We aren't a banana republic just yet

I was supposed to swim this morning for training but did not pack my stuff last night so I blew it off and will do it tomorrow.

Summer Mondays in my line of work can really be slow and boring. Today was one of those Mondays in terms of volume and activity. However there was tons of interesting tidbits out.

Two things stand out in my mind as important. The first is of course the Supreme Court staying the sale of Chrysler assets to Fiat right at the close. that is what gave me the title of this post. I am glad to see we have an independent judiciary that is willing to stand up for the rule of law and property rights. I think the other thing that made me chuckle was (I read this on ZeroHedge) the Administration in writing said that the courts in general and the Supreme Court in particular, were stepping out of bounds if they tried to rule on the use of TARP funds- not in those exact words. Funny how when an Administration dares the Supreme Court the Supreme Court takes the dare and usually wins. President Obama and his subordinates all but guaranteed the Supreme Court would take up the case of the Indiana State Pension funds and every other secured debt holder who was getting screwed in this rushed sale. I did notice how the media, and in particular BBRG, was trying to make light of the fact that the state pension funds held such a small amount of the debt that they were doing something wrong in standing up to the Federal government. That seems to be missing the whole point of the rule of law: Everyone, regardless of how wealthy, famous, or important (or self-important as may be the case) is equal in front of the law- well in theory at least and our history has shown otherwise often enough.

It also got me wondering who got to BBRG? They had been doing a good job of giving you the unvarnished, ugly truth of what is going on in the markets. Lately they seem to have joined the side that thinks if we all clap hard enough we can save Tinkerbell, aka the economy, from the poison. Speaking of drinking the Kool Aid, what is up with Paul Krugman? He has been a vocal critic of all that is going on, deriding the government for not really tyring to save us but instead save the system and their friends. Today in the last half hour it is all over the news wires how he is now saying the economy will exit recession in this summer most likely. WTF? He has been one of the most vocal "This is not your father's recession but your grandfather's Depression" and "It really is different this time" voices out there. Now all the sudden he is doing a 180 and preaching all is well, everyone back into the pool.

The second thing that made me sit up and take notice was the Governator issuing an executive order basically cancelling any contracts with the state after March 1st I believe. He went even further prohibiting any new contracts or purchases going forward and told all the state departments to present budgets cutting 15% of their expenses once the new state budget is approved. Not a big deal one would think right? Wrong! California, if it were an independent country, would be the sixth largest economy in the world. How can we be bottoming let alone exiting the recession if the sixth largest economy in the world is cutting it's budget by 15% and not entering into any new contracts or completing any new purchases?

So the Supreme Court won't hear a challenge to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I thought the President as Commander In Chief could just issue his own executive order and kill that? To me it appears that President Obama is just another politician who said whatever the crowd he was in front of wanted to hear to get elected. It is kind of sad that former VP Cheney came out saying "Freedom is freedom." when he was discussing gay marriage and the President is completely silent on the issue.

I actually did train today. I switched things around on the schedule for the week and will swim tomorrow morning. I hit the gym after work and biked 12 miles then ran 4. I will pay for that tomorrow.

Tomorrow night the husband is hosting his book club/wine drinking club. I will again have to politely decline their attempts to get me to join the club. I am glad the boys room has a tv.