Year: 2009

Gillibrand Announces Big Fund Raising Quarter

No Comments

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) raised in excess of $2.3 million since her Senate appointment.

I think that she is doing this to fend off/scare off a primary challenge from Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY-04), who is now polling ahead of her 33%-29% in the latest polls, though she is still below the magic 50% safe number for incumbents against Peter King, leading 40%-28% in the general too.

I think that Gillibrand will end up moving to the left over the next few months in order to fend of McCarthy, but time will tell.

I Guess that the AP Boycott by Blogs is Back On Again

No Comments

Truth be told, I never ended mine, and have used alternate sources for stories where ever possible.

In any case, I try to post a link and a summary, and perhaps a sentence or two, which should fall under fair use.

The article, though is rather odd, as it keeps mentioning Google News and Yahoo, which runs no ads, and is a search service, which would generally be construed as fair use, and Huffington post, which licenses what it publishes from the AP.

More on Larry Summers Corruption

No Comments

It looks like the New York Times is now covering the sweetheart deal he got working for a hedge fund, and we now know that not only was it a part time job that got him paid $5.2 million, but he worked there just 1 day a week!

Truth be told, he may have done more work, as he, “routinely made himself available for private consultations with Shaw’s clients, an attractive perk for investing with the firm, as one client put it.”

What this really means is that in 2008, it was clear that he would be a senior official if either Obama or Clinton became President, and clients were attracted by the potential of that access, and he got special treatment as a result:

When investors rushed en masse to withdraw their money from hedge funds last year, Shaw asserted its right to block redemptions from its fund. An exception was made for Mr. Summers, however, because the White House job he was taking required him to divest.

This is deeply corrupt, if not in law, then in fact.

He didn’t “have” to divest. He could have placed it in a blind trust.

Economics Update

No Comments

Scary Economic Pic of the Day Courtesy of Brad Delong
And, yes, the really bad line is right now

The first bit of news is kind of “inside Baseball,” with
the central banks of the US, UK, EU, and Switzerland agreeing to currency swaps totaling $285 billion with each other.

Basically this means the banks can borrow that amount from each other in various currencies and then use it to stabilize their currencies.

Truth be told, I have no clue as to what it means, except that there have been rumblings that the Swiss are near a deflationary spiral, and might want to depress the CHF to forestall that.

Since it looks like commodities prices are down significantly, most notably copper and oil over the past 6 months or so, the worries about deflation are not just an abstract concept here.

It also looks like Canada is moving toward quantitative easing (printing money) which is pushing the Loonie down, and the dollar rose against other currencies as well, as people moved into a perceived safe haven.

Republicans Hate Honest Math: Census Edition

No Comments

It appears that Obama selection of Robert Groves as director of the US Census has gotten Republicans worried:

Republicans expressed alarm because of one of Mr. Groves’s specialties, statistical sampling — roughly speaking, the process of extrapolating from the numbers of people actually counted to arrive at estimates of those uncounted and, presumably, arriving at a realistic total.

If minorities, immigrants, the poor and the homeless are those most likely to be missed in an actual head count, and if political stereotypes hold true, then statistical sampling would presumably benefit the Democrats.

First, let me note here that the reporter does not have a clue: As a matter of settled law, the Supreme Court ruled that you cannot use a statistical sampling, but instead must use an actual count in Department of Commerce v. U.S. House of Representatives in 1999, so this is a non-issue.

What is not a non issue is that statistical sampling can find people and places that have been under-sampled, and can so create a more accurate census, and a more accurate census is probably a bad thing™ for Republicans, because white males tend to be the easy folks to count.

The ‘Phants don’t oppose him because he will, “Politicize the Census,” they oppose him because he will do the best job possible within his power.

They don’t want someone to do a good job, they want someone to do a piss poor job.

Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Really Did Destroy Everything that They Touched

No Comments

In this case, it’s 401(k) plans that they destroyed, by issuing regulations on automatically subscribed employees that directed them to riskier investments:

Shortly before the first signs of the stock market collapse, the Bush administration made a crucial decision that has propelled an estimated one to two million workers into stock-heavy retirement funds.

Many of the funds in which workers were automatically enrolled dropped more than 25 percent last year, while a more conservative investment strategy rejected by the Bush administration would have resulted in a gain of 4.7 percent.

The administration’s decisions came in response to a congressional mandate to encourage more workers to participate in company-sponsored retirement savings plans. The Bush administration came up with a rule that enabled businesses to automatically enroll their workers in tax-free 401(k) retirement plans.

If the workers failed to specify how they wanted their money invested, the company would be required by law to place their retirement money in investment funds that, for the most part, relied heavily on stocks. The administration specifically rejected calls for a more conservative investment option.

You know, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, but that’s better than George Walker Bush.

Truth be told, they had a reason for this: They were desperately trying to get money to the stock market, in order to prop up prices in preparation for the election, so it’s more corrupt than stupid.

Patience My Ass…..

