I really wish my law partners, my wife and my two kids in college would understand that I no longer need to show up for work; from now on it’s kick back and wait for that mailbox money.  I also wish that the IRS, state, county, city and school district would understand I now no longer need to pay taxes and fees.

I almost called in to agree with Rush that obviously Democrats have their priorities all mixed up.  How hypocritical – just as Democrats are gearing up for another round of the “War on Christmas” and they’re endorsing Santa?  Well, perhaps it’s only Baby Jesus that Democrats don’t like?  That figures – we all know that Christ never gave anyone anything they didn’t already deserve.

On a separate note, since I’m hovering just below 50, I found this good article linked above that Social Security will not run out of money until 2033.  That will make me 70, so I get 5 years!  I guess everyone born after 1968 can just eat it.

Which makes it odd – people over 65 who likely will be getting Social Security until they pass away voted 57% for Romney.  Those under age 30 who supposedly will get nothing voted 60% for Obama.

Pretty crazy.  Perhaps the old folks are all just senile and the young folks are all on the new legalized pot.

Just consider the bankruptcy filing this month of  Terrabon, Inc., one of these government-picked “winners” that received a multi-million dollar taxpayer check in 2010.  Not even two years have gone by, and now Terrabon is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy – a total wash out for taxpayers.

And as reported in the Washington Post by AP, Terrabon is the FOURTH bankruptcy filing of a tech related company that has been given one of these government handouts.

Good Lord, we’ve got to stop Obama picking all these losers and wasting our tax dollars!!!

Oh wait – Terrabon and the other three failed companies received their tax money from State of Texas taxpayers out of Rick Perry’s “Emerging Technology Fund” (“slush fund” is sort of impolite to say).  Since 2006, Perry has handed out $194 million in your tax money, and if you count the latest two recipients to go under, the net return to the State of Texas is an impressive $0 (AP actually says that we arey $5 million in the red, but who’s counting?)

But not all is so bad.  At least Perry got to hold two big public press events when he handed out the checks to Terrabon, and he got really good headlines.  Same thing with the other three now defunct companies.  The press releases on Perry’s website were masterfully written.  The bankruptcy filings are a little harder to find on the Governor’s website, so I’m assuming his staff is too busy to have gotten around to writing the press releases on them yet.

Also, Perry got to really help out some of his donors, and that’s always important.

You see it really helps getting grants from the Emerging Technology Fund (and his Enterprise Fund as well – but no time for that today) if you donate to Perry’s campaigns.  There’s this phrase in politics – “donors get good representation, non-donors get good government.”  Doesn’t that sound much better than “Texas has a pay-to-play system of handing out tax money to businesses.”

Consider Phil Adams.  Adams invested in Terrabon.  He also has contributed more than $300,000 to Perry’s campaigns.  He also got paid as much as $24,000 from Terrabon before it when belly up.  Let’s see, Perry gives tax money to Terrabon, Adams gets “profits” from Terrabon, then Terrabon goes bankrupt because it has no money.  How can I get in on this deal, seeing as I don’t have $300k to give to Perry’s campaign?

Adams is also a Perry-appointed Texas A&M regent.  In addition, the co-founder of Terrabon gave Perry at least $30,000 in campaign donations.  But you’ll feel better knowing that both that co-founder and Adams say their donations had nothing to do with Terrabon getting those millions in your Texas tax dollars.  Boy, that sure makes me feel relieved.  And I’m sure it would make all the difference in the world to Mitt.

Thank goodness Obama can’t give out Texas tax dollars.  If he could, our money might be wasted.

The last several months have provided Texans with a clear signal that school vouchers will be a major agenda item in the Texas Legislature come 2013.  Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst came out strongly for school vouchers, and State Sen. Dan Patrick has been charged to hammer out the details.  New TEA Commissioner Michael Williams also supports vouchers.  Patrick held hearings last month on various options like private school vouchers and expanding charter schools, and he has declared the subject “the civil rights issue of our time.” Rick Perry has also announced his backing of the issue.

Over the last decade, Texas has accounted for half of new public school growth in the United States.  But as pointed out by the Austin American Statesman, Texas cut $5.4 billion in public education funding last session.

Although defeated routinely in Texas for the last decade or more, vouchers are now being repackaged for a new push.  One of these new selling points for vouchers is that they will “save state tax dollars”.  For example, one proposal would look at the actual cost of educating a student in public school, then offer that student 60% of that cost to go to attend a private school.  Thus the state would save 40% on that student.  This would effectively create the largest cut in public education spending ever.

