We need someone who can knock some heads together and do what's best for the financial sector that makes the $$ available for the rest of the economy to function.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming....

Down Memory Lane

Yesterday, mom and I drove from my house in Lake Wylie to Boone, NC and Appalachian State to see one of her friends be inducted into the ASU Athletic Hall of Fame. We couldn't get my dad and Jim interested in going and staying for their football game last night, so mom and I went. I had emailed Charlie a month or so ago to let him know and I was originally looking for football tickets in trying to plan a fun weekend (this is Charlie's third year as the Athletic Director there). However, Daddy and Jim pooped out so mom and I went for the day. I only had a few minutes to catch up with Charlie as he had to go to a funeral unexpectedly and could not stay for the banquet and ceremony. But it was great to see him as the last time I saw Charlie it was at an Airport football game in the fall of 1995. I was living in Charlotte at the time, but had come to Columbia for some reason and ended up at the game and ran into Charlie and his wife Lindsay.

I didn't realize Boone was so close as it was right at 97 miles one way from my house. It was an easy trip too. It had been almost 20 years since I went to Boone, and I had never been to the ASU campus. It was really beautiful up there! I hope I can get Jim to go with me sometime to a game as it would be fun to go and visit again.

I pulled out my senior annual last night and started flipping through it. I have the original black and white glossy that Jay Kirk took of me and blew up for that page in the annual. I have all of the prom books and invitations, I have the senior wills, I have this prom picture book with all of the little small black and white pics of the couples (I found Steve and the Pelion monster), and Jim had seen my prom pic with Alan before and so he began to make derogatory comments and called him "chicken chest" and Delta Oops I joined the wrong fraternity (DU was Alan's fraternity and Jim made fun of DU even before he knew that's what Alan was!). I read all of your signatures to me and they were so funny. Russell's was hilarious and he signed it Uncle Willie and wrote that he sure did like my yellow pants! I cracked up as I had not read them in years. I remembered what Charlie's had said even before I read it but I read it again for old times sake.

I read through George's will, Jay's will, Steve's will, Chuck I think you had one in there too. I will check again and post as a comment to let you know who alls is in there. It was fun to read all of that stuff again. I look at those pictures now, and it's funny reading things people wrote. Steve wrote that I was one of the nicest and prettiest girls he know and so did Eric Beckner. Funny, I never thought of myself as pretty and I did not have much confidence in myself at the time. But it was nice to see the pictures again of all of us and be glad that I have caught up with you all again after all of this time.

Unusual early fall means...hot tub time!

I came home the other day, and Jim had surprised me by filling the hot tub and heating it up. When I got home, it was at 85 degrees and by 9 pm it was ready at a nice 105! It has been unusually cool this week, so he got the hot tub going so we could go ahead and enjoy it.

Now that football season has started and the Gamecocks are off to a dubious start, I'm very happy that we spend $$ on fixing the hot tub instead of on football tickets. Now I can enjoy the hot tub on the weekends in addition to football!

Birthday Party

Well, today is my niece's 5th birthday and I can't believe she is 5! Even though today is her birthday, we went up this weekend for her party and celebration so that we could all enjoy it and have a family weekend. Quincy was so sweet Friday and she was very happy to see us. She had written us both notes with pictures. Mine had my name on it (just Martha), and Jim's had "Uncle Jim" on it. She told me that for my birthday she was going to get me two presents and wrap them up for me. What a sweetie!

So we had a lot of fun on Saturday. My mom made the cake and Meg iced it with blue icing with pink writing and 5 candles. We went to Chuck E Cheese, and played lots of games. We won as many tickets as we could (especially Jim as I suck at Skee Ball), and then Quincy used her tickets to buy some rubber spiders and frogs. We went back to my parent's apartment for cake and presents. Lots of fun as we got her a 3D Scooby Doo haunted house game and I also got her a Hallmark Princess Aurora Christmas ornament. She also got a book, a small decorative box, and a tea set. After playing a couple of games of Scooby Doo, we went to build a bear as that was the present from her other Grandmother. She picked out a kitty, and they stuffed it before Quincy picked out an outfit. That is the neatest store! Her kitty walked out of there with a disney princess t-shirt and a jean skirt along with pink crocs, a Hello Kitty purse, and a hat. We also saw some Hello Kitty pajamas which were too cute and the pants had a spot for the tail!

All in all, Quincy had a big birthday and we had a lot of fun. Saturday morning, she was sitting outside the guest bedroom, fully dressed, waiting for Mafa to get up. Meg got up and couldn't find her, came downstairs, and there she was waiting for us to get up. She came in the room about 8 o'clock and came over to my side of the bed - "Hey Mafa". Saturday nite, Jim got sick and moved to the couch downstairs at my sisters about 3:15 in the morning. I woke up at 7 and heard some rustling outside of the room, so I wispered "Quincy, is that you?". She said "Yes Mafa". She came in the room, and the first thing she did was say, "Mafa, can I get Santa Claus's phone number?". I asked her why she wanted that, and she said she wanted to ask him for the Hello Kitty pajamas for her Kitty. I told her that we didn't have Santa's number, but that she could ask him at Christmas time for them. If Santa doesn't get them, you can bet Mafa will!

What happens when your husband gets a new game

This new game called Spore came out and Jim went and got it weekend before last. Needless to say, this has significantly minimized my computer time at home. I don't mind that he goes into the 'man cave' for hours upon end as long as he does some housework and doesn't completely disappear.

Usually, I have some good surf time on a Saturday or Sunday morning because I'm an early riser and Jim usally sleeps way in (after being on a game or on a raid for World of Warcraft). However, this weekend I slept in until 8 both days which is very unusual for me. Jim also got up when I did and went right to the computer. So I have not had much time to blog or post or catch up on stuff over the past couple of weekends. Plus football has started and I'm trying to watch as much as humanly possible on Saturdays now.

Now Jim wants to pre-order the Wrath of the Lich King. When I asked what that was, he said it was the expansion to World of Warcraft. Great, like that friggin' thing needed expanding!

Have Some Joy!

I have the soundtrack for Boogie Nights and this is on the CD. I found it in my trunk Monday afternoon while putting groceries in there - it has been in there awhile as I had forgotten about it and decided to play it after finding it the other day.

In addition to "Driver's Seat" and "Jessie's Girl", I like this song on it because whenever I play it, it makes me happy inside. I play it over and over in the car (at least 3 times) and can even be happy in traffic in the morning or afternoon!

Hope this puts some joy in your day too!

My Niece - the doctor

My niece Quincy has weekly homework for Kindergarten, and my mother told me all about her most recent assignment that was turned in last Friday. The children had to complete two sentences and draw a picture at the bottom of the paper depicting the answer.

The questions were: When I grow up, I want to be a _______. So then I will be able to _______.

Her answers were "doctr" and "hlp peple fel betr". She drew a picture of a patient on the bed and herself with a stethescope. She then told my mother that 'girls can be doctors too' and my mother told her that was right and that our friend Miss Deanna is a doctor and she is a girl. Quincy then decided she needed a nurse, so she drew a nurse next to herself and told mom that - 'he's a boy'.

She'll be 5 on September 23rd, and she's got this figured out already. I think Quincy got the same 'Grandma' gene that I did!!!

More Trivia

So who knows the only actor to play three different aliens in Star Trek? Can you also name the aliens? I'm not looking for all the character's names, just the actor's name, the alien, and bonus points if you know the character's names (there is one character that everyone should know).