Tell me that Bloomberg.com: the bubble is bottoming out.
Morgan Stanley real estate bought a stake in 11,000 properties at a 60% discount.
Month: January 2008
What Markos Says
Kos has a good history of Republican shenanigans in Michigan’s open primary, and suggests that Dems vote for Romney this time around, since the two Dem Choices are Hillary, and no choice.
Under Michigan’s system, you can vote a Republican primary choice for president, and vote Democratic down ticket, where you care about the alternatives on the ballot.
Thailand to Buy Gripen
The Thai cabinet has approved the purchase of 6 of the aircraft.
In the long run, I see the Gripen as being an export success, because it’s the smallest, lightest, and cheapest aircraft of its generation.
Bank of America to Buy Countrywide
Their press release is here.
Bank of America Corporation today announced a definitive agreement to purchase Countrywide Financial Corp. in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $4 billion.
Basically, BoA just bought Countrywide for some magic beans. It’s all funny money, unless, of course, if you are a shareholder, in which case, your stake in BoA is diminished.
Still a losing proposition, I think, particularly since the insolvent Countrywide will place downward pressure on the BoA stock price.
Australia Looking at Procuring Russian Fighters
I think that this is more gamesmanship than anything else. The Australian militaryreally want the F-22, but it has not been cleared for export, so so they claiming that they are evaluating the MiG-29 and the Su-35.
The Australians are not happy about having the buy the F-35 JSF, because it lacks the agility that they want, and because there are serious scheduling and budget issues.
The new defence minister has meanwhile warned that Canberra will not tolerate further delays or an increase in the cost of the F-35.
Additionally, Australia is making noises about canceling its $5.8 billion purchase of 24 F/A-18 E/F “Superhornets” as a part or reevaluating their defense needs.
My assessment is that they are playing chicken in an attempt to get the US Congress to change the law that prevents F-22 exports, though even with that hurdle taken care of, the development costs of an export version looks to be around $1 billion.
Sometimes, The Jokes Write Themselves
Anne Rice has endorsed Hillary Clinton.
There is a symmetry here between an author who made her name writing of the undead, and the Clinton endorsement that I find….amusing.
Deep Thoughts
Some people are like Slinkies. not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.
— Source unknown
Sir Edmond Hillary Dead
Sir Edmond Hillary,the first man, along with his Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first men on the summit of Everest (they always maintained that they went to the summit together) has died. He was 88.
He was one tough (and modest) Kiwi.
Read the article…He did a lot more than just climb Everest.
I did consider posting the article without the “Sir Edmond” part in the title, just to get a reaction, but it turns out that even I have limits on how tasteless I can be.
Word Up!
Paul Krugman has the definitive word on the whole “misty eyed Hillary” thing, “I think this thing does call for some serious psychological analysis, not of the candidate — who looked and sounded like a normal person — but of the pundits who have turned Hillary into the object of their obsession.“
This is Harsh
Well, it looks like the Republicans are starting to swift boat each other, as shown by this anti-Huckabee ad, put out by Victims Voice, a 527 with unknown funding.
The principal of the organization, one Keith Emis, claims that it was done by him and a friend, and that they only spent money on tape and gas, but I think that this is too well produced for that.
Of course, the whole story shows a startling lack of unawareness. The cheerleader who was raped was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, so there was a great hue and cry from the right wing that Wayne Dumond was railroaded because of who was governor at the time.
Mike Huckabee set him free, but he did so because a lot of people, many of them not in Arkansas pressured him, because it doesn’t matter if you are raped, if you are related to Bill Clinton.
New Ultra Capacitor Technology
I read a report about Lockheed-Martin signing a contract with a company called EEstore to get exclusive rights to their ultra-capacitor technology in defense and homeland security applications.
I’ve done a bit of looking around, there is a Wiki Page, and if it does 1/10 of what they say it does, it’s impressive tech.