One interesting aside is that the voucher debate has always been bipartisan in nature.  Some of the strongest proponents have been Democrats, Ron Wilson and Henry Cuellar when they were in the Texas House, for example.  Some of the strongest opponents have been Republicans, like Carter Casteel and Charlie Geren. Not to be confused with Sen. Dan Patrick, State Rep. Diane Patrick, also a Republican, is currently one of the main voices against vouchers, instead “advocating high-quality options within the public school system.”  Rep. Patrick points out the lack of fiscal and academic accountability at private schools that would receive public tax dollars.

I agree with Rep. Patrick on this issue.  There are tons of nuances and topics to debate surrounding vouchers, so it is futile to discuss them all here.  Generally, it must be pointed out that school vouchers would make it significantly more difficult for Texas to fulfill its constitutional requirement to provide a free and equal public education for all Texas children.  Every child in Texas is supposed to be guaranteed the same opportunity for a quality education.  If one school is worse than another, one can argue that Texans are in violation of their own Constitution.  If students and state dollars are sent to private schools, less is allocated to the public school system, and the students left behind are in worse shape. Also, a voucher may not cover the entire cost of tuition at many private schools, meaning some students (those with parents that can afford to pay the spread) would be less able to use vouchers than others.  Add to that factors like location, type and other costs associated with private schools, and you find that the vouchers issue is much more complicated that simply sending a kid out of a bad school district (or saving tax dollars).

The fight over vouchers started before I entered the legislature, but I was involved in it while I was there.  In 1997, I was at my desk as a freshman legislator when then State Rep. Ron Wilson and others offered an amendment to allow private school vouchers.  The vote to table their motion (and reject their proposal) was narrowly defeated, meaning that the next vote would be to adopt (and allow vouchers). Because the motion to table was rejected, some panicked, assuming that Wilson’s amendment would be adopted, and Texas would get vouchers.

I got out of my chair and offered an amendment to Wilson’s proposal that prohibited any private school that took a voucher from discriminating based on academic performance, disability or other criteria (this would prevent private schools that accepted public funds from cherry-picking only the students they wanted).  My amendment was adopted (Who could argue for discrimination?), and Wilson then withdrew his proposal.  I was later told this is called a poison pill amendment, and for it, I got a lot of undeserved credit for “killing vouchers” that year.

Regardless, it had created this mythology around Wilson, a mythology that waspretty much shattered when Garnet Coleman called Wilson out at a Houston Redistricting hearing about this orange Lamborghini. Gotta love G.C.  But the point is, I had my first debate on the House floor about vouchers, and it was against Ron.  I have to thank Ron for that, as it gave me my first taste of real hard debate and taught me that it was no big deal.

Since 1997, I saw vouchers defeated in the House over and over and over.  Since Democrats have been in the minority in the House since 2003, it was clearly a bi-partisan majority stopping them. Only November will tell us whether the votes still exist in the House to defeat them.

As a parent and someone who see education as the great equalizer and foundation of our individual and collective success, public education has always been one of my top priorities, both as a member of the Texas House and of the public.  I have come to think small classrooms, fair pay for teachers, innovative ways to increase parental improvement, and local accountability were some of the important factors that could improve our schools. Vouchers seem like a convenient way for lawmakers to pass the buck on education and wash their hands of a core Constitutional responsibility. My thought is that if schools are bad, and some certainly are, lawmakers should step up to the plate and fix them, not walk away from that responsibility.  To me, at best, vouchers might be a way to help a few kids in a bad school.  The better option, and the one we are Constitutionally and morally obligated to do, is fix that school.

Charter school are also not the overall solution.  Charter schools have a good role in the overall system.  They provide a place for thinking outside the box, trying new teaching methods, and such.  Lessons learned in the Charter system should be looked at possible solutions to be learned in the larger system.  But as we have seen, particularly in the debacle of 2000-2001 when Charters were allowed unlimited growth, the lack of accountability to taxpayers and voters created horrific abuses and problems.  As the legislator charged in 2001 with cleaning up the mess with oversight legislation, I can assure you we don’t want to return to that situation.  Measured and incremental growth in Charter schools can be a good thing, but again, that is not the answer to failing schools overall.

