Vic Socotra

03 October 2008

Pointing Backwards

Two of a Bazillion Frames in the Andy Warhol film "Empire"

“Exceeding Expectations” is the phrase the media is using to describe Governor Palin’s performance last night in the debate. That is what they said about us back at the Industrial College at Fort McNair, if we showed up on time, and at least looked at some of the recommended readings.

“Meeting expectations,” meant you weren’t late to class that often and demonstrated regular pulse and respiration.

I thought Senator Biden’s suit was a little dowdy, but his hair and make-up looked great.

Clearly, that was not going to be what was going to save the one showcase moment between the second bananas in the coming denouement to an election that in epic scope rivals Andy Warhol’s breakthrough film “Sleep.”

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You may remember it, if you were around. I have not seen it on DVD, but it was over five hours of long-shot footage of John Giorno, Warhol’s then-current lover, fast asleep.

It was the prelude to the magnificent film “Empire,” which consisted of a single view of the Empire State Building taken from early evening until nearly three in the morning. At a whopping 485 minutes, it is possible that no one, including the director and cameramen, ever has seen the whole thing.

The dramatic tension is mostly in the first three or four reels, when some lights come on. The last three are almost completely in the dark, so the parallel to the campaign is compelling. Warhol was enigmatic about his projects, which provided the mystique, and permitted the viewer to determine the intrinsic value.

I wish the same could be said about the election. Warhol exceeded expectations with his commercial art, sleeping men and erect skyscrapers. The Viuce Presidential debate exceeded expectations in that Smokin’ Joe=2 0did not patronize the Governor of Alaska, and she did not look as clueless as she had in some recent PhD oral exams on telelvision.

It was curious how both of them pronounced the name of the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Each said “Akmed-inijad,” as if he was related to the comic Akmed the Dead Terrorist. I know it is a hard name to pronounce. I have stumbled over it myself, but he was mayor of a big city and governor of a province before he was President and threatening to blow Israel off the map. I would think he qualifies as someone whose name you would keep straight.

I wondered if Smokin’ Joe was being polite, like the French Ambassador who received one of Andrew Jackson’s frontier diplomats. When the American picked up the finger bowl and drank from it, he did the same.

There was some discussion about pointing backwards from Governor Palin. I think she was smart to do that. John McCain has not been a lap-dog for this Administration, though it is convenient to tag him as being in synch with the sleep-walk to the economic abyss. Governor Palin wants us to look forward, and even gave a nod to Ronald Reagan’s “There you go again” riposte to Jimmy Carter when Smokin’ Joe hammered at what he calld the Bush-McCain economic policies.

I felt like I was in the eight reel of Empire. This mess is thoroughly bi-partisan. You can see Barney Frank and Maxine Waters praising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the looney lending to people who obviously could not pay their debts if you do a cursory search on YouTube.

It makes the posturing early this week that much more hypocritical.

But I have to point back to a shining moment in the third or forth reel of this epic. There was a 55-minute meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission held on April 28, 2004. The war was not going that badly at the time, the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House.

The big investment ba nks came down to Washington to ask for an urgent procedural change to what is known in those circles as “the net capital rule.”
The Big Five wanted looser requirements for cash reserves. Chairman William H. Donaldson polled the other four commissioners on how they felt.

The SEC is intended to be a bi-partisan board, and two Democrats were present and voted with the majority to make the change as requested. The new rule was published that summer in the Federal Register.

It was not that controversial at the time, and I hate to point backward, but the practical effect of the decision was to enable Bear-Stearns to raise its leverage ratio to 33-1.

That is, for each dollar on hand, the bank was able to loan thirty-three. The other big guys did pretty much the same thing. It must have happened when everything was dark in the last reels of the shamble to disaster.

The House is going to vote today on the big bail-out. I assume they are going to go along with it. There is plenty of new pork in the bill to make it more tasty for the bi-partisan majority it must have to pass.

It will meet expectations in the market, and we can all look forward.

A working majority of the people on the Hill cooperated to get us in this mess, and I regret that you and me are complicit in this as well. We voted for these people, you know. And I hate to say it, I can’t seem to help myself.

I am going to vote again.

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