Month: February 2010

The Robin Hood Tax Gains Support in the UK

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I Would Like to See This on US Television

It’s actually called a “Tobin Tax“, and the idea is that a tax of about 5 basis points (0.05%) on non-consumer bank transactions (otherwise known as “speculation”).

As was noted with the original Tobin proposal, this is actually very hard to evade, because they sales have to be settled something, and for any transaction of any significant size, this means only a few places, New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, etc. settle (i.e.) pay.

If you moved from highly trafficked settling institutions to obscure ones, the costs of settling become much higher, and in fact will likely likely be much higher than 5 basis points.

There is an organization in the UK, the Robin Hood Tax campaign, which is lobbying for the idea, and produced the above video, which illustrates how it would work, and how it would benefit everyone except for the vampire squids* of the world.

In an interesting twist to all of this, the folks at the campaign put up an online poll, and some online entities spammed the poll to oppose the proposal.

I wonder who might have done this?

The Robin Hood Tax campaign alleged that a Goldman computer was one of two computers that allegedly “spammed” the internet poll with more than 4,600 “no” votes in less than 20 minutes on Thursday.

Technical staff for the Robinhoodtax.org.uk website said the “no” counter increased at a “dramatic rate” from 3.41pm.

The number of “no” votes jumped from 1,400 to 6,000 before campaigners – who are calling for the introduction of 0.05pc tax on banking transactions – tightened the site’s security.

Robin Hood’s security team claimed it traced the erroneous votes to two computers, one of which is allegedly registered as belonging to Goldman.

Goldman is saying that it has, “just received this information and is investigating fully,” which in the UK means busting which ever staff member is of Indian or Pakistani extraction, I guess.

In any case, the “Yes” vote is winning by about 9:1, 41488 to 4626.

I approve of their program, though I think that 5 basis points is too low. It should be at least 25 basis points (¼%).

*Goldman Sachs and their Evil Minions™

Snowpocalypse: Aftermath

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About 6 feet

Well, I ain’t cleaning the sidewalks for a while.

Thy finally cleared the street on Friday, and they were very thorough.

All the snow, except immediately around some parked cars, was put on the curb by front loaders, and our little road is completely clear.

The resulting berms of snow are vary between 4 and 6 feet.

Well, Here is an Interesting Local Startup

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Basic VTOL Configuration


Wind Tunnel Testing


Control Surface Tests

Mission scenario video

Images and video, American Dynamics Flight Systems*

Aviation Week has noted that a startup company with a interesting take on a VTOL UAV has received funding from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program for wind tunnel tests on their AD-150 UAS.

The company, American Dynamics Flight Systems, has an interesting take on the tilt rotor system, and I don’t mean just their use of shrouded propulsors, but the fact that they can operate the propulsors asymmetrically in order to provide control inputs.

The final product is looking to be a 14½ foot long vehicle that can carry a roughly 500 pound payload at 300 kts, which places it within the requirements for the US Marine Corps “Group 4” drone requirement.

Given the specifications, it certainly will be able to keep up with the Osprey, though I have not seen any range data.

The company’s other products are the High Torque Aerial Lift (HTAL) propulsor, which is used on the AD-150, and an improved launcher for the 2.75″ FFAR called the, “LH Series Launcher,” which is lighter and more streamlined than the existing launchers, and so more suited to UAVs.

There seems to be a fair amount of “neat” tech there, the AD-150 appears to be leveraging on their HTAL propulsor, and their LH launcher appears to fill a real need.

Basically, with the advent of guidance heads for the 2.75″ rocket, APKWS and DAGRS, it is rather likely that this will become the weapon of choice for UAVS,

The rocket, which is smaller, lighter, and has a smaller warhead than the AGM-114 Hellfire, which means that more can be carried with less collateral damage.

Using the hellfire to take out a guy on a motorbike, or a bunch of guys in an SUV, is kind of like using an elephant gun as a fly-swatter.

In any case, I emailed them about getting a tour of their Jessup, Maryland facility, and will be having a tour on Wednesday, assuming that their schedule or the vicissitudes of mother nature (more snow predicted next week) don’t intrude.

I will be posting a request for any ideas for questions on a shorter post, which will remain at the top of the list until late Tuesday evening, so I’ve closed comments on this post, if there is anything you want to know, post it there. (Link to request for questions)

I recommend checking out the web site. It’s chock full of neat stuff.™

*Their use statement on their website says, “Unless otherwise noted, the content in this collection is provided for non-commercial use and may be used for educational and editorial purposes only. All other uses require the explicit written consent of American Dynamics Flight Systems. For more information please contact media@adflightsystems.com.” My writing about them should qualify as an “editorial” purpose.