The advantages of Capacitors over batteries are:
- Fast Charging
- Fast Discharging
- Basically never wear out.
The disadvantages are:
- They can lose their stored energy over time, though this can be a long time, as anyone who has been knocked on their ass after opening up a junkyard TV can attest. (This tech is supposed to have self-discharge rate of 0.1% per month)
- Low power density.
This technology looks very impressive:
These units use barium titanate coated with aluminum oxide and glass to achieve a level of capacitance claimed to be much higher than what is currently available in the market. The claimed energy density is 1.0 MJ/kg (existing commercial supercapacitors typically have an energy density of the order of 0.01 MJ/kg and a lithium ion battery has an energy density of 0.54–0.72 MJ/kg).
Maxwell technology has ultracapacitors on the market, and their website has peformance of 3.29 Wh/kg, or about .01MJ/KG.
More Tonkin
So, the military is now backing off on the charge that the Iranians were broadcasting threatening messages, and now, no mentions of boxes going over the sides.
John Doolittle (R-CA) To Retire
So, he’s retiring, with investigations into his ties to Abramoff, Wilkes (Randy “Duke” Cunningham), and his wife getting a cut of campaign contributions.
In Retrospect, a REALLY Bad Ad
Hat tip to Danger Room for finding this 1979 ad for Pakistan International Airlines:
This is really, really, really, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY creepy.
Quote of the Day: Will “Attytood” Bunch
This guy has serious chops.
Meanwhile, I see that John Kerry is endorsing Obama today. What would be even better would be if Obama could get Kerry, Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale to all endorse him at the same time…what a powerful image that would be!
ROTFLMAO!!!!
CBS News and Writers End Labor Dispute
Best of luck to the members of WGAon their new contract. It had been two½ years since the last contract expired.
My guess is that when the threatened picket line shut down the CBS debate, management started negotiating in good faith.
I, for one, would like to thank the WGA for stopping a debate moderated by Katie Couric, arguably the most useless big media name ever.
Murrow is spinning in his grave.
Interesting Theory on NH: Obama Lost Because of Angry With Bush Vote
Interesting analysis from Open Left, Chris Bowers notes that Obama led 38%-39% among those dissatisfied with Bush, but among the 2/3 of the voters angry with Bush, Clinton won 39%-34%.
Obama is in a bind with this. His campaign is deliberately a non-angry one, and he really can’t switch gears, because if he does, he becomes the “angry black man”, and that is not an electable place to be in the USA.
Morons Unclear on Trademark
The teenage entrepreneur screwing this up I can understand, but the reporter completely screwed the pooch on this one.
A kid makes jewelry called “change rocks”, and Obama has a concert series called “change rocks”.
The kid has no right to do anything with regard to trademark. Quoting the Wiki, “Trademark law is designed to fulfill the public policy objective of consumer protection, by preventing the public from being misled as to the origin or quality of a product or service.”
So if there is no potential consumer confusion, there is no harm, no foul.
Obama can’t sell jewelry, but he could do T-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. My guess is that his concern is about his Google ranking, or an attempt at free publicity.
Don’t care, and neither should Obama. Tough luck, kid.
Economics Update
More blood for Citicorp and Merril, it looks like they will be needing additional foreign money, as they are expected to report additional losses amounting to $25 billion. In addition, Capital One is expected to report about a billion dollars more in losses than was previously expected (what’s in your wallet).
And Moody’s is thinking about cutting Freddie Mac’s rating to A-, which could make raising capital much more difficult.
December retail sales figures sucked wet farts from dead pigeons. It was an increase, but less than inflation, which makes a decrease in real $.
Ben Bernanke has pretty much guaranteed a rate cut in a speech he gave today to the Women in Housing and Finance and Exchequer Club in Washington, D.C.
CIA Coverup Official Takes 5th
This should surprise no one.
I think that Jose Rodriguez is legitimately worried about being the fall guy in all of this.