SHREDDING

In life, there’s good shredding. Eddie Van Halen on guitar. Some of the licks from The Scorpions or one of your favorite metal bands.

And there’s bad shredding. As in when the societal “safety net” starts to weaken.

In California the latter seems to be happening. We live in a time of “good banks” and “bad banks” as our leaders search for a solution to the vortex we’ve entered.

Even the prominent characters are like something out of a Batman movie.

Dr. Doom (NYU economist Nouriel Roubini) tells us we’re early in the cycle.

The “Grave Dancer”, investor Sam Zell, buys California’s largest newspaper, the LA Times. The New York Times sells a huge stake to Mexican billionaire “Carlos Slim”. Making off with billions is Mr. Madoff.

The Treasury Department has been run by alumni of Goldman Sachs; guys who pocketed fistfuls of leveraged loot on their way to a regulatory perch in the public sector.

“Turd blossom” (Karl Rove) is no longer at the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. “Sabertooth” (Bush’s nickname for Congressman Barney Frank) has been putting together the TARP and “stimulus” package.

I’m not making this stuff up. It’s the stuff of a “Sin City” graphic novel.

Meanwhile, that safety net is fraying. Here in California the unemployment insurance program is on life support.

Today Marc Lifsher did a good piece in the L.A. Times on the disarray at the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, where backlogs and personnel problems are causing great turmoil:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-u … ?track=rss

It’s a great concern to disabled workers, many of whom depend on the unemployment system at some point after their injuries.

Stay tuned.

Julius Young
www.boxerlaw.com
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