Truth be told, I did not expect this action from Bush and His Evil Minions™ in the Department of the Interior.
Not only does it make things more difficult for big oil operating in the Arctic, it is also an acknowledgment of global warming.
Month: May 2008
More on the Inanity of US Inflation Statistics
Barry Ritholtz notes that in addition to all the various hedonic ajustments, the CPI says that the average US consumer spends only 7.66% of income on food, as opposed to the numbers of 10% for the UK, 15% for the rest of Europe, and 18% for Japan, which is patently absurd.
Ritholtz states that the 4 bottom quintiles spend closer to 20%, which sounds about right.
According to Wiki, the median family income in the US in 2006 was 48,201.00, so let’s round to 50K.
8% of 50K would be $4,000, 20% of 50K would be $10,000. Assuming 3 meals a day and a 4 menber family over 50 weeks, we get $0.95 and $2.38 per meal respectively. The former is living exclusively on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
The fact is that when things like snacks, fresh vegetables, etc. are factored in, the per food cost probably gets closer to $5.00/meal for total food cost for a family of 4.
Is Canada Upgrading Its Military, Or Is Stephen Harper Downgrading Its Social Safety Net?
Stephen Harper is is looking to double the Canadian Defense budget over the next 20 years.
While there are doubtless some needs driven by the wear and tear from operations in Afghanistan that need to be addressed, this proposal is far more ambitious, calling for extensive upgrades in weapons systems capabilities, most of which have very little correlation to any future needs, which would be in a peacekeeping/counterinsurgency scenario, where legacy systems with communications and networking upgrades could meet the needs of the conflict just as well as new equipment.
In all fairness though though in a counter insurgency scenario the roughly 10% increase in force size may make sense.
We already know that Mr. Harper is very much of the Western Province (Alberta) tradition, which by Canadian standards is rather wingnutty, so I wonder how much of this is driven by a real need to upgrade forces, since any foreseeable conflict would resemble Afghanistan, where the existing systems are more than adequate, and how much is an attempt to pre-allocate money so it won’t be available for things like the national health service and public education.
There is also a 3rd explanation, which is that if there is a common thread among right wing parties world wide, it is a fetish among the about the creation and maintenance of large military establishment, even when threats do not justify this.
It may also be a combination of all three.
A Good Article on Modern Strategic Camoflage
In the Washington Post, of all sources. Basically, they describe the techniques used by Syria to conceal their nuclear site*, and make it clear that various nations are becoming increasingly savvy about satellite reconnaissance, and how to conceal large items from this.
They used techniques such as burying power lines in trenches, embedding cooling towers in walls, etc.
It’s a good read.
*Yep, it appears that I was wrong when I ruled this out.
The JSF Proceeds Apace – Over Budget and Late
Cablevision Buys Newsday From Tribune
Cablevision outbid Rupert Mordoch on the deal, which was driven by the problems that Sam Zell had with the debt involved in picking up the media chain.
This is, I think, a good thing. Murdoch wanted Newsday as a financial backstop to the New York Post, which is in a real way his US flagship newspaper*, which would have been bad for its readers.
Newsday is a pretty good mid-market newspaper, and it would have been cannibalized by Murdoch.
*Yes, there is the Wall Street Journal, but it’s not in an philosophical sense a Murdoch paper, which is right wing tabloid.
Scrapping the Zumwalt
Gene Taylor (D-MS), hairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower subcommittee, is proposing scrap the Zumwalt class (DDG-1000), and replace it with an additional LPD and two resupply ships. The senior Republican on the subcommittee, Rosco “Neanderthal” Bartlett (R-MD), agrees.
I tend to agree. The Zumwalts are too large, too expensive, and too ambitious. They add nothing in overall capability, their weapons and sensor capability will not differ from their predecessors, so all their size gets is a larger store of weapons, at the cost of reduced coverage, since more smaller ships can cover different areas simultaneously.
They are also both pushing for more nuclear combatants, including a scheme to make the Arleigh Burke’s nuclear powered, which I’m rather dubious of.
Should the US Pull Out of the Green Zone
Sam Brannen makes some very compelling arguments for this.
I agree, particularly to his argument that this leads to an impression of permanency in terms of the US occupation.
It’s well worth reading.
Zimbabwe Runoff on July 31
The law calls for an election by May 24, but I guess that the ZANU-PF needs another two months of voter intimidation and murder so secure the election.
Sadr City Cease Fire Seems to be Fictional
At least in the immediate vicinity of the Ghetto wall set up by US forces:
This is the war over the wall. It is a daily battle of attrition waged over the large concrete barrier that the Americans have been building across Sadr City in the hope of establishing a safe zone in the southern tier of the Shiite enclave.
Failed policy, failed war, failed morality.
California Supreme Court Strikes Down Same Sex Marriage Ban
In a 4-3 ruling they ruled that the same sex marriage ban was unconstitutional.
Good for them.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Wants to Appease Nazis
At least that’s how Bush just described it in front of the Knesset in his speech, because Gates believes that negotiations with Iran are a good thing, because by engaging them, we can derive the leverage necessary to prevent things like nuclear weapons.
Countrywide Shareholder Lawsuit May Proceed
Gee, what makes you think that the people running the lender were more interested in lining their own pockets than running a business competently?*
Directors and officers of Countrywide Financial, the beleaguered mortgage lender, must answer shareholder accusations of insider trading and an overall failure to monitor lending practices that led to the company’s collapse, a federal judge in California has ruled.
