Oh My Elizabeth.....

In such re-assuring and gentle tones,

you rail against predatory loans.

In poise, elegance and grace,

you battle a national disgrace.......

Writing a poem about a bankruptcy law professor isn't exactly......well....poetic.


I have a schoolboy crush on her because:


1. Her definition of bankruptcy implicitly promotes the strengthening of the weaker elements in our society by encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship, which in the end buttresses not destroys- as Republicans would have you believe- the American economy.

Interview with Frontline:


You have been studying primarily bankruptcy for the last 20 years. Why bankruptcy?

EW: Because bankruptcy is about financial death and financial rebirth. Bankruptcy is the great American story rewritten. We're a nation of debtors. Why do you think people left Europe to come to the United States? They left because they were in debt. We like to describe it as, "Oh, it was about religious freedom." No, it was about debt. They were looking for a way to escape their debts. ..... It's the way that people say: "I got out there; I borrowed the money; I did my best; I used that money to start a small business or to keep myself going in my job. ... You rolled the dice with me. ... It didn't work. You can have most of what I own, and that's it, though. We'll stop there. We'll declare the default. You write off the part of the debt I can't pay, I'll take my human energy ... and go right back into the game again." That's the whole premise behind bankruptcy. It's about death and rebirth.


It's a big form of social insurance, not for the poor, but for the middle class, for people who are starting businesses, ... people [who] are trying to hold together their families, their jobs; hardworking, play-by-the-rules people. Those are the people ultimately who end up in bankruptcy; people who took the risks we wanted them to take, but for them, it didn't work out.

+ for more of this insightfull interview about the past, present and future of debt please click here........and here.

I could read her for hours....you should try it.

Laissez (un)Fair?

"oh you crazy kid- you got me"

The following is a quote cut and pasted off the white house web page.

"The market is now in the process of correcting itself, and delaying that correction would only prolong the problem. "

Wait, im a little confused- didn't the federal reserve just dole out 29 billion in tax dollars to keep Bear Stearns, and presumably our economy afloat? Oh yeh, I forgot- I can't trust the double speaking, orwellian phrasing, trickle down favoring, CEO's that make up the current American administration. So, if the market is in a self administered self correction smart guys, why the wall street bailout? Did watching a Laissez Fair economy all of a sudden get boring? How does Henry Paulson explain this socialist, pinko-tinged government interference in the marketplace?

(Uh oh, all you Ron Paulies- watch out, your long predicted socialist takeover is imminent)

How could a man who said in a march 16th ABC interview:

"I'm looking very carefully at any proposal (to solve the current problem). But all the ones I've seen, which call for much more government intervention, raise more problems and do more harm than they would do good," approve such a plan?

I dont have any answers, it just makes me scratch my head really, really hard.
Ill let Jesus H. Chris, one of my favorite, if sometimes hysterical, political lyricists, and lead singer of the band Propaghandi take a shot at it-

"Our cities seem to function quite the same: sweeping ghettos under one big rug makes them easier to contain, so the upper-middle class can sleep (or shop in peace) and convince themselves that "trickle-down" will solve this poverty. Yes, murderers walk our streets and their weapons are their pens, desks, policies and P.R. campaigns (fed by the spoils of war) against the "lazy, shiftless" populations of the poor."

How bout that for poetry? Makes Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" sound like a nursery rhyme.


Check out this article- explains my outrage and confusion much better.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/03/selective_bailouts.html