Year: 2008

Mike Huckabee Defends Obama and Wright

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Huckabee seems to be rather more complex than his “Gomer Pyle” stereotype:

And one other thing I think we’ve got to remember: As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, “That’s a terrible statement,” I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I’m going to be probably the only conservative in America who’s going to say something like this, but I’m just telling you: We’ve got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, “You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus.” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had a more, more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

My guess would be is that if he were still in the race, he would not be so benevolent, but it still a remarkably kind and thoughtful thing to say.

Water, It’s the New War Profiteering

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Yep. It appears that with, “As liquidity is drained from credit and money markets and pours into oil and gold, another asset class that could offer long-term returns to the discerning investor is water”, or at least so say the contemptible capitalist/terrorists who want to extract people’s wealth to line their own pockets.

This isn’t cell phones, it’s not electricity. This is water.

No water, you die. No clean water, your kids die. Get it.

We need to stop this before it gets rolling, and they start hiring lobbyists.

David Frum is a Lier, Marketplace Edition

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I sent this to the good folks at Marketplace:

In David Frum’s essay yesterday about Federal reserve policy, he stated that he remembered, “the little white stickers my family’s favorite steak house used to overwrite last month’s price”.

I would make two points here.

First, Mr. Frum is born and bred in Canada, specifically Toronto, Ontario, and it appears that the nearest American soil, Niagara Falls, New York, was about 80 miles away.

Given the number of steak houses available in Toronto, it is likely that the menu of which he spoke was for a Canadian restaurant, and using a Canadian restaurant to describe US inflation is not the basis for an honest discussion of any policy.

Second, this was in the days when plain paper copiers were a rare beast, so reprinting a menu was a significant issue, even if it was done only once a year.

Well, That Was Quick

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So I’m doing a a google on ERISA and healthcare, and there was a sponsored ad, a link to this:

Quote:

Bear Stearns Stock

Date Started: March 17, 2008

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is investigating possible ERISA violations by the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. relating to the Employees Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”).

The investigation comes after JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it is purchasing Bear Sterns for $2 per share, 90 percent less than the 85-year-old firm’s market value last week. The investigation is looking into whether fiduciaries of the Company’s ESOP knew or should have known that Bear Stearns concealed its exposure to risky collateralized debt obligations, sub-prime mortgages and other poor-quality securities. If fiduciaries did not exhibit due diligence in protecting the ESOP participant’s investments in Company stock and were aware of the extremely high-risk investments the company made, plan fiduciaries could be found in violation of ERISA laws.

Concerning possible ERISA violations, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is looking at whether or not Bear Stearns continued to offer and hold company stock in the ESOP when it was no longer prudent to do so, and if the company failed to take action to sell Bear Stearns stock or otherwise protect the plan’s assets in light of the company’s risky business strategies and deteriorating financial condition.

In a company press release on March 16, 2008, the company announced that JPMorgan would acquire Bear Stearns and stocks could be transferred from Bear Stearns to JPMorgan based on the closing numbers from March 15, 2008. Bear Stearns stock tumbled from $30.00 per share on March 14 to $4.81 at closing on Monday, March 17, 2008.

If you have information concerning this investigation you can sign up to join the investigation, or contact Hagens Berman at 206/623-7292 or via e-mail at info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Well, that was quick.

Cramming for My Drug Test

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Well, Purim starts Thursday night, and so Sharon*, got us our favorite hamentashen†.

Mine is mohn, a sweet poppy-seed filling, so I were I to have to pee in a cup in the next couple of days, I’m sure that I’d show metabolites of opiates right now.

Homey don’t do that stuff no more, though as to the use of legal intoxicants, such as that marvelous output of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, I’ll be doing some of that.

The rabbinic ruling on Purim is that one should drink enough that they confuse Hamen (the villain of the story) and Mordehai (the hero of the story), though I won’t be taking it that far.

In any case, my Sharon* will most certainly be driving.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
†A three sided stuffed pastry eaten as a part of the celebration.

Lunch Meeting at Work.

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I got free food, but I still hate meetings with a passion.

Basically, we’ve got a lot of work, and we look to have more coming in.

Most of the discussion was on profits and bonuses, which don’t really involve me, because I am a contractor.

One interesting thing is that our division does a lot of internal work for other divisions, but doesn’t get credited for the profits derived from the plan.

I guess that one of those problems with profit sharing plans is identifying whose profit it is.

Additionally, they went over a controversy over some work involving wfrom Italy being brought here (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), but this part of the discussion was pretty low key, just a quick rundown of the bullet point arguments.

Obviously as per any industry that regulation heavy, there was some discussion of politics and the election, but it was fairly low key, mostly in terms of uncertainty in the market.

Wish that it hadn’t been Domino’s pizza. It’s OK, if you ask for ½ the normal amount of sauce, but the Domino’s owner is still a right wing turd.

Economics Update

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First, news of the stupid, Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has reduced the reserve capital requirements for the GSEs, so Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be able to loan another 200 billion out.

The problem is blow back from too much leverage, so you are allowing more leverage?

There are people walking away from their homes now because they realize that it will be 10+ years before they have any equity at all in their homes, and you want more exposure to the 2nd and 3rd largest borrowers in the world?

BTW one of the interesting points about yesterday’s rate cuts was that the dollar strengthened, which really runs counter to the normal motion. The analysts say that this was because it indicated that the Fed was really going to keep the economy out of recession.

Well, that lasted about 24 hours (here and here)

Of course no bit of economic news is complete without the performance art/low humor known as a press release from one of the monoliner insurers, in this case
Ambac claiming that it had “no material exposure” to the Bear Stearns debacle.

Yeah, sure. I may not be an economist, but I know weasel words when I hear them.

BTW, one of the CEOs of the big 3 auto makers are expecting sales to be poor this year. Such insight. That must be why they get paid 7 figures a year plus bonus.

Mortgage application volume fell 2.9% last week. No one is lending, and no one is buying.

Finally, we have Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers conducting a fire sale on some of their dicier oinvestments fire sale on debt associated with leveraged buy-outs and private equity deals.

This is considered a good thing, which locally, it is. If you pump radioactive waste out of your basement, into the town reservoir, you are doing better personally.

Confirmed: DNI Michael McConnel is a Patholigical Liar

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That was always the question, was he lying for the policy purposes of Bush and His Evil Minions™, or simply because he is a liar

It’s now confirmed that he lies because he has some problems. Seriously.

This time he is doing it about a myth that has been debunked on Snopes, specifically he claimed in a speech that he “heard the tape” of the exchange in which an officer on an aircraft carrier demanded that a lighthouse change course.

In truth the Navy debunked this a decade ago.

Regulation Fuels Competition In Euro Broadband

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So now, the New York Times finally notices that the rest of the industrial world is beating our brains out in boradband.

It’s very simple. If you don’t regulate in a market with high barriers to entry, it is more profitable for the incumbent to work on keeping, and raising, those barriers to entry. It’s more profitable than attempting to build a better cheaper product.

The US have given thousands in subsidies to the incumbent telcos, and done nothing by way of regulation, and as a result we have 2nd rate service (hi Comcast users):

Ms. Reding emphasized her determination to encourage greater competition in the market and to give regulators the power to force “functional separation” — obliging the owners of telecommunications networks to free the networks from their operating divisions.

Word up on Ms. Reding.