Rejecting the arguments of Countrywide executives and directors that they were unaware of lax loan operations that led to ballooning defaults, Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer of Federal District Court in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday that she found confidential witness accounts in the shareholder complaint to be credible and that they suggested “a widespread company culture that encouraged employees to push mortgages through without regard to underwriting standards.”
Plaintiffs also identified “numerous red flags” that would have warned directors of increasingly risky loans made by Countrywide, according to the judge, who rejected a motion to dismiss the suit. “It defies reason, given the entirety of the allegations,” Judge Pfaelzer wrote, “that these committee members could be blind to widespread deviations from the underwriting policies and standards being committed by employees at all levels. At the same time, it does not appear that the committees took corrective action.”
Hope that these folks are left completely destitute. They should spend the rest of their lives in homeless shelters and gutters.
*The interesting thing about this is how many people are shocked by this. Capitalism 101 is that people act for their own benefit, but somehow the senior executives are exempt from all this?
Compromise May Be Near on Housing Plan
In order to get through the Senate, Chris Dodd (D-CT) has to get Dick Shelby (R-AL) agree on the bill, otherwise it’s filibuster city.
Dodd is now saying that they are close to a compromise on the bill.
Not clear on what is on the table, though Shelby appears to be getting more rigorous regulation of the GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac) as a part of the deal.
Repulsive, But This Time I’m Not Surprised
Yep, speaking in Israel, George W. Bush made Nazi references with regard to Barack Obama’s suggestion that we might want to talk to potential adversaries:
“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Bush said in remarks to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”
This is repulsive. You have this sort of accusation made in a public forum by the President of the United States. What’s more, this misuse of WWII and the Holocaust was made before the Knesset in Israel.
This is unbelievably, and unspeakably low, and speaks to the mind of a man who has no moral compass whatsoever.
What surprises me the most is that I’m not stunned by this. This is exactly what I have been expecting from him, and so I’m not surprised.
That being said, had he been drowned at birth, the world would be a far better place.
And in the Depart of Finally Getting a F$#@ing Clue
After something like 20 years of fraud and deception, someone in the US military has noticed that Achmad Chalabi is a con man who has played the Neocons establishment like a freaking violin.
Sources in Baghdad tell NBC News that as of this week American military and civilian officials have cut off all contact with controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, the former favorite of Washington’s once powerful neoconservatives.
What is it that Tom and Ray Magliozzi say? “Unencumbered by the thought process.”
Dude, read up on Bush and His Evil Minions™. You got nothing on them.*
*Truth be told, neither are intellectual slouches, having degrees in from MIT.
Economics Update
I guess for those of us in the US, the big 3 are employment, energy prices, and real estate. So, going in that order, we have:
nitial jobless claims rising to 371,000 last week, though as I always state, this is a noisy number, and you need a few weeks, or better yet months to extract real meaning, but, quoting the article, “The trend in claims is still upwards and we expect new highs over the next few months.”
Matt Trivisonno has the withholding tax numbers, you know the social security taxes that employers take out of wages below about $104K, and they are way down too.
Here are the pretty pictures:
Trending Down on a daily basis
And on a quarterly basis
And on a yearly basis.
As to why these numbers fell? Because no one is making anything in the US in April. Industrial production fell -0.7% in the US. The consensus estimate was -0.3% down, and March output was ajusted to +0.2%, down from +0.3%. Not good.
In energy, Crude fell below $122/bbl, which is good, but Gas hit a new record, $3.776 a gallon, the 8th record in 8 days.
In real estate, we have the inevitable article calling the light at the end of the tunnel, when it is more likely an oncoming train, in Orlando, Florids, one of the worst hit areas. Inventory fell slightly, and sales are up a bit (0.2%), and the rate of decline of existing home sales is a bit better.
Me, I’ll go with National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo monthly index, which fell again. The home builders are in the business.
I would also note that even with the Fed rate cuts, mortgage rates fall seem to be pretty stubborn about staying above the 6.0% line, so there won’t be any help for the market there.
Europe, on the other hand, appears to be doing fairly well, with GDP increasing 0.7% across the Euro Zone in the first quarter, led by a sizzling, for the developed world anyway, 1.5% increase for Germany.
This makes it far less likely that the ECB will cut rates. Actually it makes it more likely that the ECB will raise rates, and as a result, the US dollar is down today.
The Republicans Are Starting to Attack Each Other
It appears that the Loss in the special election has shaken them up something fierce:
House Republicans turned on themselves yesterday after a third straight loss of a GOP-held House seat in special elections this year left both parties contemplating widespread Democratic gains in November.
The Republicans have a real problem. When the Dems lost power in 1994, it was because of a few bounced checks in the house bank, not delivering on healthcare, and supporting NAFTA.
When you consider the war, child molestation (Foley), corruption, incompetence, etc. of the Republicans, it’s going to be a lot longer than 12 years for them.
Happy dance!!!!
Volker Calls for More Regulation
In testimony before Senator Charles Schumer’s (D-NY) Joint Economic Committee, Paul Volker called for more, and more effective regulation of the financial markets.
There is a back story to all of this. Volker was one of the Fed members who tried to keep depression era policies in place, with folks like Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan out maneuvering him on things like the emasculation of Glass Steagall by the Fed before the law was repealed.
All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia
Well, not me, but my daughter and wife.
They will be seeing the normal Philly sites, IIRC.
Natalie has a field trip to Philadelphia today, and since that meant that they had to be to school early, I was at work late, because I had to wait for Charlie’s bus to pick him up and take him to Chatsworth.
One of the benefits of his new school is that his bus trip is much shorter, so he gets almost an extra hour of sleep in the morning. If he were still going to Forbush, the bus would have picked him up at about 7:45, not 8:35.