He’s been fighting this for months, but now he’ll sign it, because he’s afraid of an override.
Month: November 2008
Not Enough Bullets: Conrad Black Edition
Yes, everyone’s favorite self dealing corrupt former media magnate is seeking a pardon from George W. Bush.
He’s only been in stir since March 3…..I say send him to Terre Haute.
Because they Have Lost the People Who Worship Power
If you thought that the Republican Party’s poll numbers could not go any lower, you would be wrong, they can, and they have.
Favorable/Unfavorable has gone from 40/53 to 34/61.
The real change is that a month ago, Obama had not won the election, so people who cling to power were still with them.
There are always people who want to hang with the winning team, not matter how repugnant, and those rats have boarded the lifeboats.
Economics Update
Well, the obvious lede is the unemployment numbers, with the weekly new unemployment claims, which are a very noisy metric, and continuing claims, which are not, beinb positively ghastly.
Weekly numbers rose to 542,000, whichn is the highest since mid 1992, and well above the estimate of 502,000 and continuing unemployment claims hit 4,012,000, up 109,000, the highest level since 1982.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the index of leading economic indicators fell in October, as die the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s business activity index, to an 18 year low, and the Architecture Billings Index, an indicator of future construction activity, fell to an all time low.
Meanwhile in the bond market, so many people are fleeing to US treasuries that rates have been driven to historic, and near historic lows, while the costs of insuring private bonds has returned to the stratosphere.
For what it’s worth, we have some good news for a bond insurer, specifically Ambac, which has managed to negotiate a cancellation of $3.5 billion in insurance contracts, which is obviously a serious reduction in liabilities.
In energy, oil briefly fell under $50/bbl, and retail gasoline prices seem to be heading below $2/gallon.
In currency, the dollar is mixed.
Not Enough Bullets
This time, it’s longtime CEO and founder of South Financial Group, who moved up his retirement date to preserve an $18 million dollar severance:
Meanwhile, corporate governance analyst Hodgson said that Whittle’s deal — nominally a retirement, but treated as a severance — is all too typical of golden parachutes: “If you and I decided to retire, we might get what’s left of our 401(k). But for some reason the rules seem to be different for executives. They get severance even though they’re retiring. There’s no logic to it at all.”
These guys need to be tattooed with verses insulting Mohammad, and parachuted into a Taliban camp.
Court of Appeals Invalidated Business Process Patents
The decision reversing the 1998 case which allowed things like risk hedging strategies, the “U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in Washington, voted 9-3 that patents should be limited to ‘physical objects or substances’ and not be awarded to ‘abstractions’ like a bank’s risk-hedging strategy.”
Thiw will doubtless go to the Supreme Court, but this is fundamentally a good decision:
In its 132-page decision, the court said a patent can cover a “process that transforms a particular article to a specified different state or thing by applying a fundamental principle” but cannot cover the principle itself.
This is, I think, a response to the fact that the Supreme Court consistently reversing the court, and an understanding that they can no longer subscribe to the theory that everything should be patentable.
Minnesota Recount Update
The Strib has real time numbers here.
So far, Franken has gained 41 votes relative to Coleman, though both have lost total votes, with 279 votes being challenged by one side or the other, and 18% of the votes counted.
It will likely come down to the challenges, and it will be very close.
First Step to Fixing the Big 3 (Big 2½)
Fire upper management, and imprison them, because anyone who flies to a Congressional hearing on private jets at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars in order to plead poverty and beg for money is criminally stupid.
Stevens Concedes Race to Begich
And Round One of Waxman – Dingell Is Called for Waxman
As you may be aware, Henry Waxman is challenging John Dingell for chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and today, the Democratic Steering Committee went 25 to 22 for Waxman.
I think that there are a number of things that may trump Dingell’s seniority (He’s the longest serving Dem in Congress).
- He has been awful on global warming, because he’s the Big 3 (2½) auto makers’ bitch.
- The recognition that one of the reasons that the Big 3 (2½) auto makers are in such bad shape is that the Congress never took steps to move beyond the 1970s CAFE regulation, because Dingell is Big 3 (2½) auto makers’ bitch.
- There is also, I think, a desire for a bit of a shakeup, to better reflect what is now a relatively young Democratic caucus in Congress.
- The vote was a secret ballot, so there is little chance for retribution.
- Waxman’s ability to count votes is legendary, and the mere fact that he is challenging Dingell makes people wonder if he already has this sewn up. If so, they do not want to be on the losing side.
Me, I’m rooting for Waxman.
Boehner Wins Reelection as Minority Leader
Considering his performance this cycle, my conclusion is that he must have video of congresscritters having carnal knowledge with a goat.