Texas schools did not begin to have performance issues overnight, and there is no quick fix.  Also, you can’t take $4 billion out of the system in 2003, $5 billion out in 2011, and then blame someone else.  There has been a systematic underfunding of education in Texas for over a decade.  It is wrong for lawmakers to pull huge amounts of money out of the system, upwards of $600 per child, and then complain at performance drops.  Money does matter.

In another follow up piece, my crystal ball from a week ago is pretty good, as Corzine and the bunch at MFGlobal are evidently off the hook.  No criminal charges for that disappearing $1 Billion in customer money.  Corzine made $14.25 Million in the 18 months before all that money went missing.  He’s now considering starting a hedge fund.  Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Oh, and The New York Times reports that of the disappearing funds “$175 million of this stolen money went to JPMorgan Chase.”  Sure pays to be a middleman.

One of the 47% of American cats who pay no income tax.

Consider these facts:

-Obama has made 47% of our pets members of The Moocher Class.

-47% of our freeloading family pets are ruining life for the rest of us.

I’ve been in politics now off and on over 20 years, and it’s never gotten this bad.  My household is in turmoil, and I’m getting a bit fed up with it all.

You see, 53% of my pets are barking at strangers (including any foreign-looking yardmen), making appropriate use of the litter box, and meeting people at the door with wagging tails (except for said yardmen, of course) – or in other words, behaving like solid, hard-working pets and contributing to our household.

The other 47%?

The 47% vs the 53% – Note the one who’s always keeping a watchful eye out for potential danger.

Let’s face it, they are total free-loaders, and if the Waco animal shelter had not just had to go up an extra $5 for take-ins (thank goodness we had $35 million in tax dollars to give to Baylor for a new football stadium), my productive pets would have me carrying the ones in the 47% to the car right now.

Nipsy vs Rosey

We should have known it from the start.  When Mason picked out the calico at the pound, she “nipped” him on the finger – hence “Nipsy”.  Now we know that that biting the hand that feeds her was a sign of future lethargy and total dependency on others.

Nipsy just grabbing some entitlement to the family’s box; so typical of the 47%.

Nipsy thinks she’s entitled to sleep under our roof, be taken to the vet for shots, as as Mitt would say, “to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it”.

Rachel’s cat Rosey, on the other hand, catches lizards that sneak into the house. Rosey even brings dead birds to the porch so we can put them neatly in the trash.

If and when Nipsy ever finally gets off her fat butt, it’s only to bring in a LIVE rat and release it in our midst – it took six college degrees and four brooms to fix that one.  (I mean the rat-loving Willard from that movie didn’t have a middle name anything like “Mitt”.)

Rosey once again being held back by Nipsy – a daily occurrence.  Why must she tolerate this, Barack?

Rosey is pissed about this every day, and rightfully so.  And speaking of being pissed, I’m fairly positive that it was Nipsy that peed on the far corner of the oriental rug.  What’s the friggin’ litter box for?  I guess she want us to carry it to her.

How were we really to know?  After all, Nipsy’s particular shade of orange is something she shares with capitalists John Boehner and Romney (that is at least when Mitt appears on Univision).

The 47% actually don’t believe the 53% didn’t build this couch.

Nipsy’s gotten so worthless she just lays around and doesn’t even flinch when the dogs come by wanting to demonstrate their dominance and fearsomeness. She just lies there and ignores them.

Freckles vs Lily

Speaking of the dogs, it’s the same thing all over.  Freckles is just a plain mess.  The dog won’t do a damn thing.  Just wants to sit around in your lap all day.  Sure, I know that King Charles Spaniels are the result of centuries of cross breeding to develop a lap dog that would sit motionless in the King’s lap long enough for one of those big portraits to be painted (or until Cromwell chopped off his head).

Behavior clearly fostered by Obama.

But parentage is meaningless and no excuse.  Do you really believe if Freckles’ father had been Rin Tin Tin or President of American Motors that would have made things any different?  And just how loud does a dog have to snore before she realizes it’s time to cut down on the begging for Beggin’ Strips?

Now Lily; now that’s a productive animal.  She’s not letting society norms get in her way.  She doesn’t see that she is only 3lbs.  She’s not letting the fact that my Dad’s lab is 90lbs stop her from trying to get that rib bone first (even though it did send us to the weekend emergency clinic).  Lily’s the uber-dog.

Ryan 2016 !!!!

