The Class of 2010

This blog space has intended to infill the gaps in the formal curriculum that you have just completed.
Prior posts have dealt with ancillary housing options, yet more shelter strategies, dorms as models of "real world" possibilities , economic survival options, and the ultimate in "sharing" programs.
I posted a short list of supplemental courses that I called "the art of crap detection" within this post.

All of the above pointed out that the most important lessons you were learning were informal; living in groups, being carless, the economies of scale, and that having access is more important than owning.
If you insist on leaving the "ideal world" you just inhabited, where you literally had it all, then consider the following my commencement address.

The decision you are going to make re. where to live is more important than your career choice. Typically, media stories will list cities that are attractive to recent grads and list the criteria supporting their choices. This story by Richard Florida goes so far as to cite that which is "important" to 20 somethings; bars, restaurants, and entertainment. (You are worth no more than your ability to consume). What everyone of the chosen cities have in common is that they are already what they are going to be. As a migrant to any one of them you are chasing a dream already realized by those who preceded you. You hope to become part of that which already exists. "I am moving to NYC cuz that's where the hipsters live". What you can't know, because your teachers like Richard Florida haven't a clue, is that you are about to participate in the "next biggest sucker syndrome". The person who is about to leave for someplace where she has a chance of actually carving out a living for herself, needs someone to whom she can sub-lease her too expensive 350 sq ft apartment. Don't be that person.

Its is going to take some backbone to resist the kind of marketing crap proffered by the merchants of cool so lets use some common sense.

The criteria that I would suggest you apply when considering where to live include: What is the total tax burden of the place you might live? What is the cost of auto; insurance, registration, and taxation? What are the rules regarding house sharing? What is the speed of the local ISP provider? What are the average utility costs? What is the fiscal status of the town, state in which you might reside? What is the cost to have a dental filling? What is the ratio of others to whom you might be attracted? Are there viable and independent media outlets? What are police practices regarding victimless crimes? Applying the above criteria would automatically rule out California.

The places that do qualify are invariably going to be the subject of bad news. You are going to hear about the abandoned, the broke and broken places that are the casualties of the economic collapse. This is exactly where I suggest you begin your quest. Only when a place is degraded enough does it become possible to have an opportunity for real growth. Consider that Georgetown, D.C., Harlem, NYC, The Mission, S.F., SoBe, and now the Design District in Miami, are examples of what were once neglected slums. Their reconstruction afforded their pioneers the opportunity for employment, new think, and identity. Now those very people couldn't afford to live in any one of these neighborhoods should they chose to move there today.

In a world where one can literally buy anything from anywhere and have it delivered, where the newest ideas are instantly available on the web, where affinity networks thrive, the pressure to be within the hip cores is unimportant.

The myth that there are "creative communities" belies the fact that the most significant wellsprings of art are often at a remove, giving the artist the space they need to create their own identities. Think Morgan Freeman, Clarksburg Ms., Dennis Hopper, Wilmington N.C., the crowd at Black Mountain, N.C. or Georgia O'Keeffe in Abiquiu, N.M.

More important than any of the shibboleths that are so indicative of mob think, absorb the most important principle you weren't taught during your college days, buy low! This is just as true in real estate as it is an adage in the stock market.

When a place has become cheap enough that you, or more importantly a group, can pool resources and actually gain a foothold, then you have a real opportunity. Exploit the social network you have developed, form a gang, and move somewhere. The wants and needs of that place and the opportunities will sort themselves out. This is exactly what happened in Hardwick Vt.

What a fabulous example of the success of people who went their own way. Other food oriented activities are located through Balle.

Get busy. There has rarely been more opportunity.

Never Again

I don't want to see this picture ever again. Not this one, or any like it. As we in America inch ever closer to the maelstrom that has already destabilized many world capitals we have to insure that our children are safe from the excesses of "crowd control". As the truth about the damage that has been done to the economy that our children inherit becomes clearer to them, I full well expect that their scattered and relatively quiet reactions are going to bloom into full scale uprisings.

What is now confined to college campuses, where tuition increases and class closing seem to be the issues of the day, is going to migrate as more and more graduates carry debt and no job prospects into their future. Their plight will move off the cartoon pages and onto the front pages. And we, their parents and teachers, and friends, are going to ask them to do the heavy political action.

