H/t Brad DeLong for the pic:
No crisis in Social Security, though there is one in healthcare.
Year: 2008
Newest Grant Theft Auto Slams Right Wing
Well, now we know why younger Americans are trending against the Republicans.
Cases in point in GTA IV:
- A hack news organization, Weasel News…Perhaps representing some other mammal named “fair and balanced” news channel?
- Bridges closed to the city center (Manhattan) for “unspecified” security threats.
- A Limbaugh clone who is poorly depicted, “You listeners make the show. All I do is make the money and spend it on face fulls of pharmaceuticals that make me go deaf.”
The vast left wing conspiracy seems to be doing its job.
Dalai Lama Representatives Going to China
They will holding talks with the Chinese.
Note that talks have been held before, with no positive results.
I’m shocked. It’s the first time I’ve seen some good come from the Olympics.
For Europe’s Middle-Class, Stagnant Wages Stunt Lifestyle – New York Times
The New York times has an article about how the European middle class is seeing its wages stagnate and the standard of living plateau or decrease.
They don’t bother to give a reason, but strongly imply that it’s Europe’s stultified economy, as opposed to those dynamic Anglo-Saxon ones, even though one of the examples given is in the UK.
That’s the standard line, too much regulation causes wages to stagnate.
But if one looks at Europe, and the US, median wages have stagnated because of deregulation.
Simply put, when an executive gets over a billion dollars in remuneration, this is money that does not go toward other people’s wages and benefits, and deregulation and reductions in marginal tax rates increase wage disparities.
This is not happening because Reaganomimics has not been adopted at some level, this is happening it has been adopted at some level.
Bank of America May not Honor Country Debt Upon Purchase
BoA has announced in a regulatory filing with the SEC that, “hasn’t decided whether to guarantee Countrywide debt after BofA’s $4 billion takeover of Countrywide, which is supposed to be completed in the 2nd half of the year.
Basically, once it’s bought, if the corporate structure is right, Countrywide could declare bankruptcy and leave the bond holders with nothing, which would mean that it would not BoA’s problem.
Alternatively, BoA could be attempting to spook the bond holders so that they sell to BoA at a discount.
This system of corporations and shell companies is completely out of control.
I’m just saying.
Cool Helicopter Concepts at American Helicopter Society Forum in Montreal
The Curious Case of the Corrupted Campaign Clip
Well, it now appears that the clip showing Mickey Kantor using the term “White N***er” is a fabrication.
It appears that Youtube clip was fabricated using footage from the 1993 documentary The War Room, or so the sources around the net say.
The editor of the clip claims that did not alter, but he did “enhance” the sound.
The interesting thing is not that someone, either as a deliberate deception or because they wanted to hear that, made a bogus clip. What is of concern is that it became the screaming point of the blogosphere.
Please, chill out.
Well, Now We Know What You Have to Do to Get Fired by Bush and His Evil Minions™
Do your job competently and zealously.
Mary Gade, regional administrator of U.S. EPA Region 5, was fired for trying to keep dioxin out of the environment in the Midwest.
Dow is more important to Bush and His Evil Minions™ than children dying of cancer, I guess.
Scheduled Posts
I’m using the beta version of blogger to post now, which has “Scheduled post publishing”, which allows one to post to a future date, and it will hold the post until that time.
I’ll use it for Saturday posts. Frequently, I wonder if it makes sense to post something non time critical on a high news day, and this way, I can just send it over to Saturday, when I do not post.
For example, I physically posted this on Friday at…6:11 pm.
Yep, I Worked Here Too
It looks like BAE Systems may have been lax with its oversight of classified materials on the JSF program.
Of more concern appears to be that the Defense Security Service, which is supposed to supervise defense contractors, did not do it’s job well.
In fact it barely did its job at all.
House Financial Services Committee Passes Mortgage Bill
It’s better than the Senate version, but still favors the lenders and homebuilders too much.
Thankfully, they were able to prevent the Republicans from adding amendments to make it even worse.
I Disagree With Paul Krugman
In his latest post, he thinks that Barack Obama gave too much credit to the Republicans in his Fox interview.
I agree with him on that. The ideas in question have been floating around in academic circles, and have been proposed by politicians on both sides for years.
What I disagree with is his classification of emissions trading as a successful policy.
Emissions trading is not a success relative to a tax of some sort.
They’ve never been shown to be more effective than a tax on emissions, they reduce revenues available to government, and they are more difficult to administer, which increases the regulatory load, and hence costs to taxpayers.
