Srsly. They just served up this Ann Coulter advertisement.
I wouldn’t read her if you paid me.
Month: June 2009
Economics Update
So the OMC of the Fed held its meeting, and left interest rates and purchases of debt unchanged, which basically means that they are still concerned about the recession, and not inflation, which they called “subdued”.
You can see the full statement here.
On a more general level, we have durable goods rose unexpectedly in May, primarily on increased aircraft sales, but new home sales unexpectedly decreased in May.
We have a further indication of weakness in real estate from the Architecture billings index, which was up only 1/10 point, and still indicates continued contraction.
Mortgage applications rose last week, but that week was hit hard by the higher interest rates at that time.
We also have an indication that it’s not just real-estate where banks will be hurting. The Moody’s Credit Card Index showed charge offs in excess of 10% for the first time ever, so in addition, to subprime, prime, and commercial real estate, expect to see big losses from credit cards.
Meanwhile, the Fed statement drove the dollar up, and oil down.
Mark Sanford Returns from Narnia*
My bad, he was in Argentina, not hiking in Appalachia.
Oh, and while he was there, he was screwing some chippie, as he admitted at his press conference.
Real classy guy. He apologized to his girl friend and the press before he apologized to his wife, see video below.
He’s resigning as chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association, which means that he’s suffered enough, so <Chris Crocker>leave Sanford alone!!!</Chris Crocker>
Meanwhile, the emails between the two of them have been leaked, and the late night comics will have a field day with this.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
*Not my joke, I got it from Cthulhu.†
†No, not the unspeakably malevolent super-being, the contributor to the Shortskoolbus BBS.‡
‡OK, I’ve never seen the two of them together, so Cthulhu might actually be the Cthulu, but the mere fact that he is on a BBS, interacting with humans§ would seem to mitigate against this.
§Yes, I know, this is the internet, where no one knows if you are a dog.
The Real Threat to Marriage as We Know it
Republican marriage.
Mark Sanford, Larry Craig, John Ensign, David Vitter, Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, Ronald Reagan, etc.
I’m thinking about trying to get a bill passed banning Republican marriage. It’s a threat to the traditional understanding of marriage.
Elections Make a Difference: Prescription Drug Edition
The Federal Trade Commission is coming out in support of legislation outlawing pay for delay deals between brand-name and generic drug manufacturers.
Pay for delay is where the drug maker that created a drug pays generic drug manufacturers not to make a generic equivalent once the patent has expired.
Eliminating this practice should save consumers about $35 billion over the next 10 years.
Missed This in the Economic Update
The Number of mass layoffs hit a record, with a total of 2,933 layoffs involving 50 people or more, for May.
The Rude Pundit is a F&^%ing Genius
I can’t add anything to his, very profane, coverage of Barack Obama’s press conference.
Go read.
Here is the embedded video.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Three Banks Halt TARP Dividend Payments
They don’t have the cash to make dividend payments, so they are no longer making payments, though, under the terms of the TARP they have 20 quarters, or 5 years (!) to defer interest payments without technically being in default.
The banks in question are Pacific Capital Bancorp, Seacoast Banking Corp, and Midwest Banc Holdings.
According to a GAO report, there are 17 banks that did not pay dividends in May, but they did not list names, so there is no knowing who the other 14 institutions are.
1000 Words on the RIAA
1 MP3 is the same 31/3 dead relatives.
Heck of a society we have.
Click image to see the uncropped full screen shot.
Economics Update
Philly Fed Coincident Index(red is bad)
The Philadelphia Bank of the Federal Reserve has released its “state coincident indicators”, and 49 of 50 states showed contraction during the past quarter.
And another day, another S&P downgrades of residential mortgage backed securities. They review 101, and downgraded 93 of them.
Meanwhile, May existing home roes, but the year over number is still down, and median home prices have declined 16.7% year over year, so there is no incication that prices are falling.
Distressed home sales, foreclosures, short sales, etc., declined to only 33% (!) of sales from 45% (!!!) in April, so we are still well in vulture territory.
There looks to be downward pressure on interest rates, as treasurys have risen, pushing the yield down.
Not much in the way of “green shoots” in Europe, with both consumer spending in France and the a purchasing managers’ index in Germany falling.
Of course everyone is holding their breath about what the Federal Open Market Committee will do tomorrow, though the consensus is that they will not raise rates, which pushed the dollar lower.
The falling dollar, and unrest in Nigeria, drove oil up today/a>, it finished the session at just below $70/bbl.
David Paterson May Not Be the Chief Clown in the New York State Politics Clown Show
In fact, he may not even be number 2…or number 3, or even number 31, or for that matter, he may not even be number 62
You see, the New York Senate Democrats have locked themselves in the Senate chambers to prevent the Republicans from holding their own special session, which they did anyway, and claimed to have passed everything by 62-0, and that the session is over.
Of course with 31 people on each side, there is no quorum, so neither side of the aisle is acting with anything resembling sanity.
Only there was nothing to pass, because David Paterson had not bothered to finish the bills and send them to the legislature for the emergency session called by one David Paterson.
That being said, I think that NY State Senator Pedro Espada is the chief clown.
It appears now that he’s trying to extort money from the Democratic caucus, asking for $2 million for his “not-for-profit” health clinic chainwhen jumped to the other side over not getting $75 thousand for his little scam.
What’s more after weeks of claiming that thieves had broken into his “second” home in tony Mamaronack, he represents the Bronx, and stolen only those papers, the documents have turned up:
Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. now says thieves didn’t get the key documents he suggested might have been swiped during a reported burglary at his “second home” in Westchester County.
