Month: August 2009

But I Bought My PC a Week Ago!!!!!

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Damn

A quad-core, Blu-ray, Windows 7 desktop for $650

by Rick Broida

Update: Sorry, folks, looks like the discount code has expired.

If you’re in the market for a new desktop that’s equally well-suited to games and movies, HP has a ridiculously good deal going. It’s the HP Pavilion Elite e9110t, which you can get for $649.99 shipped after a few configuration tweaks and a coupon code.

The tiger in the tank, Intel’s 2.33GHz Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor, roars along with 6GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a 512MB GeForce G210 video card. Those are some kick-ass specs.

Other highlights: a Blu-ray drive with LightScribe-DVD capabilities, an 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter, and a 15-month subscription to Norton Internet Security 2009 (aka the good version).

There is, of course, no good version of Norton anything!!

Perhaps best of all, the system comes with Windows Vista Home Premium but is eligible for a free Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade come October 22.

By the way, this is a new Pavilion, not a refurb, so you get HP’s full one-year warranty. Here’s how to put it all together, courtesy of DealNews:

1. Ctrl-click this link to open the product page in a new tab.
2. Click the Customize & Buy button next to the $649.99 option.
3. Click the Memory option and choose the free 6GB upgrade.
4. Click the Primary CD/DVD Drive option and choose the Blu-ray player.
5. Click the Networking option and choose the Wireless-N LAN card and external modem.
6. Click Review & Buy, then apply coupon code DTM4558.

Presto! That should get you out the door for $649.99. In an ideal world, this system would also have a TV tuner (which you can add for $80), but it’s still one of the best desktop deals I’ve ever seen.

HP’s various discounts on this system end Aug. 15, so you’ve got a little time if you want to shop around. I’ll be mighty surprised if you can find a better configuration for the money.

I suppose that this is unavoidable…..But I’m still pissed off.

Economics Update

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You know, someone had better tell the ordinary people of the US that things are getting better, because they are not buying it. 63.2 in August, down from 66 in July.

What’s more, we are seeing more signs of deflation, with consumer prices falling by 2.1% year over year, the biggest drop since January, 1950.

What’s more, commercial real estate is going through the economy like a guy in a hockey mask through a road trip of teenage girls in a slasher flick, with commercial mortgage backed bonds falling, which has driven up their yields, and commercial real estate prices falling by 17% in the first ½ of the year.

We do have some good news in industrial production, where output rose by ½%, beating expectations, largely on “cash for clunkers”.

The confidence figures had currency traders moving to the Yen, and it also pummeled both crude oil and wholesale gasoline futures.

Will This Bank Make Tonight’s List

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There are reports that Colonial BancGroup is near collapse, and desperately attempting to sell itself off to BB&T.

If it fails, it would be the largest failure so far this year, and the 6th largest bank failure ever.

Of note is the fact that if the bank fails, then about 25% of all “warehouse lending” goes away.

Warehouse lending is a form of short term lending used most often by folks like independent mortgage brokers.

There would be some real repercussions here in the housing market, even with independent brokers having a much smaller piece of the pie than they did 3 years ago.

Unbelievably Bad Political Analysis

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Someone at Political Wire declares that Richard Burr (R-NC) is comfortably ahead of all potential challengers, because he has 43% of the voter against all of the, 43%-31% against Elaine Marshall, 43%-28% vs Cal Cunningham, and 43%-27% against Kenneth Lewis.

Just so you know, the rule of thumb is that undecideds break at least 2:1 against the incumbent,* so any time an incumbent is below 50%, they are in trouble, and an incumbent at 43%, is is very real trouble, particularly when his approval number is 38%.

This number has his campaign staff soiling their drawers.

Morons.

*I ran the numbers against Elaine Marshall and it comes to a 3% margin in the best case.

Krugman Says, “I Told You So!”

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In early 2008, Krugman says that Obama’s post partisan unity shtick would fail, because the Republicans would crank up every dishonest, and quite honestly clinically insane, argument.

Well, today, Krugman says, “I told you so,” and he is right:

Sure enough, President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.

Fundamentally, we have a president who wants people, including his opponents, to really like him, in a pathological kind of way, and he believes that he has the ability to make it so.

He is disastrously wrong.

If he wants any meaningful change, he needs to want his opponents to fear him, like LBJ….And, of course, avoid a military counter-insurgency in Asia, which is what did Johnson in politically.

….Uh oh…..

Howard Dean Calls Out the Dems

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He is saying that Democrats who work to kill or minimize the public option will be primaried:

Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.