Additionally, if you think that mortgage backed securities are a morass of corrupt arbitrage, just wait until Wall Street gets its hands on actual dirt.
Carbon trading is a solution, it’s just a bad one.
Pakistani Judges Reinstated
This is a major step, because reinstating the judges fired by Musharraf required a supermajority.
One wonders if the Supreme Court there will now rule on the legality of his election as president of Pakistan.
Sami al Hajj Released from Guantanamo
He’s a cameraman for al Jazeera, and he was held for 5 years without charge.
The government claimed, “a significant amount of evidence, both unclassified and classified, which supports continued detention of Sami al Hajj by U.S. forces.”
If that were true, why would he be released now.
Disgraceful.
Fed, OTCS, and NCUA Moving to Regulate Credit Cards
Seeing how it’s Bush and His Evil Minions™, my question is why they would move against practices they call “deceptive and unfair”.
Deceptive and unfair is what Bush and His Evil Minions™ do.
My guess is that there are moves to restrict this in congress, and that this is primarily a way to get in front of these.
Senate Intelligence Committee Moves to Ban Torture by CIA Contractors
That’s the effect anyway, the actual bill would prohibit contractors from participating in CIA interrogations.
The bill would also require the CIA to follow Pentagon rules and to disclose all detainees to the Red Cross.
Needless to say, Bush will veto.
Labour Gets Pummeled in Local Elections in the UK
Brown and Labor actually got fewer votes than the Lib-Dems.
The aftermath of Tony Blair, selfish triangulating politics, which will have a similar effect on Labor that Bill Clinton did on the Dems 1n 1994.
I’d like to see the Lib Dems hold their 2nd place position, or even hit 1st place for the parliamentary elections, but I put their chances at slim and none, as they have been unable to capitalize on the fact that they are the only major party to call for an immediate pullout from Iraq.
They are the sad sacks of UK politics.
Bank of England Governor Blasts Pay and Benefits in Financial Industry
We’ve been hearing more and more about how the bonuses for short term profits encouraged leverage and risky investments, and now BOE governor Mervyn King has joined the fray:
Mervyn King yesterday laid the blame for the credit crunch squarely at the door of commercial banks, criticising their excessive pay packages and risky lending.
The Bank of England governor also told the Treasury select committee he was unhappy that excessive pay in the City attracted too many young people away from careers elsewhere.
Speaking as data emerged showing that the credit crunch had hit retail sales, consumer confidence and mortgage lending hard, King said he hoped the banks would learn the lessons from the crisis and rein in their pay structures and be more responsible in their lending.
“Banks have come to realise in the recent crisis that they are paying the price for having designed compensation packages which provide incentives that are not, in the long run, in the interests of the banks themselves, and I would like to think that would change,” King said.
Of course, Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan would argue that the pay schemes were innovation, and a good thing.
I am so glad to see him alive to see his reputation melt away like that of the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz.
NH Senate: Jeanne Shaheen Over Senator John Sununu by 8
Economics Update
Well, we just got a jobs report that shows just how screwed up our statistics have gotten, with non farm jobs falling by 20,000 but the unemployment rate went down, which just does not work.
Additionally, the so called birgh death corrections are completely bogus:
+45k construction jobs v 37k April 2007
+8k jobs were added in financial activities versus 1k last April.
+72k in professional/business services versus 48k last April.
+83k in leisure/hospitality (95k last April).
The idea that construction and financial added 53,000 jobs in April comes from somewhere west of the planet Skaro.
The financial press is uncritically applauding, of course.
In energy, oil is upto over $116 for the first time in a few days, but gasoline is down, not hitting a new record for the first time in 17 days.
Meanwhile, the Fed and other central banks are pouring yet more money into the frozen financial system. The Fed is allowing more types of bonds in its trash for cash auctions, but it does not appear to help. The LIBOR, from which much of the adjustable rate loan rates are derived has been largely unmoved.
It’s pushing on a string, as I’ve said before, because it’s a solvency crisis, not a liquidity crisis, as I’ve also said before.
The is still strengthening a bit, but I’m a bear long term, but I’m a bear on everything.
In more pushing on a string news, the US treasury is offering 0% on its inflation protected savings bonds.
A small distinction, mypost of 4 March had was about TIPS, not inflation protected savings bonds, just in case you are wondering if I’m repeating stuff.
Finally, in real estate, 63% of home sales in San Diego are short sales and REOs, which means that either the owner has sold for less than they owe, or it’s been foreclosed on.