I have never understood the psychology of those who are given the guns and bayonets when they turn on their own. Simply following orders doesn't seem to do it. And I don't believe there is a great ideological divide between kids in uniforms and their brothers and sisters on the street. Yet it happens over and over. Kids are asked to pummel and shoot each other. In the name of law and order.

I think we have time to get in front of this curve. Every one of those kids in uniform has a parent, a guardian, a relative, a friend who knows them well enough to broach the subject. Every person who knows someone on the force, in the guard, or full time enlisted, ought to begin a campaign to sensitize them to the fact that they are not the handmaidens of the oligarchy. No one joined to protect the vested interests of the bankers against the citizenry. This is not an issue that will break down on party lines. People who are suffering at the hands of this regime ought to have the right to protest against it. They have the right to demand and effect change. And those sworn to protect and defend them must respect that solemn oath.

What to do, What to do?

anonymous asks; what to do, what to do?

An excerpt from a recent post of Les Leopold:
The ultimate insanity of our current moment is that the richest investors and the largest bankers in the world just crashed our system, got bailed out by taxpayers, grew even larger, and now are back to earning record profits and bonuses. They caused the biggest jobs crisis since the Great Depression and drove the entire global economy into a ditch–and they could do it again any minute. And now they’re telling us to tighten our belts and act more responsibly? from:

Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.


This from the NYT:
“This bailout wasn’t done to help the Greeks; it was done to help the French and German banks,” said Niall Ferguson, an economic historian at Harvard. “They’ve poured some water on the fire, but the fire has not gone out.”

"How to learn nothing from crisis" is a must read article by Doug Henwood

Hero watch: Al Gore just added a forth estate to his collection, a 9 million dollar ocean view estate in Montecito Ca.

The above are just some of the latest in the continuing saga that is the documentation of our current crisis that spurs cries of; "what to do, what to do?".

What I am going to suggest we all do is get smarter. We have to understand how some of the fundamentals work so that we can either exploit them to our personal advantage or demand that they be reformed.

We have to learn to follow the money. When you read that the IMF is putting up a trillion euros to support the EU you have to understand that 25% of those monies are your dollars. Once again the beneficiary of your generosity is not the people, but the banks who hold the notes on the paper that blew up.

We have to know what really drives the markets and how to play them. The Fed is handing the banks profits, leveraged on our money. The "carry trade" is the trade that banks can employ that has them borrow our money at 3/4% (today's rate) and then, in a no risk trade, buy a 30 year treasury that yields 4.23 on 95% leverage.
Why would they lend to you and me and tie their money up when they can reverse this trade on a second's notice. Hedge funds don't get quite the same deal, but close.

Why does this matter to you and me? The most obvious answer is that in order to generate bank profits and make them whole again, we are expanding our debt. Second, and trickier, is those same hedge funds that brought us the last disaster, are leveraging into all manner of asset classes with cheap money. Thus the stock market, gold, oil, wheat markets, rise. Ride the pony if you dare. Here is the key proviso. When the Fed announces its first rate change, of policy, or worse an actual rate change, (the beginning of unwinding the carry trade) those of us holding any security must sell, that second. It is going to be a race to the door and it will precipitate the next crash. For a nation of people whose response to the last crash was not to open their quarterly financial reports this is asking a lot. You might want to get in front of the curve and be in cash, I-Bonds, TIPS, or a laddered portfolio of short term bonds.

For those who don't think they invest, and live within the confines of their cash flow, they must learn to recognize the impacts of a public policy that may harm them. Arizonians just voted for an increase in their sales tax. People in Maine are being asked to do the same. Here in Maine it is couched within a bill that reduces income taxes and is thus argued as neutral. Wrong! A sales tax, and God help us a VAT tax is regressive. Even the average citizen can shelter or delay some tax consequences on their income. 401's are not as sophisticated as the tax avoidance schemes of the rich but they help. But there is no escaping a sales tax. It is regressive. We are being asked to shoulder the burden of debt relief, not those who profited from the debt creation. This issue is high on the agenda of Europeans who have surfaced the fact that the rich are not paying taxes, and they are demanding justice. It is what they are demonstrating about.

All of the markets are indicating there is no risk of inflation. Why would you invest money in a 30 year treasury at 4+% if interest rates were going to rise? The principle on that investment will disappear. Trust the markets? Skip three paragraphs.

