E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post:
Huh. Never woulda guessed it about this President, based on the sycophancy of the pre-election reporting there, E.J.
Which makes his lead-in to that sentence even *more* amusing.
Emphasis mine.
Mebbe things would be going better if you'd been doing your jobs before the election? Snerk. At least now, if only because, well, you've got to do something to regain your cred, you can move back into a watchdog, vice cheerleader, mode. All sides would benefit from a critical examination.
Iain Murray in The Corner: Instead, we've decided to eliminate both prospects and turned the financial world into Amtrak.
Heh again.
Of course, it would appear that in some sectors, the financial world hasn't been run any better than Amtrak, either.
"One more lesson: No occupant of the White House has ever been able to walk on water."
Huh. Never woulda guessed it about this President, based on the sycophancy of the pre-election reporting there, E.J.
Which makes his lead-in to that sentence even *more* amusing.
In just two weeks, the elation of Inauguration Day has given way to a classic form of partisan hardball. Obama and his advisers have been forced to learn basic lessons on the run. For starters, the media cannot be counted on to be either liberal or permanently enchanted with any politician. Arguments left unanswered can take hold, whether they make sense or not.
Emphasis mine.
Mebbe things would be going better if you'd been doing your jobs before the election? Snerk. At least now, if only because, well, you've got to do something to regain your cred, you can move back into a watchdog, vice cheerleader, mode. All sides would benefit from a critical examination.
Iain Murray in The Corner: Instead, we've decided to eliminate both prospects and turned the financial world into Amtrak.
Heh again.
Of course, it would appear that in some sectors, the financial world hasn't been run any better than Amtrak, either.
Unfortunately, this won't be limited to just media-related issues. We'll all suffer because they'll be OJT'ing on other basic lessons, too .... like national defense, intelligence, foreign policy, the economy, etc etc etc.
Already, the Iranians think his willingness to engage in "dialog" is being forced from a position of weakness.
I really despise them. I've been calling them MexAmeriBank ever since I was reading Gibson's Virtual Light and at the same time read a news story about Bank of America operating a program (limited to southern California, of course) to actively recruit illegal aliens into opening lines of credit and mortgages and such. I mean seriously, if they were called "Fly By Night Bank" I would just shrug, but that's just low.
As Oldloadr notes, it's regional contracts, and there is usually a credit union on post, as well.
And there is no requirement to utilize the on-post bank, and there is competition to the on-post bank outside the gates. Admittedly, the first bank you see outside the gate at Fort Leavenworth is another branch of Armed Forces bank, but there's plenty of alternatives.
I'm also a customer of Bank of America, they being the 5th owner of my original hometown bank where I started banking in college.
Rivrdog didn't mention that BofA holds the Dod travel card contract, which is certainly a reason for the gov't to be concerned about their solvency. And the gov't, having encouraged and abetted BofA's acquisition of Merril-Lynch, the gov't has it's fingers all over BofA, so the whole thing should prove interesting.
I do have our cash and negotiable assets spread out over several instituitions so that should one fail in a truly massive way, I have access to money to keep the family cash flow intact.
But it is a measure of my confidence in the safeguards put in place after the big crash of '29 that I've not pulled huge chunks of it out and stuffed it into a mattress.
Though, if I hadn't moved it around in the investment vehicles, it would be holding its value better in the mattress...!
LOL - yeah. I kinda feel like I'm "doubling down" in Vegas by keeping what little I have left in my IRA invested as they were, and hoping for an eventual rebound.
However, for ready savings, CDs and the like, I still don't think you can beat your local Federal Credit Union. I haven't heard of a single Credit Union failing during this current crisis (I was told by a friend that he had heard of one failing, but I never saw an article on it).
Another little advantage of Credit Unions: as I travel around the world (often with mil hops) I can hit any credit union ATM and not pay a service charge.
Do you mean cash beyond the first $250,000, or do you not even trust the FDIC guarantee if in fact an institution did "fail in a truly massive way"?
No, as in a failure so massive you can't *get* to your gov't guaranteed cash for a few days as the system gets organized to make payouts.
Guaranteed money you can't get to, accessed via cards no longer honored, doesn't fill the gas tank.
Still financial institutions are rather linked if one goes it's quite possible many will which is what almost happened recently, and you'll still be out of 'gas'.
That said, the spread of institutions includes a very strong small bank and a healthy credit union.
The other bank is BofA... which is one reason things moved around.
We too, have a small, strong bank and a local institution which means BofA does not now, nor ever will get our bidness again.
We also have strategized our food and gas supply, which means, although we do not own land, we will not starve and indeed have been known to go a couple of weeks without grocery shopping...in winter. This means overcoming certain food dislikes such as powdered milk, but it can be done...and we shaved two hundred a month off the food bill in so doing.
If you own a piece of land big enough, you can theoretically feed yourself, but you have to take into consideration the cost benefit. One, because you raise your food yourself, you are healthier, and can reduce doctor and dentist bills. Two, because you raise your food yourself, you can sell surplus and preserve that which you do not sell. Three, you make sure that you are not dependent on an outside source of energy, such as gas. If you can generate your own electricity, you are truly independent and make your work count. You live life a bit slower, but it is all good.
Four words: USAA Federal Savings Bank
In addition to the Credit Unions.
Indeed...my father claims that credit card issuers refer to people like him, who never carry balances, are referred to in the industry as "deadbeats", which sounds backwards, but makes sense when you consider it from their perspective...by playing by the rules, you're using their service without directly paying them anything (of course they still make like 3% of your purchases, but they expect you to waste a pile of money paying interest as well).
If you own a piece of land big enough, you can theoretically feed yourself, but you have to take into consideration the cost benefit. One, because you raise your food yourself, you are healthier, and can reduce doctor and dentist bills. Two, because you raise your food yourself, you can sell surplus and preserve that which you do not sell. Three, you make sure that you are not dependent on an outside source of energy, such as gas. If you can generate your own electricity, you are truly independent and make your work count. You live life a bit slower, but it is all good.
Well sure, that makes sense...if your desire is to be a farmer. For those of us who don't want to be doctors and lawyers and fighter pilots and porn stars, it's never going to work.