“I do think there will be primaries as the result of all this, if the bill doesn’t pass with a public option,” Dean said, in a phone interview with the Huffington Post.

The essence of the problem is that no one fears the people, the majority of the people who favor real healthcare reform, and it has to be more than primaries.

We have to be willing to support Green Party candidates and the like in the general election against the most egregious of the Blue Dogs in the general.

If we lose 4-5 seats this way, it will move 40-50 allegedly Democratic Party votes in our direction in Congress.

We can see the effects of real challenges to incumbents in the voting patterns of Arlen Specter, which have become much more loyal since Sestak decided to run against him in the primary.

Right now, there are no consequences for DINOs who actively oppose core party values.

Dick Cheney is Such a Whiny Bitch

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This is normally not a phrase I use, even with the most annoying members of my family, but I think that for Dick Cheney, it is very clear that his complaints about George W. Bush remove any doubt about the fact, and furthermore it places his comments about the repudiation of his Manichean, and quite frankly delusional, view of the world by the voters in the proper context.

We need to call him a bitch, because to call him anything else grants him a credibility and gravitas that he simply does not deserve.*

The man, who has an uninterrupted record of failure in his life, recommending that Ford dump Rockefeller as VP, moving to contractors in the military, invading Iraq, etc., is now saying that George W. Bush was not hard line enough for him:

“In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him,” said a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney’s reply. “He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney’s advice. He’d showed an independence that Cheney didn’t see coming. It was clear that Cheney’s doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times — never apologize, never explain — and Bush moved toward the conciliatory.”

Truth be told, I really think that this is really all about two words, “Scooter Libby,” and Cheney is upset, because he believes that without a full pardon, Libby may some day roll over on his flabby, lily-white ass.

He knows that Omertà means less in politics than it does in the Mafia, which means that it means nothing at all, and it terrifies him.

*Yes, I understand that the social dynamics of the situation, where in order to diminish a man you essentially call him a woman, and in order to diminish a woman, you essentially call her a man,† but you go to war with Dick Cheney with the societal norms you have—not the societal norms you might want or wish to have at a later time.
†See Clinton, Hillary and Pelosi, Nancy.

Something Smells Very Fishy Here

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Remember that guy who allegedly stole Goldman Sach’s proprietary high speed trading software? You know, the stuff that ran on their co-located servers in the exchanges, and so as to engage in front-running the entire market?

Well, it looks like there is a no jail time deal for Sergey Aleynikov in the offing about this.

Goldman Sachs has apparently folded like a bunch of overcooked broccoli, after the defense got a ruling saying that said that they were to be given access to all relevant personnel records.

So, Goldman Sachs, that great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,* the folks who think, probably correctly, that they own the United States of America, acted like a prison bitch when confronted with the possibility of his reviewing his own personnel file???

Something is very wrong here.

What on earth are they hiding?

FWIW, any tips received will be kept in strictest confidence.

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.

This is Wicked Stupid

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It looks like the US Military is going to resume training the Georgian army.

Considering the fact that President Mikheil Saakashvili is a truly delusional and despotic nutcase who is spoiling for another war with Russia, this is a very bad idea on that level, but it’s also clear that the Georgian state security apparatus has been completely penetrated by the Russian intelligence service that they knew to the minute, if not the second, when the Georgians were going to invade South Ossetia.

But we need bodies for Afghanistan, so we’re training them.

I Got Nothing Here

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Seriously, this actual letter from Michelle Bachmann (R-Land of Oz), leaves me without a proper rejoinder.

I know that there should be some sort of rejoinder to this, something witty and devastating, but the stupidity, and self-centered immaturity stun me, and I’ve got a 12 year old daughter:

Don’t let them Palinize me!

Dear Friend:

Last month, I appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News Channel. I was talking about the Democrats’ latest scheme to pick the taxpayer’s pocket to pay for a $1.5-billion slush fund for ACORN.

Before getting into the meat of this terrible new anti-taxpayer proposal, Sean Hannity said that he considers me “the second most hated Republican woman,” second only to Governor Sarah Palin.

With Governor Palin taking a well-deserved step out of the spotlight, it appears that I may be absorbing even more of the liberals’ scorn.

And, I’d really appreciate your support so that I can defend myself against their attacks. Click here to make a donation!

I’m out there every day speaking the truth about their attempts to guide this nation into socialism:

• Their government-run health care proposal that will put government bureaucrats in between you and your doctor and end up rationing care — and the most vulnerable will suffer first and most.