If we do enter an era of inflation, then you are going to have to learn an entire new skill set. An early trial balloon was sent up in California with the printing of scrip as a cash substitute and it didn't work. It did work in Argentina. Of course they were smarter about how they designed the system and paid a premium to holders of their funny money. Argentina is but one example of how a citizenry acted to protect itself. Those with money moved it off shore and into other nations currency. The same is happening in Europe today. The flow of euros to dollars is one of the factors keeping our interest rates low. (Fear that the Chinese will devalue the Renminbi keeps it from becoming an international reserve currency).

Another survival skill is the ability to index. Persons holding or dealing in any commodity are creating indexes to hedge the value of their commodity against devaluations. Iron ore futures are just the latest. When Argentines demanded to get paid daily for their labor and then exchanged their wages into another currency or bought a commodity they needed with that money, they were effectively hedging the costs of those commodities. No one wants to hold anything being devalued.

The lesson to learn is not to enter into long term contracts that fix your remuneration without effective, unconditional COLA adjustments built in. And you must demand independent third party regulators to determine the actual rate of inflation, be you a Social Security beneficiary, teacher, cop, WalMart employee, or seemingly secure IT worker.

It may be time to consider tax boycotts. Counties are considering boycotting state revenues, while real estate tax boycotts are spreading. The key to any such activity is to appreciate the need for solidarity. When it finally becomes clear that the persons getting shafted by this kleptocracy are us, then we may find we have more in common with the disenfranchised than we could imagine. When showdowninamerica.org gets their act together to identify the bankers, and protest their actions, it is not enough for us to sit in front of the TV and murmur or write a check. If we are really concerned about what to do we have to begin to join those coalitions we can tolerate and actually get in line.

Learn a new language set. Come to terms with "walkaway, bankrupt, boycott, self interest, tax avoidance, yuan".

"Yes Magazine" has been promoting a set of alternative behaviors. Peruse their splash page and determine where and how you might find ways to act to resolve this morass.

Bill Moyers Redux

Bill Moyer's final broadcast has aired. The complete transcript of that show and the blog for future reference is here. I excerpted his farewell editorial from that broadcast:


BILL MOYERS: "You've no doubt figured out my bias by now. I've hardly kept it a secret. In this regard, I take my cue from the late Edward R. Murrow, the Moses of broadcast news.

Ed Murrow told his generation of journalists bias is okay as long as you don't try to hide it. So here, one more time, is mine: plutocracy and democracy don't mix. Plutocracy, the rule of the rich, political power controlled by the wealthy.

Plutocracy is not an American word but it's become an American phenomenon. Back in the fall of 2005, the Wall Street giant Citigroup even coined a variation on it, plutonomy, an economic system where the privileged few make sure the rich get richer with government on their side. By the next spring, Citigroup decided the time had come to publicly "bang the drum on plutonomy."

And bang they did, with an "equity strategy" for their investors, entitled, "Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer." Here are some excerpts:

"Asset booms, a rising profit share and favorable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper...[and] take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years..."

"...the top 10%, particularly the top 1% of the US-- the plutonomists in our parlance-- have benefited disproportionately from the recent productivity surge in the US...[and] from globalization and the productivity boom, at the relative expense of labor."

"...[and they] are likely to get even wealthier in the coming years. [Because] the dynamics of plutonomy are still intact."

And so they were, before the great collapse of 2008. And so they are, today, after the fall. While millions of people have lost their jobs, their homes, and their savings, the plutonomists are doing just fine. In some cases, even better, thanks to our bailout of the big banks which meant record profits and record bonuses for Wall Street.

Now why is this? Because over the past 30 years the plutocrats, or plutonomists — choose your poison — have used their vastly increased wealth to capture the flag and assure the government does their bidding. Remember that Citigroup reference to "market-friendly governments" on their side? It hasn't mattered which party has been in power — government has done Wall Street's bidding.

Don't blame the lobbyists, by the way; they are simply the mules of politics, delivering the drug of choice to a political class addicted to cash — what polite circles call "campaign contributions" and Tony Soprano would call "protection."

This marriage of money and politics has produced an America of gross inequality at the top and low social mobility at the bottom, with little but anxiety and dread in between, as middle class Americans feel the ground falling out from under their feet. According to a study from the Pew Research Center last month, nine out of ten Americans give our national economy a negative rating. Eight out of ten report difficulty finding jobs in their communities, and seven out of ten say they experienced job-related or financial problems over the past year.

So it is that like those populists of that earlier era, millions of Americans have awakened to a sobering reality: they live in a plutocracy, where they are disposable. Then, the remedy was a popular insurgency that ignited the spark of democracy.

