Politics and Poker, Politics and Poker
Playing for a pot that’s mediocre
Politics and Poker running neck and neck
If politics seems more predictable..
That’s because usually
You can stack the deck
Today’s news chum deals with the political and economic (hence the reference to poker) arena. And just like with poker, just when you think you are winning the game…
- From the “And The Only People Who Make Money Are The Ones Making The Signs” Department: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that J.P. Morgan has struck a deal to take over Washington Mutual. While the exact structure of the transaction wasn’t immediately known, J.P. Morgan is expected to acquire Washington Mutual’s deposits and branches, as well as other operations. The deal isn’t expected to result in any hit to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s bank-insurance fund, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. But it’s likely that another arm of government would have to pick up the tab. Some analysts have worried that a WaMu failure could cost more than $20 billion. In other WaMu news, it will now cost you $5 to cash a check on a WaMu account at WaMu if you don’t have account there.
- From the “But You Said You Could Convince Them” Department: Remember today how a bipartisan deal over the bailout had supposedly been hammered out before the “big meeting” — the deal bringing together the Senate and the House, the Republicans and the Democrats. Remember how Bush called McCain and Obama together to convince their parties to support the deal. Well, Democrats are behind the deal. But House Republicans are balking. Wasn’t it McCain that called for bipartisan leadership on the issue? Let’s see if he can bring his party along. It should be noted it is only the House Republicans that are balking; the Senate Republicans as well as both House and Senate Democrats agree with the revised proposal.
- From the “Paranoia” Department: I’m finding it interesting how cynical the Bush administration has left the supporters on the other side. I’m seeing more and more people that think elections are going to be suspended, that training some troops to support NorthCom means were going to have a military coup. Have the bad actions of the Bush administration led people to doubt the fundamentals of our political system? Perhaps I’m naive, but we’ve been in dire straights before… and elections and campaigns have gone on. We’ve had power-hungry presidents before… and elections have gone on and our system has righted itself. We must have faith in our system of government folks.
