Month: October 2010

A Reason to Consider Subscribing to the Washington Post

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Not a reason to actually subscribe, mind you, it’s still a cesspool of conventional thinking and bad access journalism (Hi, Bob Woodward) but the fact that the professional hack masquerading as a media critic, Howard Kurtz is leaving the Washington Post and moving to the Daily Beast, Tina Brown’s online news web site.

Well the Washington Post‘s gain is Tina Brown’s loss.

He is, after all, a guy who writes on cable news while pulling down a 6-figure income from CNN, and writes on politics while his wife pulls down a 6-figure income as a Republican political consultant.

Well, it’s a reason second source anything that you see on the Daily Beast.

Economics Update

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There is a lot of news today, mostly in currency and international finance, but the lede, at least for a US focused post, which this is, is the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index, well above forecast.

In international finance news, we are seeing central banks all over the world beginning to open the spigots again as they see the recovery sputtering.

We have the Bank of Japan engaging in another round of quantitative easing (printing money) by setting up a ¥5 trillion ($60 billion) fund to buy government and private bonds in order to keep interest rates at 0%, and Australia, one of the first countries whose central banks increased rates, has kept rates at 4.5%, surprising the experts who were expecting another rate hike.

Interestingly enough, currency has gone in the opposite direction expects from these actions, with the Australian Dollar approaching a 2-year high, and the US dollar fell.

Generally, interest rate surprises on the low side for other countries would drive the dollar up, but it appears that there is an expectation that the Fed will go heavily back into QE like the BoJ.

There is another potential blip on the horizon, as crude oil appears to be on an upswing again.

I’m Sure That ADL President Abraham Foxman will Be Endorsing Them

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Considering the degree to which Abraham Foxman has allied himself with the right-wing, nativist, and bigoted Christofascist right, it’s only a matter of time before he shows up at a fundraiser for the Swedish SD far right anti-Islamic party:

‘It won’t be long before Sweden Democrats show true anti-Semitic nature’

Far-right, anti-immigrant party won an unprecedented number of seats in recent elections; local Jewish leader warns its pro-Israel stance is just an expression of anti-Islam policy.

By Danna Harman

It will not be long before the true anti-Semitic nature of the far-right anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats (SD) party – which won an unprecedented number of seats in Sunday’s elections, is revealed – a leader of the local Jewish community there warned on Monday.

“This is a neo-Nazi party… articulate, and talented…but very dangerous,” said Lena Posner, President of the Official Council of Jewish communities in Sweden, an umbrella organization of Jewish groups in the country. “We know where these people are coming from. They are Nazi sympathizers who, under their jackets, are still wearing their brown shirts.”

The local Swedish Jewish community, at least in the person of Ms. Posner , is showing way more sense and decency that does Mr. Foxman did on the entire Park51 community center matter.

Not Enough Bullets

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So, once again, Congress refuses to act, so billionaire hedge fund managers can continue to pay less in taxes than the janitors who clean their offices:

Once again a key piece of news has passed virtually without comment.

While the entire nation argues over nonsense like the WTC Mosque, Rick Sanchez, and, yes, blue-red culture war stuff like the Tea Party, congress yesterday quietly took a knee on the “carried interest” tax question. In doing so they decided not to take a vote on changes already approved by both houses that would scale back perhaps the most preposterous tax break in the entire federal code, one that leaves hedge-fund gazillionaires like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson paying less than half the top tax rate paid by most middle and upper-middle class Americans.

In case you don’t recognize the writing style, it’s Matt Taibbi, and I suggest that you read the whole article, because he communicates the disgust that I feel far more cogently that I ever could.

Warren Goes European

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In terms of drafting the rules for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Elizabeth Warren has eschewed a rules based approach to regulating consumer credit, instead choosing to go with the principle based system of regulations favored by European regulators:

In her speech and in an interview earlier in the day, Warren said she hopes to take a more “principles-based approach” to regulation, rather than simply saddling companies with more of what she calls “thou shalt not” rules — which make for burdensome, costly compliance and which banks often start trying to skirt as soon as they are written

“Regulators can make more pronouncements from on high, identifying suspicious practices in the various markets and banning them. Or regulators can layer on more disclosure requirements,” Warren said in her remarks. “But neither restores customer trust.”

Rather, she said, “Let’s measure our success with simple questions” — Can customers understand a product? Do they know the risks? Can they easily figure out what it really costs?

To the degree that this will produce uncertainty for the banks, this is a good thing, because regulatory certainty has been used as a license to rape consumers.

