Speaking Personally

George Stephanopolos asked Larry Summers about use of the "Depression" term in high places (1) (2) and Summers gave the standard answer...

"We’re in a very serious situation, George. This is worse than any time since the Second World War. It’s worse than I think most economists like me ever thought we would see. But let’s remember. In the Depression, the unemployment rate was 25 percent. GDP had fallen in half. We were really in a very different situation than that"

...followed by an offered segue which Stephanopolos accepted.

Some blogers using the "D" word cite Alice Rivlin...

'Because of the institutions established as a result of the Great Depression, we are not going to have the kind of meltdown that the financial crisis of the 1930s precipitated, when unemployment went to 25 percent and almost everybody was in deep trouble. Referring to the current crisis as the deepest recession since the Great Depression does not mean it will be comparable to the Great Depression. But, it could be long and deep like the recession of 1980-82. It is important to remember why we got into this mess. We are in trouble basically because as a country we were spending too much, borrowing too much, and living beyond our means. That is something people like me have warned about for a long time, but few of us foresaw that it would precipitate this kind of meltdown. The reason it did is that we had not modernized our regulatory systems to keep up with innovation in the financial sector.'
Alice Rivlin

1.  IMF Says Advanced Economies Already in Depression, http://www.bloomberg.com
/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6aaWZ8ab8yU&refer=home

2.The Economic Outlook and Washington Area Nonprofitshttp://www.brookings.edu/speeches/2008/1215_dc_nonprofits_rivlin.aspx


Reading this review, Manhattan _ Kansas _ murder mystery ,  I think the point of
Beattie's  book is the "cats and mouse" game between a person of interest and legal system investigators.  This game took several months to play out and in the end a highly intelligent dark triad suspect was convicted on circumstantial evidence. 

It doesn't really matter too much who ratted Amy Brian out .  It doesn't matter that troops in combat zones with her knew about her sexuality and didn't care enough to complain.  What matters, as the war in Iraq draws to a Vietnam type conclusion and military forces face downsizing, is that the past pattern of "sexual cleansing" gays from the military during peace time downsizing not  be repeated.

Three 

Important Stories

Downsizing America

Executive Compensation in Japan

Remarks by President Barack Obama on Executive Compensation with Secretary Geithner

Quotes and Pointers

'Here is a new fact of life: America’s economy is getting a little smaller. This “shrinkage” is likely to be a secular — as opposed to a cyclical — sets of changes.'

Barry Ritholtz

'Japanese executives earn substantially less than U.S. executives.  We find that the
median president at the largest 500 firms earned about $420,000.  The median president
at the largest 100 earned about $530,000.  We estimate that the elasticity of an
executive’s taxable income with respect to firm size is about .05.  Its elasticity on with
respect to  firm profitability is about .06.

Other variables that lead to higher executive incomes are for the executive to hold
positions at several firms instead of just one, to hold more shares in the firm that employs
him, to be older, and to work at a firm that uses stock options to compensate executives.  
Graduating from a prestigious university is negatively correlated with income for corporate presidents, because the richest executives are entrepreneurs who are less likely
to go to the best colleges, or, indeed, to any college at all.'
Minoru Nakazato, J. Mark Ramseyer & Eric B. Rasmusen  

'This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.

      For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis is not only in bad taste – it’s a bad strategy'
Barack Obama

Out and About on the Net.

Manhattan _ Kansas _ murder mystery

"Language of Evil" by Robert Beattie (Signet True Crime, 341 pages, $7.99 paper)

German bishops say 'no room' for Holocaust denier in Catholicism  -- how will this Bishop of Rome deal with Bishop Williamson?

Kansas Army Guard discharges gay soldier -- "Someday that policy will change." Amy Brian

Drybulk shippers soar as rates rise   --  Green Shoots?

Freezing Tofu

Carbon E7 police car headed for duty in 2012  --  So why the rear "suicide doors"?