Espada, under investigation for living outside his Bronx district, raised eyebrows last week when he said that whoever broke into his Mamaroneck home stole files and documents – but no other valuables.
(emphasis mine)
How the hell this guy stays out of jail, I’ll never know.
Additionally, he had to be threatened with criminal charges before he was willing turn over his campaign donation information to state campaign finance authorities, though it appears that he still hasn’t paid the fines.
Meanwhile, a grand jury has been convened, and is investigating whether Espada committed fraud by misstating his true residence, and the Bronx DA is now going back further, looking at his earlier campaigns.
You know, relative to this crap, I live in a good government state, and I live in Maryland.
I never ever thought that I would put the phrase “good government” and “Maryland” in the same sentence.
Goldman Sachs is at the Heart of this Mess
It’s not just Goldman, it’s a systemic thing, but their role in the collapse of AIG:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA extracted about $11.4 billion from American International Group Inc. before the insurer’s collapse as the firms demanded to hold cash against losses on mortgage-linked securities, according to regulatory filings.
The problem with credit default swaps is that unlike short selling, which only effects a share price (though naked shorts should be banned, and the ban enforced), credit default swaps (CDS) can have the effect of bankrupting a company in a matter of hours, and frequently the holders of these securities have no interest in the survival of the underlying assets.
Supreme Court Sends Clear Signal that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is Dead Man Walking
The ruling itself is pretty narrow, ruling against the Department of Justice in a way that effects this case only, but it also invalidated an appellate court precedent, and it’s pretty clear that this court will rule against the voting rights act on a case by case basis until they feel that there is enough precedent to kill it completely.
Not Enough Bullets: Goldman Sachs Edition
Yes, the masters of the universe are once again going to make obscenely huge bonuses to its senior staff:
Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.
Of course the very next paragraph seems to indicate that the nominal reason for these bonuses, retention of skilled staff, is not operative:
A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.
Lack of competition for business implies lack of competition for employees, but the bonuses keep going up.
Sounds to Me Like Another Republican Spending a Few Days In the Closet
One of the odd bit of news right now is that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has gone missing.
He ditched his security detail, he’s turned off his cell phones, and no one can find him.
The interesting quote in the above story is from his wife:
Neither his wife, nor the state’s lieutenant governor, nor police officials know where he is, South Carolina newspapers reported.
But Jenny Sanford told the Associated Press she wasn’t worried.
“He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids,” she said while vacationing with the couple’s four sons.
(emphasis mine)
She sounds to me like someone who is studiously avoiding trying to find the answer to this.
The real issue here is not Mark Sandford’s personal life. It’s the concern that self-hating individuals, and the closet does imply self-loathing, do not make good decisions on the public policy.
Here is a question, how many straight Republicans who practice marital fidelity does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Either one can do it themselves.
Update:
The governor has been located.
He has been hiking along the Appalachian Trail….Yeah, sure, I believe that.
A commenter on the 2nd link nails it:
brads77 Jun 23, 2009 7:28:12 AM
The only reason this guy would have hiked the Appalachian Trail is because he wanted to visit the Home of Deliverance–thinking that the movie was a love story.
Brads77 owes me a screen wipe.
Well, Here’s a Bit of Good Politics in the Financial Overhaul
On the top right, we have the reorganization of the various financial institutions.
Let’s zoom in a bit in the right hand side, and we see that Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)will both be eliminated.
The elimination of the OTS is no surprise, apart perhaps from Greenspan’s Federal Reserve, it was the agency most complicit with the bubble.
That being said, the elimination of the OCC is a very good thing. The head of the office was appointed by George W. Bush in 2005, and has a 5 year term, which makes it rather difficult for Obama to get rid of him.
The problem is that the current Comptroller John C. Dugan, has been a roadblock on almost any sort of regulation.
He’s successfully gone to the Supreme Court to preempt state regulations, and he has been a major impediment in implementing even the tepid regulations that the Obama administration has proposed.
They are killing the office to get rid of him, and even if the change does not pass, it means that for the foreseeable future, there aren’t any banks that will take his instruction without some other agency confirming him.
They just cut Dugan off at the knees, and this action is both wise and well deserved.
Train Crash in DC
2 Metro Rail trains collided, and the death toll is now at 6.
When I Think Back On all the Crap I Learned in High School
Kodak is ending production of its Kodachrome color film after 74 years.
Video below:
A Question Regarding Atheists
This cartoon seems to imply that some sort of latte is is the holy sacrament of Atheists.
If this is the case, is it a full caf, half caf, skinny, mocha, soy, or what?
Or do you, like us God fearing folks, just kill each other over disagreements about what sort of sacrament is appropriate to drink, as is traditional?
Economics Update
Last week, I mentioned that some of the declines in continuing unemployment claims might be the result of benefits exhaustion.
Well now we have the chart pr0n to show it, and I’m now wondering how many of the people dropping off the rolls are actually getting work.
Still, we are seeing some signs of improving business confidence, this time it’s German business confidence, which is up for the 3rd straight month.
I tend to prefer less ephemeral statistics though, such as commercial real estate prices (down 8.6% from April and down 25% year over year) and the fact that rail and truck traffic are still trending down.
We are also seeing some more signs of a reduced appetite for risk, with the dollar strengthening.
In energy, both crude oil and retail gasoline fell, largely on good inventories and concerns about a jobless “recovery”.
Note that this is the first time that gasoline has fallen in 54 days.