Now we have come to another parting of the ways, and once again the fate and character of our country are up for grabs.

So along with Jim Hightower and Iowa's concerned citizens, and many of you, I am biased: democracy only works when we claim it as our own. "

I would add that as we watch Greece implode and their citizens' reaction to being asked to suffer the burden, and as this process spreads to the rest of Europe, you take the time to place Moyer's words in context and realize it is but a matter of time until such policies are implemented here.

Two Views

Robert Irwin, the west coast artist most famous for his designs for the Central Garden at the Getty, said in an interview (Robert Irwin, "The State of the Real, Part 1," conversation with Jan Butterfield, Arts 46, no. 10 (June 1972), p. 48.) that he felt as if he was straddling a mountain; one leg placed him in "now time", the other in "real time." An example of what that meant to Irwin was the controversy that exploded when he "finished" the build out of the garden in 1997 and it was opened to the public. The public howled at what appeared to be the absence of plants, the lack of green, the barrenness of the landscape in "now time". Irwin had allowed for the garden to grow, to fill in, in the fullness of "real time", and now of course it is appreciated as one of the great gardens of the world.

We are burdened by two great calamities occurring in tandem. The links between the environmental and economic crisis are obvious when we have a "now time" event like the gulf oil spill threatening the shore line, and what are surely going to be the economic consequences of slowing down off-shore drilling.

What hinders resolution of either of the "real time" crisis, the profound problems of the environment or the world's economy, is the fact that the problems are even harder to imagine then Irwin's garden. It is hard for the average citizen to imagine the consequences of his/her acts. Even harder is imagining how invisible co2 emissions are warming the planet. The images that reinforce an "Inconvenient Truth" are either too removed; impacts are 50-100 years off, too remote; Greenland, or too special; polar bears, to have any profound impact on the way we live.

There is the attendant problem of denial when the implications are that one must change his or her behavior, exacerbated by "deniers" who supply an alternative reality. I learned not to jump to any quick conclusions about who those deniers might be. When I moved to Maine on a grant to work within the University of Southern Maine, I was asked from time to time to speak to groups of students. In every case I was forewarned NOT to be the bearer of bad news. Their faculty felt that the students couldn't take a nightmare scenario of environmental change.

We are learning that the effects of the economic crisis are more immediate. As troubling as the nightly "now time" news is, limited though it may be, a daily dose of evidence of job losses, foreclosures, and the failure of sovereign states, doesn't seem to have the impact on personal behavior that one might imagine. I believe that the same conspiracy of silence prevails among the chattering classes who fear that if the citizenry were aware of the depth of the "real time" problem, they would amplify the problem by say, saving, or scaling back their consumption. Their protest and rejection of the current regimes that brought them the end, if indeed it is the end, would be louder and uncontrollable. An example of a news organization at least trying to inform its public is evidenced by the BBC airing a story that all three of the parties running in the current election are underestimating how they would achieve fiscal responsibility by a factor of at least three. That is too say that each party's proposals to cut expenses and tax to raise revenues misses the mark by two thirds. Their burden of debt is not being addressed. The British will not have to face their real problems, yet.

If you are willing to dig a little deeper on matters of debt, toxic assets, and exposure you will find The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that global bank losses from the financial crisis will total $2.28 trillion, in 2010, a drop of $533 billion from an estimate made last October.


As this plays out on the world stage the NYT blog Economix asks if Europe can save itself? (answer no). By now you can see the similarities to those eco-issues that seem of another place, another time. They do not effect us.

And if we can't absorb the scale and meaning of the current crisis what of the potential of the next real crisis. This is even harder to imagine as the masters of the universe let us know in their congressional testimony. Included in that mind numbing exercise was a statement by one master that only the hedge fund guys know how it works, the "buy what the rating agencies endorse players" won't know. FYI that includes pension funds, trusts, endowments, states, the institutions we depend on to secure our lives.

An even larger example of what we can't get our heads around is the following: The WorldBank calculates that the world's GNP is roughly 60+ trillion dollars.

Now consider that the Bank for International Settlement, that keeps track of these things, calculates that the OTC Derivatives Market "Notional amounts of all types of OTC contracts rebounded somewhat to stand at $605 trillion at the end of June 2009, "

The value of these derivatives are ten times the world economy on any given day and they are not regulated. The potential for the next blow up is enormous. But I can't see it, I can't touch it, I still have a job, my house is still here, the cars run, the planes fly. Why worry? The nightly news reports the markets are up, consumer confidence is raising, home prices are stabilizing.