Oh, This is Rich

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Bummer of a birth mark, Harold

You know that Harold Ford, chairman of the corporatist squish faux Democratic DLC and failed US Senate candidate in Tennessee is considering a Senate run in New York State.

Well, now it turns out that he’s never filed a New York state tax return, despite the fact that he has been employed at Merrill Lynch since 2007:

Ford claims to have moved to New York three years ago, and says paying “New York taxes” makes him a New Yorker. But his spokeswoman confirms to Gawker that he’s never filed a New York tax return — meaning that he’s never paid New York’s income tax, despite keeping an office and a residence in New York City as a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch since 2007: “He pays New York taxes and will file a New York tax return in April for the first time,” Ford’s spokeswoman Tammy Sun told Gawker. “He will file all necessary personal disclosure and tax forms that candidates are required to file if he chooses to run.” (According to Sun, Ford admitted to the tax dodge yesterday at a press availability in Albany, but we can’t find any news accounts mentioning the remarks.)

Now it appears that there has been some damage control from his PR folks, who are now saying that he will be filing a return for the first time in April, which means that he’s been breaking New York state law, which requires that out of state residents pay taxes on income earned in New York, and so file.

Someone has broken the law, and put his foot in it again.

Note: Tennessee, of course, has no personal income tax.

[on edit] Not completely true: There are no income taxes in Tennessee on wages and salaries, other forms of income, interest and dividends for example, are taxable.

Obama Fail

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OK, so Obama made some noises about recess appointments, and the Republicans let 27 nominees get an up or down vote, the ones that do not matter.

Well, that’s good.

What is not good is that Obama followed up with signals that there is no need for recess appointments (BTW, Clinton made about 150, and GWB made about 200).

No, when you have them down, you put your foot on their neck.

If they block your Transportation Security Administration (TSA) nominee, as they did. because they don’t like Barack Obama’s position on union rights for the employees, you don’t back down, you appoint Teamsters President James Hoffa as your TSA chief. Hell, if they were still alive, you appoint his dad, Jimmy Hoffa, or maybe Walter Ruther or Eugene V. Debs during the recess.

Unfortunately, as Ezra Klein notes, in getting this small concession, Obama stated that recess appointments are a, “rare but not unprecedented step,” which makes any attempt to do recess appointments in the future an invitation to your standard Republican sh%$ storm of phony outrage, and as Matthew Yglesias notes, the Obama administration really does not have time for this crap.

Stupid, really stupid.

Economics Update

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H/t Calculated Risk


It appears that inventories are now in line with sales.
Downward trend is the result of increased efficiencies
H/t Calculated Risk

In the good news/bad news dichotomy, we see that retail sales rose ½% in January but consumer confidence fell:

January sales at U.S. retailers climbed more than anticipated, while consumer confidence unexpectedly fell this month from a two-year high, showing a recovery in household spending may be gradual.

Retail purchases increased 0.5 percent, the third gain in the past four months, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment gauge dropped to 73.7 from 74.4 the prior month.

Not sure what this all means, to tell the truth.

Sometimes teasing meaning out of the data is like drinking from a fire hose.

On the other hand, the data from Europe, where disappointing GDP numbers from Italy and Germany have unexpectedly fallen in the 4th quarter, is pretty easy to understand, as is the fact that Bloomberg’s Professional Global Confidence Index, fell on concerns that deficit problems among some nations in the Euro zone will hinder recovery.

By some countries, I mean, of course, the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain), who are largely hamstrung in their ability to deal with the crisis because of deficit requirements of, and the fixed exchange rate from, being in the Euro zone.

BTW, here’s a story that we may here more of in the next few months: there has been a surprising outflow of funds from “junk bond mutual funds:

High-yield, high-risk bond mutual funds last week had their biggest outflows since 2008, adding to signs that the junk debt market may be set for a “reversal.”

Investors withdrew $1.13 billion from mutual funds invested in high-yield debt, including exchange-traded funds, in the week ended Feb. 5, according to research firm EPFR Global. That’s the most since early in the third quarter of 2008 and reverses a $335.6 million inflow from the previous week, according to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based EPFR.

