He’s alleged to have gotten some sweetheart loans from Countrywide Financial too, though he is denying this.
Month: June 2008
Iraq PM Says Status of Forces at Impasse
Considering the US Demands, double the number of bases, control of airspace, the right to detain Iraqi citizens, and the right to declare war on behalf of Iraq, I’m not surprised that even that most obsequious of puppets, Nouri al-Maliki, simply cannot stomach this.
Press Buying Into Republican Meme Again
The Republicans are saying that Barack Obama risks his squeaky clean image if he opts out of public financing, and the press is eating it up.
I call bull$#. John McCain is currently in felony violation of the law that he wrote, and so it’s clear that he cannot be trusted, and this is what the Obama campaign should be saying, albeit as background, to reporters.
Cuban Oil May Put Kibosh on Embargo
It looks like Cuban may be pumping over half a million barrels a day in the next few years, and this may change minds about the embargo.
There are a number of reasons, the first being that US oil companies will want to be in the game, the second is that will mean that there will be oil rigs in spill distance of the Florida coast, and the tourist industry there may not be so sanguine about, for example, a Brazilian firm drilling.
Ireland Rejects EU Treaty
They voted it down in a referendum.
There have been a couple of problems with the EU efforts to streamline how they operate:
- There appears to be an organizational insulate many senior career bureaucrats from “political interference”, which means insulating their decisions from democracy, which was seen as a negative by the Irish voters because it is a negative.
- The voters are looking at a 250+ page document, and they have no confidence that anyone can understand what it means.
If the EU comes back with a document where decision making rests in the hands of elected representatives, and one that is short enough to understand, they will likely get approval.
The US constitution is under 10 pages. There is no reason for a governing document to be that long.
Economics Update
Well, we now know that in May, foreclosure was up 48% over a year ago, which is why we are seeing stories about places where foreclosures are a majority of sales, and banks are becoming more flexible on prices on the property that they have assumed.
Increasingly, it looks like the bump in house sales was just a bump in sales of lender own properties.
If interest rates go up, this will get worse, and May data points to increased inflation. It exceeded expectations again.
That’s why Fed Governor Plosser is calling for a quick rate hike. He is worried about the dreaded stagflation.
Zimbabwe is Getting Worse
We have food aid intended for children seized and handed out at a Mugabe rally, which would be bad parody if it weren’t true.
We’ve also had MDC’s number two man, Secretary General Tendai Biti, arrested and charged with treason, which carries a death penalty, for writing a document describing a transition to MDC rule.
It appears that the judiciary is functioning on some level though, as a judge has directed the police to bring him to court tomorrow.
Mugabe is merrily escalating the violance, deploying more ‘war vetrans’ to the campaign, and telling them that they should be Mugabe says war vets ready for battle.
The UN secretary general is sending Haile Menkerios as a high ranking envoy to Zimbabwe in an attempt to resolve this issue, but I do not think that it will do any good.
Damn! Looks Like Hoyer May Have Found a Way to Sell Out on Telco Immunity
According to this report, Steny Hoyer, Jay Rockefeller, Christopher “Kit” Bond, and Roy Blunt have hammered something out.
Seriously. This is like social security. No compromise, no proposals.
This is not just a core Democratic value, it’s a core American value.
The telcos knew the law, and they broke it, and Bush and His Evil Minions&trade have a hard on about shielding them because they know that it can get them sent to jail.
Russert Dead of Heart Attack
Condolences to his family.
I have nothing appropriate to add at this time.
Who is Eligible for the Presidency, For the Morons Out There
By which I mean the denizens of Larry Johnson’s No Quarter (no link, just like Malkin).
The Constitution does not require that a President be born in the US. It requires that a President be a natural born citizen.
Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution contains the clause:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
If you look at the case law, a child born to an American parent where the paternity is established before the age of majority is a natural born citizen.
All the stupidity over the borders of an image of a Hawaiian birth certificate will not change that.
Here’s hoping that Johnson gets a clue over the next few months.
Moody’s to Rate Muni Bonds Fairly
The original business for monoliner insurers was to insure government bonds, which were rarely rated at AAA by the agencies, even though they were at least as safe as AAA corporate bonds, so they would buy insurance, because the interest rate savings would more than pay for the insurance.
I’ve always seen this as self dealing by Wall Street. The ratings agencies set about screwing the taxpayers for the benefit of other folks, whether they be the monoliners or the investors who would get more interest.
Because of the increases scrutiny of ratings agency, there has been pressure to change this, and now Moody’s has announced that it will adopt the same ratings for Munis as it uses for corporate bonds.
About bloody time.
Another Dem Pickup Likely
Virginia’s 11th Congressional district, where 7 term Republican Tom Davis is retiring.
MBIA Execs Looting Company
Or at least that’s what appears to be going on.
MBIA has raised a lot of capital lately, and it’s considering not putting the capital it just raised into its monoline insurance division, but it raised the capital for its insurance division.
As Yves Smith puts it:
So why is MBIA hoarding cash at the parent level? Well, executives (along with other corporate charges) are paid out of the parent company’s books. The subsidiaries can dividend cash up only if the are profitable OR get permission from their regulator.
Earth to SEC, we have a problem.
Obama Moving DNC Operations to Chicago
Ben Smith finds this unusual, but it’s not. The nominee always coordinates the DNC in this way, it’s just that Obama’s HQ is not in the DC area, which is good.
The culture of DC is toxic to good governance and Democrats.
Added Electoral Vote Predictor
If you scroll down, on the left side, you will see an Icon that predicts on current data the Presidential electoral vote count, Senate balance, and House Seats. It’s from electoral-vote.com, and looks like this:
It gives a nice picture of the state of the race.
I’m Voting Republican
This is very amusing.
U.S. Pot Getting More Potent
I dinna smoke it no more, too many pee tests, but it’s laughable when the Office of National Drug Control Policy claims that this means that the increase in potency makes it more dangerous. Of course, people who actually study THC say that there is no additional danger involved, and that the most dangerous thing about pot is the smoking, which like all smoking is bad for you.
It’s up from last year’s 8.75% THC to 9.6%.
Also (H/T Talkleft) we have studies indicating that THC may have anticancer properties and may repair damaged brain cells and help with anxiety and depression.
More potency is good news, except for the whole “binging on ice cream sammiches” thing.
Deck Chairs, Titanic
Lehman just sacked its CFO & COO.
I’m not going to go out on a limb, but they are starting to look a bit like what used to be Bear Stearns.
Dean Baker Asks
Do the people who write about the need to cut ‘entitlements’ really not know that the problem is the unique inefficiency of the U.S. health care system (per capita health care costs in other wealthy countries average half as much) or are they lying?
They are lying.
This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.
Arbitration as a Racket
Businessweek has as damning article on the arbitration industry:
But internal NAF documents and interviews with people familiar with the firm reveal a different reality. Behind closed doors, NAF sells itself to lenders as an effective tool for collecting debts. The point of these pitches is to persuade the companies to use the firm to resolve clashes over delinquent accounts. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) are among the large institutions that do so. A September, 2007, NAF PowerPoint presentation aimed at creditors and labeled “confidential” promises “marked increase in recovery rates over existing collection methods.” At times, NAF does this kind of marketing with the aid of law firms representing the very creditors it’s trying to sign up as clients.
The laws that allow for this need to be changed.
The arbitration system is corrupt to the core.