She’ll lick your hand until it falls off (either her tongue or your hand), and you can’t go anywhere without her being at your heel, ready to intervene whenever and however needed.  She’s been dropped on the tile floor and (as previously stated) mistaken for a rib bone by larger animals, but do you see her looking for the easy way out?  No way.  Hell, she’s even avoided being snagged by the local Hawks patrolling the neighborhood for squirrels and rabbits.  No Moocher Class for her.

Before Obama became President, we just didn’t have these problems in Waco.  I don’t know what they teach in Kenya, but here where David Koresh was raised, we know that government should just leave us alone.  Rosey and Lily both tell me that the Dog-Eat-Dog, Cat-Eat-Cat world is just what the Founders intended.

Don’t get them wrong, Rosey and Lily are for 100% of all the pets in our house, just not Nipsy and Freckles for goodness sake.

Just look at what Nipsy and Freckles could be if Obama weren’t President, and once Mitt gets them off the government teet.

So we have one cat who believes she is a victim, and the other, a constructive member of society who we really believe has future potential.  Let’s face it, Nipsy’s just holding back that potential in Rosey.  And it’s the same difference between the two dogs.  Of four animals – two are there for you Mitt (if they can only get a photo ID).

You know it’s just not Rosey or Lily’s job to care about those other two.  It’s just that neither Mitt, Rosey or Lily “will never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for themselves”.  They’ll just never have that “job-creator” mojo.  Nipsy doesn’t even like Swiss cheese for Christ’s sake, even when it’s tax free.  Like I said, that 47% is driving the majority nuts.

Why not 50/50?  Rachel has this amazing frog; lived with us several years despite days and weeks where we forget about it and don’t feed it.  Definitely a self-starter.  I figure the frog’s worth 6% at least, and it’s (don’t know the gender) a keeper.

The 53% – dreaming of a Romney win.

Shame on Obama for starting this row in our happy home.  At least we can count on Mitt to put an end to it all and get the moochers out.  Certainly bring the price of cat and dog meat down; not everyone can have foie gras you know.

One source of periodic enlightenment is the random emails I receive from time to time from Dean Rindy, the man responsible for me getting elected many years ago.  He’s smart, except that he is older than me and just adopted two Russian girls about 2 and 4, which proves some level of insanity.

Today, Dean sent me an article in the Guardian on how the Afghan government wants to afford due process rights to its imprisoned citizens, while at the same time that the Obama administration is fighting in court for the right to indefinitely detain U. S. citizens without filing any charges.  As Dean pointed out to me quite succinctly – “unbelievable”.

Dean also sent me this jewel the other day (as though I was not mad enough at banks these days) – the following all his words -

Valuable thought of the day, from an interview with economic historian Michael Hudson titled “How Finance Capital Leads To Debt Peonage,”  at the website Naked Capitalism—which is the best day-to-day economic policy blog on the web.

A word of explanation.  Hudson defines “rentier income” as unearned income that derives from privilege.  Government has granted banks  a monopoly privilege to create credit—i.e., money.  When they make loans, they don’t haul up bags of gold from their vaults and count it out to you; they just make an entry in their account books. They create money with a few clicks on the computer keyboard, then charge you interest on what they created out of thin air.  To Hudson that is “unearned income,” as opposed to income earned in the “real economy” from working and producing and making and selling tangible things.  Society will always need credit, of course; but the modern financial industry has drowned us in debt, and when they go too far,  captive governments bail them out at taxpayer expense. This can’t continue indefinitely. Hudson asserts high finance has perverted the real economy and earns its profits from speculation and debt creation, not useful production. The “financial parasite class,” in his view, is draining the blood out of the host, which is the greater society.   The implicit conclusion is that we need a revolution—in our thinking and our policy. That would result in social upheaval. But, of course, social upheaval is what we are already going through.  The idea of “revolution” isn’t necessarily Marxist.  You could also view it as a revolt against Vampire Capitalism by the forces of grassroots Productive Capitalism.

So I thought I’d benefit from venting a bit.

Of all the events of the post-9/11 era, there are many things to be frustrated about.  Over 2,000 dead in Iraq based on deceptive and false, likely purposeful, intelligence.  Over $1 Trillion in spending borrowed money for wars.  Over 10 years to get Bin Laden after he was allowed to escape, likely hiding with the knowledge of at least some Pakistani government officials, a country we are giving Billions to.  A “Patriot Act” that infringed on basic civil liberties of U.S. Citizens more than any time since the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798.  Types of torture legally justified, using the same methods that we prosecuted and put to death Japanese leaders for after WWII.  The list can get pretty long.

