Year: 2007

Who Hasn’t Been Tempted to Do This?

No Comments

It appears that NASA has lost nearly 100 million of taxpayer purchased equipment in the past decade.

It appears that there are few controls in place for about $35 billion of assets.

That being said, the story of the lost laptop is my favorite:

It cites one employee who excused himself (or herself) of losing a laptop worth $4,000 with the explanation that the machine had burned up in the atmosphere.

The lost equipment report included the following explanation: “This computer, although assigned to me, was being used on board the International Space Station. I was informed that it was tossed overboard to be burned up in the atmosphere when it failed.”

That sure as hell beats, “the dog ate my homework”.

You know, if I were in orbit, that’s what I’d do to a computer that was #$%%ing up badly. I’d watch it all the way down.

It’s Not Just Subprime Home Loans

No Comments

It appears that many of the companies that borrowed through the subprime market will take it on the chin.

The report shows that about $680bn of loans will mature between 2008 and 2011 compared with only $180bn of maturing high-yield bonds.

Mariarosa Verde, head of credit research at Fitch, said the loan market was “critical to the wellbeing of these companies”.

Many highly leveraged firms rely on their ability to roll over existing loan debt into new loans rather than repay it when it matures, which they often cannot do.

The basic calculus is this:

  • Longer term loans are far riskier to the lender. It ties up the capital for a longer period, and there is a greater risk that the interest fall below market rates.
  • Risk requires greater return, so long term bonds are more expensive
  • Companies that get junk bonds cannot afford the rates of longer term loans, so they get short term ones, and roll them over at the end of the term.
  • When these loans come due, they refinance.
  • If rates have increased significantly, they take it on the chin, bankruptcies and liquidation.
  • This increases the risk, and hence the interest rates, putting more companies at risk.

Greenspan’s policy of flooding the market with liquidity after the dotcom crash will have dire consequences in the next few years.

We Are Starting To See Empty Houses in High Rent Neighborhoods

No Comments

It appears that we are starting to see An epidemic of abandoned houses.

This story is set in Chandler, AZ, just outside of Phoenix, but this is not the only place where this is happening.

A significant portion of the recent Chandler complaints are from newer neighborhoods in southeastern parts of the city where homes once sold for $400,000 or more and values have dropped, Carr said. Buyers who divorce, lose a job or can’t afford rising adjustable-rate interest are finding they can’t sell their houses for what they owe on them, he said.

This dovetails nicely into the return of Hoovervilles (Favelas) that I wrote about earlier.

The new economy that was supposed to be unleashed by deregulation is an old economy, a very old one. One that ended on Black Tuesday in 1929.

Even worse, it will be years before we can make what we need, because our economy has been hollowed out.

Why the Lib Dems are Condemned to Irrelevance in UK Politics

No Comments

It appears that there is a bit of a problem in Devon, three councilors have left the party because another member does stripograms and phone sex as a livelihood.

They have left the party, and are now sitting as independents because, “We believe that our integrity and principles will be compromised if we stay.”

At the party level, it is reasonable to try to get rid of her because you believe that she will not win re-election or is a drag to the party, but if you are willing to leave the party over this, you are not serious about the party, and most likely, the party just isn’t that serious either.

Destroying the Army We Have?

No Comments

It appears that the US Army will fall significantly short of its recruiting goals this year.

The service missed its active-duty recruiting goal by 16 percent in June, the worst showing in two years. The shortfall was particularly worrisome to Army leaders because the summer, after students have graduated high school, typically is the best recruiting season.

Remember, that is with the Army relaxing standards, and allowing people with records, and sporting gang tats into the military.

As badly screwed as the military was after Viet Nam, this is going to be far, far worse.

Signs of the Coming Crash: Exotic Liquidity Instruments

No Comments

I came across a term that I had never heard before, Dark liquidity pools.

These pools are basically a private and unregulated system of equity and bond trading.

It allows people to execute large purchases and sales without any public knowledge.

An activist hedge fund, for instance, may not want to reveal that it is buying up large blocks of stock in a company it is about to attack, or a mutual fund might want to sell a large amount of stock without causing a downdraft that would hurt any shares it still holds.

In a less enlightened era, this might be called fraud or insider trading, but those quaint notions originating from the FDR era reforms have been set by the wayside as a result of “reforms” beginning in the late 1970s (Thanks Jimmy Carter), accelerating in the 1990s (thanks Bill Clinton), and regulations have been largely ignored in the 2009s.

What’s more, the uses of these instruments are exploding.

The hunger for anonymous block trading has caused the field to explode. There are about 40 active pools, double the number just last year. New pools and services to aggregate them are announced almost every month.

We should be concerned because it is yet another way for the insiders to make money off the information asymmetries in the market, and to further leverage their investments.

Much Like in 1929, theese will come back to haunt us. Without transparency, when reverses will set off a cascade of collapse, much in the way that they did on Black Tuesday, because the public prices will no longer accurately reflect asset values, and people will be trading blind.

Schedule Slips on B-787

No Comments

It looks like Boeing will be slipping the first flight of the 787 until September.

Boeing management is saying that, “But delivery of the first 787 to All Nippon Airways in May 2008 remains possible, (Boeing CEO Jim) McNerney says, even if the already compressed flight test schedule shortens to seven months.”

I discussed this possibility earlier (also here), and said that it was likely that there would be delays in deliveries.

It’s coming to light now because Boeing has a different culture from Aribus, which had similar problems with its A340, and as a result tends to be more upfront about such things.