I do not know what is up (or more accurately down) here but someone out there knows something and is acting on it.

In any case, the problems in Europe, along with new Chinese actions to reign in lending by increasing bank reserve requirements, have raised concerns about the economy which driven crude oil down, and led to a flight to safety which has driven the dollar up.

Don’t Let the Door Hit Your Ass on the Way Out, Billy Boy

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So PhRMA (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) has just fired* Billy Tauzin, because the deal that he cut with the Obama administration, basically a few penniess in promised savings so as to forestall price controls and drug reimportation.

Now that the healthcare plan is in shambles, it’s likely that stuff will be passed piecemeal, and high on that list will be drug reimportation.

Tauzin got his $2 million a year job because he pushed through the Medicare drug benefit, which was basically sloppy anilingus to PhRMA, and the gig was his payoff.

Couldn’t happen to a more evil piece of sh%$.

*Yes, I know that the story says that a, “friend of Mr. Tauzin, speaking on condition of anonymity,” says that he is, “leaving the trade group job voluntarily to pursue other activities,” but seriously, don’t take us for idiots.

Speaking of Not Having Real Regulation in the United States

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It looks like one of the major changes in regulation of financial services firms, that they act in their clients best interest, a so-called fiduciary responsibility, as opposed to the current standard of “industry standard” behavior, which basically says that the only crime is to get caught.

Well, Tim Johnson, no doubt still suffering from the effects of his stroke 3 years ago, has decided to kill the fiduciary requirement, and send the idea to the SEC for a “study”:

Lobbying by insurers and banks including Morgan Stanley may result in the elimination of a proposed new standard that would make retail brokers more accountable to their clients.

Tim Johnson, the South Dakota Democrat in line to become the next chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is circulating a proposal that would drop the so-called fiduciary standard for brokers from the panel’s reform package, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. Johnson instead proposes that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission conduct an 18- month study to see if there’s need for a new broker standard.

Consumer advocates have pushed for the fiduciary standard, arguing that investors are misled by the adviser title used by thousands of brokers. Investors have difficulty distinguishing between investment advisers and brokers, and most see their brokers as advisers, according to a 2008 Rand Corp. study commissioned by the SEC. Without the fiduciary requirement, brokers don’t have the same accountability for their advice as investment advisers and have more leeway to sell financial products created by their own firms instead of seeking the best investment for the customer.

Not only is this bad policy, it’s bad politics.

Make the Republicans vote against a law that says, “Financial advisers must act in their client’s best interests,” if you push it, people will understand it.

Home Prices Fell 12% in 2009

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Better, but still grim

Actually, 11.9%, but why quibble over 10 basis points?

If you listen to the National Association of Realtors, (and if you have 2 brain cells to rub together, don’t listen to the NAR) they say that this is encouraging because the 4th quarter drop was the smallest quarterly drop in 2 years, but that’s because we had the little gold rush for the tax credit.

If you look at the latest rent-to-own ratio, we still have some price declines to go, though, as I have noted before, rents are trending downward too, which would indicate that there is a lot more pain on the way than the rather facile analysis at the first link.

Deep Thought

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Received via email:

TRIP TO COSTCO

Yesterday I was at my local COSTCO buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Biscuit, the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

What did she think I had an elephant?

So since I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again.

I added that I probably shouldn’t, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I’d lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms. I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me.

I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter’s ass and a car hit us both.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.

Costco won’t let me shop there anymore.

Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of crazy things to say.

Forward this (especially) to all your retired friends……it will be their Laugh for the day

We Are All Max Bialystock*

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Have you heard the latest derivative?

Cantor-Fitzgerald, showing evidence that they are still insane with grief after having 2/3 of their employees on 911, have come up with a twist to their new and innovative financial product, the Hollywood Stock Exchange, a game where people can “bet” funny on the success and failure of movies.

The twist, they are asking for regulatory approval to allow people to bet real money.

If any of you have seen The Producers, then you understand the possibilities:

Here’s how it would work. Hollywood studios, actors, directors, investment banks, hedge funds, and anyone else would be able to buy and sell contracts based on the value of all ticket sales in the first four weeks of a movie’s release. According to Cantor Fitzgerald’s plans, the contracts would each be worth one-millionth of a given movie’s gross sales during that four-week period. Let’s say that you thought Avatar would pull in $500 million during its first four weeks. So, you buy 100 futures contracts at $490, figuring that when Avatar made $500 million you’d be up $1,000. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Avatar “only” made some $430 million domestically in the first month after its release—meaning that you’d lose a cool six grand.