But one of those at the top of the list has to be the complete and total lack of individual accountability for the financial crisis. I promise I will attempt to avoid profanity.

Current reports are that no one in anything approaching a top CEO, company President, etc will be prosecuted.  “Too Big To Jail” says Ben Hallman is a particularly disgusting piece.  It’s impossible to contain my frustration over what has occurred, from the total foreseeable devastation wrought upon our country due to unregulated and unchecked greed, the job losses, and generational damage they caused.  It seems the only thing those responsible have received is higher pay, and not even a slap on the wrist.  Indeed, the SEC reports $2.19 Billion in fine for wrongdoing by banks during the crisis.  Those same financial institutions paid $200 Billion in employee bonus since during the time span of that wrongdoing and made over $5.5 Billion in net profits even during 2008, their worst performance year of the crisis.

I began to practice law shortly prior to the S&L crisis, and I was personally involved as a baby-lawyer (basically my role was carrying file boxes) as my firm represented people prosecuted for even the slightest reason.  Even if someone did not financially benefit personally when the crisis occurred, prosecutors looked for the slightest reason to obtain jail time, even calling minor misstatements perjury.  People brought down ranged from Charles Keating and  Speaker Jim Wright all the way down to minor bank officers.  Everyone was scrutinized.

My point is not to re-litigate or second guess those prosecutions, or urge there were too many or too few.  All I want to state is the obvious fact that Bush #1 was much more aggressive in going after the bankers that costs taxpayers and the economy so much, while the Obama administration is doing next to nothing.  A comparison to what has happened now is warranted.

The S&L crisis ended up costing about $124 Billion in direct tax dollar expenditures to clean up.  The Wall Street crisis of 2008 started with a blank check of over $700 Billion, then escalated to costs mostly hidden even to this day from the public.

Something must be pointed out about that initial $700 Billion bailout.  Congress voted to reject the bailout, which had been thrown together in short order.  Who can get the vision of Hank Paulsen on his knees before Nancy Pelosi out of their brain?  Then the following business day Wall Street jerked Congress’ lease, with the DOW dropping like a rock.  I for one have always considered that drop somewhat manipulated by Wall Street to put a gun to Congress’s head.  “Bail us out or we’ll tank the markets.”

Regardless whether my conspiracy beliefs are founded, the cost of years of Wall Street ineptitude and greed is now staggering.  Estimates include $2.6 Trillion in lost GDP.  12.5 million people thrown off of work.  $23 Trillion in government programs and bailout.  $3.4 Trillion is stock market loses, $3.4 Trillion just in retirement account loses.  46.2 million Americans in poverty, the largest number in the 52 year history of published poverty estimates.

But the cost to the individuals who played a central part in the mess?  Net gains across the board.

Here’s an example of what you could do in the current crisis, and what you could receive:

Angelo Mozilo – head of Countrywide Financial – a chief architect of the entire mess

Countrywide paid $8.7 Billion in a predatory lending settlement.

Mozilo? – $132 million in pay in 2007.  He paid $67 million SEC settlement, a net gain of $65 million for his role.  Plus, “Bank of America picked up most of the tab” of the fine, so Mozilo truly didn’t even receive a slap on the hand, but a pat on his wallet.  Of course Mozilo was allowed to deny all wrongdoing and not required to admit anything amiss.  Mozilo got as close to a jail cell as I have to the moon.

After the implosion, Mozilo declares that “Countrywide was one of the greatest companies in the history of this country.”  Take that Ford, Apple, IBM, GE, et al.

John Corzine’s conduct has caused Forbes to label him “Criminal or Just Plain Old Fashioned Stupid”.  Since his net worth is stated to be $300 million, quite a bit less than the missing $1.6 Billion in client money he left MSGlobal with.  No prosecution.  I wish I could be so stupid.  When I misplace my car keys I suffer bigger consequences.

Let’s now Google “JPMorgan Chase & Co.”

Jamie Dimon – the supposed guru of finance, CEO and President of Chase

Up to $9 Billion lost by Chase in trades by the “London Whale” using methods supposedly outlawed by Dodd-Frank.  (Don’t Google “London Whale” or you might hit some niche porn specializing in English fat guys – different strokes for different folks, I guess)

Fines against the Dimon led JPMorgan Chase?

