This is an explanation of economics. There's no way to avoid some boring details and glazed eyes when talking about such things. However, I promise to avoid some of the jargon which will send you running to wikipedia, if you in turn forgive me for some oversimplification. The purpose of this article is to explain specific jargon. It will explain the role of FNMA (Fannie Mae) and FHLMC (Freddie Mac), mortgage-backed securities, Credit Default Swaps (CDS), Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO), mark to market, prime, subprime, a run, the Community Reinvestment Act, and liquidity in the current situation. These terms will be introduced as gently as possible. There's a lot of ground to cover, but what follows is a resource which will help you to understand these frequently used buzz words.

Humans are omnivorous. Probably the reason we are is that we started out as scavengers before we were hunter/gatherers. Eating ancient and primeval 'road kill' must have been nasty enough that some bright ancestor found a pointed stick and jabbed something to death and we tasted fresh meat. That must have gotten old too and so someone else came along and figured out how to prepare and cook meat. The technique of preparing the perfect steak is quite simple and uncomplicated. It's an art that has almost been forgotten.

So King George got on the TV tonight to let everyone know that yes, the sky will indeed fall if those pesky congress persons don't agree to effectively nationalize a handful of companies that may or may not have been poorly managed.So the question is, would a bailout have the desired effect? Given that I am not an economist and the extreme complexity surrounding the many aspects that feed into answering that question, I am going to leave that debate to others. At this point I am not even sure that the psychological effect of the bailout would end up playing out as expected. What I am more interested in is the effect that the bailout is going to have on the next two elections.

Those who spend their weekends doing things other than watching the news woke up Monday morning to a proposed 700 billion dollar bailout of the broader US financial system. The response to the most devastating financial crisis in modern history is surely a complex web of legal and technical intricacy, tied together with thick ropes of incomprehensible financial jargon and heavy-laden with the legislative double-speak inherent to all bills, right? Nope. It's only 2 pages long, and written in near-layman's terms. You would read it, if you were paying attention. If you had read it, here's a section that might have struck you: "Section 8: Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

One of our more prolific users, localroger, recently posted a diary about how this online community of ours has failed.  In and of itself, this is not ironic or even remarkable; the perennial breast-beating that our community is dying is perhaps one of the more notable signature memes of our community. No, the irony is in the fact that he based his claim around an essay which is actually an exegesis of the strengths of k5 --- a laundry list of what we are doing right. To borrow a metaphor, yes, k5 is full of alligators, but they're in the moat guarding the castle.

According to History of ASCII Art, a Korean gentleman named Gwang Hyuk Lee (or Gwank Hyuk Lee?), around the time of the Korean war, drew a picture of Jesus Christ (entirely by hand) using the entire text of the Book of John. He used varying pen colors to form the image. If this is true, I am extremely impressed.

I'm going to present to you tips, tricks, and techniques for e-mauling localroger.  In theory many of these will work well against anyone, but I am writing this diary in the hopes that this will help give people that push to let localroger know he's a slimy douchebag, or if they're already doing that to help them spruce up their game. Inside: I show you the innards of my cold, cruel, black heart.

I didn't understand. Every time I've ever been asked to contribute to society, I simply wrote some bullshit excuse to weasel out of it. Contributing is for other people, not a precious important snowflake such as myself.  So I'd pen some dishonest and dishonorable excuse and whine my way out of it.  They'd always let me know that I was excused because, let's face it, if there's anything drearier than a court employee's having to track down some selfish and self-centered asshole and get him to make even the minimal contribution to our common polity, then I don't know what it is.  So I'm not worth their time, and they always let me slide, until now. But this time, they actually had some serious shit brewing.  They were going to make me come in and prove to their faces that I valued my convenience above my honor.

I didn't understand. Every time I got the subpoena before I submitted a written letter stating that I was paid by the hour and sole breadwinner of my household. I'd get a message on my answering machine about a week before my due date advising me that I was excused. This time, the message said "The judge needs to talk to everybody."

Hide Palin under a Bush?OH NO!I'm going to let her shine.