Bailing out Porn.

If I were Larry Flynt, I'd be camping out on the Capitol's stairs.

You've gotta admire the audacity of these folks.  I mean, to stroll up to Capitol Hill in your flesh-financed Prius (see Joe Francis' take), rocking your Fuck This Congress T-Shirt, sporting an entourage of 18-year old sorority air-bags from north Texas with a hand outstretched seems just ludicrous.  

But, is it really any more ludicrous that a few businesses getting more money than the current dollar amount of the national debt?  Or any more ludicrous than car companies that, for years, and fucking DECADES, fought tooth and nail on environmental reform, energy efficiency and fuel efficiency getting more than ten times as much money as the annual GDP of Zimbabwe?  

WTF?

I say give the porn kings their cash--it doesn't matter that most people don't buy pornos anymore (what with the invention of free porn on the Internet, who needs a 90 minute, poorly constructed story that ultimately ends too far in the future, and too predictably), what matters is that the government is fair in its assessment and correction of the economy.  Is porn to big to fail?

You bet your latex-enclosed ass it is.

The Stigma of Renting.

As Congress continues to work with disgraced financial officers, it's easy to get lost in the jargon and lose interest.  But, as Barney Frank pointed out yesterday, there is an social undercurrent to this crisis that fueled the expansion of the housing bubble and is worth a quick note.

All segments of the financial industry and Congress are, in part, to blame for the housing crisis. However, the consumers that were either duped or lied to themselves felt an overwhelming pressure to get into a home that they owned.  Congressionally funded programs like HUD were setting ambitious goals for homeownership which contributed to the broad social migration into unaffordable homes.

In the past 6-8 years, renting has become a lifestyle of a second-class citizen.  In order to stimulate the economy and prevent the mistakes of the past, as Mr. Frank suggests, the new administration must invest in repairs to crumbling public rental units, and begin to change the public lens with which we all view homeownership in the United States.