$154 million settlement for “allegedly” misleading investors in mortgage-securities deal.  No admission of fault.  Just my pleading “no contest” to that traffic ticket I guess.

$228 million to settle charges that JPMorgan Chase rigged 100 municipal bond transactions.  I’m thinking that means screwing taxpayers.  Bond rigging?  It’s just so quaint; just so Gilded Age?

$20 million fine for improper loans and mishandling customer funds of Lehman Brothers just before its collapse.

$1.7 million fine from FINRA for putting investors in unsuitable investments.

$275 million in fines for mortgage service issues, including Robo-Signing.  Evidently false signing of an affidavit by a computer to foreclose on someone’s home is not felony perjury like it would be for the rest of us or all those guys during the S&L crisis.  Oh, I forgot, they didn’t have many computers back then.

$75 million fine for bribery of Alabama state officials to win contracts and fees.  Huh, you’d have thought it would be New Jersey or Mississippi.  Roll Tide Roll.  Of course, again, no admission of wrongdoing.  $3.6 Billion in profits that quarter for the bank; that $75 million must have really hurt.

$88.3 million payout to U.S. Treasury for breaking U.S. embargo laws and trade sanctions between 2005 and 2011, including transactions with Cuba, Iran and Sudan.   (Lest we single out Chase, Standard Chartered of England paid $340 million for “alleged” money laundering of $250 Billion for Iran.)   “Alleged” my ass!  (There it is, and I promised I would not cuss.)

Back to Dimon and Co – On at least 10 separate occasions Chase executed Wash Trades in U.S. crude oil and gasoline futures, i.e. banned selling to yourself, which causes irregularities in what real trades should be.  Wonder if that effected the price we paid at the pump at all?  The penalty – $30,000 fine.  That’s 1/1,000,000th of Chase’s employee compensation.  Ouch again.

Dimon says “we were one of the better actors in this [subprime mortgage] situation”, and remarkably that is probably true.  Dimon also took home $23 million in compensation in 2011.  He also serves on the on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one of Chase’s government oversight and regulatory agencies.  Evidently the Chair of the Board says it’s all swell with him.  (Insert appropriate rant here)

But, I’m tired of this list, as I’m only on page 2 of my Google search and I have to find a way to pay my Sept 15th tax estimate to help pay for all this bailout, plus two kid’s college and third’s car next month when she turns 16.

You can do similar research on Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman, et al, or read the other hundreds of pages on Chase – if your stomach can stand it.

The bottom line is that you will see that you can’t find someone high up when things went bad, or low down (except for some Lehman underlings) who did not net gain, or who are not still on top of the world.

The list does not stop at the bankers.  Larry Summer, one of the architects along with Phil Gramm and Robert Rubin for the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, including the steamrolling of CTFC Chair Brooksley Born to eliminate regulations on derivatives, was put in charge of the clean up.   If you haven’t watch the Frontline piece called “The Warning” about what Summers, Rubin and Gramm did to Brooksley Born, you REALLY should.  If it won’t make you throw a book, cup, brick, cat, etc at your TV set, nothing will.

These 1999 bi-partison repeal of regulation with Republicans controlling Congress and Clinton in the White House set up the framework that allowed the bankers the unbridled free market action that imploded the economy.

There is blame to go around, but that 1999 action set the stage for all that was to follow.  That’s one reason I almost choked on my popcorn when Bill Clinton said during his DNC speech, “They [the Republicans] want to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit federal bailouts.”  Of course, we would not have needed Dobb-Frank if Clinton and Co had not helped Gramm repeal all of our Depression-era protections.  Great speech otherwise.  Better than the Republicans who are owned by Wall Street.  Luckily the Democrats are only rented?  Gramm went on to work at UBS as an adviser, one of the biggest players in the derivative market that he helped unleash on the world.

His wife, Wendy Gramm, had deregulated energy futures while she headed CTFC (before Born arrived to do the actual job of protecting consumers) and while her husband was championing the same thing as a U.S. Senator.  Of course the specific beneficiary was “Kenny Boy” Lay and Enron.  Mission Accomplished, six days after providing for the Enron exemption, Wendy resigned from her regulator role.  Five weeks later she went to work for Enron.  The NYTimes did a piece called “The Reckoning”, which is about as good and informative as PBS “The Warning” piece, and which tells it better than I could ever.  Plus I’m getting off topic as usual.

