Reason Morning Links: Capital Markets, Capital Punishment, Capital on Stage

- The Fed pumps out more money.

- Big bonuses at Fannie Mae.

- "AIG's supposedly solvent insurance business may be at least as troubled as its reckless financial-products unit."

- New Mexico repeals the death penalty.

- Parsing poll numbers from Iraq.

- A nice tribute to the late historian R. Max Hartwell.

- Panic over right-wing extremism.

- Panic over penis theft.

- Das Kapital: The Opera.

Comments

[Marc]

What's the difference between a "retention bonus" and a regular bonus? They give out the latter just for kicks because they have extra money flying around? Given that I won't come into work without it, is my salary a "retention salary"?

And what's the deal with airplane food, anyway? It's not food for airplanes! I'm not even sure if it's food!

[Blue]

If the Fed keeps pumping out the cash, Zimbabwe will look like a well run economy by christmas 09.

[Reinmoose]

If we're just posting random interesting links, I submit

Entire population of France confirms their most hilarious sterotypes

[Episiarch]

With the French strikes, at a certain point, why wouldn't the president just say "You know what? Fuck you." and let the strikers fuck the country up so bad that the rest of the people would finally turn against them? I know the French general population support for the strikes is strong, but there has to be a tipping point.

[Reinmoose]

You would think so, wouldn't you? But having spent plenty of time there, I'm not sure even the strikers ever really know what it is that will appease them.

I think Sarkozy should announce that he's going on strike and see what the national response is...

[Episiarch]

I'm thinking of the 2005 MTA strike. At first, New Yorkers generally supported the strike but as it went on, people were so inconvenienced, and facts about how cushy the workers had it already came out, public sentiment shifted dramatically. Sarkozy should try for that.

[SugarFree]

Do they have blow-up rats for French strikes?

[TofuSushi]

Das Kapital: The Opera

Is this coming to the Kenedy Center soon? A cultural exchange with China that Obama surely could not pass up.

[JP]

Do they have blow-up rats for French strikes?

No, they have blow-up Americans.

[squarooticus]

@Blue: that's probably an exaggeration, but the smart money in the market definitely screamed "Inflation!" yesterday when gold and silver spiked and $DXY went into the tank. Expect more of the same today: gold is up $64 as we speak, silver up $1.32.

[Episiarch]

Do they have blow-up rats for French strikes?

Maybe blow up frogs?

[Pro Lbiertate]

Penis theft? Hmmmm. I think New Mexico should leave one exception to its death penalty ban.

[Pro Libertate]

I agree with Pro Lbiertate.

[Reinmoose]

Do they have blow-up rats for French strikes?

Maybe blow up frogs?

Mais oui, monsieur. On aime les battre avec les baguettes

[Art-P.O.G.]

I can never bash the French because IMHO Sasha Baron Cohen's stereotype in Talladega Nights was so over-the-top that any attempts on my part would seem ineffective by comparison.

[Art-P.O.G.]

I'm not even sure that was a real French accent but damn that shit was funny to me.

[SugarFree]

I think the entire French population should go on strike to teach itself a lesson.

[Reinmoose]

SugarFree -

That would seem the next logical step, wouldn't it? Everyone deserves to be paid more! Yay! We all appreciate each other more now, and that is how pay and benefits should be allocated in a good society!

[SugarFree]

That would seem the next logical step, wouldn't it?

But the joke's on them when all of Algeria shows up to scab.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Oh, how I weep for her! Mother of Voltaire, Galois, Degas, Curie and baguettes! She is justifiably proud and yet weirdly arrogant.

[TofuSushi]

The superior culture and society that the French have created should be emulated and admired in America, not mocked by a band of anti-intellectuals.

[SugarFree]

She is justifiably proud and yet weirdly arrogant.

Common features of faded empires the world over.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Common features of faded empires the world over.

Does anyone else already see signs of this in America?

[SugarFree]

No, we are still in the justifiably aggrogant stage. But it's definitely in decline as we slip gently into the strong welfare state.

[kinnath]

The superior culture and society that the French have created should be emulated and admired in America, not mocked by a band of anti-intellectuals.

Great wines and lovely landscapes. Too bad France is populated by the French.

[R C Dean]

What's the difference between a "retention bonus" and a regular bonus?

Retention bonuses are paid for staying through a date certain. You often see them at firms that have been acquired, although you sometimes see them for "key personnel" in other circumstances.

Retention bonuses at troubled financial institutions are, in my mind, absolutely appropriate. The people you need for damage control/recovery are the very people who are most likely to leave without one.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't know about French culture today being important, except maybe in clothing fashions. However, in the past, it was important, especially in literature, but also in philosophy and in the sciences.

That said, even in the Enlightenment, France was more of a popularizer of good German and English ideas than an originator. An extremely important popularizer, I hasten to add--Voltaire, Diderot, et al. were extraordinarily critical to the spread of the Enlightenment.

Of course, it was the French who screwed up the Enlightenment with Romanticism (Rousseau, I'm looking at you), which has led to all sorts of trouble. We need a Re-Enlightenment.

[Mad Max]

'The [Marx] opera's plot will involve a business where workers begin to realise their boss is exploiting them. They then embrace the Marxist theory of surplus value. Far from uniting to overthrow the established order, though, some of the chorus line mutiny, others continue as they are, while some engage in collective bargaining. Mr He insists it will be "fun to watch".'

Especially the part where anti-Marxist workers, and Marxist workers who endorse an incorrect interpretation of Marxism, are murdered or sent to labor camps to be re-educated.

'[Director He Nian] is best known for a stage adaptation of a martial-arts spoof'

TROTSKY: Your socialism-in-one-country style is no match for my permanent-revolution style!

STALIN: Let me show you my icepick-to-the-head style!

[JiggleTits]

"The superior culture and society that the French have created should be emulated and admired in America, not mocked by a band of anti-intellectuals."

tiresome

[TofuSushi]

tiresome

anti-intellectual alert!

[robc]

Oh, how I weep for her! Mother of Voltaire, Galois, Degas, Curie and baguettes!

Dont worry about it. As Epi pointed out in the pizza thread, you can get good baguettes at Kroger.

[TofuSushi]

As Epi pointed out in the pizza thread, you can get good baguettes at Kroger.

Union labor is always superior to the other kind. I heart Kroger.

[Reinmoose]

That was me that talked about the baguettes, robc, and no you can't.

[Marc]

Retention bonuses are paid for staying through a date certain...

It was a hypothetical question. I didn't expect a polite and informative answer, damn it.