No Comments

You know, for some time, it seems that any time someone complains that Obama’s economic team is too close to the banks, the answer is that we are seeing some sort of chess game, and it’s just that the White House is 3 steps ahead of everyone else.

I don’t buy it. I think that Larry Summers just jumped the shark into accepting bribes, as this Wall Street Journal analysis of his 2008 disclosure forms shows.

Among other things, he got $5.2 million from hedge fund D.E. Shaw for his thoroughly part time (he was a full time professor at Harvard) position, and he got $2.7 million for speaking, with his fees ranging from, “$10,000 for a Yale University speech to $135,000 for an appearance paid for by Goldman Sachs & Co.”

So we know that the market rate for his speeches is about $10K, but Wall Street investment firms were paying more than 10 times that in a year in which the Democrats were favored, and he was likely to be on the team of either Democratic nominee.

A Tiny Revolution went through his disclosure form (PDF) and came up with the following, with Merrill-Lynch being a week after the election, and Charles River Ventures being the day before:

  • GIANT BAILOUT SECTOR
    • Goldman Sachs: $202,500 (two speeches)
    • Citigroup: $99,000 (two speeches)
    • JP Morgan: $67,500
    • Merrill Lynch: $45,000 (donated to charity)
  • DOMESTIC FINANCIAL SECTOR
    • Investec Bank: $157,500
    • State Street Corporation: $112,500
    • Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLC: $67,500
    • Lehman Brothers: $67,500
    • American Express: $67,500
    • Siguler Guff & Company (private equity): $67,500
    • TA Associates (private equity): $67,500
    • Charles River Ventures (Venture Capital): $67,500
  • FOREIGN FINANCIAL SECTOR
    • Skagen Funds (Scandinavian mutual fund): $180,000 (three speeches)
    • Centro de Liderazgo y Gestion (the Center for Leadership and Management, in Colombia): $112,500
    • Association of Mexican Bankers: $90,000
  • OTHER
    • Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association: $33,750
    • Pension Real Estate Association: $67,500
    • Hudson Institute: $10,000

It should be noted that the Hudson institute is a very right wing “think” tank which has consistently been dogged by accusations of racism and Islamophobia, and it’s at the same “market rate” as Yale.

I can’t see this as anything but bribe taking, with the various financial institutions paying forward to get favorable treatment.

What sort of treatment were the looking for? Well, there was probably not a specific request, a quid pro quo, if you will, but something like the White House coming up with phony entities to act as intermediaries in order to skirt Congressional limitations on executive compensation:

The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow firms benefiting from the programs to avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials.

Administration officials have concluded that this approach is vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion financial rescue package.

You know, the threat of being frog marched out of their workplace in handcuffs would work better.

The administration believes it can sidestep the rules because, in many cases, it has decided not to provide federal aid directly to financial companies, the sources said. Instead, the government has set up special entities that act as middlemen, channeling the bailout funds to the firms and, via this two-step process, stripping away the requirement that the restrictions be imposed, according to officials.

Although some experts are questioning the legality of this strategy, the officials said it gives them latitude to determine whether firms should be subject to the congressional restrictions, which would require recipients to turn over ownership stakes to the government, as well as curb executive pay.

The administration has decided that the conditions should not apply in at least three of the five initiatives funded by the rescue package.

…

Enough is enough.

This is more than being too close to the financial sector, this is corruption, and it pervades Obama’s economic team.

Larry Summers, and possibly Timothy Geithner, need to spend more time with their families.

Hypersonic Developments

No Comments

Alliant Techsystems (ATK) isworking on getting its Thermally Throated Ramjet (TTRJ) onto the X-51B hypersonic demonstrator (paid subscription required) that is due to succeed the X-51A demonstrator (2nd pic down) that will be conducting flights later this year.

The flight weight engine is now in test (see inlet diffuser and combustor combination, top pic), and as opposed to using the rather exotic, and difficult to ignite JP-7 that was used for the SR-71, it uses the more common JP-10 missile fuel, with the fuel cooling the combustor walls and being vaporized prior to ignition.

It’s interesting in that the boundary between subsonic and supersonic flow inside the engine is controlled thermally, rather than through inlet geometry, with the heat of forward (subsonic) combustion taking the stream to supersonic speed.

In the meantime, the X-51A scramjet demonstrator appears ti be continuing on both budget and schedule, (paid subscription required) largely because the development team has limited requirement creep and “bleeding edge” technology wherever possible, with a first flight in October of this year.

There are a number of potential technical breakthroughs, a hydrocarbon fuel cooled scramjet, unstable aerodynamics, and long powered flight time (300s as vs NASA’s 10s for its X-43-A), but structurally, it’s simple, with a tungsten nose cone, aluminum structure, and an old fashioned ablative coating for much of its thermal protection.

Additionally, the 4 planned flight tests are designed to be identical, in order to provide redundancy.

While it’s not an issue for the relatively slow (!) Mach 5-6 X-51A, future hypersonic vehicles, which can be expected to exceed Mach 10, will have issues with communication, as the speeds create an ionized sheath around the vehicle that will cause a communications blackout, which makes getting telemetry out of a vehicle problematic.

