Skin in the Game

1. Banks, mortgages, and Skin in the Game - One of the major causes of our current financial crisis was how banks were handling mortgages.  Banks used to lend a home buyer money, betting on the fact that they’d repay that money back to the bank.  Thanks to mortgage backed securities, banks could lend someone money, then sell off that mortgage as an investment to someone else, and thus… no longer had any true risk in that mortgage.  Banks became less of a lender and more as a salesman because all they wanted to do was get someone, ANYONE to take out a mortgage, then sell off that mortgage to an investor.  That inevitably led to
banks throwing mortgages at people who were more and more of a risk because, well… the bank had no “skin in the game.”  Now for the solution?  Force the banks to keep at least a portion of those mortgages so they do actually assume some risk and therefor won’t just throw money at people.  The portion that’s being suggested?  A whopping 5%.  (From NPR.org)

2. Iran Election Aftermath Continues - Anti-Ahmadinejad protesters met by pro-Ahmadinejad protesters.  (From Global Post)

3. This is why there are co-pilots - Captain of a Continental airlines flight dies… mid flight.
(From the Chicago Tribune)

4. Matt Drudge does not Garden - If you stopped by the Drudge Report yesterday, you might have noticed Matt Drudge taking a swipe at Michelle Obama harvesting some produce from the White House Garden with some school kids.  Drudge’s implication was that the First Lady somehow cheated to get full on heads of lettuce and peas in just 89 days.  Drudge even used the word “Miracle.”  I don’t have a green thumb but my lovely wife does, and we’ve already blown through our spinach and most of our lettuce she planted in early April.  Translation = The White House Garden is right on schedule.  Gawker’s John Cook called Drudge on his Bull Sh*t and the “Miracle Garden” post disappeared from Drudge later that day.  (From Gawker)

5. Extremely Cheap Beer - It’s summertime and we’re still as a nation slogging through a recession.  If it’s 90 degrees and sunny, you’re probably not going to reach for that micro-brewed amber ale you spent $7.99 on for the six pack.  If it’s ice cold and in a can, that’s a far superior beer for those types of days.  Here’s a run down of some of the great past and present cheap beer that’s still around.  Or better yet, just head to the Pabst site since they now own all of the great American Swill brands still left.
(From Salon.com)