The finance industry has been getting its own way for years, and as it happens, that way has been a disaster for everyone. These are the people who know better than everyone else how economies should be run and markets (de)regulated:

... As recently as March, [Lehman Brothers CEO Richard] Fuld was awarded a $22 million bonus for 2007 -- a generous pay package to be sure, but one that also reflected a year in which the bank's net profit had risen 5 percent to a record $4.2 billion.

But Lehman soon emerged as Wall Street's next domino as real estate loans and other toxic assets increasingly weighed on its balance sheet, especially after the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos Inc in March. ...

After a buyout deal fell through on Sunday, Lehman Brothers is facing bankruptcy, with Merrill Lynch and AIG following close behind.

Funny how even the favorite institutions of the free market fundamentalists can't survive in an unregulated free-for-all.

But unlike you or I, businesses like Lehman, Merrill Lynch and AIG are too important to be allowed to fail, so the public is going to have to pay for their obscene private profit taking:

... With  both Merrill Lynch and AIG seen as extremely weak (both lost more than 30% of their market value on Friday alone), a liquidation of Lehman could bring them, and others, down, in a collapsing house of cards.

The reason is that in a liquidation, all the liabilities become immediately due, whereas the assets need to be sold to willing buyers. So the "loss" in such a collapse is not, as it would be in normal times, the difference between the liabilities and the assets, it is the difference between the liabilities and what money can be realised fast with the assets. It's the difference between the value for you of a mobile phone, and its value for a junkie that needs to raise cash quick to get its cash. ...

We're all going to have to pay for their greed and arrogance as taxpayers, as in the government takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, even as we've already had to pay for their predatory business practices. But what did the leading lights of the finance industry think was going to happen when they destroyed the financial security of the very customers who keep the market humming? What did they think was going to happen when the industry was based on pyramid scheme resellings of the only type of loan industry-favored regulation lets people walk away from anymore, their home loans?

Something had to give. People started mailing in their house keys instead of their mortgage payments. The glorified crap shoot of hedge fund real estate portfolios, 'safe' paper that all the major institutions are relying on either to guarantee accounts payable or that accounts receivable can pay, came to a squishy halt. Lenders kept insisting that the real estate market had nowhere to go but up, reality had other ideas.

Earlier this year, I talked with Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) and Colorado 2nd District Democratic congressional candidate Jared Polis about the roots of this credit crisis and the effect it's been having on ordinary people. Join me on the flip ...

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller has stepped up his exploratory effort in recent days as he nears a self-imposed deadline of July 1 to decide whether to take on Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

Last week, Miller and his wife, Esther Hall, met for more than an hour with New York Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

All of this is from the News and Observer

This was added to in this morning's paper...

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A moderate fundraiser (only $15) was held for John Edwards birthday in Chapel Hill.  The event included traditional BBQ/Cookout fixins and was very casual.

The speakers who were very brief were (in order) Brad Miller, Elizabeth Edwards, Dean Smith and John Edwards.

Dean Smith is a very remarkable guy - politically - which I'm sure not many people are aware of.  His dad was a high school basketball coach in Kansas and was the first coach to have a black player on a championship team (1934).  Dean Smith himself was the first coach to have a black basketball scholarship player at North Carolina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Smith

Smith is one of the most prominent liberals in North Carolina politics. Politically, he is best known for promoting desegregation. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black UNC theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.[32] In 1965, Smith helped Howard Lee, a black graduate student at UNC, purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood.[8]

He opposed the Vietnam War and, in the early 1980s, famously recorded radio spots to promote a freeze on nuclear weapons. He has been a prominent opponent of the death penalty. In 1998, he appeared at a clemency hearing for a death-row inmate and pointed at then-Governor Jim Hunt: "You're a murderer. And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." As head coach, he periodically held UNC basketball practices in North Carolina prisons.[33]

Brad Miller gave a nice story of how he met Elizabeth Edwards in a courtroom once and although she was incredibly smart - his side won the case.  

The more interesting thing was how approachable and unassuming Congressman Brad Miller was.  I don't know much about him but when I told him I read the blogs he asked me which ones and pulled out his Blackberry.  DailyKos and MyDD were his top two web pages in his BlackBerry, PoliticalWire was next (I think).  He seems like a really decent guy and if you check is bio seems pretty smart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Miller _%28congressman%29

He says he's considering running for Senate but hasn't fully decided.  He's got my vote.  (outside of someone who's less progressive (and a brutal campaigner) like Easley running I can't think of anyone better)

Elizabeth Edwards didn't say too much but more or less introduced Dean Smith pointing out his accomplishments.

John Edwards went over some of the same themes he has before.  Very positive no references to other candidates.  The one area he expanded on was a "connecting the dots" type of philosophy between worldwide poverty, lack of education. and terrorism.  Further, trying to get off of oil will force middle eastern countries to develop and invest in and educate their people.  He also mentioned that if biofuels could be developed country's with lots of agricultural land and people in poverty (africa) could benefit by selling goods to Europe.  

I think his best line was "we know what needs to be done, we should make fuel efficient cars in the USA with union workers".  Most of the other topics - mandated universal health care, getting out of Iraq and closing Gitmo on his "first day as commander in chief" have been discussed.  Surprisingly, Mrs. Edwards had not heard that Colin Powell said he'd close Guantanamo his first afternoon.  The line Edwards has used about GITMO can boost Edwards with a reference to Powell.  It's also interesting that in the first debate Mitt "used car salesman" Romney said he'd "Double Guantanamo".  I'm sure that's a youtube we'll see if he makes it to the general.

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In their new ratings of the top 5 most vulnerable Republican Incumbents, CQ Politics has put Dole at #5.  This is a huge surprise, not because I dont think she is this vulnerable, but rather it is a suprise because the national media seems oblivious to polls done here.

The full article is here.

The article is a pretty simple run down of the situation on the ground, but it includes this praise for my candidate of choice, Brad Miller.

The area Miller now represents could make him a particularly potent statewide candidate. The 13th District -- which Miller helped draw as a member of the state legislature when North Carolina gained a House seat after the 2000 census -- splits fairly evenly between the parties, with perhaps a slight Democratic lean. It is anchored by urban areas in Greensboro and Raleigh, which are connected by several rural counties along the Virginia border.

My thoughts on Brad's district, and why it makes him strong state wide is available here.

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This post just had more and more to report on.  Sorry for the multiple topics.

As many of you know we have been pushing for a top tier challenger to Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.  Well, it has been a busy week.

Wednesday there was a story on the News & Observer's blog about our website.

Then yesterday we had two big boosts.  The first came, oddly, in the form of a poll about a different potential challenger to Dole.  That poll showed a surprising result, with a generic Democrat leading a generic Republican in the Presidential race in North Carolina 47 to 42.

The second came when I emailed this guy you might have heard of that I worked for for a few weeks in the fall last year.

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