The potential solutions are interesting, ranging from using lasers or magnets to poke holes in the plasma, dropping capsules with the telemetry as the flight progresses, using the plasma to generate a signal, magnetic fields, etc.

France, U.K. To Qualify New Cannon – Defense News

No Comments

France and the UK are set to qualify a new 40mm case telescoped ammunition cannon for their armored vehicles, and they are looking to be at System Readiness Level 8 (“Actual System Completed and Qualified Through Test and Demonstration”) by year’s end, with the cannon and ammunition qualified some time in 2012.

When I looked at this system last year, it looked promising, with a much simplified ammunition feed, no need to eject cases, and more punch in the same volume.

CTA International (CTAI), a “joint venture of BAE Systems and Nexter” say that this is compact enough to be a drop in replacement for the Bradley’s 25mm Bushmaster cannon, but that it will pack the punch of a 50mm cannon.

FCS MGV on Chopping Block

No Comments

The Future Combat System Manned Ground Vehicles (FCS MGV)* are on the chopping block, though it still looks like the howitzer version, the NLOS-C (shown) will still be procured.

The program is over budget and behind schedule, and the vehicles, originally in the 17 ton class (stripped for transport) and C-130 transportable, and now a 27 ton concept requiring larger transports, so this is not unforeseen.

The supporters of the program are claiming that :The development of the FCS network is linked to the development of FCS Manned Ground Vehicles. Each MGV acts as a node in the ground based aspect of the network. So cutting MGVs reduces the viability of the network,” but truth be told, if the communications suite can be developed, it can be retrofitted to the legacy fleet and give the desired situational awareness.

There are really only 2 downsides that I see, that the troop carrier FCS MGV, the ICV, carries more troops than the Bradley, which has always been light in that department, and the legacy systems require more fuel and maintenance (the specs for the FCS MGV on maintenance are pretty amazing).

Canceling the MGVs would also serve to put the Pentagon, and the defense industry, on notice about cost and schedule creep, which is desperately needed because the weapons system development process is completely broken.

*Full disclosure, I worked on the Future Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, FRMV, “wrecker” variant of the FCS-MGV† from 2003-2006 at United Defense (later BAE Systems after the Carlyle Group sold me to buy Dunkin Donuts).
†Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.

Federal Home Loan Board Chairman Resigns Over Changes in Mark to Market Rules

No Comments

FHLB Chairman Charles Bowsher has resigned, saying that under the new rules, he would be unable in good conscience to vouch for the accuracy of the various FHLB banks financial statements following the relaxation of rules by the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on illiquid assets, and he talked with Jonathan Weil about it:

I was not comfortable as an audit-committee member in signing off on the financial statements, after I became aware of the standards and processes for valuing the mortgage-backed securities

An honest banker, who knew?

A broken, corrupt, and dishonest system….everyone knows that.

Gay Marriage News

No Comments

The Iowa Supreme Court rules gay marriage legal, and the Vermont house passed a same-sex marriage bill, though the governor is still talking about vetoing it, because it’s a distraction during the economic crisis.

Of course, the only way that it is a distraction is if he vetoes it, but he has to win a Republican primary with lots of bigots voting.

The idea that Vermont, which is highly dependent on tourism, would eschew this, which would give a boost to that industry, is, of course, nuts, but the Governor Jim Douglas is a ‘Phant, after all.

The down side to this is that we are going to be spending a lot more on wedding gifts.

But seriously, it stuns me how quickly the forces of reason and hope are beating back the voices of fear and bigotry.

Compared to the black civil rights movement, this is light speed.

Banks Are Already Gaming Geithner’s Bad Bank Plan

No Comments

Gee, this is a surprise, banks are looking to buy each others’ mortgage backed securities, essentially swapping their own crap for someone else’s crap plus a 50+% subsidy.

For once, I find a Republican who has a clue

Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House financial services committee, vowed after being told of the plans by the FT to introduce legislation to stop financial institutions ”gaming the system to reap taxpayer-subsidized windfalls”.

Mr Bachus added it would mark ”a new level of absurdity” if financial institutions were ”colluding to swap assets at inflated prices using taxpayers’ dollars.”

I have to say, in reviewing Geithner’s history, I do not believe that this was an error, but rather something that he intended.

I believe Geithner is Wall Streets bitch, and that this is just another instance when he strapped on the knee pads.

Massive Rally in Ukraine Triggers Yuschenko Backdown on Elections

No Comments

I’m not sure how much of this is gamesmanship and how much is unrest over an economy falling at a double digit rate, but Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has now said that he is open to new elections, which is a big walk back, seeing as how he is at 3% in the former Soviet Republic.

Honestly, Ukraine needs to develop a slightly less adversarial relationship with Russia, even if they are not fond of Russians themselves, a stance which the more pragmatic (and less batsh^% insane) Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko’s chief rival understands while he does not.