The Kitty Grim Reaper

No Comments

It appears that a cat in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island brings death with its cuddles.

The cat, named Oscar, is normally standoffish, but will cuddle up to people in the last 4 hours or so before death.

Probably something to do with the cat sensing or smelling something that we can’t.

Then again it’s a cat, so maybe it just brings death along.

Thomas Graves, a feline expert and chief of small animal medicine at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, described Oscar’s actions as “such a cat thing to do”, but admitted: “Those things are hard to study. I think probably dogs and cats can sense things we can’t.”

Dr Teno concluded: “I don’t think this is a psychic cat. I think there’s probably a biochemical explanation.

More Death cats:




Not sure if the last one is a death cat, but if looks could kill…

Only the Jesuits Would Think of This

No Comments

It appears that the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)will be venturing into Second Life saving virtual souls from their virtual sins.

OK………

I got nothing here beyond the title.

I had a friend who wanted to carry the papal favor into battle in the SCA (Medieval combat), and he wrote the Vatican. He got back something like a 12 page letter full of questions from a Jesuit asking about the SCA. (His request was denied)

They are an eclectic bunch.

Tillman Coverup May Obscure a Murder

No Comments

While it has been clear for some time that Pat Tillman’s death resulted in an orgy of military ass covering, it now appears that there are uninvestigated evidence of foul play, so the friendly fire might not be so friendly.

It’s already clear that Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan, did not like Bush, and thought that Iraq was an illegal war, but here are the quick points of the article:

  • The doctors – whose names were blacked out – said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

  • In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.”

  • Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.

  • The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman’s death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn’t recall details of his actions.

  • No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene – no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.

The above General is being demoted, BTW.

This Is Not Funny, It’s Repulsive

No Comments

It appears that Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti, of Painesville, Ohio, is a power drunk jerk, which is all the more remarkable since a municipal court judge does not have much in the way of power.

In any case, ordered three men charged with soliciting sex to take turns dressing in a bright yellow chicken costume while carrying a sign that reads “No Chicken Ranch in Painesville.”

I’d call him a schmuck, but a schmuck has a head.

This might be a cute movie, or a funny Simpsons episode, but in real life it’s an example of abuse of power, and this is not the first time:

It’s not the first time Cicconetti has used barnyard animals in his sentences. He ordered a man who called a policeman a pig to stand next to a live pig in a pen and hold a sign that read “This Is Not a Police Officer.” A couple who stole a baby Jesus statue from a manger were sentenced to dress as Mary and Joseph and walk with a donkey.

I’m upset at the tone of the story too, that says we are all supposed to laugh about it.

Professional misconduct is nothing to laugh about.

News Flash, Stealth Ain’t Rocket Science

No Comments

There are reports that Japan is considering development of a stealth fighter of their own.

Truth be told, the information necessary for reduced radar signatures has been available to the general public, at least those who can speak Russian, for about 40 years now.

The “secrets” of stealth derived from a Russian physics paper that allowed one to analytically determine the radar cross section of surfaces.

That being said, this is not really about Japan developing a stealth fighter. It’s about Japan getting the F-22.

Export of the F-22 is forbidden by law, but Japan wants to buy some so they are starting this research, “in the hope it will spur the United States to review a ban on selling F-22 fighters”.

The “DC Madame” Case Casts a Wider Net.

No Comments

It appears now that a Navy Academy officer reportedly worked as an escort for Deborah Jean Palfrey.

Also, one of the numbers on the list is “that of an editor for the Army Times Publishing Co.”, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Sometimes you just want to pop up some popcorn, and watch what happens.

As to prostitution in general, I favor it being legal ane regulated, which would deal with most of the health issues, and rid the world of the lowest form of life on Earth, the pimp.

Bush Administration Politicized State Department Too

No Comments

This comes down to despising government and what it can do. As a result, the only reason to govern is for money and power, because you believe that no actual good can be done.

Thus we have Karl Rove and his bully boys arm twisting to get the State Department to engage in actions benefiting their political allies.

White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration’s top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a “general political briefing” at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The briefings, mostly run by Rove’s deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The documents show for the first time how the White House sought to ensure that even its appointees involved in foreign policy were kept attuned to the administration’s election goals. Such briefings occurred semi-regularly over the past six years for staffers dealing with domestic policy, White House officials have previously acknowledged.

The point is not that Republicans are universally corrupt, though these days it certainly seems so.

Rather it is that when one comes from a position that sees government as the source of problems, and never solutions, then corruption is closer, since there is no good that comes through government service.

House Votes to Ban Permanent Bases in Iraq

No Comments

Good news from the Gavel,
the House has passed a ban on permanent bases in Iraq.

Today, the House passed H.R. 2929, Banning Permanent U.S. Bases in Iraq. This bill states that it is the policy of the United States not to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing a permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq. It also states that it is the policy of the United States not to exercise U.S. control of the oil resources of Iraq. The measure bars the use of any funds provided by any law from being used to carry out any policy that contradicts these statements of policy.

This is significant in a number of ways:

  • Bush will threaten a veto, making it clear that he does wants permanent basis (though he’ll probably use the micro-management commander-in-chief excuse).
  • This veto is likely to be successfully overridden.
  • It’s a direct challenge to the “it’s not abut oil” lie.
  • Because it forbids expenditures, it’s is clearly in the purview of the congress, even in the view most hacktacular of pundits (OK, maybe not…they are pretty hacktacular.
  • It’s a marvelous club to use in the 2008 elections.