Sen. Alan Simpson got to the issue last night as he spoke about the new commission he co-chairs to deal with our national debt crisis:
"If we don't solve this problem, its not like we won't be here. We'll still be here. Its just that everything we know and love won't."

The Great Divide

You can go home again. It just won't be the same. So it was discovered as we roamed our old neighborhood, the now "notorious" upper west side of Manhattan. In the day the neighborhood's notoriety came from being sketchy, slummy, and home to a disproportionate number of half-way houses. Columbia hadn't expanded beyond its gates and classic prewar 6 room apartments were divided and sub-divided into "affordable" housing for smaller families.

Notorious now for being described as a bastion of knee jerk liberalism by jerky journalists looking for an easy way to malign the city, the facts on the street are far more complex and interesting. Carrie and I chose Columbus Ave. for a northward stroll from 79th street. The avenue contains all of the trendy and smart shops and restaurants indicative of gentrification, with a particular emphasis on child related toys, clothes, and services. The numbered streets contain the mix of tenants that have been there forever with new families gaining a foothold. As we gazed further up the avenue it was shocking to see new towers standing in what had been the worst of the old hood. The store fronts of this project starting at 97th street contain a block long Whole Foods.







If you turn west on 100th street you enter the great divide. The block contains the 24th police precinct, a library, health center, church playground, and social service center. On the corner of Amsterdam Ave. is a new see thru condo project (apartments start at 1.5 million).









Behind the precinct, to the north, stands the Fredrick Douglass housing project. The original portion of the complex consists of 17 buildings — 5, 9, 12, 17, 18, and 20-stories tall — completed on May 31, 1958 on a 21.76-acre (88,100 m2) site. The development includes 2,054 apartments housing some 4,588 residents. The Frederick Douglass Addition, completed on June 30, 1965, is a 16-story building with 306 residents on .55-acre (2,200 m2) on Amsterdam Avenue between West 102nd and West 103rd Streets.[1]




I don't think there is anyplace where the economic conditions change as fast as they do in NYC. Standing in the middle of this class divide two officers in plain clothes from the 24th are shooting the breeze on the ramp leading into the precinct house. As we approach them with the intent of having one or two questions asked and answered, Dave starts profiling us to his friend. He's funny and clever. He tags us as: "coulda been rich but gave it up for causes, getting along well together, been married forever, probably once lived here and want to find out what's up". All of this is conveyed with a big warm smile, cracking up his friend, a community liaison officer named Phil. I am speechless, a rare condition. "Am I right, Am I right? Gottcha didn't I? And you are way left, liberal, well Ok, not too far left but left right?" I'm looking for pins or some other clues. We are both wearing slacks and light sweaters. "Me I'm in the center. Don't vote. Gave up on them. They're all crooks."

"Hi, I'm Will and this is Carrie, and we did want to get a scope of what has happened and figured you could name it. But what's with this won't vote thing?"

"So you voted, and now you are happy with Obama? Let me guess, Not so." I just got there sooner than you did."

A very special NY minute turns into over an hour of what's happened in the neighborhood, the city, the country. We meet the morning shift as they arrive for work Dave hauls them over to make a point or emphasize one of his. These guys, (the only woman we meet is in fact the captain of the precinct and she can't stay) are sharp, tough, and getting it done (the one murder in the precinct has them all crazy with why. There used to 38 a year on average). Suddenly there is a subject shift. Dave points down to Carrie's sneakers and asks her what she paid for them? Before she can answer he asks me and points down to his own year old no name tennis shoes. He turns us around to point out the woman walking down the street and sotto voce' suggests that her shoes cost hundreds. The small group mumbles their affirmations. We are in the shit now and Will rises to it.


I'll spare you the obvious opening salvos of class war and get to the quick of it. "Once again you guys have missed the target. You are going to lay the blame for the deterioration of this country on a poor black woman's back. That might play in Iowa, but here every day you have visible reminders of who's zoomin who and I don't see any perp walks. One, One of those bankers not 2 miles from here rips off more of your money than every so-called welfare queen in these projects, combined, and you don't raise your voice or cry for justice." Eddie joins the fray: "We have to enter the project for an investigation, enter one of their apartments, there it is, 47 inch TV, cell phone, boy friend with a beemer. Don't tell me they aren't ripping off the system."