I’m still waiting to see how Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner manages to cut her legs out from under her on November 3, because it’s clear that consumer protection is the last thing that he wants.

Foreclosure Fraud Hits Prime Time

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Yesterday, we’ve had a New York Times editorial, and today, Getchem Morgenson hits their front page with a survey of “flawed paperwork” issues:

As some of the nation’s largest lenders have conceded that their foreclosure procedures might have been improperly handled, lawsuits have revealed myriad missteps in crucial documents.

It’s good that this story has hit the big time, but Ms. Morgenson is wrong. There were no flawed documents, this was deliberate fraud, and the dead tree media is behind the curve on this.

We are seeing Fitch making noises about downgrading mortgage servicers over this issue, and on the regulatory front the Connecticut Attorney General has placed a 60 day moratorium on foreclosures, so that paperwork can be reviewed, and the Comptroller of the Currency has ordered 7 of the larges banks to review their paperwork.

On the private side of the business, we are seeing title insurance companies refusing to write policies on foreclosures for some of these banks.

In terms of the irregularities that we are seeing:

If you think that the housing crash is bad, just wait until millions of foreclosed homes hit the market, and no one is willing to buy them, because the title is not clear, than the sh%$ really hits the fan.

My earlier post on the subject is here.

I Believe That the Term Here is “Vigorish”*

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Bummer of a birth mark, Sharron Angle

Nevada Republican Senate Candidate Sharron Angle had a meeting with the 3rs party Scott Ashjian in an attempt to get him out of the race.

Unfortunately for her Mr. Ashjians recorded the conversation, and she was offering a piece of the action:

Says the grass roots movement “gives me juice. That’s really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well…You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him….I go to Washington, DC and want to see Jim DeMint, he’s right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he’s right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he’s there.”

She goes on to say that Republicans are corrupt, and that she will lose if the Teabagger Ashjian stays in the race.

Let me make this clear: I do not support the surreptitious taping, and if this happened in a state where it’s illegal, like Maryland, I would support prosecution.

That being said, these revelations could not happen to a more deserving character.

Pass the popcorn.

*I believe that the “juice” in the quote is a reference to transactional profits similar to those of a bookie, hence “vigorish”.

Economics Update

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The lede here is that capital goods orders fell and contracts existing home sales rose in August.

Note that the home purchase data is still well below what it was a year ago, and that capital goods orders ex-airliners was up.

On a slightly more concrete level, bankruptcies have hit the highest level since the congress sold out to the banksters with bankruptcy “reform” in 2005.

Finally, it looks like the invisible bond vigilantes remain in hiding, as, the yield on Treasuries 2-year fell to a record low, 0.37% (!).

Damn

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Click for full size

Tudza (l) and Lavi (r) as radioactive zombie cats

We took Lavi to the vet for what appeared to be some tooth problems.

It’s a tumor, and an aggressive malignant one in her head.

She probably will not make it to year’s end.

She’s had a good run, being over 17½, and had survived a bout of hepatic lipidosis about 5½ years ago, but it looks like she will not make it through year’s end.

It’s to be expected when cats reach this age, but it is still a bummer.

These Contemptible F%$#s Are Our Betters?

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Worst Conference Call Ever!

Ireland held a conference call on its debt, and due to an error in the settings, comments from the other participants were heard across the call.

So what did this collection of hedge funds and other investment firms do?

They crudely heckled the Finance Minister of a sovereign nation:

Mr Lenihan had been speaking for less than two minutes on Friday before a mistake by Citigroup meant that the bank’s clients were all able to be heard on the line.

Between 200 and 500 investors are understood to have been on the call, and as they realised their lines were not muted many began to heckle Mr Lenihan.

Some traders began making what one banker on the call described as “chimp sounds”, while another cried out “dive, dive”. A third man said “short Ireland” before adding “why not short Citi too?”

As the call descended into chaos, with one participant heard to say “this is the worst conference call ever”, Citigroup officials shut down the line.

We are not dealing with competent financial professionals here. We are dealing with hyper-competitive frat boys with brains the size of walnuts who are too incompetent to recognize their own incompetence.

This is why these people need to be “hit like a piñata with a stick,” because they are incompetent, overpaid, self-obsessed, morons who have the ability to destroy our economy.

Letting them do what they want is like giving opposable thumbs, assault weapons and espresso to rabid wolverines.

It won’t end well.

