Year: 2008

Righteous Indignation

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Minstrel Boy has a righteous takedown of America’s torture policy that is, like everything else on the internet, better written than my stuff, titled, They Don’t Even Plagarize From the Best.

Of interest is that he has actually been through SERE anti-torture training, and he has a low opinion of them too:

It was sadistic bullshit run by sick f@cking bullies. It was some real REMF puke sons of bitches getting their jollies off by acting like a bunch of swaggering pieces of shit. It accomplished jack fucking sh@t. It didn’t train anybody in any kind of knowledge except that there were a lot of pissant low rent bastards who wore the same uniforms as us. F@ck SERE.

Highly recommended read.

McCain Money Man Funded Terrorists

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Not surprisingly, it was an executive at Chiquita, formerly United Fruit, which did so much to destabilize and de-democratize Latin America, who is involved, Carl H. Lindner Jr., whose firm admitted to knowingly supporting a terrorist organization:

Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”

Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.

According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”

Lindner has hosted a number of fund raisers for McCain, and is on his “Ohio Victory Team”.

Chiquita also did gun running to the AUC, which I suppose is one way to keep the banana plantation workers from organizing.

And, of course, Mr. Straight Talker also did favors for the guy regarding a land deal in Arizona in the 1990s.

Oh, and I almost forgot, his chief political advisor, Charlie Black, lobbied for both Chiquita and Columbia.

What a bloody witches brew we have here….but the press won’t cover it, because McCain is a straight talker and honest.

FDIC Warns Banks on Equity Lines of Credit and REOs

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It appears that the FDIC is taking exception some bank policies that are becoming more frequent, blanket suspension of home equity lines of credit (HELOC), and management of real estate owned (REO) properties.

In the first, the FDIC is saying that, “under Regulation Z [of the truth in lending laws], lenders can reduce an applicable credit limit only in the event of “significant decline” to the value of an individual property (a “material change” in the borrower’s financial condition — such as the loss of a job — qualifies as well),” so it must be handled on a case by case basis

In the second, the FDIC has issued instructions on proper management of REO properties, because, “some banks are choosing not to pay taxes on certain low-value REO properties in hard-hit neighborhoods, in the hopes that local municipalities will take the property to a tax sale rather than force the lender to carry the property on its books.”

Neither of these notes suggest that housing is heading for a recovery.

Prediction of Dollar “Explosive Breakout” (Downward)

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Given the poor fundamentals for the US dollar, trade and budget deficits, and the near certainty that the European Central Bank will bump rates to fight inflation, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is predicting s major and abrupt fall for the dollar.

The trading pattern, including a so-called double-bottom that tested lows, resembles the one before Feb. 26 that preceded the surge to $1.6019 per euro, analysts Tom Fitpatrick in New York and Shyam Devani in London wrote in the note today.

They are right, the pattern looks similar.

In fact, you see it over longer periods:

It should be noted that the Canadian dollar is at a 2 month high too, so I expect things to be down tomorrow, and I agree with their prediction of $1.69:€1.00 by September.

Hmmmmm….An Interesting Factoid about the Iran – US Conflict

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According to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius :

He said the Iranians had recently captured several dissident Iranian operatives who had been recruited by U.S. military officers inside Iraq and then sent into Iran. The Iranians, whose intelligence network inside Iraq is pervasive, surveilled the meeting, then followed the agents across the border and seized them.

So, the Iranians know that we are attempting to insert spies, saboteurs, and garden variety terrorists from Iraq, but they have the Iraqis so penetrated that they when we plan something before we do it.

Sounds an awful lot like Vietnam, where about 35% of the intelligence officers there were working for the North.

At some point, they will catch an American, and put him on TV.

Israel and Iran and an Air Strike

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Not gonna happen, because, as Tony Karon says, if they were seriously considering a strike at this time, they would not be telegraphing preparations.

Of course, he gets to quote an interview he did with Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls/the Notorious B.I.G, “On the streets, when someone is telling anyone who’ll listen that they’re going to kill you, you don’t have to lose any sleep over it. You’re not going to hear about beforehand when the real killer comes.”

I’m jealous.

Economics Update

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It’s a pretty slow day news wise, because everyone is waiting on the ECB’s decision on interest rates, and the latest unemployment numbers.

That being said, both Oil and gasoline hit new records, and the dollar is mixed.

Of more interest is, and some alarm, is that the the National Employment Report from Automatic Data Processing shows that 79,000 private sector jobs were lost in June, worse than the expected 40K jobs, and the worst number since 2002.

We also have factory orders rising, which sounds like good news, until you look closer and realize it’s all energy costs.

My First Reaction Was to Say, “Barack Obama Can Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass”

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Because when he talks about expanding Bush’s faith based initiative, it seems to me that he is giving the imprimatur of bipartisanship to what has been a disgraceful, and anti-constitutional, spoils system for Republican supporting churches.

It’s a little better when one looks into it though.

The organizations will not be allowed to discriminate, as they can under the Bush program, at least for federally funded work:

“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion,” Mr. Obama said. “Federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”

Needless to say, the Talibapitsts are freaking about this, because they think that the right to discriminate is what makes them “distinctive”.

I would note that Obama’s statement seems to allow discrimination, just not with public funds. I disagree with this.

Religious groups should held to the same standard as the secular organizations if they take public money.

Iranians Sick of Ahmadinejad Too

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While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most prominent Iranian leader, it’s also true that he actually has very little role in foreign policy.

It now appears that officials who are involved in Iranian foreign policy are telling him to STFU, with Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that, “Iranian officials must avoid making ‘provocative’ statements”, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying that the EU proposals on Uranium enrichment were “constructive”.

There are more adults in the various executive branches of Iran than there are in the US White House.

UBS Experience the Joys of Email

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Specifically, regulators in Massachusetts have obtained emails showing that UBS was pushing auction rate securities even as it believed that the market was in trouble.

They were aggressively selling these to individual consumers, even while their corporate clients were bailing, because they did not want to be left hold the bag.

It’s called, “putting lipstick on a pig”:

This e-mail was released as part of a civil suit brought against UBS by William Galvin, secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He says UBS misled investors by saying that auction-rate securities were as safe as cash in order to keep these arcane bonds off their own books. Among the other e-mails uncovered:

From Joel P. Aresco, chief risk officer for the Americas, Nov. 15: “What measures are being taken to reduce this exposure? [to auction rate securities”

From David Shulman, Dec. 11: “I am pushing every angle here to move product.”

I hope that someone is going to go to jail over this.

The Coming Mortgage Litigation Tsunami

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I believe that I’ve covered it before in passing, but this is, I believe, the first court case in which a court has canceled a loan for deceptive practices.

They plaintiffs thought that they had gotten a loan that was fixed for the first 5 years, but rates went up after the first year:

The Andrews filed the case seeking class action status; and in early 2007, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled that the bank had violated the Truth in Lending Act, or TILA, and that thousands of other Chevy Chase borrowers could join them as plaintiffs.

The judge transformed the case from a run-of-the-mill class action to a potential nightmare for the U.S. banking industry by also finding that the borrowers could force the bank to cancel, or rescind, their loans. That decision was stayed pending an appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is expected to rule any day.

The lawsuits filed by attorneys general in California, Florida, and Illinois use much the same theory.

It’s based on the 1968 Truth in Lending Act, which requires clear disclosures of terms, and allows for, “rescission, or termination, of a loan and the return of all interest and fees when a lender is found in violation.”

Needless to say, the banks are freaking, though I would ask why any ethical mortgage banker would have anything to fear.

This one’s going to the Supreme Court, where I expect them to rule in a 5-4 split, that only little people have to follow the law.