"Ok Eddie, lets add it up. Let's take every one of the 5000 residents of these projects, give them all you said, what's it add up to? How about 100 thousand per person. That's 500 million dollars. One guy, one, former Lehman boss Dick Fuld, was paid $485m in salary, bonuses and options between 2000 and 2007. And he destroyed the company. And we are bailing him and his pals out. "

"Don't give me this "but, and" argument, what are you going to do to solve this problem?"

"Here's the problem. If these two parts of the city get any further apart, if the rich keep getting richer leaving these people in despair, and they act out, where are you going to be. History tells me that if the rich man tells you to suppress the poor you're gonna do it. You can't imagine that you have more in common with that poor woman then the guy in Wall Street. You have bought the myth that these poor, lazy, shiftless people are tearing you down. But let me point out the fact that millions of new poor, who thought they had it made, have joined their ranks this time, and they look like you. Are you going to put them down?"

I think we made a tiny inroad. As we left they were less a chorus and more a discussion.

It's Your Money

We took a long weekend in NYC, (before the no-name storm), to eat some Chinese, see the Tim Burton show at the Modern, look for the breaking crocus buds in the park, and catch up with old friends. Dinner at their studio in the way east fifties included some folks who worked at the UN and were preparing for International Woman's Day. A lively conversation ensued in which the definitions of, and objectives of "development" were discussed. It was generally agreed that what we all required was a value shift. That simply having women join the elite crowd of those doing business as usual wasn't acceptable. At this table, as I am sure tables around the world, "Unacceptable" practices focused on the bonuses being distributed to the masters of the financial universe. The scale of this transfer of wealth was incomprehensible. From the article: "How about this. Currently, according to news reports, just 23 top investment banks, hedge funds and other Wall Street firms will get $140 billion in bonuses this year, a sum almost exactly equal to the estimated $142 billion in budget shortfalls for all 50 states in fiscal 2010. Or to put this another way, approximately 300,000 lucky rascals who fiddle with other people’s money on Wall Street are getting bonuses roughly equal to what 300 million Americans will lose for countless needed state services, or pay in the form of higher state taxes to cover state shortfalls. And these bonuses, please remember, are above regular salaries at these 23 Wall Street firms."

To add an international note to the scale of the taking consider the news that the cost to repair Haiti has come in at 11.5 billion.

We are all schooled in the excessive behavior of the wealthy and powerful. From David down we have read of the great, falling for the pretty young thing, building ridiculous palaces, squandering their nation's capital, venturing off on land grabs. Nothing seems to compare with the current excess, and the hubris that accompanies it, of those who mismanage the world's collective wealth, and get paid for their mistakes. They may have destroyed the world as we know it.

Dinner was concluded on notes of bafflement. The best guess as to how the world was going to solve this economic crisis was that we would inflate our way out of it. But no one could imagine what was in the minds of the men who took so much off the table.

We needed to walk off dinner. We were staying on the upper west side and we chose to walk cross town to catch an uptown train. We didn't map our route. It was governed by the pattern of red lights. Walk west, hit a light, turn north, hit another light, walk west again. In the course of this chicane we passed The NY Palace Hotel, The University Club, The Peninsula Hotel, and The Metropolitan Club. All haunts of the super rich. I paused outside the iron gates. "What was consistent to all of these places," I asked. And there they were. Double parked up and down the block: The limos, the town cars, the black pariahs. In a world in which any smart rap singer can acquire the house on the hill, drink the DP, get tickets to a Yankee's game, it is obvious that the last vestige of privilege is the ability to park where you want. This is the most exclusive club as civic employees have learned. No more will they be allowed to abuse their "official business", right to park placards, they toss on their dash-boards. Nothing pisses off the public more than to know parking rights are being abused. Seinfeld learned the hard way that wealth and fame just don't cut it when it comes to the ultimate perk. He was called out when his driver abused the privilege.


So that's it? That's what the hundreds of millions a year buys? That's all there is?

Not quite. The next morning our stroll to the station was interrupted by the screaming sirens of not one, but tens of cop cars preceding and following the blacked out GMC. We couldn't see in but the smart money was on Hillary. Clearly the ultimate perk isn't having the place to park, It's the motorcade.The ability to avoid red lights, stop traffic, and have the path cleared for you on your race to the next fundraiser.