• Their cap-and-trade national energy tax that will drive up energy costs for every American and send our jobs overseas.

• Their spending spree that has pushed the national budget deficit over the $1 trillion mark for the first time in our history. We’re already closing in on $2 trillion and there’s no end in sight to their spending.

• Their dozens of White House czars with power over your lives and futures and absolutely no accountability to Congress or the people.

• And, speaking of unaccountable — when are they going to open up the Fed’s books to the public?

• Their political patronage to groups like ACORN — doling out billions of your tax dollars and partnering with them to collect your private information for the Census.

But just as they did with Sarah Palin, the more I talk about the issues, the more they attack with below-the-belt personal hits. In fact, yesterday, a Minnesota paper gave a full column to a hit piece on one of my kids!

Can you help me to defend against these attacks? Click here to make a donation! [Yeah, like I’d supply a frelling link to that nutjob]

I’ll tell you the truth: Their sticks and stones will not stop me from going out and speaking the truth about their bad policies! And, your support really helps!

God bless and thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann

From the Urban Dictionary:

Palinize:

To smear or mock someone using falsehoods, baseless accusations or unsubstantiated character assassinations for the purpose of blocking them from achieving a goal.

To exaggerate the truth or lie by omission.

To attack a person for his or her conservative values by focusing an inordinate amount of attention on a single example of that person falling short (or being perceived as falling short) of the values they espouse.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to wrap my head before it f$#%ing explodes.

I would note, however, that she does not give one of the more popular definitions from the Urban Dictionary, you know, something like, Palinize, “When someone answers a question without any form of intelligence or foresight. In an attempt to divert from giving a correct answer and in the process sounding unintelligible.”

Economics Update

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Retail sales numbers courtesy of Calculated Risk

It’s Jobless Thursday, and initial claims rose by 4,000 to 558K, with the 4 Week moving average increasing to 565K from 556.5K, and continuing claims, falling by 141K to 6.2 million, though for the latter, I’m not sure how much is people exhausting claims and moving to extended benefits, and how much is people finding work.

My money is on a negative interpretation of the data, what with retail sales falling in July. (see graph pr0n)

In Europe, Germany’s and France’s GDP both rose at an annual rate of 0.3%, which has people shouting that they’ve left the recession, but a recession is more than raw GDP numbers, and industrial output in the EU tanked in June.

I’m a pessimist….I see it as a pause, not a reversal, we still have more down to go.

All in all, when one considers the that 35% increase in bankruptcy filings in the 2nd quarter , the abysmal foreclosure numbers, and the fact that video game sales are down for the 5th straight month, I just don’t basis for anything like a robust recovery.

In T-Bill news, I’m very confused.

First, the 3-year notes rose, then the 10 year notes fell, and today, 30 year Treasuries rose, and I cannot make any sense of that. (bonds rising=yields falling, and vise versa)

If Treasuries continue to rise though, it might reverse the reverse the rise in rates that has a depressed mortgage demand.

In any case, the economic news from Europe had the dollar tanking versus the Euro, to $1.4295:€1.0000, and it also pushed oil marginally higher.

Sometimes, a Domicile is Just a Domicile

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It appears that Paul Krugman has spent his Nobel Prize money on a bigger and better place to live, to the tune of $1.7 million, down from $2.45 million last year.

It appears that this has caused some snark in the economics blogosphere*, where they seem to think that Dr. Krugman is trying to time the real-estate market.

I’m with Felix Salmon on this:

  1. Krugman came into some unexpected money, $1.4M in Nobel money.
  2. Dr. Krugman wanted a nicer house.
  3. Dr. Krugman used the unexpected money to buy a nicer house because he wanted to live in said nicer house.

Yes, I know, it’s technically a co-op.

*You know, If I had used the phrase, “economics blogosphere”, a decade ago, the men in the white suits would have come to haul me away.

Great, Another Plush Toy My Children will Demand

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First, it was Giant Gicrobes®, and now we have ParticleZoo®, foam filled representations of subatomic particles.

They found the former at a museum, and I am honor bound to notify them of the latter, and so they will demand the fuzzy harbingers of entropy….I find this all a bit….strange.*

In any case, I feel like I am the victim of some sort of twisted physics related drive-by.

They also have a physics Lolcat page, go there if you dare.

In fact, some researchers at CERN actually used a special order Particle Zoo plushie in their roll-out of the single-top quark:

*It’s a physics pun.†
†But no, this is not just a vehicle for a pun, my kids are heavily into Giant Microbes®