Back to Larry Summers.  He was brought in by Obama to clean up the mess, having been one of those who lit the fuse on the bomb back in 1999.  Guess who Summers blamed for the crisis?  Anyone who answers “not Larry Summers” wins the prize.  And Summers could not suggest reimplementation of Glass-Steagall and the other post-Depression regulations he helped repealed in 1999 because that would be admitted he’d made a mistake; and them financial genius folk don’t make no mistakes.

Summers couldn’t listen to Paul Volcker about breaking up the “too big to fail” banks and imposing real re-regulation for the same reasons.

Summer is said to be this super brilliant guy, and now back at Harvard, I assume teaching future M.B.A.’s about the rewards awaiting them on Wall Street.  Please tell my kids how smart Larry is as they graduate high school and college into a country whose economy and banking system have been destroyed.

Then there is unregulated free market and Ayn Rand lover Maestro Alan Greenspan, at which point I” stop being I get cynical, develop an ulcer, or cuss again.

Seriously, watch The Warning and read The Reckoning.  If every American did we’d increase jobs several million manufacturing pitchforks for use on the whole lot of them in D.C. and New York City.

Oh, I forgot the other side of the story.  Gregory Taylor got released from prison after serving 13 years for trying to steal a loaf of bread.  He was hungry and originally got 25 years to do.

Thank God Jamie Dimon never gets hungry.

The Ft Worth Star-Telegram ran a piece I wrote today on the larger message and comparison between Ted Cruz and Julian Castro.  Their competing visions for the future appear well staked out in the fight for the ever growing Hispanic vote.  Take a look at the full piece on the Star-Telegram website.

A pre-Conventions version of the piece ran in VOXXI last week.

Having served with Joaquin Castro, I obviously have some bias, but the straight up comparison of what Ted and Julian said at each Convention gives a clear picture of the differences.  Ultimately it will be up to Hispanics and swing voters to give the verdict on who wins this fight.  The results will likely be a few years in coming, but recognizing the impact of who wins is important as it will affect us all.

Seems that fresh of his Presidential run, which cost Texans $3.7 million in tax dollars for security, (which evidently did not protect him from shooting himself in the foot), Gov. Rick Perry has $3.3 million cash on hand in his campaign account.  However, I don’t think we are going to get paid back any time soon.  Instead Perry is now off to Tuscany and other points east.  But don’t worry, it not on your dime, but on charitable corporate donations (oh, well maybe a few Texas tax dollars, too).

Perry’s eight-day trip to Italy starts this week, and he’s going to watch the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.  The Tribune also reports that Rick will get to meet the Chairman of  Ferrari, which is way cool.  I’m more a Shelby Cobra man, but I do like Olive Garden.

The trip is being paid for in part by the 38th Annual Ambrosetti Intelligence on the World, Europe and Italy Forum: Innovation, Research and Development as Drivers for Growth.  I tried Google on that name, and came up blank except for Perry’s press releases and the Tribune story.  I’m sure they’re a swell group.

Also picking up the tab is TexasONE, a non-profit run out of the Governor’s office.  Evidently TexasONE gets some its dollars for this from corporate donations.  Not sure whether those are secret, as charitable donations are sometimes like that.  Couldn’t find that on Google either (perhaps I need to switch to Bing!).

I do know that those corporations are also eligible for grants from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which basically Perry controls.  Seems you can also make campaign contributions to Perry and improve you odds of getting an Enterprise Fund grant.  At one point I believe you could pay to shoot doves with Perry and become an adviser on how Enterprise Funds were doled out, but again, Google let me down and my old info on that is boxed up in a storage shed somewhere.  Not sure if it was on the same hunting lease as that inconvenient rock.

But don’t feel left out.  Although Perry issued a press release bragging about no tax dollars being used on the trip, the Tribune sniffed out that in fact several Texas cities are members of TexasOne, “and have paid thousands of dollars collected as specially authorized sales tax revenue to join.”  So there, thanks for helping pay for the Gov to watch Formula 1 in Milan.

TexasONE is just such a swell deal.  They even paid for Perry to go see the Longhorns win at the Rose Bowl in 2006.  Awful nice of an Aggie to go support the Horns like that.

(I actually don’t mind some economic incentives to bring jobs to Texas.  I just have an issue with Pay-To-Play).