Democrats vs. Republicans in a Mortgage Business Beatdown Competition
Well, it appears that a $700 billion dollar bailout deal has at least been struck in principal. What remains are the devilish details. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get this idea in print in time for it to be undertaken by the U.S. Government, but I feel it would have been perfect.
I think we should have had a Democrat vs. Republican competition. Turn it into a transparent reality show. Red vs. Blue.
On one side, the Republicans get to have their team and $350 billion. On the other side, the Democrats have their team and their $350 billion. They are competing to bail out the industry by buying assets and doing their best to turn a profit. On the line are bragging rights and lots and lots of dollars for the American public. Each side will always say that their ideas are the best. The only way to know for sure is to put them side by side and see how it all works out.
I won’t pretend to know all the intricate details of how this competition will work. I was a finance major in college, but I don’t work in the industry so the finite details are beyond my knowledge level currently. What I do know is that in a lot of cases, we have bad mortgages that are valued very very low. Probably even lower than the actual asset values. The supply and demand dictates that something is only worth what someone will pay for it, but if someone out there was capable of incurring the holding costs, say with $350 billion worth of bailout money on loan from the American people, I am convinced that there is money to be made.
So someone get Mark Burnett, Simon Fuller, The Ghost of Merv Griffin, and Howie Mandel on the phone, because I have an idea that is going to change the world. $700 billion dollars is going out, and we need to find out who can bring the most back! And any losses that are incurred will be supplemented by the TV revenue as we put our dirty laundry out there for all the world to see in fabulous HD. Let’s translate it into at least 25 languages to make sure we draw profits from around the world. I am predicting a home run.
Now this is what I call taking lemons and making lemonade.
Keith Olbermann for Worst Broadcaster Ever
I haven’t talked about politics on this site in a while. It bugs me. I am tired of it. But, I want to point something out to everyone. This year is an amazing year in politics. We have two of the most interesting and electable people in my lifetime of elections. Barack Obama is the inexperienced new guy on the block with fresh ideas, and McCain is the maverick who will certainly change things in Washington even at the expense of some traditional Republican ideals. No matter which one gets elected, there will be great change from the current administration. It is going to be huge. And the big point? It will be fine no matter which guy gets in. They both have good and bad qualities.
If you are like I am this political season, you like about 30-40% of what either of the candidates stand for. If you are 100% on board with either of the candidates then I can’t talk politics with you. I have yet to meet the human on earth who I agreed with on most things on a broad spectrum of topics. So if you are that far into either camp for either one of these guys, I don’t understand you. I seriously considered putting both of their signs in my yard this year, but then I moved to a cul de sac. Nobody drives by.
I have certainly come a long way since the days where I was more republican. I voted for lots of Democrats, including the current Democratic governor of the state of Ohio. But more than anything, I clamor for a third party that somehow breaks the red vs. blue, up vs. down, black vs. white, two category system we have now. I don’t know that it will ever happen, but the further I get into my life the less I am impressed by our current system and the lack of choice it provides. If you think about the amount of choice we have in every other phase of our lives, why is it that we settle for a system that allows Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, Al Franken, and Tim Robbins to all be somehow magically aligned opposite John McCain, GW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and Carly Fiorina?
Anyway, this post is really about that back-stabbing sycophant loser Keith Olbermann. Out of all the people in media that I hate, Keith Olbermann is the worst. He didn’t have the balls to criticize Imus until after he was fired, at which time he said how he wanted Imus gone. He caved, and subsequently buried his co-worker when the Hillary Clinton / Chelsea Clinton / “pimping” hubub came up. You will remember that a commentator said that Chelsea was out “pimping” Hillary. Obermann, the jackass that he is, allowed that comment to be taken literally as in the prostitution way. He didn’t stand up for his coworker in a clear message to try and keep Hillary from being mad at him.
Now, Olbermann has been removed as anchor from MSNBC’s political coverage because he can’t be trusted not to be a douchey commentator when he is supposed to be an impartial anchor, reporting the facts. He most recently went off on this self-important rant during the Republican National Convention. You can see him looking down, presumably reading, his self-centered prepared statement. He feels it necessary to put himself in the story by talking about his loss of people on 9/11. As an anchor, his personal opinion shouldn’t matter in the slightest. Just another entry on the resume of reasons that I can’t stand Keith Olbermann and think his appearances are to television what chlamydia is to the human body.
Welcome Molly!
Jen and I got a puppy!
Craig Joining WFNY
I have always felt a little funny writing about sports here on my site. It feels like half the people here don’t care at all about those stories. Also, the mix of content, whether I am acting like a sports writer, a movie reviewer, etc, always seems a bit unfocused.
As a result, I have decided to take my sports writing hobby and take it to a place where people honestly do care about it. Waiting For Next Year is a collection of Cleveland-only sports bloggers. They are a good group of writers, and they have aspirations for podcasting too. I am lucky enough that they were willing to offer me an opportunity to write and contribute there.
So, this doesn’t mean that I am closing the doors on FilteringCraig.com. It just means that I won’t be doing much in the way of sports here.
For any articles on sports you can check in at Waiting For Next Year.