Too Much Schoolhouse Rock in the 1970s
A very shallow explanation of bonds, done in the style of Schoolhouse Rock.
Election Updates
They finally finished the count, and McCain won Missouri.
Also, Ted Stevens concedes in the Alaska Senate race.
So now it’s down to the runoff in Georgia, and the recount in Michigan.
Headliner You Don’t Expect
Indian Navy Destroys Pirate Ship.
I find it odd on so many levels.
BTW, the proximate cause of the piracy is that because there is no government in Somalia, fishing fleets from various nations have strip mined the waters off the coast, leaving fisherman with no other means of support.
Krugman Pwn35* Amity Shlaes
Though I would have to say that Pwn463† of Ms. Shlaes is like shooting fish in a barrel:
When you hear claims that the New Deal made the depression worse, they often come directly or indirectly from the work of Amity Shlaes, whose misleading statistics have been widely disseminated on the right.
…
Krugman then goes to show that Shlaes is suggesting that actions based on Keynes theories failed to contain unemployment in the 1960s.
Yes, I was unaware of the historically high unemployment rates in the 1960s too.
Just go read… A few hundred words, and he destroys her.
*Owns.
†Ownage.
Henry Cohen of Production Radio Rentals, This One is For You
I’ve posted occasionally on the FCC’s rules process on white space, space between channels that is currently unused, or more accurately unallocated.
A number of people, including me, feel that if this bandwidth should be made available to unlicensed users, much in the same way that Wi-Fi is, because it promises better bandwidth, greater penetration, and better range.
The complicating factor is that it has been used, largely almost completely illegally by the wireless microphone industry.
As a result, I’ve attracted the attention of the above mentioned gentleman, who deals in said microphones, and we had a bit of discussion on the matter.
He mentioned that, “There are no handheld military RF communication devices that do what he [Telco Expert Harold Feld, who is a friend] claims.” (emphasis mine)
By what he claims, he means using “sense and avoid” to avoid interfering with other devices sharing the spectrum.
I find his argument complete bullsh^%, because I have personal knowledge of vehicle mounted communications systems in various stages of test and deployment, JTRS comes to mind because I had to package components when I worked a military contract, but he was insisting on “hand held.”
Well, Mr. Cohen, I have your handheld right here. It’s not just a handheld, they’ve got the system on a chip:
Researchers here are developing new, handheld, wireless radios fitted with a single processor chip that is embedded with algorithms for compressing as many as 5 simultaneous, stealthy conversations into the same time and frequency slot and then, on arrival, untangling them.
Equally importantly, while in transit messages and data packages are seemingly hopelessly mixed – to the point of sounding like static. The chance of intercepting even the digital gibberish is unlikely since foes or potential adversaries don’t have the receiver technology to sort through such high levels of interferences.
….
They also are working to discover what’s necessary and what’s not, allowing them to take computing short cuts and use new techniques to increase performance and efficiency. Such advances in signal processing have allowed researchers to reduce the amount of “overhead” or needless digital instruction in the protocol that is not voice traffic. “Protocol overhead” as part of the total message has decreased to 20% from 50%. That is a key strategy for freeing room for more transmissions. Phase three is to conclude in June with demonstration of up to a 20-radio network. By the end of 2010, researchers expect to have completed design and implementation of a full-waveform protocol and hardware for a brick-size radio.
It’s from the minds of DARPA, and it’s here, it’s real, and it’s on a chip, and here is a video: (4:24)
Not Enough Bullets, Even if It’s Just AIG to Deal With
Yep, an additional $3 million to fired executives at the failed insurance giant.
The they will give the Sirius Cybernetics Corp marketing division a run for their money in the, “first up against the wall when the revolution comes,” sweepstakes.
Obama’s Staff Picks Today
Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary.
Also, at the non cabinet level:
- David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President
- Lisa Brown, Staff Secretary
- Greg Craig, White House Counsel
- Chris Lu, Cabinet Secretary
1000 Words on the Big 2½
Economics Update
Well, it looks like the deflationary trap may be here, with the CPI down 1% last month, and core CPI falling 0.1%, the first drop since 1982.
The fact that housing starts and requests for building permits are falling off reinforces the idea that we are heading towards a major downturn.
Of course, it’s not just residential real estate. We are now seeing that mortgage backed securities for commercial properties are seeing increasing insurance costs and delinquencies.
In the larger world of the credit crunch, Calculated Risk’s Credit Crisis Indicators are largely unchanged.
BTW, S&P has downgraded monoliner bond insurer Ambac again.
In energy, oil fell again, on high inventory reports.
In currency, the dollar fell in response to continued news of a recession.
Let’s see…Anything else??? Oh…Yeah, the Dow closed below 8,000 for the first time in 5 years, 7,997.28.