So Far in the Closet He’s Found Narnia*

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Let’s Roll Tape

An Assistant Attorney General for the state of Michigan, one Andrew Shirvell, has engaged in what can only be described as a relentless campaign of stalking, both Cyber and Real, against the Chris Armstrong, the gay president of the student assembly. (See the embedded vid)

Shirvell has now been placed on leave and is facing a disciplinary hearing, despite the fact that Michigan AG, and Christofascist right-winger, Mike Cox, has defended the right to stalk someone for being gay, no doubt because this is how Cox defines his base.

The crux of the batsh%$ insane jihad seems to be Armstrong’s push for LGBT friendly housing on campus, which has led the Assistant AG to make blog posts with swastikas, and to allegedly hang around and photograph Armstrong’s house in the early hours of the meeting, which has led him to file for a restraining order against Shirvell.

In the scheme of things, this incident will work itself out in the near term, the restraining order will likely be granted, and I’m pretty sure that Shirvell will eventually be fired, despite his being a long time supporter, and campaign worker, for Cox, because this has simply gotten too politically toxic.

This would all be silly and funny, but I figure than in the next 10-15 years, as Shirvell realizes what he is, and the video makes it clear that he is deeply in the closet, we are likely to hear a story about him in which the lede is, “Killed his wife and children, and then shot himself.”

*The bon mot is not mine, it’s from Bladesmith at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.

Quote of the Day

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Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it’s going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I’ve concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They’re full of sh%$.

–Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone

($# mine)

He had a conversation with a man who has worked as a tax assessor his whole life, and hence is being paid by our tax dollars, and whose wife is on Medicare, and has a scooter funded by the program, but they aren’t the problem, it’s the other who is sucking the marrow out of our society.

Just go read it.

I Can Now Retire as a Blogger

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All I have to do is to outsource my political analysis to Jon Stewart, and use this article by Martin Robbins for science:

This is a news website article about a scientific paper

In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?

In this paragraph I will state the main claim that the research makes, making appropriate use of “scare quotes” to ensure that it’s clear that I have no opinion about this research whatsoever.

In this paragraph I will briefly (because no paragraph should be more than one line) state which existing scientific ideas this new research “challenges”.

………
This paragraph contained useful information or context, but was removed by the sub-editor to keep the article within an arbitrary word limit in case the internet runs out of space.

The final paragraph will state that some part of the result is still ambiguous, and that research will continue.

Related Links:

The Journal (not the actual paper, we don’t link to papers).

The University Home Page (finding the researcher’s page would be too much effort).

Unrelated story from 2007 matched by keyword analysis.

Special interest group linked to for balance.

I think that there is a Dilbert cartoon in which Dogbert sells a “forever” newspaper, but this is better written, and the article is better drawn as well, or at least the, “picture has been optimised by SEO experts to appeal to our key target demographics,” is.

Rahm Leaves White House to Run for Mayor of Chicago

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It was made official yesterday.

My condolences to the people of Chicago. I don’t think that he’s done a good job wherever he has been.

He has a real history of failing up: For example, as head of the DCCC, he spent thousands to displace Christine Cegelis with the hapless Tammy Duckworth, and advised Democrats to be hawkish on Iraq in 2006, he was point man on NAFTA in 1994, etc.

I rather expect he won’t get the streets plowed in Chicago.

I would also note that if the LGBT political establishment is interested in getting some respect from Obama and his administration, working to make sure that Emanuel does not win the February mayoral primary would be a good place to start.

If Jon Stewart Goes After You, It’s Because You Are a Jerk

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Let’s Roll Tape

Not because you are some sort of bigot.

That’s what CNN anchor Rick Sanchez claimed on Pete Dominick’s radio show, but he went further and said that Jews run the entertainment industry.

So, he is now a former CNN anchor.

The lesson here is that if Jon Stewart makes fun of you, look inward for the fault, not outward, thought I do find Conan O’Brien’s tweet a hoot:

Some More Meta on Comments

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I have a comment in the spam box right now, and blogger is giving me an error when I try to flag it as “not spam.”

Unfortunately, the morons on blogger have made spam filtering of the comments mandatory, and it has a huge false positive rate, so if you don’t see the comment after posting, blame them, not me.

Henry Rollins’ Is Saying Something About Politics

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A metaphor for our times

Yes, it does sound like our body politic, particularly the bit infected with the teabagger manifestation:

I’ll tear (rip) your mind up, I’ll burn your soul
I’ll turn you into me, I’ll turn you into me
’cause I’m a liar, a liar, a liar, a liar…

Then again, the whole element of pathological need of the person to whom he is lying to keep believing reminds me of a wider range of political fanboi out there.