One problem, skeptics say, is that Hollywood insiders could have a huge advantage in such a market. People in the movie business often have far greater access to crucial information about a film’s box office prospects than ordinary investors do—such as how big the marketing budget will be or how bad the performances are. “If the industry is selling, odds are that it is a bad idea to buy,” says Dean Baker, the codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The deeper meaning to all of this is that these folks at Cantor Fitzgerald really see an opportunity for people to use their inside information as a way to steal from the general as a legitimate financial innovation.

It’s not, it’s a fraud, and it is transparently a fraud conceived for the purpose of generating commissions.

It is an indictment of the very concept of “financial innovation” as put forward by Wall Street.

Whoever came up with this idea should be banned from working as a broker for life.

*Seriously, if you don’t understand the reference, for Pete’s sake, get out more, or go to the Wiki.

Reid to Baucus, Drop Dead

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So, the Senate is working on a jobs program, and Max Baucus (DINO-MT), in a reprise of his disastrous negotiations with Republicans on healthcare, cuts a deal with Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

So, it includes all the goodies that the ‘Phants demand, mostly big tax cuts or extensions of tax cuts, about $31 billion, as well as a cut in the estate tax, which is currently 0%, but goes back up to its pre-Bush levels in 2011 (see Throw Mama from the Train).

Well, some Senate Democrats had a word with Harry Reid, and it appears that they made it clear that their support is by no means assured, and minority leader Mitch McConnell was unwilling to offer support, or even to support cloture, so Reid pulled out all of the tax cut goodies for Republicans. (also here)

Good for him.

Unless you get 5 Republicans swearing on a bible on video tape that they will vote for cloture, don’t give them anything, ever.

I’d also say, if Baucus wants a bill to go through his committee, you should say what Marcel Marceau said, “No.”

Economics Update (a Day Late)

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Well, yesterday was, as Atrios says, jobless Thursday, and unemployment claims fell more than forecast, falling to just 440,000, which is still not enough for an increase in non-farm employment.

The White House is predicting about 95,000 new jobs a month being created in 2010, but based on some quick numbers, a 1.1% annual labor force growth times 155,200,000 people in the US labor force divided by 12 months, there need to be about 142,000 jobs created each month just to accommodate natural growth, so things aren’t getting better, they are just getting worse more slowly.

On the other hand, the news out of California, that tax receipts are well in excess of predictions, is legitimately good news.

Finally, in a discovery of the blatantly obvious, a the TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel has determined that commercial real estate is imploding, and this threatens the viability of many small and mid sized bank. …………Hoocoodanode?

What I Did Today

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I shoveled the f%$#ing driveway, for the 2nd time in a f%$#ing week.

At least the snow was lighter than the last time, and between the powdery nature of the snow, and the wind we got some of those wind-sculpted funny snow shapes.

I’ve never seen this phenomenon this far south before.

Well, At least the snow plows found their way our tertiary road, finally, today.

After I was done, and to be fair the kids shoveled a path to the mailbox for us and the mail man, I thought that I deserved a beer, so I drove to the liquor store, and picked up a 6 pack, because, dammit, I deserved a beer.

Took the wife and kids to Java Mama’s for hot chocolate and sweets,

As to my beer, I bought Victory Brewing Company‘s Hop Devil, which is a nice, and inexpensive, brew from a small Pennsylvania brewery/brew pub.

It’s a bit over-hopped, but that’s kind of obvious from the name, but it’s from near by and fresh.

On my 2nd bottle.

Garden State Equality Will No Longer Give to the New Jersey Democratic Party

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I guess that they are sick and tired of supporting Democrats who don’t deliver on their promises:

The largest gay-rights advocacy group in New Jersey has announced it will no longer give money to the Democratic Party.

The move follows the state legislature’s failure last month to legalize gay marriage and amid growing signs that the effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is already faltering.

“No political party has a record good enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” said the chairman of Garden State Equality, Steven Goldstein, as quoted at PolitickerNJ.com.

“No longer will we let any political party take our money and volunteers with one hand, and slap us in the face with the other when we seek full equality,” Goldstein added.

It’s mirrors on a state level John Aravosis’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give,” donor boycott, and quite honestly, considering how the Democratic Party acts as a party, you just don’t see vigorous party whips on gay rights issues, this may be the only way to get results.